Kundalini and the Art of Being ... 1lower energies and the lower-self emotions, passion, desire, negativ-
ity, the body, and even what they termed “self-assertion.” Asserting
one’s self was, in their estimation, a very undesirable quality. And
from a cult leader’s perspective this makes perfect sense: convince
the people that their own views are inferior to that of God and the
spiritual elite (in other words, the leaders of the community), and the
people will be faithful followers. Instead of encouraging individual
discovery, present what has been determined to be the final truth.
Everyone present will then have the same basic beliefs, and this will
lead to unity, at least if unity means that everyone agrees with one
another and, most importantly, agrees with the leader.
This totally flew in the face of my own experience and under-
standing, as well as that of much of the reading I had been doing:
that the spiritual quest and healing process is deeply personal, and
that truth is actually relative to the individual. For example, by all ac-
counts I’ve read, Kundalini awakening follows no standard formula
that can be listed and outlined and remedied by one simple program.
The process is different for everyone, as each person is different and
has differing strengths and weaknesses. so the relevant truth itself
differs from one person to the next. In reality, truth is not a constant,
defined, stagnant, and concrete conclusion, but rather the meeting
point between many different points of view. This is why, in our sys-
tem of government, a jury of peers must come together in unison to
convict a person of a crime. If twelve people from different walks of
life can manage to actually agree on something, then there’s a pretty
good chance that they’re onto something, because it doesn’t happen
that often in the real world. Groups of people will generally find dis-
agreement among themselves, and that’s a good thing.
For those people at Aquarian Concepts community who felt
aligned with these teachings, perhaps that was the optimum place
for them to be and to learn. For them, it was truth, at least in that
moment. But for myself, it was all wrong. With a judgment against
“self-assertion,” I couldn’t figure out who I really was in relation to
whom I might project myself to be, or others might make me out to