A PROPOSAL FOR KUNDALINI RESEARCH Hypothesis: The Kundalini Experimental Project is designed to gather important data on the biological and psychological effects of Kundalini, including metabolomic (blood) measurements. The ultimate goal of the project is to furnish incontrovertible evidence of Kundalini’s operation in the body
Within a framework of remarkably similar characteristics, the mystic, the genius, the psychic and some of the mentally ill exhibit extraordinary states of consciousness. We propose to investigate whether one psycho-physiological process (Kundalini) is responsible for these phenomena. Abstract: Research has been proposed to investigate the hypothesis that there is a specific psycho-physiological mechanism, referred to as Kundalini in esoteric scriptures, in human beings. The Kundalini hypothesis suggests that human evolution has proceeded by the action of this mechanism in the human body and brain. Traditionally, Kundalini is held to be responsible for creativity, inspiration, genius, mystical experience, psychic phenomena and, in its morbid form, certain classes of mental illness. The proposed research would involve the collection, analysis, and documentation of both psychological and biological data relative to the common characteristics which appear to be the result of an awakened Kundalini. We believe that these objectives can be accomplished via the following avenues of investigation:
1. Literary research into the lives and writings of great mystics and geniuses and the written and oral traditions of ancient esoteric teachings.2. The acquisition of statistical data from persons experiencing the symptoms of a Kundalini awakening
. 3. The validation of the Kundalini hypothesis through a successful “awakening” in selected subjects within a scientifically monitored environment.
Interview with Gopi Krishna By Tom Zatar Kay
RIP - Bonnie L. Greenwell Ph.D
Buddha at the Gas Pump Interview
Kundalini: Living With an Inner Revolution"If you are seeking support because you are in a radical energy or consciousness shift you might check out the websites kundaliniguide.com and awakening guide.com, or books written by Bonnie Greenwell Ph.D. (The Kundalini Guide: A Companion for the Inward Journey) that describe many of the phenomena that come with transformation, and offer guidance on how to live with a spiritual awakening process. Bonnie is a transpersonal psychologist and non-dual teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti,. She was an early director and founder of The Kundalini Research Network, and has been consulting with people in the awakening process for many years."
The Implications of Continued Evolution
Research on Consciousness
Once the idea is accepted, after clinical verification, there will occur an upheaval in every sphere of human activity and thought. The world will not then be what is now, and humankind will not continue to live in the same way.
In Order To Show The Way For Science To Verify The Phenomenon of Enlightenment
This Physicist Says Consciousness Could Be a New State of Matter
Kundalini Experience (KE)
When awakened the brain activity will be increased and its effect will be found all over the body. There will be metabolic processes which can be measured. There will be physiological changes which can be measured.
When empirically proved, it is sure to galvanize the whole race into activity to find the methods and to create the environment by which the effort made to win the Glorious Prize can be greatly facilitated. The validation of the Kundalini hypothesis through a successful “awakening” in selected subjects within a scientifically monitored environment.
Hypothesis:
Within a framework of remarkably similar characteristics, the mystic, the genius, the psychic and some of the mentally ill exhibit extraordinary states of consciousness. We propose to investigate whether one psycho-physiological process (Kundalini) is responsible for these phenomena.
" You are outlining a massive project. I send good wishes," - Roger Nelson - Global Consciousness Project - Princeton University
Tennyson: Then you admit Professor Darwin that there is a higher power behind evolution? “Certainly, I admit it; I am compelled to do so, because evolution has always gone onward and upward, from lower to higher forms of life. That could not be chance; it is unscientific to postulate such a hypothesis, because chance never moves in one direction.” - Charles Darwin
Institute for Consciousness Research Memorandum for Mind Research
Spiritual Emergence Service of Canada
Spirituality In Health-Care Network The Spirituality in Health Care Network (SHCN) is a network of professionals and spiritual leaders dedicated to integrating Spirituality with Psychotherapy and Health Care.
All that is necessary is for one awaken billionaire to finance a demonstration of how the brain is evolving. We are extremely frail instruments of human destiny. We can deliberately effect environments to beneficially produce an ideal world and self. - Cybergod
AN APPEAL TO SCHOLARS AND SCIENTISTS
The extremely diversified accounts of religious experience are due to the variation in the mental level, ideas and cultural development of those who have it. For a thorough investigation of the phenomenon IT IS NECESSARY THAT A TEAM OF SCHOLARS AND SCIENTISTS, COMPRISING SKEPTICS AND BELIEVERS BOTH, SHOULD TAKE UP A COURSE OF EXERCISES FOR A SUFFICIENT PERIOD IN A SPIRIT OF DEDICATION, as is done for other scientific objectives, with due regard to the ethical standards necessary for it. And then they could evaluate the results.
Even one case of awakening would be sufficient to determine the biological nature of the phenomenon, and to observe the various changes and developments that occur. The metabolic processes of the body are highly accelerated, and an inner process of brain building and streamlining, somewhat akin to the processes occurring in an embryo in the womb, takes place until consciousness is completely transmogrified and a superior type of mind is born. What achievements are not possible with an awakened Kundalini, once the feasibility of the transformation is empirically demonstrated and the biological factors involved become known to the men of science? ...
SCIENTIFIC PARAMETERS AND PROTOCOLS
The scientific models and protocols proposed will be designed to monitor the levels of transformational changes with emphasis on the following:
BIOLOGICAL METAMORPHOSIS OF THE BRAIN
To document accelerated activities in the brain.
To identify the reversal of the reproductive system.
Absorption of generative fluids and hormones into the visceral organs as they ascend into the brain
Humanity is in a State of Transition
To establish that the brain is still in an organic state of evolution toward what could be the next plateau in human evolution.
Every major organ begins to function at new levels of activity.
Cells are charged with more potent bio-energy.
Metabolism is greatly amplified or enhanced.
Biochemistry of the organism is significantly altered.
Hormonal variances charted.
Accelerated activity of the entire nervous system.
Verify the transformation of the genes.
Identify the heart-mind-body connection.
Affects upon the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Emergence of a new, more refined personality.
Identify powerful new modes of cognition and perception.
Demonstrate greater mental abilities as natural byproducts of extended consciousness.
To demonstrate that genius can be cultivated.
To verify that noble traits of character are prerequisites to higher states of consciousness.
To identify what sort of lifestyle most ideally conforms to the laws of evolution as they are hypothesized.
To build a database of individuals reporting higher states of consciousness and comparing their descriptions of these states and experiences with those recorded by saints, sages and prophets.
Abstract:
Research has been proposed to investigate the hypothesis that there is a specific psycho-physiological mechanism, referred to as Kundalini in esoteric scriptures, in human beings. The Kundalini hypothesis suggests that human evolution has proceeded by the action of this mechanism in the human body and brain. Traditionally, Kundalini is held to be responsible for creativity, inspiration, genius, mystical experience, psychic phenomena and, in its morbid form, certain classes of mental illness. The proposed research would involve the collection, analysis, and documentation of both psychological and biological data relative to the common characteristics which appear to be the result of an awakened Kundalini. We believe that these objectives can be accomplished via the following avenues of investigation:
Literary research into the lives and writings of great mystics and geniuses and the written and oral traditions of ancient esoteric teachings. The acquisition of statistical data from persons experiencing the symptoms of a Kundalini awakening.
INTUITION AND PSYCHIC ABILITIESTo demonstrate that the same disciplines designed to awakening Kundalini can lead to the development of enhanced intuition and psychic abilities.
SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES
The goal of this research project is to demonstrate what happens upon the awaking of Kundalini psychologically, mentally, and physically. So long as genius and mystical experience continue to be regarded as subjective phenomena, without any relation to the organic frame of man, it will always be difficult if not impossible to show their common factors and design methods to cultivate either one.
The mechanism of Kundalini can be understood in the following way: Upon activation, two different activities start in the body. First, the whole network of nerves begins to manufacture a more potent form of psychic energy, called prana or nerve energy and to pour it into the brain through the spinal duct. This altered form of prana is distinguished by its appearance as a luminous cloud in the brain.
Operating in average men and women, the energy does not have this property. But for the mystic, the visionary experience is almost always bathed in light. This is one of the most important points on which the research will be focused, and it is the reason why virtually all of the ancient texts refer to Kundalini as the sun or moon, or to lightning or fire. The flashes of light or other forms of luminosity experienced by many people during the course of meditation are often due to a sudden, brief upsurge of the more potent prana into the brain.
At the same time or shortly afterwards, another activity begins in the genital region. Upon the awakening, the reproductive fluid is drawn up in an unknown way, in a form of radiation, into the spinal canal. Exactly how this suction is applied will have to be determined by research. This stream rising through the spine represents the nectar or ambrosia repeatedly mentioned in the texts on Kundalini. Its entry into the spinal cord, and then into the brain, is marked by exquisitely pleasurable sensations far exceeding those of an orgasm. This phenomenon is referred to as Urdhava-retas in the yoga manuals.
During the course of its ascent into the brain it is ramified into smaller streams which irrigate the visceral organs through the nerve plexuses or the chakras, and this can be distinctly felt moving into the various organs; the stomach, liver, intestines, heart, lungs, etc., thus preparing the body and the brain for a higher manifestation of consciousness. The flow of a more potent prana, and this stream of secretions into nerve centers and the brain, is what is implied by the phrase penetration of Kundalini.
AN IDEA WORTH EXPLORING
"An idea worth exploring is the possibility of an individual evolving greater insight, creativity, longevity and compassion through shifting the level of energy in their body. In ancient Chinese and Indian cultures these gifts were clearly valued and practices like Qigong and yoga emerged to activate energetic patterns and transform human perspectives and capacities. There is also evidence that indigenous peoples used collective rituals, dance and trance states to altered their brains in ways that produced visions and insights, enabling them to jointly resolve problems and get clear direction for the needs of their tribes.
It is clear that great inventors, artists, musicians, spiritual masters and inspired writers had gifts believed not possible in the common person. However many gifted people did not fit the collective model of normalcy in their societies during their own lifetimes, and were only recognized by future generations. Now we call them genius. Yogis would say they have opened brain centers that are dormant in the rest of us.
Today the west is a culture dominated by commerce and fueled by the over-developed and narrow perspective of left-brain thinking. We train minds for analytic thinking, memorization, behavioral conformity and accomplishment. Generally, creative people who contribute to society are valued only if their inventions can be commercialized, even if they are not necessarily used for the common good. Our psychological world is dominated by stored memories from family and social conditioning, along with judgments about ourself and others when we do not fit in. We become preoccupied with our personal drives, defenses and self-image.
To change our culture we must change our minds. We recognize now that brain patterns can be manipulated through chemistry and substances. But perhaps there is a more safe and inherently natural way to transform out of old patterns, and open new creative pathways in the brain. After all, the first evolutionary movements into human form were not through chemicals, but promoted by some mysterious inner force we have yet to discover in the west.
My work for the past 30 years has been to assist people who spontaneously experience energetic change and transformation, either through meditation or energy practices, or spontaneous events such as NDE, trauma, grief or other highly concentrated moments. My research indicates that these energetic changes, usually movement in the spine or heart, happen either before or after a major shift of consciousness. I consider this as consciousness awakening itself, supported by life force energy that clears out old patterns and activates new potentials.
Today a few brain researchers are studying the kinds of brain patterns produced by those who have had such “awakenings”, or who report a Samadhi event, a moment in meditation when one feels connected to the vast expanse of universe and outside of time. Such research is in its infancy, and yet it is clear our species needs to develop new perspectives and insight into how to advance our own evolution, or we may not survive.
Some people see outer space as the way to expand and escape the damage we have done or may do to our planet. But this is a projection of the outward-focused mind ignoring our true need, which is to open and explore inner space – to clear out limiting patterns and awaken the consciousness within. Our connection to Source – discovered through awakening energy and consciousness -- can help our species to bring forth the next evolution of human expression."
When enough people commit to inner evolution it will become the basis for a future generation with a DNA that sees more clearly and creatively how to best inhabit our bodies, nurture our collective life, and support our planet. This is the ultimate value of kundalini research." - Bonnie Greenwell Ph.D. has 2 websites – www.kundaliniguide.com and www.awakeningguide.com and a blog at shantiriver.wordpress.com
"I call Yoga the Master Science or the Key to the Mysteries of the Universe, as it is through Yoga that genius can be cultivated and genius is the source from which all knowledge -- science, art and philosophy has sprung. . . . I know that, save for some intuitive men and women, I will not be readily believed by my contemporaries. They are not to blame, because what I assert is radically different from what they have been taught to believe. But history is a witness that neither Copernicus nor Bruno nor Galileo was believed in his time for what he premised. . . . What I assert, however far-fetched, fantastic or incredible it might appear now, would ultimately prove to be a most important and urgent branch of empirical investigation, as a budding new science, demanding shortly all the knowledge and resources of the older science for its progress from year to year. . . . There can be no denying the fact that we have been dilatory in investigating consciousness -- the wonder stuff behind all that mankind has achieved. . . . It is not science but we who are responsible for our arbitrary interpretation of the Universe. It is only research on consciousness that can correct the error and open new vistas of creation beyond our dreams at present. It is only this new vision and the effort directed to gain it that can keep the restless intellect calmly on its course." - Gopi Krishna, Yoga: A Vision of its Future
Western Science and Eastern Wisdom
This is the point where Indian wisdom and western science will be in confluence soon. This is the place from where the domain of Yoga begins. This is the crucial frontier beyond which the existing methods of science will prove of no avail in the study of consciousness. It is precisely at this bend of the road that science will have to look for guidance to Yoga adepts and illuminati of the past. We see that this has already started to happen, but not in a systematic way.
Scientists and Yogis will have to work hand in hand in the times to come unravel the mysteries of Kundalini. Science and religion have to coalesce to produce the savants of the future to lay the foundation of the super-science of the soul.
We have still to grasp the true proportions of the discipline of Yoga. It is a colossal enterprise. It is designed, by means of arduous psychosomatic exercises, to accelerate the process of evolution, condensing millennia into the duration of but one life. This is what the Indian classics mean when they say that the bonds of Karma can be cut asunder and the chain births and deaths brought to a close with the successful practice of Yoga leading to the union of the human soul with Universal Consciousness.
This is achieved by the rousing to activity of the dormant power of Kundalini and stirring up the inactive center in the brain. A new life then pulsates through the system, new light illuminates the mind and a new pattern of consciousness presents a new picture of the universe.
In order to enable this dream of an emancipated humanity to come true, the existing gulf between religion and science must cease. The knowledge of the spirit must become as precise and universal as the knowledge of the physical world. The dichotomy of matter and mind must end forever.
The scientist must become the Yogi and the Yogi act as the men of science. In this lies the safety and survival of mankind In this lies unity, universal brotherhood and peace. Kundalini provides the only channel for the exploration of the mind. It is the only road aligned by nature to reach the territory of consciousness. There is no other way.
The effort directed now to know the force behind psychic phenomena or nature of the healing radiation must always end in failure, the realm of the spirit can only be reached through inner exploration. This involves discipline of both the body and the mind.
This needs, in turn, adherence to certain noble principles of conduct and a well-ordered, harmonious life of dedication, surrender and service in the pursuit of Truth. For obvious reasons nature has imposed certain restrictions to safeguard against the abuse of spiritual power. These devices are embedded in the subtle levels of the brain.
The kingdom of heaven cannot be wrested by force nor by one prone to abuse the power gained. It is here that India ought to take the lead now. It inherits a priceless documentary treasure from the past. It has the dedicated scientific talent available, as competent as anywhere else in the world. It has the erudite scholars thoroughly conversant with the ancient tradition and it has the self-sacrificing spiritual teachers and Yoga-adepts who can all combine to take up the colossal project of research on Kundalini.
BEYOND ANYTHING CURRENTLY PROPOSED
We are not saying that the human mind is evolving towards an undefined summit, as Teilhard de Chardin and others have said. What we are suggesting is that human consciousness is evolving towards a predetermined target and that this target is the mystical or illuminated state attained by thousands of mystics and enlightened human beings in the past. The religious scriptures of the world are a harvest of the revelations received from a higher Intelligence in this state of exalted being.
Investigation into Kundalini, therefore, goes far beyond anything currently under way or proposed by scholars in other fields of consciousness research. By penetrating to the very roots of consciousness, the research will attempt to unravel the mysterious world of intuition, creativity and evolution, and by doing so seek to uncover the source from which all knowledge, science, art and philosophy has sprung, namely genius.
A GREAT NEED FOR GENIUSES
The world at this time stands in desperate need of geniuses, especially political geniuses who could bring in line the existing systems of politics with the needs of millions of fast-evolving human beings.
In jurisprudence, geniuses are needed to revise the outmoded, cumbersome systems dating from the Romans. In science, in healing, and in social science, geniuses are needed to remedy the present imbalances and plant society firmly on the path to the sublime state which is its destined evolutionary goal. Kundalini research would be based on the premise that there is a potentiality in the human brain, not merely a spiritual but an organic potentiality as well which, when actualized, can alter the state of the mirror through which average men and women perceive the image of the universe. With this alteration, the whole aspect of creation is changed and a new horizon opens.
It is only in this state of transformed consciousness that the real nature of the mind stands revealed, and the conclusion becomes clear that the cosmic image, presented by our senses, is not a reality in itself, but a reflection of the mind. And this reflection can vary with alterations in the state or dimension of the mind itself.
THOUSANDS OF TEXTS ON KUNDALINI
The volume of literature on Kundalini (or the Serpent power) is enormous. In India alone there are thousands of books, including the Tantras, dealing with this holy subject in Sanskrit and other regional languages of the country. Kundalini has also been known for thousands of years among occultists, alchemists and esoteric brotherhoods in Europe.
The serpent symbol on the forehead of the pharaohs, the hermetic doctrines and the mystery cults of Greece and Rome are all related to the knowledge of the Serpent power. The caduceus or the rod of mercury, which serves now as an academic emblem, is a symbolic representation of this power as clear as the diagrammatic symbols used in India.
There is conclusive evidence to show that Kundalini has been known throughout the past, both in the old and new worlds as a jealously guarded secret of a few. The only period in history when the subject has been delegated to the dustbin of superstition and myth is the present rationalistic era of the last two hundred years.
SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS
Introduction
Our science-oriented culture has created a peculiar social environment ideally suited for highly sophisticated minds with a strongly marked polarity that makes them talk in one way and act in another. In other words, the evolution of political thought has not kept pace with the speed at which knowledge has expanded. We now need a much more balanced and penetrating intellect than that which is operating at present in order to adjust the society to it.
This anomaly has a marked subconscious effect on every man and woman, each experiencing the effect without awareness of the cause behind it. The main reason why there is discontentment in almost every country, including the most advanced, is not because the leaders are less competent than before but because the human mind has attained a degree of sensitivity, and the environment a state of complexity, where a more evolved type of men and women are needed to create confidence and enlist the cooperation of the general public.
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS WITHIN YOU.
According to various estimates, most of us use only ten percent of the brain. That means 90 percent of the brain is un-utilized, that there is still a large margin in the brain which could be used for other purposes and that nature has provided it for certain purposes which have not yet been discovered.
Among the adepts in ancient India, this untapped region of the brain was called the Brahma-rendra, or cave of God. This region can be activated by certain disciplines, and when activated it can give to the individual the same vision of the universe which all great mystics have described.
But when it is awakened, the normal energy of the body or the blood is not able to fuel the center. It needs a more powerful and concentrated psychic fuel. This fuel comes from the reproductive system, which is transformed into a kind of radiation, and that radiation awakens and makes the center function. A current of silvery light rises from the spine and radiates through the whole brain, causing a tremendous expansion of consciousness.
When this occurs, one does not continue to see the world as a solid, real, objective creation but as consciousness. The real objective creation is then seen as consciousness everywhere. For example, the ocean, the sky, the earth, the mountains, are seen as if they are living. This life or consciousness is not something which is dead or which can be understood. It is infinite, deathless. It is something so unique, so elevating, that there are no words to describe this extraordinary state of being.
But those who have experienced it have become geniuses of the highest order, and it is repeatedly said in the ancient manuals that they would not change this state of consciousness for any treasure, not even a kingdom. This is probably what Christ meant when he said that the kingdom of heaven is within you.
From a scientific point of view, it can be said that a certain region in the brain has been awakened to activity. It means that nature has already provided a potential in the brain which has to be awakened in order for it to evolve to a higher level of performance. It also means that the human brain is still organically evolving in the direction of the great mystics and prophets, in the same direction of the great geniuses.
For this evolution a certain type of life is necessary. For instance, throughout our life evolution is going on and we have to cooperate with it. When we do not cooperate with the inner evolution we create problems for ourselves.
All of the religious teachings of mankind, beginning with the Vedas, then the Buddha, the Old Testament and New Testaments, the teachings of Moses, Christ, Mohammed, Guru Nanak, and all the ancient prophets of the Bible, were meant to give directions for how to live, how to regulate our lives, while the brain is still evolving.
At the present time, the human brain is evolving much more rapidly because from morning until evening we are applying our brain to some task, reading, watching television, working in an office, solving problems, etc. This was not the case when people hunted or tilled the soil. They had not need to apply their brain in such a concentrated way as we do today. In other words, we are meditating almost continually, although on material objects, and this is accelerating the evolutionary processes at work in the brain and nervous system. This has resulted in many thousands of partial awakenings of the Power, especially in the industrialized countries, albeit in a haphazard and often unhealthy manner. Often in the case of such awakenings, the benefits can be quite fruitful, transforming such individuals into more productive, creative, loving and more compassionate personalities.
A great many of the patients now crowding our mental institutions, whether for schizophrenia or manic-depressive states, could be correctly placed in this category. Psychiatrists and psychologists are at a lost to explain why. Because of the limited extent of our current knowledge about this phenomenon, it is extremely rare far more rare than genius itself that the Kundalini raises to the highest center in the brain in a healthy way, resulting in Illumination or Enlightenment. This is one more reason why research such as proposed herein is of such vital importance at this time.
In order to bring about a harmonious change in society, the leaders of the world have to be convinced of the existence of Kundalini and its effect on our everyday lives, and for that to happen a scientific experiment is necessary. We have to demonstrate that the brain is evolving, and that this evolution needs a certain kind of harmonious way of life.
In the experiment, a number of healthy young men and women will practice mental and physical disciplines designed to greatly increase the brain’s activity, and its effect will be found all over the body. There will be metabolic processes and other physiological changes which can be measured. The goal will be to awaken the dormant center in the brain responsible for mystical experience and genius. Once the evolutionary mechanism, called Kundalini by the ancient adepts, has been activated, there are definite biological changes in the blood, the nervous system, the cerebrospinal fluid, and in the composition of the brain itself.
The experiment is designed to prove that there is the potential in every human being which can transform him or her from a mortal into an immortal and that in within each of us there is an eternal source of happiness. A more harmonious, more peaceful, happy, more contented humanity can be expected to result from this research. More importantly, it will show the way for every generation to produce people who have reached the higher dimensions, and they will become the political leaders, scientists, and educators, who will help to guide the race higher and higher and higher.
GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE RESEARCH
Bio-Energy Research Foundation, together with its affiliated Foundations and Institutions, stand alone in the research we are proposing. There is every likelihood that eyebrows will be raised and open doubts expressed both from the sides of religion and science, inasmuch as every important discovery in knowledge invariably took the world by surprise.
As we propose to demonstrate, the finished products of Kundalini must transcend the normal limits of the human brain. If this transcendence does not occur, the visionary experiences are either a delusion or myth. This raises another important question: If Kundalini is the source behind genius and extraordinary intellectual or artistic talents, as postulated, it must also be a factor behind the evil geniuses of history, the highly talented military commanders, dictators and demagogues, and also the human monsters who, dead to every moral sentiment, commit the dreadful acts reported almost daily in the media.
What we are suggesting, and intend to demonstrate through this proposed research project, is that one single law is at the base of all phenomena of the mind that science, at the present moment, finds inexplicable. Only one remarkable series of changes, caused in the psychic or nerve energy that serves as fuel for thought, is responsible. The greater incidence of insanity among the men and women of genius, for instance, and the seeds of eccentricity in many of them, clearly establishes the existence of a common link between the two.
The research will tend to show that the evolutionary impulse cannot be active only in the individuals but must be operative in a collective sense as well. The influence of evolutionary processes on the ecological development of a whole species or group is now clearly recognized by the biologists and that in order to meet the needs of the evolutionary growths, changes in the environment social, political and moral would be necessary from time to time to meet the demands of the development of the psychomental fabric of the individuals and of the race too.
Where this adjustment is delayed, causing a retardation in growth, revolts, revolutions, and wars intervene to effect, with widespread suffering and bloodshed, what could have been achieved by peaceful means provided the underlying Law were known and its mode of operation understood. The ancient civilizations and cultures, after attaining a certain level of achievement, fell victims to decadence because the lives of the people did not conform to these standards. Actually, a revolution in the life of humanity should have occurred a century ago, when the theory of evolution was first propounded. But the evolutionists at that time, due mainly to prejudice against religion, and for a long time afterwards, held to a theory that cut at the roots of the idea of Intelligence and design in creation, effectively blocking any further discussion based on a spiritual point of view.
A single man or woman of the stature of a great prophet or scientist can have the power to change the world. Imagine what possibilities can be held forth if a crop of dozens of such geniuses were to be cultivated in each century or generation.
Since the kundalini mechanism is a biological mechanism, given a properly conducted research program based on a serious scientific study of a group of suitable candidates, it should be possible to measure the biological and intellectual changes using suitable tests and equipment.
GENIUS AND MADNESS NOTICED FROM ANCIENT TIMES
Genius is inspiration. It is very true that nothing so much resembles a person attacked by madness as a man of genius when meditating and molding his conceptions. When the moment of inspiration is over the man of genius becomes an ordinary man, if he does not descend lower.
This resemblance of an inspired personality to madness has been noticed from ancient times. In the words of Aristotle, famous poets, artists, and statesmen, frequently suffer from melancholia or madness, as did Ajax. In recent times such a disposition occurred in Socrates, Empedocles, Plato and many others, but especially in our poets.
GOETHE, NIETZSCHE AND SCHOPENHAUER
The French philosopher Diderot has said, I have often thought that these reserved and melancholy men owe their extraordinary, almost godlike, acuteness of insight to a temporary disturbance of their whole mechanism. One may notice how it brings them now to sublime, now to insane thoughts. ‘They themselves fancy that some godlike being uses up within them, seeks them out and uses them. How near is genius to madness. Yet one is locked up and bound with chains whilst to the other we raise monuments.’
In recent times, men of genius, like Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer, themselves avow how near genius is to madness. Looking the other way round, we find that many schizophrenics show a marked resemblance to geniuses but of a twisted and distorted kind. It has been remarked that whoever has had the opportunity of observing with a sympathetic and understanding eye, a considerable number of acute cases of schizophrenia in the early stages of the affliction, cannot but be astonished at times, at the inconceivable power, richness and cosmic breadth of the experiences that suddenly break upon these individuals, even when they have the most commonplace minds.
Such experiences, so quickly to be extinguished, may occasionally lift even the most banal natures right out of themselves. In certain circumstances, abnormal ecstatic conditions of this kind, which are milder and do not lead to complete mental collapse, show a great similarity to the inspired experiences of genius, especially in the religious field.
A SUMMARY AND SOME CONCLUSIONS
The basal energy of the universe is the Energy of Consciousness. How it is transformed into material, organic, gravitational, electromagnetic or atomic energy, scientific investigations will show. We are at the very beginning of a radical change in the thinking of the race. This change will not be brought about so much by our efforts as by the force of circumstances, created by the racial Prana-Shakti, to draw out mankind from the present groove which is inimical to her spiritual evolution.
That there must be some variation in the brain or some other factor responsible for genius, extraordinary talent or paranormal faculties in human beings no one can deny. If it were not so, every average human being who tried hard for it could become a Plato, a Kalidas, a Shakespeare or a Newton. But such a transformation has never been possible to this day with any methods of education known to us.
SO MUCH VARIATION, ONE IS LOST IN CONFUSION
The actual position is that there is so much variation and such a prolificity of individual views in the books on Yoga and Tantra that one is lost in confusion. This has led to such a multiplicity of opinions and ideas that, strange as it may appear, one can support any point of view with a citation from one authority or the other.
Success in Yoga and other spiritual disciplines, whether achieved slowly and imperceptibly through the practice of Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga, or spontaneously, as the accumulated harvest of previous Karma, or suddenly with agonizing experiences, as the result of Hatha Yoga exercises, must be due to the same organic mechanism that has eluded detection so far. Prana-Shakti or the bio-electricity which is behind the organic activity of the body and the mental activity of the brain, can undergo a transformation either as the result of hereditary factors, as in the case of the examples cited above, or with the practices of Yoga, or as the harvest of any other religious discipline, as has happened throughout the past.
It is this alteration in the pranic energy or bio-electricity, with a corresponding transformation in certain areas of the brain, which is responsible for all cases of Illumination, whether brought about by voluntary methods or spontaneous, also for all cases of genius, paranormal faculties and, where the body or the brain is not adaptable to the change, for certain intractable forms of insanity.
THERE IS ONLY ONE LIVING ELECTRICITY
The association of Prana with every form of yoga is common knowledge in India and the United States. There is only one living electricity in the body and that is Prana. The popular image of a Yogi often depicts him as one who has drawn the entire Prana of his body into his head. It is immaterial whether this concentration of prana is achieved with the gentle methods of Raja-Yoga or the arduous ones of Hatha Yoga, but the medium affected is the same, namely prana. There is no other rival force in the body to which we could point as the one that comes into operation by Raja Yoga methods in contrast to the other activated by the techniques of Hatha Yoga.
There is also evidence to show the secret of Kundalini was known to the Egyptians, Sumerians, Persians, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, centuries and even thousands of years before the birth of Christ.
THERE MUST BE A NATURAL PROCESS
Kundalini is the profound secret behind all spiritual and cultural achievements in India. It is this all-important secret which drew and still draws crowds of seekers after spiritual illumination from all parts of the earth to India, the land of sages, from the Vedic period to this age. It is now admitted that even ancient Egypt borrowed occult knowledge from this land. Can it be imagined for a moment that commonplace disciplines and cheap practices, which are the stock in trade of not a few teachers of our day, could form the secret teaching which distant seekers traversed thousands of miles on foot to learn, risking their life and limb in the hazardous expedition in olden times? Why to suit our own preferences do we try to belittle a still-hidden knowledge that was valued beyond all the treasures of the earth by the greatest sons of India in the past?
There must be a natural process for liberation as there is an inexorable organic process for incarnation, conception, embryo, birth, childhood, prime, old age, death, etc., repeated time after time. It cannot be that while the process of internment spreads over ages that of release should occur in a day, through a magically potent sadhana or a glance of favor from a guru.
THERE IS NO ONE METHOD
There is no one way to reach the Eternal. There is no one method that would suit everyone. The illuminated men and women born in different parts of the earth have been divergent in their philosophy, metaphysics, methods of attainment, the nature of the reality, the nature of the Soul, ideas about the Hereafter and the state of the Soul after disembodiment. But all this divergence does not mean that there is a chaos in the spiritual world or that the illuminated of the past knew all that is to be known of this profound Ocean of Knowledge of the Self. How few really succeed in the enterprise we know only too well. The reason for this extreme poverty of results in the spiritual quest lies in the ignorance about the real nature of the mechanism Kundalini responsible for success. The research project proposed here is designed to greatly add to this knowledge.
SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESIS
Introduction
Our science-oriented culture has created a peculiar social environment ideally suited for highly sophisticated minds with a strongly marked polarity that makes them talk in one way and act in another. In other words, the evolution of political thought has not kept pace with the speed at which knowledge has expanded. We now need a much more balanced and penetrating intellect than that which is operating at present in order to adjust the society to it.
This anomaly has a marked subconscious effect on every man and woman, each experiencing the effect without awareness of the cause behind it. The main reason why there is discontentment in almost every country, including the most advanced, is not because the leaders are less competent than before but because the human mind has attained a degree of sensitivity, and the environment a state of complexity, where a more evolved type of men and women are needed to create confidence and enlist the cooperation of the general public.
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS WITHIN YOU.
According to various estimates, most of us use only ten percent of the brain. That means 90 percent of the brain is unutilized, that there is still a large margin in the brain which could be used for other purposes and that nature has provided it for certain purposes which have not yet been discovered.
Among the adepts in ancient India, this untapped region of the brain was called the Brahma-rendra, or cave of God. This region can be activated by certain disciplines, and when activated it can give to the individual the same vision of the universe which all great mystics have described.
But when it is awakened, the normal energy of the body or the blood is not able to fuel the center. It needs a more powerful and concentrated psychic fuel. This fuel comes from the reproductive system, which is transformed into a kind of radiation, and that radiation awakens and makes the center function. A current of silvery light rises from the spine and radiates through the whole brain, causing a tremendous expansion of consciousness.
When this occurs, one does not continue to see the world as a solid, real, objective creation but as consciousness. The real objective creation is then seen as consciousness everywhere. For example, the ocean, the sky, the earth, the mountains, are seen as if they are living. This life or consciousness is not something which is dead or which can be understood. It is infinite, deathless. It is something so unique, so elevating, that there are no words to describe this extraordinary state of being.
But those who have experienced it have become geniuses of the highest order, and it is repeatedly said in the ancient manuals that they would not change this state of consciousness for any treasure, not even a kingdom. This is probably what Christ meant when he said that the kingdom of heaven is within you.
From a scientific point of view, it can be said that a certain region in the brain has been awakened to activity. It means that nature has already provided a potential in the brain which has to be awakened in order for it to evolve to a higher level of performance. It also means that the human brain is still organically evolving in the direction of the great mystics and prophets, in the same direction of the great geniuses.
For this evolution a certain type of life is necessary. For instance, throughout our life evolution is going on and we have to cooperate with it. When we do not cooperate with the inner evolution we create problems for ourselves.
All of the religious teachings of mankind, beginning with the Vedas, then the Buddha, the Old Testament and New Testaments, the teachings of Moses, Christ, Mohammed, Guru Nanak, and all the ancient prophets of the Bible, were meant to give directions for how to live, how to regulate our lives, while the brain is still evolving.
At the present time, the human brain is evolving much more rapidly because from morning until evening we are applying our brain to some task, reading, watching television, working in an office, solving problems, etc. This was not the case when people hunted or tilled the soil. They had not need to apply their brain in such a concentrated way as we do today. In other words, we are meditating almost continually, although on material objects, and this is accelerating the evolutionary processes at work in the brain and nervous system. This has resulted in many thousands of partial awakenings of the Power, especially in the industrialized countries, albeit in a haphazard and often unhealthy manner. Often in the case of such awakenings, the benefits can be quite fruitful, transforming such individuals into more productive, creative, loving and more compassionate personalities.
A great many of the patients now crowding our mental institutions, whether for schizophrenia or manic-depressive states, could be correctly placed in this category. Psychiatrists and psychologists are at a lost to explain why. Because of the limited extent of our current knowledge about this phenomenon, it is extremely rare far more rare than genius itself that the Kundalini raises to the highest center in the brain in a healthy way, resulting in Illumination or Enlightenment. This is one more reason why research such as proposed herein is of such vital importance at this time.
In order to bring about a harmonious change in society, the leaders of the world have to be convinced of the existence of Kundalini and its effect on our everyday lives, and for that to happen a scientific experiment is necessary. We have to demonstrate that the brain is evolving, and that this evolution needs a certain kind of harmonious way of life.
In the experiment, a number of healthy young men and women will practice mental and physical disciplines designed to greatly increase the brain’s activity, and its effect will be found all over the body. There will be metabolic processes and other physiological changes which can be measured. The goal will be to awaken the dormant center in the brain responsible for mystical experience and genius. Once the evolutionary mechanism, called Kundalini by the ancient adepts, has been activated, there are definite biological changes in the blood, the nervous system, the cerebrospinal fluid, and in the composition of the brain itself.
The experiment is designed to prove that there is the potential in every human being which can transform him or her from a mortal into an immortal and that in within each of us there is an eternal source of happiness. A more harmonious, more peaceful, happy, more contented humanity can be expected to result from this research. More importantly, it will show the way for every generation to produce people who have reached the higher dimensions, and they will become the political leaders, scientists, and educators, who will help to guide the race higher and higher and higher.
For this evolution a certain type of life is necessary. For instance, throughout our life evolution is going on and we have to cooperate with it. When we do not cooperate with the inner evolution we create problems for ourselves.
All of the religious teachings of mankind, beginning with the Vedas, then the Buddha, the Old Testament and New Testaments, the teachings of Moses, Christ, Mohammed, Guru Nanak, and all the ancient prophets of the Bible, were meant to give directions for how to live, how to regulate our lives, while the brain is still evolving.
At the present time, the human brain is evolving much more rapidly because from morning until evening we are applying our brain to some task, reading, watching television, working in an office, solving problems, etc. This was not the case when people hunted or tilled the soil. They had not need to apply their brain in such a concentrated way as we do today. In other words, we are meditating almost continually, although on material objects, and this is accelerating the evolutionary processes at work in the brain and nervous system. This has resulted in many thousands of partial awakenings of the Power, especially in the industrialized countries, albeit in a haphazard and often unhealthy manner. Often in the case of such awakenings, the benefits can be quite fruitful, transforming such individuals into more productive, creative, loving and more compassionate personalities.
A great many of the patients now crowding our mental institutions, whether for schizophrenia or manic-depressive states, could be correctly placed in this category. Psychiatrists and psychologists are at a lost to explain why. Because of the limited extent of our current knowledge about this phenomenon, it is extremely rare far more rare than genius itself that the Kundalini raises to the highest center in the brain in a healthy way, resulting in Illumination or Enlightenment. This is one more reason why research such as proposed herein is of such vital importance at this time.
In order to bring about a harmonious change in society, the leaders of the world have to be convinced of the existence of Kundalini and its effect on our everyday lives, and for that to happen a scientific experiment is necessary. We have to demonstrate that the brain is evolving, and that this evolution needs a certain kind of harmonious way of life.
In the experiment, a number of healthy young men and women will practice mental and physical disciplines designed to greatly increase the brain’s activity, and its effect will be found all over the body. There will be metabolic processes and other physiological changes which can be measured. The goal will be to awaken the dormant center in the brain responsible for mystical experience and genius. Once the evolutionary mechanism, called Kundalini by the ancient adepts, has been activated, there are definite biological changes in the blood, the nervous system, the cerebrospinal fluid, and in the composition of the brain itself.
The experiment is designed to prove that there is the potential in every human being which can transform him or her from a mortal into an immortal and that in within each of us there is an eternal source of happiness. A more harmonious, more peaceful, happy, more contented humanity can be expected to result from this research. More importantly, it will show the way for every generation to produce people who have reached the higher dimensions, and they will become the political leaders, scientists, and educators, who will help to guide the race higher and higher and higher.
SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES
The goal of this research project is to demonstrate what happens upon the awaking of Kundalini psychologically, mentally, psychically, and physically. So long as genius and mystical experience continue to be regarded as subjective phenomena, without any relation to the organic frame of man, it will always be difficult if not impossible to show their common factors and design methods to cultivate either one.
The mechanism of Kundalini can be understood in the following way: Upon activation, two different activities start in the body. First, the whole network of nerves begins to manufacture a more potent form of psychic energy, called prana or nerve energy and to pour it into the brain through the spinal duct. This altered form of prana is distinguished by its appearance as a luminous cloud in the brain.
Operating in average men and women, the energy does not have this property. But for the mystic, the visionary experience is almost always bathed in light. This is one of the most important points on which the research will be focused, and it is the reason why virtually all of the ancient texts refer to Kundalini as the sun or moon, or to lightning or fire. The flashes of light or other forms of luminosity experienced by many people during the course of meditation are often due to a sudden, brief upsurge of the more potent prana into the brain.
At the same time or shortly afterwards, another activity begins in the genital region. Upon the awakening, the reproductive fluid is drawn up in an unknown way, in a form of radiation, into the spinal canal. Exactly how this suction is applied will have to be determined by research. This stream rising through the spine represents the nectar or ambrosia repeatedly mentioned in the texts on Kundalini. Its entry into the spinal cord, and then into the brain, is marked by exquisitely pleasurable sensations far exceeding those of an orgasm. This phenomenon is referred to as Urdhavaretas in the yoga manuals.
During the course of its ascent into the brain it is ramified into smaller streams which irrigate the visceral organs through the nerve plexuses or the chakras, and this can be distinctly felt moving into the various organs; the stomach, liver, intestines, heart, lungs, etc., thus preparing the body and the brain for a higher manifestation of consciousness. The flow of a more potent prana, and this stream of secretions into nerve centers and the brain, is what is implied by the phrase "penetration of Kundalini."
THE ROLE OF THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM
The lingam-yoni symbol, which has been in India from the remote past, denotes the reversed action of the cerebrospinal system, utilizing evry spare ounce of the bio-energy normally used for amatory purposes, for the remodeling of the body and the brain under high pressure, in which all the organs of the body become inextricably involved. With the flow of the nectar, distilled by the nerves from all parts of the body into the brain, the area of rapture is transferred from the genitals to the cerebrum. The phonomenon is ancient and so widespread that it is amazing that modern science has no inkling of it even now.
It was because of the tremendous physiological effects on the body experienced on the awakening of Kundalini that the ancient yoga masters devoted so much attention to the enumeration of the signs and symptoms that occur at that time. For instance, they would not have made repeated mention in their writings of the phenomenon of lights and sounds even describing the nature of the sounds heard and the lights seen comparing the former to thunder, the humming of bees, roaring of waterfalls, or the pealing of bells; and the later to the luster of the moon, the radiance of the sun, the glow of fire or flash of lightning.
In their treatises, these authors provide precise descriptions of the chakras and specify their particular location on the cerebrospinal axis. In fact, the ancient masters took pains to pinpoint the exact location of the Kanda, i.e., the inverted triangle below the navel, on which Kundalini rests, leaving no doubt that it is the region intimately connected with the reproductive organs.
SCIENTIFIC PARAMETERS AND PROTOCOLS
The scientific models and protocols proposed will be designed to monitor the levels of transformational changes with emphasis on the following:
BIOLOGICAL METAMORPHOSIS OF THE BRAIN
To document accelerated activities in the brain.
To identify the reversal of the reproductive system.
Absorption of generative fluids and hormones into the visceral organs as they ascend into the brain
To establish that the brain is still in an organic state of evolution toward what could be the next plateau in human evolution.
Every major organ begins to function at new levels of activity.
Cells are charged with more potent bio-energy.
Metabolism is greatly amplified or enhanced.
Biochemistry of the organism is significantly altered.
Hormonal variances charted.
Accelerated activity of the entire nervous system.
Verify the transformation of the genes.
Identify the heart-mind-body connection.
Affects upon the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
PSYCHOLOGICAL
Emergence of a new, more refined personality.
Identify powerful new modes of cognition and perception.
Demonstrate greater mental abilities as natural byproducts of extended consciousness.
To demonstrate that genius can be cultivated.
To verify that noble traits of character are prerequisites to higher states of consciousness.
To identify what sort of lifestyle most ideally conforms to the laws ofevolution as they are hypothesized.
To build a database of individuals reporting higher states of consciousness and comparing their descriptions of these states and experiences with those recorded by saints, sages and prophets.
INTUITION AND PSYCHIC ABILITIES
To demonstrate that the same disciplines designed to awakening Kundalini can lead to the development of enhanced intuition and psychic abilities.
GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE RESEARCH
The Kundalini Research Foundation, together with its affiliated Foundations and Institutions, stand alone in the research we are proposing. There is every likelihood that eyebrows will be raised and open doubts expressed both from the sides of religion and science, inasmuch as every important discovery in knowledge invariably took the world by surprise. As Gopi Krishna writes in "The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius", once the possibility of spiritual rebirth with the arousal of Kundalini is accepted by science, the knowledge obtained through this research will point the way to the most sublime enterprise for the pure-minded and intelligent spirits of our age.
As we propose to demonstrate, the finished products of Kundalini must tran-scend the normal limits of the human brain. If this transcendence does not occur, the visionary experiences are either a delusion or myth. This raises another important question: If Kundalini is the source behind genius and extraordinary intellectual or artistic talents, as postulated, it must also be a factor behind the evil geniuses of history, the highly talented military commanders, dictators and demagogues, and also the human monsters who, dead to every moral sentiment, commit the dreadful acts reported almost daily in the media.
What we are suggesting, and intend to demonstrate through this proposed research project, is that one single law is at the base of all phenomena of the mind that science, at the present moment, finds inexplicable. Only one remarkable series of changes, caused in the psychic or nerve energy that serves as fuel for thought, is responsible. The greater incidence of insanity among the men and women of genius, for instance, and the seeds of eccentricity in many of them, clearly establishes the existence of a common link between the two.
The research will tend to show that the evolutionary impulse cannot be active only in the individuals but must be operative in a collective sense as well. The influence of evolutionary processes on the ecological development of a whole species or group is now clearly recognized by the biologists and that in order to meet the needs of the evolutionary growths, changes in the environment social, political and moral, would be necessary from time to time to meet the demands of the development of the psychomental fabric of the individuals and of the race too.
Where this adjustment is delayed, causing a retardation in growth, revolts, revolutions, and wars intervene to effect, with widespread suffering and bloodshed, what could have been achieved by peaceful means provided the underlying Law were known and its mode of operation understood. The ancient civilizations and cultures, after attaining a certain level of achievement, fell victims to decadence because the lives of the people did not conform to these standards. Actually, a revolution in the life of humanity should have occurred a century ago, when the theory of evolution was first propounded. But the evolutionists at that time, due mainly to prejudice against religion, and for a long time afterwards, held to a theory that cut at the roots of the idea of Intelligence and design in creation, effectively blocking any further discussion based on a spiritual point of view.
A single man or woman of the stature of a great prophet or scientist can have the power to change the world. Imagine what possibilities can be held forth if a crop of dozens of such geniuses were to be cultivated in each century or generation.
In "The Secret of Yoga", Gopi Krishna summarizes the foregoing in these words:
We live in an age of surprises. At the same time, we experience the horror of man-caused calamities. But no surprise has been so great as will take place when this Law is empirically demonstrated, and no calamity has been so devastating as might befall it, in the present stage of technological development, if the law is still ignored. The development of the human brain and the intellect is an unavoidable consequence of evolution, but without spiritual discipline and enlightenment the results can not only be unwholesome but also fatally poisonous.
In other words, it is essential in order to ensure smooth progress and safety on the hazardous path of evolution that humanity should not only be possessed of temporal knowledge but should also know the laws that rule her spiritual growth.
