kundalini awakening & substances and invoking the name of Winnie

[Guest guest]

Hi Gang,

 

I've been enjoying the discussion on Gill's experience, and am moved to

tell a short story of my own (past) exeriences with drug-related

openings. Well, maybe two stories. My experiences suggest that LSD can

facilitate deep openings, but that a certain degree of readiness is

necessary for the quick intense experiences to become integrated. I had

an experience of being peeled like a banana by the hand of God, which

left me with none of the tension in my body that I usually carry. This

was the first time I had any clue how MUCH tension there usually is. It

was numinous, and I spent considerable time laughing joyously at

discovering my name, and it was perfectly clear that all is right and

fine and there is no need whatsoever for fear of any kind. I consider

it a true immersion into my true self. Of course it wore off, and I

tried many times to recreate it in the way that I had come to it the

first time. Finally, the drug itself asked me to stop. I had an

experience of being an infinitely long string in an infinitely large

space of infinitely many, infinitely long strings, each of which was

perpendicular to every other one, and the use of the drug was revealed

to me as creating tension in the string that was me, which then was

pulling on every other string, causing it to not be straight. (is that

the source of the word straight meaning not using drugs? hmmm....).

Anyway, at the time, the point was very clear that the drug had given me

a true glimpse into my nature, but that it would not replace the

practice that would remove the layers of conditioning that hid it, and

that further use would actually add to those layers. The tension in the

string was named karma, and I was adding to it, not relieving it by my

explorations. I make no claims whatsoever about what this very personal

experience means for anyone else. I just mean to say that from my

perspective, the K opening, which I am confident that the first

experience was, was bone fide, but because of the means by which it was

elicited, it was temporary and I also mean to say that the drug itself

told me to stop using it. That was very clear while on the drug, but I

used it several more times afterward because the clarity wore off.

 

 

So to the naysayers who say there is no value in drug experiences, I say

pooh. And to anyone who says that drug use by itself is a sensible

spiritual practice, I say pooh. Finally, to those who suggest that any

experience that isn't the ultimate enlightenment experience isn't worth

having or talking about, I say pooh. If that were true, why would we

waste our time being alive? It's all grist for the mill, but I

certainly agree from where I'm sitting, that to label any experience as

the end all and be all, and to claim completion is silly. Surely this

will endlessly reveal itself to be deeper and deeper and more and more

marvelous. Yum! I say GOOD WORK, GOD!!! (and pat myself on the back)

 

Love, Mark

ps Hear, hear, Michael. Well said.

 

MHortling wrote:

> Dear Gill, Swaminarayan !

>

> Drugs can indeed trigger kundalini and make it rise through the

> psychic

> channels, giving you an expanded experience of yourself. Many, many

> people

> have had this happen to themselves in the past decades.

>

> My initial kundalini awakening also came about after smoking cannabis.

>

> However not all psychedelic experiences will automatically release

> shakti,

> but when it IS triggered and actually travels up through the spine,

> the

> sensations involved aren't easily overlooked. So, I'd say that if one

> feels

> the energy move, electric, orgasmic sensations crawling up the

> backbone,

> electrical tingling within the brain, visions of light in the spine

> etc, then

> it is a true awakening. The kundalini can go back to sleep for a while

>

> afterwards and one might have to deal with possibly unpleasant or even

>

> disastrous side-effects of the drug, but it's still just as real -

> or

> unreal - as anything else in these worlds we live in. Other

> experiences are

> equally real but then don't involve the active shakti.

>

> Believing mystical experience and kundalini-release will only come

> about

> after rigorous discipline within the framework of traditional

> teachings, is a

> limiting view and doesn't correspond to the way these things actually

> seem to

> happen - although having discipline and knowledge of the traditions

> can save

> one from a lot of hassles and definitely seem to be necessary at some

> point

> along the way.

>

> So many things come into play, what about the past-life factor ? If

> you spent

> a whole incarnation doing asanas and pranayama and then decided you

> needed a

> break and became a wine-drinking and meat-eating gourmet, smoking

> hashish-cigars in this lifetime, you could possibly be closer to a

> kundalini

> awakening than someone who's spent only 20 years in an ashram in the

> here &

> now.

>

> If heart and feelings are pure and one is in tune with oneself and the

> world,

> I think there's a bigger chance of having a mystical experience than

> if one's

> a grumpy, self- and narrow-minded so-called yogi. (been there, done

> that )

>

> And what about grace ?

>

> Probably no one knows these things, in the end everything

> mysteriously seems

> to happen within God according to plan - so, in that respect,

> everything is

> always alright. If everything is always God or Self experiencing

> itself,

> there are no true or false experiences - just whatever is.

>

> As far as I can tell, there's a big difference in the way the various

> drugs

> and alcohol act upon the body-mind system and this probably has a lot

> to do

> with the predominant tendency within the substance itself.

>

> Psilocybin mushrooms and cannabis for instance seem to contain a fair

> amount

> of sattva (spiritual purity - although cannabis at least has a lot of

> tamas

> in it as well). So, for a sattvic consciousness, these substances, in

> the

> proper circumstances, seem to enable the unlocking of the inner

> gateway to

> the greater self.

>

> Alcohol on the other hand seems to increase rajoguna (activity,

> agression)

> and then quickly turns tamasic and makes one drowsy and less

> conscious.

>

> So, I'd say, having a kundalini experience while downing cocktails

> could only

> happen to those of an extremely sattvic or pure disposition, who are

> able to

> convert the darkness and restricting quality of their vodka & lemon

> into

> light - and most probably people like that wouldn't be seen drinking

> cocktails in the first place )

>

> Take care,

>

> Michael