Using Tumo

By Dr. L. Daka

In my web searching, I found a reference to something called tumo. The websites I visited didn't say
much more than that it was a Tibetan technique to keep warm. It claimed that tumo could keep you
warm "in spite of snow, freezing winds and ice." It worked by a meditation technique that would send
a "mystic heat" through veins, arteries and nerve channels. This process, they claimed, would keep
you warm even during freezing conditions. But they didn't say how to do it.

For the past several years, I have been a doctor, and my interests have been firmly in the scientific
world. The internet is filled with some rather bizarre medical claims, and I take most of them with
more than a grain of salt. Some of my patients come in with these supposed cures for everything from
hair loss to benign prostate disease. I always ask for the scientific proof. Sometimes what you read on
the internet is accurate. Sometimes it is exaggerated. And sometimes it is just wrong.

So the idea of tumo sounded absurd to me. But whether it worked or not would be easy to prove. All I
had to do was try it. But before I could do so, I had to learn it, and I was finding dead ends
everywhere.

Finally, I saw a review of a recently-published book that claimed to give the entire process for learning
tumo. I clicked on the "to buy this book" icon and purchased the book over the internet. Soon I had a
copy of Occult Tibet by J. H. Brennan.

LEARNING TUMO
Chapter six exclusively teaches the technique of tumo. Brennan says that in Tibet the training would
take "three years, three months, and three days," (p. 61), and this disappointed me. But he quickly
follows by saying that this "clearly has symbolic association." I was relieved to discover that it might
take a much shorter time. Besides, the author adds that "the various steps of the exercise have
benefits in their own right." I was ready to start.

There are three stages to learning tumo, each having several parts. The first stage consists of
preliminary exercises. The first exercise shocked me and almost turned me off to the entire practice!
So don't turn away after reading the technique, be sure to read the explanation afterward.

"[V]isualize yourself as the naked, virginal, sixteen-year-old Vajra-Yogini, a Tantric divinity who
personifies spiritual energy. This goddess has luminous ruby-red skin and a visible third eye in the
middle of her forehead. In her right hand she holds a gleaming curved knife high above her heard to
cut off completely all intrusive thought processes. In her left hand she holds a blood-filled human skull
against her breast. On the head of the goddess is a tiara made from five dried human skulls, while
around her neck is a necklace of fifty human heads dripping blood. She wears armbands, wristbands,
and anklets, but her only other item of adornment is a Mirror of Karma breastplate held in place by
double strings of beads made from human bones that circle her waist and pass over her shoulders.
There is a long staff in the crook of her left arm and a flame-like aura around her whole form. The
goddess is dancing with her right leg bent and the foot lifted up while her left foot tramples a prostate
human." (p. 62)

Yuck!
When I read this repulsive description, I figured this was too bizarre for me. But I read on to discover
that "even the worst of the horrors has symbolic significance. The necklace of human heads, for
example, should be seen as representing separation from the wheel of birth, death, and rebirth that
locks humanity into the world of illusion." (p. 62) Understanding that this was all symbolic made me
feel a bit better, so I decided to continue.

The book explains that this is just the outer form of the goddess and internally you should imagine
yourself empty, "like a silken tent or shaped balloon." (p. 62) Visualizations had always been easy for
me. When I was studying medicine, I used visualizations of myself easily and successfully passing
tests to relieve pressure and stress when taking exams. This was a bit different because I was
supposed to have two images in my mind at the same time, the external image of the goddess figure
and the internal emptiness. It took me a few days to master this.

Next, per the instructions in the book, I increased the size of the goddess image, larger and larger,
until it was as big as a house, a hill, and so on until it encompassed the entire universe. I stayed with
that visualization for a time. It was, as they say, a real "mind-rush." Then I did just the opposite,
shrinking the visualization down until it was the size of a tiny seed and then to microscopic levels.

The next exercise is to visualize the Vagra-Yogini the same size as me, and then concentrate on
visualizing an energy channel down the middle of my body. "It should be seen as straight, hollow,
about the size of an arrow-shaft, and a bright, almost luminous red." (p. 63). Again, per the
instructions in the book, once I had this down I expanded the channel until it was the size of a
"walking staff, then a pillar, a house, a hill, and finally large enough to contain the whole of the
universe." (p. 63) At this stage the channel, of course, pervades the entire body, not just the center of
it.

Then I was to visualize the channel getting smaller until it was about one-hundredth the thickness of a
hair. All of this was fairly easy for me to do, and within a week, I was pretty good at it.

The third exercise begins with sitting in the famous cross-legged lotus pose found in Hatha yoga. I had
studied yoga for a while, and quite frankly, I could never do the lotus pose. Luckily, the teacher I had
gave me a solution: "Do the best you can. Alter the pose to fit your needs." I found that if I sat on the
edge of a cushion I could modify the pose a bit, be comfortable, and get the desired effects of the
pose. Brennan mentions some alternatives, too.

Sitting in this position (with the right leg on top), you put your hands in your lap, palms up, with the
forefinger, thumb and pinky extended. The spine should be straight, chin down, tongue against the
roof of the mouth, and the eyes fixed on the tip of the nose.

Take three deep breaths and exhale completely. Then inhale as much as possible and hold the breath
as long as possible without straining. "As you breathe out, imagine that five-color rays emerge from
every pore of your body to fill the entire world. The colors, which equate to the elements, are blue,
green, red, white, and yellow — symbolizing respectively ether [spirit], air, water, and earth. On the
in-breath, imagine these rays returning through the pores to fill your body with multicolored light.
Repeat the exercise seven times." (p. 64–65) I found this part of the exercise to be very stimulating;
leaving me feeling balanced and energized.

The exercise continues with sound, visualizing the concept of the five colors being part of the syllable
hum (I guess that is the Tibetan equivalent of the Hindu Om). On the exhalation I would visualize the
world being filled with the colored hum. On inhaling I would feel the sound and colors enter and fill my
body. This, too, was repeated seven times. 
The next part of the exercise was to imagine that each time I exhaled, the colored hum sound
changed to mustard seed-sized versions of fierce, angry, and menacing deities. Such deities are
common in Tibet. On the exhale they were to fill the world, while on the inhale they were to fill me.
This was repeated seven times. Believe me, the feeling of all these little creatures, even though they
were only visualized, was quite...interesting, to say the least.

The next part of this step is, according to Brennan, a "critical stage in the exercise. You are required
to imagine that every pore of your body is inhabited by one of these tiny deities with his face turned
outward. The result of this visualization, when performed correctly, is that you see yourself as having
grown a second protective skin composed of fierce and angry deities, which functions rather like a suit
of mail armor." (p. 66)

For two weeks, I practiced this. Although I could sense the deities, I didn't have a feeling of them
being armor. Then, at the end of two weeks, I had a dream in which I was having a battle against
giant monsters. Although I battled valiantly, I realized I would lose. "Somebody help me!" I cried out.
I immediately heard a tittering sound. Looking around I saw tens of thousands of tiny, angry, Tibetan
gods. "Oh great," I thought, "a lot of good they're going to be." Instead of fighting the monsters, they
started jumping on top of each other until they formed a wall between the monsters and me. "Hey,
this looks like it might work," I said. Then the wall of deities moved toward me, and with a leap,
surrounded me like a second skin. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to breathe, but I quickly
realized that their protective cover didn't harm me in any way. Better, it prevented me from being
harmed by the monsters, although my sword could cut through the beasts. 

When I awoke, my first thought was that I had, indeed, been successful in getting the deities to be an
armor-like second skin. But then I wondered, "What were the monsters?" I thought about it for a day
before I realized that I was feeling very happy, content, and peaceful. In my dream I had defeated my
own fears, phobias, insecurities, and other negative qualities. It didn't mean I had won the "war" with
them, but I had won a battle. That knowledge made me feel great! Even if this tumo didn't work, I'd
already learned a powerful technique for personal development.

There are two other exercises in this stage, but I'm not sure that they are necessary for this overview,
so I'll leave it for you to study them and decide for yourself.

STAGE TWO: THE REAL WORK

In this section Brennan goes into actual techniques for learning how to generate what he calls psychic
heat. It begins with breath control known as Nine Bellows Blowings:

"Close off your left nostril with your forefinger so that you are breathing only through the right nostril.
"Turn your head slowly from right to left while inhaling and exhaling three times through the right
nostril.
"Now close off your right nostril and inhale/exhale three times while moving your head slowly from left
to right.
"Finally, with your head steady and looking straight ahead, inhale/exhale three times through both
nostrils." (p. 69)

This cycle is repeated three times. The first set has you breathe very, very gently. The second is
stronger. With the third you inhale and exhale very completely, using the abdominal muscles to help
push out all of the air. For me, this was easy to do. It only took a short time to get the feeling that I
was doing it right.
The next step is called Four Combined Breathing. Bend your neck over and silently and deeply (let
your chest bulge out) breathe in through both nostrils as if the breath was coming from about a foot-
and-a-half in front of you. When this inhalation is hard to maintain, take several short breaths to
equalize the pressure in both lungs.

When you are totally filled with air, begin to exhale gently, then with greater force, then gently again,
all on a single breath. This is called "shooting the breath forth like an arrow." (p. 70) Indeed, that
name described what the sensation felt like.

The above two techniques are known as Calm Breathing. The next technique is called Violent
Breathing. It has five exercises that are described briefly. They all involve realizing that with every
breath,energy is coming into your body. More importantly, the "final technique of the sequence seeks
to mingle the internalized life force with the great reservoir of cosmic energy all around you. This is
referred to as the Art of Relaxing the Breathing, a name which suggests the process involves an out-
breath." (p. 72) I took this to mean that I should visualize energy coming in with each breath,
combining with my inner energy in my lungs and expanded body (from the first stage), and sent out
on the exhalation. Practice of an hour a day for a week made this very powerful, and I felt filled with
power, but not "antsy." My power gave me peace of mind.

The next part of this stage involves visualizations. Again, you visualize the Vajra-Yogini, but "instead
of imagining yourself as this deity, you should create an image of the goddess standing at normal
human size before you. This image becomes your contact point with the universal energy and part of a
visualized 'generator' that will produce the psychic heat." (p. 72–73) When I read that this was where
things will start, I got really excited. I had this visualization down pat within two days.

The next visualization, as before, deals with the energy channel. But rather than just the one main
channel, there are now three. The center one is hollow, red, transparent, and bright. Two more go on
either side of this central tube, gently curving to the center, crossing each other at the central point
and continuing in this way back and fourth. This is just like the image of the caduceus, the wand that
was the symbol of medicine, my profession.

At each crossing point through the center channel, there is a chakra or power center. There are four
major chakras (this is different from the popular pictures I've seen, but most of those deal with the
Hindu chakras, so I made up my mind to try this out.)

The next part is difficult to explain in a brief article like this; you'll have to get a copy of Occult Tibet
for yourself. The basic idea is that you take two letters of the Tibetan alphabet (for those familiar with
it, they are the letter ham and half of the vowel A) and visualize them in certain ways while working
with the breath. It's not difficult, just complex to describe. As you do this work, the letters change to
flickering, spinning fires. At the tip of the Ham is a drop of pearlescent "moon fluid" which overflows
the crown chakra above the head and then flows over the chakras at the throat, heart, and navel, and
finally the entire body.

"The overall sequence of 108 breath cycles constitutes a single tumo course. To become proficient,
you will need to repeat six courses over each twenty-four-hour period in the early stage of your
training." (p. 75–76) I practiced this until I could sense that I had an increased amount of the
universal life force charging me. The book advises to cut the number of courses to four after that
increase occurs.

STAGE THREE: TRIGGERING TUMO

Brennan reveals that there are three ways to trigger the heat of tumo. Once you have practiced
and can perform all of the exercises already given, the simplest means of triggering the heat is
through deep, diaphragmatic breathing. The third method he gives involves visualizing yourself with
all of the above images and with suns blazing in the palms and soles. Bring the palms together and
then the soles so the suns meet, then rub the palms and feet against one another. "[F]ire will flare up
to strike the sun below the navel, then the [Ham] symbol, and go on to permeate your whole body."
There's a bit more to it revealed in the book, but this is the basic idea.

However, it was the second method that most interested me: "While seated in a simple cross-legged
position, grasp the underneath of your thighs with your hands. Use your stomach and abdominal
muscles to circle the belly area three times to the right and three times to the left while keeping the
torso still. (You can prepare for this by first moving the muscles left and right, then gradually building
up to a circular movement.) Churn the stomach vigorously by rippling the muscles from top to bottom,
then shake your body like a dog that has just come out of the water. While you are doing so, raise
yourself a little on your crossed legs, then drop back again onto your cushion, in effect bouncing a
little off the floor. Repeat this whole exercise three times, ending with a more vigorous bounce." (p.
76)

According to Brennan, if you perform twenty-one vigorous bounces while doing the visualization for a
week, "you will be able to endure almost any degree of cold" (p. 77) while wearing only a thin cotton
robe. This was what I wanted! I practiced daily for a couple of weeks. Then I settled down to
practicing only twice a week.

PUTTING IT TO THE TEST

Spring had arrived, and the snows were melting. I was giving myself several months of practice before
relying on tumo for my safety. I could swear that I was generating heat, but was it my imagination or
was it real? Then there was a surprise cold spell and a late snow. I decided to test what I had learned.

I drove out to the side of a large hill not far from Tallman. By the afternoon, the sun was behind one
side of the hill, and the dark side was not only covered with eight inches of snow, but was in the
shade. The cold had gotten worse, so it wasn't going to snow any more that afternoon or night. Using
a snow shovel, I quickly made a six-foot-high pile of snow. Then I packed it down firmly and piled on
more snow. I repeated this until I had a six-foot-tall mound of hard-packed snow. It was a little after
4:00 when I climbed to the top of the pile and stripped off my parka and outer clothes, leaving only
my underwear. I sat down, cross-legged, making a crunching sound as the snow compressed under
me. Within seconds, my teeth were chattering and my skin started to feel numb. I closed my eyes to
focus on what I was going to do and started using the second method to trigger the tumo heat. My
stomach churned side to side and top to bottom. I bounced once. I did the visualization.

I repeated this, making the bounce more vigorous and gave more effort to the visualization, trying to
make it even stronger than before. On the third round, everything seemed to flow. I got an eerie
feeling that time was changing. I think the visualization lasted a long time. After the fourth round, I
noticed that my teeth were not chattering and my body did not feel numb at all. I was feeling rather
comfortable. Was this really working?

By the seventh bounce and visualization, I was feeling peaceful and warm. Actually, I was feeling very
warm. I realized that there was nothing in the book that said how long this effect would last. I just sat
there with my eyes closed, relaxing, feeling comfortable.
And then I noticed something odd. It was a sensation I had experienced innumerable times before,
but it was odd right now. There was a slightly itching sensation at the tip of my nose. It was a drop of
sweat! I was perspiring. This really works. I wiped the sweat from my nose, but my realization had
broken the state I was in. I opened my eyes.

It was dark in front of me. Everywhere I looked it was dark. I was terrified. What had happened? I
looked up and saw stars. The heat from my body had been so warm and so long lasting that it had
formed a hole four-feet deep in the snow! As I clambered out of the hole, I realized how desperately
cold it was and struggled back into my icy clothes. There was a propane heater on my snowmobile and
I started it up. In a few minutes I was warm without the need for tumo. Now that I had this technique
and knew that it worked, I wouldn't have to rely on having a supply of propane for an unknown
amount of time. I could be safe and warm and not worry. But for how long?

I thought about the stars and realized that it was night. I checked the watch I had left on the
snowmobile. It read 10:37. I had been safe, warm, and comfortable for over six hours! This was
absolutely astounding and amazing.

BACK TO REALITY
Having lived in areas that get very cold for most of my life, I can tell you that one way to survive the
cold is to build a small snow building like a cave or igloo. Sheltered from the wind and warmed by
your body heat, it may be your only way to survive without dying from hypothermia. So it could be
that the pit-like hole in the snow was what kept me warm and safe that afternoon and evening. At
least, that's what the skeptical side of me would say.

But who or what made the hole? I didn't dig it. In fact, I made sure that the snow was firm and hard
packed so I couldn't just sink down. Even if you accept the idea that the pit I sank into kept me warm,
the only conclusion I can make is that through tumo, as taught in Occult Tibet, I was able to create
enough heat to create that pit in the snow.

I look forward to the mild summer weather ahead, but I intend to keep up my practice. Winter will
come again and I feel very safe. Perhaps I'll melt some new holes in the snow in a few months.

Editor's note: "L. Daka" is the nom de plume of a man wishing to stay anonymous in a small
community. "Tallman" is the name being used here for a town that is about 100 miles from
Anchorage, 250 miles from Fairbanks, and about 150 miles from the entrance of Denali National Park.

OCCULT TIBET BY J.H. BRENNAN IS © L LEWELLYN W ORLDWIDE, L TD. A LL QUOTES ARE USED BY PERMISSION.