The Five Tibetans: Five Dynamic Exercises for Health, Energy, and Personal Power Paperback – August 16, 2011

I started practicing the Five Rites (along with proper deep breathing during each repetition) one month ago. I've had serious hormone imbalance and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, and even at this point, I can already feel a huge difference in the way I feel. A lot more energy (during the day and stay up later at night), balanced appetite (no cravings), better digestion, brighter/tighter skin tone, deeper sleep, and just all around well-being. (It will be interesting to see how my lab numbers look in a few months.)I bought this book because I wanted to learn more about the Rites after seeing the author speak about his experiences on YouTube. I also wanted to see how closely aligned he was to the original teachings in Book 1 & Book 2 of 'The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth' by Peter Kelder. (Additionally, I'd seen a few videos of people demonstrating the Rites on YouTube and I was not impressed with what I saw; i.e., did not jibe with the way I remembered having learned them some years ago, and wanted to ensure I was doing them correctly.)I started out doing just 7 of each Rite, but because I've been pretty athletic my whole life, too quickly moved on to 14, and then 21 of each. This was NOT a good idea, even though it was really pretty easy for me to do all 21. If you are new to yoga or haven't done a regular practice in awhile, DON'T BE FOOLED BY HOW STRONG YOU FEEL - TAKE IT SLOW - these Rites *are* VERY powerful! Moving along too quickly, I definitely experienced some rather unpleasant cleansing/detox symptoms: mild nausea, headache, lightheadedness, and joint stiffness. I endured this for about a week before realizing that I could simply cut back on the number I was doing, which I did to 14 reps of each Rite.Actually, what should have been a common-sense realization came from again reading both Book 1 & Book 2 of 'The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth': particularly, in Book 2, the importance of going slowly (adding 2 reps of each Rite weekly until you work up to 21) was really emphasized. Also, adding the Corpse Pose (relaxing by laying flat on your back) after completing all of the Rites, really feels amazing - you can actually FEEL the energy moving throughout your body (apparently laying still afterwards is really important to help integrate the chakra energy that is generated).Another bonus: the author has a section on "Nad Meditation" which is really amazing to experience - I can now actually hear the sound he described in my right ear whilst relaxing flat on my back after the Rites - pretty incredible :)I know some reviewers think this is just New Age woo-woo, but don't knock it until you give it a good go *with an OPEN mind* - hey, I'm 58 and it works for me!

~~~WOW~~~ What a great book...I'm 65 years old and have been having a little trouble with my balance since last year (2011). I have ridden motorcycles all my life, so this is even more important to me. Read and started the exercises in March 2012..In the book it states that you can "retrain" your vestibular system and therefore regain your full balance. Ya, right I thought. But, what the Hell, give it a try. Well, IT WORKS! "Spin" slowly, VERY SLOWLY at first. The book recommends 10 reps, I thought, I'll try 5! Good thing too, almost fell on my ass! So, 5 slow the first day, 6 the next and so on. Got to 10, then sped up to about 1 rpm every 3 to 4 seconds! This is very slow...got to 21 spins in 2 weeks. THEN started to work on speed...after a month I got to about 21 reps with 1 RPM per 2 to 3 seconds...then 2 seconds...by now (Dec.2012) it's about a second and a half to 2 seconds, sometimes under 1.5 seconds...this may not sound fast but TRY IT! But please be very careful...I do this by a railing so I have something to grab onto if need be...take it slow and you won't need to...but this system WORKS!!As for the other yoga exercises, they are simple...NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH EASY! After 3 months they got to be fun...after 6 months they are "easy"...but I'm still not so "limber" yet...but for the first time in decades I can touch my toes and even put my knuckles on the floor without bending my knees! At 5'11" and 180lbs, I'm not exactly "big" but "limber" is not normally my game...it is now...and I'm working more on it... It's very important, yoga will help lower blood pressure for various reasons. For me, the key is "Take it easy, do what you can, do the best you can and every day you'll do better!" And YES, I do these usually 6 or more times per week...I miss them when I don't. If for no other reason, buy this for your parents so they can regain their balance, so many seniors are injured or killed because of this ONE thing. At ten bucks it's the best insurance! Yoga works!

This book is a good introduction to the Five and of course Sixth Tibetans. It provides proper background into yoga and breathing. The excercises work quickly. Within one or two practices, you will feel the difference. In this version the author has given more background knowledge to understand what is possible in the mind-body complex with the Five Tibetans. To me these excercises are an addition to the Hatha Yoga practices I currently undertake. I would reckon that the background knowledge is better to understand for persons that have been doing yoga for one or two years. I greatly recommend this book to yoga students and teachers!