The Eye of Revelation, Part 1

Categories: Blog Sep 06, 2021

For a friend...

This is the lost chapter of my book, Discovering You. That is, this is the chapter I cut out. But, I think there may be useful stuff here, so I'm going to share it in three parts. This is part 1...

The Eye of Revelation

The secret of youth and longevity may very well be found in the tapestry of movement, mindset, purpose and intent. Perhaps the only reason it is a secret is that this tapestry is often dismissed or overlooked. When things seem simple or silly, we have a tendency to disregard them. We often can’t see what is right in front of us because our lens is looking for the ways of knowledge instead of the ways of truth. This leads me to an interesting gem of a book that found me; The Eye of Revelation. 

The Eye of Revelation: The Ancient Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation is a book written in the late 1930s by an author named Peter Kelder. It is basically about five movements that are said to restore a person’s youth if done every day.

I’ll be honest, the book seems like a fiction fairy tale, yet it captivated me. And though it’s about five movements that are said to restore a person’s youth, it’s also about so much more. It’s about the possibility of our design, the sensibility of how we should move and eat, and it’s also about how there is so much more to us as humans than flesh and bone. Well, that’s what I took from it at least. 

Anyway, as the story goes, there are five movements that if done every day, or as close to every day as possible, for twenty-one repetitions of each movement, youth will be restored; from strength to eyesight to hair. 

Does it work? I suppose it might depend on how much faith you put into the movements and the words of the book. I do know if you engage in the movements regularly, good things will happen to your body. That much is certain. 

In my view the Five Rites, or the five movements each have merit, from the way I view movement and the way the body is designed. The movements are to be done in order and sensibly worked up to twenty-one repetitions over time. But no more than 21 repetitions should be done, according to the book. Why twenty-one repetitions? Twenty-one is seen as a perfect number, and if the exercises are done beyond twenty-one they may sabotage the body of it’s goal to retain its youth. In other words, twenty-one is the right amount. More is not better. I should also mention that the quality of the movements is the focus of the book, not the quantity even though twenty-one repetitions is the ultimate goal. This book is full of timeless wisdom.

I am going to list the Five Rites here and why I think they are fantastic movements to keep in your tool box. I am not going to go into great detail in describing the movements however, I will leave that to the author as I think this is a book you would enjoy reading.

Rite #1: The Standing Spin

If you are above the equator you stand with your arms outstretched, perpendicular to your body and you spin from left to right. Eventually working up to twenty-one revolutions. If you are below the equator, you spin from right to left. 

I think this is a brilliant movement for activating and strengthening the vestibular system in a way that most of us have left behind once we decided to stop playing like children. Spinning. Remember when you could do that all day as a child, or when you would do it and laugh and giggle as you spun around? As adults, we simply don’t do this movement anymore. Perhaps a consequence of not doing this anymore could be acquiring motion sickness, or getting dizzy very easily from simple day to day movements. 

One of the keys to living a long life with strength and health is having a healthy vestibular system. Wouldn’t it be funny if simply spinning around in circles was all that was needed to keep your vestibular system healthy and keep your body young and able? What if you smiled while you did it as a child does? Would that make the movement even more powerful? (The answer is yes.)

I’m not saying that spinning is the only movement needed to keep the vestibular system healthy. I’m not even sure the ancient Tibetan Monks that started doing this thousands of years ago even knew what a vestibular system was. But I do know each of the Five Rites greatly activate the vestibular system, which makes me think there may be some youth, life, restoring properties to these movements. 

The book also greatly enforces the idea of starting where you are at. If you can only spin three times without getting dizzy, great, start there. Eventually, over time, you can spin twenty-one times with no dizzy effect at all. It doesn’t take long, it just takes consistency and patience.

This concludes part 1 of the lost chapter from Discovering You. 

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