Carolinda Witt - The Five Tibetan Rites: Anti-Aging Secrets of the Five Tibetan Rites.

T his book is a combination of Peter Kelders classic story, The Eye of Revelation , written in 1939 and updated in 1946, together with additional practice information and tips from my twenty-one years of teaching the Five Tibetan Rites.

The Eye of Revelation tells the story of a Westerner known only as Colonel Bradford, who discovered a secret sect of monks living in a remote Tibetan monastery who were remarkably healthy and youthful despite their advanced years.

Bradford lived and studied with the monks for several years, where they taught him their secret to the fountain of youth. He brought this information back to the West, where it became known as The Five Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation a daily ritual of five yoga-like movements, a breathing technique, and some simple spiritual practices involving vocalized sound and mental techniques.

Several books on the subject have been written since, including my own, The Illustrated Five Tibetan Rites , but the source of every book on the subject is Peter Kelders, The Eye of Revelation .

Thanks to the generosity of antiquarian bookseller and collector Jerry Watt (RIP), who granted me special permission to use the unadulterated text from his rare editions of The Eye of Revelation - you are about to read Kelders own words without amendments, additions, or interpretations by anyone else. There are only three known remaining copies of the 1939 edition in the world, and Jerry owned one of them. He also owned the only known copy of the 1946 edition, which contains additional information left out of the first.

I have combined these two editions together in this book, along with tips and insights from my many years of teaching The Five Tibetan Rites.

I began teaching the Rites in 2000 and have taught over 50,000 people since. My experiences led me to develop a way for people of all ages and varying levels of fitness to learn the Rites, which I call T5T short for The Five Tibetans.

There isnt the space to include everything I learned in this book or to outline the step-by-step process I teach in T5T. However, I have added additional information and suggested some actions to avoid when learning the Rites. I hope you find it useful.

I learned The Five Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation from a friend (a teacher of the Rites) in 2000 and have practiced them almost every day since. They have seen me through all sorts of ups and downs in my life since then, and I know Ill never give them up. I call them the rod of iron inside me around which the chaos of life revolves. A strong statement, I know, but let me tell you why.

When my friend persuaded me to learn the Rites, I was very cynical, particularly after she told me they would fix everything. She was referring to my early menopausal symptoms of hot flushes, emotional fluctuations, foggy mind, unusual fatigue, empty nest syndrome, and loss of meaning and purpose. It was a long list, and I thought she was kidding.

I learned the Rites and started practicing them on my own, building up repetitions as recommended. Within two days, I experienced a significant (almost hyper) energy boost, which took a whole day to settle down. My night was restless, but I awoke feeling surprisingly fresh and eager to begin some of the tasks I had been putting off due to fatigue and procrastination. I seemed to have this well of energy that never depleted, and before I knew it, several tasks were reaching completion. It felt like I had emerged from a thick fog. When I began teaching the Rites, I realized that these great early experiences were common.

An initial detox effect can occur, too, as the nervous, circulatory, respiratory and life-energy systems of the body are stimulated by practicing the Rites. Any symptoms usually settle down within a week or two. Youll learn more about these later in the book.

I noticed that my general wellbeing and energy had improved considerably, and I looked forward to practicing the Rites every day. I began to plan exciting new directions in my life. Best of all, my hot flushes, which used to leave me with swimming pools in my navel at night, calmed right down. Whether this was due, or partly due, to the Rites is unknown, but I am certain they contributed.

Around six months into my practice, my family experienced the loss of someone close to us in a tragic accident. It was a terrible time, but I discovered my daily practice of the Rites kept me strong and centered and helped me deal with a difficult situation in a more balanced fashion. It was then that I realized how important the Rites had become to me mentally, physically, and emotionally.

My friend asked me to go into business with her running Five Tibetan Rites workshops in Sydney, Australia. I agreed, and we were very successful, with many people participating in our workshops.

We taught the Rites exactly as Kelder described, and people got great benefits, but a small percentage of students developed lower back or neck pain. On the other hand, people who were fit and had good body-mind awareness were generally fine as they knew how to exercise safely.

I wanted to stop this pattern from occurring at all, so I consulted with a wide variety of health practitioners (physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, occupational health practitioners, Pilates, Iyengar yoga, and Feldenkrais instructors) to discover the cause of these problems and how to fix them.

Lets face it; our modern Western lifestyle is very different from that of the monks described in The Eye of Revelation . They lived in the steep Himalayas, and walking around those mountains would have kept them fit. Their whole lifestyle, from food production to the simplest daily tasks, was menial and ensured they remained physically active.

All of the health practitioners consulted had concerns about the over-bending in the lower back and neck, as illustrated and described in The Eye of Revelation , and made useful suggestions. Because I wanted to retain the original integrity and benefits of the original Rites but make them safer for most people to practice, I tried their ideas out in the living laboratory of my classrooms.

A simple and effective method of learning the Rites (T5T) soon developed and provided students followed the program and didnt exert themselves; the incidents of lower back and neck pain all but disappeared. However, those students with a history of back or neck pain or injury should consult their qualified health practitioner.