Kundalini and the Collective Consciousness, Again

[From a YouTube video : Hi,  I’m Leo Volont.  Here today I will be reading a editorial rewrite of a Blog I wrote a bit more than a year ago: Kundalini and the Collective Consciousness    Here, let me begin ]

In the spiritual community we often hear the cliché about a general Kundalini Awakening being the Next Great Evolutionary Leap for Humanity.  But the details are vague regarding ‘how so?’  after decades of thinking about it, I have an idea about just what it might consist of.  Perhaps the Kundalini can be used to Link into the Collective Consciousness.   Well, how did I arrive at that hunch, or perhaps the more appropriate question for now would be why would I want to think so?

Back decades ago I had a few personal experiences which go a long way in explaining why I would want to think there is an actual existential Collective Consciousness that we could tap into, particularly two very Big Dreams I had.   In the first dream, back when I was still a young man and not very philosophically sophisticated, I came upon the grave of one of Europe’s Greatest Thinkers and it had been defaced with graffiti saying that “______ would not live beyond the grave”, but instantly I had muttered that “everybody lives beyond the grave”.   But whatever Higher Wisdom that had been directing that Dream was not to allow me to get away with such an unfounded assertion without some kind of a challenge and so suddenly a large oak tree on the crest of a nearby knoll erupted in flames of multicolored lights, and out of it billowed a Voice that said “Not all men will live beyond the grave… but ______ will”.   Oh, I need to mention some details that indicate just how significant that Fiery Tree and Voice must have been in the context of this Dream.  The instant the Tree ‘Lit Up’ my legs gave way out from beneath me and I came crashing down on my knee caps, on what seemed like hard granite, but I felt no pain.   Also, tears sprayed from my eyes, but I felt no emotion, which puzzled me even at the time.   Now, one would suppose that I would have been speechless in awe, but, since I felt no overwhelming emotions, I was intellectually quite curious about the Mortality Issue that the ‘Tree’ had brought forward and so without any hesitation I asked “Well, then, what about me?  Will I live beyond the grave?”   Well, the Tree did not immediately give me an answer, seemingly wishing that I should have a little time to contemplate just how possibly disturbing certain answers to that question might be for me, and the Tree’s apparent point was not lost upon me, and I got really nervous really fast.     But finally the Tree spoke and said “Yes, you too will live beyond the grave, but remember one thing: Birth is but an Illusion and Christ is the Life in All Things”.  Now even at the time I did not see the allusion to ‘Christ’ as being in reference to any historical individual, but rather to some kind of All-embracing Spiritual Status – some disembodied Cosmic Christ.   And of course the notion of “Life in All Things” speaks of a Collective Consciousness with no need for further elaboration.

Then there was the second Big Dream not many years after the first.  I appeared to be in a sparse landscape, that seemed as dry as some areas in North Africa, the Near East or the American Southwest, but still there were some clumps of grass, some bushes and a tree here and there.  I seemed to have just arrived on the Dream Scene when suddenly this young man appeared just in front of me, so close within my personal space that it made me feel a bit uncomfortable.  But what instantly caught my attention was the young man’s boundless smile – it quite radiated what seemed a fathomless joy.   The Young Man, as a person though, was not very impressive.  He was thin to the point of emaciation, dark but one would say more ‘brown’ than ‘black’, with a narrow face and a thin nose, and for a beard he had just a slight tuft of curly hairs.  But I could not help but be moved by his perfect joyfulness.  In this Dream I seemed to have been rendered ‘speechless’.   Well, since I had nothing to say, the young man turned and began walking off, but before he was 20 meters away, the same voice as in the other dream spoke up and said from out of the blue, “He went out into the wilderness and became One”.   With that the Young Man developed a silver blue aura.  Then, what was more remarkable was that the nearby grasses and bushes began picking up that same silver blue aura, and then I noticed that even the trees out in the distance began to shine silver blue.  It became clear that everything that was alive had the same aura and that it was connected and centered on him.  I had a hunch at the time that he was experiencing all of that as part of himself – that he felt the Oneness.   Maybe that is what made him so happy, or was it being so happy that made him One with everything? 

Also, I might add that that dream is suggestive of what we hear about some traditions of Shamanism whereby it is reported that some Shamans can transform into crows or cats or coyotes or whatever, but what I suspect is probably really happening is only that a Shaman can opportunistically reach his or her consciousness out and partake of the perceptions of crows, cats or coyotes or whatever else is already out there and part of the landscape which the Shaman is concerned with knowing about. 

Now, I mention these Dreams and these assertions from the Shamanistic Traditions to point out that Spirituality may have an External and Objective application.  But most of the Spirituality we hear about today is directed inward towards subjective Mystical Experiences.  Now, of course, Mystical Experiences are interesting in that people who have had Mystical Experiences claim that in their moment of excitement that they Knew Everything and that All Truth had been Revealed.  However, the problem arises that they can provide few details after the fact.  The literature of Mysticism gives this problem a name – Ineffability.  William James, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, in his classic “Varieties of Religious Experience”, circa 1905, talks a great deal about Ineffability.  The consequence of Ineffability is that it turns the Mystical Experience essentially into a purely aesthetic, even sensual experience – a Super High Buzz, but which in practical terms is good for nothing, or even damaging, in the sense that Mystics may become addicted to the purely Sensual Experience while ignoring their Social Duties and Obligations, like students getting high instead of doing their homework.

There is also the issue regarding the various, different and often contradictory reports given by those exceptional few who purport to bring back some form of “eternal wisdom” from their mystical experiences.  Such wide variance would incline us to believe such ‘Truths’ to be subjective rather than objective, and if these Enlightened Truths are only subjective, well, that only means that it was ‘true’ in the sense that an individual really had the experience, and didn’t just make up a story (which I fear happens more times than not within the New Age Community).  But the broader definition of Truth is that a thing is plainly known to exist or its existence can be objectively confirmed only by means of a group consensus.  Subjectivity, frankly, can be delusional, even if it does provide the individual with important personal insights.   But not all Subjectivity should be thrown out as objectively dubious, because in some cases even Subjectivity can have a Consensus, when such subjective impressions are very widely shared (or what we would call “archetypical”).  For instance, the commonly occurring Dream Motifs (snake dreams, horse dreams, being naked in public dreams), these motifs are common across cultures, can be considered Archetypical and their Meaning in a way Psychologically ‘Objective’.  But in regards to many Religious and Mystical Experiences, we do not yet have this broad confirmation.  Again I refer to James’ “Varieties of Religious Experience” where you can see just how bazaar and off the beaten path some ‘enlightened’ realizations can be.  If they were only weird, that would not be the problem.  The problem is lack of Objective Consensus.  My point here is that we cannot claim to have a Collective Consciousness until we can demonstrate an Objective Shared Consensus.

But we may be able to address this problem of Shared Objective Reality within our mystical experiences by determining whether we use our Kundalini to look Inwards, into ourselves, or Outwards, into the World and Society.   Looking Inwards has been the typical direction.  Most popular thinking these days seems fully on board with the notion that all wisdom comes from within, no matter how foolishly we see people actually behaving who act solely according to their own guidance.   We need to ask ourselves what we can learn from ourselves that we do not already know?  We get nothing new by watching old reruns over and over again.  Self-Inquiry is a labyrinth that can only circle the same old ground over and over again.  If we want to put the Kundalini to any positive use, we must point it Outwards and Experience where we have never Experienced before.    

True Civilization could become an achievable possibility if Humanity could be unified by a tangible shared Collective Consciousness.  Looking Outwards to Others beyond ourselves will take us in that direction.  Looking inwards is like looking backwards.  We can’t take that next great evolutionary step forwards by always backtracking over our failures and shortfalls.   The Ancient Wisdoms, quite frankly, got us into the mess where we are today.  With this surge in Kundalini Awakenings, we need to configure a new path forwards.  Looking Outwards is the way to go.  Looking inwards will only show us who the Devils in the Way.