Ajna Chakram - 1

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The word Ajna (read: Aajnyaa) means "command", in the sense of the Gurus''s

command (spiritual guidance). The Tantric

Ajna or Brow chakra has two petals, is associated with the tattva

of Manas or Mind (not to be confused with the Manas Chakra),

which is beyond even the most subtle elements (although still part of embodied

existence). It is said to be white in colour. More recently

in Western Occult and New Age thought the Ajna chakra has been identified with the "third eye"

(eye of psychic vision), and other such concepts not found in the original

Tantrika system.

 

Ajna chakra is the location of the third eye which is the conscience.

The two physical eyes see the past and the present, while the third eye reveals the insight of the future.

When one establishes himself in the place between the eyebrows he goes beyond all the kinds of desires that

motivate life and impel one to move in many directions. All experience

and ideas serve only to clarify one's perceptions

in Ajna Chakra. The plane of neutrality (Sarasvati) appears as a

balance between solar and lunar energy within the body.

One now becomes one-pointed; he becomes knower of past, present and

future. Ida and Pingala are time-bound; up to the fifth chakra the

yogi also is time bound, but as Ida and Pingala end here, the yogi

moves into Sushumna, beyond time.

He is now in a state of nondual consciousness.

Negative and positive, the components of duality, become equalized in

Sarasvati, leaving a state of pure music and neutrality. Ida (Ganga,

feminine, lunar) and Pingala (Jamuna, masculine, solar) nerve energies

separate from the Sushumna channel at the Muladhara chakra, interwine

up through all chakras and meet with the Sarasvati, becoming one at

Ajna Chakra. This brings the sense of oneness and of unity with the

cosmic laws that appear in the plane of austerity. They then again

separate, running into the left and right nostrils.

The presiding deity is Ardhanarishvara Gurudeva, the half-male, half-female Shiva-Shakti,

symbolic of basic polarity; the right side is male and the left side,

female. Ardhanarishvara or Gurudeva stands in a lingam known as Itara Lingam. The

lingam is shining white, like the color of light. The male half of

Ardhanarishvara has camphor-blue skin. He holds a trident in his right

hand, representing the three aspects of consciousness : cognition,

conation, and affection.

The female side of Ardhanarishvara is pink. She wears a red sari, and

about her neck and arms are wound shining golden ornaments. She holds a

pink lotus, a symbol of purity. All duality has ceased. Shiva has total

command over all aspects of the self in this plane of liberation, or

moksha.

The third eye of Shiva is called sva-netra, the organ of clairvoyance.

Becoming Sada-Shiva, the eternal one, Shiva is no longer separate from

Shakti as a separate male entity. Devata Shiva is the granter of

knowledge. This knowledge brings the breath (prana) and the mind under

control of Ardhanarishvara.

The energy is Hakini.

Hakini Shakti has four arms and six heads. Her skin is pale pink, and

her jewelry is golden and shines with gems. Wearing a red sari, she

sits on a pink lotus with her left foot raised. She imparts the

knowledge of unconditional truth, the awareness of nonduality.

Ajna chakra also bears the names The Third Eye or Shiva's Eye and it

represents the superior mental consciousness that favors the

direct perception over the invisible worlds, and the direct perception

of the subtle aspects of manifestation.

 

Element: Light

Color: Indigo

Verb: I see

Attributes: Clairvoyance, memory, dreams, vision, color

 

Chakra 6, located at the level of the forehead, is also known as the

third eye. A lotus with only two petals, it is visualized as a deep

indigo blue. This is the center of visual, psychic and intuitive

perception-the place where we store our memories, perceive our dreams,

and imagine our future.

 

Its name, Ajna, means both "to perceive" and "to command." Just as

words are used to shape our world, so do the images we hold in our

minds influence the events of our lives. What we perceive and remember

is also what we command. A visualization held strongly is the first

step in bringing an ethereal thought-form into manifestation.

 

Its element is light, a higher, faster vibration than that of sound,

the least dense and most versatile of any element we have encountered

thus far. Traveling at speeds beyond comprehension, communicating

across distances events that may have ceased to exist millenia ago,

light in all its splendor allows us to perceive the world in an

infinite display of pattern. And when we view the world, we must

remember that it is not objects we see but reflected light.

 

The Ajna chakra relates to the pineal gland, a vestigial light

sensitive organ located in the exact geometric center of the head. In

the embryo, the pineal begins as an actual third eye and later

degenerates. It has been demonstrated that the pineal gland is

sensitive to light, even when optical nerves have been cut. However,

the functioning of the pineal in the mature adult is still a mystery.

It is believed by some to play a part in producing the internal visions

that sometimes come with meditative states. Chakra 6 is our intuitive

level, bringing us information through internally experienced visual

imagery.

 

Dreams

are the clearest example of this. Clairvoyant sight is the ultimate

example-the product of an open and functioning Ajna chakra. The purpose

of this center is to become aware of the images inside our minds-the

ones we perceive and the ones we create-so that this vast visual screen

can be used consciously to call images at will and bring us information

unavailable through other means.

 

Those who are open on this level are aware of their perceptions and can

interpret them usefully. If the chakra is closed down, we may

experience eye trouble, headaches, or troubling dreams. If the chakra

is too open without solid ground to back it up, one may experience

hallucinations, confusion from too much input, or over-interpretation

of everyday occurrences.

 

It is my firm belief that psychic perception is something that everyone

has and uses profusely, whether or not they are aware of it. It is

important to validate these subtle psychic perceptions that float

through our minds each day.

 

Opening psychic perception is largely a function of learning to

recognize patterns and creating an internal visual language with which

to interpret them. If you see someone has done something in the past,

chances are likely it will happen again. As we climb higher into the

upper chakras, we approach a sense of divine order, and perception of

that order allows us easily and accurately to "fill in the blanks" and

perceive, like light waves, that which is actually at a distance,

spatially and temporally.

 

Outside of our own imaginations, the images that surround and rule us

are a major factor in mass consciousness. Television, billboards,

clothing trends, cinematography, and other visual media feed into our

consciousness on an immediate and whole brain level. To clear the

chakra, we must get away from the images of what we expect to see and

begin to experience the world with the freshness of a child. Only then

can our organ of psychic perception begin to see accurately. And when

we do, we discover an exciting world of patterns and colors unlike

anything in the physical realm.

 

Each of the chakras is related to a color, and though the system has

changed from the ancient Tantrics to modern associations, the most

popular pattern is the rainbow spectrum. Red light has the longest and

slowest wavelength, so it is associated with chakra 1, and the chakras

proceed in rainbow order to the violet at the crown.

 

A good exercise to develop the visualization capacity of your third

eye, while simultaneously helping to balance all your chakras, is to

focus on each one of your chakras, filling that part of your body with

the appropriate color of light. Begin at the top or the bottom, but

proceed in order, and take time with each chakra to fully feel the

effects.

 

 

From the time of Dionysius to the time of Plato, the cultures of the

Mediterranean consented to the doctrine that claimed the existence of

an order of ultimate reality which lies beyond apparent reality. This

"paranormal" reality was accessible to the consciousness only when the

"normal" routines of mental data processing were dislocated. It was

Plato's pupil Aristotle who changed his teacher's game, separating

physics from metaphysics. The philosophical temper of our present

civilization, being scientifically and technically oriented, is

basically Aristotelian.

 

No such rational figure as Aristotle arose in the Orient to a position

of equal eminence. Because of this and other reasons, Indian anatomists

and zoologists, who where no doubt just as curious as the Greeks about

the origins of life, and as skilled in dissection, did not feel

compelled to set their disciplines up in opposition to metaphysics. Physical and metaphysical philosophy remained joined like Siamese twins.

As a result, the discipline which became medicine in the West evolved

into a system known as Kundalini Yoga in the Hindu culture.

 

In Western terms, Kundalini Yoga can be best understood as a biological

statement contained within the language of the poetic metaphor. The

system makes the attempt of joining the seeming disparate entities of

body and mind. It is a very complicated doctrine; in oversimplified

terms, the system encourages the practitioner to progress through the

control of a number of stages, called Chakras or mind-body

coordination. A sixth, associated with clairvoyance and telepathy, is called the Ajna.

 

The physiological site of this sixth Chakra, the Ajna, is located in

the center of the forehead. It is symbolized by an eye - the so-called third eye, the inner eye, or the eye of the mind.

When this eye is opened, a new and completely different dimension of

reality is revealed to the practitioner of yoga. Western scholars when

they first encountered this literature, took the third eye to be an

appropriately poetic metaphor and nothing else.

 

It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, as the

subcontinent of Australia and its surrounding territory came to be

explored, that a flurry of interest centered upon a lizard native to

the area, the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatum). This animal possessed, in

addition to two perfectly ordinary eyes located on either side of its

head, a third eye buried in the skull which was revealed through an

aperture in the bone, covered by a transparent membrane, and surrounded

by a rosette of scales. It was unmistakably a third eye but upon

dissection it proved to be non-functional.

 

Though this eye still possessed the structure of a lens and a retina,

these were found to be no longer in good working order: also lacking

were the appropriate neural connections to the brain. The presence of

this eye in the tuatara still posses a puzzle to present-day

evolutionists, for almost all vertebrates possess a homologous

structure in the center of their skull. It is present in many fish, all

reptiles, birds, and mammals (including man). This structure is known

in literature today as the pineal gland.

 

The gland is shaped like a tine pine cone situated deep in the middle

of the brain between the two hemispheres. Studies then began to

determine whether this organ was a true functioning gland or merely a vestigial sight organ, a relic from our reptilian past. In 1959 Dr. Aaron Lerner

and his associates at Yale University found that meletonin (1), a

hormone manufactured by the pineal gland, was created through the

action of certain enzymes on a precursor chemical which must pre-exist

in the pineal in order for it to be transformed into melatonin. This

precursor chemical turned out to be serotonin (2).

 

It was E.J. Gaddum,

a professor of pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, who was the

first to note a connection between serotonin and mental states of

being. In a paper published in 1953, he pointed out the fact that

LSD-25 was a potent antagonist to serotonin. Serotonin is not

an unusual chemical in nature; it is found in many places - some of

them odd, like the salivary glands of octopuses, others ordinary; it

abounds in plants such as bananas, figs, and plums. What then is its

function in the human brain?

 

The task of exploring the role played by melatonin, and its precursor serotonin, was undertaken by a biochemist, Julius Axelrod. He found that melatonin suppressed physiological sexuality in mammals.

If test animals were stimulated to manufacture excessive amounts of

melatonin, their gonads and ovaries tended to become reduced in size,

to shrink, to atrophy. The estrous or fertility cycle in females could

likewise be altered experimentally by doses of melatonin.

 

Now two most curious functions had been attributed to the pineal gland, the third eye of the mind:

(1) It has now been established that this organ produced a chemical

which had, indirectly at least, been associated with psychedelic

states, and

(2) It also produced a chemical which suppressed functional sexuality.

The literature of religious mysticism in all ages and all societies has

viewed the mystical passion of ecstasy as being somehow antagonistic

to, or in competition with, carnal passion.

 

Axelrod and his co-workers also discovered another incredible fact: the pineal gland produces its chemical according to a regular oscillating beat, the basis of this beat being the so-called circadian rhythm.

They found that the pineal responded somehow to light conditions, that

by altering light conditions they could extend, contract, or even

stabilize the chemical production rhythms of the pineal.

 

The fact that the pineal responds to light, even if this response is

indirect via the central nervous system, has some fascinating and

far-reaching conceptual applications. There are many behavioral changes

which overtake animals as the seasons change, and which can be produced

out of season in the laboratory by simulating the appropriate span of

artificial daylight. Do such seasonal changes in mood and behavior

persist in humans?

 

The great religious holy days of all faiths tend to cluster around the

times of the solstices and equinoxes. Is it possible that the human

pineal gland responds to these alterations in length of daylight?

Changing the balance of neurohumors in the brain may perhaps effect a

greater incidence of psychedelic states in certain susceptible

individuals just at these crucial times. This possibility provides an

entirely new potential dimension to our secular understanding of the

religious experience.

 

The pineal gland has thus been referred to as a kind of biological clock,

one which acts as a kind of coupling system; perhaps maintaining phase

relations within a multi-oscillator system; a phase coordinator for

multiple bio-rhythms. The pineal is a "cosmic eye;" it is aware

of celestial rhythm. It "tunes" our biochemistry to those subtle

rhythms not observed by the normal eye, like seasonal and lunar changes

rather than daily ones.

 

Serotonin can be seen as the "intensity

knob" of the brain. As the level of serotonin increases, so does the

level of activation of the cortex.

Strong suspicion has fallen now on serotonin as being one of the

principle agents of the psychedelic experience. Studies now reveal that

LSD-25 strikes like a chemical guerrilla, entering into receptor

granules in the brain cells swiftly, and then leaving after a very

short time, perhaps ten to twenty minutes (in animals). When the bulk

of LSD-25 has left the receptor granules, it is replaced by what seems

to be excessive, or super-normal amounts of serotonin. The LSD-25

creates what is called a "bouncing effect," like a spring pushed too

tight. When the LSD-25 leaves the system, the serotonin springs back

and overcompensates.

 

For most of us, most of the time, our world is a Darwinian environment.

We must manipulate ourselves within it, or attempt to manipulate it in

order to survive. These survival needs tend to color our appreciation

of this world, and we are continually making judgments about it. Some

of these judgments are based on prior personal experience, others are

provide by the culture. This "recognition system" is one of the

elements disrupted by the psychedelic state.

 

The principle question concerning psychedelic states remains: How much

disruption can the system tolerate? The problem of how to maintain a

certain madness while at the same time functioning at peak efficiency

has now captured the attention of many psychiatrists. There seems to be

a point at which Edgar Allen Poe's "creative madness" becomes

degenerative, impeding function rather than stimulating it.

 

In light of this analysis, a shaman can be seen to be uncoupling his

internal bio-sensor from the universal inputs. He gets "drift" where he

is rushed toward new signal-to-noise ratios. The particular rituals are

set up to disconnect the shaman from his social and cosmic environment.

This is done through the ritual use of hallucinogens; they

de-synchronize his internal rhythms. This de-synchronization produces

more noise in his awareness.

 

It also expands that awareness. The rituals are so designed as to

contain elements which focus or tune that "noise" and direct the

expanded awareness.

 

Man is unique by virtue of being possessed by intuitions concerning the

scope of the mysterious universe he inhabits. He has devised for

himself all manner of instruments to prove the nature of this universe.

The beginnings of scientific understanding of shamanistic ritual and

the function of the third eye provide man with powerful new techniques

for exploration. This will allow him to penetrate the vast interior

spaces where the history of millions of years of memories lies

entangled among the roots of the primordial self.

 

(1) The chemical substance melanin is the pigment which darkens skin

color. It is located in specialized cells scattered through the topmost

layer of skin. Melatonin was found to be the substance responsible for

causing the contraction of melanin-producing cells.

(2) Serotonin is of the same chemical series of indole alkaloids which include psychedelic drugs such as LSD-25, psilocybin, D.M.T. and bufotenine. The hormone serotonin is also known as 5-hydroxtryptamine.

 

ADDENDUM:

06-01-92: This paper was originally written in 1975 for several

scientific publications, and was reprinted IN THE CONTINUUM (Vol.II,

No.3) in 1978. At that time, I made a very important discovery which

was added to THE HOLISTIC QABALAH series. I thought to share that

discovery at this time, to complete my thoughts on this subject:

 

In 1979 I was in a very serious accident, where I was crushed between a

brick wall and an out-of-control automobile. My left knee was crushed,

the parenteal nerve was severed at the knee. I was going to lose my

leg! I postponed surgery, did some specific rituals with Kundalini and

my "third eye," and now have complete regeneration of nerve tissue -

something now believed by mainstream medicine as physically impossible.

Here is how I did it:

 

There is a "chill" which runs up (Gopi Krishna) or down (Sri Aurobino)

the spine at certain times of the week. You can, in some situations,

actually induce this event. Sometimes, you can make our whole body

shake. This is the physical aspect of Kundalini. On a physical plane,

there are a series of small nerve fillia that stick out from the spine

- almost like a "ladder."

 

The "chill" is an EM-wave that is traveling up (or down) the spine, as

each nerve fillia begins to oscillate. The most interesting fact about

this is that the EM-field frequency in the visible light region! This

is what most religions refer to as "The Light." And what is at the very

top end of this wave-train of light? The pineal gland!

 

Now, if you stimulate the pineal gland on a regular basis - let's do it

3 times each day, what happens next is wonderful. The pineal gland is

"light sensitive," its primary function now understood to regulate the

body for seasonal changes (health). This so stimulates the pineal gland

that it sends out a signal down the neural cavity. The neural cavity,

of course, connects the pineal gland at one end with the thalamus at

the other....

 

What happens is that a resonant cavity oscillator is set up in the

neural cavity, causing it to modify the gleal cell it normally

manufactures. If there are enough trace minerals in your diet, this

stimulated neural cavity will actually create true nerve cells, rather

than those associated with sheath (gleal). If you take a trace mineral

supplement and do this exercise, you can regenerate nerve tissue!

 

The actual process took some 5 months of daily meditation, as the

actual consistency of nerve tissue is somewhat like that of Vitamin E -

very viscous and slow to travel down my central nervous system to my

knee. I no longer have nerve loss of any kind. This was documented by

Clinic 7 (Pain Clinic) at the University of Washington in 1980. I now

walk normally, although I still have some structural problems.

 

This is but one application of the principles outlined in this paper.

Serotonin can also be considered a "Gate" for accessing other

dimensions not accessible to "normal" consciousness.