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.

Does Activating Kundalini Make You a Happier Person?

Recently someone sent me an inquiry, "I've read your kundalini books and I'm beginning a meditation practice. But the question that keeps popping up in my head is: Does activating your kundalini make you a happier person?"

Overlooking for a moment the semantics behind the expression "happier person," I'd respond with a resounding YES, in the sense that Kundalini makes you a different person. What you want to make of this different person, how you want to mold him/her still depends on your basic character. All Kundalini confers on you is the opportunity to meet, perhaps for the first time, the elusive, real YOU.

By stripping away denial and evasion tactics, an active Kundalini allowed me to focus on the weaker aspects of my character. What I decided to do with this opportunity was up to me. But at least I now had focus. The stage was set for work.

This work can be extremely constructive, especially as concerns addictive or self-destructive behavior.

It's so easy to be cynical about change, self-discovery, and spiritual transformation; even Oprah Winfrey faces ridicule from the conventional press when she talks about her personal journey: "Ms. Winfrey shared no secrets, but she did repeat some of her most familiar, if impenetrable, platitudes, including "my personal journey is to fulfill the highest expression of myself here as a human being.'" Lack of understanding is rife. This language says more about the NY Times writer than it does about Oprah's sincere expression of self-discovery. So be ready for doubt, ridicule, and misunderstanding.

The advantage Kundalini gives you is that the body becomes an ally. You are functioning at a higher vibrational frequency. At frequencies where drugs and alcohol no longer hold any appeal. The body begins to resist harmful substances. This is a place to start — at the bottom (the physical level), an enormous advantage when you realize the hardest thing in life is taking the first step, especially when it means starting at the bottom.

Each stage in the pyramid is attuned to a different frequency Yet, only by starting at the bottom can you can build a solid foundation — one stage at a time.

"Self-realization begins at birth; it is the journey as much as it is the destination." Eventually you realize there is no separation between the journey and the destination. Kundalini gives you a place to start. It wipes the slate clean in that you are now functioning at a higher vibrational frequency, affording you an opportunity to insure that the journey is upward, providing you a vantage point for putting things in perspective as you move along.

What does "starting at the bottom" really mean? How did it work in my case? When I wrote about starting at the bottom, the tried-and-true Maslow diagram popped into my head as a ready example of start and finish points. I began to think about the diagram I created in The Backward-Flowing Method: The Secret of Life and Death, a diagram that explained my journey, that it didn't just happen in a vacuum, that there was a karmic dimension to it — a vibrational dimension.

As you can see, this diagram's first stage Search for the Secret Teachings is characterized by exploration. In my case, it meant discovering and taking up Yoga, not as readily available in the 1960s as it is today. My path followed the Maslow diagram to the extent that it provided me with a way of harnessing the power of the body — a feeling that I had to stop abusing it and get it working for me.

When I first started out, I had not the merest iota of self-awareness. I didn't really know what I was doing or why I was doing it. I just practiced the poses. Little-by-little, however, things started to percolate upward. During my practice I noticed that my breathing exercises produced rumblings in energy centers throughout my body — sensations I had never before felt, which, as I continued to practice, became palpable and real. I had awakened a sleeping subsystem. I realized that breathing — an autonomic process I had always taken for granted — was the key to the changes taking place in my body.

Breathing became the center of my practice. Not only during my practice, but in every other activity: walking, driving, lying in bed. Little did I realize. More is less. Breathing is more powerful than any physical exercise.

Where my exploration differed with the Maslow diagram: I failed at the Belongingness & Love Needs and the Esteem Needs stages. Had I been obliged to master these steps before attempting the final stages in Blocks Two and One of the Maslow, I would have been condemned to perpetual failure. Only by jumping ahead to the Need to Know & Understand stage was I able to eventually succeed (reach the top of the Maslow pyramid) and ultimately work my way back down to Block One to complete the work on the stages I skipped.

My diagram jumps from the Physiological Needs stage to the Need to Know & Understand stage and then continues to the top. It completely ignores the two steps at the top of Block One of Maslow. So what, you say? The point is you don't have to follow an order. It's not set in stone or in a diagram. Whatever gets you vibrating at a higher frequency. The important thing is getting there, and that entails a journey and a beginning — starting out and finishing. The sequence isn't as important. All roads lead to Rome.

I chose Yoga, and it led me to study my breathing and the realization that breathing was the key to everything. And kundalini meditation became my vehicle for breathing in a controlled and systematic manner.

As for the notion of a "happier person," let's just say that if we concern ourselves with happiness, we're a long way from understanding the nature of life, and therefore, probably on another path. The Buddha said Life was suffering, and he prescribed a path to deal with it. Does mean happiness gets lost in the shuffle? That when you get to the Transcendence or the It Does You! stage, you have somehow, mysteriously reconciled the two — Transcendence and Happiness? It means that as long as we inhabit bodies, we will suffer if we base everything on the pursuit of happiness, which, a Buddhist might say, is an illusion. So, in relative terms then, doesn't Oprah Winfrey's statement of devotion and service ("fulfill the highest expression of myself here as a human being") ring true to both the Buddhist and the Christian approaches? To be more aware, to make better decisions, to treat others as we would be treated? If a Kundalini awakening figures in somewhere along the way, so be it. If not, there are many paths and many roadmaps.