The Art of Detensing

I had originally planned to do a presentation at Esozone which was largely the product of my
several years work in the physical yoga of the Hyatt Method. I have recently decided that this
is a flawed way of introducing the material. There is nothing here that cannot be learned well
between now and October. The participants in my Esozone workshop will get much more out
of a presentation of any kind if they have engaged in the detensing movements in advance.
Further, neophytes will have a place to refer to after being introduced to key concepts.
Without any further explanation, I would like to walk practitioners through the basic detensing
exercises of the Hyatt method.
Preparation
A good preparation for doing work of this kind is to take a COLD shower in silence. This is
shocking to the physical body, and wakes up the skin before performance of subsequent
movements. Washing each body part in turn, be sure to meditate on what you are doing.
When you have cleaned your body (preferrably with a special soap set aside for this purposeit doesnt matter if its Lever 2000 or something from the local juju shop as long as it is
different from your regular soap and only used for this purpose) stand for a few minutes
calmly breathing deeply, sensing your body, and meditating on cosmic silence.
Do not perform the Work until two hours after a meal, and make sure that the bowels and
bladder are empty.

Detensing
Preliminary Notes and Considerations
Detensing is perhaps the most important part of the Hyatt Method, particularly in the early
stages. It is important to do the detensing exercises as frequently as time permits, but no less
than three times a week. Daily practice can be made mercifully brief to fit even the most
hectic schedule of the contemporary urbanite. I personally spend at least fifteen minutes each
day doing these exercises. Do not fall into the trap of the modern day occult shyster who
would have you believe that merely affirming your divinity makes it so. The physical world is
indeed, very, very real. Without some degree of mastery over the body- the most immediate
means by which reality is experienced, and in many ways the most important- any work done
on self is merely the workings of a robot programming itself with more bullshit.
The presence of music, television, or any other passive form of entertainment (noise)
cannot be adapted to the purpose intended, and severely minimizes the benefit of any
movements performed.
Unless otherwise specified each region of the body should be worked on for 3-4 minutes or
repeated 3-4 times. Once you have been doing it a while you will get a much better feeling of
when you are done. At first you are going to have to expend lots of energy ridding your body
of the accumulated muscle trauma of your entire life previously til now. This is a very daunting
and demanding task that few ever seriously undertake.
The Hyatt Method is not glorified stretching, but is a means of overloading each muscle group
with tension in turn, then releasing it, thus going through the entire energetic cycle on each
part of the body. Dont strain or hurt yourself, but if you dont feel tendons and capillaries

popping you probably arent doing it right. It should hurt when you do it, feel good when you
release, and finally achieve a state of alive feeling equilibrium approximately when the
practitioner ends all detensing. If youre being honest with yourself, youll know roughly
whether or not youre doing it right, though subtleties are difficult to describe in written words.
I am happy to make a YouTube demonstration video of the various exercises provided that
there is genuine interest in the subject.
Face
In short, make faces. Like when you were a little kid. Do this for less than fifteen seconds,
then flick your tongue out a few times. Now scrunch the face into a tight ball with your eyes
closed as tightly as they will go.
Follow the tight scrunching with opening the mouth (both lips and jaw) and eyes, as well as
sticking out the tongue as hard as you possibly can. Hold this for another two to four minutes.
Then babble. The easiest and simplest way to do this is to simply make silly noises. Make
sure that you are moving you mouth, lips, and tongue a lot and really giving them a bit of a
workout.
Neck And Shoulders
First, turn the head from side to side, slowly and evenly, making as much of an effort as is
physically possible to turn your head all the way around. Next, raise the shoulders up to the
ears as much as possible, keeping upward pressure while you hold. Repeat, holding as long
as possible, pushing the shoulders as low as possible during release. Finally, look straight up
at the ceiling by tilting the head back as far as possible, then the reverse (i.e. looking down at
the floor). It is recommended that the practitioner turn his eyes as far as possible in the
direction they are turning their head to. The eyes are a vast network of muscles with their own
tensions and traumas and blockages.
The Torso and Arms
The arms and torso are properly thought of as one section of the body, as the arms are
merely an extension of the torso. Clench the arms tightly at the side as hard as possible
(including the hands, balled as tightly as the practitioner can manage into fists). This will
necessarily involve the upper torso being tensed. Next, open the palms as hard as possible,
stretching the fingers out far as if trying to grasp something just beyond your reach, while also
tensing the lower torso or abdomen. Tensing / detensing different muscle groups at the same
time is generally discouraged (i.e. the neck and shoulders in one movement), though the
special relationship of the torso and arms makes combination particularly useful for this region
of the body.
Pelvis
The pelvis is perhaps the most simple part of the body to detense. Slowly (this cannot be
stressed enough for any detensing technique which involves movement rather than just
tensing the body) rotate the torso in a circle, snake-style.
The Legs and Feet
Legs and feet are interesting, as most people (in particular contemporary Westerners) keep
very little of their consciousness in their legs. This is reflected in, for example, the legions of
superheroes whose chicken legs cannot support their massive torsos, as well as their lanternshaped heads. Sitting on a chair stretch the legs out for 2-4 minutes each in two different

positions. First, stretch the legs out as far as you can pushing out with the heel. Then do the
same, stretching out, pointing the toes straight forward.
The Breath of Fire, Pillow Screaming, and Other Methods of Deep Tension Release
After you have done all the major external parts of the body, it is important to also detense the
inside. Begin with humming, loudly, and from the depths of your diaphragm and core muscles
for 1-2 minutes. Then do fast (not too fast), deep, measured open-mouth breaths. Panting is
not exactly the name for what youll be doing. Its similar, but slightly slower and more
deliberate. Breathe like this for 20 counts (that is 20 cycles of in and out) then immediately
stop, switching to slow, methodical breaths through the nose. The basic technique for this
kind of breathing is to breathe in as slowly, evenly, and silently as possible, then hold the
breath for as long as is reasonably comfortable (the Hyatt Method is not a competition) and
exhaling in the same silent, slow, even manner. It is best to do as many cycles of this kind of
breathing as you did with the panting-like breath. Finally, when you are done, find a pillow
(lest your neighbors call the police) and scream as loudly as you can into it. Pretend youre a
six year old throwing a tantrum and really scream loudly.
Finishing Up
Finish this by laying quietly for 5-10 minutes doing nothing but concentrating on your
breathing and the sensations of the body. Vocalize all sensations for the first two weeks, then
merely make a mental note. Try things like thinking of pleasant events and unpleasant events
and seeing what it feels like, but mostly concentrate on listening to your body and what it has
to tell you.

Zazen For Madmen

Preliminary Notes and Considerations
After you have detensed the body, it is important to use this time of qualitatively different
mental and physical awareness to prolong it. The most effective exercise that I have found for
this purpose is zazen, or sitting zen. The point, eventually, is to, as much as is possible, sit in
mental silence. This is a skill which can be learned, as well as lost through inattention to
practice. The best way that I have seen to get the ball rolling on zazen is Hyatt Method
detensing, followed by the so-called Thinking Meditation likely invented thousands of years
ago, but popularized to the contemporary brain change community through Antero Alli in
Angel Tech.
Balancing and Centering
I would recommend first doing some manner of balancing and centering exercise. I provide a
brief one here, large cribbed from Mantak Chias work with Taoist Alchemy. First, sit in a
comfortable position. Then, visualizing the following five organs, take five deep breaths for
each, visualizing them filled with the light of the corresponding color, softly making the
associated sound:
Lungs = White = SSSSS
Kidneys = Black = CHUWAY
Liver =Green = SHHHH
Heart = Red = HAWWW

Spleen = Yellow = WHOOO

Now use what Chinese Alchemists call the Triple Warmer, a three fold breath which centers
a person in the Lower Than Thien (the Chinese version of the navel cakra). Imagine a rolling
pin pushing down your entire body in three parts (1/3 for each exhale), while making the
sound HEEEEE. Finally, imagine a beam of light moving very slowly across you, first from
left to right, then back again, and then bottom to top and back again. You are now ready to
practice zazen.
(Not) Thinking Meditation
Before one can perform the simple act of zazen (merely sitting) it is important to first become
accustomed to the process of cognition, conscious and otherwise. Sitting in a comfortable
position, either close your eyes lightly or sit very close to a wall, staring right at it. I
recommend the latter, it being the preferred method of the Bodhidharma, and confirmed
through personal praxis as one of the most effective ways of doing zazen. The first meditation
is very simple. Spend thirty minutes saying thinking! in a firm, but polite (remember the rule
about being kind to the robot!) voice.
Experiments
Diaries
Your only experiment for the above exercises is to keep three daily journals. One should sit
right next to your bed and document, but not analyze your dreams. The second should record
the events of your life, mundane and otherwise. The third requires a bit of explanation, but it is
the Hyatt Methods version of a so-called magickal diary or book of shadows.
After performing the days work note all conditions- time of day, mental state, weather, any
astrological correspondences you find interesting, what precisely you did, how you felt about
it, and any strange coincidences or synchronicities arising from the previous days work. Tell
no one what you keep in here for at least six months.
Conclusions
These movements, though they seem devoid of occult content to the philistine practitioner
more interested in collecting crystals and Tarot card sets than actual brain change, are highly
valuable to the serious student of Tantra. Brain change is hard work and highly traumaticwork and trauma being the two things that most occultnik charlatans cant stand. Tantra is, as
shall be explored in later installments in this series leading up to Esozone, nothing less than
the science of personal awareness and control. I have a special set of exercises unpublished
anywhere else which will be available to anyone willing to provide me with a consistent month
of documented work. For everyone else, there will be more to come soon enough. But I would
like to stress in my parting that the Hyatt Method is neither a competition or a race. Do the
work, and never cheat yourself. The rewards you reap shall be great.
Syllabus
Undoing Yourself With Energized Meditation and Other Techniqes by Christopher Hyatt
Angel Tech by Antero Alli
Taoist Yoga and Sexual Energy by Eric Yudelov
Acknowledgments
In the making of this article, I must ascribe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Christopher Hyatt

(RIP) and Antero Alli. Further, I would like to thank Taylor Ellwood and Bill Whitcomb for being
legitimate practitioners of the science of the wise, not the chicanery of the wiseguy, a highly
important distinction to make in a world overpopulated with would-be cult leaders and other
kinds of chicanery. Finally, none of this work would have been possible for me without Nick
Tharcher at Original Falcon, Joe Matheny of Grey Lodge, and everyone at the New Extreme
Individual Institute.
As always, no thanks to disgusting manipulators and right-wing power mongers looking to
fuck their fathers corpse- and Tim Learys and Bob Wilsons for that matter- before it is even
cold. Your day of reckoning will come sooner than you think.