The "Five Tibetan Rites" & Why To Do Them!

Today’s almonds have been activated by

In A Rush?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• The “Five Tibetan Rites” are a set of five exercises popular for their health-giving properties

  • Today’s main feature looks at their background (there is no Tibetan tradition of them) and balances their early 1900s Los Angeles spiritualism with modern science

  • While science can’t verify that they do any adjusting of energy vortexes whose existences have also not been scientifically observed, the exercises are nonetheless great for many aspects of our health—check out the main feature for how and why!

• As we age, our collagen levels tend to get depleted more easily. Collagen is important not just for youthful good looks, but also for the health of bones and joints

  • Today’s sponsor NativePath are offering high-quality collagen without additives or harmful impurities

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

Seven Things To Do For Good Lung Health!

Our lungs enable us to have the oxygen that the entirety of our body runs on. Needless to say, looking after them is important:

Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!

Mythbuster Friday

Spinning Around 🎶

In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you for your opinion of the “Five Tibetan Rites”, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

• About 41% said “I have never heard of these before”

• About 27% said “they restore youth by adjusting internal vortexes”

• About 22% said “they are basically yoga, by a different name”

• About 11% said “they are a pseudoscience popular in the US”

So what does the science say?

The Five Tibetan Rites are five Tibetan rites: True or False?

False, though this is more question of social science than of health science, so we’ll not count it against them for having a misleading name.

The first known mentioning of the “Five Tibetan Rites” is by an American named Peter Kelder, who in 1939 published, through a small LA occult-specialized publishing house, a booklet called “The Eye of Revelation”. This work was then varyingly republished, repackaged, and occasionally expanded upon by Kelder or other American authors, including Chris Kilham’s popular 1994 book “The Five Tibetans”.

The “Five Tibetan Rites” are unknown as such in Tibet, except for what awareness of them has been raised by people asking about them in the context of the American phenomenon.

Here’s a good history book, for those interested:

The Secret of the Five Rites: In Search of a Lost Western Tradition of Inner Alchemy – by John Michael Greer

The author didn’t originally set out to “debunk” anything, and is himself a keen spiritualist (and practitioner of the five rites), but he was curious about the origins of the rites, and ultimately found them—as a collection of five rites, and the other assorted advices given by Kelder—to be an American synthesis in the whole, each part inspired by various different physical practices (some of them hatha yoga, some from the then-popular German gymnastics movement, some purely American spiritualism, all available in books that were popular in California in the early 1900s).

You may be wondering: why didn’t Kelder just say that, then, instead of telling stories of an ancient Tibetan tradition that empirically does not exist? The answer to this lies again in social science not health science, but it’s been argued that it’s common for Westerners to “pick ‘n’ mix” ideas from the East, champion them as inscrutably mystical, and (since they are inscrutable) then simply decide how to interpret and represent them. Here’s an excellent book on this, if you’re interested:

Orientalism – by Edward Said

(in Kelder’s case, this meant that “there’s a Tibetan tradition, trust me” was thus more marketable in the West than “I read these books in LA”)

They are at least five rites: True or False?

True! If we use the broad definition of “rite” as “something done repeatedly in a solemn fashion”. And there are indeed five of them:

1. Spinning around (good for balance)

2. Leg raises (this one’s from German gymnastics)

3. Kneeling back bend (various possible sources)

4. Tabletop (hatha yoga, amongst others)

5. Pendulum (hatha yoga, amongst others) ← _{^{you may recognize this one from the Sun Salutation}}

You can see them demonstrated here:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically

Kelder also advocated for what was basically the Hay Diet (named not for the substance but for William Hay; it involved separating foods into acid and alkali, not necessarily according to the actual pH of the foods, and combining only “acid” foods or only “alkali” foods at a time), which was popular at the time, but has since been rejected as without scientific merit. Kelder referred to this as “the sixth rite”.

The Five Rites restore youth by adjusting internal vortexes: True or False?

False, in any scientific sense of that statement. Scientifically speaking, the body does not have vortexes to adjust, therefore that is not the mechanism of action.

Spiritually speaking, who knows? Not us, a humble health science publication.

The Five Rites are a pseudoscience popular in the US: True or False?

True, if 27% of those who responded of our mostly North American readership can be considered as representative of what is popular.

However…

“Pseudoscience” gets thrown around a lot as a bad word; it’s often used as a criticism, but it doesn’t have to be. Consider:

A small child who hears about “eating the rainbow” and mistakenly understands that we are all fuelled by internal rainbows that need powering-up by eating fruits and vegetables of different colors, and then does so…

…does not hold a remotely scientific view of how things are happening, but is nevertheless doing the correct thing as recommended by our best current science.

It’s thus a little similar with the five rites. Because…

The Five Rites are at least good for our health: True or False?

True! They are great for the health.

The first one (spinning around) is good for balance. Science would recommend doing it both ways rather than just one way, but one is not bad. It trains balance, trains our stabilizing muscles, and confuses our heart a bit (in a good way).

See also: Fall Special (How To Not Fall, And Not Get Injured If You Do)

The second one (leg raises) is excellent for core strength, which in turn helps keep our organs where they are supposed to be (this is a bigger health issue than most people realise, because “out of sight, out of mind”), which is beneficial for many aspects of our health!

See also: Visceral Belly Fat & How To Lose It ← _{^{visceral fat is the fat that surrounds your internal organs; too much there becomes a problem!}}

The third, fourth, and fifth ones stretch our spine (healthily), strengthen our back, and in the cases of the fourth and fifth ones, are good full-body exercises for building strength, and maintaining muscle mass and mobility.

See also: Building & Maintaining Mobility

So in short…

If you’ve been enjoying the Five Rites, by all means keep on doing them; they might not be Tibetan (or an ancient practice, as presented), and any mystical aspect is beyond the scope of our health science publication, but they are great for the health in science-based ways!

Take care!

Our Sponsors Make This Publication Possible

Restore Your Youthful Glow

Collagen loss as you age may result in weaker joints, wrinkles, and a decline in overall vitality. It’s a natural process, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to slow it down. Replenishing collagen can restore your vibrancy and power, and the journey starts with NativePath.

NativePath’s grass-fed collagen powder features a premium formula that absorbs rapidly, rebuilding strength and enhancing beauty from within.

Simply add one or two scoops to your daily routine and witness the transformative effects.

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

You May Have Missed

• Get Fitter As You Get Older!

• When Planning Is a Matter of Life and Death

• How To Get More Nutrition From The Same Food ← _{^{for those caring about nutrition density, this is a great “hack”!}}

This Or That?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between hoisin sauce and teriyaki sauce—we picked the teriyaki sauce (click here to read about why), as did 45% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

You (Also) May Have Missed

• Beyond Supplements: The Real Immune-Boosters!

• Toothpastes & Mouthwashes: Which Help And Which Harm?

• The Physical Exercises That Build Your Brain

One-Minute Book Review

Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health – by Dr. Casey Means

For a book with a title like "Good Energy" and chapters such as "Bad Energy Is the Root of Disease", this is actually a very science-based book (and there are a flock of well-known doctors saying so in the "praise for" section, too).

The premise is simple: most of our health is a matter of what our metabolism is (or isn't) doing, and it's not just a case of "doing more" or "doing less". Indeed, a lot of “our” energy is expended doing bad things (such as chronic inflammation, to give an obvious example).

Dr. Means outlines about a dozen things many people do wrong, and about a dozen things we can do right, to get our body's energy system working for us, rather than against us.

The style here is pop-science throughout, and in the category of criticism, the bibliography is offloaded to her website (we prefer to have things in our hands). However, the information here is good, clearly-presented, and usefully actionable.

Bottom line: if you ever find yourself feeling run-down and like your body is using your resources against you rather than for you, this is the book to get you out of that slump!

Click here to check out Good Energy, and get your metabolism working for you!

Penny For Your Thoughts?

May today see you well-prepared for the coming weekend,

The 10almonds Team