Theos-Talk Archives (April 1995 Message tl00151)

I haven't kept up with all the recent posts, but jumped in on
this last bit about East and West and meditating to music and the
dangers of kundalini yoga etc.

And for my two cents worth, I would like to add that the less
structure generally, the better my results have been as far as
this type of things goes.  For me, if I can use art or meditation
or group work as a means of listening without expectation, then
amazing sychronicities may take place and order emerge from the
chaos.

If I try some specific system, I am often disappointed because my
expectations and intuition are frustrated by the complexity of
the ritual (this is probably due to the karma of my patience
rather than the system, but then I will probably never know).

And again for what it's worth, I have tried several forms of
kundalini yoga which usually involve intense breathing along with
movement of the spine and have found them interesting but not
dangerous except to people who might be karmically predisposed to
a dangerous awakening.

Stanislov Grof, who I can't remember if he has been mentioned on
theos-l or not, did a great deal of work with LSD before it was
illegal.  He felt that it allowed for experiencing what he called
coex states or condensed experiences like the stage around birth
which include the garden of eden experience of the womb, the no
exit of state of contractions, the apocalyspe of the crushing
birth canal, and the final resolution of birth.

He later used what he called holotropic breathing along with
intense music and art to try to enduce these states in a
rebirthing process.  I have found these breathing techniques
useful sometimes, but again didn't experience his system exactly
as he stated.  I do remember several people who tripped out, so
to speak, but it was about personal issues rather than the
process (maybe same for kundalini??).

I think the point is not only about introversion and
extroversion, but a seperation of the mind and body.  Since
Descartes we have been doomed to not only the East vs the West
but the jocks vs the nerds!

And as I have stated before, I think the writings of the Masters
and HPB have a lot to do with the art of meditation and
introversion (the study of one's own mental state's, hopefully
higher) that one can test only with one's own introversion
without appeal to external authority.

Namste

Keith Price