Kundalini Splendor

Yesterday evening, I watching a T. V. program which included a "scientific" experiment to test the level of oxytocin before and after a "trust" exercise.  In this example, the researcher jumped from a plane without a parachute but attached to the instructor, who did wear one.  The purpose was to determine if such "trust" experiences helped to raise the level of the oxytocin hormones in the body.  The result was a resounding "yes."
Though the program looked at this chemical in terms of its connection to trust, it did not continue to examine how oxytocin also operates to help us be more human in terms of our willingness to help others, as well as increasing our love for other people, or even enhancing the pleasure that nursing mothers often experience while feeding their offspring.  All of these activities are held to be accompanied by higher levels of the oxytocin molecules within.

In general, I do not care for theories which explain human behavior or attitudes as "nothing but" the operation of chemicals or hormones within the body.  But in this case, I began to wonder if oxytocin might also be involved in the "love state" so often produced during spiritual transformation, including Kundalini awakening itself.  Many of us have experienced such states of consciousness when anyone and everything becomes an object of pure, unquestioning love, and we feel that the universe itself is our own cosmic lover.  And I wonder if it is not that the chemical produces the effect, but the other way around--that our loving acceptance of the world around produces the  increase of the hormone.  Perhaps even the saints, through their loving acceptance of all they encounter, produce higher levels of this amazing substance.

Either way, it causes one to wonder what the world might be like with more oxytocin in the brains of all.