The Biology of Kundalini

Activating Kundalini begins with biological transformation, using energy cultivation techniques to arouse the body’s hidden potential.

Since kundalini is a biological phenomenon, it needs to draw energy from a biological source in order to accomplish its purpose. That source happens to be sexual energy, the same energy source involved in procreation. How could it be otherwise? The energy used to create life is the same energy used in re-birth. What other source in the human body has the requisite supply of the necessary energy to accomplish a rebirth?
 

Nevertheless, each individual is configured differently which means outcomes do vary, not only on account of anatomical, genetic, and neurological differences, but also because the triggers responsible (meditation, tantra, shaktipat, drugs, etc.) for activating Kundalini vary greatly. Different triggers produce different effects. In fact, the rules that produce a variety of human shapes and sizes in the physical world also govern the multitude of metaphysical effects that kundalini produces.

It is an unpredictable physiological process. For that reason, you need to study the phenomenon before presuming it's appropriate for you at the present time. There’s also a commitment/dedication component. So, is it reasonable to dedicate your time and efforts to an unpredictable process that demands commitment?

Transformation is not a single event, but a stream of energy events, each one a challenge. So much goes into completing the process: inspiration, motivation, discovery, detective work, exercise, meditation — to say nothing of frustration, disappointment, and disinformation. Choosing a viable method is vital. The path is long, hard, and uncertain.

Up till now, there is no one method for shepherding a novice through the entire process that has a one-hundred-percent success rate. However, Golden Flower Meditation worked for me, resulting in a full-fledged, permanent kundalini awakening.

On the flowchart below you will notice two phases, what Ram Dass called the You do it! and It does you! phases. In the first phase, you do all the work. Whether consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or accidentally, you become inspired. Whatever! It’s up to you to find and manage the various elements. Motivation, detective work, decoding, practice are also up to you. It’s only during the last phase that things get really interesting, not that they’re uninteresting beforehand. But there definitely is a transition from the You do it! to It does You! phase.

To put the preceding flowchart in perspective, imagine a similar chart tracing the path of a typical American doctorate level education. The process is long — getting a PhD is a grueling process — but the information is readily available. Want to study chemistry? No problem. Ten thousand college catalogues at your disposal. Get good grades in high school, find a college that suits you and you’re on your way. On the other hand, informing yourself about secret teachings such as kundalini is not as easy. There is no approved curriculum, no regulating body, no accepted practices, no Secret Teachings for Dummies guidebooks. You’re on your own. All you have is your own inspired motivation, some hint that there is something out there — something for you. Beyond that you have no idea what’s in store for you. No idea that the overhaul you are pursuing is really a biological process. Golden Flower Meditation leads to a neuro-biological overhaul.

Through my practice of Golden Flower Meditation, I discovered the remarkable self-healing capabilities of the Kundalini~Life Force. My nervous system was stimulated such that the natural chemical substances of the body were recombined and used both to correct a deformity and also to induce a higher consciousness. After successfully activating the Life Force, this amazing energy source inventoried my entire body, immediately transmitting vital energy throughout the nervous system to the deformed parts of my body. What kinds of conditions are treatable? Any condition caused by damage to nerve endings or circuits.

How does GFM work? Correctly implemented, the active Kundalini triggers a process known as sexual sublimation that distills seminal fluid, or cervical fluid, in the case of a woman, and draws this distilled extract of sexual energy up the spine into the brain. This kicks off autonomic self-healing mechanisms that use the nervous system to revitalize neural related disorders. Normally, GFM has little effect on degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart disease, or stroke. However, by practicing GFM and eating more pure raw foods, the body is less likely to degenerate.

What if there were a mechanism in the body capable of revitalizing the brain and the nervous system, of counteracting the ill effects of neurological degeneration? That mechanism exists. It’s known as Kundalini Shakti  — the vital energy responsible for your incarnation. To avail yourself of it in later life for creative and for healing purposes, I practiced Golden Flower Meditation. It’s not the only method, but it is one I found to be permanent, voluntary, safe, repeatable.

At the moment, Kundalini Shakti is in hibernation, waiting for you to activate it. A popular explanation, really a misconception, says that if kundalini is not awakened, it is dormant, completely inactive. If that were true, we’d all be dead. Kundalini has a maintenance aspect, Prana Shakti, which is always functioning. It’s actively at work on you now, maintaining your autonomic functions. The life force has two aspects: Prana Shakti maintains your basic functions such as blood flow, digestion, and breathing; Kundalini Shakti fosters self-healing while opening you to higher consciousness.

Is Kundalini Worth It?

This blog and hundreds like it, many books, websites, symposiums, and gatherings focus on the topic of Kundalini. To what avail? What sort of impact is the discussion and buzz around this topic having on society at large, if any?

What does "worth it" mean in relation to a topic like Kundalini? What kind of value can be placed on it? A monetary value? Another kind of value? Religious? Spiritual? Educational? Ontological? Philosophical? Biological? Esoteric? Evolutionary? Sociological? Medical?

What if there was no such thing as Kundalini? What if there was no such thing as Major League Baseball or the National Football League? No such thing as banks? Life insurance? Museums? Libraries? Could we do without them?

Food is an Essential

Could we do without gardens? I don't think so. Food to perpetuate life is an essential, not only for the present population, but for the future of humanity.

And what about the others? Are any of them necessities?

Tomorrow is Sunday. Suppose there were no NFL games? Could we survive? No NFL, no banks, no insurance, no TV, no museums or libraries — we'd still be here on Monday.

No Kundalini, however, and come Monday, life on earth would start grinding to a halt? Why you ask would something that I've never heard of have such a profound impact? An impact similar to the disappearance of food, say.

Quite simply, although Kundalini works behind the scene, so to speak, and is not widely known by most of the world's population, it is not only the driving force behind evolution, it is responsible for each and every person's — whether alive today or in the future — unique embodiment. What does the term embodiment mean exactly? In this context, it means the formation of your body from the moment of insemination to the moment of your birth.

This is not a belief system; it's biological fact: do away with Kundalini and you do away with humanity. In one fell swoop we're back to the dawn of evolution. How can this be true? Well, as our bodies take shape in the womb from one day to the next, something has to be responsible for the embodiment — from embryo to fetus to full-grown individual — process. And while scientists don't know what it is, people who have succeeded in raising Kundalini do. They understand that evolution, as well as the formation of living organisms, is powered by Kundalini energy. Kundalini exists for a purpose.

If it didn't serve a purpose, evolution would have eliminated it. That's how evolution works; it gets rid of unnecessary traits or functions.

"The Indian mystic Osho said, when the quantum physicists, with their new methods, went from the world of matter to the subatomic world, they went - without knowing it — from the physical to the etheric plane. According to Osho, if you go deep in the physical body to the microcosmic level, there is a more subtle electrical body called the etheric body. The etheric body is sort of a blueprint of the physical body. In the etheric body, also called the emotional body, feelings, sensations and thoughts exist as waves while they exist as particles in the physical body. At a certain level of attention, the waves and wave packets at the etheric level collapse into particles at the physical level. This is, of course, a quantum mechanical process."

~ Quantum Mechanics and the Etheric Body

Like food, Kundalini in one of the essentials. 

The Seven Fundamental Chakras

So, yes, Kundalini has an underlying, essential evolutionary purpose. But, that said, do people have to know about it? Can't we prosper and lead a merry ol' life, just by having it run in the background like an app on your smart phone that counts the number of steps you take everyday?

That may have been true in the past. Kundalini could just toil away in the background, but today our survival is in doubt. Faced with so many threats (environmental, mass migrations, war, terrorism, racism, hunger, disease, economic collapse, corporate greed) our continued existence is imperiled. We must take an active role in evolution. And that, perhaps, is why so many books and blogs on spiritual topics are being written today...because biological processes like Kundalini, that were formerly unknown or ignored, are now essential to our survival, and the evolutionary impulse is serving them up to us on a conscious, elemental level.

"Unfortunately, most human beings are not plugged in. They are trying to generate their own power. So they eat five times a day, but still they are tired most of the time. It is a struggle to keep life going. Energy is not just in terms of physical energy or activity, energy is in terms of life. Existence is energy, isn’t it? The basis of existence is energy. If you know that basis, it is like knowing the foundations of life. If you understand the ways of the energy, you know the whole mechanics of creation. So if you are plugged in, you know what the power is, what it can do and what you can make out of it. You are plugged into an endless source of power – that is what is Kundalini."

 - SADHGURU

So, while Kundalini has worked behind the scenes during most of human history, because of its importance in the energetics revolution (yoga, meditation, mindfulness, etc.) now taking place on earth, it is coming to the fore. Its intrinsic value has not changed, but what we know about it and the way we approach it has.

How Do You know If Kundalini Is Active?

So how do you KNOW if your Kundalini is really awakened? For Gopi Krishna and myself, two persons who practiced Kundalini meditation, we were able to observe somatic and metabolic changes in the body as the sexual sublimation process engaged and as it ultimately reached a dramatic crescendo, ushering waves of pranic energy into the brain, igniting all chakras and opening up a vast metaphysical realm. In cases like ours, the proof is incremental and documentable: The trigger induces the effects and we followed the process as you might follow a laboratory experiment — one taking place in the laboratory of your own body.

For me, the effects have been benign. Whether this holds true in your case, I can't say. Withstanding the effects depends on your ability to accept Kundalini and adapt yourself to its dictates. I've talked with many people who have shared some, if not all, of the effects listed below, and, in doing so, have thrived:

• Triggering autonomic self-healing mechanisms capable of correcting defects due to neural degeneration;
• Rejuvenating the brain and the body as a result of intense neuroplastic activity;
• Retarding the aging process;
• Reversing self-destructive and addictive behavior;
• Heightening and enhancing consciousness through the awakening of various metanormal effects and powers;
• Cleansing the ego by removing the effects of conditioning and programming: self-actualization;
• Clearly demonstrating that the spirit persists after death;
• Helping to end dependency on ineffective health-care models; and
• Facilitating the transition into the next state of being.

What about those whose Kundalini has been ignited accidentally…without any intention to do so?

In cases where the individual cannot identify a trigger, you almost have to work inductively, from the effects back to the cause, from the symptoms to the trigger. If you can identify a number of acknowledged Kundalini effects/symptoms, you might conclude that your Kundalini has somehow been aroused. This is tricky because there’s a tendency to equate certain mental aberrations with Kundalini symptoms, persuading yourself that Kundalini has actually awakened when it hasn't. You must always verify everything you see, hear, or feel.

But suppose an individual is unable to identify a trigger, but is able to describe a set of psychic, physical, mental, and metaphysical effects that suddenly manifest themselves — effects that are so antithetical to, and even incompatible with, that person’s previous behavior or state of being. For instance, feeling the need to be alone when he/she was formerly gregarious, feeling sexually disinterested as opposed to feeling oversexed, a newfound aversion to addictive substances and behavior, dramatic changes in diet and energy levels. Obviously, the person would begin to wonder about the cause of these changes. And if that person was familiar with Kundalini, it might seem like a logical choice for a cause. But is it a well founded choice?

So, unless there's some indication of the actual trigger, there's really no way of determining if Kundalini is active. You must delve deeper. Kundalini is not to be trifled with. Make sure you're up to dealing with radical changes in condition (psychic, mental, emotional, physical, and metaphysical) over your lifetime.

Don't Rush To Activate Kundalini

Activating Kundalini has far reaching consequences. Unfortunately, strip mall Yoga salons don’t know much about the aftermath of a Kundalini awakening: It’s a lifetime responsibility and learning to live with it is often beyond the ken of those trying to sell you on activating it. Interested persons should think about why they want to attempt to awaken Kundalini and how they want to go about it. In other words, the choice of trigger?

Nevertheless, since effects vary from subject to subject, even though subsets of effects may be shared in many cases, it is useful to rate each trigger by the effects it induces. That way the individual can identify which triggers to avoid and which ones produce positive effects.

Now, the term "triggers" I keep referring to are really different kinds of detonators. The actual cause — the explosive charge — that "detonates" Kundalini activity is a quantity of stored-up, distilled sexual energy (explosive charge) preternaturally available at the moment the detonator (trigger) engages.

No matter the detonator (trigger) — be it drugs, for instance, or meditation, or even sexual rapture, each detonation causes a release of sexual energy. The initiate may not feel sexually aroused during its release because in releasing sublimated sexual energy, Kundalini works at a deep neurological level. One thing is certain, however, the sensations/effects/symptoms the individual feels when Kundalini activates are always due to the release and upward climb of sexual energy to the brain (only the dosages and frequencies vary).

For example, you may feel tired, enthralled, frightened, or depressed without any erotic undercurrents. Nevertheless, sexual energy is present. The reason you may not feel sexually aroused is because the energy Kundalini releases to the brain initiates a rewiring of neural and cerebral circuits, which once fired, can cause behavioral irregularities, up to and including bliss, psychosis, and depression, which in turn, mask the sexual sublimation activity taking place in the background.

There’s another element that must be accounted for, a deterministic element some call The Field. Not every person seeking to activate Kundalini is able to do so. At the same time, not every person in whom Kundalini becomes active wants it to happen. This is especially important at the present time when so many people are striving to activate it by so many different methods. Most of them have no idea what awaits them if they succeed. And if and when they do succeed, they are often ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath.

So how is the determination made on who’s going to succeed? This is important because forcing a Kundalini activation is almost beside the point in evolutionary terms. Human evolution is nowhere near complete. Over time, the human race is going to reach higher states of consciousness. What’s more, our bodies will continue to evolve. Evolution will see to it; that’s how evolution works. So, basically, in your attempt to raise it, you are trying to jumpstart something that's going to happen anyway over time.

Anyway, back to The Field...

For the trigger and the explosive charge to collide, The Field must move them into alignment; that’s it’s deterministic nature. This Field could be called The Energy Continuum or Consciousness or even a Quantum event, one whose moment is come to pass: the collision in time and space of Detonator (trigger) and Explosive charge (sexual energy), brought together by The Field (quantum event), thereby escorting an individual destiny through an evolutionary leap. This "happening" is much rarer than you might be led to believe.

What’s important for the initiates The Field does select is to realize that what he/she is undergoing is benign, any aberrant mental and psychic states can be stabilized by accepting Kundalini, not fighting it. So be patient. Let the rewiring and the restorative work begin.

The Thing That Really Triggers Kundalini

If there’s ever to be a scientific study of Kundalini, so that Kundalini awakenings can become widespread and verifiable, then the single thing that triggers Kundalini needs to be isolated. Kundalini awakens in a multitude of situations, with a plethora of apparent triggers: drugs, meditation, emotional catastrophe, shaktipat, even the bizarre practice of erotic asphyxiation, but these are merely circumstances, that surround the moment of awakening, they are not the trigger itself. We must look deeper to find the first cause. I think an indication of what the trigger is can be found in two small statuettes, both bronzes, from the Kashmiri and Tibetan traditions. These bronze statues combine two figures, but were made for individual meditation. One is the Tibetan yab-yum image of Vajrasattva, the Diamond Thunderbolt Sceptre seated in upright sexual congress with Vajradhatvisvari, the Diamond Thunderbolt Wisdom. The other is the image of a rampant Kali, again in the upright position, straddling the erect penis of the dead Shiva.

Vajrasattva has huge eyes. They stare out across Vajradhatvisvari’s shoulder on the brink of terror. He’s staring into the void, one foot lifted in a stamping movement as her body climbs his in a zigzag motion like a bolt of lightning. In the other statue, Shiva’s eyes are closed, while Kali’s eyes stare straight ahead into the same terrifying ecstasy. This is the moment when the physical eyes see the complete reality of space/time, of which our visual world forms only a small part.
 

Kali’s Eyes Stare Straight Ahead

Relativity and quantum mechanics both teach that space/time is static. This reality need not be confined to mathematical formulae, or remain a mere scientific concept. It can be experienced bodily, as the statuettes show. If all of time and space is present here and now, it follows logically, and in the most down-to-earth way, that the moment of my death is present here and now. I can look at it, experience it. This is what Vajrasattva and Kali are staring into — the fact of ending. This is what the corpse Shiva has already achieved. So what, then, does his phallus indicate? Surely a dead body is an inert, flaccid thing. On the level of reality where this trigger of Kundalini is found, ending is an action. It’s frightening, but it is something that is done. Ending is not something that’s inflicted on me, even though my body might be in a state of prostrate inertia.

This is not sexual fantasy either. It’s the moment when experience accords most with reality. Our bodies, including our brains, are made up of subatomic particles. Quantum mechanics shows that subatomic particles are not "things," they’re "events." My body is an "event" moving through days and nights that are a matrix of "events." Kali riding Shiva is an "event." Vajradhatvisvari climbing the Thunderbolt Sceptre’s body is an "event." And, as Feynman showed in his space/time maps, every subatomic event is marked by the annihilation of the initial particles and the creation of new ones. Vajrasattva’s eyes and Kali’s eyes are wide and stare-y, on the brink of terror, because consciousness can go down to this depth. The inner eyes can keep open even at this moment of becoming void. This is do-able. It’s more than a verbal concept. Consciousness, at the most fundamental level, is a quantum process. It’s been shown experimentally that the human eye, when it becomes adapted to the dark, can detect a single photon, with its zero mass, and its status as both wave and particle.

A quantum process of consciousness triggers Kundalini, but the question remains, why, then, does Kundalini have such a radical effect on the external, physical body and on the human brain? If the trigger is so subtle, how can what it triggers — Kundalini — be so outwardly powerful?

The universe is held together by four forces: the strong force, the electromagnetic force, the weak force and the gravitational force. The strong force binds atomic nuclei together. The electromagnetic force is the force that holds in balance the process of attraction and repulsion between charged particles, and allows particles to form new combinations. The weak and gravitational forces work on more long-range interactions. Kundalini is experienced as power because Kundalini begins as a flash, a "lightning flash," of the strong force (Vajra also means "Diamond Thunderbolt") at the nucleus of the atom, and then works outwards, or rises, through the more material manifestations of the electromagnetic and weak forces (the body in space and time). This is why the circumstances that surround a Kundalini awakening can seem so confusingly varied. The sexual symbolism of the statues is appropriate, because this lightning flash that triggers Kundalini, is very similar to what can happen at the moment of orgasm, if consciousness strips itself down to nothing, so that orgasm is suspended and something else comes into being.

What to Do While "It Does You!"

There seems to be a polemic building around the notion that "spiritual" work (meditation, praying, attending workshops, seminars, and retreats) takes care of underlying psychic issues, so you don't need to undertake any type of behavioral work to complete the self-actualization process:

"... the vast majority of us who are engaging in spiritual practice are making a similar mistake. We tend to put far too much emphasis on the need to “work out” our personal psychological issues as part of our spiritual path.

"The way this plays out practically is as follows: let’s say that you take up a spiritual practice in earnest, and you notice in the course of that practice that you’re deeply defended against life and intimacy. You won’t let other people see you. You always wear a social mask which hides a deep-rooted insecurity.

"The trouble is that although this “archaeological dig” into the depths of your psyche might lead to greater self-understanding, it won’t necessarily make it any easier for you to be vulnerable, authentic and present. Indeed, it might even take you further away from authentic intimacy with life by making you more self-preoccupied than before.

"It’s important to recognize that this tendency toward self-preoccupation isn’t our fault. This habit grew out of our over-psychologized culture which basically told us that we were all damaged by our childhood and that we have “inner wounds” that need to be healed in order to become happy and fulfilled as adults."

~ The Mistake Most of us Make on the Spiritual Path – Craig Hamilton

This appears to go counter to Margaret Dempsey's hypothesis that some psychic work may be needed, not so much to overhaul the psyche, but to help the individual recognize the ego indoctrination process:

"So before any spiritual work is attempted, I strongly recommend individuals, especially those who have been on a spiritual path for many years, do a transformative, self-development programme. In my case it was the Forum from Landmark Education, but there are others. It's not important which one is done. What is critical is doing something to deal with the sloppy thinking in which one presumes that simply by meditating or doing yoga one is going to transform the ego that stands in the way of awakening. 

"Trying to transform the ego on one's own is like a thief turning detective to catch the one who is the thief; it can't be done and leads to frustration and disillusionment."

~ The First Stage of Spiritual Awakening: Know Yourself  – Margaret Dempsey

To answer the question "What to Do While 'It Does You!'," I created a diagram of the process that attempts to illustrate what happens when you reach the It Does You! stage. In short, it really does do you!

That is to say the Kundalini-Life Force energy starts re-engineering your being (body, soul, mind, ego, psyche, all) and you can sit back and let it work its evolutionary magic, or as Craig Hamilton says, "... feel instantly connected to the heart of Life and energized by the impulse of evolution itself."

The challenge is, at least for me, that I have been living with this energy for 40 years, exploring, as time went by, many facets of my being, and I don't believe that delving into the various aspects of my being has been counter to the It-Does-You! work that Kundalini carries out on a daily basis. In fact, doing this work has helped change my Being. No longer was I simply a body and a mind, but rather a Being with a capital "B" in it, connected to an energy continuum, like the scent of a pine forest is connected to living trees.

That said, I can see how too much psychic self-analysis might short circuit an individual in the You-do-it! phase, leaving him/her prey to what Hamilton terms "inner wounds." Nevertheless, once you reach the It does You!, there's no harm in gaining insights into how the mind and the ego work, especially as pertains to the finer aspects of social interaction. In my case, I never felt the need for psychoanalysis; I got the point of it after reading Eric Berne's Games People Play.

The Marketplace of Inner Wounds

The work I've done on myself since Kundalini took over has been pretty much confined to self-remembering, which is geared toward the issue of self-control, the key to success in the material world, and I'm not using the preceding term in a materialistic sense. I mean it in the sense of learning to respond instead of to react.

Other than that, any polemic brewing over the question of what to do while pursuing self-actualization is a non-starter. I think all three of us (Hamilton, Dempsey, Semple) are basically saying the same thing: It depends on where you are in the journey:

• If you're in the You-do-it! stage, beware that psychic contents don't usurp your real intentions.
• If you're in the It-Does-You! stage, you should have the perspective, and the metaphysical knowledge, to manage the important aspects of your life.

100 Days of Meditation - Part II, Results & Observations

The Good

After 30-40 minutes, meditation completely eliminated all, even trace feelings of stress and anxiety. This was one of the most significant observations of the challenge period, and it made an incredible measure of difference; one that I didn't anticipate being as effective as it turned out to be. Knowing that I have the ability to reliably remove all stress from my mind made me glad I invested the time into learning to meditate.

The Meditation triggered spontaneous feelings of happiness, bliss (no, seriously — bliss), and tranquility for a period of 2-3 hours following a sit in what I called  The Deep. Every time I entered The Deep, I would get up and walk around after sitting in what I ended up calling the “force field.” Even when walking out onto the busy city streets, it felt vividly like I had a protective bubble around me. Nothing could touch me. I can’t emphasize how profound this feeling was; it was not just regular happiness or contentment, it put me in touch with a deeper strata of emotional experience, the kind of which is only typically encountered perhaps in fleeting instants while watching a picturesque sunset, or the view from an airplane. This state persisted for hours at a time.

Happiness, an Emergent Property of the Still Mind?
I was surprised that in addition to the calming aspect of the practice, what emerged spontaneously was happiness. This result was interesting because it raised the question of how being calm and being happy are related — i.e., whether this kind of happiness can simply emerge from being calm for a long enough period of time. In any case, it was a wonderful experience and, although it took me several weeks to get there, every sit was a joy.
 

The Unexpected
Meditation did not help me control my stress much outside of the time of sitting.

Aside from affording me a few hours inside the profoundly serene “force field” of the stilled mind, after I got up the next morning and arrived at the office, the stresses and tumult were still there, and I was still just as affected by them — someone would say something aggravating, or a hobo on the bus would be yelling and screaming and my mental and emotional reactions were just as upsetting as they've always been living in the city.

Serenity Now?
It reminded me a bit of the of this Seinfeld clip. If I were living or working in a more peaceful environment, or even if I’d been meditating in the morning, perhaps I would have been able to keep the good feelings going, but as it was, the bliss only lasted so long. Still, knowing that I have the ability to get to The Deep makes me feel like I have some defense against the stresses of everyday life — the city was less oppressive because now know I can escape.
Meditation made the external world seem a bit less important. This is a subtle effect, but also worth mentioning, and can be either good or bad, depending on your responsibilities and goals in life. The process of stilling your mind has the effect of returning you to a sort of “zero point,” which can actually be bad if, for example, there are pressing decisions you need to make, or if there is something you should be genuinely worried, upset, or frantic about. Putting my mind into neutral this way meant that I occasionally had to remind myself that there really was a world outside of my meditative “force field” that demanded my attention. Occasionally, I found myself letting little things slip here and there, not working as actively with the team as I felt I should have.

This was not a major effect, but it was noticeable. I should note that you can probably “tweak” the meditative practice to focus your thoughts on a particular thing rather than stilling them to the zero point. This would likely have the opposite effect, giving you more mental cycles to devote to your work or creative pursuits, however, to me that wouldn’t qualify as meditation so much as it would concentration.

The Really Unexpected

My forehead caught on “fire.” No — really. This was the single most remarkable event of the entire challenge, and I have no explanation for it, but what took place was that after about 30 days, the center of my forehead felt like it was emitting or radiating what I can only describe a kind of heatless, lightless flame. I call it a flame because it produced — I sh*t you not — the distinct, tactile sensation of flickering, like a candle over the surface of my forehead, to the point where when it first began, I actually got up and looked for a window I thought I must have left open. I thought it was a fluke until it never went away (!), so after days, weeks, and then months of increasing intensity and range of motion, I had to concede that it was:

• not a headache or side-effect of, for example, withdrawing from caffeine;
• related to the practice of meditation, as it got stronger the more I meditated over the weeks.

Beyond that, I can't speculate. It had zero other apparent effects, positive or negative, but persisted as a kind of weird “meditation exhaust pipe.” After day 60, I felt it constantly, every second of the day, exactly in the middle of my forehead, pulsing in and out in an unobjectionable, but utterly mystifying way.

It actually persists to this day, however, as I eased off on meditating after the challenge period was over, it is now not as strong and occurs of its own volition. It’s easy to ignore and does not impair my focus or affect me in any way; it just sort of “is.” Still, it is remarkable to me that it has persisted for nine months after I stopped meditating on a daily basis. The Secret of the Golden Flower (SGF) book talks about it in metaphorical terms (the circulation of the light), and the fact that Buddhist and Hindu iconography, both of which have centuries-old histories of meditative practice, show a dot or flame in that particular region makes me think it is a common, benign artifact of practice. I’d certainly like to investigate it further to discover if any kind of measurements could be taken of it, whether topical or via EEG. (Does anyone with equipment want to measure my forehead? I’m serious! Let me know!) Of course, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was simply psychosomatic.

Celibacy was practically impossible
I probably shouldn’t have been shocked by this finding, considering that libido is an evolutionary imperative, but it was humbling to find that it wasn’t possible for me to give it up completely. Instead, my repeated attempts to remain celibate for longer than two weeks were actually a rather frightening experience, which certainly gave me some insight into, for example, the difficulties the Catholic Church has had with improper conduct by some of its priests.

It simply did not seem healthy to resist this process 100%... and putting guilt on top of it can’t be good for one’s mental health, either. On the occasions when I did break celibacy, it was because the resistance was actually causing my entire mood and personality to morph me into an ill-tempered beast of a man, distracted, irritable, and unable to focus, which prevented me from entering into a meditative state. Because of this, I can’t recommend complete celibacy unless you find that it has no noticeable side effects. Instead I found that a weekly schedule seemed balanced. (Yes, TMI, but it’s for science.)

Don't miss: Part I

100 Days of Meditation - Part I

Background
From January 1st through April 10th of 2013, I participated in a 100-day meditation personal challenge organized by members of the /r/meditation subreddit. During this time, I meditated 30-90 minutes per day and abstained from alcohol and coffee (although I did drink green tea.) Also, in the true spirit of monasticism, I did my best to keep celibacy. I kept an online journal in this Google Group which tracked assorted subjective data points on my “sits.”

I present the results here in an attempt to bolster the already fairly well-known hypothesis that meditation has a unique and positive effect on mood, and also to put forth for discussion some other unusual results of my practice (see section: The Really Unexpected) Finally, I want to encourage anyone who is interested in meditation to pick up a Zafu and a blanket, and give it a try. If this method worked for me, it’s likely it can work for you as well.

The Subject
I was born in 1981 and I live in the United States. I have a 9-to-5 job, am of average height & weight, and I exercise 1-3 times per week. I don’t take drugs, smoke, or have any medical or psychological conditions. I have a wife, a degree, and I live in a small apartment in a large city.

When I was first introduced to meditation, the concept didn’t make any sense to me — I couldn’t understand what kind of benefit “just sitting around” could bring you that couldn't be had in far greater form from, for example, napping. I began to investigate, but I found that a lot of the contemporary literature on meditation is glommed together with what is known as "new age" books, which tend to be composed of 99% nonsense — the kind that makes you genuinely concerned for the person who wrote it (not to mention whoever is publishing & purchasing it.)

At some point, however, I came across two authors who shed some light on the subject and also seemed to speak from the authenticity of their own experience, which rekindled my interest and made me think that perhaps there was more to it than I had previously realized. These two authors were the late Gopi Krishna, and the contemporary author, J.J. Semple. Through Semple’s books and his website, I discovered an old Chinese Taoist meditation manual, The Secret of the Golden Flower, often described as “Zen with details” (pictured right above & henceforth abbreviated as SGF), together which served to point me in a methodological direction.

The Method

Above all, I wanted to find a clean method — one as free from unscientific baggage as possible. Zazen seemed to afford this, so I took a free introductory class my local Zen Center, which, while it didn’t give me anything I couldn’t have gained with a few online searches, helped me feel like I was at least adhering to some kind of acceptable standard. Taken together with the SGF, Semple's, and Gopi Krishna’s books, I felt I had a good starting point. After a period of adjustment, I settled on a practice that worked well for me; it is as follows:

1. Determine the best hour of the day for you to sit
This is actually very important, as the timing of your sit can make or break it. Two requirements are important here:

1. The hour of time should be before a meal.
2. It should be more than 4 to 6 hours after consuming any kind of heart-rate-altering chemical like alcohol, caffeine (including chocolate), sugar (although a little sugar is probably fine), or nicotine.

The reason for these two caveats is that your metabolism and heart rate are affected by digestion and even mild stimulants or depressants, to the point that you will not be able to manually slow down your metabolism, which in turn will prevent you from meditating properly. This can be tricky to fit into your schedule depending on whether you are a morning person or not.

Morning, Noon, or Night?

This author is most certainly not a morning person, but despite that, I tried several morning time slots without much luck before ultimately settling on meditating in the early evening hours shortly after coming home from work. In the morning I found I was simply too groggy to focus — I would start to fall asleep and I couldn’t control it. I tried other times as well, but found that both after dinner and before bed were non-starters because I was either too full or too tired. I found out very quickly that sitting with a full stomach or when exhaustively tired is mostly a waste of time. You can’t slow down your metabolism and you never enter the meditative state; you’d be better off taking a nap!

Thus, 6 or 7 pm pre-dinner ended up being the best time for me, although I found I had to eat a late-ish lunch in order to not be bothered by hunger. Drinking a small glass of milk or vegetable juice helped take the edge off.

2. Find a place that is as free from distraction as possible
In my case, this was my bedroom. Here, I could close the doors and windows, pull the shades, dim the lights, and apart from occasionally noisy neighbors, be more or less protected from unwanted distraction.

3. Find a sitting position in which you can be more or less comfortable for an hour
Reclining is generally a bad idea because your body associates it with going to sleep, and you will find it difficult to stay awake. Standing doesn’t really work because you tend to need to shift on your legs occasionally in order to keep them from aching, and this means the best alternative is to sit. After trying to sit on a bed pillow, then two bed pillows, and finally a couch seat-cushion, I caved in and bought a zafu cushion, which worked remarkably well, elevating my legs high enough for them to be completely comfortable (after about a week of acclimation) during long sits. I also draped a quilt over my legs and feet which helped to keep them warm. Sitting in a chair is an option, and although I never tried it personally during this challenge, it seems like it might work if sitting cross-legged is uncomfortable for you.

4. Focus on your breathing
This is one thing that people always tell you to do while meditating, but nobody ever really explains why it’s so important. Well, it turns out that the reason is simply because when you are focusing on your breathing, it distracts your brain from generating other thoughts, and this helps still the mind. It’s especially useful when you’re just starting out, because initially, wrangling your mind into stillness is quite challenging and can seem futile at times — but by remembering to return your focus back to the regular, calming rising and falling of your breathing, your brain will eventually settle.

Position
With your back comfortably — but not forcibly —straightened, either close your eyes or lower them such that they are about the same angle as the tip of your nose (but don’t actually look at the tip of your nose — this would make you cross-eyed.) Again it’s only important insomuch as it reduces the amount of incoming stimuli to your brain. For the first 60 days, I sat with eyes closed, which helped prevent distraction, but also made it easier to unconsciously slip into a daydream if I was not diligently focused. After about 60 days, it became easier to keep my eyes open. You can do whatever works best for you.

Leg Style
Leg style is something people tend to get hung up on, but it’s best to remember that the goal here is not to master asana poses, but to be able to sit comfortably for extended periods of time. This means it’s okay if you are inflexible or weigh more than the average person — you can still meditate, you just need to find which zafu / chair / leg positions combination is most comfortable. Initially, I found the most comfortable position was actually the typically cross-legged “Indian-style” that most of us are familiar with. However, this was only good for around 20 minutes or so, after which it put undue pressure on my ankles. After a few days I switched to “half-lotus” (pictured) which is the same thing as Indian style but with one leg (any leg) pulled up and over such that it rests on the opposite knee or thigh, or within the space created by the kink in the knee.

I never “graduated” to full-lotus, nor do I think anyone needs to, unless they try it and find it’s comfortable. I’ve never been very flexible: it's up to you to find what works best. Remember that the goal is comfort over long spans of time, so you don't need to overachieve.

5. Be patient as your back and leg muscles acclimate to this new position
This will take a few sits, mainly because this is not a position people normally find themselves in. Your lower back muscles ache after 20 minutes or so, and your legs and knees may fall asleep or be uncomfortable.

Whenever you feel uncomfortable during a sit, it’s best to extend your legs or stand up / lay down if you need to. It may not feel like it at first, but in time — trust me — you’ll be completely comfortable, it takes a few days for your muscles and joints to adjust. If, after a week or two on a zafu, your knees or ankles are still sore or your legs are falling asleep, try sitting in a chair rather than sitting cross-legged. You could also try leaning against a bed or couch or some surface which will offer back support. Finally, if you don't have a zafu, you really should get one — the firmness of the zafu will give your legs a degree of comfort that can’t be found in a pillow or couch cushion. Your legs should never fall asleep — a friend of mine who did a 30-day sit complained even during the later days that his legs consistently fell asleep, and it turned out he had been sitting on a pillow. Do yourself a favor and buy a zafu early on.

6. Consciously stop your mind from following the thoughts it creates
This is the keystone of most meditative practice, and I found that while initially difficult, with even a small amount of practice it was quickly achievable. Its difficulty is due to the fact that the mind inherently avoids stillness, and at first, to “think of nothing” seems impossible — surely even the act of not thinking involves some thinking? Fortunately there is no paradox and “not thinking,” I can assure you, is completely possible for any person, it only takes practice. The critical distinction I finally made was in recognizing the difference between perceiving thoughts, which is a passive process, versus creating them. They are typically very closely bound, such that every perceived thought creates new thoughts, and so on indefinitely, to the extent that even as we sleep, our brain is repeating this process in dreams. The only time it doesn’t is when we are in deep sleep, but our perception is turned off then as well, which draws one to the remarkable conclusion that outside of meditation, we might only experience a thoughtless state of mind for moments in a lifetime, however in meditation we experience it for as long as we like.

A Unique State of Mind
The above struck me because it means that the state you reach in meditation really is a genuinely unique state of mind, and once I got to the deeper states, I realized how true this was. In those states, you can clearly sense that you are in a different mental world, and you can remain there for as long as you like, at least until your legs get tired or, say, your downstairs neighbors start vocally expressing their affections for one another, for example.

As you persist, you’ll notice that your mind comes to rest very naturally if, for as long as 30 minutes, you don’t follow the thoughts or feelings that constantly arise. Those 30 minutes will seem like 300, and it will typically start with a lot of "Oops, I just realized I was daydreaming again" and "Crap, I just reviewed an event from work in my head," until you remember to come back to your breathing — this is the "hack" that will distract your mind from itself long enough for it to settle, and once it’s settled, it's much, much easier for it to stay settled, but until you get there, it can be painfully difficult. It’s also not as gradual a process as one might imagine — it’s a stair-step graph where for 25 minutes or longer you simply will not notice any change, and then, at a certain point, you notice that you’re not where you were before.

The image that came to mind when I first got the hang of it was that of the brain as a large jug of water. Your thoughts and feelings behave like waves that travel through it, so when you think about something or submerge yourself in a feeling, you are agitating the jug, which creates waves, and so on. This process is very, very subtle because your brain is sensitive even to the quietest of thoughts, and once you create one, the waves will bounce around your brain for several moments until they settle. But, as soon as you stop creating new waves — just as the jug of water would naturally settle and become calm — so too does your mind, except that while the jug might take only a few seconds to settle, your brain tends to take 30-45 minutes. It’s a sensitive instrument, after all.

Amusingly enough, during this initial "waiting period," I always thought to myself — even at the 100th day — “It isn’t working this time, why I am I sitting here? I could be doing something else right now!” ...and so on and so forth. Nevertheless, after the 30-45 minute mark, I would slip into what I began calling The Deep.

The Deep
The Deep is a point at which you realize that not only has your mind settled, but you’ve entered into another mental state entirely. From a physical perspective, it could be the point at which your brainwaves actually shift to a lower-frequency state — at least, that’s what it feels like. Its hallmark is stillness — to the point where you feel as though you are suspended underwater. I didn't always get there, and it took several weeks before I was even able to approach it, but before long, getting there became the goal of every sit. It made the experience rewarding and fascinating, because I sensed a progression; that I could go further.

Breathing and heart rate were key. I had to slow my breathing — never to the the point of discomfort, mind you — and in doing so, very gradually, my heart rate would slow down. If I ate a heavy meal or was tired, I never got there, but every time I did, it felt good at a deep level. Every time I came out of The Deep, I experienced, for lack of a better word, a blissful, tranquil euphoria that lasted several hours and was the principal benefit of practice. Knowing that I can be in that state if I want to helps me deal with the stresses of everyday life.

7.  Repeat
Adhering to the regimen and not “breaking the chain” was challenging, but  rewarding.  Knowing that I absolutely needed to be home between 6-7 pm every day or I wouldn’t get my sit in put a framework around my day’s activities and motivated me to get work done. It also changed my social life, for better or for worse; for example, one thing I could no longer do was go out for happy hour drinks following work — or rather, the few times I tried to go to a bar and not drink made me feel like it wasn’t worth the effort. It was interesting to find that I really didn’t care for socializing unless I was drinking, and that drunk people can be really obnoxious to be around when you’re stone-sober. Furthermore, knowing that meditation would require a certain amount of energy, I found myself moderating my work level during the day, such that I didn’t end up completely worn-out.

Coming soon: The results!