Hi Philip,

I'm wondering if you've read much from Joe Dispenza, especially his latest book (not so new) "Becoming Supernatural". I think he's perhaps the person in recent years that has started to popularize Kundalini energy - without using the word and looking at it from a scientific viewpoint. My interest in Kundalini and 3rd Eye / Pineal Gland started from getting to know his works and that was because I was amazed at the testimonials by people who have read his books, practiced his meditation and attended his workshops, many of whom I believe have experienced Kundalini awakenings.

A lot of people I believe have experienced a Kundalini awakening during his week long retreats. To understand its popularity, about 1,000 to 1,500 people attend each retreat and I'm told it's booked out (people paying US$2,000 or so for the workshop, excluding accommodation) within hours. In the week long retreat, there's about 35 hours of meditation time (in addition to his teachings). And I think up to twice during that week, people get up at 3am-4am and come together to do Pineal Gland meditation that lasts around 4-5 hours.

If you go to his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/drjoedispenza), you'll be able to find probably 100+ videos of stories of people testifying of physical or emotional healing as a result of his teachings. And if you YouTube "Joe Dispenza retreat review", you'll see a lot of people describing their retreat experience very positively. So he's definitely someone who, over the past few years (5-10 years), has really had a huge impact on many people.

He hardly mentions Kundalini (he tries to view things scientifically and not bring in anything religious in order to appeal to popular culture by basing things on science), but he does talk about the Pineal Gland, etc.

Anyway, many people do experience Kundalini during his retreats. A lot of testimonies about kundalini type experiences at least.

Here are my questions that I hope you can answer:

1) Are you familiar with Joe's teachings and if so what do you think about it and his method to awaken Kundalini?

2) Thank you for your response to my message in the other thread. I haven't finished your books but I plan to do so (and also to purchase your teachings on Chakras).

My impression (through reading some sections of your book) is that you don't provide a guide as to how to achieve that Kundalini Awakening because it is something that should come naturally and there may be dangers if people aren't ready for it.

Yet there are many teachings out there (Joe's Pineal Gland meditation being one of them) that teach people how to activate the Pineal Gland / Third Eye / Kundalini. There are some very popular breathwork teachings also that seem to aim at activating Kundalini - Soma Breathwork, Holotropic breathwork. What do you think of the popular spread of the desire to awaken Kundalini through "quick" methods? While I've heard some negative testimonials from people who have activated Kundalini and weren't ready for it, the majority seems to be quite positive.

3) Even though I've done my research into the various methods, I haven't yet gone that track of doing the above because I am a Christian so I'm still a bit hesitant to move forward until I'm more sure. I've heard that people do receive encounters with "entities" (I've definitely heard that from people taking Ayahuasca, but I think this also occurs from people who activate Kundalini - unless I'm wrongly conflating them). When I hear people saying they have little entities and little people talking to them, of course I kind of wonder if it's demonic or not. How would you be able to explain these encounters with entities (I think mostly these are good encounters from what I've heard, although some are bad).

I am charismatic so I have heard tons of testimonies about "new age" people getting delivered of demons, etc. So I am naturally concerned. I have read enough of your works to know that you do see Kundalini as a natural part of being human and not demonic. However, if indeed "entities" are experienced through Kundalini awakenings, I'm keen to know what you think about that.

4) Also, what are your thoughts on Psychedelics like Ayahuasca and Bufo ("God molecule"). For the latter, it seems that people do experience "God/god". What are your thoughts on both of them?

5) If you were to recommend a way to activate Kundalini, which method would you recommend as the safest or the best in your opinion - I'm not talking about taking Psychedelics, but more on the meditation/breathwork - e.g. Joe's if you're familiar with, or the Golden Flower Meditation (which some claim has Christian roots), or any other meditation methods from the ancient traditions.

Thank you so much for your response,
Jonathan

Jonathan, these are excellent questions you pose, and the temptation is to give succinct, black/white responses, but that's just not possible.

As you have read my books, you know that I make a distinction between the Holy Spirit and kundalini, situating the latter in a kind of metaphysical, energetic interface connecting organism, psyche and spirit. With that clarification, we can distinguish disciplines focused on kundalini work from those of a more religious spirituality that enable opening to the Spirit, a process that might or might not entail kundalini activation.

Clearly, it sounds like the teachings and practices promoted by Joe Dispenza are more metaphsycial than religious, and so he is, in that sense, more in the tradition of easternish teachers who promote kundalini-related disciplines. I am not well-read on his teachings, but did hear him on "What the Bleep" movie, where he seemed extraordinarily confident in his explanations of various integral phenomena. Personally, I'm skeptical of anyone who thinks they can apply insights from quantum physics to consciousness. "What the Bleep" had some ridiculous notions about that.
- https://www.shoestring.org/mmi...ow-jw-145390285.html

Searching the net briefly for info on Dispenza's workshops, I discovered quite a few sites that considered his work a scam. The marketing is slick, the critiques are few, and negative reviews are cleaned off the net with astonishing speed. Still, a few do remain.
- https://nesslabs.com/the-rise-of-fake-scientists
https://web.randi.org/swift/as...nzas-thought-healing
And others.

The problem is that spirituality isn't really based on science, not even when we make the focus stimulating the pineal through spiritual disciplines. The pineal isn't the physiological center of our spirituality; the whole body is. Excessive stimulation of the pineal provides an experience of non-reflecting awareness, and if that's not grounded in a holistic spirituality, it can easily become something akin to dissociation. You certainly do lose touch with many painful experiences in such a state, and that might be a relief to many, but is it really healing without forgiveness and cognitive restructuring? Perhaps they do some of that, I don't know. All in all, this kind of approach seems kind of new-agey to me in the worst sense of the word: an ecclectic system of self-salvation based on doing the right practices to attain the right benefits.

As you are involved in charismatic renewal, I think you are on a pathway where kundalini activations are somewhat common, and also situated in a broader religious context. Same goes for contemplative pathways. Both can foster theotic self-transcendence and authenticity -- a fully-human life focused in the love of God. That is the best way, and it's the one taught by the better kundalini teachers from the East as well. It's also why I am a spiritual director rather than a kundalini guru. People prefer the gurus, that's for sure.

Ayahuasca is a psychedelic drug, so we should not be surprised if people see entities of all sorts when they take it.
https://www.therecoveryvillage...ayahuasca-addiction/

Bufo (generic name for many toads!) seems similar.
https://www.addictioncenter.co...chedelic-toad-venom/

Psychedelics (including LSD, angel dust, etc.) like these can sometimes stimulate the brain to provide experiences of vastness, beauty and numinosity, but it's debatable that these are actual experiences of God. Any experience that requires a drug for its stimulation (or breathwork, visualization, etc., for that matter) is more likely a consequence of our intervention and action rather than an experience of God, who can communicate presence and love to us in any circumstance, especially if we are open to receiving it. This is not to categorically deny any possible value in psychedelics, breathwork, pineal meditations, etc., just let's not bring God into the picture, though they might leave one more open to the possibility.

As Christians, we believe God's great gift to us is Jesus and his Spirit, and our religious tradition provides moral teaching and spiritual disciplines that help us to open to grace, and to journey with one another in loving community. If we seek first Christ's dominion in our lives, we will eventually find clarity concerning which gifts and practices from other traditions we can make use of.

This sounds like the old LGAT trick. I guess the people going these days have never heard of EST and the like.

Tara Springett, who used to post here many years ago, has a book out titled Enlightenment Through the Path of Kundalini. It claims to be a safe way to awaken kundalini. I enjoyed reading Tara's books, but I don't have the knowledge or experience to evaluate her methods.

LGAT. I think you're onto something, Derek. It does have that feel about it, and the testimonials from participants of the week-long training reminded me of what people who attended EST would say as well.

Jim Arraj also saw kundalini as a pathway to enlightenment and wrote about it in that sense. I published his essay in one of my books, and it's on this forum as well.
https://shalomplace.org/eve/fo.../25010765/m/87210765

Interesting that Jim starts from beingness. That work I transcribed, The Book of Privy Counseling (c. 1390), also starts from beingness. The author's manner of prayer is for the beingness of the pray-er to meet the beingness of God, without any thought as to particular qualities of either. For example:

& þerfore be as blynde in þe louely beholdyng of the beyng of þi God as in þe nakid beholdyng of þe beyng of þi-self, wiþ-outyn any corious seching in þi wittys to loke after any qualite þat longeþ to his being or to þine.

Jim asks: "If kundalini is such a fundamental energy why don't more people experience it?"

I would say it's because this fundamental energy is masked by all the thinking and striving of more developed parts of the mind that happen on top of the fundamental energy.

I agree with you, especially regarding experiences of activation. There is also a sense, however, that this energy is not any different from that which constantly prods us, often in very gentle ways, toward higher consciousness. I go into this in the Kundalini Process book, and call that aspect the Kundalini Dynamic. It's mentioned in the first chapter of the book, which is a free preview online.

Let’s turn that into a link for anyone who might be interested:

https://www.lulu.com/shop/phil...roduct-23391670.html