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solo
USA
167 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 31 2009 : 6:32:30 PM
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Can anyone suggest a good book that details medically what happens during a spiritual awakening?
I would like to first buy and read a copy, then give it to my family physician. My family doc is young and fairly open minded. So I think she would at least look at the book. And then I think she could probably go back and look at the slew of tests she ran on me during the intiial phases and could verify what she reads.
But if my family is going to continue to see this doctor, I think it would be beneficial for her to understand what is taking place. |
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Bill
USA
46 Posts |
Posted - Aug 31 2009 : 8:08:15 PM
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| You can try "Joy's Way" by Dr Brugh Joy. But it is more broadly awakening to healing energy as well as spiritual awakening. |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
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Etherfish
USA
3615 Posts |
Posted - Aug 31 2009 : 11:07:48 PM
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| Just keep in mind that doctors in the USA are bound by certain organizations that don't give them very much room to change their practices because of malpractice lawsuits. but if she is interested it would be good for her. |
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Sparkle
Ireland
1457 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 02:29:42 AM
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The only one's I know are those about mindfulness. These don't tend to go into awakening experiences in detail, if at all. But contain in them the foundation of living in the here and now.
"Full Catastrophy Living" by Jon Kabat-Zinn is the classic in this field, he has carried out over 20 years of accepted clinical practice in this work.
The book "Hands of Light" by Barbara Ann Brennan might be a good one, in terms of bridging the gap between the seen and unseen worlds.
Another approach, if you can't find anything about awakening, in terms of kundalini or whatever you are talking about with awakening, is to look for classic experiences by accepted saints or accepted holy people.
St Theresa of Avila and St John of the Cross come to mind, but they are written generally in less than plain english. Better to get something current.
It probably depends on just how open your Doctor is. |
Edited by - Sparkle on Sep 01 2009 02:30:41 AM |
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solo
USA
167 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 08:12:17 AM
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I appreciate all of the suggestions, thank you. I think the type of book that my doctor could appreciate would be one that presents information given on the website "biology of kundalini". Possibly one written by a doctor explaining things from a clinical rather than metaphysical perspective.
For example, my testosterone levels dropped significantly during the awakening process. This makes sense to me as I can accept that a feminine energy is rising through me and getting me in touch with my "inner female". But a doctor might not by into the metaphyical side, but might appreciate the clinical view. So if there was a book written by a doctor that details the awakening process more from a clinical and medical diagnostic viewpoint, that is what I would like to find. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 08:21:55 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by solo
I think the type of book that my doctor could appreciate would be one that presents information given on the website "biology of kundalini".
The information at the website "biology of kundalini" is available as a book now.
http://www.lulu.com/content/2023060 |
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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 08:36:30 AM
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Dear Solo
The problem is that enlightenment works at a level of subtlety beyond matter and its measurable energies. As far as medical science is concerned, nothing is happening materially. What one feels to be happening is only a matter of perception. For doctor's and modern science, we are involved in something entirely imaginary!
The closest you might get to experts who have some standing on the fringes of medicine, you could look up Dr Stanislaus Grof, who created such projects as the Spiritual Emergency Network for supporting those going through kundalini phenomena and the like. Grof and his collaborators worked in the field of psychotherapy, which is probably as close as you are going to get to recognition from medical science.
Hope that's helpful.
chinna |
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solo
USA
167 Posts |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 5:50:44 PM
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Hi Chinna.
I understand what you are saying but I feel that there are definite physical markers that can be observed. For example, I got trigger points that developed in my back and neck, probably directing and or preventing energetic flow. My testosterone levels dropped. I bet that if you could measure brain activity that more parts of my brain are functioning now. These are clinically observable phenomenon. Cold hands and feet as the heart chakra clears and or opens would also be observable (well, not the existance of the heart chakra, but at least the temp change in tne limbs). I am jujst wondering if there is a book out there that details all of these phenomenton and others?
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chinna
United Kingdom
241 Posts |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 05:10:12 AM
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Dear Solo
I think there are many books which claim to present explanations of these phenomena, but which would not be accepted as explanations by modern science. For example, Kundalini Yoga by Sivananda Saraswati. They are a combination of hunches/guesses and basic physiology/endocrinology which just get linked together and asserted.
One thing that has been measured is the number of alpha brain waves produced in meditation has been found to be greater than in non-meditating subjects.
The TM people used to produce lavish materials about how meditation changed all kinds of things, apparently researched at Maharishi International University on behalf of the World Government of The Age of Enlightenment, but I don't think it ever gained any scientific traction.
The Oxford University Religious Experience Unit never produced anything very convincing, despite its illustrious academic credentials.
I may be wrong and someone else can identify what you seek - my understanding may be out of date, but I have a feeling it's not. There was always more of a sense of wishful thinking about this area than hard science.
An understanding of what enlightenment is not (we cannot know what it is) tells us that it is anyway entirely beside the point.
I can recall feeling many years ago, for example, great disturbances in various chakras, and enormous unbearable heat that made me take off my shirt and put my back to the cold bathroom tiles or take a cold shower. Measuring my temperature with a thermometer, of course it was normal. These are matters of perception, of sudden changes to the internal scale of measurement, or sudden conscious focus on a phenomenon which is normally out of conscious focus. Such disturbances of perception produce a wider range of symptoms, as any psychotherapist can tell you. They are psychosomatic side effects of disturbance to the normal frames of reference.
It's like the difference between walking along a plank 50 feet long and 1 foot wide, which is placed on the ground, and doing the same when the plank is suspended between two high buildings. These two feats would produce in most of us extremely different feelings and symptoms!
To suddenly begin to experience the total emptiness of everything, or the lack of a self - to unlock the total psychophysical 'clench' which is one's unenlightened state - has a massive impact on how you feel, which will have all kinds of effects on parts of the mind and the body.
In my experience, the wisest teachers, such as Nisargadatta will divert attention away from any such phenomena by saying "Yes, shake things up inside and these things will happen. But it is irrelevant and will pass."
peace
chinna |
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spc_4u2nv
USA
1 Posts |
Posted - Oct 19 2009 : 05:14:24 AM
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| http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/1925/ maybe that will help. If you go to youtube and search bipolarorwaking up theres a series of videos that compares spiritual awakening with psychosis. It also talks about the Kundalini. |
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Medical book on spiritual awakening?
