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When people ask JJ Semple what his books are about, he prepares for the customary blank stare and replies, "Kundalini Meditation." Nowadays more people have heard of Kundalini, so many say something like, "Oh, Kundalini Yoga." To which he replies, "Well, uh, yeah, sort uv." Recently, he was part of a forum that began to explore the difference, if any. I say if any because some people believe there is none. JJ says there's a difference of style and substance and wants to know what others think.

JJ Semple's latest blog post "Neuromuscular Stimulation" tackles the unlikely connection between Kundalini and neuromuscular devices and therapy methods. Because he can detect the active and latent energy in substances and devices, JJ says that some of these tools and techniques do work and therefore are worth investigating. Not just for their energy stimulation porperties, but for their curative capabilities. Does anyone have any experience with this?

JJ Semple asked me to pass along this message: "As one who took what these days is considered the "old school" route to activating Kundalini, which I did almost 40-years ago, all I can say is: There's nothing new under the sun ...and no such thing as something for nothing. I wish there was; we desperately need a mass Kundalini awakening to ward off decline and collapse. But if there is, I haven't found it. "The Golden Flower Method I used raises Kundalini permanently from the day of first activation until the day you die. Sure, there are trade-offs, but if you read my books and website, you'll see that the Tortoise sometimes beats the Hare." If you're not familiar with JJ's story, it's a how-to, a memoir, and a detective story, seamlessly intertwining the events leading up to his Kundalini release with an examination of the process itself. JJ's latest blog post "Neuromuscular Stimulation" tackles the unlikely marriage between Kundalini and neuromuscular devices and therapy methods. Because he can detect the active and latent energy in substances and devices, JJ says these tools and techniques are worth investigating.

Capitalism & Kundalini A slightly different take on the present world situation and the Kundalini recipe for redefining the energy exchange. How a mass Kundalini awakening avoids the Ozymandias moment.

"Why are most books on Kundalini in the West written by people who have never had a Kundalini experience? In the East, it's the practitioners that students seek out, the ones with experience."

New Common Sense Kundalini website is now online. New material is being added weekly with the intent of becoming one of the most complete sources for Kundalini on the web. Managed by JJ Semple, who has lived with awakened Kundalini night and day for 40 years, the purpose of Common Sense Kundalini is to provide information on human potential, to explore the work of Gopi Krishna, and to be a comprehensive source of factual knowledge on Kundalini. Click for additional info. April Mintoff

Hi, My name is April. I work with JJ Semple at Life Force Books. From time to time, we surf the web at the behest of our readers who come across discussions of JJ's books. Recently, a reader told us about a discussion on Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time on this board and I would like to contribute/clarify some of the issues raised. Plus I'd like to tell you more about Life Force Books. Our books are about redemption and transcendence. We look for stories by individuals who have overcome difficult hurdles on the way to transcending the physical plane, individuals with empirical knowledge of the metaphysical. These stories usually involve Kundalini, which, after all, is the key to higher consciousness and the goal of Taoist meditation. At least, that's what JJ says. JJ stumbled across The Secret of the Golden Flower in 1971. He maintains that Taoism represents the least dogmatic path to transcendence. For him it's all about taking a pragmatic approach. So... now I'm going to sign off here and go over to the thread that's discussing Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time and add my two cents. Great forum, by the way. Oh, and before I forget, JJ has a new book, The Backward-Flowing Method: The Secret of Life and Death. It deals with the secret techniques of Golden Flower Meditation.

[From the Bhagavad Gita] Among thousands of men, one perchance strives for perfection; even among those successful strivers, only one perchance knows Me in essence.

I recommend reading over the previous discussion on this book in this forum. I also advise reading JJ Semple's Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time and The Backward-Flowing Method: The Secret of Life and Death. There's a lot of first-hand, empirical data covering JJ's forty years of experience with the SGF. There's a lot of material on the sexual component in these books and in the recommended thread.

It all begins with the body. If you can't "purify" the body, how far do you think you'll get in this work? Everything is based on health. If you're not healthy, do you think that you'll be seeing mandalas and experiencing "enlightenment?" By the way, I've read my books, too. Nowhere in any of my books does it state that I prioritize a "goal more health related than anything." Yes, I do talk about health as a foundation for all of this work. However, I place no limits on Kundalini, no limits on its power. Anything else, any interpretations or conclusions are not what I have written or lived. Again, what are your goals? To learn whether I've seen a mandala? If so, it's a pretty meager goal. My experience will not help or guide you. Only you can discover if you're destined for "enlightenment" and how hard you'll have to work to attain it. I didn't ask Gopi Krishna if he had seen a mandala. And he didn't ask me if I had "uncovered a method of Kundalini awakening in a text that was meant to do something else." In the first place, I don't understand what this means. I don't think he would have either. Second, how can there be more than one Kundalini? There can't be; there can only be different ways of experiencing it, different ways that it manifests itself within individual beings. In future books, I may write about other aspects of my Kundalini experience. There is much left that is, for the moment, untold. Right now, however, I'm doing other work. Yet, there is not one day when Kundalini is not active, reshaping my being and my consciousness. By the way... Milarepa should be the model for enlightenment. Did he come back from his Himalayan mountain top bragging about all the mandalas he'd seen. No, he came back to instill a sense of humility in pursuit of the Dharma. When asked by a jealous monk to interpret a text on Buddhist logic, he replied, "You know very well the conceptual meaning of this text. But the real spiritual meaning is found in abandoning the Eight Worldly Reactions and the personal ego, through destroying false perceptions of reality by realizing the single flavor of samsara and nirvana, and through meditating in mountain solitude. Apart from that, arguing over words is totally useless if one does not practice the Dharma. I never studied logic. I know nothing about it and if I ever did, I have forgotten it now." This whole discussion seems so far from enlightenment. Enlightenment begins with the body. The purpose of Yoga is to prepare the body. The purpose of Kundalini is to rejuvenate the body and change the being. Only then can "enlightenment" begin. But the work begins with meditation. If you don't meditate, as Milarepa said, words are totally useless. Let me ask a question: Has anyone ever read any two accounts of Kundalini that are point for point exactly the same? I haven't, and I've lived with and explored the issue for over 35 years. I've talked with hundreds of practitioners. Every one experiences something different. Isn't that as it should be? I don't think there's anything like 'cookie-cutter' Kundalini. Now, just for a moment, ponder the reasons for this, and post them hereunder.

Best I can summarize it is by saying that during the You do it! phase, you spend a lot of time watching what is going on with the breath, trying to optimize it according to the various precepts and techniques you've uncovered. If you do this successfully, then you progress to the It does you! phase. For me, this phase is more about watching the energy that's taken over your being. The breathing should now be working on its own, and should be less of a preoccupation. Again, I have written a lot about slowing down the breath to the point where, in a quiet room, you cannot hear it with the ear. I believe the SGF explains this fairly well. I tried it and it produced results.

Have you read my account in Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time? It describes what happens after you reverse the "breath." That's what you want to do as soon as you detect the condition described in my previous post. The only thing to consider with the rational mind, at this point, is whether you really want to do it. I say this because activating Kundalini is a big step. Not everyone has the leisure time to deal with an active Kundalini. Reversing the breath triggers a series of autonomic events. It's what I call the It does you phase!; you are no longer in charge. So, the question is: Do you want to turn your life over to Kundalini? JJ