Chapter 1
THE NATURE OF KUNDALINI
HAT is Kundalini ? The Samskrit word has been variously translated, generally by those who have no real conception whatever as to the function of that of which it is the label.
It seems that the root of the word is the verb kund, which signifies "to burn". This is the vital meaning, for Kundalini is Fire in its aspect of burning. But we have a further explanation of the word in the noun kunda, which means a hole or a bowl. Here we are given an idea of the vessel in which the Fire burns. But there is even more than this. There is also the noun kundala, which means a coil, a spiral, a ring. Here we are given an idea as to the way in which the Fire works, unfolds. Out of all these essential derivatives the word Kundalini is born, giving creative femininity to the Fire, Serpent-Fire as it is sometimes called, the feminine creative power asleep within a bowl, within a womb, awakening to rhythmic movement in up-rushing and downpouring streams of Fire. It is a word signifying the feminine aspect of the creative force of evolution, which force in its specialized and more individual potency lies asleep, curled up as in a womb, at the base of the human spine. Its awakening is fraught with the utmost danger, indeed disaster, save as the individual concerned is in a position to keep it under full control. And such power to control comes only when the higher reaches of the evolutionary way are being approached, reaches still out of sight as regards the vast majority of mankind.
Now and then, however, glimpses of Kundalini in action are vouchsafed to the student who is content to watch and not to grasp, and the following descriptions are of Kundalini at work before the eyes of such a student, he interpreting what he saw as best he could, often no doubt faultily. The experiences were interspersed with some authorized experiments, and while it is as impossible as it is unlawful for one student to share with any other his experiences and experiments in any degree of fullness, it being still more impossible and unlawful for any indication to be given as to the mode of awakening Kundalini—the mode varies substantially according to the soul-note of the individual—yet now and then is permitted a sharing of the atmosphere of these experiences and experiments, at least in some measure.
It is hoped that the result will be a subtle awakening of the larger consciousness, of the shadow of a shade of the spirit of Cosmic consciousness ; so that there may arise a fragrance of what may be called spiritual ozone, in the exhilaration of which the reader contacts a self of his Self larger than any he has so far known within the limitations of his present incarnation. He achieves a release, a freedom. He becomes like a bird which has at last begun to find the use of his wings. He flutters, even if he cannot yet fly. And in that very fluttering he begins to distinguish between the real and the unreal, between the true and the false, between the useful and the useless, between the beautiful and the ugly. And though he remains unable constantly to use the discrimination thus aroused, at least he knows, he experiences, and sooner or later the knowledge-experience becomes steady activity. When it begins so to do, then is the time for those first feeble stirrings of Kundalini which shall eventually release in him for ever the Fire of Life and place upon him the Crown-Flower of eternal Kingship.
We all are far away from Kingship, but perhaps the experiences and experiments herein set forth may be intimations, however faint, of a fragment of the nature of royal living, and thus give courage to endure and courage to conquer.
I have not edited these experiences and experiments so as to make them intelligible, still less conventionally rational. I have left them just as they came, with only slight modifications. Their value does not lie in their appeal to the reason, but in their recognition as a reflection of something which the earnest student will know to be his as well. He will see in the very incomprehensibility of much that is described a something towards which he feels he too is irresistibly moving. However fantastic they may seem, yet somehow he perceives that they are fantastic not because they are untrue, but because they are still too true for him. I hope that when they may seem absurd he will feel that their absurdity lies only in their being so utterly foreign to all normal experience and experiment, not in their being nonsense. Even if they may appear non-sense to his limited sense, perhaps to some they may seem more sense, and his sense more non-sense.
Let the descriptions be read lightly, not with the mind but with the intuition, not with an already set conviction as to what can and what cannot be, but with the mind, the heart and the will open to all things. Let the reader be fully aware that the unbelievable is by no means necessarily untrue, and that the consciousness we call "I," with its various functionings — physical, emotional, mental and beyond — is infinitely more extraordinary than even our wildest dreams could envisage.
Chapter 2
THE UNIVERSE-KUNDALINI AND CENTRES
HE last sentence in the foregoing chapter brings us at once to the startling opening which heralded these various experiences and experiments.
In the first flash of intuitional and possibly higher expansion, the subject of the experiences became engulfed in a sense of the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. He is, for the time, carried off his feet. His consciousness flashes outwards to what seems to be the furthest confines of space, and he becomes absorbed in the glorious and perfect certainty-giving fact of the intimate unity of his own consciousness, not only with the universal consciousness, in so far as the word " universal " may at all be rightly used when there seems to be a universal beyond the infinite, but also with specific parts of the universal consciousness. His own individual consciousness is a piece of mosaic in the pattern of evolving life, and there are other pieces seemingly closely linked to his as being of the same general rate of vibration, of the same colour. Where are there mosaics similar in general principle to his ? And at once, as in response, vibrations seem to come from afar and from a very precise afar not here to be more defined. There is clearly an immense Cosmic significance of the twin-soul theory, might I not say the multiple-soul theory, by no means within the compass of this tiny little world of ours. And let it be said at once that the commonplace twin-soul idea current in certain phases of modern thought is a very poor caricature of a marvellous reality. This very earth has its twin-star, and it becomes clear at once that the duality of life is no less fundamental than its unity, or than its trinity. But further speculation is denied. It will not be profitable at this stage.
In the light of this special intuition the speculation also arises, as the student is carried still further off his feet, though not so wildly that there is no substance in his shadows, as to the relation between the great occult Rites of the Fire on this earth, and the Universe-Kundalini of which our Lord the Sun is the heart as well as the body. For us, the Sun is Kundalini in excelsis, in which we live and move and have our being. Each individual Kundalini in whatever kingdom of nature, in whatever substance — great or small — in whatever world, is part of the Sun-Kundalini. And, strange as it may seem, these tiny Kundalini streams partake of the omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, of their sublime Progenitor. Thus may we say that all life, each one of us, is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, in the becoming. There is a most intimate connection between the Fire of our Lord the Sun and the universe-life which He has set afire.
It becomes clear at once that Kundalini, howsoever it may appear, is mighty and torrential, here mighty and torrential in potentiality only, there stirring and awakening, elsewhere in resistless movement, burning all before it.
Is there a Kundalini chain linking the constituent elements of our own solar system, and another chain linking the various solar systems ? Surely so, and speculation is no less interesting as to the nature of the centres of a solar system and on their vivification by Cosmic Kundalini. The Earth has its centres — whirling wheels of fiery energy—and it would appear that one of the functions of some of the Lords of Evolution is the regulation of distribution and intensity of Kundalini. This is a reason why even Their work has been described as hazardous, like the work of those who bring ammunition to the front line trenches in time of war. They might in some way, perhaps, be consumed with the very Force They wield, though it may be supposed that in Their case this could not happen.
As a preliminary to the deeper understanding of this tremendous vista, it would be necessary to learn how Kundalini is aroused and directed to the various centres of the vehicles of a human being, not merely for a general vivification of their life, but also, as may be required, for their individual vivification to certain definite ends. For example, a lecture has to be delivered, an audience or congregation has to be influenced. Watching the process at work, it seemed as if it automatically begins by the general stimulation of Kundalini along, and up and down, the spine, so that there comes about a distinct glow. This happens to a microscopic extent with all who lecture, or who, in one or another of a number of ways, seek to influence for good their fellow-men. But where there is training the glow expands into a fire. And further results can be obtained if special vivification takes place in the heart, throat and along the line between the middle of the head and the centre of the eyebrows. This vivification proceeds through the solar plexus, a fact which partly accounts for the feeling of sickness some people experience before lecturing or before some other unusual strain, together with other physical symptoms. In special cases, such feelings always occur, marking the purification of the vehicles in order to facilitate the down-pouring of higher, and also of superhuman, Kundalini.
This does not mean that in most of these people Kundalini is actually aroused, but that there is in them a concentration, an intensification, of the universal Kundalini Fire, with the result that their nerves and other channels have more to carry than the Fire-load to which they are normally accustomed. However localized Kundalini may be from one point of view, from another it is universal — omnipresent. In some cases, however, the concentration of the Fire is predominantly local. It is a case of spontaneous combustion, but the same effects are noticeable.
It is clear that nicotine and alcohol definitely act in some way upon Kundalini, the former interposing a barrier between the general force of Kundalini and its operation in the various vehicles of the individual concerned, while the other seems to act as a direct stimulant, stirring the Force in wrong directions, or in some way wrongly intensifying it, and in any case doing these things in connection with an individual far from ready for Fire-development. All narcotics, drugs, stimulants, clog the system and interpose a deadening miasma between the individual and all larger consciousness.
But to return to the stimulation of Kundalini for special purposes, the spinal glow seems to be the first phenomenon, and this is intensified by external conditions—as, for example, presence in an already magnetized area, a church, a temple — or by the influence of music, chanting, participation in ceremony or service, and so forth. In addition to the stimulation of the spinal glow there is also an awakening, a glowing, as it were, of the heart, throat and middle-head centres, sometimes all together, sometimes one and not the rest, according to temperament. This stimulation often has a definite physical counterpart in the disturbance of organic functioning. The vivification of the heart centre seems to be — how otherwise to express it? — that of a cold glow. The juxtaposition of the two words sounds absurd. And yet I do not think the facts have been misinterpreted.
As regards the throat, the vivification, noticed on a particular occasion, seemed to express itself physically as a kind of momentary constriction, which was attributed to repercussions from the breaking down of barriers between the non-physical and the physical, so as to enable Kundalini to vivify the actual vibrations issuing from the throat as, for example, when a lecture is delivered. The result is an address potent apart altogether from any eloquence, and affecting in different ways people in the audience who are at different levels of evolution. They become bathed in Kundalini, the result in individual cases depending upon individual receptivity.
It becomes apparent that Kundalini may well be compared with electricity as to the uses to which it can be put. Continuous consciousness, remembrance of events during the night, and so on, are only certain fruits of the arousing of Kundalini. Even more important is the directly added power it gives for work in the outer world. It is both another sense and a very powerful stimulation of existing senses, as well as of all other forces the individual already wields. We are only at the beginning of discoveries regarding Kundalini, for the interesting effects observed are but the results of the earliest stages of its awakening, of the breaking down of preliminary barriers. Mercifully, the world is preserved from the discovery by science of the Kundalini Ray, or annihilation would ensue. When we read of the so-called " Death Rays " and other highly destructive emanations from great centres of Force, we may think of Kundalini as more powerful than all of them put together, and we shall be glad to leave it alone until it is necessary that we should learn to use it. It turns in boomerang fashion with terrible effect upon those who misuse it, upon those who do not reverence it, upon those who use it to selfish ends.
Chapter 3
THE DANGERS OF KUNDALINI
UCH stress is, therefore, laid on the dangers of arousing Kundalini. Let us examine their nature. First and foremost there is the danger of sexual stimulation so that the individual becomes drained of his vitality through sex-obsession. Mental unhingement lies along this line. Sexual vitality and activity are very closely allied to Kundalini, for both are supremely creative in their nature, and the development of the one is bound to stir the development of the other. All sexual urge must be under complete control, at the will of the individual, and must be in a condition of what may be called sublimation, that is to say it must be recognized as a sacrament and therefore to be used in reverence and in a spirit of dedication. Sex-differentiation in all its various implications is one of God's earliest gifts to His children—often abused and grossly used, but at last learned to be approached as the true priest approaches the altar. Only those who thus approach the divinity of sex may be safely entrusted with that later gift of Kundalini, which can be handled with safety and profit by the tried and trusty alone.
Second, there is the danger of upsetting the physical rhythmic equilibrium through the uncontrolled stimulation of the various centres of the body—the possibility of injury to the heart, to the nervous system through the solar plexus, the individual becoming a chronic invalid with general physical deterioration of the brain, producing a strain also ending in mental unhingement. These dangers are avoidable provided the individual is in very sound health, has already gained an ample measure of self-control, thinks quietly and clearly, never narrowly, and is free from any servility to sexual impulses, has in fact little if any sexual tendency at all. It must be remembered that, however much he may be helped to awaken Kundalini, its development depends largely upon himself. He must watch the various symptoms and regulate them. How? He will know how, if he is ready for the awakening. No further guidance need be given here, for the sign of an individual being ready for the awakening of Kundalini lies in the intuitive knowledge of what to do, and in the help of the Wise.
We must never forget that the physical body is denser, and therefore less adaptable, than all others, and that there tends to arise a concentration of force in a particular area, not a general distribution over the whole. If we look at, say, the astral and mental bodies, we notice that each body is in one sense one great organ. Functions which to a certain extent are in the physical body associated with particular parts of the body are, in the case of the inner bodies, more universal. To a certain extent, perhaps, we may speak of localization in regard to the inner bodies, but it is more or less the whole of the astral body that feels, that receives impressions, that communicates. It is the same with the mental body. The whole of it thinks.
Now with the physical body, while feeling is distributed throughout, and while special centres are affected by feelings and sensations of an unusual kind, the brain acts as the principal channel of communication between the physical and astral bodies. Numb the brain, numb the nerves which communicate with the brain, and feeling disappears, so far as the waking consciousness is concerned, though its effects may remain, as witness the shock after an operation which, by reason of an anaesthetic, has been temporarily painless.
Similarly, it is the brain which is the main channel between the physical body and the mental body. I feel sure that the mental body impresses itself in some measure upon all parts of the physical body, so that all parts " think " to a certain extent, just as all parts feel. But the brain is the main centre, the great junction for the outer world. We may, therefore, visualize the inner bodies as exercising pressure throughout the physical body, but with the pressure greatest at the brain junction. The brain bears the brunt comparatively easily in normal cases and with the ordinary individual, since only very small channels are in fact allowed to be open between the various bodies.
But Kundalini will inevitably flow, apart from its normal channels, so as to vivify those centres which are most sensitive, have greatest receptivity. Hence the already existing concentration will be considerably intensified, generally when the organ involved is already bearing a full load. An individual in whom, for whatever cause, Kundalini tends to stir, is certainly living at what is to all intents and purposes high pressure. He is likely to be intensely alive. He is likely to have deep concentrations of force in his various organs, the concentrations varying in strength according to the use he makes of one rather than of another. Kundalini may very well be "the last straw," and hurl the unfortunate individual down into cruel darkness, if he be not a spiritual athlete trained to bear the strain.
Doubtless there will have come into existence, at this stage of the evolutionary process, channels between the inner worlds and the individual mainly Jiving in the outer world. But such channels are not likely to be deep, and if suddenly a rush of force whirls through one or another of them, or directly into a physical organ, they may well " burst," and bring about catastrophe.
When the physical, emotional and mental bodies are beginning to become resolved into their higher counterparts, as in the case of those who are concluding human existence so far as imprisonment in it is concerned, then Kundalini flows naturally and without encountering more than a minimum of obstruction. There is beginning to be but one Fire, one Life. It is at stages earlier than this that extreme circumspection is vital, for the Serpent-Fire does not discriminate. It consumes. It tends to flow along the lines of least resistance, and sometimes such lines may lead downwards and not upwards, with indescribably disastrous effect.
As development takes place, and as the higher consciousness gradually gains permanent ascendancy, the interpenetration becomes more rhythmic, and the whole of the lower agency responds far more immediately and richly to higher stimulation.
What then does the awakening of Kundalini effect? To all intents and purposes it breaks down barriers ; or, to put this in another way, it flings wide open the sluice gates, which hitherto have been opening slowly and gradually, and which, in the case of the ordinary individual, are open only to a very limited extent. There begins to be complete communication between all the bodies, though the use and interpretation of such communication are necessarily a matter of some considerable time after the preliminary communication has been established. The lower bodies begin to reflect in increasing clarity the characteristics of the higher bodies—higher mental and lower Buddhic. States of consciousness begin to interpenetrate, so that there arises a hitherto unexperienced continuity of consciousness. This means enormously increased sensitiveness throughout all the bodies, demanding that large measure of self-control, which is so constantly emphasized.
Nowadays, in the case of many, Kundalini must be developed in the market-places, where the danger is great, and not in the forests, where the danger is minimized. Time is too precious for isolation from the world, especially in these days ; and risks must be run. The whole of the physical body, becoming a wonderfully sensitive instrument, becoming refined out of all relation to its surroundings, can easily, therefore, be shaken to pieces as a result of the impact of coarse and violent vibrations from without. Sturdy physical health is thus a sine qua non for the arousing of Kundalini, and the health of an adult rather than that of a youth.
But there is still more. Though the whole of the physical body becomes enormously more sensitive, the brain has to bear the brunt. Pressure upon the physical brain is very greatly increased, since the brain is the main junction between the physical and the inner bodies. Can the brain stand the pressure? This is, perhaps, the principal question with regard to the arousing of Kundalini. The answer largely depends upon the extent to which the physical grey matter is sufficiently developed, steeled and reinforced, through self-control, to stand the strain. The condition and number of the spirillae are, perhaps, a determining factor, for these indicate the condition of the channels of contact and of what seems to be — I can think of no other words—the stretching power of the physical matter itself. It must be able to bend so that it may not break. I do not use the word " bend " literally, perhaps the word " adapt " would be more accurate. I think of the pressure from the inner bodies as in the nature of the flow of a fluid, of an almost irresistible flow. Can the brain shape itself to the flow, yield to it, adapt itself to it? If so, all may be well. But rigidity is fatal, and by rigidity I mean not merely, as it were, physical rigidity, but mental and emotional rigidity; that is to say, a crystallization or hardening of certain parts of the mental and emotional bodies, which hardening translates itself into the setting up within the brain, and indeed also within the heart, of grooves which will break but will not expand.
It is all a very complicated matter, for fundamentally the wisdom of arousing Kundalini depends largely, though by no means entirely, upon the condition of the lower mental and emotional bodies, and upon the extent to which the Causal and Buddhic vehicles are beginning to make contact and assert themselves. But physical conditions have also to be taken into account, though these are but reflections of inner conditions. The question then is: Are the inner bodies adequately developed and controlled, and is the physical vehicle recovered from such educative misuse as must inevitably have taken place during the long ages of development? For even though the physical body changes from life to lire. as generally do the emotional and lower mental bodies, each new body is moulded to reflect, and to express, the stage of development reached. It may in fact be a case of the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak, a case of the Ego being ready but the lower bodies being weak, for the reason that the physical body in its existing condition is unable to stand the strain of Kundalini. In such cases, it may be necessary to wait for another life, so that existing forms may be broken up and more malleable forms substituted. It is clear from all this how complicated the process of the awakening of Kundalini really is, and how foolhardy an individual would be who sought to arouse it without wise sanction, and without a certain amount of guidance. It is almost certain he would come to terrible grief. Hence, the brain is a great danger-point, for disaster will be the result of an overstrained brain. The path of occultism, it is said, is strewn with wrecks. I venture to think that the path of the arousing of Kundalini, even if only in the very first stages, is strewn with even more wrecks.
A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring,
said Pope. Before anyone seeks to arouse Kundalini let him know much about it, especially of its dangers, let him be intimately acquainted with these. He will then leave it alone until advised to begin. A little knowledge may incline him to foolishness. When he drinks deep he will realize that duty forbids experiment, the results of which, when made in ignorance, lead to disaster, first to the experimenter, which might not much matter one way or the other except to himself, but also to those immediately around him, and involving danger to the community as a whole—and to this he has no right to subject them.
Chapter 4
KUNDALINI ACTIVE EVERYWHERE
TAKE it that Kundalini is more or less active in all life. It is the Fire of Life, and therefore flows through all. But it may flow either as a gentle stream, simply vitalizing, or it may be directed into special channels and become a raging torrent, let us hope subordinated to great purpose, so that the raging is a purposeful, disciplined raging, though a raging none the less. Kundalini flows in mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms, in ascending degrees of vitality, but, except in rare cases, as a gentle, fructifying stream of Fire, bathing as it were the whole of the vehicle.
Each time, however, a distinct and definite advance takes place in spiritual growth, an intensification of Kundalini occurs, becoming particularly marked, though still generalized, in connection with the various stages leading to the Path and on the Path itself (1). Relationship to a Master makes a marked difference in the virility of the flow, while entry into His consciousness, which takes place at the Accepted stage of discipleship, means the beginning of the definite, but still informal, harnessing of Kundalini to specific purposes, through the general influence of the Kundalini of the Master working on that of the apprentice. One of the reasons why the Master needs to be careful about admitting an apprentice to this close relationship of Accepted discipleship is this increased stimulation of Kundalini, even though it still remains general. The relation of Sonship is yet a further stimulation, while entry into the Great Brotherhood (2) is the beginning of the link between the Kundalini of the individual and that of the Brotherhood as a whole.
It must be remembered that the Great White Lodge is itself an individual, a specialized individual consciousness, with functions differentiated according to the various lines of its constituent parts. These differentiated functions may be regarded as the spiritual counterparts on an exalted scale of the various centres of the physical body. The mighty force of the Kundalini of the Brotherhood flows through these centres and through each member, so that admission to the Brotherhood involves participation in this great flow ; the gradual uniting of the consciousness of the individual with the consciousness of the Brotherhood as a whole, involving a progressive uniting of the two Kundalinis. The Kundalini of the individual begins to enter the stream of the Brotherhood Kundalini. The converse process has, however, also to take place — the gradual entry of the Brotherhood Kundalini? into the system of the individual, not merely in a general way, but highly specialized. I wonder whether, for the sake of accuracy, I ought not to speak of these more definite stages in the growth of Kundalini as the conscious directing of the Force, rather than as an " awakening ". Wherever there is life, there is Kundalini more or less awake, and awakening. But the conscious direction and handling of its power is another matter altogether.
One of the specially interesting effects of Kundalini is the intensification of the sense of unity to which its active stimulation gives rise. A breaker down of barriers between the various layers and states of consciousness, it is also the breaker of barriers between the individual himself and the larger Self without. The definite stimulation of Kundalini intensifies, for example, the individual consciousness of unity with the great consciousness of the Brotherhood as a whole. Through the operation of the Kundalini power the separated self begins to lose its illusion of separateness. The consciousness of the individual member of the Brotherhood is, of course, blended with that of the Brotherhood by very reason of his membership, but in many ways the blending is implicit rather than explicit, though explicitness grows with use of the Brotherhood power. But explicitness is very greatly hastened by the development of Kundalini, which works like The Theosophical Society in its First Object, for it bridges all distinctions of plane and consciousness.
Entry into The Theosophical Society very definitely effects a general, though probably in the vast majority of members no specific, stimulation of Kundalini. The Kundalini in the individual is definitely stirred, and its intensity augmented, for The Society, strange as it may seem, is a definite organism, and has its own mode of Kundalini. In some cases the stimulation proves too much to bear. The Theosophical Society inevitably attracts a few people who are somewhat unbalanced, just as it attracts the pioneer and those who have freed themselves from the ordinary conventional fetters. The Theosophical Society must ever be, to a certain extent, for people who are different, whether in one way or in another. Those who are different, because lacking in ordinary self-control, will probably find the stimulation more than they can bear. They are on the whole unlikely to grow better, and may quite likely grow worse. Those who are different because they have transcended ordinary limitations will benefit enormously. There are, however, more in whom there is a latent weakness, which the stirred Kundalini will intensify just as much as it will intensify a quality. Kundalini is power—power which can be used for good or ill. The weakness grows, the individual, of course, all the time regarding himself as the sole repository of truth and common sense. The strain grows to breaking-point, and the blessing conferred by membership of The Society, turned by uncontrolled weakness into a curse, is mercifully withdrawn through the removal of the individual from membership, doubtless in a cloud of self-righteousness from his standpoint, though in sadness from the standpoint of the Elder Brethren. The Society is naturally condemned in the particular way most conducive to the individual's self-satisfaction. In nine cases out of ten, it is pride which precedes the fall, and pride never knows itself as pride, or it would very properly commit suicide, as indeed it does in the case of common-sense people. Yet the Society goes on, grows in favour with the Hierarchy, increases in strength and usefulness.
That which I have written regarding The Theosophical Society is no less true in the case of other movements directly focusing upon the world the forces of Light in opposition to those of darkness. The facts are observed in connection with The Theosophical Society, but they are equally observable in very many other organizations, though to a lesser extent in most cases.
1) By " the Path " I refer to that short cut up the mountain side of evolution whereby an individual, who has the necessary detachment from present circumstances and an adequate grasp of essential truth, may compress into a comparatively few lives the growth which ordinarily takes a century and more of incarnations. Mr. Lloyd George, the British statesman, said during the War that the world was traversing in a few years the distance which ordinarily it would take centuries to achieve. It is also possible to traverse in a few lives the spiritual distance which it would ordinarily take possibly thousands of years to achieve. But the help of a Master is needed, of One who Himself has achieved, has taken the short cut up the mountain side. Such an Elder Brother may from time to time apprentice to Himself persons "who show signs of being capable of enduring the hardships attendant on the heavy climbing—hardships which more often than not cause the would-be climber to decide to revert to the longer and easier route.
2) The Great Brotherhood, or Great White Lodge, consists in part of those highly evolved Souls who have reached that stage of the evolutionary pathway which gives them membership of what is called in occult literature the Inner Government of the "world, and in part of those who, though far off from such a stage, are nevertheless sufficiently advanced to be trained to become members of this Government, compared with which all outer governments are but toy governments, in the future. Membership of the Great Brotherhood, or Great White Lodge, is open to the very earnest and faithful worker who has begun to know the nature and purpose of life. But he stands on the lowest rungs of the great Ladder of the Inner Life, is but a student of government, not a veritable Master in the science.
Chapter 5
THE DEVELOPMENT OF KUNDALINI
T is interesting to note the progress of a particular experience in developing Kundalini, or rather in stirring Kundalini into activity. In the particular case observed, the principal work is done during sleep, and appears at first to consist in the preparation of the spinal passage by moving Kundalini from the base of the spine to the top of the head. The individual out of the body can do this work, for though there are physical effects the Fire itself is non-physical. The globe or sphere at the base of the spine contains within it the Kundalini Fire coiled spherically. The prescribed concentration upon the globe, and thus upon the Fire within, begins to stir it into activity, provided the right kind of life has been lived beforehand for a considerable period, which is to say provided it is fed with the right kind of fuel. Even if the right kind of life has not been lived, a stirring may take place, but the effect of the premature stirring, if any take place at all, will be disastrous, as has already been pointed out.
Assuming the stirring takes place along right lines, there is a gradual dissolution of the globe caused by the frictional energizing of the Fire itself. The Fire is fanned into bright heat and becomes active, forcing its way through the matter in which it lies embedded, burning it up, and causing the globe to become a Radiant Sun, instead of the dull though glowing mass it normally is. This Sun radiates in all directions heat which is physically felt, specially in the surrounding areas of the physical body.
This Kundalini Sun would seem to rush upwards when it moves fast, as often it does not, along the spine as a bullet passes through a grooved gun-barrel. There is something spiral about the movement. In any case, there seems to be a direct rush upwards, without passing beyond the top of the head, but specially stimulating centres according to the individual's Ray. The sensation is that of pressure, while as regards the centre at the top of the head unusual heat will be felt.
During the waking hours this process may be continued, and from time to time it seems to occur of itself, so that a warm glow passes up the spine, producing a most interesting effect. A beautiful expansion of consciousness is physically experienced, so that the individual feels full of a glorious life and of a sense of intimate contact with what must be the developed intuitive consciousness. He imagines what life would be like if he could keep this experience constant, instead of only intermittent. There is a fine sense of at-one-ment, of radiance, of contact with the Real. Barriers seem to have been broken down, so that the individual sees into the heart of things, no matter what they are, and sees them as growing entities, their glorious future disclosed to him as embryonic in them. It is so difficult to describe this condition of consciousness, but the physical, indeed much more than the physical, seems transcended, and some veils at least are lifted so that he gazes upon a Real, less hidden by the clouds of illusion.
In the beginnings of this process a certain amount of dizziness is noticeable. A new constituent has become active. It is as if a new dimension had opened out, so that a new world is entered. The dizziness is perhaps the physical expression of a new relativity, of a new adjustment, other worlds than the physical beginning to be open to a gaze which the individual has not yet learned to control, so that he looks out as it were with all " eyes " vaguely open, instead of with those appropriate to the particular plane on which he happens to be dominantly functioning. Later on he will be able to close the eyes he does not need, leaving open only those he does. And later on still, he will be able, perhaps, to use all " eyes " simultaneously, each " eye " dovetailing into the others, so as to avoid distortion and flickering between one state of consciousness and another—the effect being the dizziness.
Yet another effect, presumably only in the earlier stages, is that of seeming to be elsewhere. The individual feels as if he were living elsewhere, so that the outer world seems to be at a distance. He is far away, and the noise and rush of life come to him only as a faint murmur. He is as a spectator at a play, and he looks at the players on the stage as denizens of a world other than his world. This sensation is more or less continuous, and invests the outer world with a peculiar unreality, the physical expression of which is the hearing of the world as if muted. It is almost as it he were deaf. He looks out upon the world as if he had no concern with it. His physical brain is in one sense numbed, definitely numbed, though at the same time it is extraordinarily alert to the Real, full of a hitherto unexperienced keenness, fire, clarity. It is beautifully stimulated. There seem to be momentary flickers from far-away consciousness, so that a flash of other-consciousness occurs from time to time, though only shadowy. This flash seems to take place when there is special warmth at the top of the head, possibly the result of a little escape of Kundalini Fire. Sensitiveness is enormously increased, chiefly in the region of the spine, though to a certain extent throughout the whole body. A loud noise seems to grate as upon a raw spine, and sends a shock through the whole body. A special jar may cause a kind of inner dislocation for quite a while. This sensitiveness has the further effect of making the individual a kind of sensitive plate upon which, for example, people in the outer world imprint themselves, so that in a flash he knows their natures, specially the high lights of quality and the low lights of defect. He will at once have either a positive or a negative impression. The former will be positively good or positively unfavourable, and in either case general tendencies will be perceived, though not perhaps the details. Sometimes there is nothing about the person worth considering, there is nothing to be noted about him one way or the other. He is ordinary, and may for some time longer be left to the nursing of the ordinary circumstances of life. But one knows as in a flash, even though details may not be forthcoming.
As time passes the whole body seems to glow with Fire, which one imagines to extend some distance, so that a person very near should almost feel the glow and become stimulated by it. The process is temporarily fatiguing to the physical body, and it is pleasant to lie down. Does the Fire glow more easily when the spine is in a recumbent position? I am inclined to think that the restriction of the Fire, so that ordinarily it does not pass beyond the top of the head, tends to exercise pressure upon the physical brain and induce somnolence.