Bodily Oddities

Khechari mudra

Also called: Khecarī mudrā · Tongue lock · Lambika yoga

A hatha yoga practice in which the tongue is turned back and up behind the soft palate, into the space at the back of the nose. Very few people can do it without months or years of stretching.

Mouth and throat Trick Voluntary
Spiritual Learnable

How common

Very rare without training Unknown No count exists. Practitioners report months to years of daily stretching.

Can you do this?

These are answers from visitors, not a study.

How it works

In khechari mudra the tongue folds back on itself, slides up behind the uvula, and rests in the nasopharynx, the open space above the soft palate and behind the nose. The underside of the tongue faces up. The tip presses on the roof of the nasal cavity.

Two things stop most people. The tongue is not long enough. And the frenulum, the band of tissue under the tongue, holds the tip down3. Practitioners stretch the tongue daily by pulling it forward and rolling it back, a process the old texts call milking1. Over months the fold gets deeper.

The old texts describe a second method. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, written in the 15th century, tells the student to cut the frenulum a hair’s breadth at a time, once a week, and to rub the cut with salt and turmeric2. This is a surgical act done without training or sterile tools. It can cause bleeding, infection, and speech problems. Most modern teachers do not do it and do not teach it.

History and culture

The name is Sanskrit. Khe means sky or space, and chara means moving1. The Khecarīvidyā, a text from around the 14th century, is devoted entirely to the practice1. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika lists it among the main mudras, the sealing gestures of hatha yoga2.

The texts claim large effects. The practitioner is said to taste a nectar dripping from the head, to lose hunger and thirst, to stop ageing, and to escape death1. None of these claims has been tested. In modern yoga the practice is mainly used as a focus for concentration during meditation.

Sources and further material

  1. Encyclopedia Khecarī mudrā The practice, its texts, and its claimed effects.
  2. Encyclopedia Hatha Yoga Pradipika The 15th-century manual that describes the practice in detail.
  3. Encyclopedia Frenulum of tongue The tissue band under the tongue that limits the fold.
  4. Video Khechari mudra demonstration YouTube search.
Mouth Trick

Tongue folding

Folding the tip of the tongue backward over itself inside the mouth. Between 14% and 27.5% of people can do it.

14–27.5%
Mouth Trick

Cloverleaf tongue

Folding the tongue into three lobes, like a clover leaf. Between 10% and 15% of people in Western samples can do it. It is usually called the hardest tongue shape.

10–15% (Western samples)
Mouth Trick

Gorlin's sign

Touching the tip of your nose with your tongue. About 10% of people can do it. About half of people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome can, so doctors use it as a quick check for stretchy connective tissue.

~10% of people
Brain Perception

Meditation body dissolution

During long, still meditation the brain loses track of the arms and the edges of the body. Hands can feel close to the shoulders and far away at the same time. Flotation tanks produce the same effect. It is common, harmless, and well studied.

Common in long-term meditators