With a kundalini self-care program we are literally capturing the energies of nature and putting them into the cells!
Kundalini will permanently rewire the bodymind to release the stored tension of the body armor, but one has to be physically/mentally/emotionally and spiritually developed enough to handle the kundalini. If there is a significant loosening of the armor without sustained integral practice and intent, then the armor will reinstate itself and rubber band back into place. Following are tools of self-recovery for the dispossessed self--for all we do to our self in the form of contraction, denial, negation, abuse, shaming, neglect in an attempt to avoid our True Nature. This set of kundalini coping skills is gleaned from spontaneous arising solutions stemming from many years of process, and merely hints at what is possible.
This list of practices and tools is not meant to disempower you to find your own way through the storm, for I think each of us can find whatever answers we need within ourselves. Thus a kundalini awakening is its own solution if we listen deeply and trust. Since it is the energy of individuation it is the source of creativity and gnosis. To find ourSelf we need not look beyond our Selves. A sovereignty that comes through another or needs the confirmation of another is not much of a sovereignty is it? Hence to thine own Self be true. I think a combo of strengthening, stretching, shaking, aerobic, listening, exploring, extending, feeling, fast and slow, grounding and vocalizing practices to be the "best." Whatever we are called to do by the energy itself, and you will find kundalini literally commands you to be out in nature.
If ones spiritual focus does not actually contribute to an expansion and deepening of ones life and ones contribution to Life, then such a focus is a idle waste of time, consciousness and energy, and indeed a waste of Life.
- Gratitude--gets the whole ball moving to melt the fear and resistance to life that has solidified in the body. It also helps deal with the disorientation and vulnerability inherent in opening oneself up to the world. We don't really know the meaning of gratitude until we experience the amplified love and heart expansion generated by a kundalini awakening. Gratitude is the measure of our aliveness. It is insurance against stress, hypertension and depression, and it increases happiness and efficacy.
- Big Fun Practice— Big Fun is the transcendent condition of metanoia. It is actually disembedded from body, mind, circumstance and conditions—it is a priori state or attitude—it is an unconditional perspective of sublime humor. Emotional self-perpetuation determines our experience of existence. Happiness fires up the prefrontal lobes and so “play” naturally makes us more creative. Novelty is a permutation that allows reconstruction and refinement. Thus because it increases consciousness in stream of daily life Big Fun is our growing edge and our highest practice! I want to distinguish between the normal way we think of pleasure and fun and Big Fun. Big Fun is an upheaval of our comfortzone, we are not just playing around, we are Really Playing in full originality and resourcefulness. That is we are performing in perfect sync in the moment without hesitancy, ego blockage or shades of depression that would pull us back from our edge. Big Fun is life in the raw. In Big Fun the “content” of our lives finds a peaceful resting place in the spaciousness of Big Mind and we have room to expand out to the totality of our lives periscoped into the moment. It is not the normal myopic-fun we try to have from a sense of deprivation with our addictions, substitute gratifications, entertainment, or social distractions. Big Fun is not of Thanatos, but of Eros so it is not had by "trying" but by "being." By alignment of body, mind and soul to live the life of the Spirit. And since Spirit is already complete Big Fun is a liberating radiance rather than a coying need. Big Fun is transpersonal, it is transcendent of the life of the mind and body. Big Fun is transcendent of work, duty, family and relationships...it is a cathartic transmutation of daily life. It is the Grand Adventure...the dance of the Muse in the Eternal. It is the integration of the soul in ones lived experience, in the engagement of Kosmic Purpose...Big Fun is Nomind, Flow, “I and the Father are one,” Noself; and the only thing standing in the way of Big Fun is fear. The Big Fun prerogative is to express ever more genuine and higher fun—to take fun where no man has gone before—to bring serious fun into the lives of others. To not just be pumped up on the hysterical pretend fun of Thanatos, but to be engaged in the real thing—Spiritual Fun (Eros). Big Fun is redemption, release, relief, purification, rarefaction, rebirth, redemption, forgiveness, salvation, sanctification, validation, absolution, atonement, transubstantiation, rebirth, innovation and revolution. Big Fun is the most strenuous practice demanding the most acute growth curve and pious effort to remain on focus as to the next spontaneous Big Fun action. Our experience will evolve over time to more genuine and deeper forms of Big Fun. How does ones Big Fun fits into the larger scheme of things, will it be a force for social change and transformation? How much Big Fun can I allow ourselves? What are the consequences of Big Fun? What am I doing here if not to have Big Fun? What is Big Fun in the 21st Century?
- Solar Plexus Breathing--Breathing and Toning are the number one kundalini coping skills. We can prevent morbid overextension of both the on and off sides of the nervous system by conscious breathing into the largest plexus of the body--the solar plexus. If we find ourselves either in a high or a slump then long walks focused on such solar plexus breathing help to integrate and balance the energy. This is the major way to cope with panic states, excess sex energy or excess energy in general when the sympathetic nervous system is hyperactivated. But also solar plexus breathing is especially important years after an awakening to aid in the integration and establishment of the spiritual will and prevent a morbid hyper-parasympathetic condition of stagnation and depression. The solar plexus is the seat of shame and one of the greatest areas that propagate self-division.
- Vortex Zero-point Meditation—Spiritual myths and laws (formop) are “external” training in the ability to act automatically. But we need “inner” training on the ability to act in Kairos...that is in sync with the universe...in God's time.
I found one method we can do this, I call it Vortex Zero-point Meditation! First you go watch some Schauberger clips at google video and look for the upward twisting vortex...imprint that image on your mind. While lying in bed, deeply rested, visualize the upward pulling vortex as you draw your body’s energies into it. You will find all thoughts and concerns disappear and the body may go through a series of "sudden falls" into increasingly relaxed zones as you do this. You may also find that your upward spinning vortex may take some twists and turns and even go downwards. Just watch this deviation, and eventually return once more to the powerful upward spinning tornado. Remember I said that toning helps to restore a harmonious higher frequency to our psychesoma, in a similar way that vortexing water helps to clear it from the memory of harmful pollutant frequencies. Well, this vortex meditation operates in a similar fashion to "wipe the slate clean" through the awesome power of the visual field and the inner kinesthetic sense of the mind’s eye.
- Full Already Breathing Meditation--Consider that the Golem in us is created out of deprivation, fear and pain. We can directly approach this state rather than working through the myriad of content within the Golem personality. You lie on you stomach in bed and breathe into your belly. On the in breath you think "Full" and on the out breath you think "Already." You keep doing this till the sense of need, Void and lack of Presence in the belly is relieved. I think half hour sessions would be good for a start, tuning in nightly. By lying on your belly you get a tactile sense of the "hole" in ones belly and by felt-sensing the words "Full Already" it's like calling ones spirit home. The more you do this the more you get a sense of what it is you are depriving yourself of, your "precious" Presence, and what being Full Already means in all facets of ones life. Happiness comes down to our ability to generate unconditional joy as our baseline state. The karma of our daily life reflects our capacity to en-joy ourselves...that is to fill ourselves with joy simply through breathing and being alive. I notice that if you are mindful of the air atoms hitting the nostrils, you can actually generate en-joyment. Then once is the chemical state of en-joyment, then the duality/samsara is not as convincing, we do not get "stuck" so much.
- Rejuvenating Breath--As you exhale: First you tone Saah, this empties the bottom of the lungs, then Huum, this empties the middle of the lungs, then Ommm this empties the top of the lungs. And you carry the ommm up into the head. The effect of this is quite refreshing. Another type of regenerating breath that is good for energy integration during panic attacks or heart expansions is Fish Breathing. The mouth is completely relaxed an open, you breath in and out of the mouth without a pause between in and out breath. This is especially effective while walking. The continuous, nonpause breathing can be done through the nose also when needing more brain power during peak kundalini activity; make the inbreath nasally and the outbreath throaty.
- Toning--Mantra is the main method of treating consciousness and is helpful for healing all levels of the mind inner and outer. The sound and breath combination help move cerebrospinal fluid which cleanses the brain and spine. Lie in a deep hot bath and hum one tone on the expiration of one breath. You will notice that your tone wavers, perhaps due to the spasticity of the diaphragm. If one continues using this technique regularly perhaps with both higher and lower tones, the diaphragm should strengthen and release its spasticity through the vibration. Joe Alexander says toning works better than any other self-healing tool. I cannot stress enough that toning and mantra are the most effective tools we have for integrating energy during an awakening and helping the kundalini to clear through blockages. Thus if you have any difficulty at all with kundalini I suggest half an hour of toning a day...keep it simple, either Huuu, Mooo, Om or Eeee will do, or whatever sound you are drawn to.
- Syncopated Toning--One day I found a neat affect when I was sitting down by the river near a little waterfall/rapids...and started to Huuu. Then I toned vowel sounds very loud...and I noticed that when the tone is directed toward the rapids, the air filled with the sound of the rapids creates an interference pattern with the tone one is emitting and what ends up happening is a staccato vibration in the diaphragm created by the interference pattern of the merging sounds. In this way the effect of toning on the body is greatly amplified when the tone is directed at the noise of the falling water.
When each tone finds Atonement with the river sound the staccato effect is "felt" and heard. If the tone is slightly "off" in relationship to the river the syncopation effect doesn't occur. However the sensitive body-voice naturally tunes to the correct tone...nature the great tuning fork. The syncopated toning I found July 2002 when in extreme horniness with the kundalini...I went down to the river to try and get some relief and found that staccato effect...I was so blown away, I thought I had discovered a new law of the physical universe, of course this distracted me from my oppressive sex energy. Once the diaphragm learns how to do this you can retain the staccato ability even without using a river when the kundalini light is highly active.
- Excess Grounding--In July 2000 my Christ Heart or the Solar Heart was coming on daily as I walked outside and as it did I was being pulled into the earth with such force that I found it hard to walk. To ease the grounding I learnt to lie flat on the ground with my spine on the earth...this greatly speeds up the grounding process, so that when I stood up again I could walk around with ease. From grounding in this way there was less "pull" on my heart but the heart expansionswould then break open my chest. To take the pressure off my heart I remembered that apes beat rhythmically on their thymus when nervous...this thumping on my chest helped to take the unbearable tension off my expanding heart. So when the gravity warping and grounding pull come one with the Solar Heart first lie on the open ground for at least half an hour, then thump the sternum. Also a repolarizing technique when one is radically being pulled into the ground, is to sunbath exposing ones genitals to the sun.
- Increase Grounding-- How to prevent your kundalini from blowing up your computer? My kundalini energy used to turn the radio or CD player on spontaneously at 3am in the morning during my awakening, but I didn't have computer problems. The primary grounding procedure is to lie your spine on the earth or rock for half an hour. Hang out at a stream or waterfall while you do this and you get bonus points. The Spinal Shower is a great way to for remove extra static energy (see below). Need I say that sex will help reduce extra brain electric interference, but it also will increase kundalini. Dancing would be good. Put some more green plants around your computer, and if you are still having problems you might want to invest in an inexpensive negative ion generator for your computer room or an indoor waterfall. Grounding exercises include lying on ones back and pushing ones feet against a wall or tree. Standing in Haka position like a Maori, which is kind of like a gorilla stance and stamping one leg at a time...actually doing the Haka itself with facial expressions, vocals, hand and feet movements is a big bonus...watch the All Blacks prior to a rugby game for how to do it. Of course there is the traditional method of grounding...horse riding, gardening or farming. Drive around in cars less, and spend more time outside of buildings. Move to Hawaii or vacation there, it's the primary grounding place on the planet. Meditate at sunset on iron rich rocks. Hug a tree, or go to sleep under trees. Any kind of body-work, swims or water therapy. Clay body pack. If you have synthetic carpet in your computer room it might be best to tear it up and put something more natural down, either a wool carpet or wood or something. Get a kitty or dog to pet.
- War Haka—The haka is a Maori war chant that precedes battle, in order to motivate the warriors psychologically. it is delivered with loud shouting and forceful flexing arm movements, to invoke the god of war and to discourage and frighten the enemy. It involves fierce facial expressions and grimaces, poking out of the tongue, eye bulging, grunts and cries, waving of weapons and rhythmic thumping of ones thighs, biceps and chest. The hands, arms, legs, feet, voice, eyes, tongue and the body as a whole combine to express courage, annoyance or aggression. The haka is an excellent kundalini tool, both for raising kundalini, freeing its movement and for grounding and integrating the energy. It will also enhance confidence and improve the immune, lymphatic and circulation systems and clear the lungs. Also will also eliminated stagnant energy from the nervous system and aids in the liberation of pent-up or repressed emotions. www.newzealand.com/travel/about-nz/features/haka-feature/haka.cfm
- Animal Yoga—To reinstate our connection with the planet and the deeper parts of ourselves this practice of animal yoga is done in natural environments…in your back yard, a park or wilderness. First ground the body by lying on both your back and your front on the grass for a while. Then using the nature around you—the grass, the trees, the rocks—put yourself into various animal postures while feel-sensing yourself as that animal. Some possible animals to try are the dog, cat, frog, rabbit, seal, monkey, turtle and bear. Use the full tactile impact of the environment around you to get deeply into the various postures to become the spirit of the animal. Because it is an attempt to more fully enter the electromagnetic sensorial environment, animal yoga is best done in the nude if possible. You will find this deeply reviving, integrating and centering.
- Yoga--The evoking and yoking of Spirit via the Grand Alignment of body, mind and soul--is the source of our muse, our noble destiny, our soul-work (Dharma), our security, our financial integrity/right livelihood, our spiritual worth/inherent nobility and our happiness.
- Hanging--Hanging from the hips over a bar 10 minutes a day is the best place to “start” our kundalini skills practice. I think it the most significant factor in “sustaining” a de-contraction progress. It is a general pick-me-up and the more pick-me-up we do, the higher our general operating mode. The higher our baseline level then the higher we ascend during an expansion of consciousness, and the more likely we are to have the resources for stabilizing, substantiating and gaining productivity from our excursions into deeper aspects of ourselves. It opens the pelvis to energy from the earth bringing new life into the legs, elongates my spine giving the nerves new life, and feeds the brain of course by being upside down. It allows the sympathetic trunks and plexus to be fed better with the decompression of the spine, and new blood/lymph/O2 entering the area. Hanging is a catalyst to metabolism and consciousness in general, due to increased blood to the brain, but also through extra lymphatic stimulation. The bar should be about 1.5"-2" wide; put a towel over it for padding; hang from the hips with both the arms and legs hanging free off the ground. Start off at 5 minutes in the morning, and 5 in the late afternoon or so. Do not do handing during major heart expansion periods, or during times of high blood pressure in the head associated with sympathetic nervous system hyperactivation.
- Spinal Rebirthing--I had a dream that I did a spinal extension technique on a young woman who had been affection deprived in childhood. She crouched on the ground (in a squat position on her feet with hands on the ground in front) and I put my hands on either side of her spine at the back of her chest. She pressed up into my hands, while I pressed down against her. Her spine cracked about 10 times.
This spinal compression/extension can be used at the bottom of the spine by pushing up into a therapists hands with the legs. In the middle of the spine by pushing up on all fours and at the top of the spine by pushing with the arms. It is the most cathartic and radical form of back release I have found. Theory being that the contraction can be released by overextending already contracted muscles. When they are relaxed they let go further than they were originally. Emotionally the burden is lifted once the tension is acknowledged, rather than carrying the load around for years...making to body numb with pain. With spinal rebirthing we "feel" into the numbness and recover what was lost to us due to the freeze response.
- Presses--To assimilate kundalini some strengthening integrating exercises might be in order. The upper-body wall press is perhaps the perfect exercise for integrating heart expansions. I found that when the autonomic shock of the white death made me "not in my body" then leg presses against the wall helped me to come back into my body. The arm is raised and placed against a wall and you push into the wall and hold for 10 seconds feeling the stretch throughout the chest. Repeat 3-4 times several times a day.
- Swan Pose--Stand like the Maiden on the Prow of a ship, arms back, chest radically protruding and breath deeply into this pose. Breathe in through the crown chakra and out through the solar plexus. Adopting this stance as a general living posture will change ones wiring and life in short order. It especially helps overcome the sexual harassment, shaming and victimhood of living in this culture as a woman and for powerlessness in general.
- Heart Entrainment of the Three Lower Chakras--We have to suspend reptilian reactivity long enough for the higher order to come into play. If we are not radiating love from our solar plexus then we are engaged in a power struggle with the world, fighting with fear for our "own" survival. We CLEAR to let go of our reptilian clinging and aversion in order to become increasingly human and increasingly divine. This is the alchemy of incarnation-transubstantiation, Eros and Agape, Evolution and Involution, Immanence and Ascendancy.
- Clearing Negative Attachments--One method of releasing negative, primitive defense mechanisms is to CLEAR the solar plexus of its unhealthy attachments. Imagine you are floating in space and you have an umbilical cord connected from your solar plexus to those you are emotionally bonded to. One by one cut off the umbilical cord to each person and see them float away from you. When all the cords are cut do all kinds of flips, cartwheels, swimming movements and twists and turns to express your glee at being free and boundless in space, with no gravity weighing you down. This is one way to give up the reptilian--clinging/aversion level of bonding to elevate the relationship to the heart and higher chakras. The lower unconscious bonds diminish US all.
- Affirmations—Affirmations can be used like pointing out instruction to corral thought/emotion/state into more expansive directions. Often you might find yourself slipping down in mood or thought and need to catch yourself with some well remembered little catch phrases that pull ones state up by the bootstraps. In the book...What to Say When You Talk to Your Self by Shad Helmstetter, he suggests that such self-talk, used in reprogramming more idealized behavior and states, can be recorded on tapes. If one listens to such self-talk tapes the information tends to be absorbed by osmosis into the subconscious. Such a technique will also help to keep at the ready and fresh in the mind the catch phrases that will tune our being in the direction that we really want to go in.
- Integrative-Empowerment Meditation—This is simply focusing, first on the body, then mind-temporals, the heart and the soul-prefrontals with the minds eye and saying to each one: I empower my body...I empower my mind…I empower my heart...I empower my soul. What happens is that the focused attention forces one to breath life energy into all these aspect of ourselves one after the other. The meditation is to help empower prepare one to "walk through the barrier" that separates one life era from another. That is to make changes. You can lie down or sit during the meditation and envision a door, or gates that one stands before while doing this...without relating to any "content" of the life journey. Consciousness can be focused and the body-mind-soul-heart infused with consciousness is a lot happier and whole than one in which amnesis is occurring.
- Active Imagination--The visual neurology plays a huge role in the integration of our being. During the later stages of awakening it is important to exercise the visual faculty to encourage neurological potency, plasticity, detoxification and to maintain psychic-ESP function. Therefore at this time art, visualization, guided imagery, lucid dreaming and visual forms of meditation are vitally important. During the peak however liability and suggestibility are so extreme that active imagination should only be done with theraputic assistance, unless one has a very stable constitution. I emphasize that psychic capacities will drop off to be less than they were prior to awakening if the visual neurology is not exercised. Psychic level is a "higher" energy condition than normal consciousness, so anything that increases energy/kundalini will increase psychic level activity. Such as fasting and letting Nature restore your batteries; do some breathing, toning and exercising and take some nootropics. Oh and set yourself a profound adventure.
Like meditation visualization does take actually "practicing" it. You might want to note what time of the day or night you find it most easily to focus on inner visualization. Warm up first with a little exercise and stretching, hanging, meditation and breathing. Then take yourself on various visual journeys, perhaps a quest to find certain answers you are seeking. Visit relatives or loved ones or make new friends with stangers. Travel to interstellar space and visit alien cultures, or go back in time to past eras that attract your interest. The ways in which the imagination can be used are infinite. Any beautiful visual stimulous will help activate the visual hardware, such as DVD's like Michael Dubois's Luminous Dimensions or Artmind - The Healing Power of Sacred Art with Alex Grey. Alex specializes in visual exercises for the artist, I strongly recommend attending his workshops. Marie-Louise von Franz claims that active imagination is the most powerful tool in Jungian psychology for achieving wholeness.
"[Jung] continued to explore the inner images and fantasies. In the course of the work he would get so emotionally wrought up that he resorted to yoga breathing exercises to calm himself. Then he would plunge in again and let the images and inner voices speak. Actually, he was doing just the opposite of what yoga and certain forms of meditation strive to achieve. Instead of seeking to let go of and eventually abolish all psychic contents and images, he concentrated on the images and let htem affect him emotionally. He found that when he was able to translate the emotions into images--that is, to find the images that were concealed iwhtin the emotions--he was calmed and reassured. He realized that it was higly therapeutic to uncover the images buried within the emtions, and he incorporated this discovery in the practice of active imagination." 122, ~ Gathering the Light, V. Walter Odajnyk
In his fabulous book Walter says that Jung thinks that active imagination is the most appropriate form of meditation for westerners to further their psychological and spiritual growth. His section 120-132 in Gathering the Light on active imagination is good. For general readership there is The Old Wise Woman: A Study of Active Imagination by Rix Weaver. Other works on the subject include Alchemical Active Imagination by Marie-Louise von Franz and Jung on Active Imagination by C.G. Jung. And Encounters With The Soul: Active Imagination, Barbara Hannah. Inner Work: Using Dreams and Creative Imagination for Personal Growth and Integration by Robert A. Johnson
- Building a Self System--Although it is useful to use all the guided meditation materials out there, we really need to build the sense that we are our own "tour director." That to build the power to initate and choose inner content is the first step in a deeper relationship with ourselves. Active imagination and visualization work for all building a self-structure, boundaries, wound healing, and creating trust, faith and openness. These are internal skills which are essentially not taught and so we have to grow our own internal sense of self. I have found Rebuilding the Garden, Healing the Spiritual Wounds of Childhood Sexual Assault by Karla McLaren to be the best workbook for self-boundary. One doesn't need an abuse background to benefit from this work for it basically is about the recovery from ignorance and unconsciousness, and we have all suffered under this almightly hammer. Active imagination work done while kundalini is active is probably twice as effective and potent as done under normal chemistry.
- Fluctuating Temperature—During kundalini there are several factors operating on our temperature regulation. First there is extra energy moving through the hypothalamus which controls body temperature. Then there is the fluxing back and forth of the parasympathetic and sympathetic sides of the nervous system. And also there is the change in metabolic energy generation in the mitochondria of nerve cells and other cells that can generate great heat at times. Plus changes in neurotransitters like serotonin and histamine which regulate heat, and also the sex hormones themselves increase basal heat generation. Thus during kundalini we often fluctuate between being hot and cold with the activation of the different sides of the nervous system. Sympathetic activation causes contraction of the blood vessels and draws blood away from our body surface and into the skeletal muscles. While parasympathetic activation opens out blood vessels and activates the fire in the digestive system.
If you are too cold then avoid caffeine which contracts blood vessels; sugar and fruit also can make you feel cold. Take warming herbs like calamus, cayenne, ginger and spicy foods. Focus on deep breathing into the solar plexus. Go for a run, take a hot bath, sun bathe. Meditate and empty your mind of problems, worries or negativity. Imagine you are lying on a tropical beach getting massaged. If you are too hot then drink plenty of cool water spiked with Himalayan salt. Sit or swim in rivers or the ocean. Drink lots of green drinks with cucumber in them, lie in cold grass and put feet in an ice-cold foot bath. Avoid spicey foods. Use an icepack on your forehead, back of neck and base of the spine. Imagine standing in an icey cold waterfall while drawing heat energy up and out. Freeze some berries such as blueberries or strawberries and periodically pop one in your mouth and suck on it. Make a berry smoothie with mango, berries, bananas that have been frozen.
- Eliminating enervation--Reduce stimulants, cut back on fruit %, increase greens and kelp for minerals, and drink heaps of water. Preferable one has done ones major cleansing and fasting prior to the onset of kundalini. Avoid energy sapping people, situations, and environments.
- Raw Diet--Cooked food and other denatured substances compound primal contraction through increased toxicity, free radicals and acid pH, which contract all tissues and occlude the light of life. The body will need maximum enzymes, water and minerals during the decompression-expansion phase, or else the tendency is to retreat back our former hypoxic, acidic, toxic, contracted/defensive condition. Nature's true needs must be addressed beyond our concepts and habits. The best raw recipe book is: Raw: The Uncook Book, Juliano Brotman and a great overview of the raw diet system is: Living Food For Optimum Health, Brian Clement.
- Take Time for Rapture--At certain times of the year, often in April and July, the circuit between the heart and brain amplifies and the bliss and symptoms of kundalini increase. Give yourself permission to go into rapture at this time for this is what the body is wanting to do. Lie in bed, listen to music, breathe, do CMR. Carry the hand positions down over the liver, spleen and the belly, one hand on the belly and the other on the back of your neck. When the body wants to go into rapture, follow nature and obey. If you try to keep going with busy-work at this time, you will just do a half-pie job and experience dissonance and fatigue because you are disobeying the highest organic directive.
- Healing the Heart Hole--This is a very direct way of addressing pain and deficiency in the heart. You just turn your etheric field from your brainstem back into the heart area at the back of your chest. Imagine lines of magnetic force turning out of your head & brainstem. This works rapidly and is amplified when used in combination with walking; it can probably used in panic and emotional trauma situations especially if assisted or encouraged by a stable practitioner.
- Spinal Shower--The ultimate healing devise is a 3" column of warm (mineral) water which falls about 4 feet onto the spine. It has radical effects in "unconditional meeting" and eliminating stored pain and emotion. While sitting under this flow one goes into a deep trance, facilitating healing of both the muscular and nervous system at the deepest level. I also think a sensory-maximization-super-spa with hundreds of jets may work to release fossilized tension. The great thing about water flow is that it is chaotic; this arrhythmic flow helps to break up structure and resistance.
Figure 2: Spinal Shower
- Cold Showers--Or jumping into cold streams etc... is essential to wake up the immune system, promote emotional strength and break victim-weakness mentality that perpetuates the destructive behavioral patterns. Baths and cold water dips are a life saver during kundalini awakenings for emotional strengthening and integration of the energy.
- Hydrotherapy Baths—One thing you might try is something that I am doing during periods when I need to grow-flow rapidly, or to metabolize high kundalini and high revelatory chemistry—is to take long baths with 1/4 cup of epsom salts. During these baths I drink 2-3 quarts of chilled sunwater spiked with a drop of seasalt. Don't forget the breathing, candles, plus music or audio programs while doing this. It really is the fastest way to both detox the body and to get consciousness flowing at much deeper and faster levels. The sunwater is made by leaving a glass bottle of filtered water out in the rays of the sun and moon for about 24 hours. Although modern science might not be able to tell us why at this point, this sunwater does have a sweeter, less metalic and champagne-like quality.
- Foot Baths--Soaking feet in ice water when the kundalini heat or sex energy is high gives great relief. Also taking herbal baths or foot baths is stabilizing and nurturing. To energize use red clover, mint, peppermint or rosemary. To calm down use chamomile or catnip. For pain use ginger root. For unblocking and cleansing use the leaves of burdock, plantain, dock, yarrow and dandelion. Steep the chopped herbs in a big pot of water just off the boil, as though you were making a tea.
- Sun meditation--I find most expedient for gathering the necessary energy, and creating the greatest background sense of bliss and well-being. It is vital for continuing on this difficult work of unveiling the inner self. Lie on your back on the bare ground naked, opening legs and arms to the sun, like a solar collecting dish, turn closed eyes toward the sun and draw energy up the spine. This is great while doing hot rock therapy and taking intermittent dips in a cold stream. Obviously it's not good for the skin to do this too long in the midday sun. Lying on the ground on ones back and exposing the genitals to the sun is the ultimate way of repolarizing during the exhausting grounding phase of the Solar Heart initiation.
- Rock Meditation--Meditating at sunset or sunrise on rocks (especially iron rich rocks) seems to have an amplifying effect on the meditation, such that it can help prompt an acute phase of kundalini alchemy. Samadhi is more easily achieved this way. You might also notice an intense grounding episode after doing this; if so lie the spine on the ground if necessary.
- Hot Rock Therapy--Collect various shapes and sizes of rocks that hold the heat from the sun well. You can build a healing temple space in the wild or use the rocks at home. After the sun has heated the rocks put them over your body, on your stomach, pelvis, chest, neck. You can hold them to your jaw, temple and face or wherever there is congestion, pain and contraction. Lie and meditate in the sun with the rocks on your body (rf: sun meditation). Also to move energy through the pelvic area to counteract Western-numb-pelvis syndrome or sexual abuse numbness--pile some rocks on your belly/pelvic area and masturbate gently while trying not to tighten your stomach muscles. Orgasm is not important with this exercise for the focus is on moving energy through the pelvis/stomach without tightening muscles to force or control pleasure.
- Sex in Nature--Going nude in nature really helps to empower our full senses/sentience. The Kosmic human starts returning as soon as the body is placed unclothed in a vibrant natural ecosystem. This has something to do with the opening of the human energies fully to the larger energies of earth and Kosmos. Also you might find that when you do go into nature thus, and try immediately to have intercourse, the bodies are not receptive to sex in the normal self-indulgent soft-bed style. The bodymind first is engaged in integrating on a higher plane and needs time for "assimilation" of this super-sensory or aboriginal human condition. So one has to go into nature many times in the nude to elevate oneself to these higher energies, to make them conscious and to experience what full sensory intercourse is all about. Being so used to ego-driven usury sex, one has to wait for nature's timing of these higher experiences of autopoietic Soul-sex.
- Leg pushes--Immanence or Grounding is the other half of incarnation yet sometimes it is hard to get into and stay in our bodies, and there are no lasting spiritual gains unless we do. Lying on the ground and pushing ones legs against a tree or a wall helps to center, clear and get us out of our head, into a more embodied existence. Pushing into a wall or against a doorframe with ones arms is similarly helpful. It pays to remember we can only go up in Spirit as far as we can go down into Matter...this is the process of incarnation/evolution.
- External Pressure--Also some sort of double layered pressurized suit, that you climb into and blow up with air. The idea is to put sustained force on the exterior of the body so the most inner musculature thinks it can relax its grip because someone else is doing the work. Even a pile of bodies on top of one would probably work.
- Rosen--is a form of bodymind work which is essentially meeting contraction with unconditionally loving hands and presence. This is excellent for addressing the gross and current manifestations of primal contraction. No other bodywork seems to get the individual to focus on the reality of their deep condition and to face their truth beyond the strenuous ego-armor blocking that occurs. Rosen is the lightest of bodywork, but it was more excruciating than Rolfing for me, because I began to feel the pressure of my own internal contraction as prana (consciousness) was "allowed" to move through the tissue. (kriyas).
- Queen and King--I found that during meditation to direct ones eyeballs and ones attention back into the brainstem that this profoundly increases ones steadiness, centeredness and nobility. Brainstem mediation is good for centering, soul recovery, boundary formation and general healing of the entire bodymind. Perhaps it focuses consciousness in the occipital lobes which are serotonin based, contributing to integration and harmony.
- Soul's Posture--If one walks along unconsciously, usually the shoulders are a little hunched and forward and the chin is out. It is exhausting to the bodymind to be in this posture-state. When one remembers the Self pulls the shoulders down and back, tucks in the chin (neck-lock-posture) and walks being pulled by an imaginary string at the top of one's head...one immediately enters the noble state. It is effortless to walk in this fashion, there is infinite energy available...one just needs to be mindful enough to catch oneself when one has slipped into the ego's walk. This shows how close the distance between hopeless-deprivation and faithful-sufficiency. The Self embodies the body differently than the ego does. Mindfulness helps us build the bridge of ego-Self in all our thoughts and actions.
- Belly love--During meditation if one turns the eyeballs directly down into the cheek area the energy flow is directed down into the belly. The belly is then nurtured with energy and a greater connection is achieved between the heart and the belly increasing digestive health and emotional equilibrium and awareness.
- Visualization--(Spontaneous Inner Visuals) and dreaming is good for transforming the atomic memory level and as a diagnostic tool. Affirmation or positive mental outlook is essential for improved immunity and the strength needed to change and grow. Substantial visual stimulation and nature stimulates our inner visual cortex, as does spiritual relationship. The body integrates/heals through the inner-visual cortex...or during healing images appear in the visual cortex. Sun meditation is excellent for increasing inner visual healing.
- Mindfulness--must address our daily habitual responses, in a pervasive contraction watch...The egos habits of mind rule the body so we must open and reveal the mind, differentiate from the mind to free the body. Naming each thought as it arises allows us to differentiate from the reticulating mind: defense, justification, worry, blaming, avoidance etc...
- Death phase--There is a senescence phase of spiritual metamorphosis after a solar heart/kundalini movement. The main cycle of this death phase is 3-4 days in which staying in bed and drinking water is all we are often able to do. It is important to go with this phase and not try to fight it. The more we go into it in feeling and inquiry the more we will emerge a larger being after the bodymind has finished its radical catabolism of its former pupae structures. Lying in the death pose in a warm tub of clay inside a cave for several days may be an "advanced" form of this death work. I would say that juice fasting in combination with this death cycle would be the deepest and fastest route to transformation. Its the type of thing where if one could lie around in a spa for a couple of days one's whole life would change...but we just don't give ourselves the chance to completely collapse, and collapse again...as much as we need to, to be reborn.
- Loving Self-talk--One has to reclaim one's full sexual power from unconscious social fear-shame, in order to be a spiritual autonomous being. That is we have to rise above Mummy's and Daddy's controlling (Superego/judge) impact on the bodymind-soul, in order to be reborn as the Self and be in communion with other Selfs. In this way we transcend culture. Spirituality is the free-flow of conscious energy in the body such that there is no division between the individual and the Kosmos. Even if we do not use our bodies for sex, we must be fully sexually ignited in order to be whole. One way we can do this is self-talk. To work against the gravity of contraction and the winding down of energy...throughout the day we can say to ourselves: "You are so luscious, so beautiful, so sweet etc..." Just as though we were our own Beloved. This counteracts the social forces that would seek to use us as an object for the "machine". For a while it is counterintuitive to do this, however, this is not self aggrandizement, but merely attending to the needs of the bodymind to grow in an environment that is conducive to the fluid circulation of flows, hormonal production and neuronal strength. Liberating our soma in this way, we free up our lives for depth, precision and evolution. It must be done to overcome the cold claws of Thanatos that attempts to make us infinitely smaller than we really are.
- Understanding Cycles—Perhaps the most important aspect to grasp in navigating the evolutionary energy, is that it is hyperbolic in nature, as is all nature. After the grace of the influx of Light, the darkness is entered. After tasting the stars one has to deal with the mud of ones existence and convert that mud into the lotus. Spiritual mastery involves rising equally to the challenge of both the light and the dark. After the light backs off there can be depression, achy body, sense of emptiness and self-pity. And if you are not aware that this is all just shifting cycles of chemistry there may be disillusionment, despair and self-hatred. Working with the dark means breathing positivity into the feelings, rearranging beliefs to be more empowering and giving the bodymind plenty of down time and resuscitation in nature.
- Cultivating Emotional Equilibrium--Since it is the degree of emotional tension we hold which determines whether our emotional responses are healthy or hurtful to us, we should cultivate emotional equilibrium. That is the absence of accumulated emotional tension, so that we can experience equanimity. We reach this emotional equilibrium by "building energy reserves," while "discharging tension." This is accomplished by diet, fasting, sports, martial arts, intense vocalization, psycho-drama, addressing relationship problems, meditation, toning etc.... A state of high emotional tension is a weak and vulnerable state in which learning and Being is made impossible through discord.
- Outside in Nature--If you are "working with" your awakening you will probably find that you are drawn to be outside in nature as much as possible during the day. This is a compelling intuition which should be followed. One's life field is greatly expanded while kundalini is active and being indoors, especially in steel framed and concrete buildings, we notice that it feels like we are separate from ourselves or cutoff when inside buildings. The energetic charge and metamorphic process works more profoundly, deeply and with greater ease when the body is under an open sky, in touch with the bare earth, around moving water and fields of green. "...the earth's natural field is severely distorted or altogether eliminated while you are inside." P198, Subtle Energy, John Davidson.
- Handling increased sexual energy--Of course kundalini awakenings mean radically amplified sex energy, so how do we deal with this? This entire list of kundalini skills will help strengthen our ability to handle sex energy. The irony is the more one works on integrating ones sex/kundalini energy the more it can flow, but we just become less wimpish about handling it. Once we "turn toward" it we can ask it to show us what is to be done; we "allow" it to transmute us. Toning, the microcosmic orbit, breathing and drawing the energy up the spine really helps...toning can be a lifesaver both when we are under energized and over energized. Note especially the need to ground your body through nature, lying on the ground, jumping into streams etc... It is most important to ones energy toward some higher creative project or to assist others. During the height of my 2000 awakening the only way for me to integrate the sex energy was to walk for hours outside each day for a period of 6 months or more. As far as dealing with excess sexual energy, you need to circulate and draw it up the body, breathe into it and do not fight it or try to squash, diminish or waste it.
Taoist Yoga and Sexual Energy; Internal Alchemy and Chi Kung by Eric Yudelove
Tao & The Tree Of Life: Alchemical & Sexual Mysteries of the East & West by Eric Yudelove
Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy by Mantak Chia
Healing Love through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy by Mantak Chia
Sacred Sexuality: A Manual for Living Bliss by Michael Mirdad
- Working with Excalibur, the Silver Cord--Stand tall with shoulders back, chin up, stomach pulled in, pelvis tucked under, with feet about a foot apart. Imagine a silver-white lightening rod extending through your spine, shooting up into the sky from the crown of your head, and extending deep into the ground from the coccyx. This lightening rod connects heaven and earth. As you draw energy in the Silver Cord begins to glow and pulsate dispersing energy through your body. Play with a ball of lighting between your hands; this energy can be used for healing yourself or others.
- Ecstasy Meditation—I found this meditation while developing a painting for Michael DuBois, the webmaster of this site. I was drawing an image of a woman in ecstasy so I needed to put my face into ecstasy to get the right position of the features and the lighting. So lying in bed I held up mirror up to my face while attempting to put it into ecstasy. Needless to say that when one does this the crystal chamber does light up, and the lesser mind is obliterated. I found out that if one does this meditation prior to sleep using the mirror as a biofeedback machine to ensure a perfect facial representation of ecstasy, that sleep is much deeper. Also during the day as I was walking down the road, I remembered the ecstasy meditation and could put myself in ecstasy on command. Ultimately if done consistently it should change the facial features more toward happiness which will alter ones social relationships and personability.
- Self-care Shortlist for Dealing with Social Stress—The way through blockage, resistance and opposition is to raise your energy level and presence till the miasma becomes transparent, disappears and can be released. Know that you cannot change another, but you can change yourself. Light a candle, put on some music (Koyasan - by Deuter) and take a long path with Epsom salts. Do this at least every second day for a while. Drink extra water, with a pinch of Himalayan salt in it...up to 5 qts a day. Do stretching daily, do spinal rolling with the Fitball Rollar (www.balldynamics.com) and hang if you can find something to hang on...lie on the grass 1/2 hour a day doing breathing, take long walks in nature if possible...do some feet stomping, wall pushing and do boxing motions coordinating the whole body...check out the Haka war chant videos on the web. Beat on your chest like a gorilla while making gorilla sounds. Social tension (especially shock) tends to get caught in the glut muscles, so bend your knees – stick your ass out and wiggle it like a bee; then while still slightly bent jump from foot to foot real fast as though you were warming up for a game of sports. Focus on rooting your energy into the ground through your feet, build the sense of a cord going through you and extending out the top your head to infinity and generate energy in your Hara. Eat extra greens and sprouts. Take 1/4 tsp of magnesium citrate with a large glass of water prior to bed if you are constipated...which often happens when we are under some form of persecution. Do drumming and go dancing, find someone to laugh with, check out new environs, a new movie and get some new positive stimulation. To learn how social stress is the most pernicious and pervasive form of stress watch Robert Sapolsky’s lecture on google video. He is also doing a documentary with National Geographic.
- How to avoid a kundalini awakening--Eat a heavy cooked diet, do not exercise or spend time in nature, waste your energy on alcohol and cigarettes, do not meditate, avoid spiritually advanced people, do not get into stressful or challenging situations, do not sail across the ocean or do anything remotely adventurous, breath shallow, avoid music, dance, drumming and raw food. Do not fall in love, and especially do not love any guru type. Do not feel any gratitude or mystical feelings. Have no awe over creation, cultivate a mean, small and nasty nature, do not use your intellect, and do not follow your muse or your heart.
- Why not to avoid a kundalini awakening--You can try to avoid kundalini if you are bent on avoiding your soul and your edge, because kundalini is just the energy of life amplified. It's the coil-essence of all the energy generating systems in the body at peak energy and communication. It may be inconvenient, but I don't think one is truly alive without experiencing a kundalini awakening. It's the beginning of the mystic journey. Whether one is on an up-cycle or a down-cycle all kundalini activity occurs within a background of bliss. There is nothing to fear with kundalini, but our ignorance of it.
- Further Reading on skills for awakening--A useful set of exercises and coping strategies are in the books:
- Pharmacy For The Soul: A Comprehensive Collection of Meditations, Relaxation and Awareness Exercises & Other Practices for Physical and Emotional Well-Being, Osho.
- Mending The Past And Healing The Future With Soul Retrieval, Alberto Villoldo.
- Human Technology: A Toolkit For Authentic Living by Ilchi Lee and his Brain Respiration Self-Training
- Excellent books by Bruce Kumar Frantzis: Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body: Chi Gung for Lifelong Health
Relaxing Into Your Being, The Water Method of Taoist Meditation Series, Vol. 1
The Great Stillness: The Water Method of Taoist Meditation Series, Vol. 2
- Lifting The Veil, Practical Kabbalah with Kundalini Yoga by Joseph Michael Levry
