Kundalini Splendor

Truly, we are living in a time of rapid change. Indeed, the pace is so swift that it is becoming more and more difficult to keep up with all that is going on around us.

My recent move to a new (old) location bears this out remarkably. I thought I knew this city, for I have visited it often through the years, sometimes staying for months or seasons. But somehow the true nature of the changes eluded me. When I lived here so many years ago, Boulder was a small (about 75,000) delightful city nestled against the mountains, with a real downtown, a medium sized university, and a thriving population of students, professors, and others. Today, its population is calculated at nearly 350,000. The downtown has been transformed into an outdoor mall, with tall buildings and many stores catering to tourists and other affluent visitors. Traffic roars through the city on certain busy thoroughfares. Shopping centers have sprung up in every corner. And the city limits now extend many miles into the countryside (away from the mountains.) As I observe these many changes, I feel much like Rip Van Winkle waking up from a long dream, amazed at how the world has changed during his siesta.

And many other changes have occurred--here and elsewhere. In l981, when I experienced my original Kundalini awakening, there was no internet at all. Some ten or fifteen years later, when the internet was emerging, there were four references to Kundalini. Today there are over 4,000,000. Boulder itself has become a "hotbed" of spirituality. Many gurus and spiritual teachers have set up shop here. People gather regularly to hear distinguished teachers passing through town. Buddhism and yoga are thriving. Tarot readings are available on the Mall. It is indeed a different world.

A few weeks after my "initiation," I visited Crestone, Colorado, located in the southwest corner of the state. My visit was preceded by a prophetic dream. In the dream, I drove west from my home (then Kansas) for a very long distance. I finally arrived at the place I was seeking--it was some kind of spiritual center, but it was not just one central building, but rather there were various buildings scattered about. An important feature of the setting was an artificial lake.

When I heard about a workshop on the future of religion (to be given in Crestone), I immediately arranged to attend. I drove and drove--always due west--until I arrived at Crestone--which at that time consisted of one main "resort" hotel, a house where William Irwin Thompson and his family lived, and a few other miscellaneous buildings. Various spiritual groups were beginning to set up there, but mostly it was undeveloped land, with few permanent inhabitants. When I arrived, I found a little lake, fed by artificial fountains--this was clearly the place in the dream.

This was my first workshop ever, and it changed my life. At that time I was deeply into the "I am you" state of consciousness and indeed, everyone I met seemed to be "another me." I felt I could have easily traded places with any one of those gathered there. Everyone was extremely beautiful.

Last night, I looked up Crestone on the internet. Now, some dozen or more spiritual groups flourish there, including Christians, Taoists, Buddhists, and many others. Some 25,000 visitors come there each year seeking peace and communion with nature. Obviously, it is vastly different from the quiet little settlement I visited so long ago. Like so many other features of that time, that small world has literally disappeared into the past, a casualty perhaps of too much success.

No wonder the monks and yogis fled into the seclusion of the caves and forests. Where else can you escape the crowds?

But despite all the transformations and permutations of the outer society, one thing has remained constant--the spread and deepening of Kundalini here and across the globe. Indeed, we may--as many believe--be heading toward critical mass, a time when the entire world will be transformed in a flash, and the new species (the old species now endowed with special powers) will appear.

Every birth brings a measure of pain and suffering as it occurs. Evolution is not a quick or easy process. But each person who is touched by this transformative power is an important part of the process, a major contributor to planetary shift.

(The picture is of a rainbow that appeared two evenings ago after an exciting and beautiful thunder and lightning storm. Rainbows also endure and are always a talisman to lift our spirits. Again, I saw it from my balcony.)