Meditation or Medication...When Kundalini Rises

The title of this page fascinates me. Having experienced both — meditation and medication — I feel inspired to examine each within a spiritual context.

I first came across meditation when I discovered Buddhism in 1988. Meditation is an integral part of Buddhism, the vehicle for developing self-awareness. One accomplises this by noticing the internal thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, thought processes while meditating. Whenever I meditated, my thought processes quickly overloaded, almost as if my brain had launched a computer virus. I had no idea where the millions of varied, meaningless, but powerful thoughts came from.

It might seem like a contradiction to say that meaningless thoughts can be powerful in their ability to distract during meditation, but they can, and are. The mind is threatened by meditation and so it throws up thoughts that distract from meditation. The Secret of the Golden Flower calls this the battle between the Primal and the Conscious Spirit. The Conscious Spirit wants to maintain its hegemony over our true nature — the Primal Spirit.

Separation of the Spirit Body for Independent Existence

Once, I remember sitting down to meditate and immediately thinking, 'I want a cup of tea.' I had gone the previous three hours without wanting or needing a cup of tea and suddenly because I sat down to meditate, I wanted a cup of tea. Why was this impulse suddenly strong enough to propel me to the kitchen to get that cup of tea?

I have always found meditation challenging and for most of my spiritual life have preferred the practice of mindfulness although I didn't know what it was called back then — before it had the name it has today. Gurdjieff called it self-remembering. The practice of being constantly aware and alert to everything that is going on all the time. I found that easier to do than sitting down to observe the thoughts in my mind.

When Kundalini rose the second time it awakened hitherto inactive areas of my brain — in terms of triggering insights and intuitions I had never before experienced.

As a consequence, I went through many shifts of consciousness, one of which bordered on a mania that took the form of speaking endlessly of a conspiracy that kept Kundalini hidden from people and feeling sure that it was a conspiracy by secret societies like the Freemasons!

Such high bursts of energy are inevitably followed by a crash and I did crash for a number of reasons  I won't go into now. This dip led me to a doctor who prescribed a very low dose of an anti-depressant. The drug succeeded in lifting my consciousness out of the black place it fallen into.

The mania accompanied by depression might have indicated I was experiencing a bi-polar episode, but it didn't feel like that, given what I have read about bi-polar. Nevertheless, the mania did awaken areas of my brain which had never been active, producing new varieties of thoughts and concepts.

No doubt meditation prepares the body for spiritual awakening and causes consciousness to expand in direct proportion to the degree of one's self-awareness. The rising Kundalini causes an awakening and then, depending on the intensity of the awakening, the renewed meditation may take on a different quality. The awakening may be so overwhelming that medication may be necessary. The outcome depends solely on the individual and the symptoms manifested.

Is Kundalini Safe?

Two questions were recently posed by a very astute student. Here they are with my replies:

1) Is Kundalini safe? There doesn't seem to be a root cause behind these 'improper activations.' Is there an optimal method that assures safe landings? How do you know it will work for me?

2) Presuming it is safe, will it affect normal family life? Is there an optimal age at which to begin practicing?

Answer 1: You answered your own question, at least partially, when you stated: "... there doesn't seem to be a root cause behind these 'improper activations.'"

This is accurate. There are many forms of activations (triggers) and outcomes (effects). When Gopi Krishna and I spoke about my practice of Golden Flower Meditation method, he kept coming back to the Backward-Flowing Method (BFM), a technique based on sexual sublimation. He was aware of it, realized it might be the key to safe awakenings. How so?

All Kundalini episodes are the result of some sort of sexual sublimation. But it's how the sublimation process takes place that's crucial. The BFM assures the energy is drawn up the correct channel. How does it assure the conversion of sexual energy into elixir and the proper channeling of the elixir? The following is copied from the Golden Flower Meditation method.

"Some respondents ask me what’s so special about Golden Flower Meditation. They say any number of serious meditation methods include some sort of sublimation process. And they’re right; some do. The difference is that the backward-flowing method works by drawing the distilled seminal fluid (breath-energy) up the spinal column, not by thinking or visualizing it. What do I mean by drawing? I’ve been asked that question many times. This is a very subtle technique whose implementation begins only at the moment when a practitioner perceives that this distilled breath energy has the property of direction. This occurs in the lower belly.

"Why is drawing the distilled seminal fluid (sexual energy) up the spinal column superior to thinking or visualizing, or forcing it up the spinal column? Those methods can cause the distilled seminal fluid to go up the wrong channel, a condition that may induce severe pain or cause other problems. In Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man, Gopi Krishna explores this issue in depth.

"The backward-flowing method never lets this happen. Why? Because, once again, it’s like pump-priming. Changing the direction of the breath energy kicks off the sublimation process, opening the reservoir of seminal fluid and sending its distilled essence on its way up the proper channel. It’s a seamless, imperceptible, hand-shaking process — the breath slowly drawing the seminal fluid out of its reservoir, distilling it, and sending it up the spinal column.

"The question most people ask after What is the backward-flowing method? is How does it work? The backward-flowing method is a process with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And like any process it has to proceed step-by-step in proper order, like a scientific experiment. The first step is to reverse the breath. Reversing the breath triggers step two: drawing the distilled seminal fluid up the correct channel in the spine. It ensures that the process will unfold correctly, without harming or frightening the practitioner."

I followed this method in The Secret of the Golden Flower (SGF), updated it for modern practitioners in Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time. I know it works. So did Gopi Krishna, so did the ancient adepts who contributed to the SGF.

How do I know it works for others? Tom Kinney has already addressed this. I'd like to add the following: CHECK YOUR SYMMETRY. Symmetry is the best indicator of future success. Gopi Krishna spoke to this: "Can we deny the fact that whether fortuitous gift, divine grace, or the fruit of Karma, in every case there is a close link between the talent or beauty exhibited and the organic structure of the individual."

Any difficulties I experienced were not those of poor implementation of the techniques, they were due to my asymmetry, detailed in Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time and since corrected by my Kundalini.

2) Questions concerning Start or Don't Start or When should I start can only be answered by you.

Nevertheless, I offer the following: it's very important to consider what life would be like should you awaken Kundalini. Gopi Krishna told me sex would be amazing once the settling in process was complete. Was he correct? Depends on the individual. Kundalini inventories the body after activation and determines the neural adjustments to be made. Depending on the individual, this process takes the time it takes. Don't take kundalini for granted; there are challenges you must consider.

One thing is certain: Your life will change! Will you be able to manage the changes?

I would add "children" into the mix. Think carefully. I've had children, so have others. Just remember Kundalini requires some part of your sexual energies. Is there enough to go around? Enough to spare? Living with Kundalini is the least explored aspect of the whole experience; so many focus on the "transformational" aspects, believing once it happens, their work is over and Kundalini will manage the rest.