The development of kundalini

It is interesting to note the progress of a particular experience in developing Kundalini, or rather in stirring Kundalini into activity. In the particular case observed, the principal work is done during sleep, and appears at first to consist in the preparation of the spinal passage by moving Kundalini from the base of the spine to the top of the head. The individual out of the body can do this work, for though there are physical effects the Fire itself is non-physical. The globe or sphere at the base of the spine contains within it the Kundalini Fire coiled spherically. The prescribed concentration upon the globe, and thus upon the Fire within, begins to stir it into activity, provided the right kind of life has been lived beforehand for a considerable period, which is to say provided it is fed with the right kind of fuel. Even if the right kind of life has not been lived, a stirring may take place, but the effect of the premature stirring, if any take place at all, will be disastrous, as has already been pointed out.

Assuming the stirring takes place along right lines, there is a gradual dissolution of the globe caused by the frictional energizing of the Fire itself. The Fire is fanned into bright heat and becomes active, forcing its way through the matter in which it lies embedded, burning it up, and causing the globe to become a Radiant Sun, instead of the dull though glowing mass it normally is. This Sun radiates in all directions heat which is physically felt, specially in the surrounding areas of the physical body.

This Kundalini Sun would seem to rush upwards when it moves fast, as often it does not, along the spine as a bullet passes through a grooved gun-barrel. There is something spiral about the movement. In any case, there seems to be a direct rush upwards, without passing beyond the top of the head, but specially stimulating centres according to the individual's Ray. The sensation is that of pressure, while as regards the centre at the top of the head unusual heat will be felt.

During the waking hours this process may be continued, and from time to time it seems to occur of itself, so that a warm glow passes up the spine, producing a most interesting effect. A beautiful expansion of consciousness is physically experienced, so that the individual feels full of a glorious life and of a sense of intimate contact with what must be the developed intuitive consciousness. He imagines what life would be like if he could keep this experience constant, instead of only intermittent. There is a fine sense of at-one-ment, of radiance, of contact with the Real. Barriers seem to have been broken down, so that the individual sees into the heart of things, no matter what they are, and sees them as growing entities, their glorious future disclosed to him as embryonic in them. It is so difficult to describe this condition of consciousness, but the physical, indeed much more than the physical, seems transcended, and some veils at least are lifted so that he gazes upon a Real, less hidden by the clouds of illusion.

In the beginnings of this process a certain amount of dizziness is noticeable. A new constituent has become active. It is as if a new dimension had opened out, so that a new world is entered. The dizziness is perhaps the physical expression of a new relativity, of a new adjustment, other worlds than the physical beginning to be open to a gaze which the individual has not yet learned to control, so that he looks out as it were with all " eyes " vaguely open, instead of with those appropriate to the particular plane on which he happens to be dominantly functioning. Later on he will be able to close the eyes he does not need, leaving open only those he does. And later on still, he will be able, perhaps, to use all " eyes " simultaneously, each " eye " dovetailing into the others, so as to avoid distortion and flickering between one state of consciousness and another—the effect being the dizziness.

Yet another effect, presumably only in the earlier stages, is that of seeming to be elsewhere. The individual feels as if he were living elsewhere, so that the outer world seems to be at a distance. He is far away, and the noise and rush of life come to him only as a faint murmur. He is as a spectator at a play, and he looks at the players on the stage as denizens of a world other than his world. This sensation is more or less continuous, and invests the outer world with a peculiar unreality, the physical expression of which is the hearing of the world as if muted. It is almost as it he were deaf. He looks out upon the world as if he had no concern with it. His physical brain is in one sense numbed, definitely numbed, though at the same time it is extraordinarily alert to the Real, full of a hitherto unexperienced keenness, fire, clarity. It is beautifully stimulated. There seem to be momentary flickers from far-away consciousness, so that a flash of other-consciousness occurs from time to time, though only shadowy. This flash seems to take place when there is special warmth at the top of the head, possibly the result of a little escape of Kundalini Fire.

Sensitiveness is enormously increased, chiefly in the region of the spine, though to a certain extent throughout the whole body. A loud noise seems to grate as upon a raw spine, and sends a shock through the whole body. A special jar may cause a kind of inner dislocation for quite a while. This sensitiveness has the further effect of making the individual a kind of sensitive plate upon which, for example, people in the outer world imprint themselves, so that in a flash he knows their natures, specially the high lights of quality and the low lights of defect. He will at once have either a positive or a negative impression. The former will be positively good or positively unfavourable, and in either case general tendencies will be perceived, though not perhaps the details. Sometimes there is nothing about the person worth considering, there is nothing to be noted about him one way or the other. He is ordinary, and may for some time longer be left to the nursing of the ordinary circumstances of life. But one knows as in a flash, even though details may not be forthcoming.

As time passes the whole body seems to glow with Fire, which one imagines to extend some distance, so that a person very near should almost feel the glow and become stimulated by it. The process is temporarily fatiguing to the physical body, and it is pleasant to lie down. Does the Fire glow more easily when the spine is in a recumbent position? I am inclined to think that the restriction of the Fire, so that ordinarily it does not pass beyond the top of the head, tends to exercise pressure upon the physical brain and induce somnolence.