Spiritual But Not Religious (SBNR)

Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR) is the title of a current Tricycle Magazine article, which I glimpsed passing through the checkout line at my local Coop. Before reading the article, I immediately started to ruminate on its theme and thesis, thinking I'd take a whack at same on this blog, not so much as a rebuttal — I hadn't yet read the article — but as an alternate take on the topic, which most people agree has become a mantra, if not a bromide.

Its ever evolving course shows up in the following Google Ngram query as a narrowing of, and also a decline in, the usage frequency of Religion, as well as a rapprochement of the two, spearheaded by an uptick in the Spiritual.

My guess is the thesis of the Tricycle article is that interest in formal religion has decreased significantly over the past 100 years, but of all religions, Buddhism is the least “Religious” and the most “Spiritual.” Which may be true… True or false, could you imagine the Pope bragging about how spiritual, as opposed to religious, Catholicism is? I can’t; it’s not in their DNA.

And yet, I don’t know if my guess is accurate, nevertheless here’s an explanation for why people have become more “spiritual:”

1) It’s a sign of the times. It’s hip to be different; it’s hip to explore the newest. Due diligence be damned, if it’s first in the Google rankings, go for it. Choose ideas from various methods and persuasions. No rules; make your own.
2) There are so many new religions, sects, new-age persuasions. Sects, based around the worship or teachings of a single person, abound. Many pay only lip service to established religion.
3) The Internet allows access to thousands of competing ideas. Someone mentions a new trend, look it up on your iPhone. Google yourself into a new set of beliefs, after all there’s a stodgy aspect to your parents’ established religion.
4) From sex scandals to embezzlement, the frightful corruption surrounding religion has not only driven church members away from their traditional religion, it has driven them away from organized religion altogether.

Being spiritual is an inclination, like becoming a baseball fan or a lawyer. You’re drawn towards it. Heaven knows why. If someone asked you why, you’d be hard pressed to give a cogently coherent reason. Religion is also an inclination, mixed in with a dose of environmental and social programming passed from generation to generation. The programming and societal indoctrination obliges you to pass along adherence to your offspring and even, in some families, pressure your child to become a priest or minister.

One hundred years ago, you’d stick to your parents’ religion. Today, they may not even have a religion. Whether they do or not, you’re no longer expected to stick with the religion you inherited from your parents. You’re free to follow your own inclinations.

It is reasonable to believe that a child born into a religion in this world, say in China, were he to be born in Afghanistan, would not adhere to the religion of his original environment?

As the new age progressed, SBNRs seem to be looking for more radical practices, often acting like thrill seekers. Many are now focusing on kundalini, much to the general chagrin, as things don't always turn out the way one wants. It is a solitary endeavor; there are dangers attached.

Kundalini is not an inclination; it’s a biological process, an expression of consciousness, and as such, an instrument of great power and energy. That you might be interested in activating kundalini does not guarantee you’ll be able to. Yes, there are methods, but success is never certain. The likelihood of its randomly striking someone who’s never heard of it and is totally unprepared appears to be greater than the likelihood of your willfully activating it.

Consciousness envelops and drives the universe, its biological processes and evolutionary impulses. Kundalini acts like psychic fuel, driving evolution forward.

At this point (see image below), I realized Tricycle wasn't posting the full article, only a come-on, to the their website, so I headed back to the store to purchase it:


The article, I discovered, is not one, but a series, of which I've read the first two. Here are some quotes from the introduction by William B. Parsons.

"Walt Whitman announced this shift in 1871 when he observed that the 'spirituality of religion' would issue forth only in the 'perfect uncontamination' and 'solitariness of individuality' — an utterance that signaled the move to an unchurched, nontraditional, even anti-institutional orientation towards the divine."

"Carl Jung proposed that religion was not outside us, in institutions, but inside, in the very deepest part of our unconscious. In fact, the essential truths at the heart of organized religion can be known by diving deeply into the self. Terms like 'peak experience,' 'self-realization,' and 'individuation' are all legacies of this approach."

The articles endorse my thesis that 'direct experience' is what SBNRs are searching for.

Perhaps, the writer also remembers that Carl Jung was one of the driving forces behind the rediscovery and legitimization of The Secret of the Golden Flower, one of the first books to bring the theory and practice of 'energy cultivation' and 'direct experience' to the West — a book with a clear, concise roadmap for activating kundalini.

Living in the Now - Part 2

The Kybalion is a book written in 1908 by the Three Initiates, which to this day stands as one of the greatest, if not the greatest work on Hermeticism. The reason for its power is that it elucidates the Laws of Creation, which are seven in number, and which when applied, serve as a manual to living as a spiritual being on this planet. 

Although compiled by the Three Initiates, its origin is attributed to none other than Hermes Trismegistus, the forefather of all Western spiritual, religious, philosophical, and occult thought. Still revered and respected by all seekers of truth who come across it, this esoteric book has stood the test of time. It is timeless in essence, because the Laws of Creation are timeless and eternal. 

Studying The Kybalion and applying its Laws in my daily life bestowed on me the grace of a full kundalini awakening 12 years ago. Although the wisdom I've gained has been immense, this article focuses on the specific teachings related to "Being in the Now" and mental transmutation, Laws that govern Creation, which when properly understood and applied, provide the master key to rising above the Ego. We can become demigods in relation to those who are unaware of these Laws and who are used by them instead of using them consciously.

The Kybalion is a guide on how to function in and relate to this world. Free copies are available on the internet. Like me, you'll probably read and reread it many times because it sheds light on many occult, spiritual, philosophical and religious truths, and these Seven Laws of Creation are in essence the very source and foundation of everything. 

One must grasp the concept and ultimate truth that "The All," which is the Universe, is a mental construct and it can be changed by altering thoughts and beliefs about it and ourselves. By saying mental what I mean is that our minds are the connecting link between Spirit and Matter and all of the planes of existence between the two. So what you think about determines the kind of reality you live in. 

There are many planes of existence, but four primarily for humans: the physical plane, the astral plane, the mental plane, and the spiritual plane. And by using the mind, and our willpower and imagination, we are able to traverse those planes and alter our concept of reality to an unimaginable degree.

Mental transmutation is the art and practice of changing our own moods and mental states into their opposites as well as inducing others through thought induction to do the same. We all communicate telepathically, even though we are unaware of it most of the time. Our thoughts influence others on a subconscious level. Therefore, mental transmutation is the art of consciously changing the vibrational frequency of our own thoughts and feelings as well as those of other people.

The first and most important Law, upon which all other Laws are built, is "The All is Mind, the Universe is Mental." Without this first Law, none of the other aspects of these teachings are possible since the first Law is the master key to unlocking the power of our minds and to using them to shape our reality. The first Law goes hand in hand with the second Law which states, "As Above, So Below," which means there are planes of existence occupying the same space and time that overlap one another. Consciously managing your life from the higher planes allows you to control and rule the lower planes.

The All is Mind, the Universe is Mental

In order to ascend from the Lower to the Higher Planes, you must understand and accept that there is a Higher Self as well as an Ego, i.e., the two aspects of Self existing at the same time inside each and every one of us. And learning to consciously disassociate from the Ego gives you the power to align with the Higher Self and change your moods and states as well as those of others. 

The Ego exists in the mind only and has no place in the "Now." It relates to the world through duality and shapes our personalities. It likes and dislikes things, and it perceives reality through the lens of opposites. In The Kybalion, it is part of the Law of Polarity which states that everything in the Universe has an opposite. The opposite of the Ego is the Higher Self or the Spirit. Consciousness oscillates between the two and we decide through attention and awareness whether we are going to align with the Ego or with the Spirit at every given moment in time.

The Ego exists as a result of past conditioning and our interpretation of life events. Over time, since our birth, we interpret life events through either a positive or negative lens. This is the way we build up our Ego. By interpreting through the perspective of duality, our Ego becomes locked to the wheel of Karma and learns to unify ideas and concepts throughout life.

The Higher Self operates through love, inspiration, and exists ONLY in the Now. It is non-dual, it has no likes and dislikes, no personality, but is the part of us that is our character. This is our Spiritual Self. Therefore, to experience the Now, you will experience the Higher or "God" Self. Both Ego and Higher Self exist simultaneously and we tune into each by listening to the thoughts they whisper to us. 

The Higher Self is in the spiritual plane and, compared to the Ego, is the dominant part of the Self. The Ego exists on the mental and astral planes and cannot reach into the Spiritual plane. The Ego also filters into the physical plane since its modus operandi is self-sustenance, self-preservation, and survival of the physical body. It seeks to protect itself and individualize while the Higher Self finds unity within all things. In the physical body, both the Ego and Higher Self are found and we partake equally of each. 

Each moment in time, we are given a choice which one we will listen to and obey. The Spirit is literally our body double, our Doppelgänger, occupying the same space and time just at a different frequency so it is imperceptible to our senses. Twelve years ago, the realization of this fact induced a kundalini awakening.

We are made in the image of our Creator; we create through thoughts, through our minds. Imagination is the highest aspect of the Self. It is for all intents and purposes, God or the Creator. The difference between consciousness of man and of God is a matter of degree — nothing more. The Creation and dream of God is the Universe, while being made in God's image we are given the ability to dream and imagine things. This is what makes us "as God." The way in which we both create.

"As man thinketh, so he is." This old saying is as true now as it was hundreds of years ago when it was spoken by Greek philosophers. What you think about determines what kind of reality you live in. Knowing this, you can deduce that if you can control your mind and what you think about, you can control the experience of living on this planet. Thoughts induce energy all around us, and once you learn to control your thoughts and raise your own vibrations through the use of your Willpower, you will have a degree of control over your own reality that is otherwise impossible.

There is a fourth dimension, called the dimension of vibration. The Kybalion states, "Nothing rests, everything moves. Everything vibrates." The difference between Spirit and matter is only a difference in vibration. Matter vibrates at such a low density that it is visible to the human eye, since it also is comprised of matter. But spirit vibrates at a higher frequency, invisible to the naked eye, but very present and real. We experience it through the sixth sense — the Mind's Eye.

A kundalini awakening is an awakening to this dimension of vibration. The dimension of vibration is the dimension of energy. Apply this concept now to thoughts and you will have the master key to controlling your vibration frequency. Using your Willpower, you can control the vibration of your thoughts and thoughts of others. To change your vibration and your emotion, you have to apply your Fire/Spirit aspect and focus your attention. It works by meditating or holding your attention consciously on an idea or archetype in order to affect the emotional aspect of Self and change it. Emotion is passive; it receives impulses from Willpower, or by lack of Willpower. It can be transmuted by other people's Willpower. 

If you are not consciously in charge of your reality, other people are. This is why the strong people of the world are stubborn and only listen to themselves. Because to do otherwise is to put your reality into other people's hands. These Laws are kept secret by the people in power because if the truth was out about how reality is shaped, those in power would no longer have any power over others. Being able to apply the Law of Vibration is the scepter of power for complete control over your life. Let those with ears of understanding hear this ancient wisdom. This is mental transmutation. And it is as real as your and my flesh and blood. All one has to do is apply the Laws consciously and with intent.

The Kybalion states, "To change your mood or mental state, change your vibration." Every thought has an opposite. Love has hate. Up has down. Truth has lies. Fear has courage. And so on. And since we live in a world of duality, we can change all emotions into their opposites. Now love cannot be changed to courage. And fear cannot be changed to lies. One can only change emotions into their own opposites. Hence, hate can be changed to love. Fear to courage. Weakness to strength. And so on.

Yin/Yang-Duality

A fearful person can spend all of his life overshadowed by fear and he will not achieve anything. Since focusing on one thing means amplifying it in the mind, it doesn’t matter if you are thinking, "Don’t focus on fear, don't focus on fear." You are still thinking about fear.

But if you focus on its opposite, and hold your attention on courage for a time, you will raise your fearful vibrations into courage, and prevail. But to accomplish this successfully, you must first have an idea of how to enter the "Now" since the "Now" is the place of pure potential where mental transmutation becomes possible.

The Willpower is the Fire element in us. It is the Spirit Self. By applying Willpower to accomplish anything, you are being in touch with your Spirit. The Spirit works through Fire which in turn affects the Water element. The Water element is the memory through which the Ego is formed. It belongs to the past and plans the future, as are all operations which include the Ego. Memory is the water element, it is changeable and unfixed. And it is moved by the Moon since the Moon is the regulator of emotions. This is Hermeticism — understanding of the Universe in a logical and practical way. Hermetic Science is the true science of who we are. It is the Source from which all religion originated. 

Spirit and Fire can always act on Water and Water can drown out Fire, but cannot touch Spirit. In other words, the Ego cannot affect your Spirit, but if you associate only with the Ego, you will forget you even have a Spirit. Willpower is the conscious application of the Spirit through the Fire element. So when we talk about Willpower, it means applying our Spirit and Fire element to change our Water element, our impression of who we think we are, and the reality around us. Fire is regulated and controlled by the Sun. It is light, it is Spirit. It is the First Source, the Father, as the Moon is the Second Source, and the Mother. But these opposites need one another to exist. We, humans, are in the middle of it all.

There is a gap between thoughts and since the Ego is always active and always talking. Quieting the Ego means filling this gap. This can be done willfully because the principle of Willpower is higher in degree than automatic chatter of the Ego. The mind is like a muscle, and the more you work on it, the stronger it gets and it becomes easier to induce silence at will.

In this gap between thoughts, exists the Now — a rapturous state in which to lose yourself for a time, until you are once again conscious of the Ego's thoughts. Depending on how strong your Willpower is, this may last a short or long while. The key is awareness and attention. Focus your attention on silencing the mind which, in turn, raises your awareness. In the Now, you can alter your reality through mental transmutation and realize your highest potential since the Now is a place of pure unlimited potential where anything becomes possible.

This means that if you wanted to become an artist, a musician, or a famous actor or politician, it is a very real possibility. But you must first forget who you think you are, your limitations, and learn to access the "Now" so that you can "squeeze the juice" of pure potential from it and remake yourself. You must believe this is possible, because it is. Your power of belief is the springboard to making it real. If these are just mere words for you, you will accomplish nothing. Such is The Kybalion. It is "strong meat for men," while the masses are fed "milk for babes." Rule or be ruled. 

This is the Matrix. And you are a hero of your own story, although you probably don't know it yet. You are given the ability to dream as well as the power to accomplish those dreams. But if you listen to the Ego that tells you you cannot do something then you will be right, you cannot. If you listen to the Spirit that tells you you can be anything you want to be, again you will be right. The choice is always yours. Such is the Law.

When Kundalini Isn't Wanted

I receive many inquiries asking how to activate Kundalini. Before answering I always ask the person why he or she wants to. More than likely, the answer is: because… followed a pause and much hemming and hawing. Which shows me that little serious reflection has been given the matter. As a follow up, I ask the person what prompted his/her interest. Often I’m told the person was inspired by my, or by some other writers’, Kundalini books. Gratifying as that might be if the book is one of mine, the reader’s admission makes me realize that I am now, in some sense, responsible for what happens.

Stepping back to analyze the situation objectively, I understand how writing books on Kundalini can appear to typecast writers as cheerleaders for the phenomenon — without any of us wanting or attempting to be one. That’s not why I write about the kundalini, nor is it the way I view my role, which is more educator than evangelist.

To be a cheerleader for something, you must want to elevate it above other rivals. Kundalini is not competing with anything; it is the Life Force.

Nevertheless, I’m probably guilty of cheerleading to some degree; just because kundalini and its physical power has played such an important role in my life. Even after 40 years of living with it…something new happens every day.

To feel the Life Force active inside yourself is humbling and, at the same time, hard to keep still about.

I kept still for many years, but finally after more than 30 years of living with an active kundalini, I felt it was time to add my experiences to the expanding canon of kundalini research literature.

As time goes on, however, and I encounter an increasing number of heartbreaking stories like the following comment submitted to this Kundalini Consortium blog in January 2017, the need to educate, if not to warn, becomes more urgent as you will see after reading, or listening to, the following comment from someone who definitely did not ask for or want kundalini: 

"Why does any of this have to happen? Why can't this kundalini bull shit just bother the people that seek it, why cant they have it??! Their the ones that want it. I don't want this. I hate this!!!! I just want to be normal, I just want to go back. I'm just so tired and freaked out all the time. It's like I take tiny doses of acid every day. I can feel my brain has physically changed, I can feel it, I can feel everything… :("

The comment ends with an emoticon frowning face, hardly adequate in assuaging the pain — the desperation. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon. The following is all I could muster as a reply, not very comforting, but I believe it’s better to be honest and factual than to make empty promises:

"Kundalini is an evolutionary driver; in and of itself, it is not malevolent. Trying to stop, or mitigate it, is not possible. It appears that some spontaneous cases like yours are difficult to bear in one way or another. There is no why or wherefore. Upon activation, Kundalini takes inventory of the body and nervous system, relays this information back to the brain, then begins sending healing energy to the various parts of the body that need it. Its purpose is to jump start your evolution during a single lifetime. There is a regulating mechanism that normally adjusts the energy so that only the right amount is released. Unfortunately in spontaneous cases, this mechanism sometimes releases more energy than the person can support."

Kundalini accounts vary greatly, not only because triggers and effects vary greatly, but also because adepts and newcomers alike do not use the same terminology. There is no authoritative kundalini lexicon or dictionary.


Not everyone agrees on what triggers kundalini, what its effects are, or how to live with it. What is happening inside a given individual is not only difficult to communicate; interpretation is left to the listener’s ability to extract the details correctly and to confirm that the speaker’s terminology is understood. So I often wonder: Am I interpreting correctly what he/she is telling me? And that’s why I believe in keeping the terminology simple, free from doctrinal or scriptural influences.

However, blaming kundalini is senseless; it’s like blaming evolution for enabling us to walk on two legs instead of crawling on our bellies. Kundalini isn’t the culprit. It’s an evolutionary force that’s always present, whether in a dormant or an active mode. In and of itself it’s not malevolent; it’s that the intensity or the dose of energy that certain people have to support is just too much to bear, especially in spontaneous cases.

So what can you do if kundalini should ignite spontaneously? Not much. In fact, the only thing I came up with was something not to do, and that is: it would be useless to see a doctor. Perhaps, medical science will accept, understand, and even be able to treat kundalini symptoms some day, but at the time of my activation, all I was able to do was surrender. Fortunately, in my case, it was the right thing to do.

It May Be Better to "Go It Alone" Than To Rely On Dubious Advice

Sure, there are times when I wish I could lead a “normal” life instead of being a guinea pig for esoteric science. But that’s not possible, not for me or for any person in whom kundalini is active. Problem is: some suffer more that others, which, in our American sense of fair play, does not seem fair at all.

It bothers me to not be able to help. But I have not met anyone who can. Unfair as it might appear, it falls on the individual to wait it out: that’s all you can do. Because It is doing you. There is no turning the clock back.

Kundalini is what it is — the energy behind the evolutionary impulse which seeks to improve yours as well as my Being. Would your purpose in writing books about evolution be to cheer for evolution or would you write to clarify how it works? I write about Kundalini not to cheer, but to educate and communicate the surprise and wonder it provoked when it awakened: What triggered it, its effects, what it did for/to me, how I worked to integrate it into my life, and how I live with it.

One thing I can do is: Not glorify or embellish kundalini, neither its purpose nor the challenges in awakening and/or living with it.

One thing you should do is: don’t pay someone who claims to be able to help you redirect kundalini energy without first checking references! If, by any chance you know of someone who CAN clear and/or redirect the energy, let me know and I’ll do my best to get the word out.

Living in the Now - Part 1

As you are born, so will you die. In this process, the duality of human existence, its inevitability, the Ego is formed and acts as a sense-based intelligence, a protector of the physical body, a survival mechanism that you associate with who you are or who you think you are — your identity, the Self. Because it deludes you into thinking that you are It, the Ego plays an important part in the maturation process and the establishment of consciousness.

As something that belongs to duality, the Ego becomes the localization of your consciousness in the body and as the silent observer of the processes of the mind, you notice that the Ego has a distinct way of operating: It thinks in terms of Past and Future. The past is your interpretation of events, a summary of willful actions and behaviors — things that you were a part of or that happened. 

The Ego uses the past to make decisions about the future. It uses logic and emotion to make these decisions. In most cases, your decisions are not premeditated, but are a result of how the Ego feels at any given moment. Nevertheless, your decisions are invariably the result of memories dredged up from past. This is how the Ego operates — using the past to plan future events. 

By creating a myth-image around the name you are given as well as your personality, likes, and dislikes, the Ego takes care of the physical body and props up your persona. It seeks to protect the Self and shield it from the perceived wrongs that occur as a result of contact with other people's Egos as well as the situations you face. It is always on the defensive and it views the Self as separate from the rest of the world. Many people never get beyond associating the Ego with the Self; the ego becomes the persona and must be bolstered and defended at all costs.

However, if you disassociate yourself from the Ego, upon proper introspection you will discover another part of yourself, namely a silent witness whose role is to watch the mental processes of the Ego and your reactions to the events of daily life. This part of the Self, the Higher Self, is motivated by another faculty of the Self — Love.

The Super Ego

Motivated by the Unity of all things and manifested by a feeling that you are no longer separate from the rest of the World, the faculty of Love is triggered by thinking beyond the Self or the Ego. An Ideal, something to strive for and live up to, it vibrates at a higher frequency than the Ego and, when experienced, produces an emotion that feels better than any emotion the Ego generates.

You are an emotional human being whose overall purpose is to be "happy." When you are able to lose yourself in this emotion of Unconditional Love, you will find it greater than the Ego's insatiable appetite for Self-Love. 

You are naturally conditioned to follow what "feels best." Once you realize that Unconditional Love can be the guiding force in your life, you function out of Unconditional Love rather than the Self-Love needs of the Ego. This in turn raises your consciousness beyond the physical plane. You start to develop virtuous characteristics and your behavior begins to be ethical and moral, a quality that is valued in our society and a willful choice for you to aspire to. 

Acting ethically allows you to "live in the Now," a state experienced more as an emotion than as a thought. The Ego is still present; the Ego is always present, but is mostly silenced by living in the Now. When things happen to you, the Ego will "rear its head" and try to guide you. But if you identify the source of this "guidance" as originating from the past Ego-imprints, you realize it is coming from the Ego and you will reject it. 

Acting from Unconditional Love is something that occurs intuitively and connects you to your Spirit. Because you can "lose yourself" in it, you tend to act under its influence. By losing yourself in the "in-the-moment process," you gravitate towards things that make you lose track of time and space.

The mind thinks in terms of past and future. Going beyond your mind means overcoming past and future thoughts and influences. It seems almost natural. And it is. Because in the Now, in the realm beyond Past and Future, beyond the Ego, is the Spirit. 

The Now

This Spirit is the highest part of you as a human being. You are not just Spirit, but a compilation of different elements. Spirit is the highest part of you and you gravitate naturally towards that which is highest in you. It is a natural inclination.

A Kundalini awakening is a transformative experience that plays out over many years in most instances. The Self goes through a process that deals with the expansion of bio-energy and consciousness. Its goal is to catapult the Self into the Now permanently. The mind is bypassed and instead of thinking logically and emotionally, the Self starts to develop an ability to think intuitively and act according to what the Spirit, the highest part of you, wills. 

This is what is meant when people talk about being one with their Holy Guardian Angel. According to Qabalistic teachings, the Holy Guardian Angel is the part of the Self derived from the Spirit. For human beings, it is the highest conception of God that can be conceived from a material standpoint.

Kundalini acts like a switch implanted within the Self by a higher Source that allows us to evolve past the material, physical world in a relatively small amount of time. It is the Great Awakening, the Rebirth from the Christian Pantheon, and the purpose of all religion. 

Because the Now is a place of pure potential, being one with Spirit, allows you to function at your highest potential. In this Pure Potential, all of your highest dreams and desires can come true because you are able to will them into existence. Past conditioning has no hold on people who live in the Now, especially those who have awakened kundalini. They operate at a hyper-consciousness level, which puts them in touch with Cosmic Consciousness.

Cosmic Consciousness

Once the kundalini has activated and the circuit is functioning properly with the connection to the Bindu point at the top back of the head, consciousness funnels out of this point and the initiate experiences the spiritual realm of non-duality. By focusing on this point, all thoughts and emotions are self-reconciled and the initiate experiences pure joy and unobstructed inspiration. That means being in a state of inspiration 24/7 since this fire is unhindered by the workings of the Ego which houses the duality of the mind. Hence by realizing non-duality, the initiate is constantly in the Now and experiences the power of pure consciousness and potential.

With the self-sustaining Kundalini energy now working in you, a whole new world of potential opens up. No task is too hard, no dream is too big, no obstacle can prevent success in any given area of life that you will into existence. By being in the Now, the concept of Will Power, which is your ability to manifest reality, is enhanced a hundred fold. The energy moves towards the Bindu at the top back of the head and you lose yourself in transcendental states through music or art or other awareness observing exercises.

The feeling that is generated is best described as the "Glory of God" alluded to by Jesus Christ and is the exact state he was talking about when referring to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is due to the rapture that is felt in the heart as the self-sustaining Kundalini circuit becomes fully active. Every action makes you feel as if you’re the star in an Epic movie. You are truly a King; the external world is your Kingdom. As a silent observer, you are outside your being, able to control body language and voice tonality and able to convey the desired effect to the people you interact with. The secret to being, and remaining, in this state, or in the "zone," is to be in the Now.

Reply To Critic (A Taoist) Who Doubts My Kundalini Experience

The following is a reply to a criticism of my experience. I include it merely to show how someone on the outside looking in is not qualified to comment unless they have had the same or similar experience. Doubting is fine, but insisting that a person's experience could not have happened the way it is described — without any empirical facts — is reckless to say the least. This critic's take was based solely on a comparison of my account with the Taoist books he read on various subjects related to orthodox Taoist scripture.

"What starts out as seminal fluid is distilled into prana, which is then "drawn" up the spinal column into the brain. How do I know? I followed the meditation method in The Secret of the Golden Flower. Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time contains the details on my experience and my first-hand discoveries on Golden Flower Meditation. My experience happened as I described it, pretty much as your Taoist tradition describes it, give or take differences in terminology. If I did not say it exactly as you believe it should be, I apologize."

Visiting Gopi Krishna With My Guide - JJ Semple, Kashmir, 1977

"Nevertheless, I believe we're talking about the same thing. That I didn't follow a strict formula, imposed by any orthodox religion is accurate. I went out on my own. If you think about it, that's not necessarily wrong because orthodoxies tend to get stuck in dogma after a couple of centuries of doing things the same way. No new discoveries are made or accepted. But Kundalini is a living process. Methods are not written in stone; they evolve. They should evolve. That's when real progress happens. Today's methods and means for activating Kundalini may be unrecognizable in the future because we will have made so many advances, so many seekers trying new approaches. Searching, seeking.

"Many will fail, some will succeed, others will discover unexplored byways. Take the part on symmetry that you dispute. The reason you dismiss it is because you have not experienced in your body what I have experienced in mine. You simply have no data on the subject to report or analyze. Again, if you want to understand it from my perspective, see how symmetry (and loss of it) played a role in the development of my morphology and persona, read Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time. My take on symmetry has nothing to do with the doctrine on Taoist immortals. That's second hand information you're taking on hearsay. I don't know any of these gentlemen, so I don't feel qualified to talk about them. In any case, I'm not criticizing them; I'm merely disputing your use of them to support your comments when you yourself have no first-hand experience with either theirs or my meditation or kundalini practices."

Meditation Retreat

"My account is a summary of what took place in the laboratory of my own body. Did you witness the transformation of any of those Taoist immortals? Were you there? Do you know for sure the exact morphology, somatic or metabolic structure of any of the Taoist immortals you cite? What do you know about their specific symmetry or asymmetry? I write about what I know, perhaps poorly in some instances. I'll try to do better the next time. I'd love to have someone like yourself as a reviewer to go back and forth with before publication.

"Ouspensky said, 'You must verify everything you see, hear, or feel.' Good advice for all of us doing this work. That we don't get the descriptions right the first time is understandable. After all, we're using language of the physical world to explain phenomenon of the metaphysical world. We work through a series of approximations on the way to expressing our experiences as clearly as possible. That's the beauty of the Internet: we write something; we reread it; we add in new material; we find better ways of expressing our experiences; we rewrite it. As for what should be written about and what's 'in the weeds,' I wrote about symmetry and asymmetry because I uncovered information about how our bodies are constructed, how certain stimuli (exterior or interior) affect our physical maturation and growth. This is taking human ontology down to the egg-sperm level, what happens at insemination and even before it, albeit theorizing that there is a 'controlling field' that determines our form and substance, and how stimuli can interrupt the plans for our embodiment, which is then outwardly manifested by our symmetry, which in turn influences our personalities. Please note that I'm not the only person who has lived this, or the only person investigating this. The Biology of Consciousness: Case Studies in Kundalini explores this material in depth, citing, I might add, the work of others on the notion of the controlling field, a phenomenon that is also present during a kundalini awakening in that it facilitates the collision/fusion of matter (sexual energy) and consciousness in a kind of Quantum event.

"Do I believe that every reader will accept my findings and my accounts? No. I know there will be objections that arise on account of terminology, difference in background, and experience."