To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/11/01 02:57
Subject: [K-list] Psychiatric view on kundalini (excerpt)
From: Ville Vainio
On 1999/11/01 02:57, Ville Vainio posted thus to the K-list:
Hello, I'm back from my vacation. Quite a lot of mails to catch up, it
seems... And yes, I'm still quite sane (and feeling grrreat) even though I
tried deeper meditation levels. Check out the text below, there are some
interesting points. I got this text from my caring, xian aunt. It was
originally in finnish, so the text might seem slightly non-english.
>From page 162 of the book:
Pekka Reinikainen/ Marja Rantanen: "Parantajat - Kuinka puoskarointi
muuttui vaihtoehtolääketieteeksi"
[roughly "Healers - how snake oil peddling became alternative medicine"]
Translated (badly) from Finnish to English by myself (Ville). Comments
inside []-quotes are by me.
~---------------
Robert Paul writes in "Suomen Lääkärilehti" [Finnish doctor magazine]
(5/85, p. 352) with the heading "Meditation psychosis - a new
psychiatric disease?" as follows:
"With people who practice trancendental meditation or other
introspective consciousness excercises there has been detected
peculiar instances of psychic disease, that don't fit into the
framework of currently used diagnoses. Common to the patients was,
that during meditation or other autosuggestive activity they initially
felt a strong discharge of energy, which the person observed to
originate usually from sacral area and spreading powerfully elsewhere
in the body. In classic yoga meditation this energy is known as
kundalini. After this phase of excitation the patients experienced
inhibition - the feelings of darkness, emptines, fear and
paranoia. These feelings could last for a long time and eventually
lead to a psychiatric disease and inability to take care for oneself.
Psychological testing revealed that the patients had several traits
that can create suspectibility to psychoses, especially paranoia. The
writer sees that we are not talking about schizophrenia, especially
since the patients had an awareness of the disease and they sought
help.
Classical meditation literature warns the novices who practive
meditation against trying to control kundalini. This energy must be
controlled with the guidance of an experienced medium [?]. If this
"specific medition psychosis" is widespread, it might be appropriate
to generally warn people about the dangers of meditation". This is how
doctor Robert Paul referates an article from a Swedish doctor
magazine. A Swedish doctor Sven Reichmann gives some examples of
patient cases in his book "Vad är sanning?" ["What's the truth?"]:
"Sometimes people who practice yoga or TM get a - sometimes violently
acute - psychosis in which they may see snakes everywhere or other
frightening hallucinations. Troublesome anxiety, panic and disruption
of personality often belongs to the nature of disease in these
cases. The disease doesn't behave like other forms of psychosis and it
is hard to treat with neuroleptics. The nature of disease exhibits
strong variation, for example as in the following case: The first
patient that pops into my mind was sitting idly at a christian
treatment center. Previously he had been a healthy business
owner. External difficulties however made it difficult for him to
relax and he started practicing TM. One day, while meditating, he
experienced a sort of "explosion" in his head. Ever since he has lived
in a sort of nirvana. A man who had previously take care of his
business lost all of his capability to function. In the best days he
could help by peeling potatoes in the kitchen of the treatment
center. On many days he was uncapable to do even that. Sometimes he
was trembling slightly in his chair, but usually he was quiet. I asked
him what he was thinking. He clearly answered that in the actual
meaning of the word he wasn't thinking anything. There was a complete
emptiness inside him. He could think if someone came over to speak to
him. But otherwise there was a complete silence inside him. Naturally
he had been given all the conceivable treatment. But drugs and talking
weren't helpfull. He was sitting where he was sitting. Let it be noted
that this man had not participated in any kind of cult, in which one
is enslaved to a leader or forced to walk over all the previous life
experiences. He had just been sitting in quiet mumbling a name of an
Indian god, when he was previously urged to give his life to this and
other hindu gods. He had called for his new god he knew nothing
about. He imagined that the word was just "vibration" as he was
taught. The god he was calling for had apparently arrived, and the
result is just what is so highly valued in india - nirvana"
Ville Vainio - vvainioATnospamtp.spt.fi http://www.tp.spt.fi/~vvainio
We're all puppets
The first step on the path to understanding is seeing the strings
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