Back in the ashram days, we actually did that. One ashram was so poor that our only source of heat for a poorly insulated 1800s farm house was a pot belly coal stove that barely kept the house in the low 60s, maybe 17/18 degrees Celsius tops and not even the upstairs. There wasn't enough money left after 20% off the top to DLM and Rawat personally, especially before and after festivals what with a few book buyers, painter's helpers, a traveling masseuse and a few other menial jobs of a transient nature.
Then there were the Big Apple Imports hawkers with their garage full of cheap tin knights in armor, the kind that lurk in local pubs and particularly gaudy restaurants, not to mention their boxes full of cheap 3-tier pots and macram� hangers we dangled over crowds on long cane poles at street fairs. Fishers of men, we were!
Then it was back to sleep-deprived so hung warmth under a blanket morning and night... almost tolerable until Rawat confiscated our beragons. Made even more complicated by "Something rises and something falls. Focus on that."
I never felt anything rise and fall except for when I tried to imagine it through the power of suggestion. (A book could be written about all the borderline pagan concepts Rawat instilled in us while constantly railing against having concepts.) I kept telling myself that my lungs are more like balloons that expand and contract in all directions. The kicker was when I read in some swami book that it sounds like "so ham." Must've been from a different sect or region. No wonder Rawat claims sole proprietorship of those relatively common techniques... the others got the sound wrong... or just plain territorial.
While I'm at it, how come Rawat insists on using the thumb and middle finger for the 1st technique, going so far as to insist on millimeter accuracy of placement lest there be no peace for you because you're doing it wrong? Anyone with "two cents worth of brains in their head screwed on right" (a Rawat quote that stuck with me) knows that the fatty part of your palms adjacent to your wrists fits your eyeball sockets perfectly and comfortably like a big pillow and it's far more effective for neuron and phosphorous gazing.
That made me curious, so I checked ChatGPT: Why do I see light with my eyes closed in a pitch black room?
Common reasons you see light
Neural noise: Random firing of neurons in your retina and visual cortex can appear as flickers, sparkles, clouds, or shifting patterns.
Phosphenes: Pressure on the eyes, eye movement, or even blood flow can stimulate the retina and create light sensations.
Afterimages: If you were recently in a bright environment, your photoreceptors may still be "cooling down."
Relaxed / hypnagogic state: When you're tired, meditating, or drifting toward sleep, the brain often produces colors, waves, or shapes.
PS, the forum speed is very slow again.