Hi Phil and other�s on the discussion board,

Phil, I read your kundalini e-book a couple of weeks ago because I�ve been having a time of intense kundalini awareness and I needed some help in integrating it into my life. I�m from a Christian (Mennonite) background, I�m seminary trained and I�ve been participating in Centering Prayer groups for around seven years. I also participate in an inter-religious meditation group. Now age 44, I�ve lived in Baltimore since the fall of �99 and worked as a bread baker since Easter �03.

The apple tree in front of our house is flowering this week and the fern-like new leaves on the hackberry reminded me of a misty Japanese painting this morning as I was coming home from swimming at the Y with my wife of nearly 20 years, Cindy.

This is my first time on this discussion board. I�d like to share an experience that I�m excited about. I have not told anyone else yet, but you seem like kind, discerning people, so here goes.

Last Wednesday, in meditation I felt inner energy build up inside all through my body to the point that I thought I might start shaking, or cry out, or faint. But because I was with others, I held still and watched my breathing. And then, I felt energy move from the bottom of my spine up toward my head. That much was familiar. But here is the new part: the energy wiggled back and forth as it ascended in a distinct S pattern like that of a snake moving. I sat with it in bliss for minutes. Even when meditative silence was over and we opened our eyes, I felt it in a less intense but still wonderfully perceptible S-shaped flow.

I didn�t tell anyone what was happening. The focus was on a guest � a coworker, a customer service worker at the bakery who is about to leave for graduate school at Harvard to study cognative science. He grew up in the exiled Tibetan community in India. Though no longer a Buddhist, he still meditates. We talked about prayer flags.

In reflection, I think, what a wonderful synchronicity it is that I had my S-kundalini experience when someone with his background is among us.

Until Wednesday, I didn�t relate to the uncoiling snake metaphor in particular. But that night, the metaphor was precise.

Have any of you had experience with what I'll call an S-kundalini episode?

Greg

I've not had anything that explicitly S-like, Greg. It will be interesting to hear what some of the others have to say.

You are aware, I'm sure, of the caduceus.



Sometimes the image is shown with only one of the snakes coiling around the central staff. Kundalini teachers often point to this as a symbol of kundalini rising, with the central staff representing it's ascendance through the sushumma channel and the two snakes, the ida and pingala. These roughly correlate to the central canal of the spinal cord and the nerves associated with the autonomic nervous system. See if the winding blue and orange around the chakras in the image below is similar to the pattern you describe


So usually what the S-kundalini experience signifies is that the energy has risen through the ida or pingala channel, amplifying the potentials which rely on that part of our nervous system. Have you noticed any changes in your experience of energy since then?

Thanks Phil,

If i were to illustrate my S-Kundalini, there would be only one snake climbing the pole. On the chakra chart, it corresponded to the winding orange line with the size being just about right on the second third and forth chakras -- smaller on the first. What was most noticably S shaped was the width of the up- movement. It seemed to almost thump on the sides.

As for changes since: I've been trying to discern the sexual meaning of the experience. There was a woman sitting across from me. She is, like me, married. We have shared meals together as families. We have been meditating across from one another on Wednesday evenings for about three years now. The S-Kundalini experience went along with a conscious "surrender" on my part, as a man, to her energy as a woman. There was some of arousal of my reproductive organs.

I feel love for her and desire, but we have never touched sexually. I see it as an energy exchange rather than "sex" in the sense of leading to physical genital contact. I love having eye contact with her and sharing smiles.

. . The S-Kundalini experience went along with a conscious "surrender" on my part, as a man, to her energy as a woman. . .

I think that's a significant correlation, Ryan. Of course, as you know, people who don't know beans about kundalini could relate much to your closing paragraph as well, so there are obviously other dynamics to account for that kind of attraction. Kundalini would certainly make for an intensified and "spiritualized" experience of it, however, and it just may be that those exchanges of smiles and eye contact actually contributed to the rising in some manner.

Hi, Ryan. I noticed something similar in your story to an article I read.

This person in the article was married and was experiencing a huge amount of primal sexual energy during his "k".

I think you might find the article helpful. I found some of the author's experiences similar to mine as well.

http://www.personaltransformat...om/PubTransform.html

RE: Graphics

Phil, I�ve been reflecting today about the visual symbols you shared. I�ve seen the caduceus but have not focused on in much before. As a youth I saw two snakes intertwined like those two in the wild. I later concluded that they were mating. The picture is static, by contrast, those making snakes moved very fast.

The S-Kundalini moved very fast. That is difficult to convey in a static visual symbol.

As for the figure of the man with the orange and blue lines, as I said, the width looks about right. But when I said that the S-Kundalini followed the orange line, I did not mean to suggest that it was like a fluid going through a fixed channel. Rather, it was moving like a snake moves, the body touches whole width of the path it travels, not just one channel. That said, when it started the first ascent, as I recall, it thumped on my left around the area of the sliver-of-moon in the graphic, and on my right around the area of the up-side-down-triangle.

Re changes

Last night I awoke from a nightmare and my shoulder muscles were so tense that I was pain. My wife gave me some Ibuprofen and a heating pad and I got some relief.

When I got up for work, I was still in pain. It is a familiar tension that I have lived with off and since around 1990. but the tension I awoke with last night was more severe than ever before. During the morning at the bakery, I was so stiff, I could not lift my head up straight or turn it side to side.

And then, I thought: "I wonder if that tension is blocked kundalini energy? I think I'll do one of those yoga postures where I lock my chin toward my chest and breathe from the bottom of my belly." (the idea, though familiar from yoga classes years ago, came today from your list of suggestions, Phil, so thanks.) I did it and felt an immediate release of energy, very strong, rising from the area of my shoulders up though my head. In seconds, I had a release. I laughed, smiled and told coworkers about the little miracle. My coworkers had been concerned about my neck pain. I could lift my head without pain. Later, the tension came back so I did the lock again with similar results.

Eric, thanks for the article:

http://www.personaltransformat...om/PubTransform.html

The author says that when he was feeling an odd tension in his muscles and shaking, his yoga teacher suggested he have sex with a woman other than his wife. Oddly, that very same thing happened to me back around '97 -- same symptoms, same suggestion from my yoga teacher. Like the author, I didn't, and like him, I'm glad I didn't.

That guy went through a really remarkable experience wouldn't you say? My guess is that he is fully enlightened now.

Just prior to my first release of Kundalini energy I had an almost unbearable amount of sexual energy. I however felt that I should not act on it.

The day my "k" energy realeased it was like an explosion of energy all through my body. This started from the lower spine and shot out through my crown. This was what I assume, an opening of all my chakras at one time. There was no "snaking" for me as others have described.

The sexual energy was transformed into an engulfing feeling of love. This energy felt very feminine indeed.

What is interesting is that I had never heard of kundalini at that time. I also had really not been doing anything to really awaken it.

I find engaging in anything sexual now to be very draining. I choose to remain abstinent most of the time now. It does wonders for my energy level.

BTW. I see you are from Baltimore also. Small world.

Well, you definitely have to watch out for those yoga teachers. That seems quite unusual, however, as they generally ascribe to high standards of morality.

Ryan, it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. A partial kundalini rising is usually no big deal to integrate, as the energy settles down again and one goes back to one's prior state of consciousness (more or less). If the rising was intense, however, then new channels were opened and a new energetic equilibrium begins to emerge. Your experience of "blocked energy" suggests that this might be the case. Story of my life the past 20 years or so -- new movements, breakthroughs and corresponding adjustments. Happily, after awhile, it seems that things are cleared out enough that something of a "normal" existence can be lived. Nothing more basic than baking bread, I guess, so keep us posted on how it goes.

Yes, Phil, I once was a Yoga teacher too.

Re S path

I've been wondering what a real snake path looks like. I found a page that contrasts four paths.

http://www.bear-tracker.com/snake.html

I think the S Kundalini is most like the Serpentine path -- the King cobra being an example. And I'll bet when the cobra moves faster, it also makes a wider, more of an S-shaped, path.