Kundalini Splendor

Link TV is running a series of programs on spirituality on Sunday evenings at 6 p.m. Pacific time. They are also republishing these interviews on their site. Listed above is a rebroadcast of a fascinating discussion by Andrew Harvey (Indian born spiritual writer and teacher) and Sobonfu Somé (African born ritualist and healer), on the topic of ecstasy, a state of consciousness that frequently occurs in Kundalini experiences. Many cultures over the world--from early times to the present--include ecstatic experience as a feature of their society.

Three primary types of ecstasy were discussed on the program. The first is that in which the participant literally "stands outside" him or her self, often losing all awareness of their surroundings, perhaps needing assistance to keep from falling or hurting him/herself or others. This kind of ecstasy is found in tribal cultures, shamanic trance states, oracles of certain lineages. It is wild, unbounded, and, frankly, a bit frightening to observe, since the ecstatic is in a truly ungrounded state and may act in unpredictable ways. Yet such experience has been part of ritual and ceremony from the earliest times.

The second kind of ecstasy is that produced through, for example, techno-rave all night dances popular in our time, in which the group together gets extremely "high" on the hypnotic beat of the music, the flashing lights of the dance floor, and (for some) drug induced trance states. The collective begins to "vibrate" as one, and all are lifted into some non-ordinary and seemingly pleasurable state.

Another form of ecstatic consciousness is produced by the continuous repetition of sound, as in the practice of Sufi Zikr, where the participants together chant the name of God, moving forward and back in a circle. Sufism itself welcomes ecstatic or trance states, as witnessed in the whirling dances of the sheiks and followers of the Sufi way. Rumi also partook of trance states, and it was he who founded the Mevlevi order of the "whirling dervishes."

All of these states are rather intense and involve ritualistic forms of awakening the energies within.

However, I believe that ecstasy exists in a myriad of forms, with a full spectrum of stages and manifestations. In addition to the extreme states of the shamans and rave dancers, there are also softer, more tender, more "refined" types of ecstatic experience. One need not lose awareness of surroundings, or be stimulated to the verge of possession to know ecstasy. I think Kundalini offers this kind of experience for those whose energies have subsided, taken on a more subtle quality. In this state, the energies may feel like light playing over the body--it feels like one is being stroked by a feather rather than being sounded by a bass drum.

And, amazingly as it may seem, these quieter visitations are not necessarily less blissful, less sweet that the more strident forms. Sometimes they can come from actions as simple as stroking the aura, or rolling the eyeballs. As one moves through the Kundalini process, the overall quality of the energies shifts into a kind of "lower gear," where less stimulation is needed to produce (still) fascinating results. Ecstasy may be aroused by simply listening to a piece of sacred music, or contemplating a representation of Buddha, or reading about sacred topics on the computer. Often it comes as a surprise, an experience familiar but unexpected.

In part, I think these differences of degree and intensity are accounted for by cultural background and individual makeup. Younger and/or more robust participants crave more exciting states. Older and more settled practitioners may need only a subtle cue to enter wondrous bliss.

In any event, all agree that humans yearn for ecstatic states as a way of escaping the realm of the familiar and ordinary, and entering transcendence. For many of us, bliss is itself a pathway to God experienced as the Beloved Within.

(P. S. The program from the previous Sunday is also fascinating--it is a dialogue between Karen Armstrong (author of "A History of God" and other major texts), and Robert Thurman, celebrated authority on Tibetan Buddhism. Both had belonged to religious orders, both left to work in the world in the field of spiritual studies.)

I am grateful that Link TV is giving us such wonderful programs from authentic spiritual teachers. We need more of such presentations on mainstream television.

(Picture is from Patricia Lay-Dorsey)