I'd like to read someone's take on what it is without regurgitating the same old stuff from old texts over and over again. Is that possible? I'm tired of reading and hearing everyone talking about the same thing, balancing the chakras, mantra, tantra, sensations of bliss, light, visions, vibrations in my body, lucid dreams, empathic abilites, bla bla bla...those are all just symptoms of something happening and it's so boring to keep hearing it over and over again. and, does anyone really understand what "balancing the chakras" really means, if anything? i'm not doubting this experience exists for some, i know it exists first hand. i'm questioning though, that many of these people really sit with themselves, alone, long enough, and when i say long enough, i mean a long, long time, to really understand what it is that is affecting them and come up with their own ideas on what the heck it is and how it manifested itself. please, i beg of you, someone, write something original for once.
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Hi Matthew, Here is my semi-educated guess as to the bio-psychological mechanics of Kundalini. Most of what I'm sharing below is evidence-based, but how it links together has not been tested directly as far as I know, would love to see someone give it a go. 1. When we are kids, our mind is not able to process too much intensity, hence it resorts to psychological defences that 'split' the mind into separate compartments, and much of pushed out of consciousness (see Shadow Work ideas from Carl Jung) 2. Much of our traumas that created that splitting have a component that is stored in the body (see The Body Keeps the Score).
3. My Kundalini awakening (as a result of Vipassana) has allowed me to feel my organs, control my heart, body temperature, etc, which suggests to me that (perhaps), the tingling sensations are actually proprioceptive signals. (i.e. all the information your body is sending the brain that is usually outside of consciousness/the tingling could be an expression of all the micro-movements that stimulate each nerve cell). 4. If that is the case, then the ability to feel these sensations in the body represents a lowering of conscious filters that puts us more directly in touch with the body. Therefore, since trauma is stored in the body, lowering this conscious threshold also represents a lowering of psychological defences in general, we are in closer contact to our subconscious.
5. There appear to be natural forces in our mind that strive toward internal consistency/harmony [This could do with more testing]. There are clear evolutionary reasons why this would be useful, but there are also properties of networks and physics that can explain this. Things falling into sync tends to be a property of Small World Networks like our brain - also look up experiments of metronomes connected to each other and how quickly they synch in spite of being out of synch initially. In meditation, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Focusing, and other modalities, meditative states that are calm and focused appear to be healing, which could be equivalent to having a really strong consistent signal that stimulates the other sub-networks to synch.
6. If 5 is the case + 4.the boundaries in the BodyMind have been lowered so more areas of the brain are 'communicating' = then we could expect this contact to naturally result in the resolution of tension between areas of the mind/body (i.e. the healing of chakras, the burning up of Samskaras, etc.)
The greater energy, awareness, etc, is therefore a result of a mind that no longer fights against itself, that is more fully connected so more neurons can be recruited for any task, and that is more self aware because it has access to more of itself directly. lots of love,
Teo p.s. having now written this, I realise I'd love to do a PhD on the topic, if anyone knows any researchers please put me in touch! ;)
Hi Matthew, I went through a period of intense boredom and I found some words in Eckhart Tolle's book, "Stillness Speaks" very helpful at the time.
He says that if you can get behind the feeling of boredom, you will find peace.
Wishing you well, Jo