light of the sun. To even double the received voltage to 220 re quires
considerable conditioning of the body. The more accessible form
of Kundalini power is human sexual energy. But to absorb anything
above your accustomed voltage is dangerous, like being struck by
lightning without a ground wire to the earth. The Taoist system of
circulating chi, from the Microcosmic Orbit up to the level “reunite
Man and Heaven”, is a grounding rod for Kundalini energy.
Modern researchers into spiritual phenomena see the Kundilini
as a possible mechanism to describe radical leaps in the evolution
of human consciousness. The form in which it spontaneously oc-
curs (i.e., without special yogic training) in nature would produce,
in successful cases of evolution, creative genius and in the unsuc-
cessful, madness. The classic account is Gopi Krishna’s autobio-
graphical “Awakening of the Kundalini’ (Shambhala Press).
Gopi Krishna was an Indian railroad official who in 1937 experi-
enced abrupt, dramatic physical and psychic changes as a result
of his yoga practice. Energy began dancing and coursing power-
fully through his body, but his initial wonderment and bliss soon
faded. He was nearly incapacitated by it as the energy would not
stop, sometimes leaving him tormented and sleepless for day on
end. Only after twelve years of this nightmare existence was he
able to learn how to balance the energy within his body and use it in
a newly discovered creative life as a poet and author of a dozen
books.
The Kundalini Research Institute in New York City reports world-
wide over a hundred cases each year of individuals who cannot
explain the uncontrollable release of energies in their body, often
accompanied by days of sleeplessness, ringing and hissing noises
in the ears and flashes of light inside the body. Some are students
of yoga or meditation whose teachers abandon them after seeing
they are powerless to diagnose or help the condition.
For this reason kundalini-oriented practices have earned a repu-
tation as dangerous, radical, and unsafe for most westerners seek-
ing what they falsely perceive as the fastest path to enlightenment.
A number of students suffering from kundalini-like side effects
of different meditational practices have come to Mantak Chia for
advice. Usually after doing the Microcosmic Orbit or simply putting
the tongue to the palate and thinking down, these unpleasant symp-
toms disappear.Chapter XIV