More on Kundalini, Num or Umbilini

         With the emergence of Hindu texts in English and the West's recent passion for Hatha Yoga practices, many of us have become acquainted with the idea of Kundalini energy. Though we may talk about this mystical force and try to use esoteric Kundalini practices, few of us have mastered it. Bushmen healers and sangomas in Southern Africa have, and they use it regularly in their healing. 

All healing involves four factors: the healer, the patient, the place where healing occurs, and the presence of a universal "Field" which embraces both healer and patient. The best medicine occurs when patient, healer, and place communicate through the "Field," which itself is not localized in space and time. Healer and patient are both within an infinite cosmic Field of potential supported by the spirit world. By achieving balance and guiding their inner energies or life forces, they are able to penetrate deeper into, and harness some of the immense diagnostic and healing capacity of the Field.  Black healers in South Africa would call the hidden potential in the Field the ancestors. They are masters of the Field. The passport to the Field is the Kundalini, Num or Umbilini.

         If one were to visit a sangoma who, without knowing you, could diagnose your health situation in the past, present, and future, you would be receiving information not localized in time. If at the same time he were to tell you about the health of your children living in another country, this would be information not localized in space. These shamans are now politely called "medical intuitives" in the West. The diagnostic information they can provide can be uncannily accurate. This technology has been and is available to all peoples in Southern Africa through the sangomas with the help of the ancestral spirits. The term ancestors is a broad one and can include spirits that are not from your immediate blood line. We all reincarnate in and out of many lifetimes and may have been through a myriad of different cultures or religions in the past. Anyone who loved you in a past life time could become a "foreign ancestor" and this is why some people have exotic spirit guides; e.g. Tibetan, Bushman, Celtic etc.

The competence of our Inner Healer is proportional to the strength of the life force. Any inner practice that augments our life force will not only assist the Inner Healer but will also help us enter the Field. The ability to move Kundalini energy may be a supreme example of this balance and harmony. 

Many cases of "cure" in aboriginal cultures may have occurred because of skill in moving this energy. The sangoma connects with universal healing energy with the help of the ancestors through the gateway of this force.  

The Inner Healer is enabled if we intensify our internal energy, life force or Moya (Zulu), Prana (Yoga), Qi or Chi (Taoist), Ruach (Hebrew.) 

In order to enhance this vital energy and connect more intimately with the Field we need some form of inner practice, such as prayer, meditation, imagery, Yoga, or Tai Chi. Native South African peoples use drumming, dancing, chanting, and singing. Our intuitive and psychic abilities are facilitated when the energy moves up the spine to the crown. 

The Field is non-local, and within it is the universal mind or universal consciousness. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, would have called this the collective unconscious. From a Jungian point of view the sangoma has the ability to access an archetypal world.  It is in this world that the healers encounter profound information from the ancestors.

Schematic rendition of the Yoga Chakra System