When AMORC says, as in Master Monograph, Degree 3, No. 3, the Initiate section-

It is easy to understand that simply eating and drinking is not enough to maintain life. Breathing is also an essential function, as it enables us to draw the positive polarity of Vital Life Force from the air.

-it is talking about a heck of a lot more than photosynthesis involving the gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide. It is talking about “a cosmic essence that has not yet been defined by scientists, but its existence is evident to all those who contemplate life from a spiritual perspective.”

Of course, those who are aware of the Hindu practice of prayayama, a set of advanced breathing techniques, will immediately recognize AMORC’S Vital Life Force as ROUGHLY equivalent, in many basic respects, to the idea of prana, as referenced in Hindu writers such as Patanjali, the famous exponent of Hatha Yoga.

So Papus description of planetary evolution and the meaning of prana, takes the concept to a cosmic level, making the Vital Life Force the carrier of the evolutionary impulse.

But, intriguing as this idea is- even if we can say that we experience prana or Vital Life Force when we breathe in a disciplined, “spiritual way,” can we really take this concept or prana to the level of influencing cosmic evolution the way Papus does, at a time in which planets themselves were not known beyond the limits of our own Solar System?