Notes
PART I
Bonnie Greenwell
[1]
An annotated list of books on kundalini and many biographies can be found on my Web site: kundaliniguide.com. [2] If you take a moment when you are being very creative to sense where the focus of energy is in your body, you may find significant energy is in the neck. I can’t tell you why this is, only that there appears to be a correlation between the opening of the throat chakra and creativity, a phenomenon that is recognized in yoga science.
[3]Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey (New York: Viking Press, 2006), 140.
[4]A modern book that beautifully demonstrates this opportunity is Kathleen Singh’s The Grace in Dying: How We Are Transformed As We Die (New York: HarperOne, 2000).
[5]
Ramana Maharshi, Ramana Gita: Dialogues with Ramana Maharshi, third edition. English translation and commentary by A.R. Natarajan (Bangalore, India: Ramana Hamarshi centre for Learning, 1994), 50−51. Published by the Society of Abidance in Truth. Many other books of his teachings may be found at sriramanaharshi.org/bhagvan.html.[6] Ibid., 20−22.
Penny Kelly
[1]Kelly, Penny. The Evolving Human: A True Story of Awakened Kundalini (Lawton, Michigan: Lily Hill Publishing, 1997), 10.
PART II
Sat Bir Singh Khalsa
[1]Mukta Kaur Khalsa, Meditations for Addictive Behavior: A System of Yogic Science with Nutritional Formulas (I Was There Press, 2008).
[2]David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, Kundalini Yoga Meditation: Techniques Specific for Psychiatric Disorders, Couples Therapy, and Personal Growth (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006).
[3]Dharma Singh Khalsa and Cameron Stauth, Meditation as Medicine: Activate the Power of Your Natural Healing Force (New York: Pocket Books, 2001).
[4]Dharma Singh Khalsa, “An Integrative Medical Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease,” in The Psychospiritual Clinician’s Handbook: Alternative Methods for Understanding and Treating Mental Disorders, ed Sharon G. Mijares and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa (New York: Haworth Press, 2005); Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, “Getting Focused in an Age of Distraction: Approaches to Attentional Disorders Using the Humanology of Yogi Bhajan,” in The Psychospiritual Clinician’s Handbook, ed. Sharon G. Mijares and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa (New York: Haworth Press, 2005); Hari Kaur Khalsa, “Yoga: An Adjunct to Infertility Treatment.” Fertility and Sterility 80 (2003), 46−51; Manjit Kaur Khalsa, “Alternative Treatments for Borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorders,” in The Psychospiritual Clinician’s Handbook, ed Sharon G. Mijares and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa (New York: Haworth Press, 2005); D.S. Shannahoff-Khalsa et al., “Hemodynamic Observations on a Yogic Breathing Technique Claimed to Help Eliminate and Prevent Heart Attacks: A Pilot Study,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 10 (2004): 757−766; David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, “Patient Perspectives: Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques for Psycho-Oncology and as Potential Therapies for Cancer,” Integrative Cancer Therapies 4 (2005): 87−100; David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, “Complementary Healthcare Practices. Stress Management for Gastrointestinal Disorders: The Use of Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques,” Gastroenterology Nursing 25 (2002): 126−129; David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, “Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques for the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive and OC Spectrum Disorders,” Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 3 (2003): 369−382; David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa, “An Introduction to Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques That Are Specific for the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 10 (2004): 91−101.
[5]Sat Bir S. Khalsa et al., “Evaluation of a Residential Kundalini Yoga Lifestyle Pilot Program for Addiction in India,” Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse 7 (2008): 67−79.
[6]David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa and L.R. Beckett, “Clinical Case Report: Efficacy of Yogic Techniques in the Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders,” International Journal of Neuroscience 85 (1996): 1−17.
[7]David S. Shannahoff-Khalsa et al., “Randomized Controlled Trial of Yogic Meditation Techniques for Patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorders,” CNS Spectrums: The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine 4 (1999): 34−46.
[8]Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, “Treatment of Chronic Insomnia with Yoga: A Preliminary Study with Sleep-Wake Diaries,” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 29 (2004): 269−278.
[9]Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, “A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Yoga Treatment for Chronic Insomnia,” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 34 (2009) (abstract in press).
[10]Gurucharan Singh Khalsa and Yogi Bhajan, Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body, Mind and Spirit (New York: Broadway, 2000).
[11]M. Vazquez-Vandyck et al., “Effect of Breathwalk on Body Composition, Metabolic and Mood State in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients with Insulin Resistance Syndrome,” World Journal of Gastroenterology 13 (2007): 6213−6218.
[12]H. Lynton, B. Kligler, and S. Shiflett, “Yoga in Stroke Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review and Results of a Pilot Study,” Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation 14 (2007): 1−8.
[13] Sabina Sehgal, “The Effects of Kundalini Yoga on Sleep Disturbance,” PhD dissertation, Sabina Sehgal, California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University (2007).
David Lukoff
[1]J. Lewis and T. Melton, eds., Perspectives on the New Age (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992).
[2]M. Caplan, Halfway up the Mountain: The Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment (Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press, 1999), 7.
[3]R. Assagioli, “Self-Realization and Psychological Disturbances,” in Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis, eds. S. Grof and C. Grof (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1989), 36.
[4]L. Sannella, Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence (self, 1976).
[6]S. Grof and C. Grof, eds., Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1989).
[7]Silverman, J. “Shamans and Acute Schizophrenia.” American Anthropologist 69, No.1 (1967): 21-31.
[8]Lukoff, D. “Case Study of the Emergency of a Contemporary Shaman.” In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Shamanism and Alternate Healing, edited by R.I. Heinze. Berkeley, CA: Asian Scholars Press, 1993.
[9]B. Cortright, Psychotherapy and Spirit: Theory and Practice in Transperonal Psychotherapy (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997), 161.
[11]B. Greenwell, Energies of Transformation: A Guide to the Kundalini Process (Saratoga, CA: Shakti River Press, 1990).
[12]B. Cortright, Integral Psychology: Yoga, Growth, and Opening the Heart (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2007). Used with author’s permission.
[13] Greenwell, “Kundalini Quest: Nighttime Shakes.”
[14]American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Text Revision, Fourth Edition (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
[15]R. Lim and K. Lin, “Cultural Formulation of Psychiatric Diagnosis. Case No.03. Psychosis Following Qigong in a Chinese Immigrant,” Culture and Medical Psychiatry 20 (1996): 373.
[16] Ibid., 375-6.
[17] DSM-IV, 488.
[18]M. Epstein and S. Topgay, “Mind and Mental Disorders in Tibetan Medicine,” Revision 5, No.1 (1982): 27.
[19]R. Walsh and L. Roche, “Precipitation of Acute Psychotic Episodes by Intensive Meditation in Individuals with a History of Schizophrenia,” American Journal of Psychiatry 136 (1979): 1086.
[20]J. Kornfield, A Path with Heart: A Guide through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (New York: Bantam Books, 1993), 131−32.
[21] Walsh and Roche, “Precipitation of Acute Psychotic Episodes,” 1085−1086.
[22]D. Lukoff et al., “A Holistic Health Program for Chronic Schizophrenic Patients,” Schizophrenia Bulletin 12, No.2 (1986): 274−282.
[23]D. Lukoff, F. Lu, and R. Turner, “From Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Problem: The Transpersonal Roots of the New DSM-IV Category,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 38, No.2 (1998).
[24] DSM-IV, 685.
[25]E. Bragdon, A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems (Aptos, CA: Lightening Up Press, 1993), 18.
Barbara Whitfield
[1]Kenneth Ring, Heading toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near Death Experience (New York: Morrow, 1984).
[2]B. Harris [Whitfield] and L. Bascom, Full Circle: The Near-Death Experience and Beyond (New York: Pocket/Simon and Schuster, 1990); B.H. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the NDE and Other Doorways to Our Soul (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI, 1995); B. Whitfield, The Natural Soul (Pittsburg, PA: SterlingHouse, 2009).
[3]C.L. Whitfield et al., The Power of Humility: Choosing Peace over Conflict in Relationships (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI, 2006).
[4]Ring, Heading toward Omega
[5]
Visit Gary Craig’s Web site at emofree.com; it is packed with information, tutorials, case histories, and a free downloadable PDF manual. [6]B. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings. See chapter 6, “Freeing Blocked Energy.”
[7]B. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings. See chapter 5, “Kundalini Energy and How It Works.”
[8]B. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings.
[9]
Anonymous, Adult Children: Alcoholic/Dysfunctional Families (Torrance, CA: ACOA World Service Organization, 2006); adultchildren.org. [10]Ring, Heading toward Omega.
[11]I. Bentov, Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1977); Ring, Heading toward Omega; L. Sannella, The Kundalini Experience (Lower Lake, CA: Integral Publishing, 1987); B. Greenwell, Energies of Transformation: A Guide to the Kundalini Process (Cupertino: Shakti River Press, 1990); B. Whitfield, Full Circle; B. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings.
[12]
C.L. Whitfield, “Self-Realization: Entry into the Transcendent Realm of Unqualified Reality. God-Realization. Objects and States May Arise, but They Are Simply Recognized, or Their Binding Power Transcended in the Radiant Higher Power,” Alcoholism & Spirituality: A Transpersonal Approach. Self-published. Available at cbwhit.com. [13]B. Greyson and B. Harris [Whitfield], “Clinical Approaches to the NDEr,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 6 (Fall 1987): 41−50.
[14]C.L. Whitfield, Healing the Child Within: Discovery & Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1987); C.L. Whitfield, A Gift to Myself: A Personal Workbook and Guide to Healing the Child Within (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1990); C.L. Whitfield, Boundaries and Relationships: Knowing, Protecting and Enjoying the Self (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1993).
[15]C.L.Whitfield, Boundaries and Relationships; C.L. Whitfield, The Truth about Mental Illness: Choices for Healing (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI, 2004); Whitfield et al., The Power of Humility; B. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings; B. Whitfield, The Natural Soul.
[16] In Twelve-Step programs, humility is part of the solution. People might bypass humility or find false humility, which does not work. Twelve-Step fellowships believe that true humility is obtained by hitting a bottom, getting honest, and working the Twelve Steps and/or getting counseling.
[17]C.L. Whitfield, et. al. The Power of Humility.
[18]A. Newberg and J. Iversen, “The Neural Basis of the Complex Mental Task of Meditation: Neurotransmitter and Neurochemical Considerations,” Medical Hypothesis 8 (2003): 282−291.
[19]G. Vaillant, Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith (New York: Broadway Books, 2008), 54, 183.
[20]C.L. Whitfield, The Truth about Depression: Choices for Healing (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI, 2003); C. Whitfield, The Truth about Mental Illness.
[21]C.L. Whitfield, Boundaries and Relationships; B. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings.
[22]C. Whitfield, Boundaries and Relationships.
[23]Anonymous, Adult Children: Alcoholic/Dysfunctional Families.
[24]C. Whitfield, Boundaries and Relationships.
[25] Ibid.
[26]C.L. Whitfield et al., The Power of Humility.
[27] Ibid.
[28]Ibid.
[29]G. Vaillant, Spiritual Evolution.
[30]B. Whitfield, The Natural Soul.
Charles Whitfield
[1]Helen Schucman, A Course in Miracles (Mill Valley, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975); Charles L. Whitfield, Choosing God: A Bird’s-Eye-View of A Course in Miracles (in pre-print draft), 1998.
[2]C.L. Whitfield, Healing the Child Within: Discovery & Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI Books, 1987); C.L. Whitfield, Boundaries and Relationships: Knowing, Protecting, and Enjoying the Self (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI Books, 1993); C.L. Whitfield, The Truth about Depression: Choices for Healing (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI Books, 2003); C.L. Whitfield, The Truth about Mental Illness: Choices for Healing (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI Books, 2004); C.L. Whitfield, My Recovery: A Personal Plan for Healing (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI Books, 2004); C.L. Whitfield et al., The Power of Humility: Choosing Peace Over Conflict in Relationships (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI Books, 2006); C.L. Whitfield, You May NOT Be Mentally Ill (in process.)
[3]C.L. Whitfield, Healing the Child Within; C.L. Whitfield, Boundaries and Relationships; C.L. Whitfield, My Recovery; C.L. Whitfield, The Truth about Depression; C.L. Whitfield, The Truth about Mental Illness.
[4]Peter Breggin, MD, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry (New York, NY: Springer Publishing, 2nd edition, 2008).
[5]Lee Sannella, MD, Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence? (Atrium Pub Group, 1976), 60.
[6]Peter Breggin, MD, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry.
[7]C.L. Whitfield et al, The Power of Humility; B. Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of The Near-Death Experience and Other Doorways To Our Soul (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI Books, 1995.) B. Whitfield, The Natural Soul (Pittsburgh, PA: Sterlinghouse, 2009).
[8]B. Greyson and B. Harris [Whitfield], “Clinical Approaches to the NDEr,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 6 (Fall 1987).
[9]Stanislav and Christina Grof, editors, Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1989).
[10]Barbara Harris Whitfield, Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the NDE and Other Doorways to Our Soul (Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI, 1995); B. Whitfield, The Natural Soul (Pittsburg, PA: Sterlinghouse, 2009).
[11]C.L. Whitfield et al, The Power of Humility.
Bruce Greyson, MD
[1]Greyson, B. “Near-Death Experiences and Spirituality,” Zygon: Journal of Science and Religion, Vol.41, No.2, June 2006, 393-414.
[2]Kelly, E.W., Greyson, B., and Kelly, E.F., “Unusual Experiences Near Death and Related Phenomena,” in Kelly, E.F., Kelly, E. W., Crabtree, A., Gauld, A., Grosso, M., and Greyson, B., Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007, 367-421.
[3] Greyson, B., op. cit.
[4]Ring, K., Heading Toward Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience. New York: William Morrow, 1984.
[5]Blackmore, S.J., Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences. Buffalo: Prometheus, 1993; Woerlee, G.M., Mortal Minds: The Biology of Near-Death Experience, Buffalo: Prometheus, 2005.
[6]Helminiak, D., “Neurology, Psychology, and Extraordinary Religious Experiences,” Journal of Religion and Health, 1984, Vol.23, No.1, March 1984, 33-46.
[7]Ring, K., op.cit.; Ring, K., and Valarino, E.E., Lessons From the Light: What We Can Learn From the Near-Death Experience. New York: Plenum/Insight, 1998.
[8]Grey, M., Return from Death: An Exploration of the Near-Death Experience. London: Arkana, 1985; Grosso, M., The Final Choice: Playing the Survival Game. Walpole, N.H.: Stillpoint Press, 1985; Ring,
[9]Kason, Y., Bradford, M., Pond, P., and Greenwell, B., “Spiritual Emergence Syndrome and Kundalini Awakening: How Are They Related?” Proceedings of the Academy of Religion and Psychical Research Annual Conference, 1992, 85-118; Kieffer, G., “Murphy’s ‘Impossible Dream’ of a Great Evolutionary Leap,” Ascent, Vol.1, No.1, 1992, 1-8; Murphy, M., The Future of the Human Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1992; Sannella, L., The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence? Lower Lake, CA: Integral Publishing, 1987.
[10]Krishna, G., The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.
[11]_____, The Awakening of Kundalini, New York: E.P. Dutton, 1975.
[12]_____, What is and What Is Not Higher Consciousness. New York: Julian Press, 1974.
[13]_____, The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius, op.cit.; Krishna, G., The Awakening of Kundalini,op.cit.
[14]_____, The Secret of Yoga. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.
[15]Dippong, J., “Dawn of Perception: A True Rebirth,” Chimo, Vol.8, No.4, 1982, 31-37.
[16]Kieffer, G., “Kundalini and the Near-Death Experience,” Journal of Near Death Studies, Vol.12, No.3, Spring 1994, 159-176.
[17]Krishna, The Awakening of Kundalini,op.cit.
[18]Ring, K., Heading Toward Omega, op cit.
[19]Whitfield B.H., Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the NDE and Other Doorways to our Soul. Deerfield Beach, FL: HCI, 1995.
[20]Bentov, I., Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1977; Sannella, L., The Kundalini Experience. Lower Lake, CA: Integral Publishing, 1987.
[21]Greyson, B., “The Near-death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity,” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol.171, No.6, June 1983, 369-375; Greyson, B., “Near-Death Encounters With and Without Near-Death Experiences: Comparative NDE Scale Profiles,” Journal of Near-Death Studies, Vol.8, No.3, Spring 1990, 151-161; Greyson, B., “Consistency of Near-Death Experience Accounts Over Two Decades: Are Reports Embellished Over Time?”, Resuscitation, Vol.73, No.3, June 2007, 407-411; Lange, R., Greyson, B., and Houran, J., “A Rasch Scaling Validation of a ‘Core’ Near-Death Experience,” British Journal of Psychology, Vol.95, No.2, May 2004, 161-177.
[22]For data analysis, see Greyson, B., “Near-Death Experiences and the Physio-Kundalini Syndrome,” Journal of Religion and Health, Vol.32, No.4, Winter 1993, 277-290; and Greyson, B., “The Physio-Kundalini Syndrome and Mental Illness,” Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Vol.25, No.1, 1993, 43-58.
[23]Ring, K., and Rosing, C., “The Omega Project: An Empirical Study of the NDE-Prone Personality,” Journal of Near-Death Studies, Vol.8, No.4, Summer 1990, 211-239.
[24] Greenwell, op. cit.; Grey, op. cit.; Sannella, op. cit.
[25]Gallup, G,, Jr., with Proctor, W., Adventures in Immortality: A Look Beyond the Threshold of Death. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.
[26]Whitfield, B., Full Circle: The Near-Death Experience and Beyond. New York: Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster, 1990; Whitfield, B., Spiritual Awakenings: Insights of the NDE and Other Doorways to our Soul, op. cit.; Whitfield, B., The Natural Soul. Pittsburgh: Sterling House, 2009; Ring, K., Heading Toward Omega, op. cit.; Grosso, M., op. cit; Grey, op. cit.
Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa
[1] All names and identifying details have been changed.
[2] AZT is the first drug approved for the treatment of HIV. Its chemical name is Azidothymidine, and is currently manufactured as Retrovir.
[3]Yogi Bhajan quoted in John White, ed., Kundalini, Evolution and Enlightenment (New York: Omega, 1990), 144.
Kundalini at Large
Ken Wilber
[1] For convenience, I am following the Vajrayana in grouping the first and second kundalini chakras into one major chakra, the first major chakra. Tibetan Buddhism recognizes five, not seven, chakras. The first and second, and the sixth and seventh, are combined.
John White
[1]Gopi Krishna, “Beyond Higher States of Consciousness,” New York Times, October 6, 1974.
[2]Gopi Krishna, The Dawn of a New Science (Darien, CT: Institute for Consciousness Research, 1999).
Lawrence Edwards
[1]Joseph Campbell, The Hero with A Thousand Faces (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973), 11.
[2]Robert Bly, trans., The Kabir Book (Boston: The Seventies Press, 1977), 29.
[3]V.K. Subramaniam, trans., Saundaryalahari of Sankaracarya (Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980).
[4]M.P. Pandit, trans., Kularnava Tantra (Madras, India: Ganesh & Co., 1973).
[5]Carl Jung, Psychological Commentary on Kundalini Yoga, Lectures 1 & 2, 1932 (New York: Spring Publications, 1975), 18.
[6]Lex Hixon, Mother of the Universe (Wheaton, IL: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1994), 76.
[7]Lawrence Edwards, Psychological Change and Spiritual Growth through the Practice of Siddha Yoga (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1986) unpublished doctoral dissertation.
[8]Sir John Woodroffe, The Serpent Power (Madras, India: Ganesh and Co., 1973).
[9]Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (New York: Harper Colophon, 1970), 11.
[10]Woodroffe, The Serpent Power.
[11]Hixon, Mother of the Universe, 7.
Stuart Sovatsky
[1]D.S. Radhikananda Saraswati, trans., Dnyaneshwari once again, (Pune, India: Swami Radhikanand, 2002).
[2]D.G. White, The Alchemical Body (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). See The Alchemical Body for detailed historical study of these Tantric practices involving hatha yoga, sexo-yogic practices, and rasayana of herbal and mercuric ingestibles. White states: “Beginning in the fifth Century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India’s alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India’s medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults.”
[3] While the Sikh Dharma of Kundalini Yoga taught widely in the West by Yogi Bhajan has become synonymous with the entire practice, the term Kundalini embraces all forms of hatha yoga.
[4] It is assumed that the aspirant is also following the yamas and niyamas: character-cultivating first two “limbs” of the “eight-limbed” (ashtanga) path, which also includes asana, pranayama, dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (complete absorption).
[5] During Kundalini activity in the highly advanced adult yogi, sweet-tasting amritas, “nectar,” or soma, “elixir of immortality,” will re-arouse the yogi’s tongue into the tumescence of khecari mudra—“the tongue’s ecstatic dance into the heaven-realm”—in mystic rapport with the matured hypothalamus, the “little wedding chamber,” (as named by the ancient Greeks) or “pleasure center” (as named by modern physiologists) and also with the “seat of the soul,” pineal gland.
[6]V.G. Pradhan, trans., Jnaneshvari (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987).
[7]N.E. Sjoman, The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1996).
[8]G. Aurobindo and The Mother, On Love (Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Society, 1973).
[9]S. Thirumoolar, Thirumandiram, a Classic of Yoga and Tantra, Vol.1-3, trans. D. Nataranjan (Montreal: Babaji Kriya Yoga, 1993).
[10]B.H. Dass, Hariakhan Baba: Known, Unknown (Davis, CA: Sri Rama, 1975).
[11]M. Govindan, Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition, 3rd edition (Montreal: Kriya Yoga Publications, 1993).
[12]S.G.B. Satyeswarananda, Babaji: The Divine Himalayan Yogi (San Diego, CA: The Sanskrit Classics, 1984).
[13]P. Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (Los Angeles: Self Realization Fellowship, 1977), 575.
[14]Kripalu Yoga Fellowship, Guru Prasad (Sumneytown, PA: Kripalu Yoga Fellowship, 1982).
[15]C.D. Collins, The Iconography and Ritual of Siva at Elephanta (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), 48.
Gene Keiffer
[1]G. Krishna, Secrets of Kundalini in Panchastavi (Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, B-98, Sarvodhya Enclave, New Delhi, India, 1978).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibi.
[5] Ibid.
PART IV
Gurucharan Singh Khalsa
[1]Yogi Bhajan, The Master’s Touch on Being a Sacred Teacher for the New Age (Espanola, NM: Kundalini Research Institute/Sheridan Books, 1997).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4]Ary L. Goldberg, “Heart Rate Dynamics during Three Forms of Meditation,” ed. C.K. Peng et al., International Journal of Cardiology 95, No.1 (May 2004): 19−27.
[5]A. Panduro et al., “Breathwalking Effects on the Regulation of Glucose and Insulin Tolerance in Diabetes 2,” International Diabetes Care (2004).
[6]Herbert Benson et al., “Functional Brain Mapping of the Relaxation Response and Meditation,” Neuroreport 11, No.7 (2000): 1−5; Manjit Kaur Khalsa, “Alternative Treatments for Borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorders,” in The Psychospiritual Clinician’s Handbook: Alternative Methods for Understanding and Treating Mental Disorders, eds. Sharon G. Mijares and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa (New York: Haworth Press, 2005).
[7]Sat Bir Khalsa, “Treatment of Chronic Insomnia with Yoga: A Preliminary Study with Sleep−Wake Diaries,” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 29, No.4, (2004). DOI: 10.1007/s10484-004-0387-0.
[8]S.B.S. Khalsa et al., “Evaluation for a Residential Kundalini Yoga Lifestyle Pilot Program for Addiction in India,” Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse 7 (2008): 67−79.
[9]Bhajan, The Master’s Touch.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12]Ibid.
[13]Yogi Bhajan and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, Breathwalk: Breathing Your Way to a Revitalized Body, Mind, and Spirit (New York: Broadway Books, 2000); Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, “Getting Focused in an Age of Distraction: Approaches to Attentional Disorders Using the Humanology of Yogi Bhajan,” in The Psychospiritual Clinician’s Handbook: Alternative Methods for Understanding and Treating Mental Disorders, eds. Sharon G. Mijares and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa (New York: Haworth Press, 2005).
[14]Yogi Bhajan and Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, The Mind: Its Projections and Multiple Facets (Espanola, NM: Kundalini Research Institute/Sheridan Books, 1998).