astralc

this is a site on Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation - it disscusses it in detail, do not try this at home though. Interestingly, I use a TDCS at work for anxiety and depression, it connects to the ear lobes sending a mild pulsed current with a funny wave shape, across the back of the head. It has quite a lot of research to back up the claims it is of some use. This is NOT Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation though. Some pretty pics of the brain http://brmlab.cz/pro...in_hacking/tdcs

Hi onebir, looks like you are doing fine, I wanted to illustrate the power of the dan tien to extract oneself from the dangers out there, all the best and keep doing

Hi K, good question, what this is about is the correct and safe raising of kundalini, and definitely not from a book no matter how qualified the author is. As I am sure you are aware, Kundalini is not a toy to be played with, it comes with enormous responsibility on the part of the teacher to ensure that the student is ready to handle it. In this situation the student did not have a teacher, therefore, requires considerable support to recover from what appears to be a developing Kundalini Syndrome. Kundalini Syndrome is one of the worst mental illnesses one can imagine, it can, potentially, destroy the life of this individual. This thread is best used as a warning to students of chi raising techniques, to be careful and use a teacher, it just ain't safe to play with fire.

Hi Billb, I much prefer neurofeedback and a few other biofeedback devices, but I am willing to wait and see how the research goes with the TCMS, if they keep their protocols simple and not try to do too much it might prove quite useful. I do know that previous research that knocked the language centres off line to create a 'space' for increased creativity, had a following, I just wish I could remember the nae of the guy that did it... darn. The left brain is critical for processing language, it runs fast, between 15-20 Hz, but if the slower frequencies, 3-11 Hz (low theta to alpha) begin to dominate the left side, then it is a sign of depression. By knocking this side off line it has the potential to bring on the depression. I my work I train people using EEG neurofeedback, and depression is quite easy to see in the EEG trace. Reducing the slow waves dominance is not a difficult thing, one day medicine and psychology will realise they have the most incredible technology at hand. But until that day we just have to soldier on. Anxiety, autism, panic, and bipolar etc. are all right brain issues, caused by a dominance of fast waves, because the rght brain, having no language centres, runs very slowly, delta and theta. When we become stressed we see a dominance of beta fast waves that make us anxious. By inhibiting these fast waves we reduce the impact of anxiety disorders. Maybe one day TCMS will do a similar job to neurofeedback. On a positive note the Black Dog Institute is studying Direct Current Stimulation of the Prefrontal Lobes for depression, I hope that works. http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/public/research/participateinourresearch/directcurrentstimulationdcs.cfm

this guy is good, with a very solid centre and has great chi power. I would love to meet up with him in 20 years time when he has mellowed and has lived some more, when he has some wisdom of life besides fighting.

onebir, sounds like you are awakening to your Self, nice, but agree these are not so nice. You have had quite a few experiences out of the norm so it shows something is up so, I hope, that you are doing regular tai chi or centering meditations. I found that when i started OOB and astral traveling initially there were some weird experiences but after a while I got better and better at it and the scary ones stopped happening. I would mostly drop off to sleep and get a piercing white light in my third eye, nice, let me know I was 'in the zone'. I'll go find a I wrote post about my scary experiences and why the centering at the Dan Tien is so important.

Ummm, are you serious? You may be able to fast for a few days with normal energy levels if you have enormous amounts of spare chi, or have the ability to access it, but otherwise, off the cuff, you have no chance of creating chi from nothing. It would have been wiser to have prepared for this eventuality some years ago, to become proficient in it, not on the day that you need it. I know I am a bit of a douche here, but, really... call your mum or dad, grandma or granddad, or best friend, get them to wire some money over to you, go to the motel manager where you are at and tell them your problem, thats a much wiser use of your chi than trying to breathe air. Just on this topic of 'breatharians', I knew a guy who studied under a famous breatharian of that time, he would last maybe three days without food them binge on sweets, over and over, I shudder to think what his diabetes looks like these days. His teacher did a breatharian fast and only lasted 4 days before she had to go to hospital. I do believe that one can become a breatharian, but not overnight, good luck mate, you are in a tight spot, but fasting for any extended length of time, especially away from the safety of home and support networks, is not a really good idea given you are in a strange country and might have to go to hospital if you starve too long.

OOOOPS I discussed earlier that TCMS can induce depression by knocking out the language sites on the left hemisphere. I must state that recent research into TCMS in depression does not target the language centres as it did when I first read about it some years ago. Today they stimulate the Prefrontal lobe with magnetic pulses rather than one massive pulse to the left brain which is what they did then to induce creativity. So, I am sorry that I may have misled members with my earlier comments, TCMS, in today's research is proving to be quite useful for people with mental illness. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/transcranial-magnetic-stimulation/MY00185 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=transcranial%20magnetic%20stimulation%20depression&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CKEBEBYwBg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.depressionet.com.au%2Fresearch%2Ftms_adol.pdf&ei=tHq4T-PgC-iuiQfsiNy0Cw&usg=AFQjCNFlB2Euvw28S8z7oMw_GcdybzwuyQ&cad=rja http://www.opposingviews.com/i/health/addiction/tms-therapy-approved-fda-can-help-people-depression

Hi Mark, thank you, you are welcome to quote me, and I read you piece on location in space, I like that notion of coming back to space when trying to go back to sleep. The Language centres are on the left side or dominant hemisphere of the brain, for practical reasons, and this is for right handed and some left handed people. True left handers will have them on the right hemisphere. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_center - is a basic explanation of the left hemisphere language centres, you can search if you want more detailed information. I posted on another thread that I am doing cranial-sacral healing at the moment and love it. Your comment about the psoas muscle and dan tien I believe to be correct, core strength and dan tien are one and the same I think, except dan tien is about chi of course. I am enjoying your posts:)

TI and Mark, I am getting some cranial-sacral work at the moment, I absolutely love it, I fall asleep somewhere in the middle or the beginning or somewhere I just can't remember except that I wake up so relaxed that I can't move for a while. About what you said TI about the pressure building up in the fluid, I had a patient with an undiagnosed blockage in her cervical, blocking the cranial-sacral fluid. She exhibited Bipolar symptoms for about 2 years that caused her marriage to almost end, when they cleared the blockage in the hospital she was her old self again. It was a magical moment for her and her husband, he got his wife back. As for this being responsible for the kundalini pain at the base chakra, I don't think it would be. However I would recommend the cranial-sacral work for any and everybody, but it probably won't help kundalini syndrome, except perhaps make it worse as the system clears and the energy can flow even faster, then he would have problems bigger than Mount Everest.

Hi Mark, this will certainly stretch me, its good to get questions that make me think and process, I am a feeling centred person, so thinking is not always easy, "I feel therefore I try not to think" The brain is the command centre of the entire body, every body site has a corresponding nerve site which is its supervisor so to speak. When a person loses a limb the corresponding site on the cortex (outer surface of the brain) becomes vacant land, and is slowly portioned off to other body sites. Thus if you lose your leg, when you touch the side of your nose it might feel like you are touching your little toe, because the side of the nose has now taken residence at the old vacant little toe site on the cortex. The language centres are all located on the left brain, or dominant hemisphere, for a simple reason, expediency, they are close together and can communicate so much faster. Dyslexics use some of the right brain to help process words which is very inefficient and why they struggle so. We have the left occipital lobe to recognise letters and words, it goes to the left temple for auditory sounds of the letters and words, then to the left parietal lobe to process meaning then to the left frontal to process a sound and string of words in correct grammatical form as a verbal or written response. What we know thru research of elite athletes, artists and performers, is that when they enter the "Zone" they shut down almost all of their brain activity except for the areas responsible to perform their action - perfectly. Their brain becomes super efficient with all these extra resources to perform one single action perfectly. Thru EEG sensors attached to their heads we can see an elite pistol shooter aiming, then slowly the left hemisphere shuts down dialogue, no words, no self talk, the limbic system in the mid brain shuts down, so no anxiety or fear of failure, and the whole brain moves into what is called "synchronous alpha", the whole brain is basically on 'calm alert' with just the premortor cortex wired to send the signal to the finger to pull the trigger. Novice shooters cannot do this. Meditators do the same, quietening their mind and going into the zone. But meditators can stay at synchronous alpha, calm alert, or move into synchronous theta, which is deeper and is where we OOB, astral travel, remote view, lucid dream, gain insight, reach the spiritual heavens so to speak, etc. This synchronous theta is very deep, you must basically go to sleep to get there as it is right on the edge of consciousness. Using EEG we can see the exact moment when this occurs, amazing it sure is. Getting to your chakra question, basically the Dan Tien, from my understanding, is a nerve centre, nothing more nothing less. We have many nerve centres or clusters and we can charge them up with chi breathing, you can go to your elbow for instance and charge it up to work like a Dan Tien, basically. So the chakra is connected to the brain, because every body part is, but it is not specifically connected to anything special. Non-thinking is very important in almost all spiritual pursuits, by stopping our internal dialogue we 'stop the world' as Don Juan so nicely says. To do this we have to practice doing it, quietening the mind through dedicated practice, be it kicking a soccer ball against the wall 1000 times a day, hitting a tennis ball a thousand times against a wall each day, or meditating or tai chi or a kung fu kata. I do not recommend mantra meditations, it can put you back into beta (thinking), I go straight to the theta synch, passing thru alpha synch to the unconscious. This is 'deep state meditation' and where taoists can "touch the void". Thanks for getting me to think Astralc

Actually, I work with brainwaves everyday and transcraniel magnetic stimulation (TMS) is not the answer, it can be fun, yes, but it is not the best approach for spiritual practice or development. What TMS does is quite simple, you first locate the part of your brain that is responsible for self talk, the active part of the language centres in the left hemisphere. Then you place the powerful electro-magnet, and knock that part of your brain off-line, it goes to sleep, by inducing a powerful magnetic field right at the precise location of speech control. Cool, yes, but only so so, people have nice experiences for a while, but not everybody. It is supposed to increase creativity, but in reality, that particular site on the left hemisphere is also responsible for happiness, and if you go about knocking if off-line too much you will develop a pathological depression requiring medication to control. So, no, not a good idea to play with for too long, but as a novelty, it may be OK, but if you are susceptible to depression, stay well away from it. If you really want to use technology to learn to meditate deeply, then neurofeedback is for you, safe, zero side effects, and can train deep states of meditation quite easily. This is a great topic and I am glad you brought it up, I hope I have not dampened your enthusiasm for fast tracking your meditation training.

Gee, I wish I were as inspired and eloquent as everyone else here, that poem Stosh, wow, and death, Wolf on Air, so powerful, thank you for sharing. My story began as a teenager, I had the usual christian upbringing and always wondered what it all meant, these were fairy tales, right? I read everything spiritual I could lay my hands on, and at around 17 years of age I told my mother that one day I would astral travel too, like in the books I was reading. She said, "yes dear, of course dear." and kept on washing up... but still, the word was out. But the turning point for me was in the shower one day, probably when I was about 25 years old, I remember it very well, deciding that today I would stop eating meat and become a vegetarian. Funnily enough, that day was one of those days in life that made a difference. The other one was turning up for my first tai chi lesson at my masters house and not knowing anyone, alone, but with a burning desire inside my chest to learn and to know the unknown. Thank you for this wonderful and inspiring thread

Thats a good question when you look at it and some good replies. Taoists generally aim to avoid brownie points, it keeps us 'in' or attached to the world in an awkward way. I would say that we aim to be able to fluidly attach and detach at the same time, being, just being, dasein. Seeking merit or good behaviour points inhibits the flow of the tao, it stifles the processes we work hard at achieving, wu wei would not be if we sought to find rewards for all we did. So, putting a question like that on a taoist board is probably an antithesis to our roots, I am sure Lao Tsu wasn't interested in scoring merit or karma points when he wrote his book. As a taoist once said, I shall pass through this world leaving no footprints. JMHO

lol

Basher, that beats years of hard work, I think I will join you

stevepster, thats a fascinating account, and may I try to explain what might have happened with you through my story even though your experience was spontaneous it certainly appears to be a kundalini wakening. I opened all my chakras but it took me 13 years of sheer hard work, one of the last to open was my heart chakra. I was afraid to get started with it because when I did try in the past I got heart palps and a sore chest. But finally I worked up the courage to start some serious chi breathing through my heart chakra and see what would happen. So, one day I came home from work, had a cup of tea and lay down on my bed where I do most of my meditations. And, like I always did, I started chi breathing, first I centred and then did the five elements and finally, with great deliberation, through the heart chakra. I did this religiously for 2 days in a row before things happened. This particular day, the 3rd day, within 5 minutes of breathing, I started to shake, and then something hit me like a lightening bolt, shooting through my heart and then exploding through my whole body. I began shaking like I was having a fit. The power of the lightening bolt was so strong, it felt like electricity shooting through my body, burning the dross out of my heart area and cleansing it. This lasted about 2 minutes, it would die down but then when I breathed thru it again it would start up and I would begin to shake all over again, almost falling off the bed. It was the most amazing experience ever, amazing and fantastic, I felt so damn good, happy and blissful, I was floating for about a week afterwards. From that day I could open my heart chakra at will, it was so easy. But I must warn anyone thinking of doing this, if your body and nervous system isn't ready for it you will harm yourself, I kid you not. I did try this years before, and all I got was nasty heart palpitations, anxiety, panic attacks and a very sore chest right in the middle of my sternum, these symptoms would last a few days if I meditated too much on my heart chakra. I had to stop doing it, it just was not very nice at all. I had always wanted to open my heart chakra but it just wasn't ready, but after many years hard work doing tai chi, chi kung, nei kung and deep state meditations it opened by itself with a tiny shove, it was ready and I instinctively knew it. stevepster, it may be that your kidneys needed cleansing and in doing so it opened an energy / chi blockage in your spine and you had a kundalini experience much like I did. I hope you find some direction for further chi work on the Tao Bums forum, please go slowly and practice and it won't be an isolated experience. Good luck and keep us informed of your amazing journey.

Michael, thank you for bringing such an innovative idea to the bums, it has been of great value to members from the quality of the comments I have read here. I would like to participate and after much thought as to what I could do I decided that I might be of some help by offering my skills in 'inner work'. If anyone is interested in exploring their inner community a la Jung and his archetypes and Bradshaw and his inner children, than please drop me a line. You are free to ask what skills I have in this field too before you decide.

humbleone, I am very sorry to hear that you experienced this, and on the first day too. Why some and not others? A good question, from my experience those of us who are very sensitive tend to experience rushes of chi into the head. This is particularly so if they are 'head' oriented, in other words, they think too much, or get headaches from congestion in the head. Us westerners are very head oriented, while those who work in traditional ways, farming etc. working with their hands and feet, tend to be more in their body. We have trouble earthing and staying earthed and centered, while traditional working people tend to have trouble getting into their head. We think, they feel. To simplify, we get head congestion they get body congestion. There are some conditions that put us at risk of rising chi into the head. One of these is hypothyroidism and those with an over aroused Sympathetic Nervous System, for example people who experience anxiety a lot can get symptoms too. Hypothyroidism is one of the most unrecognised cause of mental disorders, yet doctors and most others have almost no idea what it is. Thyroid hormone is essential for the health of each and every nerve cell, when this hormone is under produced the nerves begin to misfire and Central Nervous System (the brain) issues can arise. If you have a low thyroid (hypothyroidism) and do extensive chi work moving it into your head, then you will get chi congestion in your head centres quite quickly. The brain slightly swells and is irritated, nerves misfire a whole lot more and soon issues of anxiety, panic, delusions, depression etc can appear. By directing chi downwards we avoid this. However, let me also say that something like hypothyroidism can rigger delusions etc. without any chi being involved. Look up PubMed and you can see the link between hypothyroidism and Bipolar Disorder, its there black and white. May I suggest that you seek a biofeedback treatment called 'neurofeedback', it directly trains brainwaves down to where they should be. Its one of the few effective treatments of Kundalini Syndrome. You can PM me if you want more info on this, its what I do every day with people with anxiety disorders and really is magic.

TI, that poor Lomaximo has given in to the seductive pleasures of Lady Kundalini, if he is lucky he will not develop panic attacks, anxiety, depression, paranoia, delusions, enervation or loss of libido. This is the worst that can happen, he might, if lucky, escape with just some insomnia for a while. The best thing he can do at this stage is abstain from chi exercises, to keep his chi moving downwards and think he is lucky to escape her clutches. Kundalini Syndrome is the worst thing in the world, lets hope he avoids this. Good timely post TI, lets hope others are warned of her dangers and not play with her wild fire.

meow, a simple answer is to just talk to your teacher at your next lesson and tell him/her that you have limited space and what do they suggest.

I know this may sound odd but when I watch someone doing tai chi I feel for their dan tien, if they are centred it doesn't matter what their body is doing, though I do agree good posture is important, but sometimes the chi moves the body in ways which may be counter what we consider as the 'best' posture.

be like your own psychologist, thats a good starting point, seek to know thyself. Honestly, why do you want to be on this path, the path of Tao? The answer to that question is the answer to all your questions.

epyon, you have elicited some sound advice, it is so tantalising to read people's experiences and practices, but you cannot learn the Tao from a book. Please, go and learn from someone in the flesh and save yourself wandering down the garden path, or rather, paths, for there are many and not all of them lead to a wise place. Good luck, you are on the right path, stay on the Tao.