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Chapter 3 - Unhitch the Universe
that is running the body. That heart is the center of the body. To complete the distinction, behind this heart there is another heart which in China they used to call the "inner heart."
In India just a few years ago, there was a man, Brahmayogi, who had practiced for almost half a century to bring his breathing to a complete stop. His heartbeat disappeared, his pulse disappeared. He was capable of remaining in this position for ten minutes. He had been tested at many medical institutes, and doctors around the world had given him a death certificate. In those ten minutes they could not find any sign of life. It was his agreement that he would go out of the body, and, "If you find no sign of life, you have to write a certificate for me just the way you would for any dead person."
They could not believe that this man could come back. He had gone too far away: no pulse, no heartbeat, no breathing. He was examined with very accurate instruments, but there was no sign of life. Yet after ten minutes he started kicking again. Slowly breathing came back, the heart started functioning again, the blood started running. These doctors could not believe it, but they had to believe. He was given many hundreds of death certificates, no man in the world got so many death certificates, and from very prominent people. Ordinarily one is enough!
Obviously he proved beyond doubt that what you call death is not real. Only his outer heart stopped. The inner heart, which you have not found yet, has the capacity to go out of the body. Sometimes accidentally, in deep hypnosis, it happens that you suddenly find yourself floating above your body. Your body is lying down on the floor, and you can see your hypnotist sitting there by your dead body.
If a certain doubt arises in this moment, then death will happen. But if you are under hypnosis, doubt cannot arise. You have trusted the man to hypnotize you, and because doubt does not arise, when the man calls you to come back, your body -- the astral body, the inner body, the self -- slowly comes down and enters into your physical body.
It is a tremendously beautiful experience, but dangerous too. If somebody tries to wake you up while you are out, he will think that you are dead and start
preparing for the funeral. If you become afraid you may forget how you came out; then how to get back? Coming in and out of the body is not part of knowledge, it is not a technique. Yes, if you make it a point to practice it, it can become possible for you to come out of the body and return whenever you want, but not ordinarily. Sometimes in a car accident your inner self is so much shaken that it leaves the body. But because of your desires you are attached to the body, and you will be pulled back into it.
If a meditator who is finished completely with all desires is in such an accident, he may not return to the body at all. Everybody will think it was an accidental death, but it was not accidental, it was very intentional. The person decided not to return. But nobody can catch hold of him to take him to the court.
Here in this Buddha Hall it may happen many times, but don't talk about it to anybody. If you feel sometimes that you are hovering, don't be worried. Just one hit of Nivedano's drum and you will jump back into your body. That's why it's so safe to tell you to die, because I know you cannot go far away in two minutes. You will be just here, hovering. Just a good drumbeat and you will hurry back, "Everybody is coming back, what am I doing out here? My body is there." Be quick, because somebody else may enter.
That is the only problem I have to keep watching for -- that nobody enters into somebody else's body. So if some day you feel like floating, then float, but stay close by. Don't go out for Osho - The Miracle
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