Whether it be from a spontaneous awakening, the result of spiritual practice (sadhana) or through Shaktipat from a Guru, metamorphosis tends to be such an overwhelming cataclysmic process that the more knowledge and tools for the road we have the better. What we really need to do if we are going to submit to our own evolution, is to strengthen ourselves to be able to endure the all-consuming flame of spirit. My aim in writing this book is to help others to support their chemistry so an awakening can be sustained rather than go wildly up and down. For in my experience after a full-on six month kundalini peak it takes about five years to recover.

One can see in each of us going through this phenomena, that it is transpersonal, archetypal and trans-anthropomorphic. Though in its insidious omnipresence it is intensely personal and specific, especially crafted to our own unique needs and condition. Kundalini works with whatever we have built ourselves to be. Whatever our encrustations and blocks, the fire in perfect equanimity uses everything good and bad to fuel the flame of consciousness.

You can look at kundalini through a subatomic lens, an atomic, molecular, cellular, organ, organism, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, mystical, mythic, sociological and species evolutionary lens—for it encompasses all of these. Just because our reality has a material component however, is not to dismiss the sublime beauty and significance of our subjective experience of the Divine. Kundalini is very specific and unique chemistry, that uses every facet of our biology, and affects our entire being. To me kundalini is a friend, a lover, a guide, a teacher, a taskmaster, a spirit and the presence of the Holy Ghost. As I became familiar with kundalini I noticed that any genuine insight or creative urge is simultaneous with a flux in kundalini. Thus I really have to say that kundalini is none other than spirit itself, manifesting on every level. In fact any meaningful psychic, relational, mental or spiritual event is simultaneous with a flux in kundalini.

The fire of Transmutation feels like desire, it feels like passion, the ULTIMATE passion. So we have to distinguish between life-destructive desires that reduce the fire of Transmutation and the GREAT Passion itself. The paradoxes involved with kundalini abound. The more we do to open ourselves up, the hotter the flame. But if we try to stem the flame then we regress and damage ourselves. It really is a case of how much bliss we can stand and how fast can we process our Self, and this is largely determined by how fast and thoroughly we can unload our baggage.

The increasing sense of being at home and being Alive makes metamorphosis seem inevitable. As the awakening speeds our incarnation, a feeling of objective conscience (baraka) and gratitude arises as a powerful urge to go-with this force of evolution. For the spiritual drive of Eros is our own deepest source and condition of being that we share with all Life. If we do not listen and surrender to this feeling of right-will, we will resort to sense gratification and self-destruction in an effort to avoid our Self.

Kundalini awakening can leave us totally incapacitated at times, or permanently damaged as far as our adaptability to this culture. Even Muktananda complained that he feared he would not be able to look after himself after he had experienced samadhi a couple of times. The Guru ashram system is great in this way, in that it insures those that are completely lost to kundalini, will be looked after. Not so in this society however, the initiate is more likely to be misunderstood, taken advantage of or locked up. Thus the more we know about the kundalini process, the better adapted we can be to the evolutionary force while still surviving in the western way of life.

Metamorphosis must surely be the most amazing and misunderstood phenomena on earth. My aim in writing this book is to dispel misinformation, myths, fear, resistance and superstition with regards to this most mysterious of all life processes. So many things have to be right for a successful kundalini awakening; going it alone is hard; being insulted and attacked for expressing ones experience--these make it harder. The experience of persecution is a common one, and the individual learns to depersonalize through this, so it's part of the courageous growth to Self, while we live in a society that is largely ignorant of and fearful of metamorphosis.

The path of fire compared to the stoic path of many traditions might seem unruly and unsure, but the heart can understand kundalini better than the mind can. My work is entirely bent on helping to alleviate ignorance on this matter, to reduce the compounded suffering humanity has undergone in the name of evolution. If one is already in total upheaval with kundalini it's just not advantageous to have one's community responding in devalidation, fear and rejection to one's metamorphosis. Thus the initiate has to be twice as strong—both to endure the fire, and to endure the social backlash.

In life we get remarkable opportunities but without knowledge, strength and determination we can make such a mess of the great gifts nature offers us such as sex, youth, brains, talent and kundalini awakenings. With a kundalini awakening we are given the possibility of unwinding the bodymind that has been largely conditioned by others, in order to be remade by a will larger than our own, and larger than that of our society. Kundalini takes us on a Kosmic adventure to the essence of "consciousness in life." I wonder how illumed life would be if all stops where pulled out, and we could handle the full charge of what only could be called "extreme lifestyle."

Metamorphosis is the most complicated thing humanity can investigate. Scientific investigation doesn't destroy the mystery, it is just one language useful to describe it. Scientific understanding increases the depth and span of the mystery. There is nothing romantic about being in the depths of total upheaval and not knowing what the heck is going on. Besides it's the kundalini passion, the muse itself that is driving me to reveal itself. Beyond the veil of material reality, inconceivably mystery is at play, working tirelessly for the greater good.

Transmutation doesn't "accidentally" just happen, it is the ultimate outcome of all life. All life in all its trillions and trillions of molecular and atomic transactions over the last 4 billion years is an inevitable chain of events autopoietically undertaken by a hylozoic universe to ultimately lead up to the transmuting human bodymind. We are the Universe becoming aware, that we are the Universe becoming aware of itself.

All biological processes from the very beginnings of life go toward creating this awesome chemistry change...a huge jump to the next level beyond the normal-human function. I can't even express how awesome it is that this alchemical chemistry is an a priori attractor. Kundalini and spiritual evolution is the tangible manifestation of the great drive toward divinity that every atom of the universe has secretly been engaged in from the beginning. Since it is completely natural, like child bearing or falling in love, my mind just boggles at this zenith chemistry and its unity with the Entire Chain of Being. Transmutation is a priori evolutionary drive—this was the goal all along. If not, then how could the ultimate chemistry just "happen" in everyday biology. Surely this must have been the carrot drawing life through its infinite choices. The clockwork precision of the creative universe has got to be admired. Kundalini uses all chemicals and systems in the body...it is a form of culmulative chemistry which life has been working toward for eons. Either it will drive you mad, or you will be saved (from yourself.)

The reason why I am working on this is firstly because I feel that I've been given the job to do by the universe. Secondly in order to help pave the way for the future evolution of humanity.

The way that we have built our bodies in the West, on starch, sugar and stimulants means that we do not have the mineral base, energy reserves, protein strength and cellular integrity to withstand kundalini. Instead of steady sustained evolution, we blow up like a ton of dynamite. Since increasingly more people will be exposed to kundalini energy through Eastern practices and tighter survival pressures, that means we will have increasing numbers of individuals popping in bodies and lives that will be severely damaged by the evolutionary force of consciousness.

The Eastern teachers and traditions cannot help us in the West with this problem, for our biophysical, mental and social make up is quite different to what has historically been the case in the East.

The medical industry in its present form cannot help us. They will attempt to suppress the symptoms with antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antiseizure medicine, diuretics, antihistamines and high blood pressure drugs. Undoubtedly they will invent a whole heap more highly destructive drugs to “cure” spiritual awakening with.

Humanity is going to be at a loss with how to deal with this growing problem of people awakening in bodies and conditions that do not serve the awakening process. Thus the initiates will invariably crash and burn, becoming a burden to themselves and others. They will be lifted up by the wave of evolution and crashed onto the beach and ground into the sand. Instead of initiates forming the leading edge of the wave, we will find them living on the streets as human refuse to an experiment gone terribly wrong.

Thus the evolutionary wave of humanity will essentially be aborted due to lack of understanding. The only means of growth left to us then is mental conventional growth and this is not adequate to save us from ourselves. Without spiritual evolution we are doomed as a species, and a planet.

Enlightenment is innate to the organism. The human body is genetically engineered to become enlightened, however, most remain latent. But the more people that pop, the greater the morphogenic propensity for increasing numbers of people to pop through state resonance. To cope with this contagion of awakening we are going to have to collectively learn to consciously incarnate through a POSITIVE APPROACH to kundalini awakening that includes preparation, protection, practices and higher purpose.

Boulder 2006

Consider that the fire that Prometheus stole from the Gods was actually Kundalini fire, and he gave it to the people so they could become Gods.

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