Saturday, March 16, 2024


ENERGY AND VIBRATION - MORE ESOTERIC AFFECTS (B)


PARANORMAL ABILITIES 


Synchronicity


Jung first described this phenomenon. Simply speaking this occurs when an inner, mind event corresponds to an outer event. For example one is thinking of a good friend from college whom one has not seen in many years and the phone rings with him or her on the line. This arises because of a strong emotional bond between the two. It is not coincidental but is a result of the receiver picking up psychically on the intention to call.

Alternatively it may be scripted by the "Field" or one's guides. For instance one may be looking under "Spirituality" in a bookstore and the right one almost jumps off the shelf by managing to get your attention in some way.


Coherence 


Was first brought into the limelight by the Maharishi. The Maharishi university claimed that when a critical number of people in a city meditated, the crime rate would drop. We know that coherence occurs during group meditations where the sum of the parts is great than the whole. Coherence around a person or a group does spread beyond the immediate environment and can even affect the supernal realms. Indigenous peoples understand the power of coherence since rituals are often done in community - it takes a village. 

Religious communities who meet in churches, temples, mosques and synagogues can create coherence. Prayers for peace or rain may be more effective than skeptics allow.

The Heart Math Institute have show that when there is coherence due to a parasympathetic nervous system "relaxation" response, the Heart Rate Variability stabilizes. The heart appears to be a "spiritual" organ having more output and affects going to the brain than input from it. 


Super-fluidity (being in the “Zone”) 


This is when events that may be quite complex proceed and unfold perfectly on their own accord for no apparent reason.  Competitive athletes strive to get into this zone for their performance. It seems that that some mystical power from "Field" is conspiring to assist the event.


More advanced Paranormal Abilities include:


Precognition, Telepathy 

Telekinesis 

Clair/voiance/audience/sentience 
Remote Viewing or Distant Diagnosis, Distant Healing  
Connecting with Field, spirit guides, dreams 
and trance-channeling 


Telekinesis is the ability of someone to move objects psychically. That someone is not really doing the job. The result is coming through the diviner's guide/s or another "Field" effect. The rod itself may point correctly but has no power rested within it and nor does the diviner without the Field. 


"Whatever being comes to be, be it motionless or moving, derives its  being from Field and Knower of the Field. Know this." Bhagavad Gita


Remote or distant viewing has been studied by the the Russians, the C.I.A. and Stanford University and found to be evidential. Someone talented in this ability can be placed in a lead chamber without any influence from the outside world and a volunteer sent to a place with features that would be easy for anyone to describe. The remote viewers were found to be incredibly accurate in their descriptions. 

Distant diagnosis occurs through a similar mechanism through a skilled psychic, shaman, medical intuitive or others.

There are numerous double blind studies showing that distant healing works even when placebo is discounted and the sick person does not know that healing has been administered.  The effect is so significant that if it could be marketed as a pill it would be negligent not to administer it. 


Everyone's gift will be unique so that we should not strive to replicate those of others but honor our own and develop them, even if they seem less masterful and compelling. No single person will have all or many of these abilities. We need to acknowledge and practice our strengths - each to his/her own. Clair-sentience is common to many. If we ignore that feeling, whether its a feeling in the gut, shivers running up the spine, hair standing on end, goose (or truth) bumps or anything else we may do so at our peril. These primal experiences are still with us to keep us safe. Never override them with one's intellect. The same can be true for warning dreams, whether coming from the subconscious, the Field or scripted by our guides.



Saturday, March 9, 2024

 

ENERGY SYSTEMS - THE EFFECTS OF MASTERY (A)

These maps to spirit give us an idea as to where we have been, where we are now and where we want to go.

Each experience is a moment between moments, a dancing in the mystery of the void
…. where one encounters the Source of power.

In a prior blog we talked about the Oneness Experience or Unity Consciousness and how it resembles Maslow's Peak Experience. In addition there are others effects that indicate we are attaining some degree  of mastery.

KUNDALINI'S POTENTIAL

Apart from these phenomena mentioned in the prior blog; (heat, vibrational energy, creeping sensations, tingling - usually rising up the spine, light experiences, inner sounds, smells, an empty mind, transcendence, being transported beyond oneself, feelings of intense love, empathy, compassion, out of body experiences, spontaneous movements, paranormal powers, paralysis, fallingshamanic states, connecting with spirit guides or ancestors et al ...) There also may be: 

Becoming, Self Realization/Enlightenment.

For the yogi or others committed to spiritual transformation Self-

realization, Enlightenment or Becoming (a term the Ancestors prefer) 

is of major import.

Initiation. 

This especially applies to shamanic rites of passage. 

In indigenous communities the energy is channeled for initiation of the 

shaman with the use of entheogens (especially in the Americas) or 

with drumming and dancing (especially in sub 

saharan Africa.) 

Magical powers.

Magical abilities including control of fire (that goes beyond fire 

walking) and shape shifting are usually unique to shamans in 

indigenous cultures and Eastern adepts

Some Westerners have also mastered these abilities. These also include 

trance states, trance-channelling and out of body experiences.

Healing States and Spontaneous Remission of Disease. 

The Inner Healer is part of the soul and has incredible capabilities. 

The more we connect with the Creator, the

Higher Self as well as faith, belief, trust and surrender the more we 

empower the Inner Healer and subordinate the fear that sabotages the 

miracle of healing. Even spontaneous remission of diseases that 

have defied the best of what Western medicine has to offer, is possible.

Shaktipat. 

 is the ability of a guru or a spiritual avatar to mobilize the 

Kundalini by imparting it to the student, usually with touch. Shaktipat 

is a process where, through grace, a guru can transfer this 

energy and vibration to a devotee who is ready.  This 

cannot be imposed by force nor can the receiver make it happen. 

San Bushmen healers were 

said to shoot "invisible arrows" into an initiate having difficulty 

breaking into the trance state to help them attain out of body spirit 

flight. Their process may be similar to Shaktipat.

"Psychosis."

Spiritual crisis can occur with the radical, uncontrollable, movement of 

Kundalini in the body. This mislabelled "psychosis"  is a serious side 

effect of  Kundalini energy overwhelming a spiritual neophyte 

or others that have no guidance about how to recognize and handle 

this calamity.

 Lee Sannella, a psychiatrist, wrote a book on the Kundalini 

Experience showing how its misdiagnosis could lead not only to

ineffectiveness but the abortion of a vital spiritual process,

as well as the side effect from anti-psychotic drugs. 

Time, space and matter comprise our physical universe and the source of power lies beyond the material, beyond time, space and matter.

OTHER EMPOWERMENTS RELATED TO MOVING KUNDALINI

"Out there beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there 

is a Field. I will meet you there." Rumi


 In addition to Self-Realization or "Becoming" (a term the 

Ancestors prefer) some other phenomena

just short of this advanced state include;

 Being, Awareness and Awakening,

contact with the “Field” and receiving downloads from spirit while 

awake or asleep.

More intimacy with the Self/Soul, one's 

destiny as well as contact with one's guides especially in dreams.

The strengthening of Faith, Belief, Hope, Trust and Surrender.

When we open our heart chakras and embrace compassion 

and empathy a natural consequence is developing more  

forgiveness, gratitude, happiness and meaning in our lives.


In other words ...

As our practice deepens, we rise up the Tree of Life or the chakra hierarchy and our transformation increases as follows. 

Initially we temper our fears and our lower survival, energy centers. Next, we begin to experience increasing levels of humility as we subordinate ego and become non-attached to the material and the grooming of the persona with "stuff." 

Then we encompass more love and have the ability to see the divine in others as we open our hearts. We "Sweeten" our judgments and when we judge, we judge the action and not the person.

Eventually we become more truly expressive of our real Selves and whichever core strength we possess. We get in touch with this signature strength, or better still our true destiny path given to us by the Creator. 

Just below the crown we subordinate doubt, denial, cynicism, resignation, detachment and hopelessness to hope, faith, belief, trust and surrender and even develop a personal connection with the Infinite One. We may also develop more intuitive powers from opening the Third Eye or the sephira of Wisdom.


Walk the path with awareness of both the something and the nothing, of the realm of what is sensed and known and the realm of what is neither sensed nor known.

Each experience of this awareness is a moment between moments, a dancing in the mystery of the void….where one encounters the Source of pow
er.


Saturday, February 24, 2024

 

ENERGY SYSTEMS - ANCIENT MAPS TO THE SELF #3

It is best to review the last blog before reading this one.

PATANJALI'S SHEATHS OF CONSCIOUSNESS



Patanjali described Five Energy Sheaths which compliment our understandings of how we transcend. They help to complete the chakra model. 

The Food or Body Sheath speaks for itself. It behooves us to maintain this to the best of our body's ability. It is a gift to be in a sentient body. This is why the Ancestors stress sensory driven meditations. We are here to enjoy - but responsibly.

The Energy Sheath is key to moving Kundalini or increasing our vibration with meditation, yoga postures (asanas) and breath meditation (pranayama) or any inner practice.

The Mind Sheath or Monkey Mind (Narrow Mind) is our primitive mind that neuroscience with F.M.R.I. studies has shown to be localized in the primitive brain. It is linked to our survival, fight or flight response and the sympathetic nervous system. Nothing creative occurs here. Monkey Mind dominates - even more than it does in most of us - especially in those with anxiety, depression, O.C.D.  P.T.S.D. and other psychological or emotional imbalances. The only way to tame the Monkey chattering messages of suffering sitting on our shoulders is with spiritual practice. This sheath harbors our primitive emotions and fear - fight or flight and even freeze (panic disorders) and feigning death (in animals.) 
Monkey Mind is the source of our unskillful emotions such as; desires, compulsions, habits (procedural memory) and minor as well as major addictions.

We are entitled to our feelings but responsible for their expression (our emotions.)

Monkey Mind and fear can also induce the toxic emotions of anger, hatred, malice, envy and the desire for vengeance and retribution. These operate in conjunction with our shadow or evil inclination.
Most of us default to Monkey Mind unless we have a regular inner practice.

"Golden verses of Pythagoras speak of storms coming and going. 

The wise person like the good sailor knows how to rid them. 

Know your weaknesses and inclinations that you can temper them with your strength." Anonymous.


The Intellectual Sheath, (Spacious Mind, Buddha Mind, Christ Consciousness or Big Mind) has been shown in F.M.R.I. studies to reside in the prefrontal lobe. Advanced meditators tend to have a greater neuronal density and activity here and default more easily to Big Mind during or more quickly after stress. The Intellectual Sheath is connected to the Causal body and is the source of our creativity as well as; our beliefs, concepts, notions, ideas, ideals, aspirations, discriminations and discernments. This sheath connects us to our parasympathetic, relaxation response which can allow access to love, the Field, our guides, ancestors, dreams and the Creator.
This sheath allows control over our feelings. 
There are only two feelings love and fear. Spiritual practitioners are more easily able to identify when fear is operating and handle it by subordinating it to love. 

Emotions run high feelings run deep.
Emotions require discipline.
Feelings require nurturing. 

The better one controls emotions the more one can express feelings.


According to Patanjali the Mind Sheath, the Intellectual Sheath and the Ego form a triad which is always in flux. Usually, and especially under stress, Monkey Mind and Ego dominateThis triad has been called the Subtle body. This triad is necessary to keep us safe in tricky situations but otherwise should be put on hold by the Intellectual sheath (Spacious Mind.) This sheath is linked to the Causal body.
Its important to realize that Self-condemnation and recrimination (as in the Higher Self) can put the system in lockdown mode, limiting access to the prefrontal love and love. Shame, which is a crippling emotional force can do the same. Remorse and regret are feeling bad about what we did, shame is feeling bad about who we are. Guilt can lie somewhere in-between depending on how severe it is.

Self-condemnation strengthens guilt and is one of the greatest impediments on the path of Self-realization." Yoga wisdom

The Intellectual sheath is put on hold when we fail to move our energy from the lower, survival chakras into the upper, growth chakras above the diaphragm and when we reside in the lower chakras.
When our Intellectual Sheath dominates we are able to access the Causal body. 
Meditation, yoga asanas and pranayama help us to get there by increasing our vibration, enhancing the Energy Sheath and subordinating Ego and Monkey Mind. Spiritual knowledge and awareness can also help keep them in check so that we can realize Self.

With all your strength get spiritual knowledge!

"Store Consciousness" is the "soulular" memory of our past lives - good or bad - which resides in our subconscious. These are the skeletons (or blessings) in the closet of our past life experiences which also determine whether we move into the Subtle or the Causal body. When the negative ones come out of the closet, they too are managed by spiritual practice.

In the center of the model is the Sheath of Bliss where the Higher Self resides. Bliss, ecstasy and oneness can be realized when we are able to move our Kundalini, feminine, Shakti, energy into the Crown chakra where it can unite with the masculine, Shiva, to attain Unity Consciousness. This is not easy and unless we are advanced practitioners, usually comes only fleetingly by grace; when the Knower, the Known and the process of knowing fuse and become one thing.

Our task is to prime the frontal lobe with inner practice and subordinate Ego to the Higher Self and Monkey (Narrrow) Mind to Intellectual Sheath (Spacious Mind) so that we can attain equanimity, harmony, serenity, inner peace or balance.




Sunday, February 18, 2024

 

ENERGY SYSTEMS - ANCIENT MAPS TO THE SELF #2



Moving Kundalini is to enhance one's vibration. 
The San Bushmen, hunter-gatherers, as shown in genomic studies, were the first people. The original manifestation of Yoga Kundalini or "Num" arose out of the nature bound experience in Africa. There is 28,000 year old rock art from the Apollo cave in Namibia showing trance dancing and shape shifting.

Wilderness holds the answers to questions we do not yet know how to ask.” David Brower


“Nature hides her secrets with consummate modesty and speaks usually in an unintelligible tongue.” Charles Huggins


This sketch of a rock art figure shows this vibrational "Num" rising up the body of a San Bushman trance dancer. This allows the spirit to leave the body and travel into the Field where s/he can obtain information not localized in space and time. This power has allowed these fascinating people to hunt, gather and heal for millennia. San healers are renowned for their healing power and their hunters for their tracking and hunting expertise. Some do not have to look at the tracks to find their prey. "We put on animal mind as see where they are going..." 

 




This figure above, called the Needle and Thread is from the Nazca lines in the southern desert of Peru. These figures have to be viewed from a plane because they are so large. It is thought by some curanderos to have been related to the shamanic experience and mobilization of this force with the use of mescaline from the San Pedro cactus which is bountiful in Peru. Jungle shamans use Ayahuasca for the same purpose. The figure beautifully demonstrates this energy coiled at the base of the spine (in yoga like a serpent,) then it moves up the spine to the crown. This energy is key to opening up of the Third Eye of the curandero so s/he can divine, diagnose and treat.


THE CHAKRA SYSTEM


There have been many differing interpretations of this energy system over the ages. In yoga there are thought to be 72,000 nadis or energy channels impinging on the seven chakras. The three lower chakras are related to survival and comprise the following.

The first chakra is our primal survival, flight or fight response. 
The second chakra is the sexual center for regeneration of the species as well as for digestion and elimination of the bodies waste products. 
The third is where ego is centered and is our power chakra and how we make our way in the world.
 
The chakras above the diaphragm are our growth centers. 
The fourth, the heart, is the chakra of Love and the hardest one to open.
 The fifth, in the throat, is that of our creative expression. 
The sixth or Third Eye is our intuitive chakra.
 The Crown or seventh, is our connection with the Deity, Unity Consciousness and non duality.

The three main nadis coursing up the spine are the Sun (Pingala) and Moon ((Ida) nadis which spiral around the chakras and the central channel or Sushumna. The Sun Nadi ends in the right nostril and the Moon in the left. This is the basis of alternate nostril breathing and other forms of pranayama which balance the system. The Sun is masculine, left brain, hot (red), expansive and is aligned with our sympathetic nervous system. 
The Moon is feminine, right brain, cool (blue) and aligned with our parasympathetic, relaxation response
. The Kundalini, serpent, Shakti, feminine energy is wound around the lower part of Central (Sushumna) channel. When the Sun and Moon are in complete balance this serpent energy can move up the spine energizing the chakras. If Shakti reaches the masculine principle, Shiva, at the crown, Unity Consciousness or the Oneness experience occurs. The Knower, the Known and the Process of Knowing become one. 

Click on the link to view the San out of body trance dance filmed in the Kalahari in 2000 by the author. Tribal peoples in Southern Africa  have used Kundalini , Num, Umbilini ... to heal, hunt and survive over the eons.

videos_5.html



Sunday, February 11, 2024

 

THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF 

 NAVIGATING THE APOCALYPSE 


"To listen a soul into disclosure and discovery is the greatest service one human being can offer another." Quaker saying


Connecting with Self occurs when we balance the polarities found in these energy maps; positive-negative, feminine-masculine, moon-sun, ying-yang, right brain-left brain, and the autonomic, parasympathetic-sympathetic.


"The fundamental notion of equilibrating the opposites is omnipresent in all beliefs. This universal truth is crucial to our understanding of how we transcend, keep well and heal."

 Dave Cumes (Inner Passages, Outer Journeys)


ENERGY SYSTEMS - ANCIENT MAPS TO THE SELF #1


These are the final Blogs in this Series


Modern science creates impressive names for mystical phenomena and things we do not fully understand, such as coherence, physiological arousal, cathartic conversion experience, medical intuitive, distant mental influence on biological systems etc. An understanding of energy maps, however, allows us a deeper appreciation of the Search for the Self and where we are on the journey. 

A byproduct can be the ability to access, experience and use paranormal phenomena. Ancient wisdom warns us, however, not to turn our quest into an ego driven power trip.



"In the samadhi (enlightenment) that comes at the end of reasoning and discrimination no such thing as I exists but it is extremely difficult to attain as Iconsciousness lingers so persistently. This is why humans are born again and again."
  
Sri Rama Krishna


The essential principle in ascending this energy hierarchy is the yoga concept of Kundalini. 


The Kundalini in the form of latency is coiled like a serpent. One who impels this Shakti to move will attain liberation.”
Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Kundalini is not confined to Yoga philosophy. We all have this primal, feminine, "Shakti" energy, described as a serpent coiled around the base of the spine. All Southern African tribal peoples recognize this feminine power residing in the lower belly. Some describe it as a snake. The Zulus call it Umbilini and the San-Bushman, Num. This power is key to the initiation of the sangoma (Zulu equivalent of shaman.)
The biggest impediment to moving this energy is the ego. 

"God cannot be realized if there is the slightest trace of pride. " Upanishads

There is no room for God in him who is full of himself. The sages tell us concerning the proud man; God says; I and he cannot dwell together in the world Talmud

"S/He who loses himself, will find himSelf." Jesus

SOME KUNDALINI MANIFESTATIONS

“A humans spiritual consciousness is not awakened until his/her Kundalini is aroused.” Sri Ramakrishna


Heat, vibrational energy, creeping sensations, tingling - rising up the spine, light experiences, inner sounds, smells, spontaneous movements, paranormal powers, paralysis, falling, an empty mind, transcendence, being transported beyond oneself, feelings of intense love, empathy, compassion, out of body experiences, shamanic states, connecting with spirit guides or ancestors et al ...
Everyone's experience will be unique so that we should not try to replicate those of others but honor our own, even if less dramatic. 
For indigenous peoples it can manifest as mastery of fire, shape-shifting as well as the large body experience seen in their rock art. The large or elongated body is perceived below when traveling out of body and is later represented on the rock face by the artist as is the shape shifting.





The yogis describe Unity Consciousness or the Oneness Experience occurring when 

THE KNOWER- THE KNOWN-AND THE PROCESS OF KNOWING 
all fuse into one thing.
This is not as exotic as one might think. For instance; 
 THE KNOWER 
you
 THE KNOWN 
say you looking at a rainbow 
 and 
THE PROCESS OF KNOWING 
the rainbow 
fuse into one thing and you become the rainbow.
For most of us it is fleeting but it is an experience of non-duality which can be ecstatic.

"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there." Roshi

Maslow called this a Peak Experience which he said could occur in the following circumstances (among others;) meditation, solitude, sex, childbirth, music, dance, drumming, art, body awareness, in nature and during a scientific discovery.
Some poetic examples of this phenomenon are described below.

"Haze hung over the valley, light as gossamer and clouds partially dimmed the higher cliffs and mountains. This obscurity of vision increased the awe with which I beheld it and as I looked a peculiar exalted sensation seemed to fill my whole being and I found my eyes in tears with emotion." Dr. L. Bunnell (on entering Yosemite valley with the first white party to ever see it.)

"And then it was as if all the chains of a type of slavery dropped from me with such a rush that they tinkled and rattled in my imagination…a great rush of emotion swept over me that was impossible to describe, except that all its urges and manifestations met in a wordless cry; I have come home! 

L. Van der Post. (After he returned from the war to South Africa, having been interned in a Japanese concentration camp. He had this Oneness Experience with a huge kudu bull which emerged out of the bush while he was trekking.)


These experiences are common with drugs, and entheogens - sacred mind-altering plants used in ritual by indigenous peoples. Use of entheogens is becoming common place now in the West. It is good to be careful of ego stepping in after these experiences. The plants should be used to subordinate and humble us, rather than enhance the ego.

"A mere glimpse of reality can be mistaken for complete realization." Gampopa

"Drugs allow us to taste the beyond but do not make us masters of the transcendental." Sri Satyananda
Some adepts have said that dramatic Kundalini experiences are more common when the energy moves in young souls. Older souls are already more energetically aligned and therefore the changes can be subtle. In a sense it is a "slow burn" rather than an inferno. Rather it should be a positive "cathartic conversion experience." One has to be careful moving this energy because it can be confusing and dibilitating to the uninformed. Lee Sannella, a psychiatrist, wrote about how it could be confused as psychosis. This is a spiritual emergency rather than a psychosis. The remedy is to honor it as possibly life-changing rather than suppressing it with anti-psychotic drugs. Stansilov and Christina Grof in the 60's, with their work on L.S.D., coined the term Spiritual Emergency - when spiritual emergence became too intense and an emergency. They founded the Spiritual Emergence Network to help those having these radical, transformative, spiritual experiences.