Any particular video you'd recommend?

Please note that it seems this man was seeking salvation/enlightenment through yoga and that was his acquaintance with kundalini. Big difference between that and the process being awakened in the context of living the Christian life.

Some things he says for me are just not based on solid thinking. E.g. - he says kundalini experiences can be accompanied by fear, demonic visions and pain, but every encounter with personal God is an experience of peace - it just seems wrong to me. Many mystics experienced severe pain during their experiences. Demonic visions - also. Of course, there is the dimension of love and peace which is at the core of every encounter with God, but the reasoning itself isn't sound enough.
Then he says - if it's not from God, it's from the devil. It's not a logical conclusion! Not from God can be from anything - like from our unconscious, for example.

I don't like his kind of rhetoric that just doesn't allow for any discussion. He addresses emotions rather than reason, and it doesn't make a good impression on me.
He certainly loves Jesus and wants to do the right thing, sharing his experience, but it's pretty obvious that there are some Christians here that experience the awakening of kundalini and they are not possessed by demonic forces, to be sure.

Why is he talking so fast?

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Then he says - if it's not from God, it's from the devil. It's not a logical conclusion! Not from God can be from anything - like from our unconscious, for example.

I don't like his kind of rhetoric that just doesn't allow for any discussion. He addresses emotions rather than reason, and it doesn't make a good impression on me.

Points well-taken, Mt. That God vs. devil bit is one we see in a number of places. In such a worldview, there are only three significant players in one's inner life: God, the Ego, and the devil. Therefore, if something's happening and I didn't will/cause it, and it doesn't seem to be from God, either, then it must be of the devil, even if it doesn't seem to degrade one's moral and spiritual life. Such a view, as you noted, doesn't factor in the role of the unconscious, which is a huge mistake.

Out of curiosity I'm asking - have you ever been confronted by any of those anti-kundalini/post-kundalini Christian preachers? It seems they are quite isolated in their experiences of k and it's effects, and the conversion following it. Like most k Christians would be isolated as well were it not for shalomplace.com (thank you, once more!). To break this isolation which causes projections on the other side of the road a kind of conference or gathering would be needed to discuss and meet in person people with different k experiences. But, have you any discussions on paper or in any other way? You seem to be a more conspicuous example of living with full k awakening and not be possessed by the dark cosmic forces, as far as I can tell from interacting with you

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Originally posted by Mt:
... You seem to be a more conspicuous example of living with full k awakening and not be possessed by the dark cosmic forces, as far as I can tell from interacting with you

I dunno, Mt., we haven't met Phil face to face yet!

Seriously, Mt., your point about the kundalini-turnned-Christian converts who seem to suggest that k. is from the devil is well-taken. I do wish that in their testimonies, they would be more clear about the basis on which they draw their conclusions. In my superficial reading of some of these guys, I don't see that the unconcsious is being conflated with the demonic as much as the demonic sources that are transmitted through k. are conflated with k per se.

In other words, I think they may be confuing the demonic with what is transmitted through kundalini activation via another person, not that k. is in itself demonic. My experience with Muktananda's energy through Siddha Yoga-- and the other two kundalini-based paths to enlightenment in which I was involved--is that those in the "inner circle" including the guru, of course, were under some form of demonic possession/ control which was precisely influenced via kundalini transmission and the resulting spiritual ties. I can't prove that, but I feel this is true.

In one of those video clips, for instance, Mike reads an excerpt from Muktananda's account of receiving what sounds demonic through the energy/k. transmission of some guru sitting on a pile of feces--oblivious to the illusion of duality.

Yeah, Shasha, we should check up on Phil somehow...

seriously, it seems at least plausible that some of the yoga students are under the influence of some kind of outer forces, but I think that it can be as well their unconscious. An example: a talked to a person who practiced kundalini-yoga and she told me that she went to church lately (raised Christian, of course), but "there was no Spirit there", it all seemed empty and devoid of God to her. Hard to imagine to me, because whenever I enter a church, there is often a considerable increase in k energy and at times a church is the only place when I feel its movements. But in the case of this person it can be her unconscious resisting grace in this particular form or generally, it doesn't have to be anything more behind that.

Sometimes when I read some New Age stuff I get this strange feeling in the brain, like "don't go there, man" and I have to quit the book or website. I feel there's something wrong. But in the case of Muktananda I had never had that. I wasn't a follower, though, and didn't receive the shaktipat.

The description you mention seems to me rather from the unconscious - I don't think the devil would like to scare someone at the beginning - rather disguise as an angel of light, blissful, ecstatic stuff etc.
But the gift of power seems to be a motif that often accompanies demonic interaction - I'm thinking "Faust" by Goethe and other examples of temptation of extraordinary powers. Kundalini is a power and it can be offered by the devil to deceive someone. But isn't it more possible that only some people, who crave power, not spiritual growth, fall into this trap, while others, who pursue the Truth, are protected by grace from the demonic influence via k energy?
The intention seems to be crucial, doesn't it? Remember Krishnamurti and others who always resisted using siddhis and didn't use k energy for any selfish purpose. Don't know about Muktananda.

I just wonder, could anyone talk to those guys (like this Mike), and say: "When I pray or receive communion, my k activity is heightened. When I sin, I get the headaches - k is not happy. How possibly could the devil act like that on me? Look up STA who says that every demonic experience ends with resistance to the eucharist, prayer and charity. Discernment seems to be not that difficult."

Seems logical, phenomenologically evident in many cases, coherent with the Tradition.
Maybe when k was a matter of spiritual life and death (like in the case of those converted teachers), they're not able to be objective and detached about it?

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Out of curiosity I'm asking - have you ever been confronted by any of those anti-kundalini/post-kundalini Christian preachers?

Not much, Mt. -- mostly via emails and occasional posts on the forum. I've had a couple of hecklers ask questions after lectures years ago, but the Catholic Right has long ago blown me off as some New Age wacko (while the Catholic Left thinks I'm practically a fundamentalist!).

Good reflections by you and Shasha. It does seem that, in the end, it is the discipline of discernment that we need to attend to. I, too, find that k provides something of an "instant karma" feedback, and not always about sin issues. Sometimes reading too much will do it, or certain foods, or talking to a certain person, or sexual issues, and so forth. I've never had the experience of the process resisting spiritual disciplines; generally, things loosen up and balance out with prayer, liturgy, Eucharist, etc.

Found it. The one where he talks about Kundalini is Part 5 of the 8 videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL13H74HGDE

Mike says he was told in India that problems with kundalini were simply due to "premature awakening." However, Mike goes much further than this and concludes that all kundalini is demonic. As evidence for this, he quotes from his own book what is in turn a quote from Muktananda. (From elsewhere on the internet, I believe the Muktananda book is titled Play of Consciousness, and the feces-guru is named Zipruanna.)

After the encounter with the feces-guru, Muktananda experienced pain and fear, and thought he was going insane. Particularly terrifying was a ball of light that merged with his own energy.

But yeah, your point is good, Mt and Phil, that Mike's worldview doesn't allow for the existence of repressed psychic material. Often it is fear that keeps material out of conscious awareness. So if a whole lot of material comes up at once, it's quite plausible that it should be accompanied by a massive amount of fear.

Come to think of it, these gurus aren't very psychologically sophisticated, either. A subsistence-level, pre-industrial economy isn't conducive to the gentle study and emergence of repressed material in weekly therapy sessions over a period of five or ten years. Nor does it allow for the careful communication of techniques and findings in peer-reviewed journals. When you rely on word-of-mouth transmission, the only techniques that get passed along are those that involve startling anecdotes.

Right, not to mention how he goes on and on about how Scripture uses serpent symbolism to refer to evil . . . except when it doesn't, of course. (Nm. 21: 8-9; Jn. 3: 14). It's also highly inappropriate to assume that the way one culture (the Hebrews) views a symbol must therefore be normative for other cultures. Serpent symbolism is used to express a wide variety of themes in different religions and cultures and they are not bound by a Hebrew or Christian understanding of this symbol.
- http://tinyurl.com/yope5e

This guy's a convert with a story to share, but a theology that needs much, much tweaking, yet.

What's more troubling to me is that Mike was a kundalini teacher and is not seeming to account for kundalini energy from his own experiences. In other words, why go to Muktananda's account to draw conclusions about k if you've had your own experiences with it? Puzzling to me...

I'd need to read Mike's book first, I decided, before contacting him with some of these questions.