I won’t bore you with a rant on empirical science and how it got lumped together with mysticism and the occult. There’s a blurb on my website if you’re interested. I would, nevertheless, like to draw attention to the following citation from the Dalai Lama’s THE UNIVERSE IN A SINGLE ATOM book: “Because I am an internationalist at heart, one of the qualities that moved me most about scientists is their amazing willingness to share knowledge with each other without regard to national boundaries. Even during the Cold War, when the political world was polarized to a dangerous degree, I found scientists from the Eastern and Western blocs willing to communicate in ways the politicians could not even imagine.”
I’ve never heard anyone offer comments like these about the so-called spiritual community, not the Dalai Lama or anyone else. Would this be a silent condemnation of that community’s reticence to share information, its cult of personalities, its compartmentalization by sect, by teacher, by faction, by religion. Its fear of being held up to rational investigation. “Well, we’re a religion,” they’d say, “You can’t expect a religion to submit to the same rules as science.”
In the same book, the Dalai Lama talks about the rigor with which scientists apply their methodology. All scientific investigations employ the following methodological hierarchy: experience, inference, and reliable authority. Primary emphasis and value is given to information gathered from experience, that is, from empiricism and observation. Next in the chain of trustworthy data comes inference, the idea that if one sees a fire, smoke is sure to be present. Finally in last place, there’s reliable authority, the notion that because someone’s done it before, we must accept his future pronouncements even though they may never have been empirically tested.
In the spiritual domain, it seems this order has been reversed: first comes reliable authority while inference and empiricism are relegated downward in descending order. Is that good enough going forward into the 21st Century? Following a methodology that relegates reason and experience to last place? After all, it was reliable authority that got us into the Iraq War. Yeah, the same reliable authority that’s so often unreliable.
Seemingly, it’s not what the Dalai Lama wants either, since he declares in the same book: “By the same token, spirituality must be tempered by the insights and discoveries of science. If as spiritual practitioners, we ignore the discoveries of science, our practice is also impoverished, as this mindset can lead to fundamentalism.”
Perhaps it’s the times; perhaps we deserve it. Governments that value blind loyalty over competence; religions that feature dollars-for-politics fundamentalism and second-hand, hand-me-down fables over serious metaphysical investigation; societies that prefer elitism and celebrity to modesty and reason.
Consider the following anecdote: To advertise in a respected religious magazine, I was asked to submit my book for prior review, spelled prior censorship. This was the answer I received: “Om, JJ. Thanks for the book. It is most interesting. But our editors have not approved it for advertising, feeling it conflicts with the idea of Kundalini awakening except as it comes naturally to one who has been thoroughly prepared.” Meaning, prepared by reliable authority. Meaning also, if it happens accidentally or during a life-changing experience, it’s not meaningful or valid.
The first thing I did was Google unintended discoveries. You know what I found? Penicillin, X-Rays, Vulcanized Rubber, Cellophane, Safety Glass, and ScotchGuard. You know what else I discovered? Viagra, LSD, Brandy, Vaccinations, Quinine, and Pap Smears. You know what else was inscribed on this website?
"Keep the mind open"
“For all you would-be Nobel Prize-winners, remember the one trait that tied all these lucky strikers together: openmindedness. As the American physicist Joseph Henry once noted, ‘The seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well-prepared to receive them.’”
The Dalai Lama’s proposal that Buddhists revise their cosmology, if it proves to be scientifically wrong, should have ended the discussion. But it hasn't. In the current climate of irrational fundamentalism, those that speak in the name of reliable authority, have only gotten stronger. So the question remains: why are religions afraid to undertake a scientific investigation of all their claims?
Hi JJ,
I just finished your book. You sure love France don't you?! Haha, but seriously, I got more out of the book than just that.
I can see some parallels in your life and mine. Though, I didn't have a single, definitive change like your splinter incident.
But I have to say I am no more understand the "Backward flowing method" now than I did before. Are you intentionally keeping this vague or do you think it will just become obvious to the practitioner some time after 100 days?
I want to experience this too, this 100 day program. I will have to read up on raw foods, but I think I can do it if I ease into the raw stuff.
About how long do you recomment meditating per session? I know I will need to build up to even just 15 minutes over time!
Thanks for the comment. There's not much more I can say about the "backward-flowing method." And that's why I give my method away. It's up to the practitioner to want it enough to make it work. That's a cornerstone of my method: it does no good to rely on others. At a certain point, the practitioner is on his own. If I there was more to add, I would gladly do so. I don't hold anything back.
The people who perform Empirical Science "experiments" on themselves intuitively sense that it's vital to their lives. Many times they have no clear roadmap. It doesn't deter them. They go all out.
Why do I take the position that this is a solitary endeavor? Because I see so many people moving from one technique to another. They pay, they attend, they get frustrated; they try something new. Paying for enlightenment doesn't work. Nothing is ever handed to you. This is wishful thinking.
I'm not saying that you have to press ahead. Neither do I know what you'll encounter should you choose to. But I'm certain if you do, the outcome will be as I describe. It's up to you to read the signposts along the way, and make the necessary adjustments, and that includes finding the length of time that is right for you. Definitely, do not meditate when your mind starts to wander. Try different times in the day. As you master the breathing, time of day, length, and mindfulness will come under your control.
It all begins with breathing. Once you get the diaphragm working the way I describe, you'll start to recognize the signposts.
As for Raw Foods, they are a well kept secret, finally finding the light of day.
Hey, France has changed, and is changing even as I write. The new president is trying to force the French to accept Americanization. If he succeeds, it will do away with the special sense of French difference. Is that good or bad? I don't know, but la différence made France a special place.
I have read Gopi Krishna's book before, as well as many other stories about kundalini awakenings…most of which are frightening. If memory serves, there is/was even a website out there for people to talk about how horrible it is.
I am not particularly scared off by these stories, but it does make me want to be cautious and not force anything. I get the idea you don't think much of these sites or groups that spread fear about kundalini awakenings.
You know, I read once that Gopi Krishna died of a stomach ailment. I know Kundalini isn't supposed to make humans immortal, but your account of it makes it seem to correct physical problems. If it can make your skull pop and crack why couldn't it heal his stomach (if a stomach disease is what really happened to him).
Brian,
As usual, a number of provocative questions:
1) Horror stories
Like you say there are a lot of horror stories. However, I am convinced they occur mainly when people stumble upon an inappropriate method and are ill-prepared for the consequences. You probably remember that Gopi Krishna attempted a survey of Kundalini expertise in India—he wrote about it in one of his books—and was flabbergasted to learn that hardly anyone in a country that is supposed to be the leader in all things “spiritual” knew anything about it.
The people that did say something mostly repeated second-hand information they had heard from other sources; they had never attempted this meditation themselves.
There are a lot of temporary activations, which seem to come and go, or disappear altogether. In fact, most accounts are irreconcilable without any common threads among them.
That’s why I’m trying to establish a scientific basis for Kundalini activation, a method that produces the same results time after time over a given number of subjects. If Restorative Meditation can be tested against this important scientific criterion, then we have established a solid basis for further investigation.
Nevertheless, you are wise to be vigilant and cautious in undertaking this work. Any man who thinks about using his body as a laboratory must be cautious. But beyond caution, he must also be quick-thinking and resilient enough to read and interpret the signposts along the way. The men I featured in The Get Life Right Podcast02, Dr. John Lilly and Dr. Barry Marshall, are two examples of this. These men used their bodies to prove hunches about the validity of their ideas.
2) Types of illness
You have to distinguish between disease types. The neural conditions that Kundalini manages and degenerative disease.
Kundalini replenishes the nervous system with vital energy. Depending on the age, physical condition, and health of the person, an attempt will be made to heal any limb, organ, or member that the nervous system accesses.
Unfortunately, there are parts of our bodies that have only minimal contact with the nervous system. One of these is the gut. No matter how powerful the healing force of Kundalini, it cannot prevent an individual from ingesting the wrong foods. A friend of mine recently met Deepak Chopra, a man known for his work on self-betterment and meditation. She told me that while he was speaking, he burped constantly, a sure sign, according to her, of acid reflux. Acid reflux never did anyone any good. It means the digestive system is backed up all the way to the throat. This type of abuse can overwhelm even the healing power of Kundalini.
That’s why the Raw Foods diet part of my system is so important: it treats degenerative disease. It purifies the body, making it a fit host for Kundalini to operate in.