Mindful Awareness and Affirmations - Powerful Tools for a Total Transformation

During my Kundalini awakening, I realized that the energy taking over, by itself, is not enough to create a fundamental change within the individual.


The ego has an immense amount of control over who we are as people and how we interact with our surroundings. Overtime, we develop habits and rationalize our beliefs to conform to a certain world-view. We have been programmed for power, competition, yet insulted and humiliated into submission by a system of education that demands conformity. We have been, in effect, shrunk down in size. Resentment for achievement — typified by the use of smear tactics to "bring down" public figures — has developed into a favorite social sport, aided and abetted by a complicit media. In fact, public opinion is shaped by what we are told to think about someone or some issue.

Original drawing by the author of his Kundalini awakening, circa 2008

When the Kundalini energy awakens, making you aware of your ego and it's convoluted grip on your soul, it's a shock to the system. Then comes the difficult task of facing the ego mechanism within you, at the same time you realize you must eventually side with the energy in bringing about its destruction.

In my case, for the longest time, I was a gullible person, incautious about the kind of people I associated with. Sound judgment of character and looking beyond the surface eluded me. This led to a series of associations that were not in my best interest. I was manipulated and didn't even know it. When the energy awakened, my third eye area in the center of the forehead throbbed incessantly for a few weeks, producing an avalanche of knowledge, insights, understanding of the nature of reality and consciousness. Within the first few weeks, the process of overhauling my psyche had begun. I was told by my inner voice — the higher power guiding me — to be patient and to go along with the changes, even though they might be difficult.

When the energy began churning my spine, there were intense feelings of hatred, anger, resentment at being misled by others, a collapse of my self-esteem which had been based on the old me, someone totally unaware of his mistakes and the machinations of others he had considered friends. As more and more repressed trauma was churned up to the surface, the loss of self-esteem and my feelings of despair continued. I had to keep reminding myself: these are thoughts. They are in my mind. We all possess anxieties and fear about our future. Before my awakening, I was a stressed out individual, constantly worried about the future.

The cleansing process ripped through my self-esteem and false rationalizations, but left the part of my mind that was  stress-prone and scared unchanged, making things worse. To cope with this aspect of myself, I understood I would need to find methods that utilized my conscious mind.

By this time, I had begun using guided chakra meditation CDs as well as Indian classical music, electronic music with soothing pulsating rhythms that caused the energy to move to its rhythm. The practice of meditation helped a lot. So did reading about the personal experiences of others who had gone through this before me. Overtime, even through the stages of depression, a constant state of mental agitation and mental misery, I started seeing a few patterns.

First and foremost, our brains are like recording mechanisms, like a cassette tape. They record data gathered by the senses from birth, which ultimately becomes the mind, our operating system. Usually a repetitive pattern of set routines, limited assumptions of the world outside and enough independence to operate within the system.

In my case, this tape was being erased at a fast pace. To instill constructive habits, I realized it was important to replace the erased patterns with newer, radically different ideas.

Mindful awareness and affirmations became very useful tools for me and so did learning new skills to re-program the brain. Using an activity that uses both hands, like playing the guitar, helps overcome left-brain dominance and creates new pathways in brain just as the energy is changing its entire structure. The energy makes you aware of the potential you possess and the gifts that can be channeled towards improving not only your skills, but your self-worth as well.

Mindful awareness is the practice of observing each action, each thought, every interaction we have with others and witness the do-er from a higher state — the observer separate from the person doing the action. As one goes into deeper meditative states and practices meditation longer, it becomes easier to use mindful awareness in your daily practice. The mind becomes a very powerful device during a Kundalini awakening.

During a period of a few months, I was able to bring people and events into my life just by thinking about them. This proved to be a problem for my old stress-filled mind, full of fears and worries as it compounded the problems and made my life worse. Our thoughts and ideas, repeated over time, influence our actions and create our future reality. This was a powerful revelation. The use of positive affirmations became a very useful tool. I taped positive affirmations in my own voice and played them on my iPod at night as I went to sleep, allowing the sub-conscious to pick up those suggestions. At other times, I would listen to them using headphones and repeat the words, visualizing the desired outcome.

These tools can be used by anyone. In fact, it is a great idea to use positive affirmations and mindfulness to bring about a change in your life for good rather than allow society and programming from commercials decide your destiny.

Another useful technique was the practice of cathartic writing. Waking up each morning after the energy had churned up some traumatic material, I would then write it down, stream of consciousness style, paying no heed to grammar or coherence. Once the rubbish was on paper, I was free of it, able to move to the next phase. Using the cassette tape analogy again, effectively, cathartic writing helped me discard the programming in my brain that was identified by the Kundalini energy.

Mindful awareness helped me stay in this new state without reverting back to old habits. Using affirmations and doing totally new things, learning new skills, singing, playing the guitar, learning Spanish helped me guide the nascent force inside me to create a new me, writing my own program this time. As a bonus, I was able to make very fast progress in all my chosen pursuits now that the "doors of perception" were open.

Kundalini and intuition

What is the relationship between Kundalini and intuition, and is there one?

Intuition, or what is often called "the still small voice," is our inner teacher, hence in-tuition whose purpose is to guide our consciousness on the spiritual path. The strength of intuition depends on the strength of consciousness and as Kundalini is the direct vehicle for expanding consciousness, it follows that Kundalini is inextricably linked with intuition.

Before my Kundalini rose, my intuition was very much mixed in with feelings and emotions. I would get the urge to "do something," but frequently didn't do it if I didn't feel like it.

This kind of intuition originates from the second Chakra which is why it's not pure, untainted intuition. When Kundalini rises, the expansion of consciousness results in intuition emerging at the level of the sixth Chakra, where it is independent of feelings and/or emotions. Intuition at the sixth Chakra is more instructional, if that makes sense. In stating this, I am not saying that intuition from the sixth Chakra is better than the second variety, but only that it lends a different quality to intuition.

Before Kundalini, the still small voice is very quiet and much of the acting upon it comes with a crossing of the fingers and hoping that things works out. Intuition is part of the language of the soul, as is the mind with its thoughts that tend to dominate until the individual cultivates the ability to be still and listen for the "still small voice." Gradually with enough trust, intuition expands, but in the early stages of the spiritual quest, it is not strong.

Kundalini Meditation is one way to access intuition as the aim of meditation is to quiet the mind, so, as it becomes stilled, it allows one to cultivate intuition. Be aware, however, that the mind has no interest in being still or reigning in its never-ending supply of thoughts. It takes intention, as well as trust to nurture the baby shoots of intuition. In my experience, whenever I trusted it and acted on it, it has worked — but only since Kundalini awakened.

So it is well worth thinking about working with intuition because it is an important point of entry into the language of the soul. After intuition comes insight, incubation, and finally illumination when the glory of the Soul stands revealed.

Kundalini and Pop Culture

Yoda, the Matrix, Spiderman, and Batman. Why has our popular culture become so permeated with the quest for super powerful heroes? Do our subconscious imaginations know something our conscious minds don’t? The Dark Side and the Light. Can Pop Culture predict the future? Does the truth about the future of humanity lie hidden in the epic struggles of comic book heroes or in Super Hero Movie blockbusters? Is there a Secret to Life?

I ask because its essence has infused our culture, producing a yearning for something more powerful, more liberating. Since the 1940s, Hollywood has featured movies in which people:

Come back from the dead to instruct the living (Ghost, Heaven Can Wait);

Have guardian angels (It’s a Wonderful Life, Topper, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, The Bishop’s Wife);

Acquire super magical powers (Star Wars, Superman, The Matrix, X-Men).

Ghost (1990), starring Whoopi Goldberg, Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze

If they do it in the movies, if it’s seeped into our consciousness to such an extent, surely there must be something to it. Doesn’t fiction usually foretell reality? Is not actuality rooted in dreams? If there’s nothing to it, then why has so much time and money been spent stimulating our imagination? Why do we spend so much time on stories and fables about the acquisition of extraordinary faculties? Quite simply, because there’s a large body of experience in fact and fiction built up around the acquisition of such faculties.

We shouldn’t be indignant with Hollywood. The purveyors of dreams — pop culture trendsetters and advertising wags, writers and storytellers — are merely channeling the phenomenon of unconscious or collective yearning. What is unconscious yearning?

Unconsciously, we have always yearned for higher states. Our Popular Culture has given us Avatars to aspire to: Batman, Superman, The Hulk, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Spiderman. Heck, Robert Louis Stevenson's best-selling work, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), was little more than a veiled Kundalini awakening gone awry.

Eventually, we will morph into more spirit-based beings. What will this entail? Well, in the first place let’s look at where we’ve come from. Only in this way can we understand where we’re going. Evolution has allowed us to dominate our planet. To do this, we needed raw emotional power, a type of behavioral nature that could not be deterred by any threat to our survival. Immediate survival was the role of the Reptilian brain that psychologists and anthropologists often talk about. Once on the road to dominance, a Mammalian brain was added. This evolutionary adjustment added an emotional component — a capability that allowed our species to develop a strong sense of identity based on simple emotions such as, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, joy and more developed emotions like, remorse, awe, pride, optimism, shame, guilt, love.

Now, to evolve to the next stage of being do we need such powerful emotions? Can we survive in world with less need for aggression and less space per individual owning, as part of our being, emotional states that frequently lead to trouble: wars, family breakdown, addiction, crime, greed, hate crimes? Emotions that many times — more often than not — lead us to make the wrong decision.

Perhaps pop culture, as it relates to the eventual metamorphosis of our species, can shed some light on the subject. I say eventual because it’s not for today. But, if and when it comes, what form will it take?

To illustrate the form this new human being might take, I’ll break down a Pop Culture icon and show how, beneath its many layers of metaphor it contains hidden patterns of unconscious yearning. This icon is none other than Don Siegel’s 1956 masterpiece, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

This review from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) by Brandt Sponseller sums up several of the film’s allegorical levels. “Much has been said about the parallels between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the ‘communist paranoia’ in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, especially as it was directed against Hollywood by the House Un-American Activities Committee. However, there is another very interesting subtext present that isn't often mentioned. The film can also be looked at as a philosophical exploration of personal identity. Just what does it take for people to be themselves? Is it how they look, act, the things they say? Is it not the case that people are constantly transformed into something they weren't just hours ago, or even moments ago? Among the many ways that these kinds of ideas are worked into the script is that sleep is a metaphor for unconscious physical change over time. It would be easy to analyze each scene in the film in this manner, going into detail about the various implications each plot development has on the matter of personal identity.”

 

Reading this review, I couldn’t help thinking about the common phrase: “He wasn’t himself.” A phrase often applied to persons who are losing emotional control. I don’t know if that’s the direction the author of this review was going in, but control of emotion is really the underlying theme of this movie. Except for human emotion, the original being and its Pod counterpart are alike in every way. Unbeknownst to the screenwriters, who may have thought they were making some sort of statement about Communist witch hunting, the real and hidden theme of the film is a change in being based on mass Kundalini awakening. The next great leap forward in human evolution.

 

I know this goes against everything you’ve ever heard of or thought about this film. It goes against our revulsion and fear of the Pod People, and our inherent tendency to side with the good guys, who in this case, are us, even though there are no superficial differences between the characters in their Original or Pod avatars. To us, our emotions, our ability to feel love especially, is the single attribute that sets us apart from them, that makes us “right” and them “wrong”. At least, that’s what the authors would have the characters believe, and through them, us. In one scene, the doctor, played by Larry Gates, explains this to Miles and Becky, who are so terrified at the thought of being stripped of their humanity, they can’t even listen. They don’t know Kundalini from nothing. That’s because the authors didn’t either. But unconsciously they took us far beyond Communist conspiracy and McCarthyism. They didn’t know it but they were describing the next stage of human evolution, one where humans, if we are to survive, will no longer need to express emotion in the wanton, destructive ways we do.

 

Let’s step back for a moment and reflect on the psychology of the screenwriter’s creative process. Since the inspiration comes from the author’s subconscious, it’s reasonable to believe that he had no conscious awareness of the deeper layers of meaning. In the case of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it’s probable that the author wasn’t knowingly aware of the symbolism of a Kundalini awakening, especially if he was preoccupied with the subtextual theme of McCarthyism. Yet, the story has all the earmarks of this experience, at least in allegorical terms. People who fall asleep, only to awaken as new beings that are superior to the old. New beings that threaten the old order because of their superiority. Their superior emotional control, capacity to cooperate, to communicate, to get along, resistance to illness, longevity. The Pod represents the awakening process, the slow formation of the more perfect being, and the results are clearly superior beings.

 

Resistance, however, is hysterical, even illogical. The author is saying that in spite of the fact that the transformation process is painless and produces a superior being, we should be afraid of it. Why? Because our emotions make us “human.” No mention is made of the destructive power of our emotions. In spite of the fact that today our emotions get in the way of just about everything we need to accomplish.

 

So, am I saying that we will not succeed as a species unless we can learn to govern our emotions? Up to the industrial revolution we needed powerful emotions to extend our "perceived" dominance over nature. Now we are moving in another direction. In the film, one of the characters talks about emotion as one of the elements that makes us human, that without it, we would not be human. Who knows what it is to be human? We don’t even know when we became human. That we came from the mud, evolved from lower forms is certain, but when did we become human and who’s to say that human being of today shall not evolve into further avatars with even greater powers of awareness? Is our evolution finished? Is our brain incapable of adding entirely new nodes — as it did long ago when it added the neocortex?

 

These Avatars spring from the depths of our creative imagination, even to the point of laying out a blueprint, in storyboard form, for our transition to a new state of being. That the blueprint should be interpreted by the viewer’s subconscious as something fearful is only normal. Evolution does not come easy. As Mikhail Turovsky said, “The first ape who became a man thus committed treason against his own kind.”

 

In neuro-biological terms human potential is limitless and our subconscious mind knows it. Where does the subconscious mind get its information? From time to time, the Kundalini, dormant in most of us, nudges our subconscious. Some of these contents come to us in the form of dreams and inspirations of various sorts. In men of genius, it endows them with extraordinary creative powers. These contents are not mere figments, but the signs of a deeper reality, one constantly beckoning to us to push the boundaries of consciousness, what Gopi Krishna called the Evolutionary Impulse.

As Long as we Inhabit Bodies...

“Patriotism is the fond memory of food eaten in childhood.”
~ Lin Yu T’ang

This statement is very profound. Extended to its logical conclusion it means that our national identities — as symbolized by national flags — could actually be represented thusly:

• American - The Hot Dog
• French - The Baguette
• German - Sauerkraut
• Philippines - Chicken Adobo
• Spain - Paella
• Morocco - Couscous

and so on...

You don't have to agree with Lin Yu T'ang's statement, but you must admire his logic. He's saying that the foodstuffs we grew up with and cherish are really unifying cultural elements. They unite us — send us out as a group to do battle against the "other." They are the things that really bind us together. He's hinting it would actually be more honest to send us out under the banner of The Hot Dog or The Cheeseburger or The BLT than any arrangement of abstract symbols of stars, crescents, stripes in assorted colors.

We identify with our cravings; we form societies around them and, as long as we inhabit bodies, we never quite get over them, to the point where the images of our favorite foods are always foremost in our minds at times of stress, boredom, or respite.

For example, in the service and required to walk a 4-hour guard duty shift on shipboard or on land late at night, what did my thoughts eventually turn to? Not — was someone going to jump out of a tree or mow me down. I kept my eyes and ears open on duty; I was vigilant, but at the end of a long shift, I always seemed to conjure up the image of a bowl of cornflakes, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or a cheeseburger. I asked others what they thought about during their tour on guard duty. Always the same refrain: food fantasies, some special dish. We might not — each one of us — crave the exact same dish, but the choice always came from a common taste pool: the dishes Americans identify with.

That's why it's so difficult to be a traitor; most people cannot renounce the foods they grew up with. Think about the things that tie you to your roots and food comes up big. For most people, it's in first, second, and third place. Not only do we identify with foods, we become adept at justifying their consumption, in spite of the danger inherent in many of our favorites.

Over 40 years ago my awakened Kundalini displaced my exploratory relationship to drugs with something much more powerful, but it never completely purged my affection for the foods I loved as a child. For many and most, food is the final addiction.

Today, I eat completely differently. 90% raw. I haven't eaten a cheeseburger in 20 years; I couldn't digest one. Same goes for most of the foods I used to pine for on those long, lonely tours on guard duty. I no longer think about them, but I understand how dangerous they are and I do understand their attraction.

Each one of us inhabits a different body, with different tastes and different cravings. Imagine if we were bodiless beings of pure spirit. All of these cravings, all our longings would disappear. They will disappear as soon as we become pure spirit, which inevitably we will.

How do I know this? My Kundalini awakening revealed it to me. It's our evolutionary path. Without bodies there are no needs, no cravings, no addictions, no negative emotions. Today, we cannot envisage such an existence. That's fine. Before we traveled to the moon, many thought it impossible, or never thought about it at all.

Is it reasonable to believe our evolution is at an end, that no further evolutionary developments can ever occur, that the form our bodies take today will be the same in 10,000 years? And if we do evolve in form, will our immaterial and metaphysical aspects not evolve as well? 

So what form will future bodies assume? A second head, another arm? Or will future evolution concern mostly the brain and the up-to-now mostly esoteric capabilities associated with Kundalini. Given the current runaway interest in kundalini, I'd be surprised if kundalini didn't hold some surprises as to our future evolutionary development. 

Bodiless beings are not for next week or next month. We must survive centuries of challenges to our physical forms, but eventually we will shed those elements that bind us to our earthly limitations. Our bodies being one of them. The first step can be taken now.

“I didn’t arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.”
~ Albert Einstein

Finally, if it’s any consolation, are not the growth and acceptance of ethnic foods already changing the visions we conjure up when famished. Fifty years ago when I walked guard duty, I had only standard American fare to excite my imagination. Today’s soldier has a panoply of ethnic cravings to draw from. As we begin to accept foods from other cultures — the cooking shows on TV offer an endless array of ethnic shows — will our interest in other cultures not increase? And, as a result, gradually allay the feelings of otherness we reserve for foreigners?

Will we still be doing battle under the banner of the Hot Dog in 2518? Or will Pizza or Moo Goo Gai Pan replace it? 

Kundalini marks the shift from knowledge to experience

This morning I submitted a comment to Vivek's recent blog post about a certain famous guru who has made claims about Kundalini he couldn't possibly make if he had actually experienced Kundalini. After I read his post, I was inspired to comment, so I chimed in with my own opinion.

Feeling justified after I posted my comment, I went to my kitchen and was looking out of the window when the words of my Kundalini Yoga teacher came to me: "Understand with compassion, otherwise you will misunderstand the times." 

What do these words mean?

After pondering a while, I think they underline the fact that spirituality in the Piscean Age was about accumulating knowledge and understanding spiritual writings. So many gurus learned this literature and used its theories to inspire the people who sat at their feet. They knew what the mystics and saints had written. The emphasis was on knowledge and knowing in the Piscean Age, what I dare to call left brain consciousness. There wasn't that much emphasis on experience.

Now we are in the Aquarian Age where seekers tend to express their spiritual longings thusly: "I know I want to experience and I want to experience from someone who has experienced, not someone who simply knows." This desire for experience is a function of a shift of consciousness from the left to the right side of the brain. 

I have limitless compassion for these gurus because I don't think that they set out to deliberately mislead. What I do find completely unacceptable is when they still claim to have experiences which they haven't had and which it is obvious they haven't had as soon as they open their mouths. 

My feeling is that this Aquarian Age is going to demand a level of honesty and authenticity unprecedented in the last age. Not just in spirituality but in every area of life. We are moving to being more authentic and I for one welcome it.

IET sessions

Back in 2010 I was introduced to a system of energy healing called Integrated Energy Therapy (IET). Because of eBay policy changes, the person who helped me now works through her website. I have had around 25 sessions at a distance. There are also CDs with techniques that people, who are not trained in IET, can buy through the IET website.

I have them and enjoy working with them. Although I found energy work helpful and I have learned several forms of reiki, I believe IET is better for removing deeper levels of blockages more quickly. The amounts of anger and fear in my day-to-day life have dramatically and quickly decreased.

After a few months of regular sessions I found it  increasingly common for me to experience love and joy without any reason for feeling these emotions. After noticing these positive emotions, my initial reaction was to look for a reason for them. I couldn't find one. As I kept on with the sessions, these positive emotions became stronger and lasted longer. Examining them too closely and trying to identify reasons for the effects tended to reduce the effects. Nevertheless, the more the sessions helped decrease my negative emotions, the better I felt. So between sessions, I started working with the techniques on dedicated CDs.

Finding IET worked so well for me, I arranged sessions for people I knew. The first two people I introduced to IET did not really seem to notice the effects. They received clearings and the work was effective, but it didn't seem to matter to them. They did not seem to value carrying around less negativity. However, the person I  arranged an IET session for most recently had a reaction similar to mine. He recognized that it was something that could save him time on his path. He saw it quickly eliminated problems which had been around for years, that after only three sessions he was already spontaneously experiencing the effects of more positive emotions in his life.

When I realized that it had been over a year since I had listened to the IET techniques on CDs, I decided to listen to them again. The techniques work by installing automatic activations to reactive the processes detailed on the CDs. After waiting so long to listen to the CDs again, this time the feeling of energy was stronger than it had been during the initial times I had listened to the CDs. Part of this was probably due to my working with the CDs during the time I was more concerned with learning the techniques and installing the automatic activations. Impatient to master the techniques, I had rushed the process. Now, revisiting the CDs, there is no reason to hurry. I've had access to everything and have been working with the techniques for about a year.

At some point, when time and finances allow it, I plan to attend the workshops to learn IET so I will be able to conduct the sessions, even better if I was qualified to teach IET. At this point, without further training, I can't really recommend IET sessions to others  — but I would if I could.

The 'I' and 'Me' revealed by Kundalini

I'm currently doing a seminar about living a life that defies the predictable and I learned the story of Colin Wilson, a British philosopher and writer. When he was young, he dreamed about becoming the next Albert Einstein, but at the age of 16 his family fell on hard times and he had to leave school and go to work. He was so unhappy he decided to kill himself.

He took a bottle of hydrochloric acid and was just about to drink it, when he had two insights. The first was that there were two Colin Wilson's within him:

• The first was the idiotic teenager, self-pitying boy who he called his 'idiot' and then there was the other Colin Wilson who wanted to make a difference in the world by becoming the next Einstein.
• His second insight was that the 'idiot' was going to kill them both. (Acknowledgments to Landmark Education for this information.)

Since awakening Kundalini I have been more aware of the idiot or what I call 'me.' This is the part of me that wants to survive, look good, play it safe and then there is the other which I call 'I' which wants to share, contribute, make a difference.

At every moment I get to choose which one I am going to be. Both are there because the 'me' was created by language (acculturation programming that begins the day we are born) and is designed for survival, but the 'I' was there before 'me'. Out of  'I' we build 'me'. When Kundalini rises, it changes the mind and body by working directly on the nervous system to strengthen and balance. But it also expands consciousness so that spiritual writings resonate much more deeply than before Kundalini rose. Kundalini shifts the consciousness  from 'me' back to 'I' where it initially came from. Now I find when I meditate that I watch 'me' from the place of 'I'. This is difficult to explain and I don't want to give the idea of a split personality, this is very much internal phenomena that  doesn't affect interactions with people or with the world.

This realization profoundly affected Eckhart Tolle, who wrote in the Power of Now of the moment after he had spent many years suffering from depression when he said to himself, "I cannot live with myself any longer." Suddenly he was struck by the two Eckhart's within him. 'I' and 'myself' and he asked "who is me, and who is myself?" This insight shocked him into realization and has resulted in him being a world famous spiritual teacher. He says after this "he felt himself being drawn up into a vast vortex of energy" which I assert must have been Kundalini.  It was the combination of insight and energy which shifted his consciousness permanently into the place where he is who he is today.

No pain, no gain.. don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I recently read a quote by a popular guru in a question and answer session. One of his disciples asked the guru about kundalini. Now, this guru is a famous personality in India, one that influences millions of people. Currently, you cannot talk about the spirituality/New Age scene in India without mentioning this person. The conversation went something like this:

Q: Guruji, what is Kundalini and how to awaken the Kundalini?

The Guru: Kunda means body, and Kundalini means the conscious energy in this body.

Whatever happens in meditations in the Advance Course is Kundalini itself. There is no other way to interpret Kundalini. If meditation happened, it would not be possible without the awakening of the Kundalini. If you went into meditation, it means the Kundalini has been awakened in you.

I was amazed, not only by the lack of knowledge of this well-known guru, but his touting of his 'Advanced Course' and reducing the definition of kundalini down to 'when you meditate, that is a kundalini awakening'. Here I sit, 6 years into a sometimes scary journey with profound insights, a writhing snake slithering up and down my spine, immense improvement in latent skills, becoming a better singer, photographer, a change in my outlook towards the world, a totally new person unfolding each day. I have undergone shock and trauma that rivals PTSD experienced by soldiers that have served in the worst war conditions, questioned my sanity, lived in existential terror for years.

Along comes his exalted holiness and gives this simplistic and downright misleading definition of the phenomenon. A lot has been said on this blog about what a K awakening brings, but I think there is a need to mention how to spot a fake and what a kundalini experience is not.

Anyone that quotes scripture and describes the kundalini process based on what's in the sacred texts, but has no explanation or personal stories about their own experiences should been viewed with suspicion. Likewise, people that remain exactly the same person without a fundamental shift towards spirituality, and more importantly, people that do not go through a phase of trauma, disorientation and a cathartic cleansing of the body and mind have not experienced a Kundalini awakening.

Our images of the divine are invariably the beatific, calm, sublime and angelic notions of a benevolent God. You just have to look at the pictorial depictions of Jesus or the Buddha to confirm this notion. In rare instances, depictions of wild, scary goddesses like Kali or a bellicose Shiva might stray from this image, but the pseudo-gurus usually play to the beatific, peace-loving guru image that they are expected to play. It makes them tougher to spot. They have memorized the scriptures and have a witty line memorized for every question. If you have undergone an awakening, however, these gurus are laughable and stand out like three-dollar bills.

Kundalini can be a scary, mean, energy that does not give a hoot about you, your ego and its notions about reality.

"I am an atheist who likes Richard Dawkins" may sound cool at cocktail parties, but gets thrown out the window when the energy takes over and starts to overhaul the entire being, starting with the fake rationalizations, the false ideas of self that we hold dear, the explanations we give ourselves to hide our skullduggery. There is nothing politically correct or gentle about it.  It is a benign energy, but when it does its work on us, our ego sees it as a horrible experience because the ego resists death. It dearly wants to hold on to its ideas.

As seen from the perspective of the dying ego, the energy is demonic. A surgeon operating on you to remove a gangrene makes you bleed, there is a lot of pain, but the eventual result is the healing of the body, leaving the person healthier. What the kundalini energy does is very similar. It removes the harmful gangrene attached to our souls, our ego. The things we keep hidden in depths of our mind, even from ourselves, (especially from ourselves) are laid bare. The first few months (or years, depending on how long you resist) are the worst. If you have spent a lot of time building up an ego, pretending to be someone you are not, your ordeal will be pure purgatory.

In fact, this is the real purgatory. The term refers to the bridge, the throat chakra, that separates the earthly realm (the body) from the higher chakras (the head). The concept of purgatory, in the metaphysical sense, are the visions seen by those undergoing a Kundalini awakening who are stuck in the in-between stage. The cleansing of past trauma, sins, wrongdoings stuck in the psyche as blocks are cleansed by the energy as it passes up and down the body, giving way to brief glimpses of the absolute (heaven) as the energy passes unimpeded to the third eye or higher, activating the pituitary and pineal glands, releasing anandamide, giving rise to mystic experiences as the left and right hemispheres underwent neuroplastic reconstruction.

In the state of mystical hyper-awareness, the trauma and past 'sins' are churned up and as the energy burns through them (literally, a burning sensation as the energy passes through the spine) each is seen vividly. This is the experience of hell. The journey from earth to hell to heaven is the span of the vertebral column. The number 33 has a significance in metaphysical literature of disparate traditions. Jesus 'died' at 33. 33 is not only a numerical representation of "the Star of David”, but also the numerical equivalent of AMEN: 1+13+5+14 = 33. In Kashmir Shaivism, the universe is explained in 36 tattvas or principles. The first 33 are in the realm of divinity in an expanded form, the last 3, shiva+shakti = paramshiva, when the yin (right brain) and yang (left brain) unite to become the absolute (crown chakra). In Hinduism, there are 33 levels or koti of Gods. Each level has its own deities. (The word koti also means the number 100 million in Sanskrit and Hindi and it is mistakenly said that there are 330 million Gods in the Hindu pantheon).

Why the emphasis on the numbers 33 and 36? Simple. There are 33 bones in the vertebral column. The energy takes the human being through the expansion of the absolute, a reverse evolution or involution back to unity. The 'death' of Jesus at 33 is the death of the human and the subsequent unity with the absolute. 33 steps on the way to heaven, then a purging of the impure or demonic in purgatory (ego loss) and entry into heaven. There are countless tales of wars between Gods and demons, one of the most famous being the Hindu tale of Samudra Manthan, where Gods and Demons churned the ocean (consciousness) using a snake tied to a mountain, Meru (Meru-danda is a term used for the spinal column). It yielded several gifts, gems, powers and the poison halahal, which Lord Shiva held in his throat, turning it blue. A reference to the throat chakra and the poison or toxic blockages and trauma that have been cleansed by the energy. The detailed account can be found here.

Now, all this magical, mystical stuff, wondrous phenomena, revelation that solves ancient riddles and explains allegorical tales from mythology, summed up as “when you meditate, you awaken kundalini” by this charlatan. Sad state of affairs. Kundalini fundamentally changes you as a person. The old you does not exist any more. The new you is a higher ascended being (if the process is allowed to unfold properly). Politically correct ideas do not come into play. Lofty ideas about 'helping society' take a back seat to just keeping your back from breaking into two and keeping your sanity intact.

I have run into all kinds of people during my awakening. The worst kind are those that have made a commodity out of spirituality, to be bought and sold in hour-long sessions of chakra therapy, energy work, past life regression and assorted mumbo-jumbo. Some of the worst advice I have received is from these hucksters. Kundalini is a rare phenomenon and there are very few people that can offer genuine advice and help out a person suffering in the depths of 'hell'.

On the other hand, there is 'modern' medicine, that has relegated this incredible experience to 'kundalini syndrome' in the pages of DSM IV, the reference manual for mental health professionals, to be treated as a pathological condition, to be 'cured' with powerful anti-psychotic drugs, doing immense damage to the poor person struggling to cope with an extraordinary occurrence.

There is no gentle way of easing into this experience. People who prepare all their lives to receive this blessing, through a regimented set of practices, breathing exercises, yoga, a diet of fruits and vegetables, cleansing rituals may never receive the blessing, and people that are totally unprepared and clueless about it stumble into it as I did, through a spontaneous awakening as a byproduct of drug use, meditation, tantric sex, while delivering a baby — only to wander through life looking for answers. The rare individual that prepares for this through yogic practices and receives it under the auspices of a true guru maybe one of the few that can ease into the subsequent process with minimal trauma, but most aren't that lucky. The disoriented, terror-filled stage which makes the person look and sound 'crazy' is almost a given.

Any guru that does not warn you about this is doing you a huge disservice. It is better to read true accounts of people that have undergone a real awakening, people in the modern era, not ancient sages. It will save a lot of time and may even provide simple, common sense answers like my previous description of terms like hell, heaven and purgatory as seen from a 21^st century perspective, but with the aid of mystical experience. Stay away from the hucksters. I thank JJ for starting this and other blogs and forums so people with a genuine experience can inform and educate others.

Meditation or Medication...When Kundalini Rises

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

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

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

Separation of the Spirit Body for Independent Existence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is Kundalini Safe?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where are the prophets of doom....now December has come and gone?

Yesterday, I found myself  thinking about this blog and noticed just how quiet certain Yogi Masters are now. To be totally honest, teaching Kundalini Yoga and being very familiar with the writings about the shift from Pisces to Aquarius, I also found myself uncharacteristically restless on two portentous dates in December, i.e. 12/12/2012 and 12/21/2012.

On the first of these dates, at 12 minutes past the hour I left my job and went into the ladies toilets where I meditated for 12 minutes. Even as I was doing this the more rational part of me was screaming 'what are you doing this for?' I ignored it and carried on meditating. I didn't notice anything different afterwards, but then again, I wasn't looking for anything. After all, the big one was 12/21/2012. What I was doing was only preparation.

The day of 12/21/2012 dawned and it struck me that there were other parts of the world where it was already 12/21/2012 and there was no reports of anything out of the ordinary. I was flying to my family that day for Christmas and so, counting flight time, I found myself being up all day and night of the 21st. If being mindful and aware were the criteria for being able to receive whatever shift was coming, no-one was more qualified! Again my journey home was completely smooth and uneventful, no different than the everyday flow of life.

12/22/2012 dawned. When I woke up, I felt I had been well and truly fooled, taken in by prophets of doom, who had absolutely no proof, but had been so convincing that many people, including me, had listened. I could have pointed the finger at spiritual people, especially yogis, but to be fair, many people who don't see themselves as 'spiritual' were also anticipating 'something' would happen.

Having now had time to ponder the whole event, I think it shows how we as human beings are prone to fabricate meaning where there is none. All that happened, I assume, is that Mayans ran out of paper for the end of their calendar.

What some of us present day human beings did was to spin this into an end-of-the-world, doomsday scenario. We put meaning into totally meaningless events and then lived the month of December as if our interpretation really meant something. When you look at it like this, it is so ludicrous as to be funny.

There has been very little comment from those who were most vociferous, but I came across this post on Facebook which I am copying and acknowledging the writer for because he's had the courage to write what I was thinking and has phrased it better than I could.

"December 2012 has come and gone. No end of the world and no shift in  consciousness. No aliens arrived to ‘save the planet’ either. No  ‘rapture’ or anything of the sort. No three days of darkness. No planet Niburu.

"I hope this shows very clearly that all those who have been preaching these various events have been mistaken and that they would do well to examine and alter the processes by which they came to their completely incorrect conclusions and explain how they came to make such mistakes that have caused so many people so much distraction and caused many people to make decisions that have caused them serious setbacks if they wish to be taken seriously on any matter in the future. 

"Theirs is the  responsibility for having distracted the attention of the human species from the serious issues of Rapid Resource Depletion (RRD), Pollution and Global Climate Change (P&GCC), Global Monetary Collapse (GMC), and the increasing incredibility of the Growth Model of Development (GMD), which have to be responded to effectively and immediately."
~Nirmalan Dhas