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| Hello. I am very new to yoga, and I am seeking a casual way to increase my flexibility and improve my health and happiness. The only yoga class I have found nearby seems to focus on Kundalini Yoga. I don't know much about this style, but I have read some frightening things about increased anxiety in students. This is not something I am ready to endure. Should I seek a different class, or have the negative testimonials I've read been exaggerations? Is there a style of yoga that is better for me? Thank you for your help.  |
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| For flexibility you try Iyengar Yoga. I am not an Iyengar Instructor. Go to their website and look for teachers in your area.
neel kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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| If I were you, I'd do my homework on yoga and find out what styles seems to suit you according to the information you've found. Also it helps just to give a beginning class a try if you've never done yoga. If you give it a try you might fall in love with it. Just as perhaps as some people love math, there are others who hate it, and the same could be true for yoga. It really just depends on the individual.
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| Sometimes reading about yoga is like dancing about architecture!
Go out and try it. Experience it. If you like do not like it, you're out $15 and a couple of hours. Sure you could have sat on our butt at the movies... but there is always the chance that the movie could suck too.
However, the rewards far outweigh the risks. Yes, there are lots of styles of yoga. Try as many as you can before you settle. Consider it an adventure. |
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| I have been doing and teaching Kundalini Yoga for 20 years. Thousands of people do it all over the world without adverse effects. People often confuse Kundalini Yoga with Kundalini Rising experience that Gobi Krishna wrote about ( by the way, he did not do Kundalini Yoga but extensive hours of mediatation).
Kundalini Yoga is a great way to heal and realign your energy but not everyone can relate to it.
If you enjoy it keep doing it!! If not, find a yoga that suits you..and a teacher!
Good luck!! |
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| Kundalini Yoga and Qi Gong have caused sudden onset dissociative or psychotic episodes.
VisionAndPsychosis.Net has published the cause of this problem.
The same events were discovered in knowledge workers using the first close-spaced office workstations. The Cubicle was the solution for the business office by the 1960's.
The phenomenon is explained in first semester psychology under Physiology of Sight, Subliminal Sight, and Peripheral Vision Reflexes.
The explanation given is as the subject continues to ignore peripheral vision reflexes to be able to concentrate a conflict arises in the mind that builds to a mental break.
Millions of people have used Yoga for over 3000 years, most with no harm.
In the case of Kundalini Yoga, the onset of hearing voices, beginning to believe you can communicate and direct the actions of others through mental telepathy, and the beliefs that you can levitate, dematerialize, or become invisible is explained as evidence you have successfully reached a plane of higher existence.
In today's world you can get exposure to the phenomenon almost anywhere. Yoga may just provide the extra exposure to repeated threat movement detection incidents to push you over the edge.
Understanding the cause of this problem should allow you to modify your exercise program to eliminate the possibility that you will have this problem.
Correcting any problems at your home or workplace will do the same. Read ...Prevention ... at the bottom of most site pages at http://VisionAndPsychosis.Net.
If you find that you do have this problem I would like to hear from you.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
  
Location: A Blue State |
Get off these boards. Nobody here is interested in your nonsense. |
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the website is rather entertaining, actually. take a peak for sh&ts and giggles. i like the part about non-hoax alien abduction! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
 
| Actually, I have read that messing around with kundalini without expert guidance is not a great idea. I think it was YJ that had an article saying a hospital in India had a "normal" mental health wing and a section for "kundalini cases."
And I personally am glad to see someone reporting the "real" alien abduction cases because those bogus ones are just so fake!!!  |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State |
Well...shut my mouth! |
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| I almost passed up this thread cause I didn't know squat about Kundalini--didn't know it would be this entertaining. |
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| The "VisionAndPsychosis.Net" stuff resembles spam to me--seems like this person is trying to promote a website. If one doesn't consider this stuff spam, I would call it propaganda or brainwashing. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Yes but highly entertaining spam    |
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| tourist - 2005-01-23 12:39 PM
Yes but highly entertaining spam
Tell me about it!
The site is so laughable I don't know whether or not to think if the authors of its contents were serious or if it's all just some sarcastic joke. |
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| Not to break up the mood here, but YES, rising Kundalini when done in an improper manner can have effects worse then your wildest dreams. Its indescribable and please don't take it lightly. Mine happened without KY, although now I've begun to do it, I can see how misuse can cause this to happen. I t seems as long as the instructor follows the procedure correctly. and you do too, and FOCUS on the mantra etc. you ought to be ok, at least I have...good luck! It definately strengthens your aura like nothing else, and creates dramatic shifts for the better!! I'm hooked. I've seen some teachers combining different forms of yoga, Kund. included,seems like recipe for disaster if you ask me! |
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| I, too, have read many unsettling things pertaining to "awakening the Kundalini". Apparently, this can result from doing any type of yoga as the kundalini energy is implied in all types of Hatha yoga.
Are there any precautions to take as to not disturb this kundalini energy (or is it uncontrollable)? I think I would prefer to have that energy lie dormant. I do not look forward to any such "awakening." |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Hi Tgirl - the best way is to always work with a qualified teacher. Aside from that, if you are doing asana on your own and not trying complex pranayama or meditation, you will be fine. What sort of practice are you doing? |
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| Thanks for your response. I'm new to yoga and find all this information a bit overwhelming.
I have been doing Bikram 3 times a week for about 3 months now. I recently tried a Kundalini class which was a bit too "spiritual" for me. I enjoy the physical benefits of yoga, however, due to my Catholic upbringing I'm a bit uncomfortable with the Hindu-based spiritual elements.
So, I am sticking w/ Bikram for now and I plan to try a Vinyasa class soon. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| You should be fine with Bikram not awakening the kundalini. Bikram's practice is designed to be completely physical and non-spiritual. I would think you would not like a kundalini class - see if you can find Iyengar, Ashtanga etc. "Vinyasa" just means the poses are done in "flow" so it may have a spiritual side or not. It depends. I find Iyengar classes not too focused on spiritual stuff at first but we do Om and one little chant each class, which can be too much for some people but most seem to find it ok. Later on we start studying the sutras and stuff, but it is never mandatory. |
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| Thanks again tourist for your input. There is a studio near my workplace that offers Iyengar. So, maybe I'll check it out sometime next week. |
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| my upbringing is also catholic.
i find that other religions are using different language to describe similar or the same spiritual experiences. it's learning to speak these other languages that makes it easier to 'see' what the other is saying.
but, that takes time--so take your time. |
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| I totally agree with zoebird on this one.
I was brought up Catholic (as well as Buddhist, Muslim, Daoist, Confucian...don't ask me how this happened, because I'm not sure myself!) and went to Catholic schools for years, so I have some understanding of where TGirl is coming from
TGirl, if you decide to take your Yoga studies further, you'll find that over time, like zoebird said, many spiritual paths say pretty similar or the same things, just in different ways. You may be uncomfortable at first, but if you try to keep and open mind and heart, you might find that what once made you feel a little uncomfortable, may make you feel right at home (that's what happened w/ me, anyway). |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State |
And I guess we should also mention that many schools of yoga never deal with
Kundalini at all. It's sort of a thing unto itself, in that sense. I don't believe that
the Yoga Sutras mention Kundalini even once, unless its buried someplace
in the fourth pada.
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| Well, if things get boring and I want to shake up the foundations a bit I'll certainly try Kundalini just to see what will happen. The human mind is a mysterious and scary thing at times.
I read recently that in a Norwegian prison yoga classes offered to inmates have been stopped due to it causing their psychological blocks to "unblock". Apparently they became agitated and aggressive after yoga sessions. And here I thought only being stuck in traffic did that!
Anyway, here's the link
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-yoga04.html
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| That article is sure making the rounds! The consensus here is that it does not include enough info about what style of yoga they were doing and the quality of the teaching to really judge what was happening. But yes, you can shake things up with yoga |
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Concerned about starting Kundalini
