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Hmm. Perhaps it would sound terrifying for one who might have to go through it. What I'd like to emphasise is the peace that comes after. To the question of maturity I'm not really sure. It just seemed that for me there was a physical process that I went through, and that any lethargy, disinterest or general dullness lifted, as if i'd been given a drug to clear a headache. (Also, as if I was going through an enlightening process). I don't hold that I did becomes enlightened: I hold that the buddha was talking of this process when he talked of enlightenment, that enlightenment, however glorious is not merely, but all the same just a part of growing... Buddha said: "I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusion of magicians. I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons."

It is so wonderful that this person has realized that she is no longer who she thought she was,...and for her (and Parsons) labeled it as liberation,...which sure,...at that level, one would believe that they are liberated from what they perceived themselves to have been before. When I use the term liberation however, it is synonymous with Avalokitesvara, who said, “As soon as one sense-organ returns to the source, All the six are liberated." Shurangama sutra So,...I could be a trapped female, who at 18 lands a great job, and moves out on my own,...celebrating my liberation. Or, realize that I am not the me that I thought I was,...another realization. However, the liberation that uncovers the realization of the Present,...and that is true enlightenment,...awareness of the Present,....is the term liberation as I use it. The dream, delusion, illusion, skandhas, 6 senses, etc., are all in the past. Time, energy, mass, matter,...are all in the past. Parsons speaks of energy, time, all things, etc,....these are all in the past. There is no perceived object in the phenomenal universe that is in the Present. There is no Present (instant, Now, etc) in time. The Present is beyond energy.

A big dream She's seriously hot, AND she's a yogini... She has realization. She's deep...

Thanks GP, great question! "if it works"?: It works. I training in AP with a gnostic master about 10 years ago. It's as real as anything else pretends to be. But in that time frame, while I was projecting daily for about 12 months, I was getting a lot of attack, and my projections were hard to control. Now I know that it requires ones Shen to be well developed and stable so that qi follows shen and the mind can direct a synergistic control of energy through intention (Yi). One also wants to have a well developed energy body, and protective layers of "something" in order to prevent bringing back any attachments from non-desirables. There are different levels of astral plane, some vibrating close to the physical and others in non-local "spaces". "How come not on trip advisor?" Can't make money from it, the travel insurance would be too expensive, and the inflight meals are often you! The two Roberts are a good resource for AP study (Robert Monroe (The Monroe Institute does very comprehensive courses and products in binaural beat induction of AP & Robert Bruce (Astral Dynamics is a good text). But, you need to do the foundation work. But, AP is a distraction unless you use it for a particular purpose - the finer of which is being able to be lucid in Bardo when the time comes. The tibetans say if one is lucid in dream, then one can be lucid in bardo (after death). And if one is lucid in Bardo one can then take the path required for immortality. I don't AP deliberately now days - I'm working on developing astral vision first - bringing it all to you as opposed to going there. That in itself has enough pitfalls to keep you busy and learning to keep safe on the fringe of "other worlds" before jumping into the pool.

I like where you are going with this, Dream Bliss. Any enquiry to the functionings of mind driven by your own desire to understand will lead to mastery if you stick with it. Though, as we develop more we tend to see where we were "going "wrong"" at the outset. To avoid that my approach is to work with the "highest thing" for all. So substituting desire for "the highest thing" surrenders the personal will of it to the tao of it. ie unless this, or if it fits etc - becomes blah, blah if its the highest thing for the all.... I find that approach saves a lot of time wasting for me...

You obviously have freedom to dream, but this is not what Buddhism means by grasping.

Why can't I have dream experiences like that? In my dreams, I am never able to navigate from one place to the next and the humaniod creatures i encounter tell me: "Get a job"

Thanks for that - I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "lower" brain activity, however. Do you keep your eyes open when you meditate? Is there less vision, sound, tactile sensations, and smell? Are there any thoughts, feelings, fleeting images? Are you doing something with intent or focus? Not picking on you, just curious. I think that there may be an enormous variety of activity, inactivity, and experience for us during meditation that when we make claims, recommendations, and dogmatic statements, they may not be applicable across the board. Deep for some may mean a trance state, for others, a state of perfect attentiveness, yet others, absolute focus and control of the Yi through the orbit or at a particular point or points, alteration of time and spatial awareness, etc.. Also, as far as sleep is concerned, there is consciousness during dreams and for those who are skilled at dream and sleep yoga there is lucidity in dreams and consciousness during dreamless sleep as well.

not every sage talks of morality in a conventional sense. many go another way. they just don't get the spotlight as much unless they can be caricatured as truly diabolical. still, i think your perspective is very important. i'm not sure it's accurate, but i think the world benefits from our choosing to believe it is. in this dream world where people suffer from starvation and disease, we can serve those people on two fronts: a.) we can work to get them food and medicine. b.) we can end the dream by waking up. (word to ken)

So I had a near dream experience of meeting a humanoid cat person. I asked the cat what was needed. The cat replied, 'Be the One'.

How does one take off the parking brake? I don't know where the parking brake even is to take it off. I have had some success with dream recall, vivid dreams, but physically experiencing going out of body and travelling somewhere, no luck thus far.

What is the dream state? From the Taoism Doctrine we find the explanation of the Po suppressing the Hun. Hun is a relation to our Soul, and resides in the Liver Sphere. Po is a relation to the Jing, and resides in the Lung Sphere. The Po suppresses the Hun during sleep, the Hun wanders around, and dreams are a result. Hun sponsors life. Po sponsors death. Innate Nature is an Original Owner of the house - Hun - Disposition is like a thief that takes over the house and holds the original owner captive - Po - How to free the Innate Nature and transform the Disposition? Most think of the act of "meditation" as a posture when we cross the legs and sit without moving. This is usually the starting point of meditation practice, and for a very good reason. This is the most beneficial posture to discipline the heart. If the heart is not disciplined, then if one were to try and practice in the "sleeping" posture on the back, they would just drift off into "ordinary" sleep and loose consciousness. Cleanse the Heart / Self Discipline / Laying the Foundation Cleanse the Heart Mind of all Deluded Thoughts When the Heart Mind is clean and empty enough, Qi will come and naturally reside in this empty place. So it is generally taught, one uses the laying posture once the heart is disciplined, and also the meridian network has become opened, and Qi has been cultivated to some level. I close the eyes, and sleep; journey into the dream realm. I open the eyes and awaken from sleep; journey in the waking realm. The act of waking / The act of sleeping. Going back and forth, one depends upon the other for their relative existence. What if we were to "awaken" from this? The Great Awakening......... Change the defiled Ego into Wisdom. Such Wisdom can embody the equality of everything. Undifferentiated State. Everything is myself........ Myself is everything....... No discrimination.....

QUOTATIONS For Your Entertainment "It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955) "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means." - Clarence Darrow, Scopes trial, 1925. "I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Sir Stephen Henry Roberts (1901-1971) "God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire (1694-1778) "God, please save me from your followers!" - Bumper Sticker "I would have made a good Pope." - Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994) "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) "Maybe this world is another planet's Hell." - Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) ****************************************** "Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899 "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" - H. M. Warner (1881-1958), founder of Warner Brothers, in 1927 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson (1874-1956), Chairman of IBM, 1943 "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." - Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962 "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." - Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977 "If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen, or 1024 chickens?" - Seymour Cray (1925-1996), father of supercomputing "Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." - Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977) ****************************************** "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt." - Mark Twain (1835-1910) "He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) "Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something." - last words of Pancho Villa (1877-1923) "I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need." - Francois-Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), when asked how he managed to make his remarkable statues "His ignorance is encyclopedic" - Abba Eban (1915-2002) "I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right." - Henry Ford (1863-1947) "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." - Yoda ('The Empire Strikes Back') "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters." - Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959) “Suppose you were an idiot, and also suppose you were a member of Congress… But I repeat myself”. - Mark Twain ****************************************** “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” - Lao Tzu “you are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop”. - Anon “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light.” - Plato “Looking for consciousness in the brain, is like looking inside a radio for the announcer.” -Nissim Haramein "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain ****************************************** "Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake a whole relationship." - Sharon Stone "God gave men both a penis and a brain, but unfortunately not enough blood supply to run both at the same time." - Robin Williams

Thanks so much for posting this Dawg. I'm in this process, but haven't finished yet. It's a bit slower then with you, or maybe not. Sometimes my subconscious, my Animus, tells me what to do, for instance in a dream. But I have to pay great attention, because he talks in symbols and metaphors. The other day he showed me he had a window in his head and I had to study what was inside. But besides this holy marriage you talked about, I was also shown a marriage of three. I do not understand yet. Or maybe I do, it may be just real simple. You have given me confidence to continue on my path.

Just went into full-lotus for the first time today, after biking across Minneapolis. There's always a bit of stretching and pain and I make some "huurh!" sounds. haha. Yesterday read Govinda's biography of being a Tibetan monk. Pretty cool stuff. C'mon people -- just sit in full-lotus and the rest is immaterial. Last night I went to the midnight show of PAPRIKA -- Japanese Anime. Pretty cool stuff. Sat in full-lotus of course -- my yang electromagnetic energy shot into the chick two rows in front of me causing a mutual climax. The movie was all about the R.E.M. dream state and how a machine enabled group dreaming and others to control our dreams and how then reality and dreams merged and how the love of Paprika saved everyone. When we sit in full-lotus it creates R.E.M. dream state during the day -- while men are in R.E.M. they have erections and full-lotus enables any subconscious sexual tension to be resolved right then and there. Japanese culture is full of sex obsessed teenage-type males who have lost this secret. haha.

Patrick, we do practice lucid dreams but they are only part of the process. The goal is not to achieve lucid dreams. The goal is to obtain lucid dreams of which we have full control AND YET be able to show no attachement and let it *play* as a standard dream. Later, a 'no dream' phase will happen. Finally somebody whose name ("neidan practictioner") and words go hand-in-hand Thanks ! YM

Cool information SZ I respect and enjoy the works of Rawn Clark. At one time in a Q & A on his website, now erased, he mentioned he'd set up an astral meeting place for himself and a few high level hermetic practitioners. They'd discuss things there and occasionally talk afterwards on the phone to double check there notes. Do I believe it? Yeah, I do, cause I highly respect Mr. Clark. Is that in any way evidence? No, not at all. Its anecdote. Michael Winn talks about setting up a dream school flying classes. Probably did too, still it'd be nice to have the phenomena so well proved and documented that it causes a paradigm shift in societies views of consciousness.

I agree with the initial post that powers, whether physical or mental/psychological, have bugger all to do with the flow. In fact we have all been warned time and time again not to abuse personal power. Cultivating Occult powers is a trap for the ego and although this does not result in anything so bullshit as soul-lose it can and does eventually result in massive damage to the ego. If you've ever visited a secure psychiatric ward you'll know what I'm talking about. I have on occasion talked to people that can lucid dream and they tell me how they would love to be able to achieve such a state at will. I of course point out that the blurring of this world with the dream world (astral/bardo/loka) can end in schizophrenia. As I've said in other posts here I have experienced/had many occult powers although I choose to not develop them. The only ability I still have, which I think all people have to a greater or lesser extent, is to see prana. Look at the blue sky on a sunny day and hold a finger about twelve inches away from your face and you should be able to see bright sparks spinning around each other. I've never been given a modern scientific explanation for this phenomena although there may well be one. Anyway, as said occult powers are an ego trap, if not an ego trip, so it's much better to spend your time learning a musical instrument but please don't yearn to be famous as that's just another trap!

Here it is (btw, Heavenly Mountain is the current place of HT and Winn): ******************************************* "April 16, 2004 - by Earl Kaplan Dear residents of Fairfield, Heavenly Mountain, the Spiritual Center, and whomever else may want to read this letter: Over the past several years my brother, his family and I have been attacked verbally, emotionally, spiritually and financially for leaving the TM movement. I have not said anything during this time, not wanting to fight with anyone. However, I have now come to realize, for the sake of those who want to listen and for my sake as well, to clear my conscious of all that I have learned, heard and known, that I must share the knowledge that has come to me. We should all be free to listen to our hearts, to follow our own inner voice and not to be subject to a movement and a so-called "spiritual master" who rules through lies, fear and deceit. This letter is really for those of you who have been feeling that something is wrong. Remember in the Matrix when Trinity told Neo they had been looking for him because they knew that he could just feel there was something missing, something out of order but he just couldn1t figure out what. Well, that is how it started to be for me and TM. I knew something was wrong. I remembered that when I started I was promised enlightenment in 5-7 years. I remember in 1975 Maharishi promising that now that there were all these governors that there would be world peace. I remember in1977 at the end of the siddhis course Maharishi saying that it was just the hard knots of stress in the environment that needed to be cracked before we all started to fly and that he would call us back in a few years when we were ready to take off. I remember in the early 90's, Maharishi told my brother that if we built the spiritual center that he would fill it up with 1000 Purusha and 1000 Mother Divine. He said as soon as we finished the buildings and he moved Purusha and Mother Divine there that people would start to fly, they would go into enlightenment. He also told me that if I gave him enough money for his India project that he would create a 10,000 group that would bring world peace right away. For 30 years I listened and responded and devotedly donated more money to Maharishi's projects than anyone ever had. I had this deep yearning to try to help mankind. I wanted to help create a peaceful world and I wanted to gain my own inner enlightenment. I never wanted any public attention and for many years no one even knew I was the leading donor in the movement. After I had given all this money and waited patiently for the results that Maharishi had promised, I started to wake up. I started to realize that I had been misled. WE ALL HAD! Where are the 7000 pundits Maharishi had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for and had repeatedly promised to bring to the U.S.? Where is the world peace he promised us all those years. Where is there one person who has gotten enlightened in the TM movement? Maharishi said even a person in Cosmic Consciousness can perform the siddhis successfully and fly. In unity consciousness the prescriptions of Patanjali are not needed to get the results, they just happen. Please show me one or two people who can fly, who can perform the siddhis successfully, who are truly enlightened and I will admit that I am wrong. But really, no one in the TM movement can do so. The true believers in the TM movement actually become incensed when you ask them to give you a concrete demonstration of their abilities. The truth that I have come to realize is that the enlightenment that some of these TM people think they have is just a total delusion. There is no real substantive proof because there is no valid spiritual experience. The TM experience is an illusory experience, a sort of dream state brought about by using a technique that traps one in one's own mind. Since I retired three years ago I have been researching spiritual techniques. I have spoken with a number of holy men from various traditions. I have traveled to India and met with enlightened Swamis and visited many of the sacred and holy cites. I have spoken with pundits who were in charge of the pundit groups. I have spoken with Dr. Triguna and other individuals who had been high up in the TM organization. I interviewed members of Guru Dev's family. I spoke with people in the TM movement who had looked at some of the financial records of the TM organization and I have spoken with investment people who said they have been in charge of investing some of the movement's assets. I have spoken with old time skin boys (Maharishi's personal assistants) and old course participants who were involved with Maharishi sexually (verified by the old skin boys). I have had the good fortune to come across wonderful alternative healing practices that really work and wonderful spiritual practices that are taught by the real representatives of age-old traditional lineages. I have been shocked to discover the secrets behind the real TM organization and the secrets behind Guru Dev's death. I have read an extended interview from the real Shankaracharya in which the true traditional spiritual teaching of jyotir math is discussed. I have talked with many higher up people from the TM movement and many people outside the TM movement and all the discussions point to the same thing. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has pulled off the biggest spiritual scam in modern history. He has successfully diverted a large group of sincere spiritual seekers from the real spiritual path. He has accumulated hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in assets for his family, the Shrivastavas. He has not only made up his name (he is not a Maharishi) but he has made up a meditation practice which is mechanical and repetitive in nature and which leads to brain washing by occult powers and a siddhi practice which has nothing to do with Patanjali. He has brought to the west a watered down version of ayurveda and a skewered version of Shtapatya Veda. Finally, if you look at all the poor people on Purusha and Mother Divine who are anemic and have advanced stages of osteoporosis, you will know that he has ruined many lives. The true believers in the TM movement will tell you these are all lies. They will tell you that even though they may be suffering from cancer or be penniless, they may be 50 years old, childless and living with their parents, they may have had much better experiences 25 years ago than they do today, they will insist to you that Maharishi is a God and it is their shortcomings that have caused them to be in such a predicament. Well let me tell you, these poor people are totally brainwashed. I feel bad for all of them. But sympathy is no longer acceptable. I want to share my experiences so that maybe you can wake up. You don1t need to be trapped in the Matrix. There are so many wonderful, loving people in the world and so many spiritually advanced souls walking the earth. Unfortunately, there aren't too many in the TM movement. This version of my story really starts about three years ago. I was sitting with Maharishi privately, because at the time I had an open invitation to come to Vlodrop and sit with Mahesh whenever I wanted to. At that time I knew that Mahesh had many tens of millions of dollars, the money he needed to create a 10,000 group. He was talking about building big buildings, buying airlines, etc. etc. I said, Maharishi, since you have the money and supposedly you have enough pundits, why don't you create a 10,000 group in India and then the world will experience peace and the TM movement will gain great support of the laws of nature and our other activities will then work out. Mahesh looked at me like I was crazy and said: "Earl, if we created the group then we don't know if it would create world peace or not. We would have to have the group and then see what effect it has." I have to tell you, this sort of shocked me after Mahesh for years had been raising hundreds of millions of dollars for his world peace groups. To be perfectly honest, though, this response was somewhat in line with the other responses he had been making to me. When I would ask him spiritual questions he never had answers more than what he offered in the seven steps. Or he might launch into one of his hour long circular discussions of the Ved and creation or the Ved and human physiology. I finally started to realize, Mahesh doesn't really understand the spiritual process and if I wanted to get enlightened I better take responsibility for the process and seek out people who had been successful in getting others enlightened and who really knew what was going on. So, I started to read and research the subject (two things Mahesh told us never to do, otherwise we might confuse ourselves) and I spoke with numerous people and these are the things I have learned that I think are the most important 1. Even though Guru Dev was a great teacher, he never gave Mahesh spiritual instruction and he never taught him to teach others. In fact, he told Mahesh he would never have anything to do with anything other than material success. 2. There are very strange events around Guru Dev's death. The real current Shankaracharya and Guru Dev's nephew and two Swami's independent of each other had very similar stories. It is believed that Mahesh had Guru Dev poisoned. During the funeral he then went back to jyotir math and stole the most powerful spiritual artifact Guru Dev had created, a gold and jeweled Shri Yantra. Mahesh, after traveling throughout India, found a man who could activate the outer portions of the Shri Yantra. This gave Mahesh certain occult powers and control over certain astral beings. Mahesh then created a meditation technique and certain mantras that would help people blank their minds. In this blank state (which has nothing to do with transcendence that is talked about in the yoga sutras) these astral beings would brainwash these meditators into certain beliefs and certain actions. In addition, Mahesh would put blocks on people's nervous systems to block their Kundalini from rising and to siphon off their energy. Now I know this sounds pretty wild but think about it for a while. Why do so many meditators have such a dazed and confused look about them? Why do meditators find it so hard to focus? Why do most people who have been in the movement for thirty years admit that their best experiences in TM were in the seventies and since then their meditations have been going downhill? Why are so many people asleep in the dome? Why do you need to lie down and rest for 10-30 minutes after you have meditated? Why is there so much unstressing? Why are so many meditators so sensitive? They have to go to sleep on time? They can1t watch movies; they have to be careful about their diet. They can't stand loud noises. They get tired in the middle of the day. It is not for the reasons you have been told. It is not because you are experiencing a refinement of the nervous system. Your physiology is getting weaker. It is because the process of TM is sucking your very life energy out of you. After you meditate in the dome you have to lie down just to recover. When you do proper spiritual practice as discussed in the yoga sutras (and which I have studied), you just need a minute or two to regain an outward direction and then you can get on with your activity with a very clear mind and very good energy. 3. TM is not really a spiritual practice. It does give good rest to a lot of people who lead busy lives, but it does not necessarily rejuvenate the physiology. To understand this point you have to start to read the spiritual texts. You have to understand the yoga sutras and you have to study the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the major treatise on Hatha Yoga. Many older TM meditators (from the seventies) started TM and were interested in getting enlightened. They were interested in spiritual evolution. Mahesh with his practice and teaching has done an amazing thing. He has diverted the focus and efforts of a large group of spiritual seekers and made it so impossible for them to have spiritual progress that most of them have really lost interest in the idea of getting enlightened. This was one of Mahesh's true purposes in teaching TM (his other two being to make billions of dollars and to suck energy from his followers). He has succeeded very well. In studying the basic Hindu texts and various other Tantric texts, I have come to understand that spiritual evolution is not a complicated process. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika talks about the eight limbs of yoga. The first two Yama and Niyama are really about living a good life. That is the basis for spiritual evolution. You live a loving, purposeful life. You are directed in your activity, you look after your family and friends, and you do good. In terms of spiritual practice, you have a balance of proper asana positions, pranayama techniques, hand mudras (which enliven certain brain centers) and meditation practice to bring about a holistic growth. The whole point of these practices is to enliven or wake up your kundalini shakti. This term is basic to any discussion of spiritual evolution. Every person has this latent energy in them referred to as kundalini (not creative intelligence, please!). This energy, which lays dormant in the lower chakra, needs to be awakened. It needs to travel up the sushumna enlivening the various chakras until it travels to the crown chakra and reunites with Shiva (pure consciousness). This is the real experience of unity, the reuniting of Shiva and Shakti. It is an experience beyond space and time. It is not the experience of silence moving into silence that the million dollar course participants and Mahesh talk about. It is the genuine spiritual experience discussed in all the scriptures of eternal bliss consciousness. The proper physical, breathing and mental practices, done diligently, have a holistic effect in improving one's life very quickly. The purpose of spiritual practice is to improve one's life, not t o make one a slave to that spiritual practice. Most of the long term meditators I have talked to tell me that TM has not brought them good experiences for many years. The ones who have branched out and learned good yoga practices and found good alternative healers seem to be making some progress, a lot more than those who are diligently following Mahesh's programs. 4. In traditional spiritual teaching in India, an enlightened teacher takes on a few students and gives them a very unique and particular set of practices (asanas, pranayama, hand mudras and meditation techniques) that are geared just for that person. Each person has a different set of practices because each person has a unique physiology, psychology and spiritual make up. The teacher's responsibility is to help the student with his practices so that both his worldly life and spiritual life improve quickly. The spiritual practices a person is given are like a combination that allow the kundalini shakti to be directed up the sushumna and reach makara point, the chakra of the upper brow. This is the beginning of a seeker's spiritual life because only the 6th and 7th chakras are considered the spiritual chakras and have to do with spiritual experience. The first five chakras have to do with material life so experience dealing with those chakras is material experience. Because most TM meditators have not had this type of kundalini rising, they are still caught in the material world and have not really begun their spiritual transformation. What brings about spiritual transformation and the refinement of a person's physiology, psychology and overall life is the infusion of divine light into their being. The establishment of the kundalini shakti at makara creates a situation whereby the shakti, each person's own inner divine goddess, starts to take over and direct a person's growth. Only then is real spiritual progress possible. Only when the divine light begins to be seen and infused into a person does real progress take place. In the yoga sutras of Patanjali yoga is defined as spiritual absorption. When one meditates properly they do not experience blank mind. What happens is that a person learns to turn their attention within (pratyahara) and then through one pointed focus on a proper mantra (dharana) they quickly start to become absorbed in the divine light, the self-effulgent self. With the right practice this progress takes place in a matter of days, weeks or months, not decades. If you do not have the right practice then it will take lifetimes to have real progress. 5. I cannot prove this, but I have spoken with a number of people high up in the TM organization and with investment advisors of the TM organization and they have all told me the same thing, Mahesh has accumulated billions of dollars in assets for his family. 6. Mahesh is not a spiritually enlightened Vedic master. I know this is a really hard one to believe and the last one I let go of, but it is the truth. First of all, the darshan which people experience and the experience people have around Mahesh has nothing to do with how spiritually enlightened people are. It is true that Mahesh has strong presence, but so do movie actors and famous athletes. Enlightened people usually don't project energy like Mahesh does. They keep it more to themselves. Also, people have amazing visual experiences and bliss experiences around Mahesh. But I have now come to see they are illusory. They are an occult trick Mahesh uses to brainwash his disciples. In reality, Mahesh is not interested in spiritual things. In the sixties and early seventies he had sex with a series of girlfriends. I have spoken with some of them in detail. Why do you think the Beatles left? It was because Mahesh put a move on Mia Farrow. She didn1t make it up; he really went after her. Mahesh has been interested in power, in the accumulation of money, and in women. Why does he live in a big house, own helicopters, airplanes, etc? Why does he spend most of his time involved in business planning about making money? It is because he is a businessman who has the desires that other wealthy businessmen have. His spiritual front is his scam and the way he gets people to give him their time and money. 7. The TM-Sidhi program has nothing to do with Patanjali's teachings. I was on the course when Mahesh made up the program. He simply experimented with different sutras until he came up with something he thought would work. Do you really think that Patanjali had people do the sutras in English? It is not Mahesh's genius that he figured it all out. If you really want to know about the yoga sutras why don't you buy four o r five translations and see what the top scholars have to say. The first thing you will find out is that the proper mantra to be repeated in meditation practice (and this is exactly what Swaroopanand, the real Shankaracharya after Guru Dev says) includes the pranava, which is Om, at the beginning and end with the name of your personal deity in between. There is nothing wrong with the repetition or saying the word Om, it is the holiest of sounds and only brings good to life. Mahesh is the only so-called spiritual master I know of who has instilled fear in his disciples about saying Om. I think the problem Mahesh had in people repeating Om is that in the presence of its repetition astral beings lose their power and any evil influence is redirected back to its source. One other important point is that the mechanical repetition of a mantra without meaning or devotion brings no spiritual progress whatsoever. This point is referred to in the yoga sutras and in many discussions of great spiritual teachers. The mechanical repetition of some meaningless word brings no opening of the heart, no love in one's life, and no unfoldment of true spiritual values. Haven't you ever wondered why so many people in the TM movement seemed so heartless, especially the administrators at the early courses. It was because their mechanical repetition of a meaningless word was actually closing their heart, not opening it. That is why so many people in the TM movement have suffered a sort of disassociation with so much of their life where they don't have the same feelings they used to. It's not because they are more highly evolved, it is because they are disconnected from their hearts 8. There are no pundits and there will never be a group coming over to the U.S. I spoke with people who had helped organize the early group that was actually in existence but was disbanded long ago. I also spoke with one of the pundits who were in charge of training the pundit boys (the students). There are hardly any real pundits (there used to be around 15) because the movement would use them and then not pay them. I even spoke with Mahesh who personally told me he would never send real pundits to the U.S. because once they got here they would get better paying jobs. He said they would only send the pundit boys because then they could control them. It turns out several years ago my brother actually got approval from the US State Department to bring a group of one or two thousand pundits to Heavenly Mountain. When it came time for the TM movement in India to give the U.S. embassy the names of the pundits who would be coming over, we got word back that Maharishi had change d his mind and felt it was not a good time to send them. We realized then that the pundit thing was just a scam to raise money and since have had this verified by a number of different people. 9. Mahesh installed his own Shankaracharya and keeps him on the payroll. This way when he sends people to India he sends them to his own Shankaracharya who tells people whatever Mahesh wants them to hear. The real Shankaracharya was chosen by the other Shankaracharyas and sits at important spiritual meetings with them. They will not even allow themselves to be seen in the same hall with Mahesh's Shankaracharya, lest someone get the wrong idea. 10. Mahesh wants your money and he wants it badly. After I had donated so much money and fulfilled all of my commitments, a friend of mine heard Mahesh ranting about the fact that he had not gotten the last half of my fortune. I warn you all, Mahesh will keep milking you for every penny he can get from you until he bleeds you dry and then he will discard you as so much dead wood. 11. The TM organization will stop at nothing to protect their secrets and to smear anyone who tries to get in their way. My brother is now the number one enemy of the movement. Before that, Deepak was the number one enemy. There is always a number one enemy. If you really want to understand the dealings of Mahesh and the TM movement, please read "The Guru Papers, Masks of Authoritarian Power" by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad. Reading this one book will go a long way to helping you liberate yourself from the years of brainwashing and mental anguish you have suffered at the hands of the TM movement. 12. Mahesh has told everyone never to talk to psychics. I have finally realized why. My brother and I have talked to a number of very well known psychics in the U.S. and we have been amazed. Most of them have never even heard of Maharishi and when they put their attention on him they say the same thing. They find he is a very dark and evil being. They talk about his greed, his sexual liaisons and his need for power and to control his disciples. They talk about astral beings he controls who are able to control other people's minds. These same psychics can tell you all about your life and things that have happened. I am not into talking to psychics but I think it is interesting how Mahesh always steered us clear of them. We thought it was for our protection, when in reality it was because Mahesh didn't want you to hear what they had to say about him. Mahesh deals with psychic and occult powers as opposed to the celestial realms and gaining real knowledge. He doesn't want you to know about this. 13. Finally, I have known some very enlightened children who, upon meeting Mahesh, would comment that what they saw was an evil demon in disguise. At the time I thought they were unstressing. But now I see what was really happening. Mahesh puts on this guise of being a warm and loving spiritual master when in reality he is after money, power and control. These children would actually see his real form, a form most of us are not able to see. 14. Why are people in the TM movement told that if they want to make some real spiritual progress then they have to meditate every day longer and longer periods of time, they have to be far away from normal people, they have to eat certain things, do certain things, live certain ways. It is because TM is not a real spiritual practice; it is a cult. In real practice you start to feel the brotherhood of all mankind. As you become more established in the Self you have more flexibility. Less and less affects you in a negative way. You become less dependent on your outside environment and more dependent on who you are. You are able to see the joy in all situations and be more and more in the moment. Are you trapped in a cult? Are most of your friends TM meditators. Do you live in a Stapatya Vedic house? Do you donate money to the TM movement? Do you not feel so good unless you go to the dome? Do you read other discussions of spiritual texts or do you feel that would be wrong t o expose yourself to others' opinions? Do you feel a little funny about your family members because they don't meditate, they eat meat; they haven't come across the true knowledge yet? Do you feel TM is the highest knowledge and really the only way? Does your mind create circular arguments in discussing your own evolution or spiritual knowledge to make the point that everything Maharishi says is exactly right? Do you feel a little bit sorry for other people who haven1t quite realized that TM is the truth, the light, the only way to God? Do you think that even though you haven't gotten enlightened yet that it is just around the corner and you know that some day it is coming? Or else, by now it doesn't matter because you know that some day Maharishi will take care of all that? Do you feel sorry for me that I have fallen off the path?! Fellow spiritual seeker, I say a prayer for you that one day you can wake up and take back the responsibility for your own spiritual progress and for your own life. The world is a wonderful place and there are so many wonderful people from so many different walks of life. There are so many successful paths to God and to Love and to Self-Realization. Mahesh's influence and power have diminished significantly. So many people in Fairfield are starting to wake up from a thirty-year dream to recapture their life and to enjoy what is left of this turn on earth. Good luck! With sincere prayers and an open heart everyone can find the truth. But you have to start to look! With love and gratitude to all my friends and acquaintances in Fairfield. One day may you say to yourself, for many years I was a seeker, but now I can honestly say I have become a finder. Love, Earl (see more below:) P.S. Some of the things I have said are pretty far out, but let me ask you this. If you have been meditating for thirty years, do you feel you are making progress or do you just hope one day things will get better. Is your body feeling healthier now than it was 30 years ago? Are you more limber and more energetic or do you have growing health concerns? If you are feeling better, is it from TM or is it because you have started doing Pilates or a yoga practice given to you by someone else or some other good form of exercise? Considering all the meditation you have done and all the ayurveda you've done and all the yagyas you've done, don't you think you should be feeling great? Most people who have invested thirty years into something don't want to give it up. Maybe when you were a teenager TM got you off drugs. Maybe teaching TM gave you a good direction in life. But come on, that was 30 years ago. TM isn't working, the TM organization is dying, Mahesh is literally dying and becoming irrational as well, and you're wasting your life. The good news though, is its not too late. You can improve your life. You can heal your body. You can improve your spiritual process. But if you continue to do what you've been doing for 30 years in the prime of your life and it hasn't worked, I can tell you; it's not going to work any better the next thirty years. So good luck, you can wake up. You can disconnect from the Matrix and start to become a real person. It is not too late, but as Vasishta said in the Yoga Vasishtha, it is only through your own self-effort that you will make progress on the spiritual path. I pray for you all. To make a transition is not an easy thing, but I can guarantee you, it's worth it! Earl Kaplan As most of you probably know, I was by far the biggest donor in the history of the TM movement. For many years I donated money privately and never sought to have public knowledge of this. I had become very successful and wanted to try to help the world by donating money to build the spiritual cente r of America and later to help create a 7,000 group in India. Maharishi (or better I call him Mahesh, since Mahesh paid some pundits to give him that title) promised David and I that if we built the Spiritual Center, he would fill it with 1000 Purusha and 1000 Mother Divine. He said once this was done that people would gain enlightenment, that they would have mastery over the siddhis and that world peace would be created. He also promised me that if I donated money to India he would create a 10,000 group that would automatically create world peace. These were just a few of the many promises that Mahesh made to me that he never was able to follow through with. Most true followers in the TM movement believe tha t it is okay for Mahesh to lie, cheat and steal because he is an enlightened sage and anything he does is in accord with the laws of nature. I have to tell you that the laws that apply to Mahesh are the same that apply to each of us. If you lie and cheat and steal you suffer the consequences. Why is any man above being a good, righteous person? I don't think they are. The amazing things I have learned over the past three years have helped liberate me from a cult mentality that runs rampant in the TM movement. If you are reading this thinking, "poor Earl, he is such a deluded soul," then I feel sorry for you because you are indeed caught in the matrix of delusion that old Mahesh has so successfully spun over the last 30 years. Why did Triguna leave the movement? *******************************************

I am pretty sure he experienced something however to properly digest the wisdom of this experience would take years if not a decade. I am always intrigued that westerners or Christians experiencing the Kundalini energy would talk about the universe and knowing the universe. With me, I dream about my immediate past life. After I resolved my current life karma, I went on to deal with my past life karma, which is 100x fold more sticky and painful. I didn't see God. I never associated with my kundalini energy rising as love. Is probably left over from his Christian upbringing. I think his experience is genuine but as we all know, you don't just enter into a samadhi once. It should occur to you every time you are meditating. I think he has found his Dharma gate, not enlightened yet. However, his path has been shown to him.

the dream discribe this feeling from viewpoint of follower

I was out eating last night and saw the last like...half of the game. Laughed a bit when portugal tied it, that was an amazing setup shot and header... and then... WHAT? you're just going to stop fkn playing?!?!?!?! What the hell you mean? Really, they just end the game and stop playing like that with no resolution to the contest??? pffff. another reason not to watch soccer. that was the stupidest thing ever, no wonder they have soccer riots, that bull is like being a kid and having a dream where you're about to get laid and then you wake up. just about cant get any more anti climactic than that. I dont think there's a greater example of waiting forever for something to maybe happen, well, nope its ok if nothing happens... I thought games and tournaments are tests of skill to find the better team, but what do I know I've watched games of chess that were as interesting. I'm allright with actually playing the sport, but watching it is like watching grass grow, imho

Ken Wilber dosent have a brain, he prooved it himself: His therories are genious. I use them a lot. I got an overview of them from Joseph Dillard who has integrated them into a dreamwork method he calls Dream Yoga, also called Deep Listening or Integral Dreamwork (so its not confused with Tibetian Dream Yoga), explaining the AQAL and how it relates to dreams. But it seems everything is supposed to be "integral" these days.

What happens when we sleep and dream, I wonder. Some how it start all over again. The peace and tranquillity I took with me to bed whirled away. As when I train tai chi chuan throughout the day, I am at the peak (of peace) in the afternoon, feeling the pressure/ present of dao, every thing is nice, chi flow and so on. Night comes with dreams and it starts all over again. Why? Any ideas? How to cultivate while dreaming.

Hi there, I would agree with one of the previous posters that if the kidney energy is strong there shouldnt be too many nocturnal emmisions depending on age ie it is fairly normal for early teenagers ect, my advice if you are having trouble and are serious about your practice would be to see a reputable experienced chinese herbalist, the pathology of nocturnal emmisions is certainly a broad subject within chinese medicine, there can be a number of reasons for it, but certainly the core of the problem is kidney energy unable to restrain the essence or jing, this can be a problem for people who do qi gong and build up their energy, the energy is generated but cannot be held and so results in wet dream, in the mean time cerainly do watch your diet, foods that are rich can cause problems if you cant digest them properly, I would say avoid greasy foods and dairy products high sugar fruits and alcohol, stick to lots of veggies and protein and some grains rice ect, certainly try to curb your sexual desire porn ect, but definately dont suppress your feelings this is very unhealthy, deprogram dont reprogram, being aware of the dream state is also very helpful but for some is not such an easy skill to learn, there are numerous techniques that can be applied to become more aware and lucid in your dreams. there are chinese herbal formulas you can buy over the internet that treat nocturnal emmision using astringent herbs and herbs for the kidneys but these sometimes are innafective because they dont fit your unique pattern so you are better of finding a good chinese herbalist that is reasonably priced, anyways hope theres something in my post thats helpful. james