Kundalini Symposium 2016

A person need only read the international news to understand the level of fear, doubt, and uncertainty in the world today. Despite all of this, there is also incredible hope arising from all corners of the globe. Millions of people are awakening to ancient spiritual truths and customs that show us that a different way of living is possible — one filled with compassion and reverence for all life and the Earth.

Kundalini is the biological cause of this global shift, and it is happening now at a faster pace than ever before. In our first Kundalini Symposium event, Kundalini and the Global Shift of Consciousness, we will explore the dramatic changes that are occurring all around us, and how we can all help facilitate real, long-term, and impactful change at a personal and global level.

This is the start of something BIG. A symposium to address the various aspects of kundalini. Hosted by The Emerging Sciences Foundation, it features a number of speakers with experience in raising, living with, and exploring the vicissitudes and effects of kundalini.

Speaker: Michael Bradford

Michael Bradford has been involved in research on Kundalini for more than 35 years. In 1977 he traveled to India where he spent six years serving as a volunteer worker for the Central Institute for Kundalini Research, founded and directed by the late Pandit Gopi Krishna. Michael has been a board member of the Institute for Consciousness Research (I.C.R.) since it was founded, and has been Director of Publications during this time.

In 1985 he began working full time as an IT consultant in the data processing field, and retired in March 2014. He began studying Vedic astrology with Hart DeFouw in 1995, and in 2003 founded his own Vedic astrology practice. 

Speaker: JJ Semple

JJ Semple is the author of four best-selling non-fiction books dealing with energy cultivation techniques, kundalini, meditation, consciousness, alchemy, sexual sublimation, enlightenment, and mindfulness and their effect on human evolution.

He is the founder of Life Force Books, a publishing company featuring books on energy cultivation, the neuroplasticity aspects of Kundalini, and helpful guidelines for living with Kundalini. His Golden Flower Meditation method (GFM) is practiced by neophytes and adepts all over the world. In addition, he teaches sexual sublimation techniques for facilitating the kundalini process.


Speaker: Corinne Lebrun

Corinne’s journey with mystical experiences begun as a young child which led her on a rich academic path of inquiry into various subjects such as theoretical physics, anthropology, psychology and various mystical traditions. She has a M.S. in Psychology her studies focus on how spiritual awakenings impact positive social evolution.

She is also KRI Certified Kundalini Yoga teacher, a Shambala Multi-Dimensional Healer, a graduate of the Berkeley Psychic School, and is a dancer, musician, artist and writer. Corinne has created a career in empowering start-ups and purpose driven organizations to be successful. Her career has led her to work with brilliant minds from places such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA and the Alliance for Innovation in Science and Technology Information. Her company Pitch Deck Ninjas serves the business sector. She is also the founder of Wild Divine Bliss, an educational forum for kundalini awakenings.


Speaker: Carl Calleman

Carl Johan Calleman is a scientist and philosopher who has devoted his past thirty years to understanding the evolution of consciousness and life based on the Mayan calendar. Born in Stockholm, Sweden he gained a Ph.D. in Physical Biology and spent twenty years doing laboratory research into toxicology and Cancer Research. In this capacity he was a Senior Researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle and has served as an expect for the World Health Organization in addition to giving lectures at places like MIT, Institut Pasteur, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine and the National Cancer Institute in Tokyo.

In 1994 he left his carrier in the hard sciences behind and started to lecture about one of the greatest mysteries of our time: The Mayan Calendar and has for instance written six books on this topic with the aim of making this accessible to modern people. The most recent books are The Global Mind and the Rise of Civilization (June 2016) and The Nine Waves of Creation – Quantum Physics, Holographic Evolution and the Destiny of Humanity (December 2016). His focus has been on explaining both biological and mental evolution up until the current time and beyond. He has also worked with Mayan elders such as Hunbatz Men and Don Alejandro Oxlaj and helped them to get their message out. For his own spiritual evolution Carl Calleman has been part of the Oneness University in India, which looks upon Kundalini energy as a crucial element in this.

Speaker: Teri Degler

Award-winning author Teri Degler has ten books to her credit including The Fiery Muse: Creativity and the Spiritual Quest (Random House, Canada). Teri has spent many years writing on yoga philosophy, Tantra, kundalini-shakti, and the lives of highly creative women mystics. A deep interest in kundalini has lead her to do extensive research on the divine feminine known as Shakti in Hinduism and the parallels found in Sophia in Christianity and Shekinah in Jewish mysticism. Teri’s books have been translated into French, German, and Italian, and her freelance writing has appeared in many publications in the U.S. and Canada. She teaches workshops on writing and creative expression and has made many media appearances. Her most recent book, The Divine Feminine Fire: Creativity and Your Yearning to Express Your Self, was an Amazon.ca # 1 Bestseller in two spiritual categories.

Speaker: Michael Molina

With a Bachelors of Science degree in business from California State University, Long Beach, Michael Molina has over 15 years experience in technology and marketing, and has led multiple “big data” projects. The founder of the Emerging Sciences Foundation and the creator of Brilliano, a social networking platform and collaboration tool, Michael believes in empowering people with the knowledge and tools necessary to improve the world we live in. He has served as an ESF board member since 2009. He is married with two young sons.

Be sure to sign up for this unique and exciting event today...

The Nature of the Kundalini

We live in a holographic universe that is overlaid with infinite other universes occupying the same space at the same time. Our soul decides in which direction to take our reality every moment of the NOW. On my initial awakening 12 years ago, as the energy rose to the top of my head, I saw the holographic world around me with my physical eyes as the kundalini energy went up my spine and cracked the Cosmic Egg at the very top of my head — the Sahasrara Chakra. As this Astral Liquid poured over my body to awaken the 72,000 nadis of my spiritual body, I opened my eyes and beheld the room I was in as a holographic blueprint of the room I was in five minutes before.

This vision did not take place in my mind's eye, but with my actual physical eyes. As I saw the painting above my bed suspended in mid-air, I looked down at my hands and saw my arm, my hands, as golden light. I knew then the nature of the Universe around us as empty space, nothing more. And our true form as beings of Light.

Usually this cannot be perceived with the physical eyes as the material world is crystallized by our consciousness vibrating at a lower frequency than our spirit.

As babies, up until our ego begins to crystallize and memories become embedded in the brain, localizing us in time and space, we see the world for what it is — a hologram. This would explain the nature of a child as they look out into the world with innocent, unbiased eyes. Pure wonder and imagination streaming into their consciousness 24/7.

A child looks at the world around him in wonder

The ego evolves as a defense mechanism of the body whose purpose is to protect us from the elements. The reptilian brain evolves giving rise to the ego over time. With this growth we lose our innocence and our consciousness becomes localized in the physical body. The purpose of spiritual rebirth is the returning back to that innocent state.

Shedding of the ego triggers a rising of spirit, away from the physical body. Two are really one and the same thing in the spectrum of consciousness, but they function at two completely opposite levels of vibration.

Consciousness is awareness in the NOW of the internal process. Once liberated from the body through a kundalini awakening, it travels as awareness into the light that is built up inside the body with the use of food, as food is synthesized in the spiritual body into pure light. As this light grows inside the spiritual body, the consciousness over time "loses itself in itself" and we transcend time and space and dwell in the realm of Eternity.

This transcendental state is the goal of and the inspiration for every yogi, sage, magi and spiritualist. This synthesis of light in the spiritual body occurs continuously as the person with an awakened kundalini eats nutritious food. This is why even with the initial awakening, it takes about 2-3 months for the person to start having metaphysical or transcendental experiences. They happen as the astral light builds up. Astral light is fueled by food and nourished by water. As astral light fuels the spiritual body and expands it, consciousness expands. In this process, the ego starts losing itself, giving rise to fears in the subconscious mind because it knows it's dying.

The veil between the conscious and subconscious minds starts to dissipate over time and a person becomes more and more at one with Universal Law. This Law is the Law of manifestation since Human beings have the innate ability to manifest whatever reality they want or desire as long as it is in line with their True Will. True Will is different than Ego or lower Will as it seeks to satisfy the spirit in the realm of Eternity and not the physical body. As the astral light grows, individuals become more attuned to the air around them since it creates a vacuum in which the ego can no longer operate. The 72,000 nadis, which are likened to tree branches as they carry the liquid ambrosia inside the spiritual body, are awakened and connect with the air around us, the medium for signals in astral world that surrounds us.

These are energy pathways which carry signals in the astral world. These signals serve the same way as radio signals only we receive emotional and thought impulses from living beings around us through the medium of air. This takes place in the spiritual body or body double, which now starts to grow as the consciousness moves slowly towards it and away from the physical body, a gradual process that usually takes years to fully integrate.

Energy pathways in the spiritual body awakened by kundalini

It is important to distinguish between a full, permanent kundalini awakening and a partial one. A full awakening happens once the kundalini energy rises up the sushumna channel in the backbone, into the brain, blows open the mind's eye chakra, and rises to the top of the head where Shakti or Kundalini meets Shiva or the Sahasrara chakra.

This is followed by the opening or cracking of the Cosmic Egg at the top of the head, and the pouring of the liquid ambrosia over what feels like the physical body, but is actually an activation of the spiritual body and the 72,000 nadis or energy channels.

At this point, the energy continues surging upwards completely, making one lose consciousness of the body and resulting in the experience of seeing the white light. This permanent awakening has two distinct symptoms which become permanent afterwards as the energy is now localized in the brain and the kundalini doesn’t travel up and down the spine anymore. The two symptoms are a constant buzzing in the ears and the appearance of astral light in the head, which now imposes itself into the physical reality so the person sees white light present in all things with their physical eyes. The buzzing in the ears is the kundalini energy now inside the brain and working to fuel itself and grow.

A partial awakening occurs when the kundalini rises up the spine, but doesn’t reach the top of the head. In most cases it tries to blow open the mind's eye chakra, but, due to blockages or improper meditation, is unable to do so it goes back down to coil itself as a snake around the Muladhara or base chakra. Oftentimes, it drops back down to the heart center or Anahata chakra, allowing the person to experience heart expansions and feel empathy towards all living things as the kundalini works its way into the heart chakra, growing the unconditional love there so that it can gradually disengage the consciousness from the ego and finish its work in the crown chakra, localizing in the brain permanently.

This type of rising is usually a result of an ego which is holding onto itself too strongly, inducing fear, which pulls the energy back down, thereby preventing it from blowing open the mind's eye chakra. The energy goes into the heart chakra so that it can work on expanding the True Self and move away from the fears of the ego. A partial rising carries prana up the spine. Once it drops back down into the base or heart chakras, it carries with it pranic energy which plunges the person into an inspired or out-of-body state until the prana dissipates completely. 

Some initiates actually perform kriyas, speak in tongues, do inspirational writing or painting, but these states usually lose their creative energy in 20-30 minutes as the energy dissipates. In a fully kundalini awakened person with a permanent awakening, the energy is localized in the brain centre, and the kundalini is fully operational 24/7 and the person is channels creativity non-stop and resides in a permanently inspired state. They are literally lost in space and time and activities such as listening to music or beholding a beautiful landscape transport the person into a completely transcendental or metaphysical reality that is incomprehensible to someone who doesn’t live in it the same way as light cannot be explained to someone born blind.

Energy centres and pathways of the kundalini

Our dreams take on a different form and we are able to operate in an awakened consciousness during sleep, especially in the alpha state. We start lucid dreaming or have dreams where our consciousness is awake and experiencing a reality similar to the physical reality, but using the astral or light double. The only difference for the consciousness is the level of vibration that the astral world operates on; it experiences this astral reality as real, but to a degree less than the physical one.

We see, touch, feel as we do in the physical reality, but are not bound by laws of physics since there is no density to objects in this reality, therefore we can fly, move through objects, transport ourselves to any place with only our thoughts, and communicate with Beings that only exist on that plane of reality.

There is a difference between astral light and the Great white light from which our souls come from. Theoretically, our souls come from our sun which has the planets orbiting around it, energetically representing the different facets of the human psyche and its powers. Venus, for example, is the romantic love we feel towards one another. Mercury is the logic or reason we take part in. Jupiter the building block of expansion of our consciousness and has a correlation with the waters in our system and lucidity of consciousness. Mars, the warlike ability of the True Will, is also a place where our personal demons come from. These demons are in fact fallen angels and it's our duty to master the Self and restore them back to Heaven. Their powers are destructive and they rebuild the nature of the Universe as all things die and are reborn and renewed, better than ever.

Such is the process of evolution. It is cyclic. Saturn represents time, old age, and wisdom, while Mars is power and severity. Jupiter is mercy and unconditional love; Venus is romantic love and lower emotion. Mercury is thought, and finally the 

Moon is a reflection of the light of the sun. It is illusion, and may very well be the reason for the dual nature of human life, of good and bad, up and down, and the overall duality that is present in all things on this planet. Perhaps, if life on different planets was able to be seen with physical eyes, which is an impossibility since we only perceive things in our vibrational field, physically at least...perhaps planets having more moons have life which is at its foundation more than dual, such as a reality which is more than just good or bad and perceived in terms of a duality as we humans perceive the world around us.

But our moon gives us such a reality. Nightly, it reflects illusions of what we think is real and represents the feminine as the sun represents the masculine.

A kundalini awakening gives rise to a reality where one is able to perceive the totality of the universe at the same time — at least within our solar system. Over time, the greats of old reported that as one grows into the solar system, the totality of their energy is as a microcosm of the macrocosm, and they start to venture outside it and can inhabit other solar systems and grow there. Time will tell, but theoretically as one keeps eating food to feed the astral light, and grow this liquid ambrosia inside the spiritual body, over a few dozen years this can possibly be accomplished since the consciousness and aura grow outwards and expand continuously.

Human being as the center of the solar system with planets orbiting the Sun

If one participates in light draining activities such as alcohol or harmful drugs, their aura and consciousness recedes, preventing the expansion process from occurring. These substances exhaust the astral light within us and take our consciousness inside our own imagination and into the cosmic imagination or consciousness to take the person on a "trip" inside the Self. But when you do this, you sap your internal energy, letting it mature and die, instead of growing it with nutritious food and water.

People who go on drug induced "trips" and come back talking about realities beyond the Self and find solace in this process are tapping into this astral light and going into it, but the integration of this experience as a building block for spirituality and growing of the Self is never realized. Looking into the darkest recesses of the human mind for answers to existence is foolishness. Trying to open spiritual doors with drugs is a very dangerous activity because once opened they can never be closed. The consciousness cannot find its way back the same way if it got lost in an enchanted forest, you didn’t leave breadcrumbs as you were going in.

You will not be able to find your way back and your brain will not create the proper neural pathways to take you to those transcendental states naturally. This is the key. The blowing open of these gates unnaturally — with drugs as opposed to meditation — can cause permanent psychological damage that is irreparable, as the person loses touch with reality and confuses the astral world for the real world.

The astral world is real, only to a degree less than the physical one. But Maya or illusion of the physical world should not be taken lightly. We still need to wake up, work, make money to live, build relationships with people, and fill our human souls as living beings on this planet Earth. We need to love one another and be loved. Produce offspring who improve what we accomplished, furthering evolution as a whole. It is our duty as well as our God-given right.

It is unwise to disregard the world around us as a simple illusion or just a "simulation" as new theories from physicists suggest. Seeing it all as unreal and illusory takes away from our motivation to strive and grow in the world. To accomplish anything in this world, we first need to be motivated. True wisdom comes not from going inwards into your imagination to find the answers to life's problems. It comes from examining the world around you, the sciences, the arts, and the recorded history of all those who lived before us. Imagination is only the reflection of the light of the sun, it is lunar in nature and belongs to the world of duality. Its truth lies in its falsity. Hence don't look for answers in phantasmagoric dreams and drug induced visions; look for them in the clear light of the sun, in reason and logic. The foolish man spends his days surfing his own astral light and prophesying about imaginary hallucinations. The wise man stands silent, and in that silence contemplates pure consciousness, and lives in truth.

Kundalini and the Now

If your goal is enlightenment, why bother with kundalini? After all, even its proponents admit there are risks to raising kundalini. Things do go wrong on occasion: the initiate never achieves his goal, the energy never awakens, it awakens in some frightening manner, or some sort of psycho-physical damage occurs.



There’s far too much hustle associated with enlightenment. Is it reachable? Is it achievable? Is it teachable? Do you need a guide? Recently, I got a call from someone willing to pay me if I could guide him to enlightenment. He got angry when I asked him, what effort he’d have to make, why he believed he could do it, and what enlightenment was. Not that I told I could help him, I didn’t. My questions made him angry — that I should just shut up, wave a wand and voila, he’d be enlightened.

Well, what is it? What is enlightenment?

Is it the highest possible state of human evolution? Will all humans eventually become enlightened? Which leaves me to think there’s a physical component to it, just as there’s been at every stage of human evolution — Something in the brain changes. Usually over long periods of time, enough time for an attribute to be passed along to DNA. Or is it a stage only attainable by an individual on one off basis after an arduous preparation, like a Boy Scout earning merit badges.

Which causes me to rework the old saying: "Is it easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the unenlightened to become enlightened?" Not just because we’re so completely unenlightened at this moment, but because no one really knows what it is.

I wish people would stop talking about enlightenment as if it was like learning to drive a car or winning an Oscar.

It obviously isn't. In the first place, no one has ever defined enlightenment. It's a condition everyone claims they'd be able to recognize should they run across someone who is enlightened. A highly subjective claim.

Is enlightenment relative or absolute? Is it like switching on a light? Or is it a steady drip-drip-drip of becoming more conscious? For the time being, I like my working definition:

"The ultimate aim of meditation is to become more and more conscious. Enlightenment, therefore, is becoming fully conscious."
~ JJ Semple

It leaves room to include the struggle inherent in the journey. And because I learned so much during my journey, I can't shake the conviction that the journey is as important as the destination.

"Self-realization begins at birth. It is as much the journey as it is the destination."
~ Araminta Matthews

Secondly, designating or labeling a person as enlightened is problematic, and is usually bandied about frivolously. Is the so-called enlightened one actually enlightened or is he/she just a spellbinding talker? Think back. To the various Jonestown-like episodes in recent history. Were those self-anointed prophets false or real?

Eckhart Tolle says, "The enlightened person’s main focus of attention is always the Now, but they are still peripherally aware of time."

Gandhi Spinning

Which would seem to point out that the more you stay in the Now, the less likely you'd be talking about it. In fact, wouldn't someone In The Now live a fairly uncomplicated, simple life? All the better to stay in the Now. Simple actions = fewer distractions. Like Gandhi spinning cloth, an almost inconceivable way of life for the westerner.

"So do not be concerned with the fruit of your action — just give attention to the action itself. The fruit will come of its own accord. This is a powerful spiritual practice. In the Bhagavad Gita, one of the oldest and most beautiful spiritual teachings in existence, nonattachment to the fruit of your action is called Karma Yoga. It is described as the path of 'consecrated action.'"~ Tolle, Eckhart. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (p. 68). New World Library. Kindle Edition.

When Tolle talks about staying in "the Now," he is repackaging "mindfulness," which itself is a rediscovery of Gurdjieff's "self-remembering" — the idea of freeing oneself from psychological time:

"The time-bound mode of consciousness is deeply embedded in the human psyche. But what we are doing here is part of a profound transformation that is taking place in the collective consciousness of the planet and beyond: the awakening of consciousness from the dream of matter, form, and separation. The ending of time. We are breaking mind patterns that have dominated human life for eons. Mind patterns that have created unimaginable suffering on a vast scale. I am not using the word evil. It is more helpful to call it unconsciousness or insanity."
~ Tolle, Eckhart - The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (p. 67). New World Library. Kindle Edition.

How difficult it is to stay in "the Now" can once again be compared to a camel's passing through the eye of a needle. It's very difficult, and very painful.

Attaining enlightenment — whatever it be — is so complex, yet so simple. The catch being that for most people the Simple is, and always will be, out of reach.

How does kundalini fit in with enlightenment, the Now, and nonattachment?

Very simply, it brings to bear the organic, somatic, metabolic, and hormonal resources of the body, allowing the mind and ego to rest while it does the heavy listing of staying in the Now. Kundalini creates a new Being dedicated to returning You to your true self.

And it isn’t a collection of merit badges, a reward for prayerful behavior, kindness to animals, or inspirational fellowship.

As pointed out by Mariana Caplan in Halfway up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment, a book that examines Enlightenment from many angles.

“Author Lee Sanella explicates Carl Jung’s perspective on the kundalini: ‘Jung described the kundalini as an impersonal force,’ writes Sanella. ‘He argued that to claim the kundalini as one’s own creation is perilous. It leads to ego inflation, false superiority, obnoxiousness, or even madness. For him, the kundalini is an autonomous process arising out of the unconscious and seemingly using the individual as its vehicle.’ 

“This definition suggests that enlightenment neither belongs to an individual nor is personal to them. A person does not experience the energy of enlightenment because of their good deeds or their extraordinary nature. The movement of enlightenment is an unemotional force, indifferent to personalities and personal preferences, that uses the most suitable human vehicle to fulfill its needs.”

Caplan, Mariana - Halfway up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment

This underlines the evolutionary aspect of kundalini, that it doesn’t just awaken on command or through a practice of some sort.

There are two schools of thought:
1) You are selected to play a role in evolution because of certain karmic qualities you possess. You are not selected because of something you did or didn’t do. Nevertheless, if it does happen to you, think of yourself as a conscript in the evolutionary upward march. You are neither a prophet nor a victim; you serve some greater purpose.

2) You can awaken kundalini by some sort of effort — yoga, meditation, prayer, good works, intervention of a guru. You are not selected at random to play a role in evolution; you are the prime mover in the process.

Once active, however, don’t expect that you can just relax and let kundalini take over. It’s not automatic. As a conscript, you have to make sacrifices — one of which is subduing your ego.

Leaving aside the risks of awakening kundalini, taming the ego work is never finished. Nevertheless, kundalini does jump start the process.

Here’s an excerpt from my latest book, Kundalini Musings, looking back on how kundalini affected and instructed me. Notice I don’t say “enlightened” me: 

"How do we change our consciousness? That’s the purpose of Kundalini — a powerful, yet dormant mechanism in our beings that allows us to realize our full potential. Kundalini is the motivating catalyst behind the transformational experience. It's the key to our changing our consciousness. How? Kundalini stimulates neuroplastic activity in the brain which, as a consequence, changes our metabolism, our organic and hormonal structure. Overtime, our behavioral aberrations vanish. We are no longer cogs in the machine.

"So how do we change human nature? We don’t. We run an 'end run' around it; we change our state of being, our consciousness. How do we do this? By raising Kundalini in a safe, permanent fashion. How does this work? My books detail the process, but the upshot is Kundalini produces an entirely new being, remolding your DNA.

"It’s an active process. You can’t pray for it to happen; you can’t do it by reading philosophy, by undergoing psychoanalysis, or becoming a scientist, lawyer, or doctor. You can't even grasp it intellectually. Why? Because you can't see the mountaintop until you're on top of the mountain.

"You have to involve the whole being. Master three powerful meditation techniques: diaphragmatic deep breathing, control of heart rate, the backward-flowing method and you’re there, standing at the threshold of a new being."~ JJ Semple - Changing Human Nature

Does Kundalini lead to enlightenment? Is there a cause and effect relationship? There’s so much to ponder. Nevertheless, think of staying in the Now (aka, Mindfulness or self-remembering) and Kundalini as complimentary partners in the great work of returning you to the simple, non-attached life. What’s at the end of the journey for you, only time will tell.

All Things Bow Down to Love

All things bow down to love. All things.

It's the glue that holds us together, the fuel that gives us wisdom, knowledge — the motivation that makes us strive for greater things, the bond we share with everyone on this planet. We share it with animals, we share it with all living things, yet like bratty children we disrespect it; we judge, we persecute, we accept Fear as the building block of our life. FEAR. False Evidence Appearing Real.

Fear occurs when our Willpower, which is inherently Divine, decides it wants to perform an action in the name of Self-Love or the Ego and not Universal Love. This event then gets lodged in our water element and attaches to our wheel of karma to be shed in the future when again faced with the same type of event where the mind has to choose between Ego or Universal Love.

Such is the Law. As Above, so Below. As Within, so Without. Karma is cyclic. It repeats itself until corrected. This physical life is but a test — a game. To win the game you must grow your love in your heart and conquer everything that stands in your way of Universal Love. Jesus did it. Gandhi did it. Buddha did it. Mother Theresa did it. So did countless others. And to this day all spiritualists aspire to be like these men and women. Why? Because our souls recognize that these people got it. We look at them as examples and try to be like them. Its natural for us. Organic.

Love is the Building Block of Life

This body was given to us as a vehicle in this physical world. Yet, some treat it like it's a final goal. But when you sleep at night, where do you go, what drives you? In the Holy Qabalah the body is called the Nephesh. The Ego is the body. There is no separation. You cannot conquer your Ego and live in the physical body. It is impossible. Jesus himself, one of the greatest men to live on this planet, if not the greatest, did not conquer his ego until the point of physical death. He only guided it. His second last sentence on the cross was, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" This was the last thing his Ego ever said. And it was followed by, "It is finished." The last thing his Higher Self or God-Self ever said before actual physical death.

See, you are truly a dual self. The Ego, and the Higher Self. But one comes from Self-Love. The other comes from Pure Eternal Love. And the purpose in overcoming the pains of this world is to learn to live as the Higher Self guiding the Ego and the physical body and making it perform actions in Its name. When you do this your chakras expand, your aura expands, your consciousness expands.

If you don't do it, you stay functioning at a lower level of vibration, and as this happens, the Ego gets a greater hold on you. The Ego's greatest feat is making you think that You are the Ego. Think about it. It seeks to deceive you. It seeks to manipulate you. It seeks to confuse you and dominate you. It belongs to the realm of the Moon and illusion, hence it is found in the water of the body, which comprises 93% of the body itself. This physical water has a correspondence with the Elemental Water and as mentioned previously the person's individual Karma is linked to this element. It is an emotion. But not pure emotion such as Universal Love, but Ego-tained emotion which the Ego uses to find itself in. The Ego is the body, but its fuel is karma. True Will or God-Self is a Fire, it is Solar in nature and belongs to the Sun. It is Light, it is Spirit, it is real. It is who You really are. Not the body, but the spark from the Sun. The Soul (Sol). Fire is non-dual. It is Truth. It is True Will.

You are pure consciousness is localized in a physical body for the duration of your time on this planet as an organic human being. The love we feel in our emotions, the crosscheck of reason and wisdom builds inside us as we grow spiritually. It's a game, and the purpose of this game is to learn, to expand consciousness, to expand love, truth, knowledge, wisdom. The interpretation of life's events takes place in the Mind. The Mind is the connecting link with Spirit which is Fire, and Body which is Water, which is Ego. Hence Hermes Trismegistus' exclamation, "The All is Mind, the Universe is Mental."

If you can understand that the Mind is the connecting link with Spirit and the Ego, then you have your answer as to how to tame the Ego and grow the Spirit. Learn to control the thoughts of the Mind and by controlling those thoughts you control the actions of the body in the material realm, and you will grow in Spirit and go further away from the lower Ego. Remember you cannot extinguish the Ego entirely, this would result in physical death, but you can grow so far away from the Ego that its impulse doesn't reach you emotionally and you are fully functioning in the Universal Love and draw all of your life inspiration from there.

The All is Mind, the Universe is Mental

The ego feeds on fear; fear of death, fear of life, fear of difference, fear of individuality that was embedded in us when we first saw ourselves in the mirror as something separate from the rest of the world.

Ask yourself, are you separate? You are a compilation of the 5 senses of the body and the 6th sense of the Mind; the link that connects us to the to the Eternal Spirit, the Spirit which is the emotion of Love we feel throughout the day. When you are wronged, forgive. When you are judged, forgive. When you are persecuted, forgive. Don't take on the burdens of others, the weight of their heart, Don't take on their karma of hate, their karma of fear, their ego of illusion of who they think they are.

If you react to them, you are instantly taking into your aura this lower emotion that the Ego uses to define itself and associate with. By doing so, it grows in power and attaches this life lesson to your wheel of Karma which, due to its cyclical nature, will repeat itself in the future until you get it right. This is why Jesus said, "Turn the other cheek."

When faced with it literally, the energy of this lower emotion bounces off your aura and is taken back into the aura of the person who sent it out. This then makes them even more angry and they try to repeat the process again until they win or go completely crazy right in front of you. Over time, you can take control of this process completely, and although it's difficult at first, it gets easier with practice.

You could say anything and everything to Jesus and he would not retaliate if it was something meant to unsettle his Ego. On the other hand, don't confuse this with weakness or a lack of willpower. Remember what Jesus did when he saw merchants using the House of God to make financial profit by selling items to the public. Remember always that every action yields an equal and opposite reaction. People who do things to hurt others are to be corrected until the negativity they are causing is neutralized.

The first lesson of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn is, "Allowing evil to go unpunished makes you its accomplice." It is our duty to intercede if we see negativity directed at the well being of others. Otherwise, we become a part of it. This is also Love, it is Love of humanity to makes us protect him/her and fight for them when needed and necessary. Love lives in Truth. And Truth is like a lion, once released it defends itself. Hence its power in revealing all things hidden.

Things that are against Truth are against Love. Love uses Truth as its medium to know how to behave in the world. The spiritual path of Love comes with great responsibility. First, you learn to function in Love. After you have accomplished that, you learn to use the Ego to fight for Love. This is called Spiritualizing the Ego. It is a higher form of transmutating the Ego, making it do God's work while in the physical body. This naturally occurs after you have learned to control your thoughts, your actions, and perform actions in the name of Love and Truth. Over time, you lose sight of the body-Self and function at the level of True Self and its connection to all living things. Don't be underestimate the challenge; you will be tested until the day you die. It becomes easier once you learn to control the lower form of the Ego.

Awakening of Kundalini: Expansion of True Self as reflection of Universal Self

You were born alone; you will die alone. One day you will be in the ground, the skeletal remains of your once former body. Your Spirit will live on, your Love will never end. You will become absorbed into the cosmic consciousness, the same consciousness that gave you physical life and let you use that body for a duration of time on this planet.

So don't spend this life persecuting others, judging them, or thinking you are better than they are. Your bank account, your clothes, your house, your car; it's all stuff you borrowed in this life. Don't grow your financial riches and die in fear. Grow your love and die happily knowing that you played the game, and you won. It doesn't matter how you lived your life until now, what matters is how you live your life from now on.

We all play a part in this kingdom of Love. It's actually very easy. The next time you think about benefiting yourself and satisfying the desires of your physical body, ask yourself how you can benefit another.

Their race, their nationality, their accent, their place of birth is part of what makes them unique in a beautiful way. Yes, there is war, yes, there is starvation, the rich rule the world, the poor suffer. But YOU have a choice, a choice that starts now.

Change the life of one person and you change the world itself. I am no Christian, I am no Muslim, no Buddhist, no Jew. I am a Universal Man. Black, white, brown — whatever! it doesn't matter. We were born, we will die.

We take part in this beautiful game called Life. Don't let your legacy be your bank account or the ways in which you fed the desires of your physical body. Let your legacy be the depth of your love. How deeply you forgave, how deeply you understood another's pain, and how hard you fought for your virtuous convictions.

Remember always that you are not a physical person having a spiritual existence, but a spiritual person having a physical existence. Hear it, understand it, integrate it, make your life better, make others' lives better. Know that you make a difference. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

Election Day in Narnia: The Kundalini Candidate

"The ancients said, When occupations come to us, we must accept them; when things come to us, we must understand them from the ground up. If the occupations are properly handled by correct thoughts, the light is not scattered by outside things, but circulates according to its own law."

 ~ The Secret of the Golden Flower

Whether you're a Pundit or an everyday citizen, at some level, you have probably become infatuated by the 2016 presidential campaign. The candidates' public and private lives have been been shaken and stirred from just about every perspective — with one exception. Which one is the kundalini candidate? In which one, if any, does the life force burn brightest?

Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson

Let's take them in order, the first being Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton
Hillary is a "policy wonk," denoting, I suppose, that she's wrapped up in the memorization, the understanding, and the discussion of issues and their consequences — more interested in moving pieces on the chessboard of domestic and international affaires than in inner contemplation. She's an intellectual, a quality for which she is reviled and hated by the forces who disagree with her. Nevertheless, according to The Secret of the Golden Flower that's not necessarily a bad thing: "If the occupations are properly handled by correct thoughts, the light is not scattered by outside things, but circulates according to its own law."

In other words, a person with limited contemplative capacities can still lead an effective life — be an effective leader — if his/her "thought process" is not scattered, which in Clinton, it seems, is a matter of whether she's leading or running behind.

After the first debate, when she was anointed the winner, her physiognomy and psyche changed. No longer were bothersome things happening to her, no longer did her responses seem erratic and hesitant. No more "basket of deplorables," a remark that "echoed Mitt Romney’s comment of four years earlier that 47% of Americans don’t pay taxes and thus were unlikely to support his candidacy." No fainting at ceremonies. In fact, she no longer appears rattled by attacks on her support of the Iraq war, her email practices, her involvement with the Clinton foundation, or her Benghazi connection. A big change from earlier weeks, when she appeared to be compounding each misstep with an even worse followup.

What would this mean if she became president? Perhaps it means that relying on intellectual capabilities alone — without a spiritual wellspring to fall back on — she would be fine as long as things were going well, but if things headed the other way, she would become unglued. As long as the demands placed on her could be solved by intellectual prowess, she'd be fine, but when events did not follow the playbook she's memorized, she might become easily rattled and overwhelmed. No one can say for sure, but just look at George W. Bush's first forty-eight hours after 9/11. Would Clinton lose it? Or would she take control?

To some degree, Hillary Clinton's vulnerability does render her more human than Trump, but does that qualify her for the high office?

Donald Trump
Donald Trump, on the other hand, would sit down at the chessboard, knock over his opponent's King, then order a missile strike against all the countries on his shit list. Whatever else he may be, Donald Trump is a high energy person. Trouble is, his energy appears to be active in the wrong channels, which manifests itself in an inability to focus, listen, or control himself. In short, to "adequate" his response to the issue, event, or circumstance at hand. He doesn't respond so much as react, which has him playing defense most of the time. Defending himself instead of proactively addressing an issue.

Because she was able to entice Trump into defending himself on the tax and other issues, Clinton now continues to lure him into situations that are not only unrelated to governing, they are also a waste of valuable time. That makes him easy to manipulate, and instead of recognizing his predicament, he doubles down on irrelevancy, lashing out against those — no matter how lowly — who oppose him.

Donald Trump would be the same person when things were going well or when things were not going well, which is to say that it would be all about Donald Trump. His salesmanship, his claim to being smart because he's escaped paying taxes, his wall, his invincibility, his long fingers. He's a narcissist à la Christopher Lasch's classic book, The Culture of Narcissism: "Notwithstanding his occasional illusion of omnipotence, the narcissist depends on others to validate his self-esteem. He cannot live without an admiring audience."

Narcissism aside, would he be a good leader in a 9/11 event? Something would be done, that's for sure. Something grandiose. Question is, would it be anywhere near the best case scenario? It's not possible to tell; certainly his followers see him as a panacea, but so did Mussolini's!

Like so many who start out following one voice — Trump was supposedly a democrat to begin with — he seems to be at war with the various tendencies inside himself, frequently alluding to how much he's going to do for ethnics and the poor, at the same time he reviles immigrants.

Again, The Secret of the Golden Flower offers insight: "When occupations come to us, we must accept them; when things come to us, we must understand them from the ground up." The Donald often brags about how he learned the construction business and the negotiating and financing of deals from the ground up. Could he learn the presidency in the same manner? Or are the vicissitudes of the two jobs so different as to render him incapable of ever being able to function as president? Especially since he's in denial about crucial issues such as climate change.

It seems to me that a great president must be a great soul. Does Donald Trump qualify? He's certainly not the most mindful candidate.

Jill Stein
This lady's claim to fame seems to be the fact that she's run for office many times, but never won:

• Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, 2002,
• Massachusetts House of Representatives candidate, 2004,
• Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth candidate, 2006,
• Town of Lexington Town Meeting Representative, 2005 and 2008,
• Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, 2010,
• Presidential campaigns: 2012 & 2016

She's a progressive on all issues. Among others, Stein has voiced concern about wireless internet (Wi-Fi) in schools, saying,

"We should not be subjecting kids' brains especially to that... and we don’t follow this issue in our country, but in Europe where they do, you know, they have good precautions about wireless. Maybe not good enough, you know. It’s very hard to study this stuff. You know, we make guinea pigs out of whole populations and then we discover how many die."

Gary Johnson
I got to watch a tiny portion of Johnson's Town Hall episode. Once again he got caught in the headlights, unable to answer a question on foreign policy. The media love jumping on a candidate for this, but most of what happens during a presidency is unexpected, and therefore cannot be dealt with by rote. I'd rather have a level-headed person who feels a situation, sizes it up, and knows what to do.

Johnson did wax voluble on one subject: the legalization of marijuana. That's where I felt his passion the most. For his enthusiasm on this issue to get him elected would take a miracle.

The Elephant in the Room: Bernie Sanders
Sanders may be the most mindful of all candidates. Unfortunately for him, he lost in the semi-final. Nevertheless, it's funny how both frontrunners keep citing Sanders and paying tribute to him. After all, during the primaries, polls had him beating all Republicans by a wide margin. He would have turned out a lot of voters.

Is Sanders a great soul? The fact that he's fought so long for so many overlooked issues bears witness to his integrity, but I like to see someone in action before handing him my vote.

Only Gary Johnson (governor of New Mexico) and Donald Trump (as head of his dubious NYC empire) have any executive experience.

While it's probable that persons-we've-never-heard-of might be really good at the job, they are not on the ballot. Our job is to pick the best of the four, even though there's no clear-cut kundalini candidate. Let's hope the winner rises to the challenges of the job as a select few have done in the past.

Kundalini And Out Of Body Experience

My first Out Of Body Experience (OBE) occurred when I was 21, lying in a George Washington University hospital bed after a appendicitis operation for which I was given a morphine injection. I wrote about it in my book, Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time, from which, the following excerpt is taken — a visit to the hospital by my girlfriend at the time, Madeline:

JJ: “I was in this half-state between sleep and waking. A great glowing light filled the room. Suddenly, I was floating upward. When I reached the ceiling, I realized I could steer myself. I’m having trouble though. I command myself to roll over and I’m looking down at my physical body, asleep in the bed, and I realize that I’m in an altogether different body.”
Madeline: “So?”
JJ: “So I stayed up there watching my body asleep in the bed. I knew I could leave the room, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to get back. I knew I’d see amazing things, but I figured I had to return to my body, that I wasn’t ready to take off and leave it.”
Madeline: “Hummph.”
JJ: “Well, it opened my mind… Perhaps, I shouldn’t say ‘mind’ because the mind may not be part of it.”

Until my Kundalini awakening fourteen years later, I had no further OBEs. Since activating Kundalini, I've had numerous Astral Body experiences and am now able to put myself into the state at will. How is that possible? OBE can be learned. Yes, you can train yourself to leave your body at will. In my OBEs, I have experienced many of the abilities to:

• Fly like a bird and even visit outer space,
• Walk through solid objects like walls, ceilings etc,
• Meet loved ones who have "passed on,"
• Grow spiritually and gain awareness of your True self,
• Visit the Akashic Records and see the past and the probable future,
• Increase your psychic abilities,
• No longer fear death,
• Become a better problem-solver,
• Become a better person in all areas of your life,
• Engage with the pet (especially your cat) in an OBE,
• Heal yourself physically and mentally.

Is an active kundalini necessary for OBE? It certainly doesn't hurt. Many kundalini adepts have shared most of, if not all of, these effects. But is it absolutely necessary? Aren’t the effects of an OBE a subset of Kundalini effects? Given the large number of OBE accounts over the centuries, I think they are. People have been experiencing OBEs without ever knowing about, or even having heard, the term Kundalini. In its own right — Kundalini is perhaps more difficult to activate, especially on a permanent basis.

Again, I experienced the Out-of-Body state spontaneously, and also as a result of kundalini. Perhaps, my first experience acted as a "warm-up" — a signal that this faculty would lie dormant until my meta-body was sufficiently reprogrammed, in my case, by kundalini, a condition that would eventually enable me to summon my Astral Body at will.

Only recently with the explosion of self-realization studies has a critical mass of interest in both OBE and Kundalini appeared, which has led to OBE self-learning materials.

Should you become interested and wish to explore OBE, one critical point to remember is: You retain conscious control over all your impulses. Just like my experience in the George Washington Hospital when I decided to pull back, you can exert the same kind of control. In other words, you can move forward incrementally, only undertaking OBE as you are able to master your emotions: fear, anxiety, etc.

I meet and talk with many people about meditation, NDE, OBE, mindfulness, enlightenment, and kundalini. It's easy to distinguish a genuine seeker from boastful pretender. Detached, yet present, emotionally composed, the seeker acts as a receiver and transmitter of metaphysical actuality, proving their capabilities over many years. 

Since awakening my Kundalini 40 years ago, I have mastered the techniques and highly endorse OBE as a means of spiritual development. Once you master it, there's no limit to the insights into the cycle of life and death that an OBE bestows on you, the traveler.

Dream Energy

One of the strongest impacts Kundalini has on me concerns the way I sleep and the falling-asleep and waking-up processes, and I wonder if other people have experienced the same thing.

During the day Kundalini strips away anxieties, irritations and fears. When Kundalini’s at hand, it’s easy to see, almost visually, a big package of angst or negativity welling up from your stomach and to simply look away from it and let it turn into simple, pure energy, part of the continuum. Kundalini certainly improves task-oriented functioning as well as clarifying one’s position in the world at large.

At night, asleep, the energy’s just as strong, but it works differently. For the last couple of years I’ve been waking up to find myself pinned to the bed by a sort of shining stillness. There are no thoughts or feelings, just a bright force holding me still in the position that I’ve happened to wake up in (either flat on my back, or mostly on my right side, stretched out fully, not curled up). If I’ve got to go to work, be on the train in twenty minutes, think about placing an order with the builders’ merchants, tell my customers I need some more money — this stillness gets wasted. But since I’ve been back in Thailand with my wife and only teaching two days a week, I’ve been able to let this waking stillness, breathing very slowly and deeply, Kundalini intense and bright, take its own course and take hold of me. It usually lasts for about an hour. I have the feeling that I haven’t dreamed much, or at all, during the night (though, of course, it’s hard to say for sure) and that this bright stillness is dream energy, the subtle energy that would normally have gone into dreaming, but which has stayed in its raw, unmanifested state and hasn’t somehow allowed my brain to make dream narratives, faces, or places out of it. I checked this out in some books and believe that this bright still energy is what in Tantra is called tejas.

After an hour or so the stillness starts to burn, the Kundalini heat becomes more intense, thoughts start up, and at a certain point I reach a sort of overload, and it’s time to get up. But what then becomes crucial is that this prone, lying-down state of the last hour gets balanced by some uprightness and concentration. So, after a wash and ten minutes on the balcony getting used to looking at things again (mountains, a river, a singlet used to clean the floor) and listening to things (birds, insects, someone panel beating up on the highway), I sit in straight-backed, upright meditation for another hour. The stillness and the Kundalini are much the same but, for me, there’s something vital about being centred and upright (not lying down any more.) In alchemy, the prone position, symbolised by a horizontal line represents the Waters and Cosmic Female and the upright position, symbolised by a vertical line, represents Fire and the Cosmic Male. I have a hunch that there’s a lot in this and would be interested to know whether other people have experienced this same altered relationship between sleep and wakefulness once Kundalini is activated.