Recently, I had a number of inquiries about my Podcast, to wit this most recent example: "Hi, Mr Semple, I was just wondering if you are going to start up the Podcast again or is this on the backburner? I was wondering whether or not to stay subscribed on iTunes to it. Brian, Houston, TX"
Not only should you stay subscribed, I'm about to add three episodes. One's an update of the current Podcast; the others are fresh new topics. The one I'm most excited about is: Sublimation. It's a topic I'm frequently asked to explore and expand on in lectures and discussions.
In a recent conversation with Gene Keiffer, he told me that only the process of directing the seminal fluid upward into the brain was capable of permanently awakening Kundalini. Since that process was part of the method I used, I didn't feel it was necessary to debate the point with him. Nevertheless, he went on to seriously question the whole idea of Shaktiput…as if I was promoting it. I'm not; in fact, I once wrote some dialogue about it for my book, DIARY OF A CONNECTICUT YOGI, which I eventually omitted from the published version. The narrative picks up in a French bistro where I recognize a woman from a Muktananda farewell gathering we'd both attended:
“A Frenchy. I thought you guys didn’t go in for the spiritual stuff like us Americans—we’re suckers for it.”
“Actually, I’m doing a kind of research.”
“Newspapers or university?” I asked.
“A reporter.”
“So what’s your half-baked theory on enlightenment?” I asked.
“I wanted to meet you. I felt you had a lot more to say and he just shut you up.”
Two hours later, she was sitting back enjoying her third café express and I was winding down.
“Do you believe it’s possible to instruct a mass number of students in this kind of thing?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I don't believe in Gurus. Nothing beats doing it on your own. But you never know, perhaps Muktananda can look at a person’s astral body and…you know that Shaktiput business, maybe it works.”
“Well, he certainly wasn’t able to see yours.”
“That presumes there's some interesting activity in my astral body in the first place.”
“Well, I believe you. In fact, I’ve met people who described an intensely physical, permanent Kundalini experience.”
“For me, experience is the only reality. And the reality of my experience is that somehow, by trial and error, I found a way to direct the seminal fluid up the spine to the brain. And that's what did it—that musty old “backward-flowing” technique hidden away in the pages of THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER.”
Think of it this way. There are supposed to be two reasons for sex, two alternative purposes for a human life:
- To perpetuate the human race
- To awaken Kundalini through sublimation
Let's examine the second reason from an evolutionary perspective. At the age of twenty, we do the things twenty-year olds do: study, procreate, carouse, fight wars, pursue our ambitions. Suppose at the age of thirty-five we decided that we'd had enough of these pursuits. Suppose we decided to sublimate out sexual activity, to divert the seminal fluid to more creative purposes.
What effect would this decision have? On our lives? On our neighbors? On the world population? On the evolution of the species? Think about so many people on this planet not only being sexually active after their most reproductive years, but wanting to prolong their sexual powers by taking stimulants. Imagine they decide to channel their sexual impulses into Kundalini, and, as a consequence, better health, prolonged fitness, and heightened awareness—to say nothing of enlightenment.
Think about aberrant sexual behavior on a mass scale, and how sublimating the sexual drive might remove thousands of would be sexual predators from circulation. Imagine great numbers of people realizing that they bore a responsibility, not only to control runaway reproduction on a planetary scale, but also to control individual aberrance. A huge reduction in sex crimes could take place because men were channeling their sex drives to higher purposes.
I’m not talking about mass sterilization; I’m talking about an evolutionary turn, one guided not by chance or by the survival of the fittest, but by a collective recognition that we must adjust our sexual behavior to evolve, indeed, to survive. In fact, were we to attempt this experiment, this radical change in our sexual habits, it would prove we were, in fact, the fittest on the planet—able to shape our own destinies by guiding our lives to more productive purposes.
Hello again JJ,
I downloaded your latest podcast yesterday and I have listened to it
twice already! I do have a question though.
I don't understand the "backward-flowing method", specifically I don't
know what you mean by the direction of the breath. I am familiar with
the Chinese microcosmic orbit (among other names for it), which has
the chi going up the spine and down the front. Your method would be
the reverse from this, but is that what you mean?
Is this something I would just have to buy the book to understand or
was there something I missed in the podcast itself?
PS I have also read what you wrote on your website about this.
Thanks,
Brian
Brian,
Thanks for subscribing to the Get Life Right Podcast…
In the podcast, I talk about three steps in K meditation:
1. The development of systematic diaphragmatic breathing.
2. The use of diaphragmatic breathing to control heart rate.
3. The moment you detect the property of movement, change the direction of your breath.
These steps must be done in sequence. Accomplishing each one in turn requires exercising control over specific muscles of the body, not directly, as I mentioned in the podcast, but by using a handle. Also, each, in turn, requires more subtle control, ie., visualization, detection of sensations…
The last step activates the "backward-flowing method," the technique I came across in THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER. To accomplish this step, you must have already mastered the first two steps.
The kicker is, you can only begin the 3rd step at the moment you detect the property of movement, that is, feel your breath circulating inside the belly at the bottom of the abdomen. Once you do feel it, by visualizing it moving in the opposite direction, you can make it do so. Once you do this, you can not turn back. So undertaking this step is a big one; the difference between my method (RM) and any other Kundalini activation method is that the backward-flowing method produces Permanent Kundalini activation. You don't have to do anything to reactivate it — should it disappear, as some people have stated.
Yes, my book, DIARY OF A CONNECTICUT YOGI, as well as THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER and KUNDALINI: THE EVOLUTIONARY ENERGY IN MAN help a practitioner to understand how the process works and how to follow it. Again, it should be undertaken with deliberation.
Mastering the first two steps takes you to the Relaxation Response or Alpha state; adding the third step takes you all the way.
JJ Semple
PS. I can't tell you, in number of days, exactly when you will first detect the "property of movement" in the breath, but it will happen if you develop the first two, especially a strong diaphragmatic breathing capability. THE SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER says about 100 days in. That's when it happened for me.
Brian,
Judging from your reply (see below), I think you have it. Thanks for obliging me to clarify; it's always difficult to describe a process that takes place in the body. I find myself observing and, at the same time, trying to make something happen. That's the subtle world of meditation:
Hi JJ,
Thanks for the response…ok I will post this to your blog. I think I
understand now…you feel the breath circulating in the abdomen and
then you change "that" direction. I was thinking you were supposed to
change the direction from mouth to lungs or something.
Now, at least I have a better understanding of what is going on.
Am I the only female person to take an interest in this? Have you instructed or conferred with any women about RM? The references to 'reversing the seminal fluid' always leaves me scratching my head: is there an analogous process for women? If so, what is it? So much of the literature seems to address itself to men, as if it is necessary to be male to engage in this process. I always figured it was just that, historically, most of the writing on the subject came out of monasteries. I'm hoping you can shed some light on this.
Kate, you are not the only female and I don't see any reason why females cannot master Restorative Meditation. Some of my female students say they have. There are no anatomical differences that I know of. But I can't say absolutely because I avoid speaking for others. I can only verify the effects in my own body.
There is one thing, however. I have never spoken about "reversing the seminal fluid." I'm not sure what you're referring to. The goal of my meditation is to "draw the seminal fluid up the spinal column." This is accomplished by changing the direction of the breath when you detect the property of movement in the lower belly as you breathe. If you get to the point—about 100 days into the meditation—and you don't detect the property of movement, then you haven't mastered the necessary self-monitoring techniques. If you keep at, you probably will. But this meditation requires a refinement of observational skills and self-monitoring.
…the “backward-flowing” method specifies that, once you detect the property of movement as the breath circulates in the lower belly, you will the breath to change directions. This starts the process of automatically drawing the seminal fluid up the correct channel of spinal column. It's like PUMP PRIMING, you don't have to do any thinking or visualizing…changing the direction of the breath starts this process automatically. That's why I say it draws the seminal fluid. Think about inserting a syringe into a balloon full of liquid. When you pull out the plunger, the air pressure draws out the fluid.
Now you ask the question: will this work for a female. The answer boils down to whether females have seminal fluid, and the answer is yes, you have female reproductive fluids and you can sublimate them.
But…Don't worry about the seminal fluid. Concentrate rather on your breathing. Breathing is the key. My book explains this in detail. Read it!
If you're near San Francisco this week, I'm presenting my method of Activating the Life Force in two bookstores:
Book Zoo - 7:00 pm Wednesday, 5 September 6395 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland 510 654-2665
Many Rivers Books and Tea - 7:30 pm Thursday, 6 September 130 South main Street, Sebastopol, CA 707 829-8871