Riding the Kundalini Dragon: Integrating Altered States
Posted on Jul 24th, 2007
by 
Julian
Julian
kundalini-yoga
Energy and Consciousness: Stay tuned for an amazing dialog on energy, altered states, healing, kundalini, sexuality, psychology and spirituality! This is Part One of an eight part Zaadz symposium (Zymposium) that runs from Wednesday July 25th through Friday August 3rd - with a break over the weekend.
See here for a description of Z2 and a list (and links) to the presenters....
It Begins
"Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the right stimulus, and at a touch they are there is all their completeness…
No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question…"
William James The Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 388
With this quote from a book published in 1901 by a man whom many regard as the father of psychology, I would like to begin a consideration of both the importance and the trickiness of altered state experience and phenomena, be they energetic, psychological, physiological and/or spiritual.
(Note: I got so involved with the information/perspectives I wanted to share here that a more personal account will appear in the comments section below..)
For now let me just say that my journey began at a young age - I began meditating at 15, emulated my 60's idols by experimenting with psychedelics in an intentional way after reading Tim Leary and Ram Das at 18 while exploring minor rock stardom in South Africa, came to the USA and started yoga at 19. I chased the light of new Age peak experiences in my early 20's - travelled to India, spent time in the ashram with Osho sanyassins, sat with countless satsang teachers, tried hard to create my reality, kill my ego and become one with the universe while remembering my past-lives and putting out the intention to call in my soulmate.......
I ended up realizing that therapy was indispensable, that I was in fact using spiritual beliefs to avoid my deep emotions and the reality of suffering, put in many, many hours on the Holotropic Breathwork mat, went on intense meditation retreats, practiced hardcore yoga early in the morning for years, had my body and psyche ripped open by kamikaze bodyworkers, struggled to make sense of the combination of of light and shadow in my charismatic mentor figures and eventually differentiate from them - and over time developed my own approach to integrating and facilitating energetic and altered state process work via yoga, bodywork, dialog, dance and breathwork.
How then to unpack the power, beauty, terror, magic and wonder of altered states and Kundalini experiences?
I will start by putting my perspective in a context. Ken Wilber's Four Quadrant model from Integral Theory works nicely.
Four Quadrant Gloss
wilber grid2
UR = Upper Right
UL = Upper Left
LR = Lower Right
LL = Lower Left
Chemistry and Brain States
We know that from an empirical point of view (UR, Objectivity) consciousness, and more specifically our state of consciousness is a function of brain states and biochemistry. Too little serotonin and one is depressed, too much dopamine and one is in the midst of a manic episode, scarring from head trauma can produce epilepsy, ingest just the right amount of LSD or mescaline and the folds in one’s trousers or the architecture of a rose (as Aldous Huxley famously described in The Doors of Perception) can become imponderably mysterious, beautiful, fascinating and spiritually rich. So too the sense of spaciousness, expansive loss of ego and connection to the cosmos one experiences in deep meditation can be tracked in relationship to brain function as in the recent work of Dr. Andrew Newberg:
"During meditation, people often feel a sense of no space. Scientists investigating the effect of the meditative state on Buddhist monk's brains have found that portions of the organ previously active become quiet, whilst pacified areas become stimulated. Using a brain imaging technique, Dr. Newberg and his team studied a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks as they meditated for approximately one hour. When they reached a transcendental high, they were asked to pull a kite string to their right, releasing an injection of a radioactive tracer. By injecting a tiny amount of radioactive marker into the bloodstream of a deep meditator, the scientists soon saw how the dye moved to active parts of the brain.
Later, once the subjects had finished meditating, the regions were imaged and the meditation state compared with the normal waking state. The scans provided remarkable clues about what goes on in the brain during meditation. "There was an increase in activity in the front part of the brain, the area that is activated when anyone focuses attention on a particular task," Dr Newberg explained. In addition, a notable decrease in activity in the back part of the brain, or parietal lobe, recognized as the area responsible for orientation, reinforced the general suggestion that meditation leads to a lack of spatial awareness.
Dr Newberg explained: "During meditation, people have a loss of the sense of self and frequently experience a sense of no space and time and that was exactly what we saw." The complex interaction between different areas of the brain also resembles the pattern of activity that occurs during other so-called spiritual or mystical experiences."
See here for some informative Q&A about Newberg’s work.
Experiential Awareness and Stage-Based Interpretation
In the subjective personal realm (UL), one’s state of consciousness, and particularly how one interprets those states can be discussed with regard to stages of psychological development, traumas (or complications in that developmental process), self-awareness, spiritual practices, education etc. Most significant here for me are the psychological, spiritual and cognitive lines of development.
I will go into the area of stages of development later, but as to spiritual practice, one of my favorite lines comes from New York Zen teacher Baker Roshi, who says “Enlightenment is an accident, but meditation makes you accident prone.”
In other words: the altered state of consciousness sought by the meditator and the stabilized stage of development in which that state is integrated are not guaranteed by meditation – but meditation does set up the conditions within which that process can occur.
Even more than meditation, we see an ever growing interest in yoga practice, especially because of the positive state change that it creates. While most beginning meditators have a good few years of difficult, boring, frustrating and confronting mental excercise ahead of them before states like the one's Newberg is describing start showing up for more than 5 or 10 seconds at a time, yoga is more predictable more quickly, given the specific stimulation and soothing of the nervous system, glands and brain and the circulatory effects of the physical practice.
I would argue that with specific regard to states of consciousness the UL and UR (or subjective awareness and objective biochemistry )are in an interwoven relationship that is almost impossible to separate. The changes in state that yoga and meditation produce are clearly rooted in physiological processes that involve glandular activity, the nervous system, areas of the brain etc – those processes depend upon an exercising of awareness that trains one in generating the physiological activities that drive the state change via either movement, breath, posture and intention/concentration.
Gopi Krishna’s famous initiation into kundalini is a perfect example. This was an ordinary man practicing meditation without a teacher who happened upon a powerful and harrowing experience of his own UR/UL relationship that led him to the conclusion that there is a biopsychic evolutionary principle dormant in the body. For more see his eloquent and powerful account in the classic Kundalini The Evolutionary Energy in Man.
(Please note that whenever I recommend this book I do so with a disclaimer that will follow further down the page. )
Here in the meantime is a short introduction to Krishna, as well as video of an excellent interview with him. It's worth your while to watch this and perhaps have it open in another window as you keep reading....
Regarding the UR/UL relationship, this line from the interview particularly stands out “Yoga was developed in India to make experiments on the brain.”
A man after Dr. Newberg’s own heart!
Mythic and Cultural Interpretive Overlay
Now on to the cultural context (LL) within which states of conscious arise, are conditioned and interpreted. Of course, both the UL&UR factors described above emerge (or fail to emerge) and are made sense of within a cultural (LL) framework. States of consciousness that are universally possible in human beings will be given very different kinds of support or repression, training and interpretation depending on the society in which they are experienced. It is an individual of rare brilliance, disposition and self-realized insight that can step back from their own cultural framework and see their spiritual/altered state experience on it's own terms and as something ultimately transcendent of that framework.
Notice how Gopi Krishna, whose defining experience happened in 1937, has an absolute clarity about the universally human nature of the revelations that arose for him. He expresses in the interview a (way ahead of his time) multi-cultural inclusivity, but we do still also hear his underlying Vedic philosophy and metaphysics.
Principle One: Consciousness and Physiology are Deeper (More Universal) to the Human Condition than Cultural Differences.
In support of the above principle, see this remarkable article by researcher, yogi, professor and psychotherapist, Dr. Stuart Sovatsky on the cross-cultural similars to Kundalini in which he notes that:
“Kundalini/pranic awakening and its cross-tradition similars—the spontaneous spinal rockings known in Judaism as davening and in Sufisim as zikr; the "taken-over" gyrations of gospel "holy ghost" shaking and dancing and charismatic/pentacostal "mani-festations"; the Dionysian "revel"; Quakerism’s and Shakerism's autonomic quaking and shaking; Tai Chi guided by chi itself; the shamanic trance-dance; Buddhism’s and Raja-Yoga’s effortless "straight back" (uju-kaya) meditation; the yogically derived ecstatic belly-dance and Flamenco; and even the full-bodied, spontaneous Reichian "reflex"—literally embody the spiritual path.”
Sovatsy too is pointing out the innate/endogenous nature of transformational processes in the mind-body matrix.
Social Infrastructure
Lastly (and mostly for symmetry’s sake) I will mention the LR quadrant. Suffice it to say that in the West we have almost no social infrastructure, religious or psychological for understanding and interpreting altered states. Religion has mostly become the domain of belief – with little room for direct experience and introspective/psychophysical practices of the sort that engage initiatory energetic experiences. Psychology with regard to altered states remains mostly the domain of psychiatric intervention and homogenization of consciousness. Notable exceptions are the budding yoga/ecstatic dance/meditation communities – they are doing good work, but there is a lot more to be done with regard to initiating, integrating and contextualizing authentic, discerning stage-wise growth.
I would however be seriously remiss not to mention the work of Stuart Sovastky, Lee Sannella and Stan Grof in creating clinical resources for those going through intense psychophysical (kundalini) process. See here for some interesting info on that...
What seems most important in the creation of intelligent and supportive LR infrastructure/institutions is an integration of both the mind-body spiritual/energetic awareness of what may be occurring for the individual and it’s possible value – as well as the cold-eyed realism of DSM-based psychological assessment. After all, in the words of Meister Eckhart “ The madman is drowning in the same waters that the Holy man swims in…”
In other words a good starting point is this: all kundalini is not psychosis and all mental illness is not kundalini.
Bless This Dragon and All Who Ride Her
So what is Kundalini?
Well I want to begin by putting this word where I feel it belongs. In India, Kundalini is the name of a mythic serpent goddess, said to reside at the base of the spine – to be awakened from her slumber by yogic practice or spiritual grace. On awakening she moves through the chakras, or major energy centers of the body, cleansing them of physical and emotional blocks and initiating a powerful psycho-spiritual awareness process.
I think it is very important to bear in mind that “kundalini” is one culture-bound signifier for an experience that transcends culture. Also we should bear in mind that mythic symbols always lose a great deal of their potency when interpreted literally – especially with any kind of exotic idealized projection of magic onto another culture or time.
The experience signified by the word “kundalini” – as pre-eminent scholar on the subject , Stuart Sovatsy indicates above, is common to many cultures and goes by many names.
Principle Two: Names and Beliefs are Always Secondary to Practice and Direct Initiatory Experience.
In my own study, personal experience and clinical practice, I have observed phenomena that have led me to the conclusion that the serpentine imagery invoked by both the Kundalini mythology and the caduceus/Hermetic symbology refers to an innate physical process in which the body makes spontaneous movements that :
a) at their most basic level of expression release tension and stress,
b) as they are expressed more deeply bring deeply held emotions to the surface, and
c) as the stress, trauma and conflict get processed ultimately express as an ecstatic and pleasurable full-bodied fluid aliveness.
These movements are called “kriyas” in the yogic tradition, the “reflex” or the “orgasm reflex” in Reichian body-based psychology, “unwinding” in Craniosacral therapy, and are said to relate to “primary process” in Primal Therapy. They are also seen in Network Chiropractic, Shiatsu, Ecstatic Dance and Holotropic Breathwork. The Kalahari Bushmen in Southern Africa have an all-night dance ritual in which certain participants will begin to shake and experience a burning in their spine which they will then be able to share with others in the group via a healing laying on of hands.
The awakening of energy and softening of what Reich called the "body armor" or chronic muscular tensions has implications for every aspect of our psychological and physical functioning - instinctive, sexual, emotional, creative, spiritual etc...
My perspective is that the UL experience signfied by the words chakra, shushumna and kundalini respectively have UR correlates in the nerve plexi that branch off the spinal chord, the dural tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, and the biopscyhic life force energy that is running body and mind.
The video that follows down the page will illustrate how I interact with this reality on a daily basis. What you will not see is the powerful opening into the unconscious and the ensuing psychospiritual process that can also emerge.
Somatic Experiencing creator Peter Levine is a Phd. Biologist who has done fascinating research on the way animals release intense nervous system activation after life-threatening situations by laying down and surrendering to full-bodied release that looks like they are just vigorously “shaking it off” but when the videotape is slowed down it reveals sequences of movement that look like running and biting, fleeing and fighting. The nervous and glandular energy aroused to sustain the threat to survival has been discharged. Levine also teaches that a natural nervous system homeostasis that cycles between tension and release, resource and trauma can be re-accessed and utilized to allow managable and integratable processing of unresolved intense stress that still lurks in our physiology.
So breath, touch, movement, emotional process, all can serve as an entry point into this altered state in which the mind-body system processes, releases, re-enlivens and rebalances itself. In my work I use yoga, dance, breathwork and hands-on bodywork as doorways into this powerful process. The novel and revelatory experience of energy can serve as a resource, as can elements like touch, breath, sensation, music, trust etc...
To learn more about my work see my 8 CD set of lectures and experiential classes: Radical Transformation: A Map to Mind-Body Ecstasy.
To experience my work come on an Open Sky Retreat. There's one coming up in October!
In the video below, I, and some close friends from my bodywork and yoga world use breath and touch to release stress and tension – and enter an ecstatic state. In a more formal healing session this work would go on longer and start to access both emotional process and physical structural shifts. Music at the end is by my friend Jesse Hozney from his CD Music for mass Transit. Unfortunately can't find info on the main track - let me know iof you recognize it....
Open Sky Bodywork
If you haven’t seen energetic process like this before, it will usually bump right up against the cultural taboos we all carry- taboos about the body, vulnerability, touch and sexuality. Think of the images you are seeing as illustrating the awakening of an embodied ecstatic state of consciousness that is not limited by the shame that those taboos enforce. We are conditioned to live in a very limited framework that does not allow for very much emotional honesty, pleasure, open-ness or vulnerability – and yet it is in the discovery and development of our capacity for precisely those things that we become more fully ourselves and that we awaken to authentic and grounded spirituality.
I would hazard a guess that it is this kind of ecstatic group ritual space that the Christians in ancient Europe (and wherever else they colonized) were so offended by and branded as Satanic or related to witchcraft. In the article above Sovatsky mentions both the pre-Patanjali ecstatic Tantras of ancient India as well as the Dionysian revels of ancient Greece. It should however be noted that the naturally occurrance of energetic process in ancient cultures does not mean that their interpretation or integration benefited from the contemporary perspectives (Integral analysis, mind-body integration, depth psychology, modern science, postmodern insights etc..) we can now bring to bear! The way lies ahead, not behind us...
Breathwork
My initial experiences of energetic unwinding/kundalini came through Holotropic Breathwork, an experiential therapy that involves deep sustained breathing, pre-programmed evocative music and the occasional application of physical bodywork techniques.
The work (like any truly effective practice or therapy) softens the barrier between the conscious and the unconscious mind, and allows physical tensions, repressed emotions, memories, longings and insights to emerge into awareness and be processed in an experiential, embodied way. It produces a profoundly altered state of consciousness in which instinctive animalistic body states, infantile and childhood memories and feelings, unacknowledged truths and deeply spiritual capacities can and do all arise. As this process unfolds it is standard to go through the unwinding/kundalini processes I have been describing.
Entheogens
One of the most striking, perplexing and undeniable stimuli toward altered states has to be psychedelic or entheogenic sacraments.
For the sake of brevity, this piece of writing can only gesture toward all the different reference points I am wanting to establish, so for now I will just say that the use of plant medicines that produce altered states is something that anthropologists have found to be ubiquitous and widespread, from Mesoamerica to Africa to India to Ancient Greece, to Egypt and Sumeria, to the Amazon Rainforest to Mexico to Siberia. For more on this a good starting point is the book Persephone’s Quest by R. Gordon Wasson et al.
There is considerable evidence and highly educated guesswork that suggests that humanity’s interactions with potent psychoactive plants and fungi may have played a major part not only in the development of culture, mythology and spirituality/religion, but also in evolution itself. For more on this see references in Joseph Campbell as well as the more explicit work of ethnobotanist Terrence McKenna and writers like James Arthur, Daniel Merkur, Robert Forte and pre-eminent scholar of world religion Huston Smith.
Stan Grof – called by Ken Wilber the world’s greatest living psychologist, spent his early years doing extensive clinical research on the psycho-spiritual implications of altered states and specifically of the information revealed via psychedelics. He later developed Holotropic Breathwork as an alternative approach when psychedelics were outlawed.
Integration
Personally, seeking out and then learning how to integrate altered states has been a central thread in my life story as an adult. From early experiences with psychedelics (like Jack Kornfield, Stan Grof, Ram Das and most of my counter-culture spiritual heroes) to meditation retreats, psychotherapy, bodywork, holotropic breathwork and yoga, I have found that altered states present two very difficult problems with regard to integration:
Principle Three: States and Stages Are Not the Same Thing.
In the altered state the barrier between the conscious and the unconscious mind becomes more permeable – creativity blossoms, mythic archetypes emerge, long hidden emotions and memories arise and potential spiritual capacities like compassion, insight, and equanimity may be experienced.
See Stan Grof for more on this, but also Abraham Maslow, particularly his idea of “self-actualizers “ who guide their lives by their “peak experiences.”
What Transpersonal Psychology has grown to understand in the last 40 years is that entry into a peak altered state, while convincing and authentic at the time is not the equivalent of having reached the stage of development to which the state is alluding.
In other words a vision of the mountain top doesn’t mean you don’t still have to start climbing from the bottom when the vision fades...
Principle Four: While Altered States are Available to Everyone Regardless of their Stage of Development, One’s Interpretation of the Altered State will be Entirely Dependent on One’s Psychograph (or combined developmental profile.)
In other words: One’s general stage of development will determine how one interprets the altered state once they are back in their steady state. So the same experiential territory might be interpreted completely differently by someone with a literalist faith in mythic religion, as opposed to someone who has done a lot of psychological work, as opposed to someone who is very invested in New Age metaphysics, or someone who has a background in Adveita Vedanta. The tricky part is that because the (primary) altered state is so convincing, our (secondary) interpretive lens will be lent an often unwarranted authority….
This is a very difficult trap to side-step - and then proceed with as grounded and accurate an interpretation as is possible...
So integration has to include perhaps both the attempt to step back and look at the experience with some degree of objectivity, as well as consulting with guides or “community of the adequate” members whom we trust and respect. This will help put altered state work squarely in the necessary "three strands of science realm."
Integration, as well as even being able to manage altered states is also a function of something I call the “trauma/resource ratio.” Each of us has a different ratio between overwhelming traumatic occurrences and resources that support groundedness, self-esteem, compassion, courage etc…This is not something we choose but is the product of the complex relationships between genetics, life experience, childhood, gifts and abilities we have been able to develop etc… The trauma/resource ration will determine how well we are able to manage and integrate altered states of consciousness and energetic process.
Difficulty in managing and/or integrating altered states and energetic process can show up as:
* Ungroundedness or Dissociation
* Regressive Worldview/Belief System
* Overwhelming/Out of Control Physiological Symptoms
* Psychotic Delusions
* Extreme Narcissistic Inflation
* Obsessive Chasing of the Peak State
* Rationalization/Denial of Reality in Favor of "Other Realms"
* PTSD
* Complete Lack of Self-Care Resources
(Sidenote: Cults and toxic Gurus rely on these elements to keep people disempowered and "hooked in".)
Although we do not choose the trauma/resource ratio we start with, we can choose to become authentically aware of our situation and do the crucial work to cultivate resources while finding safe spaces to process trauma. At various stages in one's cycle it is often neccessary to step away from practices that evoke energetic proces and/or altered states and spend some time doing the crucial but unglamorous work of grounding, soothing, re-orienting and integrating.
In Closing
I said earlier that I always recommended Gopi Krishna's classic book on Kundalini with a disclaimer/caveat. the reason for this is that Krishn'as experience as recounted in the book is terrifying and somewhat psychotic in places and I have my own theory regarding this aspect of the book.
My observations:
* He had no physical practice to keep him grounded and facilitate processing the powerful energy that was washing though him.
* (In predictably culturally influenced ways) He reveals a very puritanical attitude toward sexuality and
* A very stoic attitude toward emotions. ( So neither his sexuality nor his emotions were outlets for expression, release and relief - they were held in dualistic regard as not being sacred or part of the process. Danger!)
* He felt he had to hide his experience from others. ( A set-up for deepening alienation and paranoia.)
* He had no guidance and no community.
This is a perfect set-up for a pretty bumpy ride. Lots of repression and very little resource - his journey really is very traumatic. That said it is still an eloquent and powerful account of energetic initiation and deep self-realization.
In contrast and by way of conclusion i want to reiterate that energetic process and altered states are powerful, universal human experiences that can, under the right conditions, be utilized responsibly, beautifully and in ways that create not only exciting experiences but also genuine stage-wise growth. This possibility is well-served by:
* An Integral 4 quadrant framework.
* Active cultivation of resource.
* Safe space for processing trauma.
* Responsble, knowledgable and experienced teachers/guides/healers
* Transformational community
* Physical practices that move energy.
* Shadow work that allows for deep emotional process.
* Three strands of science type methodology.
* Continuing education and practice.
These combine well with the four principles I suggested through the piece, and which I will reiterate here:
* Consciousness and Physiology are Deeper (More Universal) to the Human Condition than Cultural Differences.
* Names and Beliefs are Always Secondary to Practice and Direct Initiatory Experience.
* States and Stages Are Not the Same Thing.
* While Altered States are Available to Everyone Regardless of their Stage of Development, One’s Interpretation of the Altered State will be Entirely Dependent on One’s Psychograph.
Thanks for your time!
Namaste
~Julian
Here is the second article for Z2 - by Delia!
Third in line Christiana
Fourth up - Michael
Sarah's piece
Daate's Contribution
Jim Wraps it Up
Reading/Media List:
As listed above, my CD set Radical Transformation: A Map to Mind-Body Ecstasy
Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man Gopi Krishna
Peter Levine Waking The Tiger
Ken Wilber Collected Works Volume Four: Integral Psychology & Transformations of Consciousnesss
Stan and Christina Grof The Stormy Search for the Self
Alexander Lowen Bioenergetics
Donald Kalsched The Inner World of Trauma
Access: PublicTagged with: julian walker, ken wilber, stan grof, stuart sovatsky, kundalini, zymposium, zaadz, energy, open sky, bodywork, dance, yoga, retreats, the secret, steve pavlina, pan's labyrinth, the fountain, new age, spirituality, psychology, transpersonal, joseph campbell, psychedelics, entheogens, huston smith, four quadrants
AAAAArrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhh! My 1 hour response just got et by the computer gremlins. Phooey! Phooey! Phooey!!!!!!
I gotta take a break.
Thanks Julian so much for this thread.
Now I know to cut and paste.
coyote - that sucks! start again when you are over the frustration. i would love to hear your one hour response!
picture me yesterday at 3 pm losing the entire editing sequence i had spent 2 hrs creating for my video when my imovie porogram crashed the computer…..
thankfully i still had the clips, but it was really like starting from square two - when i was just about finished and about to add the music as my final touch!
i am a bit speechless as now, just from watching the video, i am finding myself in an altered state…thank you all for that…its amazing how that kind of energy can trigger someone just by watching it…what powerful work you do!
i suppose that i would like to hear more of the trauma/resource ratio…i find myself with little trauma, yet the resource i have seems to be fleeting and a bit inadequate to really support me or ground me in times of an overwelming kundalini expereince…when its hard to find the eye of that storm do you have any good suggestions?…
all in all, i find this a great and educational piece…but would love to have heard more of your own personal experience with how you found the way toward a smoother ride on this dragon…
look forward to seeing more responses from others as well…
love and grace…S.
i echo that miss sa'rah! beautiful beautiful work julian, thanks so much for the video, i'm beginning to understand the work a little better now. and thanks so much for setting up the framework for all this by introducing it with biophysical info…..and yeah, i would have liked to hear more about your personal ride too. my piece is deeply personal (and actually i'm grateful that yours was so educational because now it probably gives the rest of us room to be more personal) but still…..any way you could relate a personal experience?
sa'rah i'll probably go into the trauma/resource ratio in my own way….the best resource i've found is art (one that you already have) but mostly grounded somatic awareness when it comes to this stuff….
Julian
Thanks for your richly meaningful post. I have a comment about your principles relating states to stages. It’s that conscious awareness matters most in human life, and a countercultural emphasis on altered states reflects, in part, a socially degraded sense of what conscious awareness can be. This gets us into the realm of psychographic stages.
William James writing a century ago was, with Picasso, Einstein, Henry Adams and so many others, ushering in a modernism that broke apart the coherence (however false) of Western rationalism. Your conditioning “to live in a very limited framework that does not allow for much emotional honesty, pleasure, open-ness or vulnerability” had much more authority in 1907 than it does now. Today it’s a pop-culture conditioning, while those of us who’ve peeled off from pop culture know that we live in a wasteland… and it’s one that just gets stranger and arguably bleaker. I’m referring to the “I” and the “we” in our exterior circumstances.
My point is that the counterculture emphasis on altered states can be an effort to enrich conscious awareness, but it can also be an effort to escape the harshness of daily life via “I” or “we” interiority. To the degree that the latter is true, a focus on altered states is to cede the exterior world to a rational materialism that is entirely mechanical now—it offers no meaning, but it keeps running. From an ecological vantage, this changes nothing and passes nothing on.
If, though, we intend altered state experiences to enrich conscious awareness, in part to help us grapple with our exterior life, then a psychographic engagement with consciousness should frame our yoga and LSD trips and meditations. What do we alter? I would argue that it is reason, a gift of Western prophecy and art, which takes the mind and the heart, intellect and feeling, and unites them in a kind of piano keyboard that has an immense expressive range. There were Dionysian ecstatics in Greece, but there were also artists who, using reason, wove these ecstatics into the new speech forms of tragedy and comedy.
Those who dismiss or devalue reason, normal consciousness, mistaking it for the materialist clutter they know, are not, I believe, doing all their shadow work.
sa'Rah - added some stuff in the last 20 minutes to the last 1/3rd of the piece above that might be interesting/useful.
in addition:
* organ cleansing (especially the liver/gallbladder/colon/kidneys
* adrenal support
* B vitamins
also do a search on jana dixon kundalini - she has done interesting research into the biology of kundalini and good supplementation that i have yet to check out in depth - she's also a wilberhead…
* practice slowing down and excercising a gradual valve-like relationshyip to the energy so it's not all the way off or all the way on - or in your case 80% on or 280% on! :O)
* find still points to rest in
in purely physicological terms i would argue there is a trauma response in your body - but more on that in person.
ok…i hear ya on the trauma response…might have been a little bit of denial in my first comment…hehe…i've got some blood chemistry that could, um, probably still use some cleansing…
i will have to spend more time looking into jana dixon's info, but already i can see she has a lot of information that could be incredibly helpful, so thank you for that lead…
working on the valve…i am finding that some breathwork i am doing called Somatic-Respiratory Integration (par tof Network Chiro philosophy, i believe)…is getting me in practice with that…giving me a feeling of a bit more connection and direction with the energy without being completely swallowed by it…its a slow process though…
as far as still points to rest in…it is hard to maintain and continue breathing at the same time…the breath alone pops me off, so the still point is like holding my breath and feels very inauthentic…any suggestions?
daate and sarah - thanks for pointing that out - i got so caught up in the perspectives/info i wanted to share and in creating a broad context for the event that it felt like going into the personal stuff would turn this into a chapter rather than an article!
so here goes (in summary):
* i come from a traumatizing background - police state south africa in the 70's and 80's, violent neighbourhood, chaotic family life.
* i began meditating at 15, yoga at 19 and had a series of very important psychedelic experiences at 18
* i experienced mild altered states as a kid that were spiritual and also dissociative in nature.
* always had a sense that there was something spiritual going on but that the framework that my christian school held it in was not “it” - even though i could feel uplifted by the services at times..
* from 18 - 24 i was chasing the transcendent peak experience: yoga, meditation, india, gurus, satsang etc
* that crashed and burned when i realized how much psychological denial i was in and how i was using spirituality tyo avoid my deep feelings.
* went into therapy at 25 after beginning to read wilber (and have yet to stop with either..)
* studied with a brilliant but very, very traumatized yogi from 24 - 29 who emphasized intense mind-body process but was big into catharsis with (as i later understood) no palpable concept of resource. her community at the time was organized around the holt grail of repressed abuse memories - so i spent a couple years searching for and even thinking i had found mine - a couple convincing psychedelic experiences seemed to back this up, but with hindsight this was a blind allley - and that the situation was somewhat cultic and incredibly confusing.
* began ecstatic dance at 27 - this has served as a wonderful resource and process-space for me - as well as providing extraordinary post-conventional community.
* got into studying, developing and then teaching bodywork from a mind-body psychologically grounded perspective at around 27 after having been to massage school and studied for a few years with an unscrupulous energetic savant/bodywork teacher who was irresponsible with his power, pushed people too deep without resourcing them and paid lip service to psychology while operating on a very oversimplified “emotional release” model. quite a head trip - i almost have a support group of casualties from that scene…
* that said my work with him opened me up to an understanding/experience of energy and anatomy that i have seen nowhere else. my work with her is the foundation that my mind-body yoga stands on.
* found peter levine's work and began applying it to my own process and using it to flesh out the blindspots of both my yoga and bodywork mentors. also continued with wilber, grof, jung and people like kalsched….
* my 30's thus far have been about integrating all of this intense experience and information and finding myself more stable, grounded, resourced, self-actualized than at any other time in my life. and of course there is still work to do….
hows that for a download?
:O)
Julian,
Just up, just reading. Impressed thus far with the scope and scholarship. Will get back after a closer read and morning duties.
Cheers,
MIchael
always love a bit of the personal to go with the transpersonal…thanks for sharing…and i am feeling that it is probably about time i look more into peter levine, so thank you for the reminder *…
lgd - thanks for that elloquent and beautiful statement. yum. :O)
sarah - good!
no don't hold your breath to try and find a still point - but breathe softly and look for a sense of being compassionately held, contained and safely boundaried - hang out in the pause between breaths for a couple seconds and notice the subtle details in your body that you may be missing….
matra: slow down…slow down….slow down…
you might think about booking a session with hala too… we did some great work on this up at esalen.
look into levine and also experience his work through hala! :O)
slow down?!?!?!?!…do what?!?!?!?!?
hehe.
the pause in between breaths seems to be so filled with sensation that the subtle details get lost…i suppose that is a great point to work from and observe how i relate more and more to the subtle sensations as this process continues…
good suggestions though…i'll give hala a call…
yea baby steps and new layers of awareness
Julian and Zaadzmposiumers,
2nd try.
Thank you Julian for this thoughtful post. I appreciate having this scaffolding for organizing thoughts and experiences of the other posters. As I was reading, I noticed how much my own path and studies have followed a somewhat similar track. I enjoyed the Open Sky Video very much. Do you use music when doing sessions? Or is it mostly breath and bodywork? Do you encourage the client to give voice to certain emotions, as in psycho-drama or deep memory process? Ah, I can tell I’ll have to buy the 8 CD set. Consider it on my list.
What I will do now is outline my own path of study and experience and then reflect on how that has impacted my understanding of kundalini. If I can find it I’ll include an excerpt from a talk by my teacher Adyashanti.
So some personal bio/experiences:
I grew up in an alcoholic family on the south coast of California. I went to a prep school back east and was there when my parents decided to divorce. I never fully processed that fracture of my world at the time. I did some psychedelics. Timothy Leary was a local resident for a time. I loved LSD but it contributed to my nickname of “Spaceman”. My senior year in high school I picked up a book by Jess Stearns called Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation and tried to teach myself hatha yoga from its pages _without a lot of discipline.
After some travel I studied kundalini yoga with a teacher trained by Yogi Bhajan. My sister was a devotee of his but I could never make the leap to the Turban and white costume.
I moved to Maine, met my future wife and learned woodworking. We raised a couple of children (now 22,24) on 10 acres in rural Freeport. In my late forties I felt my life was getting stale and I signed up for a traditional 4 day vision quest with a man called Sparrow Hart. I continued to do work with him in addition to questing and was introduced to breathwork.
The breathwork was part of a 9 month (1 weekend per month) series of workshops called the Mythic Warrior. I think it was the 4th weekend that had the breathwork sessions. I went into the room expecting candles, cushions and the chance to do some alternate nostril breathing. I had no expectations or context for what was about to happen. The space was a slightly re-habbed chicken coop in rural Massachusetts. I didn’t realize that BW was done in pairs so the last man left was someone who had just been released from 30 days of treatment for sex addiction and peeping Tomism. He was a little creepy. I breathed first. I don’t remember a lot of the details. I got tetne in both hands. I got very altered and was amazed and blown away by the style of music which I had never heard before. When it was my turn to be the ‘sitter’ my breather told me not to worry about it, that he seldom moved very much or needed much facilitation. Well, he moved a lot. He moved for the whole 2.5 hours. He wanted to be held like a baby. At one point he stood up and wanted to dance. Here I was a typical Yankee frozen white guy and this little pervert was holding me in his arms. I mean every button that could be pushed got pushed. Apparently it was just what the doctor ordered. While I can’t say that I enjoyed the experience, I was fascinated by it. I loved hearing of other peoples journeys when we shared in circle.
I did some more breathwork as part of a Richard Moss 10 day seminar. What I loved about it was the power of the experience completely overwhelmed any doubt or skepticism. I could allow myself to simply be present to the experience and set my skepticism aside. That snide little voice that liked to say “ You’re just making this stuff up” when doing group exercises was silenced by the breathwork. At one point I had to go to the bathroom and as I urinated I looked down and my shrunken genitals felt like they were connected to a low voltage battery. My whole body was humming with energy but it was localized in specific locations. At some point I realized that I was having a direct experience of my own chakras. BTW, it is my conviction that most breathwork is about the healing and revealing of charkas 1,2 &3. Other chakras may get activated from time to time but for most people the work is in the body and on this earth.
This experience called me to study breathwork directly. I went on the internet and checked out various sites. When I got here I had a distinct sense of recognition and rightness. It was a physical ‘ping’ that rang true. Over the next two years I got certified in Integrative Breathwork. I found the organization to be problematic. It was a case of “the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. “ The woman who started this style of breathwork had studied and taught with Grof in the 80s and 90s. When she split to start her own group there was lots of drama. 'nuff said.
I enjoyed my time with this group. It was not until after I left that things got messy and weird. Breathwork has the potential to put you into that space of lovingness. It is very easy to confuse being in that space of lovingness with being in love. Very easy. There was not a lot of clarity around that at the time. Boundaries were crossed. Shame was distributed.
I continued to practice breathwork here in New England. Looking for some community I found this man
who had been involved with Transformational Breathwork but had decided to go out on his own. I continue to work with him and consider him a good friend.
So how to integrate all these experiences, dramas , energies and insights? Slowly, slowly, slowly. I became very depressed. I entered therapy and that was very useful. My therapist suggested a 12 step meeting and that has been wonderful. While I initially had problems with the amber/blue language and all the God the Father talk, I have since learned to let that slide and simply enjoy the community and friendships. I think that addiction is often a part of the kundalini process.
Finally, I am hesitant to include this but I must. I had my world turned upside down in the past week. A symptom prompted a CAT scan which revealed a mass on my kidney. Fortunately it does not appear to have metastasized but I go in for surgery to have my left kidney removed on 8/13. Oh well, I just have to remember I create my own reality…:-)
I am a strong vital man. I do Baptiste power yoga 5 days a week. I lift. I walk. I laugh. I breathe. I have no symptoms of cancer at all and yet there it is. I was carrying a great deal of fear around the whole process because I lost my sister to cancer one year ago. For her it was only 5 months from discovery of the cancer to her death. Our interactions with the conventional medical world were not very pleasant. It was not until I went over the CAT scan with a specialist that I realized how much of my sister's story I had internalized and made my own. It certainly caused me to appreciate my life and this precious human body.
namaste,
coyote
excellent article, julian! i appreciate you adding your personal process that brought you to this point. seems we often need to be reminded that things develop over time, not just going to find that quick fix.
the trauma/resource ratio and titration process have been amazing additions to your work. i don't recall you mentioning them say 3 years ago. then again at that point i probably wasn't ready to deal with the trauma. it has come to me when i needed to hear it most.
having teachers and therapists who understsand the work being done on the mat, table, and couch is priceless. i often overlooked how much i'd integrated in my life through this process thinking there is somewhere else i was supposed to get to. this summer, i'm hearing loud and clear that here is where i am supposed to be.
sarah, i'm with you in the slow down space. hala's work at esalen and levine's book have been fantastic tools for me. highly recommend both.
any breathwork workshsops in the future? ;o)
yes annie it has been gradual - but i have actually been using the titration process via resourcing and slowing down the trauma response since about 2002 without explicitly calling it that…
geting a taste of it in more depth at the esalen training must have been the clincher for you - i am so glad!
Hi Julian,
Do you know of any additional discussions or resources on Network? This has been a part of my process for a while and I have been looking for additional dialogs/information.
Great job and thanks for posting and gathering folks together!
coyoteyogi - thanks so much - what a journey eh?
thank you too for sharing your recent news - how harrowing. may it pass through you quickly…
annie - maat and i have been talking about doing another breathwork day-long - like i need something to do with my time!
you as always will be the first to know…..
:O)
gina - you know, i dont have any idea of resources, books, philosophy or discussion about network - i experienced it several times about 12 years a go and only understood it later in terms of other energy modalities.
i think looking into osteopathy and craniosacral therapy will give you comparable theory and physiology though….
Hi Julian, Excellent survey of the topic! (I haven't watched the video yet and will do so later.)
For those who might be interested, the early edition of Gopi Krishna's book Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man, with commentary by James Hillman (the Jungian analyst turned “archetypal” psychologist) is online.
Just a comment on trauma: I would say that everyone has been traumatized regardless of their personal family history, e.g., regardless of whether they've had a happy childhood and regardless of whether or not they can identify with being traumatized. First there is the trauma of birth, the shock of a raw nervous system abruptly exposed to overwhelming intensity to which it must adjust if it is to survive.
Then there is the trauma of what the psyciatrist Robert Jay Lifton and the Buddhist scholar and systems theorist Joanna Macy speak of in terms of our collective knowledge that Macy characterizes as ”the loss of the assumption that our species will pull through.” Lifton relates the “search for immortality” common among religious and spiritual seekers directly to the terror and despair of living in an age of “the Bomb” and nuclear proliferation, ecological degradation, death camps, holocausts, genocidal madness, terrorism (state terrorism and terrorism perpetrated by transnational agents), wars for oil and territory, “collateral damage” kept out of sight and out of mind, etc.
In response to collectively shared traumatizing events (in other words, not just personal history), Lifton suggests that become prey to what he calls “psychic numbing.” He explains how “historical forces” can produce the reaction of “the closing off of the person and the constriction of the life process. It can take the form of widespread psychic numbing–diminished capacity or inclination to feel–and a general sense of stasis and meaninglessness.” I think there is thus a sense in which the kinds of breakthroughs and openings we are talking about here are a response to our collective situation, as well as our personal situations, and to the phenomenon of “widespread psychic numbing.”
Again, wonderful essay you've written to start this discussion off with, Julian. Thanks for all your efforts on this here!
Jim
excellent additions jim!
good to see you.
i look forward to your reflections on the video….
Very comprehensive, Julian!
A great starter post to the syposium! :)
Your video reminds me of what we call “kriyas” in my meditation tradition. They are very pleasant, yet can be so surprising when they arrive for the first time. (aka. upward flowing orgasms) :)
Wanted to ask you about something from your post:
In other words: One’s general stage of development will determine how one interprets the altered state once they are back in their steady state. So the same experiential territory might be interpreted completely differently by someone with a literalist faith in mythic religion, as opposed to someone who has done a lot of psychological work, as opposed to someone who is very invested in New Age metaphysics, or someone who has a background in Adveita Vedanta. The tricky part is that because the (primary) altered state is so convincing, our (secondary) interpretive lens will be lent an often unwarranted authority…
J, when you mention an altered state vs. a steady state, it sounds as though you are making the assumption that the steady state is the state prior to the altered state. Is that correct?
I read what you wrote to mean that we somehow return unphased by our experience. I feel that in a genuine spiritual emergence (eg. Kundalini), we are transformed. And though we may find a new steady state. There is no going back to “Kansas.”
With each new “altered,” or I preferred “expanded” state, our steady state alters as well. Both altered and steady are dynamic. Both are transformed.
What is “ground” changes and evolves with each transforming experience.
Therefore, I feel that it is of crucial importance to realize this condition when studying one's “expanded/altered” state in order to draw conclusions.
Some “altered” states have little effect or bearing on our steady state. Some have profound, definite and permanent effects. There is a continuum, I feel, to these kinds of experiences.
I agree with Gopi Krishna (more on him tomorrow in my post!) that the best way to study spiritual emergence (eg. Kundalini), is to study it indirectly by observing the lasting effects it has on its subjects. As we note the changes/effects within or on ourselves, we can see the power and potential of this energy.
We cannot see certain celestial objects. We can study them, however, through the effects they have on gravitational pull, orbits, etc.
This type of study then requires 3 entities:
1. The energy (Kundalini)
2. The subject (aspirant/experiencer)
3. Observer
This gets tricky if the observer is awakened…and also if they are not awakened. Either way, the observer will embody one OR the other of 2 kinds of steady states.
What think ye?
:)
yup i call them kriyas too sometimes - that's what they are. :O)
should be a juicy post delia!
good points. very well expressed as always.
i think in the vast majority of instances people experiencing altered states have a temporary shift out opf their steady state which is pretty consistent viz their psychograph/stage of development. the subjective impression is of radical new-ness and transformed identity (which is fascinating!) but objective observation appears not to bear that out over time.
actual stagewise transformation is a really big deal and the data from transpersonal psychology indicates that states and stages need to be very clearly differentiated to make sense of these phenomena.
that said really potent altered states can leave a powerful impression of having been transformed, especially over the period of a couple months following the state change - and then there are those experiences after which one actually is totally transformed in quantifiable ways - which are exceedingly rare. many people on psychedelics for example may fear that they will never “come back,” and/or attempt to stay in the altered state or stay in contact with the profound truths they appeared to be accessing (which are state specific and usually have faded signifcantly once the state has passed) - one's psychograph/chemistry/homeostasis/brain activity has a way of returning to center in the vast majority of cases - i would guess around 99.9%
the same is true of the powerful altered states entered via breathwork and bodywork - in fact one of the things i say to reassure people who are in an intense place or experiencing something very new is that it will pass - and the only time that has not been true in my experience (we're in the 0.01% range again here) has been in the case of pre-existing psychiatric conditions. after one experience of this early on i became very very cautious about the screening proces for bodywork and breathwork - and even with yoga an experience a couple years ago reminded me that people who for example suffer from bipolar disorder should not be doing energetic disicplines…
i think that all healing and personal growth occurs within the framework of homeostasis - wether we are conscious of it or not…
the actual pattern for the vast majority of serious seekers appears to be gradual growth over long periods punctuated by altered states that give glimpses into more advanced stages but that are to some extent usually misinterpreted based on the psychograph and cultural contrext of the experiencer.
does that make sense?
i think the confusion of states with stages and levels with lines is a big part of the guru debacle that happened here in the 70's and 80's. ya know?
…and then there are those experiences after which one actually is totally transformed in quantifiable ways…
let's suppose for the sake of discussion that one of those—the quantifiable types—exists…and you know them.
what type of changes would qualify as quantifiable, J?
before: no extra-sensorial phenomena
after: ongoing and continuous extra-sensorial phenomena
(eg. the type Gopi Krishna, Muktananda or Yogananda describe in their autobiographies)
therefore the steady state inclusive of the extra-sensorial phenomena might be a bit skewed from the typical observer who is sans extra-sensorial phenomena, etc.
now i don't necessarily feel that this qualifies as getting a “whole new identity.” (I too find that concept fascinating, J!)
yet, the person would be transformed in a complete sense…no return to former steady state…will have to develop a new steady state that is inclusive of said transformations
again, all these changes may be very subtle like thread worked into the weave of a person's life. yet it is still there. and the cloth is no longer the same.
one's psychograph/chemistry/homeostasis/brain activity has a way of returning to center in the vast majority of cases - i would guess around 99.9%
will you define psychograph for me? want to make sure we're on the same page with that one. thx. :)
also, i agree that the brain activity has a way of returning to “center” whatever that was/is for the person…yet that's not exactly what i was alluding to in my earlier comment.
let me clarify:
i am talking about the transformation of personality.
people go to all kinds of self-help workshops, schools, retreats and so on in order to remodel their personality. this could be to augment out-moded judgments, belief systems, and traumas/hurts OR it could be to expand into new ways of behaving, viewing themselves, life and the world, or relating with themselves and others OR to do both simultaneously.
now, when people attend these self-help events they are going for the purposes of transformation. and i would say: transformation of personality.
kind of like re-constructive surgery for the little self.
for example, rhinoplasty helps some people with deviated septums breath a little easier at night. in the same way, developing a greater sense of forgiveness and acceptance in one's life can assist a person in feeling a lot less traumatized and reactive to new situations and relationships.
now if that person practices and really works at it OR has a transformative experience which changes how they view themselves and the world, they are likely to absorb that transformation (even if only a little bit) and in essence develop a whole new lens through which his/her steady state perceives experience. personality i equate with a lens.
i am guessing that right about now, you are saying to yourself, “I meant something completely different by steady state than that, Delia.” ;)
If that is the case, do please tell me what you mean by steady state. Want to get on the same page on that one, too. :)
Here's why.
No matter what, we usually interpret our experiences through whatever personality we are experiencing. Therefore, change the personality…change the interpretation (lens). Thus steady state perception changes as well…frequently sometimes.
thanks so much for the personal account julian—it makes me feel more confident about my own piece…..
i agree with the psychograph/gradual growth thing….very well put. will have to give a more in-depth response to delia's piece in a bit….or just wait till tomorrow.
;0
Julian,
(apologies, I first posted this to the intro dialogue)
“Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the right stimulus, and at a touch they are there is all their completeness…
No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question…”
I loved this quote from James and I especially appreciate that you started with it and emphasized his caveat, “How to regard them is the question …”
“…the right stimulus … the right touch …” It seems that you have taken this quite literally in your life, Julian and for that, at least, you deserve commendation.
Baker Roshi's comment ”Enlightenment is an accident, but meditation makes you accident prone.” seems to say something different than your interpretation, with which, frankly, I am more in agreement: “… are not guaranteed by meditation - but meditation does set up the conditions within which that process can occur.”
I utterly agree with you about the vitality of a yoga practice accompanying meditation. A person can no doubt meditate without doing yoga, but advanced meditation is dependent upon advanced posture and posture cannot be secured without yoga. Period. Kundalini, in the classic sense, resonates best in the well-tuned temple.
Julian, what you say below echoes back to times when I have recognized a part of you that I find most appealing - your willingness to see, like Eckhart below, that attitude, rather than ideology, is what really rules.
“What seems most important in the creation of intelligent and supportive LR infrastructure/institutions is an integration of both the mind-body spiritual/energetic awareness of what may be occurring for the individual and it's possible value - as well as the cold-eyed realism of DSM-based psychological assessment. After all, in the words of Meister Eckhart ” The madman is drowning in the same waters that the Holy man swims in…”
In other words a good starting point is this: all kundalini is not psychosis and all mental illness is not kundalini.” Amen in particular to this although some Kundalini in action looks like psychosis on parade.
That's it for now, more soon,
Yer pal,
Michael1) agreed that these sorts of complete irrevocable changes do happen - but in a tiny percentage of people. some of whom are in this group of presenters. the simple fact is that for 99.9% of the rest of people irrevocable immediate lasting changes do not happen via altered states.
that leads into the topic of how to understand/integrate what has happened and what may be the cause…..
2) i gave links to wilber stuff that included the term psychograph - but it may be a lot to dig through!
psychograph is an integral concept that acknowledges that we all have lines of development that are distinct but related - so some examples would be cognitive, psychological, aesthetic, spiritual etc…… not only is each individual at a stage in their development, but each line of development can be at a different stage from the others! we all know genius computer geeks who can't have a conversation about feelings, or amazing musicians who can't balance their checkbook - in the last 30 years we have also had to make sense in the spiritual community of spiritually gifted gurus who had no concept of ethics or psychological maturity ne c'est pas?
so one's psychograph is the sum total of one's lines of development in their various stages/levels and what that means as a portrait of the equipment (so to speak) through whcih you process your expereince - including altered states…
anyone can expereince an altered state - those are free. but turning the altered state into a permanent trait that is stabilized at a new stage of development - that requires a lot of work in 99.9% of cases.
3) yes people go to seminars/workshops etc for transformation of the eprsonality - and for the most part that transformation is a convincing altered state that doesn't last very long and doesn't significantly affect their center of gravity or the make-up of their psychograph.
positive effects may ensue and over time changes in the persona may show up - but the big experience is usually a very unreliable indicator of an actual big transformation.
4) by steady state i mean something along the lines of consensus reality - the walls are not melting, the person in front of you is not perceived as the fully radiant embodiment of the archetypal mother, ones body has not dissolved into sttreams of liquid light etc…
altered states aare so fascinating and so sought after/demonized because of the extreme novelty and differentness from “ordinary” or steady state experience.
while these things are indeed relative - there is actually not a great deal of substantive variation in how the vast majority of people with healthy hardware experience their senses on a day to day basis. in oither words 100 people may have 100 slightly diffferent perceptions - but they will 99.9% be within a fairly predictable range…..
this can be heightened in subtle but powerful ways - but it is in the full-blown altered state that a whole new world is radically revealed - because the volume has been so drastically increased, yeah?
to echo william james from above:
” No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question…”
and therein lies the rub!
play on sister play on - i look forward to tomorrow….
and brother michael this is the expression of your online persona that i most enjoy too: gentlemanly, erudite, generous and open-minded.
thanks for the reflections!
1) agreed
2) & 3) this psychograph concept of wilber's is fabulous. i agree with the concept and the parallels you draw to specific examples. however, what i am able to garner so far from your above comment on psychographs is that there is little that can be done to alter them. is that accurate? not diligent effort or work? not profound altered/expanded states? not anything? please say more on this. :)
4) ah…i had a feeling you meant something completely different than my 1st interpretation as it refers to steady state. got it. consensus reality. yes. crucial to life on the planet as we know it. :)
…and yes, how to regard these other forms of consciousness…
the rub-a-dub-dub, indeed!
;)
3)
First off, great post Julian! I love your precision, sincerity, and the breadth of scholarship you bring to the discussion. Your detailed personal account and those of the others who contributed theirs were beautiful and touching. Thanks so much for sharing!
I'll try to respond to Delia's last post and her question about psychographs. The idea of the psychograph is based on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence where people can excel in some areas (or lines as Wilber calls them) but not as much in others. You absolutely can do work to grow in the various lines! It does, however, take a long time for vertical development with Robert Kegan, a professor of adult education at Harvad, suggesting that moving one stage can take around 5 years if you are really working at it. Wilber often states that meditation (specifically the work of Skip Alexander) is the only thing proven to help people move up to higher stages. Other things such as therapy, learning, etc. are critically important as well but their ability to single-handedly cause people advance in stages is unclear. Does that help clarify things for you?
I will add a bit more about the UL component of this phenomena through the work of Suzanne Cook-Greuter, a pre-eminent research in adult ego development (I believe this would correspond to the “psychological” line Julian referenced in his post). She has some really great papers available on her site too if you want more detail. I particularly liked the one on the 9 stages of ego development. Ego here refers to the mental model people use to make sense of reality. In this model, altered states often become more common during the “construct/aware” stage (stage 8), and