It is no surprise that the sun’s rays are incredibly healing to the human body and that the mighty Apollo or Helios was worshiped for millennia as the savior of humanity. But did you know that there are sun gazing benefits as well? In fact, many ancient cultures promote the method for healing the body and reversing disease.
There are many individuals who have survived on the prana of the sun’s rays, and one such man is Hira Ratan Manek, who has been studied by NASA for his ability to live off of the essence of the sun since he returned back from the Himalayas in 1995.
In 2003, scientists verified that Manek had spent 130 days surviving only on water and the sun, a finding that supports the claim that humans can survive without food and on other sources of energy for vast periods of time.
And when you think of food as chemistry that is converted into energy, finding other sources of energy – especially with strong mindful intent – to fuel the body is absolutely possible. We simply had not collectively evolved to alchemize other sources of energy as fuel for our bodies – but of course, it is possible.
His wife had stated that “he has a special taste for solar energy. He believes only 5 percent of human brain cells are used by most people. The other 95 percent can be activated through solar energy.“
Today, Manek is the founder of The Solar Healing Center, which focuses on helping humanity develop a better understanding of how the sun can be used to heal the mind, body, and spirit.
What is Sun Gazing?
Sun gazing is an ancient therapy and a technique whereby a person gazes at the sun at sunrise or sunset (preferably the first or last hour) by opening and closing the eyes repeatedly to absorb its essence and healing energy.
The practice has been revered for millennia by the Egyptians, Tibetans, Greeks, Mayans, and Aztecs and is a well-established practice in India, Thailand, and other eastern cultures.
What these cultures understood is that the eyes are the windows to the soul and the sun is the source of life force; therefore, by mentally and physically connecting to the sun, they would be able to assimilate its life force energy more readily.
The Physical and Spiritual Sun Gazing Benefits
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The benefits of sunshine for health were much more purported back in the 19th and early 20th century when photobiology, the study of the benefits and harm of light on living organisms, and heliotherapy, the method of healing the body of disease through sunlight, were at their heyday (UV Advantage, pg. 63).
This was a time when hospitals all over Europe and North America built solariums where patients could comfortably utilize the sun’s healing radiation for various conditions, including rickets, tuberculosis, and psoriasis.
Sunshine also increases levels of serotonin, boosts our moods, improves mental health, increases metabolism, helps with sleep quality, and promotes a sense of well-being!
Sun gazing is also known to improve eyesight and promote intense dreaming. According to many stories shared by sun-gazers online, there is a consensus of attaining holistic health benefits and the opinion that sun-gazing dangers are overblown and that sticking to gazing within one hour of sunrise and sunset is very safe.
Overall, sun gazing is meant to liberate its practitioners from threefold sufferings of humanity – mental illnesses, physical illnesses, and spiritual ignorance.
Another sun-gazing benefit is that it decreases hunger. Vina Parmar, the author of Living on Sunlight, states that after eight months of sun gazing, you can experience hunger to cease completely. If you suffer from weight issues and food cravings, sun gazing can help you regulate your metabolism by providing the energy surge to your body that it is looking to assimilate through food.
Sun gazing also provides a calming effect on the whole body, ensuring that we feel more connected to ourselves, our environment, and the cosmos. It strengthens our spiritual connection with all life around us, which feeds the function of the energy center governed by the crown chakra, or the 7th chakra of the body.
In a Western society that is highly mentally focused, this is highly important in nourishing our spiritual evolution, since many of us are quite energetically imbalanced. In her book, Energy Medicine, Donna Eden talks about the power of energy healing and the importance of balancing the head energy centers to evolve the psychic and spiritual centers:
“People in Western cultures typically have a different energy constellation in the sixth and seventh chakras from those in other parts of the world. In Westerners, the energy of the sixth chakra is often crowded and dense with thought. The sixth chakra can block the seventh, polluting it with an overflow of hazy mental energy. In less intellect-bound cultures, where more subtle ways of knowing are not overshadowed by such mental turbulence, I usually have not encountered this problem.” (pg. 160)
Indeed, there is vast spiritual literature on the importance of walking barefoot, especially while sun-gazing. It is said that the power of the earth also protects the eye. While the sun activates the brain’s power centers, the toes are activated by the Earth’s energy and stimulate the glandular centers in the body:
“When you walk barefoot an important gland in the brain’s center called the pineal gland or the third eye is activated. The big toe of the foot represents this gland. 25 years ago it was considered a useless gland. Now it has become an important gland for study and about 18,000 papers have been published in recent times. It has always been known as the Seat of the Soul.
The Pineal gland has optic nerve endings. The remaining four toes represent glands too – pituitary, hypothalamus, thalamus, and amygdale. Amygdale for the last 2 years has been gaining importance in medical research. It’s a nucleus of the sun energy or cosmic energy and plays the important part of photosynthesis via the sunlight reaching the brain through the eye.
When you walk barefoot, your body weight stimulates all these 5 glands through your toes. This is strengthened by the earth’s heat/energy and the sun’s prana falling on the head or the crown chakra. The chakras are not in the spinal cord that is an imaginary location; they are definitely in the brain. All these create a magnetic field and the body/brain recharges with the energy of the sun entering in you.” –Living on Sunlight, pg. 54
And if you’re looking to revitalize your body after trauma, illness, and an imbalanced diet and lifestyle, sun gazing in cooperation with light exercise and an alkaline diet can help energize your body with the vital life force that prompts it to rebalance and self-heal.
How to Sungaze for the Best Health Benefits
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The following are the best steps to take to reap the many health benefits of sun gazing:
1. Stand upright barefooted and steady on the earth. The ground can be a sand-like ocean or riverfront or dirt, but it shouldn’t be concrete, tile, a grassy lawn (supposedly, grass and plants can absorb a lot of the energy circulating through the body), or on top of the building.
According to Vina Parmar, this is very important because the earth element is strengthened and the five elements of sky, sun, water (internal body fluids), and earth will complement each other and help in the process.
2. Start gently gazing at the rising or setting sun for 5 to 10 seconds on the first day. Then, prolong sun gazing by 5 to 10 seconds every day after.
3. Sun gazing has to be done during the first hour of sunrise to avoid damage to the eye retina. One should not look at the sun after one hour or it is too bright.
4. Sun gazing can also be done during the last hour of sunset. However, the morning sun purportedly stimulates greater Vitamin A and D production.
5. While praying or in a meditative state, evoke the feeling that the solar energy is entering through your eyes and is nourishing your body and soul. Be of the mindset that you are being healed and that nothing bad will result as a part of the practice. This is very important because what you believe will reinforce that reality (Living on Sunlight, pg. 56-57)
Some other tips for a safe and healthy sun gazing routine:
- If you are sun-gazing either at sunrise or sunset, leave the timer at the time that you sun gazed so that the next day you continue from that point. This way, you can easily keep track of how much time you have been sun gazing daily, weekly, and monthly.
- Being barefoot is highly recommended.
- Choose either the morning or the evening as a standard time when you sun gaze.
- Sunscreens are never to be used. The sun promotes sweating, which is how the skin breathes, detoxifies the body, and regenerates. Also, chemicals that are placed on the skin and heated are even more dangerous to the body, being more readily absorbed and becoming more activated in the blood system.
- Avoid the midday sun between 10 am and 3 pm. Instead, choose to sun gaze the first hour of sunrise and the last hour before sunset to ensure the best results and minimize any dangers.
- Try to warm yourself in the sun every day, and even in the winter on sunny days or from the window of your home.
What to Keep in Mind When Sun Gazing
Solar science advises against sun gazing after 9 months or 44 minutes of total sun gazing time for the sake of eye care.
There are no conditions or limitations to who can sun gaze – anyone at any age can do it. You do not have to fast or change your lifestyle in any way to reap sun-gazing benefits. Trust your intuition and if you feel uncomfortable in any way, you can stop and continue when you feel!
If you feel the sun has a drying effect on your eyes, you can always steam your eyes with chamomile tea followed by a gentle massage around the eye area with your eyes closed.
The General Benefits of Vitamin D and Sunshine
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An essential part of feeling energetic, vital, and healthy is predicated on getting enough Vitamin D through sunshine. Vitamin D boosts immunity and lowers the possibility of developing a chronic illness.
Dr. William Grant, a researcher into the effects of Vitamin D exposure, stated that in America, increased sun exposure would result in 185,000 fewer cases of cancers every year and 30,000 fewer deaths of breast, ovary, colon, prostate, bladder, uterus, esophagus, rectum, and stomach cancers (UV Advantage).
Sunlight is likewise highly beneficial for heart health, bone health, and glandular moderation, and is known to prevent disability in senior citizens. We also require sunlight to control our biological clocks that regulate our circadian cycles and moods. This alone lowers rates of depression associated with the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as well as the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
What’s important to know is that the sun is important for our well-being and that the anti-sun lobby that is trying to sell chemical sun shield products wants you to think otherwise. The fact is that daily exposure to sunshine is very healthy; however, if you’re on the beach exposed to direct summer sun for hours, seeking shade (not sunscreen) would be the proper protective measure to take.
In fact, if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t place it on the skin, as the skin is a breathing, detoxifying organ that will absorb all the chemistry that is on it directly into the bloodstream. Likewise, if the chemicals in these products are heated, they become more volatile and are even more readily absorbed into the body.
And if you’d like to know which natural moisturizers can help you protect your skin under more intense levels of sunshine, these are my favorite recommendations:
The Incredible Benefits of Coconut Oil for Skin
The Many Incredible Benefits of Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter for Skin Health
Final Thoughts
As you see, sun-gazing benefits outweigh any concerns bar none! Connecting with the sun visually is an ancient method of energizing the body with the vital life force to promote mental, physical, and emotional benefits and eventual healing of disease. It’s a practice that spans cultures and that has proven to help those that practice it safely and wisely.
Many pre-Christian pagan cultures worshiped the sun, and in fact, the sun was the main deity in most cultures before Abrahamic religions came onto the scene. Vedic India had a vast tradition of worshiping the sun, with different Vedic sun gods representing the various aspects of the sun; likewise, in Vedic Astrology, the sun symbolizes one’s soul.
Inevitably, sun gazing is one method that infuses essential vitality into the body to help it self-heal, and it is a wonderful practice that should be a part of everyone’s healing journey!
And if you’d like to find out about other ways you can heal your body naturally through bioenergetics, check out my complimentary detox guide that will teach you how to detoxify effectively and navigate detoxification symptoms wisely.