Hi Gang.I wanted to rekindle this lovely thread, so as to share some of my personal experiences with psychedelics and the release of kundalini, "the serpent energy". Furthermore, I would also like to shed light on the phenomenon itself, whether activated by entheogens or by traditional spiritual practices like: meditation, breath work and shamanic ritual.
I feel there is s great misnomer about kundalini and it's release. It's not exactly an all-or-nothing phenomen, as many suggest, for every living creature with a spine has some degree of "activation", regardless of species. I'll add that even mice have pineal glands and who can really say with any degree of authority, that only humanoids experience the release of this vertically rushing energy? I'm not stating that there have been rodent Buddhas... neither will I emphatically claim there has not been "enlightenment" in genus other than hominids. I will assert that cetaceans like dolphins, porpoises and whales do have such propensities towards heightened states of conscious-awareness... but that would be best suited for another thread? Please reference John C. Lilly's brilliant book,
Center of The Cyclone.
Without some modicum of familiarity with the yogic/tantric system of chakras, much of the nature of kundalini remains unfathomable to those who have yet to feel it's tremendous, geyser-like rise up the spinal axis. In my own case, back in March of 1978, I had no knowledge of said chakras (vortexial wheels of spinning ethereal energy), each corresponding to specific organs or glands situated in the physical body, which manifest as states of mind and consciousness within the human organism.
I was tripping on LSD-25 with my roommates, way back during art school days, and around four o'clock in the morning we retired to our own rooms. Philip and Jane were a couple, so they retreated to engage in sexual activity and myself, to sit in deep meditation, as I was hardly ready to fall asleep. During the peak of the trip, I experienced a stirring sensation at the base of my spine, correlating to the rectal area. As I spontaneously tightened the anus, I felt an oscillating pulsation of energy building up. While I had been doing Zazen meditation for more than three years already, I had yet to research the yogic sciences. So, this was wholly uncharted territory for me.
The force released traveled upwards and the sensation was indeed, like a snake wiggling up the center of my spinal column. What I later realized was that the serpentine "wiggling" was actually the intersection of the ida and pingala currents around the central column of the sushumna. These twin polarities criss-cross at each chakra center and trigger activation of these vortices, as the force escalates it's geyser-like ascent to the higher regions of the cranium. All I knew was that I felt each intersection as if I had become a helix of sorts, as depicted in ancient Egyptian artwork.
When the surge had
hit the ceiling, so to speak, the current spouted from the top of my crown like an ejaculation of sorts. This was perceived as if a fountain had been turned on inside of my spine and cascaded above and beyond the confines of my material body. All of the current seemed to center itself at about arms length over my head. I gazed upwards, towards the fulcrum pulsing above myself. I found myself awake and alert, ascending through intent alone, higher above the physical form of my human identity. I heard various humming, rushing, ringing tones both within and outside of what I routinely experienced as the boundaries of myself. I saw a blinding white light radiating from the top of my head and my third eye was the lens which viewed this tremendous effulgencence. It seemed to dissolve my mind and silence all of my thoughts. Where was I and what was happening to me?
I clearly recalled the time I had nearly drowned in our swimming pool, when I was 9 or 10 years old. I had gotten tangled-up in the ropes around a styrofoam lifesaver and inhaled a good deal of pool water. Thankfully, my stepfather pulled me out of the pool and pumped the water out of my lungs and gave me CPR. I heard loud "pop" sound and found myself floating about ten or twelve feet above the drama unfolding beneath me. Me? Wasn't I the little boy clinging to life or was I the soul who existed before there ever was a baby me born? Being a child, I hadn't a clue as to what was happening... but I knew I had almost died. In essence, I had returned to my ethereal body and was disconnected from my material shell. Suffice it to say, I lived through the traumatic event but never again felt that I was merely a 3-dimensional mortal, for I had tasted the immortality of the spiritual, the realm of the soul. I knew that one day I would again be free to take flight into the beyond.
Needless to say, peaking my brains out on acid was not exactly the same phenomenon but the sensation of transcendence was the same. I slipped out of myself and desperately wanted to merge with the great light. As I hovered overhead, I could hear this incredible rumbling sound. It had a ringing overtone to it but it was an oscillation of sorts, which made itself heard as AUM. Decades later, the
carrier wave encountered with NN-DMT would take me even higher. This tone vibrated in sync with my state of being and began to wash away my earthly identity. For a few hours, I stayed in this deep trance state. When the rushing force settled back downwards... I was reacquainted with my ego-self and it's life drama. Honestly, I was never quite the same.
Currently, after forty years of training in Kriya Yoga, as well as other systems like: Surat Shabd Yoga, Sufism, internal Taoist practices and Zen, it's clear that one's ability to silence the mind, shift one's attention and move by sheer intent alone, beyond the restraints of dualistic perceptions and the consequences of dreaming... results in a fullness with sweetest emptiness, thereby fusing the mind's heart with an incredible self-erasing force (like a moth to the flame).
Ideally the intensity is far more grounded and truthfully, less powerful. In theory, within my routine spiritual sadhana there is no outside catalist nor external trigger but when I do engage in entheogenic voyages, the powerful geyser-like rise in kundalini is much the same as ever. My very first NN-DMT journey blew the proverbial door o
ff the hinges, to such an immense degree, I assumed I was never coming back!!! I did return, but of course and I am grateful to have the chance to become a better person.
The second to last ritual I partook of with psilocybin mushrooms, was much the same. Instead of sitting in padmasana or "lotus posture", I lay flat on my back in savasana or "corpse posture". My physicall body felt particularly electrocuted from the flood release of potent current and it was only through breathing consciously and methodically, that I gradually centered into a tranquil state of mind and ease of body. Initially, my prone body was actually pulsating and practically bouncing off of my bed! I felt almost like a strip of bacon in a frying pan! Eventually, I let go of control and things balanced to a far greater harmony. Ahhh... sweet release.
Being ripped apart between the juxtaposition of the physical and astral bodies can be both foolhardy and quite dangerous, psychically speaking. Had it not been the intervening of my highest spiritual Master, I may have been damaged terribly. Who can really ever know? Suffice it to say, full kundalini activation is hard on the neurological system and if the nadis are not cleansed thoroughly enough, over a prolonged period of regular training,
all hell can break loose. Nadis are the subtle channels in which the kundalini flows. Kind of like psychic nerve conduits, as conceived of within the philosophy of yoga and tantra.
In my daily practices, the incremental cultivation of this serpent energy is a very, very looooooong attunement, not a sudden geyser coming out of nowhere. But I suspect when the groundwork is prepared thoroughly enough... the release could well be just as intense. Would anyone care to share any of their own kundallni experiences on either NN-DMT or more importantly, with 5-MeO-DMT?
It is noteworthy that James Oroc, the author of
Tryptamine Palace, clearly states that NN-DMT opens up the ajna or 6th chakra (third eye) and 5-MeO the sahasrara or 7th chakra (the "thousand petaled lotus abloom way high up within the crown). Being a 5-MeO virgin, I cannot add any insight here about the
mighty 5 but any of the major psychedelics trigger both and more, in my own experiences. Hari Om Tat Sat.
Ciao. Have a wonderful day or night, my friends. 
