The pursuit of higher consciousness has become a New Age mass movement. Yet consciousness is not just a casual involvement with the latest spiritual trend; its pursuit has a connection to human biology that is often overlooked.
Biology is an expression of consciousness; it plays a fundamental role in the practice of energy cultivation techniques, a fact most people are unaware of. My book, Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time is a case study of how one such technique, Kundalini Meditation, used bio-sexual energy to overhaul my physical body to create a new human being in one lifetime. That is the power of bio-consciousness; it uses Kundalini to recondition and revitalize the being, enabling the newly created Avatar to explore the vistas of higher consciousness.
There are many paths, many systems, many techniques. They work in different ways. Some are more ethereal; some are more biological. Some work by improving the individual's outlook and world view. Some actually overhaul the entire being. But how many of them alter brain chemistry in any significant fashion? Because that is where greater consciousness is forged. In my case, an activated Kundalini altered my somatic, metabolic, and genetic actuality, rearranging me physically.
The question put forward, extrapolated from my experience, is: With the adoption of systems from other cultures, such as meditation and yoga as well as the veritable explosion of New Age self-realization systems could the mass experimentation with these techniques ultimately trigger an acceleration of human evolution or will we have to wait for evolution to simply take its course? Is there sufficient critical mass to allow the various self-realization techniques to push humanity over the threshold of higher consciousness or do these techniques only produce temporary change in a given individual? If we could influence evolution by the mass practice of these techniques, which ones work best?
While practicing a given system, one often becomes a devoted disciple, often hesitating to evaluate the results with a critical eye. Does the system I practice actually produce results? Am I changing? How? Is my brain chemistry changing? For instance, am I able to function at a higher level? Do I have a greater existential awareness? Could I possibly give up sex and use my distilled sexual energy for the sublimation purposes? How can I prove I am changing? Can I demonstrate altered brain chemistry? Or have I only convinced myself that I must be changing because I'm an eager follower of such-and-such a method?
Well-Dressed Indian Ladies
Is there a scientific way of confirming altered brain chemistry? A way of showing that Method A alters brain chemistry more completely than Method B?
Right now, scientists combatting Alzheimer's offer solutions for increasing, or stabilizing, brain cell propagation. Cognitive techniques of all sorts, from tic-tac-toe to Monopoly to crossword puzzles to attention, memory, and coordination games. There are websites devoted to these types of exercises. Websites that after a few free rounds ask you to pay. Here's how one site, Lumosity, describes their neuron rebuilding program:
"The Human Cognition Project makes it easy for neuroscience researchers to study the questions that advance their research in ways that have not been previously possible. The ease of use and engaging nature of the Lumosity programs means that people enjoy doing the training, making it easy to recruit and retain participants in university-based studies. It also means that the database of users worldwide is growing everyday, giving researchers a new venue for exploring cognition not previously available. With over 14 million members worldwide having played hundreds of millions of game, Lumosity has the largest database of human cognition ever assembled. Researchers are actively exploring this database to understand the determinants of cognitive performance and cognitive enhancement — all in an effort to make the world a smarter place."
For all the buildup it's not really scientifically certain that cognitive exercises prevent the onslaught of dementia. So what about New Age consciousness enhancing methods? What about traditional Eastern methods like yoga and meditation? What are their track records?
There are many scattered, unfiltered anecdotal reports — books like Deciphering the Golden Flower One Secret at a Time, for instance. Unfortunately, scientists don't approve of anecdotal data. Even the thousands of statements related to Near Death Experience and Out of Body Experience make them uncomfortable, despite the fact that similar statements are collected from people who don't know each other, live in different countries, speak different languages, belong to different religions, and don't share a common culture. But wouldn't the notion of critical mass begin to apply here? As far as science is concerned the answer is no. Nevertheless, maintaining these anecdotal accounts as hypotheses should be prefectly acceptable.
Out of Body Adventures
That goes for Kundalini, for Tai Chi, for meditation methods of all sorts, for all New Age proclivities and predispositions. It's up to each of us to find a means of quantifying the regenerative aspects of a given system and then compare the results with, say, cognitive game therapy such as Lumosity. We need to work towards a common goal, each of us pursuing, and elaborating on, the practices that first got us involved in metaphysical research. In my case, it would be the brain chemistry altering capabilities of a “science" like Kundalini Meditation (GFM), which actually floods the brain with dementia fighting substances, derived and distilled from bio-sexual energy.