The following review was written by Barbara Whitfield, a well known writer and researcher in the field of near death experiences, which she sees as closely related to the Kundalini process. Barbara and her husband Charles have devoted their lives to making the world a better place through their contributions in various areas, including the medical as well as the purely spiritual fields. Through her investigations, Barbara is convinced that the life of the "soul" continues after death, and now she and Charles have produced a book explaining that the essential self exists before birth as well as after death. (She mentions this new book in her essay).
She is also a marvelous human being whose work deserves close attention.
-Kundalini Rising:
Exploring the Energy of Awakening
Sounds True
Boulder, CO
Sept 2009
It is with immense gratitude that I read this new anthology recently released by Sounds True Publishing. First, my husband Charles Whitfield and I are contributors. We are grateful to have been included with this wonderful list of specialists who together explain something that until recently has been unexplainable. In the East it is called “Kundalini.” Here in the West Christians call it “The Holy Spirit,” in Hebrew it is Ruach ha Kadosh. I’m sure we could find it in almost every religion. Now Western Science has gotten interested too. This anthology contains essays by published researchers and scientists who are on the cutting edge of this new field.
My opening to the Kundalini process began in 1975 after a profound near-death experience. I call it a process because it continued, and continues to this day, sometimes blatant but mostly subtle.
My second reason for gratitude to Sounds True and this list of contributors is that collectively we make a lot of sense. We bring together so many different disciplines that create a new gestalt for a human/spiritual mechanism that until now has remained hidden.
This energy, this mechanism looks and feels crazy in the beginning for someone like me who years ago had never heard of it and couldn’t understand why or what was happening. Now, after reading most of the essays in this book even I have a new understanding that I can almost articulate. We human beings have a spiritual nature that is waiting to be aroused, waiting to wake us up to a bigger reality then we have perceived until the unfolding of Kundalini.
Babies have this awareness but we (at least in the Western world) “reason” it out of them by the time they grow up (hopefully that is changing. My new book The Natural Soul is all about this).. Then through a spiritual experience like an NDE, or other mystical experience, or through a 12 Step Program (remember the 12th Step), or a workshop, spiritual talk, psychotherapy—this energy is aroused and we are on our way to a whole new way of experiencing our reality – and it’s not what the media is telling us is important! And that is where the rub is! We can’t be mind controlled anymore by the media or our religion (if it’s that type of religion – not all religions are about control but I bet if Jesus came here today to visit us he would shake his head and say, “I didn’t mean for you to get so organized. I meant for you to be like me.)
Jesus had an awakened Kundalini. He knew who he was. He knew where he came from and he was aware of and connected to his Father, Mother, God. So are we when we patiently work with this mechanism.
Barbara Whitfield
www.cbwhit.com
www.barbarawhitfield.com