This follow selection was taken from Dr Michaela Ozelsel Book 40 days. It is very poignant for a few reasons. The reason why I have liked this essay and the many other essays in her book is that Dr Ozelsel combines traditional spiritual education and experiences with contemporary research.
A lot of studies have been done on the mystical experience and it is useful to look at this research in light of the practices of mystical traditions
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In the early stages of biofeedback research, one of the assumptions made was that the states reached through biofeedback simulated those reached by mystics:
“As technology for measuring and trainign brain waves becomes more sophisticated, unpracticed meditators will the opportunity to duplicate the psychological states of Zen and Yoga.” This is a misconception. Stoya, quoted in G. Krishan, Kundalini for a New Age p.59
Krishna, who devoted himself to scientific research into the ”symtomatology of spiritual awakening” his whole life long, characterizes this assumption as a grave mistake.
There is such deep difference between the mystics known to history and specimens produced by these methods that it does not need any special effort to distinguish between the two. G. Krishna Kundalini for a New Age
Here is a perfect example taken from a personal account:
“in the course of seven years I succeeded in subjecting the fully autonomous {Kundalini} vibrations to the control of my conscious self….. This long process has had many positive consequences for me. Now I am able to experience total bodily pleasure… It takes me scarcely a moment to free myself from stress, conquer physical pain adn renew my stores of energy when they are depleted - Quote according to Sannella, Kundalini Experience p. 82
In this description it is obviously not any kind of self transcendence in the spiritual sense that we hear speaking, only at most a self actualization in the sense of humanistic psychology.
All sorts of different spiritual tradition warn against the false evaluation. For example, an instruction from the Shinto tradition says:
It is important that the individual who enters the astral dimension and experiences those phenomena that are consistent with this state does not exaggerate his accomplishment since the astral dimension is not his destination, but simple an early stopover on his long journey to satori.
In Sufism the same warning is expressed in the well known metaphor of the rose: the thorny stem symbolizes the difficulties of the way, the blossom symbolizes transitory states that are achievable and subjectively speaking are extremely satisfying. There is a great temptation to be “blinded by the beauty of the blossom” and halt at this level. The actual goal however is the essence of the rose its fragrance which symbolize the transcendant dimension of reality. In his treatment of the halvet,” Ibn Arabi instructs the seeker to know this danger and be ready to meet it, advising:
.., that in the solitude of the halvet you should seek to gain anything from Him but His own self, nor fix your himma, the willpower of yours heart, on anything else but Him. If everything in the universe is spread before out before you ["The rose blossom"] accept it graciously but don’t stop there. Be stubborn in your search, for He is testing you. If you settle for what is offered you, He will elude you. But if you gain Him Himself [the essence, the fragrance of the rose] nothing will elude you. Once you know that, know as well that God tests you by these things He offers you.
The above quotes personal account (as transmitted by Sannella) is a classic example of a seeker who to use Sufi terminology has been stranded by the beauty of the rose.
Even western scientists who have investigated this phenomenon have come to the conclusions that depict ”manufactured mystics” and ”instant enlightenment as an illusion. Sanella for example who has investigated the Kundalini syndrome from a Western Scientific point of view, makes a differentiation in this light between the psychological aspects of Kundalini and the total process of Spiritual (Kundalini) Awakening:
There are some fairly normal people who ruin through the whole physio-Kundalini cycle in just a few months [all characteristic signs of the physio-kundalini comples are contained in the clinical descriptions], whereas the literature of Yoga calls for a considerably longer time several years, for the completion of the Kundalini process, even in the case of the most advanced initiates. This strongly suggested that full fledged Kundalini awakening is a significantly more comprehensive process of which the physio Kundalini cycle is only a part. It is also possible that the physio kundalini is a separate and independent process that is activated in the larger context of a total Kundalini awakening. It would be premature to formaulate any conslusive hypithese ion this questions.
Rama in White (p.30) points out the rarity of genuine experiences:
These holy systematic and extremely advances teachings [Kundalini] which brings the practitioner to the highest trancendaent state of consciosusness, have been reduced to a caricature in the West consisting of nothing but breathing exercises and the groundless claim of numerous teachers who claim to be able to arouse the energy in many of their pupils by touch or presence alone. What in fact is aroused in the pupil all too often is the person’s latent hysterical tendencies, causing him or her to experience all kinds of imaginary things. The false interpretation of the ancient and venerable teachings leads , not to true awakening but to self deception…Most of the accounts of Kundalini awakening that we come upon in the West are purley the utterances of a high flying imagination.
Perhaps Eastern and Western Observation can be made to fit together as follows: a transformative transition into consciousness is impossible without a corresponding physiobiological transformation, but such a physiological transformation does not in itself suffice to bring about spiritual awakening.
The questions of the authenticity of mystical experiences is not new. It is brought up even in the classic scriptures of spiritual traditions and runs like a scarlet thread through the writings of Shah, who among contemporary Sufi authors is probably one of the best known in the West. He repeatedly points out how people tend to confuse enthusiasm and emotionality with mystical experience. Again and again he emphasizes the need for a teacher, the only person capable of distinguishing pseudo-experiences from real ones with any certainty.
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This is a woman’s firsthand account of a Sufi halvet, a forty-day retreat conducted in complete isolation, along with strict fasting from sunrise to sundown. Voluntarily confined to a sparsely furnished room amid the bustle of Istanbul, Michaela Özelsel will occupy her time with reading the Qur’an and works of Rumi and Ibn ‘Arabi, and with praying and practicing the powerful Sufi exercise known as zhikr, the rhythmic repetition of names of God or other sacred formulas, accompanied by movements of the head or body. In intimate detail Dr. Özelsel shares her experiences as she strives to attain true “Islam” in its meaning of surrender or unconditional acceptance of the will of God. Her daily journal ranges over the frustrations of noisy neighbors, power outages, and a poorly heated room; her inner longings, doubts, and memories of the life course that has brought her to this moment; and the most inspirational philosophical insights, dreams and visions, and ecstatic raptures. The second half of the book is devoted to the author’s psychological and cultural commentary on her experiences, including observations about the methods of Sufi schooling, sexuality and spirituality, and the relationship with the spiritual guide. Forty Days is unique in the literature of spiritual education because it is informed by her knowledge of contemporary research from several disciplines, thus creating a bridge between ancient wisdom and scientific investigation.
Related articles
- Kundalini Yoga – What Is The Mystery? (yogafitness51.wordpress.com)
He said, “Where is there safety?”
I said, “In service and renunciation.”
He said, “What is there to renounce?”
I said, “The hope of salvation.”
~Rumi
This is a woman’s firsthand account of a Sufi halvet, a forty-day retreat conducted in complete isolation, along with strict fasting from sunrise to sundown. Voluntarily confined to a sparsely furnished room amid the bustle of Istanbul, Michaela Özelsel will occupy her time with reading the Qur’an and works of Rumi and Ibn ‘Arabi, and with praying and practicing the powerful Sufi exercise known as zhikr, the rhythmic repetition of names of God or other sacred formulas, accompanied by movements of the head or body. In intimate detail Dr. Özelsel shares her experiences as she strives to attain true “Islam” in its meaning of surrender or unconditional acceptance of the will of God. Her daily journal ranges over the frustrations of noisy neighbors, power outages, and a poorly heated room; her inner longings, doubts, and memories of the life course that has brought her to this moment; and the most inspirational philosophical insights, dreams and visions, and ecstatic raptures. The second half of the book is devoted to the author’s psychological and cultural commentary on her experiences, including observations about the methods of Sufi schooling, sexuality and spirituality, and the relationship with the spiritual guide. Forty Days is unique in the literature of spiritual education because it is informed by her knowledge of contemporary research from several disciplines, thus creating a bridge between ancient wisdom and scientific investigation.