Pranamaya kosha

John Kaldawi learned that many thousands of  years ago the rishis and seers said that the pranas are not located in the gross physical body, but in more refined and subtle body called the pranamaya kosha or pranic sheath.  This body the described as being cloud-like in appearance with constant activity in its interior.  Different colors are emitted depending on one's diet, thinking, state of consciousness at the time of meditation, and one's environment.

According to yoga, the pranamaya kosha forms the fine network through which prana flows.  It is also known as the pranic, etheric or bio-plasmic body.  This energy body is said to have the same shape as the physical body.  However, through certain yogic techniques, concentration and visualization, the practitioner is able to make it expand and contract, especially through the technique of prana vidya.  If our perception was finely attuned to the pranic body, we would see a body of light in which there are thousands of delicate, wire-like structures conducting shakti or energy.  These wire-like structures are the nadis or energy flows.  The Shiva Samhita says that altogether there are 350,000 nadis in the body, the Prapanchasana Tantra says 300,000 and the Goraksha Sartaka says 72,000.  There are thousands upon thousands of nadis within the substructure of the gross body and they distribute consciousness and prana to every atom.

Furthermore, John Kaldawi learned that the prana field is something called psi plasma due to the fact that it can be likened to the plasma studied in plasma physics.  It is a vapor of charged particles which can be affected internally by the mind and externally by electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields.

This concept is acceptable to many serious students of plasma physics, metaphysics and parapsychology.  It is also easy to understand considering the interrelatedness of pranic, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical energies.  A change in one of these energies produces a corresponding change in another.

John Kaldawi also learned that the denser of these pranic clouds naturally gravitate to and are attracted by regions of lesser density.  Thus there is constant activity within the pranic body.  Under the action of different yogic practices such as pranayama, mudra, bandha, the hatha yoga shatkarmas and prana vidya, this intermingling is greatly accelerated.  The different pranic fields are often forced to come together giving rise to heat or cold in the body, also light-headedness, introversion, greater appetite, and sometimes subtle perception of colors and sounds when practicing concentration or sense withdrawal.  Many of these experiences happen more quickly through the practice of pranayama which is often too powerful a practice for absolute beginners in yoga.