Kundalini Yoga and Psychotic Episodes

Copyright 2003 -  This page began  July, 2004 Edit 03/16/2008 09:19 PM -0600

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This site is about a 'conflict of human physiology' that shaped history but was undetected until the 1960's.

In all of human history on the planet Earth the phenomenon was discovered only once.

But it has always been present in every human population.

Kundalini Yoga and Qi Gong prove  a 3000-year history for it.

To understand the power of this phenomenon remember the paranoid psychotic rant of Seng-Hui Cho.

The Virginia Tech shooter created the "special circumstances" for exposure.

When he had the expected mental event he planned then killed 32 people.

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If you have doubts about this material  perform the Demonstration exercise first.

Subliminal sight and habituation in peripheral  vision can be observed.

The Everquest Connection explains in simple terms how thought is modified by Subliminal Distraction.

When you understand the phenomenon and physiology...                                     

                                       This page explains why Yoga works.

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Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Awakening Summary of page

If you think learning what actually causes the benefits and psychotic episodes from Kundalini will harm your enjoyment of Yoga;

Stop Reading now!  ...   You may be offended by the truth.

Understanding the truth allows you to avoid adverse mental complications from Kundalini.

Subliminal Distraction exposure happens many places not just while performing Kundalini Yoga.

Adverse outcomes can happen from Kundalini Yoga alone,                                                           

                                                    or because you combined more than one source of Subliminal Distraction exposure.

A "conflict in the physiology of sight" allows Subliminal Distraction exposure to cause

both the apparent beneficial effects and the psychotic episodes that happen with Kundalini Yoga.

The process is "Accidental Subliminal Operant Conditioning."

Short-term intense exposure creates a first psychotic episode that will spontaneously remit with no harm if exposure stops.

Low-level long-term exposure creates the psychotic-like beliefs of superhuman strength and supernatural powers.

There is no effective treatment for this altered mental state that resembles Schizophrenia.

The altered mental state is believed to be enlightenment.

Acolytes seek the onset of this mental event and call it "The Awakening of Kundalini."

This page is part of a psychology project.

Disorganized exposure from Subliminal Distraction creates the altered mental state and behavior we call Schizophrenia.

Only the blind are immune.

Can you cite a case of someone 'blind from birth' having ICU Psychosis, Panic Attacks, or Schizophrenia?

Scroll down to continue. You have been warned.

Periods of meditation before beginning Kundalini Yoga poses engage a mental state of concentration and inward contemplation. The human mind can only do one thing at a time if it involves full mental investment. You dissociate slightly for things happening around you when you enter this mental state.  When the movements and poses begin your meditating mental state would be constantly interrupted  by a startle and  peripheral vision reflex due to the subliminal detection of those moving around you if it were not for our ability to consciously ignore the reflexes.

The 'conflict of physiology' is that while you can successfully ignore distracting movement you do not have the ability to "stop seeing" anything (movement)  in your vision field. You cannot stop "subliminally seeing" the distracting movement in peripheral vision.

You do not turn the primitive warning system off when you ignore the movement and the startle events stop.

The normal subliminal functioning of this system prevents you becoming aware that it continues to attempt the reflexes.

You cannot have exposure while you eyes are closed, it is a vision driven phenomenon.

Maintaining that meditating inward contemplating mental state keeps the warning system engaged and ready so that when you open your eyes and there is detectable movement in peripheral vison you have a 'Subliminal Distraction' or a 'subliminal threat-movement detection' incident.

You can be exposed during eyes-open periods when others move in your peripheral vision as the poses change.

Other places....

Hospital patients who spend more that five days in the Intensive Care Unit have mental breaks. One in three do so. For  ICU Psychosis, exposure happens every fifteen minutes around the clock as nurses check vital signs. Eyes-open daydreaming provides the mental state necessary to engage Subliminal Distraction exposure. Doctors and nurses do not understand what causes these events and respond by strapping the victims down while exposure continues. Most victims recover after leaving the hospital but a few have life long disabilities from the experience.

There have been investigations going back before 1977 attempting to find out why seminar participants in The Forum from Landmark Education have mental breaks. Subliminal Distraction exposure from The Forum is random but happens during three days of ten hour per day "training sessions." Fewer people have these episodes.

Concentration to the point of "suspension of disbelief" while concentrating on the interrogation of volunteers creates light dissociation for some. They can subliminally detect small movements of others around them. That's Subliminal Distraction.  None of the "experts" who have investigated the problem has solved it.

Colleges are unaware of this phenomenon and do not provide Cubicle Level Protection for student study areas or computer workstations. There is an ongoing problem of sudden unexplained disappearances and bizarre suicides of college students.

Cults and Christian missionary groups use too-small single-room meeting arrangements. Many people are crowded close together. Just as in the Landmark Education case close proximity seating combined with light dissociation while closely following the words of the speaker create the opportunity for Subliminal Distraction. The Christian groups view the manifestation of speaking in tongues, holy laughter, or other bizarre behaviors as visitation from the Holy Spirit. It is Subliminal Distraction.

That same exposure happened in biblical times. It is mentioned in scripture. St. John wrote of it in Corinthians in the New Testament. In those times of limited primitive education for the masses, this phenomenon convinced new converts of the truth in the message from Christians.

Your peripheral vision reflex system is a retained primitive warning system developed through tens of thousands of years in pre-humans who were hunter-gathers. Peripheral vision predates conscious vision in all life forms with such vision. Many animals cannot detect things that do not move. For your vision, stationary objects in far-peripheral vision, subliminal peripheral vision, are invisible. (Perform the psychology demonstration to experience subliminal sight and habituation in peripheral vision.)

 Subliminal Distraction was discovered when it caused mental breaks for office workers in the 1960's. By 1968 the problem had been solved, The cubicle became the tool that allows modern office workers to sit and concentrate in crowded, busy, office workspace.

If you create or replicate the same circumstances of those 1960's close-spaced prototype workstations you will have the same mental break.

Performing Kundalini Yoga does that.

Hunter-gather mobile societies had no activity that would cause them to sit for hours concentrating on something while others walked around them. The vision driven, subliminally functioning system would not have begun to cause problems until man began to build housing and manufacture tools.

Too-small single-room ethnic housing around the world creates the "special circumstances" that allow Subliminal Distraction exposure. Most of these primitive structures have no windows so that work requiring adequate light must be done outside or beside the single door if done inside. Performing work in small groups or beside doors creates opportunities for exposure. 

This exposure is evidenced by Culture Bound Syndromes, small disturbing behaviors which may involve violence, hearing voices, and amnesia of the events during the episode of bizarre behavior.

In Kundalini Yoga you are able to continue the meditative state while performing the movements and poses, unaware that your brain is still "subliminally seeing" "threat movement" to trigger repeating subliminal reflex attempts.

Performing Kundalini Yoga with a group creates repeating instances of threat movement detection because the poses are done in continuous movements. In that sense it duplicates Qi Gong exposure.  Holding poses in other Yoga forms reduces the number of these threat detection incidents per unit of time. Each person in the group has a unique experience that depends on where they are positioned, how long their eyes are open,  and how easily they can detect the movement of their neighbors.

While viewing video's of Kundalini sessions you can determine which sessions are being performed with eyes open and which are done with eyes closed. Those with eyes open are performing the movements in unison. When everyone's eyes are closed each person has a different rate of movement due to different physical abilities.

We all have exposure from Subliminal Distraction every day. This normal level of exposure is harmless. The problem arises when we create the "special circumstances" that produce a massive amount of exposure in a compact time frame. Again, Kundalini Yoga does that.

Subliminal Distraction is a term in the field of  Design, Systems Furniture, Cubicles. It arises from facts of the physiology of sight, psychophysics. Sensor cells in your eyes and ears are not turned off when you dissociate to work or daydream they continue to send neural impulses to your brain.  Eyes-open meditation to the point of dissociation for things happening around you is the level of concentration that will activate the evolutionarily developed warning system. When the cells are for far peripheral vision, movement can be detected to trigger the vision reflex. It will break your concentration with a startle and reflex.

Forty years ago engineers discovered the phenomenon could cause a dissociative mental break in at-risk office workers, knowledge workers. The Cubicle became the industry standard to prevent this after 1968.

The effects experienced as the beginning of the Awakening of Kundalini, such as hearing sounds, feeling strange sensations, is part of  the onset of the dissociative mental event those designer and engineers discovered.

You may certainly argue that Prana exists. But no one has ever produced evidence of that.

 Prana is a concept created as an explanation for the psychiatric symptoms you experience in Kundalini Yoga.

There are two potential outcomes. Intense exposure in a short time frame produces a temporary episode. If exposure stops the victim will recover with no treatment and there are no apparent after effects.  When the exposure is low level and persistent, permanent fixed bizarre mental states are created. This can be observed in Qi Gong Masters and Yogis who have strange impossible  beliefs. These beliefs are usually called psychotic-like.

In Yoga the delusional beliefs involve superhuman or supernatural powers. In Schizophrenia the same exposure in classrooms creates disorganized beliefs. Those disorganized belief systems are culture specific.   Schizophrenia & Psychotic Mental Illness site pages.

The level of exposure, from  Subliminal Distraction, stimulation in Subliminal Peripheral Vision, while occasionally performing Yoga  in groups is not high enough to quickly create the full mental break seen in business office exposure. . Sudden mental events sometimes happen when the exercise is performed in long teaching sessions during retreats or seminars. There  long sessions or several teaching sessions do supply enough exposure to cause the sudden break. When the onset happens slowly the beginning of the dissociative episode is perceived as a Kundalini Awakening.

Victims are told they have experienced an accidental Awakening of Kundalini.

Acolytes believe that they are having a religious experience because they are told that is what is happening. When the same mental event accidentally happens around the world caused by Subliminal Distraction exposure. each cultural and ethnic group understands and experiences the event in terms of their own belief systems.

My Culture Bound Syndromes page explores that.

Some sites within the Yoga experience claim that sudden psychotic mental breaks are accidental Kundalini Awakenings.

In Kundalini Yoga the bizarre beliefs and altered mental state are explained by the belief you have reached a higher plane of existence and are enlightened.

But if you believe that you can or have levitated, walked through solid objects, or have the ability to dematerialize, become invisible at will, that is psychotic.

The DSM does not recognize these experiences as mental illness  because those experiences and beliefs are part of a cultural belief set. They are not considered un-natural or unusual within the group of common belief set.

If you or I appeared at the intake desk in a hospital emergency room with statements that we could levitate, dematerialize, or walk through  solid objects unharmed, we would be held for a psyche evaluation.

The conflict of physiology activated while performing Yoga in groups also provides the beneficial effects to health. The medical effects of stimulation to the subconscious are not understood.

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Treatment

This site does not offer diagnosis or treatment. Instead it is a source of information.

This link is to a treatment for PTSD Note that it uses movement in the vision field while distressing thoughts are held in mind with the suggestion that they will disappear. It would seem to be using Subliminal Distraction to reprogram the brain.

Department of Veteran's Affairs

"The patient is then asked to hold the disturbing image, sensations, and the negative cognition in mind while tracking the clinician's moving finger back and forth in front of his or her visual field for about 20 seconds. In successive tracking episodes, the patient concentrates on whatever changes or new associations have occurred. Tracking episodes are repeated according to the protocol until the patient has no further changes. More tracking episodes then reinforce the positive cognition."

http://www.oqp.med.va.gov/cpg/PTSD/PTSD_cpg/frameset.htm

See also the Cause of Psychotic Mental Illness a VPN site page.

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Why does this phenomenon happen?

What causes the mental break and disturbed thinking?

My working theory is that there is no complex meaning to the internal brain signals to create a peripheral vision reflex. The reflexes are a warn first, evaluate second, system. When the brain associates the repeating subliminal stimulus as reinforcement of contemporaneous thought and activity operant conditioning  happens. Participants feel the medical effects of improved health  because they are conditioned to do so. It is as if there had been a post hypnotic suggestion made. This effect happens in addition to the positive effect of the physical exercise.

This is why Yoga works.

The fact that startle reflexes can only happen when movement is detected coming from behind will cause a feeling of being watched or of something being behind you. Over time and repeated exposure that subliminal appreciation of threat colors thought and reason creating paranoia.

The Virginia Tech shooter had created the "special conditions" of those 1960's workstations when he used a laptop in the common room while roommates walked around him ignoring him. Months of exposure created psychotic paranoia that allowed him to kill 32 people. Cho had the same mental break office workers did in the 60's.

This effect, operant conditioning, has been suggested as the cause of jumping diseases such as Latah, Malaysia, Myrachit, Siberia, and Jumping Frenchmen of Maine Syndrome, observed in French Canadian Lumberjacks in Maine and Canada (circa 1880). 

See the Chaco Canyon & Culture Bound Syndromes pages.

Some of the behaviors observed in the jumping diseases are usually only seen in Catatonic Schizophrenia, repeating you own words or the last words spoken to you by others.

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Theory of the cause of psychotic and dissociative mental breaks.

What causes psychosis?

Your brain must grow new connections between neurons or modify old ones to effect memory and create behaviors. A single startle or startle events widely spread over time does nothing because it happens so fast you brain never understands it is vision input.

When Subliminal Distraction begins the repeating subliminal input allows your brain to find it and recognize it as vision input.

The trigger for a startle reflex is movement and position information only. Missing shape and color information it could be said to be half of normal vision input. When your brain attempts to understand and correctly source the trigger input to use it assembling your consciousness and reality, improper connections are made.

When enough of them exist or when critical incorrect connections are made your brain can no longer function. You have a dissociative mental break.

If the stimulation stops the incorrect connections dissolve from disuse. But long-term low-level exposure reinforces and strengthens the new incorrect connections and associations slowly. This allows them to continue to exist. But it changes your concept of reality and creates disturbed thinking

The altered mental state is installed by operant conditioning.

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Can you prevent the phenomenon happening?

Sure. Do what the engineers did forty years ago. Block  your peripheral vision so that your Subliminal Peripheral Vision cannot see to detect movement. There is a problem with that. The same effect that creates the beneficial feeling from the  practice of Yoga in groups also causes the detrimental effect. If  you stop one  you stop the other.

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Limit your total exposure

The solution is to limit the practice of performing Yoga exercises in groups for long periods and for many sessions in a short time period.

Search your activities for other sources of stimulation Poorly designed workstations at your place of employment or incorrectly installed computers at home. ...Prevention...

If you exercise alone in a room  with no movement that can be detected by Subliminal Peripheral Vision you are never in any danger.

Exposure is cumulative. Your brain cannot distinguish between sources of stimulation.  The extra stimulation from Yoga in classes, added to other sources, may tip the balance.

Yoga has been practiced for centuries with no harm for most who use it. Simple precautions will allow that practice to continue.

The remainder of this page contains the links and support material for this explanation of the mental breaks associated with Kundalini Yoga.

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The material below is being edited into the page text above.

There will be duplications of some material until the edit is completed.

Differences in Fonts, Times New Roman,  indicate paragraphs that have not been edited from the original page.

In original form paragraphs were the same as note cards with the supporting URL just below, right.

That will be continued in the Links section.

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Case histories from China reveal that Qi Gong psychotic reaction victims seem to become addicted to the exercise and can't stop. This is the same effect experienced by victims of Everquest Addiction and Internet Addiction.

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Kundalini Yoga instructors believe they are tapping an immense source of potential  energy located near the base of the spine. The image of a coiled serpent is used as the icon for this system. They are actually seeing  the early effects of the slow onset of a dissociative-psychotic episode and that it is the source of this "perceived release of energy". Each person experiences the onset of an episode differently. Culture-Bound Syndromes The belief system is centuries old and springs from Hinduism.

If  you did not read the Everquest Connection  you are unaware that the addictive effect of stimulation in Subliminal Peripheral Vision for the MMORPG player was that they thought the subliminal effect was part of game play. Effected players had an experience different from normal players. Each effected player wanted to return to experience that sense of danger, being watched, or suspense they thought produced through the act of playing the computer game. As the cumulative effect increased they began to have the dissociative or psychotic symptoms. On one forum site a  member posted that  he was hearing voices masked into the game. I thought it was a prank by a psychology student but answered the post anyway. Prank or not that is the only safe thing to do.

The effected game players were actually experiencing stimulation in Subliminal Peripheral Vision because they did not have Cubicle Level Protection for their computer game workstation and one of two things happened. Either they had miss-positioned the CPU and its blinking light was mistaken for threat movement or there was repeating, detectable movement in the room. There were said to be about 20 cases out of 400,000 Everquest players at the time. But other games were involved and players such as Jeremy April were not recognized as victims of this problem. College Suicides

 When Yoga is practiced in groups each person can "subliminally see" the movements of those near them.   The sensations experienced subliminally become addictive to the victim. Case histories from China for Qi Gong indicate that victims can't stop.

Yoga has been practiced for centuries with no harm to most who use it.

But when intense long term or frequent sessions in groups are used the phenomenon of Subliminal, Accidental, Operant Conditioning is engaged.

In just the first few sites I visited to gather material for this page I found stories of hearing voices and somatoform complaints. I will link a site on the DSM for readers. I assure you that you will never need a copy of the DSM. Now DSM-IV-TR. (Text Revision of DSM-IV)

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Accidental Operant Conditioning mentioned on the index page, is the cause of the psychiatric injury. . When the mind perceives subliminal stimulation as reinforcement for the exercise form there is a feeling of well being  generated by that stimulation. That feeling is there because you expect it to be there as the outcome of your Yoga session. Achieving that inner peace is why you started Yoga. You may feel more alive, refreshed, and have a sense of heightened awareness.

The stimulation is the internal brain signals, neural impulses, which create the peripheral vision reflex when movement is detected through subliminal sight.

(Repeated for emphasis) As long as  you do not increase the amount of exercise you perform in classes or groups  you can continue for years with no harm. Millions of people successfully practice Yoga all over the world.

A problem would arise if you have other sources of exposure. These reflexes are created in a primitive level of your brain. They are said to be created below thought, reason and consciousness. There is no memory associated with this reflex creation so that you can have stimulation of your subconscious from several activities during a normal day.   (Read the first Quote in the Links section below.)

Think of it this way. You are having the same experience members of church congregations have after the Sunday morning service. (See Toronto Blessing Link below) And you are having it for similar reasons. (Each person has a unique experience in these situations. ) They believe they are refreshed by the spirit and you believe you are refreshed by Yoga. Both are correct. But the cause of that feeling is a concept of your mind, a belief system, human thought. The source of stimulus to create the belief is detection of movement in Subliminal Peripheral Vision and the internal brain signal to cause a peripheral vision reflex. This can only happen when you are in a mental state of concentration. The ICU Psychosis model shows us that it does not take much in certain situations to achieve that mental state.

Any activity that requires your concentration as others walk by you from behind is enough to create exposure. Reading a newspaper in a diner as people walk by to their tables is one example of minor exposure. Playing a portable hand held game, such as on your cell phone, in a busy location is another. College students are at high risk because the behavior of concentrating to study engages the mental state necessary. The final element is repeating, detectable, movement near the unprotected student. The rules of signal detection explained on the Everquest Connection apply. Threat movement to create a peripheral vision reflex must rise above the threshold of detection, and move toward you from behind.

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When the stimulus in Subliminal Peripheral Vision is perceived as reinforcement , positive or negative reinforcement, for contemporaneous activity or thought, operant conditioning happens.

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This concept is difficult to explain for a general audience. There is no reason to believe that the internal brain signal to create a peripheral vision reflex has any complex meaning communicated to consciousness. Instead your mind creates the meaning. What I observed was a feeling of being watched. This translated to a belief that someone was constantly checking activities, supervising, criticizing. Soon normal events were perceived as sinister. Personal Experiences

Your brain constructs your reality from memory, experiences, and input from sensors, skin, eyes, ears. In addition you have a system that orients you to the outside world. Ambient vision  and the balance system of the inner ear do that. When you receive a subliminal input the brain has no source for that signal. As it attempts to reconcile the effect of the internal signal the reality created with the extra input is outside normal experience. Eventually it is Psychotic.

You cannot communicate with that portion of your mind where peripheral vision reflexes are created, below thought, reason, and consciousness. You cannot turn off the detection system for peripheral vision reflexes. Because sight is not sensory adaptable, you cannot stop seeing the movement to create the reflex. Once you learn to ignore that concentration breaking reflex you have created the situation to cause Accidental Operant Conditioning. You cannot then detect the repeating subliminal attempts to generate the reflex.

Peripheral Vision Reflexes can only be created by movement or stimulus coming from behind. If the movement or stimulus approaches from ahead in conscious sight then passes by to move away behind you there will be no reflex created. That feature of reflex generation may be the reason the subliminal signal is perceived as being watched. Over many hours of exposure this would create the paranoia evident from this phenomenon.

In the two exercise forms Yoga and QiGong the signal is associated with the concentration and meditation of each exercise.  This changes the mind's perception and assigns different  meaning for the signal. Instead of  feeling watched and in danger the association of the signal reinforces the mental mind set of the exercise form, focusing universal energy to benefit health.

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History (repeated from the introduction on the Home page.)

About fifty years ago a group of business men saw a way to modernize the business office. They hired scientists and engineer-designers to develop Compact-Close-Spaced workstations that could be grouped for specialized projects. When they implemented the first designs some of the workers began to have bizarre or psychotic episodes. The Cubicle was the first industry wide solution for this problem. Now Systems Furniture workstations designed with Cubicle Level Protection block the side vision of 'knowledge workers' to prevent those episodes. Before the discovery Nervous Breakdowns happened in business offices. (Nervous Breakdowns are now named Dissociative Mental Breaks.)

There is absolutely no scholarship currently available on this subject. The physiology involved is included in first semester psychology courses. The explanation of the phenomenon given there is that a conflict arises in the mind as the victim attempts to ignore the repeating peripheral vision reflexes. This conflict is said to build to a mental break.

The facts of the phenomenon are available but taught at such a low level of psychology training that it is not remembered by the time a scholar gets a PhD.

Culture-Bound Syndromes

Around the world are a group of psychiatric events that seem to conform to the DSM-IV brief dissociative or psychotic episode. Each culture reacts differently to the mental events. Those syndromes that are defined as, "temporary dissociative or psychotic episode that resolves with no treatment," are the phenomenon at work. The Chaco Canyon page has a group of links on this subject. Qi Gong Deviation is one of those listed syndromes. Going Postal and Anorexia Nervosa are listed for the United States. I am not the first person to see a link in these mental events but this site states the first physiological connection to them. Only two of the syndromes  have enough information in the description to theorize a connection to the phenomenon. Qi Gong, China,  and Brain Fog from West Africa. Other descriptions have references to wandering, automatism during the episode, a brief coma state, amnesia of the event afterwards. The Awakening of Kundalini has not been recognized as a Culture Bound Syndrome. This is in part because millions of people believe it is a religious experience.

Related Syndromes  These are positioned here to indicate other places the experience similar to a Kundalini Awakening occur.

Icelandic Disease
(Quote,  copy /paste, spelling is as copied) highlighting for emphasis

"Icelandic disease (Roueche, 1965) is probably of virus nature, has an acute onset characterized by pains in the neck and back, paresthesias and hyperesthesias (extremes of skin sensitivity), muscle weakness (as in polio), paresis, nervousness, insomnia, loss of memory, and terrifying dreams. Those struck are usually persons in their twenties and thirties. It is never fatal. Some of the cases show pain in the arms and back and legs, as well as headaches. There may also be delirium during the day, sensations of imbalance, and strange feelings in the legs. Other reported tingling and sweating in the hands and feet, ringing in the ears, and confusion. All these symptoms may be noted in our physio-kundalini complex cases."

"The victims are more often women than men, and the epidemics tend to strike members of isolated or closed communities. Occasionally the emotional overlay of tension, anxiety, and depression are quite marked. The disorder has a prolonged and relapsing course."

http://www.skaggs-island.org/humanistic/sannella/appendices.html

The symptoms of Icelandic Disease are the same as the Kundalini psychosis. If the syndrome happens while groups are confined in winter it would also be the same as Windigo psychosis Close confinement of at least two people in small living spaces would provide many opportunities for Accidental Operant Conditioning to happen. Without TV, no electricity in remote areas, what is there to do to pass the time except work on something at arm's length or read?

Icelandic Disease has a new entry on the Culture Bound Syndromes page. Some definitions of Icelandic Disease compare it to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is possible for someone confined in bed to have exposure to Subliminal Distraction. See ICU Psychosis

If that were the case the psychiatric symptoms would be layered on top of a viral illness.

Windigo Psychosis

A Culture-Bound Syndrome cited as happening in remote areas to certain tribes in Canada and the extreme Northern United States. Victims believe they are pursued by or they are becoming a flesh eating Windigo Monster, cannibal. Probable cause is the same as Icelandic Disease, above. The belief that you are the Windigo monster is engendered by cultural beliefs as the dissociative episodes begin. There is no experience for remote villagers to have understood what is happening to them. They experience the onset in terms of their own cultural experience.  The phenomenon to cause this is painless and undetectable by the victim. They believe the psychotic beliefs are a part of their normal experience. I have one reference to burning the feet of victims. I have not investigated this but it would fit the episode if the onset of 'hearing voices' causes wandering in cold weather. Burning the feet would stop the victim from disappearing into the forest possibly dying from exposure. (This possibility may be the source of death for some Missing Students. There have been cases of disappearances where the body is found in the forest with no cause of death, Beverly Watson Mysterious Disappearances.)

I am still searching for another case in Georgia from an Ann Rule book.

The sudden unexplained disappearances of college students may be another example of delusional wandering. Ahmad Arain missing UCLA student was found in Mexico in an altered mental state.  Missing Students

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Case Histories

KUNDALINI  -  PSYCHOSIS OR TRANSCENDENCE?©   Lee Sannella, M.D 3101 Washington Street San Francisco, California 94115

This book is available for downloading. Although done without knowledge of the phenomenon it has several case histories. There is one case history of remission of symptoms when Kundalini exercises were stopped.

http://www.skaggs-island.org/humanistic/sannella/kundalini.html

Kundalini and Qi Gong Psychosis by Dr. Tan Kheng Khoo  (link is also on Qi Gong Psychosis page)

"These novices are often ardent and they tend to overdo their meditation practice. Consequently, some of them suffer from visual and auditory hallucinations with intense fear. Shaking, convulsion and feinting do also occur. All these side effects of excessive and ill-guided meditations will disappear when they stop meditating, especially when they return to their homeland." Site Quote copy/paste

Note the reference to intense fear. Several cases are cited on Dr Tan Kheng Khoo's page. He claims 23 years teaching Buddhist meditation.

http://www.post1.com/home/kktanhp/kundalini.htm

Quotes from:

KUNDALINI YOGA - A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION--"This WWW reprint is for free distribution"

http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/download/kundalini.htm

 Many terms are defined in this document. These quotes are copy/paste, spelling is as copied.

"Energy (Shakti) polarises itself into two forms, namely, static or potential (Kundalini), and dynamic (the working forces of the body as Prana)."

"Kundalini can be awakened by various means and these different methods are called by different names, viz., Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga, etc."

"Kundalini, the serpent power or mystic fire, is the primordial energy or Sakti that lies dormant or sleeping in the Muladhara Chakra, the centre of the body. It is called the serpentine or annular power on account of serpentine form. It is an electric fiery occult power, the great pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter."

"Kundalini is the Goddess of speech and is praised by all. She Herself, when awakened by the Yogin, achieves for him the illumination....She is the source of all Knowledge and Bliss. She is pure consciousness itself. She is Brahman. She is Prana Sakti, the Supreme Force, the Mother of Prana, Agni, Bindu, and Nada. It is by this Sakti that the world exists. ..."

"The Quintessence Of Yoga...The Yogi has perfect control over his life-forces and mind. He can dematerialise at will...."

We all  understand that if a person today claims to be able to 'walk on water' or 'flap their arms and fly' that they are having a serious mental health problem. Here the Guru claims that at the highest state the Yogi can dematerialize. (See Yogic Flying next)

Repeat : If the Yoga form is taught in classes each person can see and subliminally detect the movement of others as the poses are changed. It would not matter that during some poses each person's eyes are closed. Eventually one or more persons will accumulate enough concentrated exposure to have the severe incapacitating dissociative/psychotic episode. If this had happened frequently the alarm would have been sounded before. The phenomenon is a rare, vision driven psychiatric injury. Stimulus can only happen while concentrating with your eyes open. There would be no stimulation if the exercise  is done completely alone.

Normally the goal is to "awaken Kundalini" within a controlled process guided by a Guru or trainer. Then the narrowly focused altered mental state is accepted as evidence the pupil has successfully reached a higher plane of existence.

Yogic Flying

Flying is a type of 'cross-legged hopping' it has been featured on magazine TV programs. I remember one such program  by Geraldo. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles Yogi, claims that he can bring world peace. If the Governments of the world give him a billion dollars he would he would end terrorism and create peace by hiring 40,000 yogic fliers to start hopping full time in 3000 places around the world. Did you laugh when you read this in the news in 2002? (Washington Post see link below right ) Did  you think at the time that he actually believes it? He was not dishonestly running a scam. He does believe this. The hopping is a stage to true levitation. WOWFAF = walk on water flap arms fly

 Did it slip by you that it might be Psychotic.

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/00000636-.html

"Yogic Flying is a natural extension of the Transcendental Meditation program, and accelerates the benefits. It is a specific and unique meditation procedure practiced after a TM session."

(Site Quote, I am not making this up. Look at the picture, they believe this.)

http://www.alltm.org/YFlying.html

Levitation

The pictures on this Japanese language site claim to be true levitation. If you note the pictures which purport to be 35MM black and white film strips, the line of the sprockets diverge relative to the film edge. The images appear to be identical and the yogic flier is identically centered in the frame, impossible for sequential still camera shots. The yogi appears to be about twelve inches above the mat on the floor. The extension of the sprocket holes past the film edge on the left may have been intended as a hint of the hoax. If you are paying attention that would clue you that the picture is not actually a film strip.

In the second  single color picture the shadow on the wall behind is cast by the electronic flash. This indicates stop motion. On the left there is inconsistency in that shadow.

Dec. 13, 0324 hours  An email from a reader pointed out that the shadow to the left, the subject's right, is a mirror image of the shadow you can just see behind the man. Any input to correct this site is welcome.

http://www.naruse-yoga.com/levitation1.html

   English version of the same site. http://www.naruse-yoga.com/levitation.html

Transcendental Meditation

"TM was ruled a religion by the United Sbtates District Court, District of New Jersey, Docket No. 76-341 (H.C.M.) Civil Action, in the case of Alan B. Malnak. et al., Plaintiffs, v. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, et al., Defendants, in a summary judgment issued October 19, 1977, followed by an order and judgment, filed December 12, 1977."

This ruling involved the separation of church and state. The single word mantra given to acolytes to chant twenty minutes twice daily are actually the names of Hindu Gods.
 

http://unstress4less.org/transcendental_meditation-religion.htm

Maharishi University of Management Fairfield Iowa Consciousness-Based Education

When this school was featured on the National Geographic Channel program "Is it Real?" the University's representative said that Newton's mechanical laws are out of date, gravity for instance. The narrator pointed out that no one has achieved levitation.

http://www.mum.edu/

 Vedic City Home site.   http://maharishivediccity.net/index.html

 Apologetics Index 

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/index.html

An explanation from a PhD of Kundalini Yoga.

http://www.thesoulsjourney.com/

Cases from Letters

Many of the persons writing testimonial letters on help sites treat apparent seriously altered mental states as the heightened awareness perception you might experience with drug use. Of course it is not heightened awareness.

I found statements that one letter writer believed he could communicate with people he walked by on the street by reading their minds. He said he could communicate with and direct them by just thinking. Read through the linked sites below.

I may alter the presentation later. (three weeks) If you want to keep this version of the page save it now. Under the site Copyright provision you may print one personal copy if you keep the source as VisionAndPsychosis.Net©. That is the title of the work filed. There is a certificate of copyright.  ---  Summary added to top of page on 9/1904.

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LINKS

The links for the entire site are on a separate page. Those links are not the same as individual page links. They are a list of "Favorites" accumulated in searches.

Think Holistic.Com

Explanation of the Caduceus Staff (Medical Logo)

"The serpents begin at the bottom of the staff (base of the spine). The serpents move upward and intersect at certain points (chakras) along the staff (spine) . When the serpents reach the top of the staff (Brain) angel wings are depicted to represent the ascension into higher consciousness. Enlightenment occurs when the serpent energy (fertility) is raised upwards into the Brain."

http://www.thinkholistic.com/newspub/story.cfm?ID=103

'Psychopathology', 'Psychosis' and the Kundalini: 'postmodern' perspectives on unusual subjective experience Richard House
 

"Psychiatrist and ophthalmologist Lee Sannella, M.D. (1992) has explored at some length the existing literature and evidence on the KAE, particularly with regard to its association with so-called 'psychosis' (a term the scientific validity of which, incidentally, Sannella seems to accept quite uncritically). He points out that KAEs, with all their 'psychotic'-like symptoms, 'seem pathological only because the symptoms are not understood in relation to outcome: a psychically transformed human being' (1992: 7)."

http://www.critpsynet.freeuk.com/KUNDALIN.htm

This quote is edited under the fair use provision of Copyright law. Note that the writer explains the onset of an episode as a state of higher awareness. Many of the Kundalini help sites speak of controlling the effect, harnessing the energy.

"Many individuals whose Kundalini has been unexpectedly unleashed DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING, and the prevailing social ignorance about this multidimensional transformative process makes it hard to find medical or alternative health practitioners or spiritual advisors who recognize the symptoms, particularly when they are strongly physical. Many people know that the risen Kundalini flings open gates to all sorts of mystical, paranormal and magical vistas but few realize it can also dramatically impact the body. A large percentage of our old Shared Transformation newsletter subscribers reported long bouts of strange illness as well as radical mental, emotional, interpersonal, psychic, spiritual and lifestyle changes. Over and again we hear stories of frustrating, sometimes desperate visits to doctors, healers, counselors, etc. who neither understood nor were able to help with the myriad pains and problems catalyzed by raging Kundalini."

By El Collie  (On the bottom of another linked site page is a note that El passed away on Apr 17, 2002.)

Go to the page to read the full text.

http://www.elcollie.com/st/symptoms.html

This URL is on the same site and has letters, mentioned above, from effected people.

http://www.elcollie.com/st/letters.html

Links page and support groups for victims.

http://www.greatdreams.com/kunda.htm

Denmark site lists possible negative effects, from links page above. Browse the index frame on this site.

http://www.kundalini.se/eng/engkni_1024.html?natverk.html

Quoted from Tantra-Kundalini site. The site has excellent graphics.

"The technique of Kundalini Yoga consists in using Prana (the vital air), guiding its circulatory movement through Ida and Pingala down to the base of the spine into the space where Kundalini lies coiled. Shakti Kundalini will then awaken and rise up Sushumna, energizing the seven chakras."
 

http://www.tantra-kundalini.com/nadis.htm

Mudras

"A Wsidom Archive on Mudras – the science of hand and finger postures" Quote is Copy/Paste spelling as copied

"....helps in balancing the five elements ( panch-tattvas ) in the human system to their optimal levels. The elements can even be increased or decreased to cure appropriate ailments. When the elements are completely balanced, the yoga (unison) of mind, body and soul with the Supreme Soul can be achieved!"

This site is typical of Yoga literature on the Internet. Great claims are made for eastern philosophy. It evolved over 3000 years.

Toronto Blessing

"The Toronto ‘Blessing’and Brownsville 'revival'.. Move of God or demonic deception?"
 

"The Toronto Blessing is a movement that began in 1994 at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church. Since that night, on any given evening, if one entered a service at the church, one may encounter some "strange" activities which include people barking like dogs, roaring like lions, laughing hysterically, or acting as if they were drunk. The "Toronto Blessing" is a movement that finds its roots in the Charismatic Movement which, in turn, emerges from Pentecostalism."

InPlainSite.org compares the Toronto experience to the awakening of Kundalini.  This connects the phenomenon to modern Christianity. Chanting, singing, and dancing by the congregation during the service are practiced. If there is adequate lighting so that movement can be detected in Subliminal Peripheral Vision the phenomenon will be engaged. There are several pages linked at the bottom of this page and the home page has other subjects.This would argue that an extreme emotional or religious mental state shortens the time necessary to have  the sudden onset episode. 
 

http://www.inplainsite.org/html/kundalini.html

Meditation adverse effects

Meditation: concepts, effects and uses in therapy by Alberto Perez-De-Albeniz and Jeremy Holmes
International Journal of Psychotherapy, Mar2000, Vol. 5 Issue 1, p49, 10p

Review of 75 articles on meditation Some of the conclusions correlate to what readers of this site know about the phenomenon. Note the comment "feeling addicted to meditation."

"Not all effects of the practice of meditation are beneficial. Shapiro (1992) found that 62.9% of the subjects reported adverse effects during and after meditation and 7.4% experienced profoundly adverse effects. The length of practice (from 16 to 105 months) did not make any difference to the quality and frequency of adverse effects. These adverse effects were relaxation-induced anxiety and panic; paradoxical increases in tension; less motivation in life; boredom; pain; impaired reality testing; confusion and disorientation; feeling 'spaced out'; depression; increased negativity; being more judgmental; and, ironically, feeling addicted to meditation."

http://www.trancenet.org/research/2000perezdealbeniz.shtml

Consciousness, Kundalini Yoga & Body Development by Stuart Sovatsky, PhD



Presented at Brain, Consciousness, Neuroscience Conference Chennai, India, March 9, 2001 (this scholar's work was sponsored by the Infinity Foundation, Princeton, NJ)
 

"Starting at the embryonic spinal base, Kundalini energy-intelligence guides the formation of the neural groove, the evolutionary fundament of all evermore complex vertebrate bodies, from amphioxus on; gill- slits, tail and other "ontogeny phylogeny recapitulation" vestigial phenomena emerge and vanish; organs form, heart beats as ananda-maya kosha (causal body), vijnana-maya kosha (reflective-mind body), mano-maya kosha (neuroendocrine-based mind/emotion body), prana-maya kosha (mitochondrial-meridian vital energy body) and anna-maya kosha (food-eating or "ordinary" fleshy body) develop;..."

http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/i_es/i_es_sovat_yoga.htm

DSM-IV  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders --These pages are not the full text of the DSM. You will not find Culture-Bound Syndromes on either site.

Complete DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria

http://mysite.verizon.net/res7oqx1/

 Alphabetic and numeric codes from the DSM

http://mysite.verizon.net/res7oqx1/id17.html#

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