Heat
Through tapas (heat) the ascetic becomes clairvoyant and
even incarnates the Gods.
By discovering why kundalini flow through the nerves creates heat we can
begin to work out just how the function of the nervous system is altered during
transmutation. The heat from kundalini is not caused by “friction” as kundalini
moves through blockages, as is traditionally thought. Kundalini is purifying in
that it uses whatever state of perfection or dross it finds, but purification is not
its purpose or goal. Kundalini is the fire of transmutation and the heat from the
nervous system we experience is the heat of transmutation. We cannot yet however
say exactly ‘what’ transmutation is.
Kundalini heat is generated by the nervous system. It is felt mostly in the
pelvis, and up the spine, especially on the left side of the body, but the entire body
temperature is raised a little as well. The majority of the heat produced during
kundalini occurs in the sacral and lumbar spine, and I assume that there is more
gray matter of the spinal column in these areas than elsewhere in the nervous
system. Gray matter of course has larger numbers of mitochondria, organelles that
produce both energy (ATP) and heat. To find the cause of heat we might focus on
the activity of the mitochondria of the cell bodies of the neurons, especially in the
gray matter of the spinal cord and in the brain itself.
Action potentials along nerves cause heat but the significant heat generated
by kundalini is not just an “increase” in action potentials, it is a different type of
expression of nerve energy altogether. This altered nerve energy generation and
action potential generates heat, bliss, tingles and the other kundalini symptoms.
The pelvic and spinal nerve heat is always associated with bliss and heart
expansion. When there is heat there is bliss. The heat is most pronounced in
the pelvic bowl (kunda). One plausible theory to the generation of the nerve-
heat is free radical damage the cell membrane of the mitochondrias in the nerve-
bodies leading to less ATP being converted from glucose and more heat being
generated...thus inefficient glycolysis might generate the nerve heat. This is
the most straightforward theory since free radicals go up during kundalini, the
oxidation to the membranes would interfere with the electron-transport-system
of ATP conversion. The heat would continue as long as the body’s antioxidant
capacity is overwhelmed by the concentration of free radicals. Such radicals might
include those of Nitric Oxide and its nitrogen metabolites. Since Nitric Oxide is a
vasodilator and the heat always occurs along with heart expansion and bliss, it just
might be that a combination of glutamine and nitric oxide is the cause of the heat
by creating mitochondria membrane damage and sloppy glycolysis.
Inefficient glycolysis and lower cellular energy would mean the cell has a greater
demand for glucose to burn. When a neuron doesn’t get adequate glucose, or when
ATP production falls it switches to glutamate excitation. Thus for the duration of
a kundalini awakening we maybe experiencing sloppy glycolysis, cellular glucose
hunger, coupled with glutamate excitation. This along with extra free radical and
metabolite production and the consequences of increased cell death and recycling