Ascension
Between the Left-hand path of indulgence
and the Right-hand path of renunciation
there lies a Middle Way. Buddha recommended
the middle way as the path to freedom.
Ultimately, as a second-generation seeker drawing upon my mother's path as a christian mystic and my own lifetime seeking in many traditions, it is my opinion that enlightenment equates with ascension, that is, moving out of 3D by transforming your body into a vehicle that can exit the confines of the life you were born into. In the stories, both Buddha and Jesus demonstrated the abilities of ascension. There are stories in the Tibetan tradition of spiritual Masters attaining the "rainbow body". Tales of Taoist alchemists and sorcerers dying and returning to their bodies, or taking their bodies with them through a death transition occur in the training manuals. Mary Baker Eddy was surmising about the end of "death consciousness" within the christian tradition back in the 1800's. There are mystery schools right here, right now, that teach the methods to develop the skills of the shaman-mystic.
Ascension is quite literally, rising in vibration, at a cellular level. In order to raise your vibration, you must persistently purify yourself of all lower vibrations contained within your emotional, physical, energetic and astral bodies. Since we are multi-dimensional beings, purification on any one level will affect all the others. For that reason, there are numerous purification practices that can be done in order to achieve the same goal. I feel it's important to categorize the purification practices into those that are more and less beneficial, however, because some methods carry serious risk factors that can derail you completely even to the point of destroying your chance at ascending(1).
Pitfalls of the Left-Handed Path
The right-handed path of renunciation is slower, and safer. The left-handed path of indulgence can speed up your progress, but it is so dangerous that few people make it through without just becoming addicted to one of the indulgences (sex, substances, contracts with harmful spirit entities). You need to be strong enough to not fool yourself - can you recognize when you are out of control and cut yourself off from your indulgence? If not, then don't risk it. There have been times in my life where I've spent years in a trap, arguing with myself to try to justify my addiction. That's wasted time. The Buddha tried both paths and explored all the options available to him - and based upon his experiences, he recommended the Middle Way. The Middle Way is tricky because it walks the line between absolute renunciation and absolute indulgence. The Middle Way demands the development of a strong internal self-regulator. The following are a number of pitfalls to be mindful of.
Bad Relationships
Stay out of relationships with people who are not where you are at in your spiritual development. Avoid self-talk that places you in a position of "rescuer" or "mentor" to your partner. That is not forwarding you on your journey - it's just an excuse for you to avoid doing your own work. Steer clear of relationships with people who encourage you in addictions that destroy your willpower and distract you from your path. Also beware of falling into the trap of playing lover to so many people that you avoid intimacy or just get distracted by sex with strangers.
When you have sex with another person, you exchange energy, and that means you can take on their energy parasites, karma and other garbage in their field. The more partners you have, the more negativity you are exposing yourself to. Any major addiction can be the sign of a hungry ghost - that is, that your actions are being driven by a disembodied entity's desire to feed on the energy you are arousing through your actions. An interesting read is an article by Dr. Jerry Alan Johnston in Qi Journal of Traditional Eastern Health and Fitness, entitled, "The Emotional Alchemy of Intimate Relationships." You'll never look at sex the same way again.
Engaging with Low Level Spirits
One can train in out-of-body (OBE) technique and venture into the astral dimension in order to view one's negative thought forms, karmic attachments and 4D parasites. However, this practice has serious pitfalls if undertaken prior to purification work. Most people experience terror and trauma when they see visual manifestations of negative emotions and thought forms and then simply begin to spiral downward into more negative psycho-emotional states, unconsciously creating more and more negative emotions and thoughtforms, which draw more and more parasites to them to feed on the energy leak. Western doctors categorize this as a form of mental illness and will attempt to diagnose and medicate you. Taking pharmaceuticals to counteract training-induced psychosis is equivalent to a chemical labotomy. It is extremely difficult to cope with and to recover from. It is best to avoid experiencing this.
Without appropriate mind-control, venturing into the astral can be quite dangerous. Most people who initiate themselves into the astral realm through books and online courses, and even a significant amount who are under the guidance of teachers - quickly descend into psychosis. I do not recommend going into the astral as it is a lower vibratory realm and even if one succeeds in mastering fear, there is such a serious tendency to simply get caught in endless battle there with lower energies that it becomes an obstacle and / or a distraction rather than a means to a positive end. Jed McKenna said something like, "if you fall into a hole and there is a monster down there fighting with you...what is the best thing to do? fight the monster, or crawl up out of the hole?"
The out-of-body state is best experienced in sequence after doing appropriate clearing work, for the purpose of ascending into higher dimensions to visit guides and teachers in the astral schools. Without proper initiation, you can easily be tricked into engaging with lower energies, thinking them to be "guides" when they are merely keeping you engaged in order to feed on your energy. This is also true when channeling, using divination tools, practicing magic or summoning ancient dieties from old cultures. In order to trouble you, these things have to be invited. If you have given them such an open invitation, these things can be very difficult to get rid of.
Substances
The use of reality-altering plants such as marijuana, ayahuasca, and others, are a bit like dancing with fire. While they will give you sensations of expanded awareness quickly, this is because they are tearing holes in your aura. This leaves you extremely vulnerable to energy predators.
Marijuana is highly addictive, despite everyone's claims to the contrary. Chronic marijuana use affects the dopamine/serotonin balance in your brain, causing extreme mood swings between anger/irritability and pleasure/elation. On the 4D level, it tears holes in your aura (energetic defensive shield), renders your astral body (dream body) useless and susceptible to night feedings, and prevents you from ascending into higher realms during the dream state. In short, it locks you in lower realms where you are defenseless against predators.
To recover from chronic use, begin taking DLPA (an amino acid supplement) to clarify and refocus the mind and alternate with 5-HTP (also an amino acid supplement) to calm and relax. Powdered Tryptophan has a stronger effect that 5-HTP if you need it, and if you begin to have a panic attack or spiral out of control with mental energy, you can go so far as to take melotonin. Watch that melotonin used too many days in a row can begin to have reverse effects. Usually 3 consecutive days of 1 melotonin before bed will get anxiety back under control. Get cleaned up by an advanced energy worker and do a cleanse. For more information, check out Josh Sauer.
I recommend extreme caution in using ayahuasca for a few reasons. First of all, shamanic drugs were taken by initiated apprentices under direct supervision of an experienced shaman as part of a life-long apprenticeship program that involved daily training. True shamans are born with special abilities that make them candidates to act as mediums between the physical and astral dimensions. They are recognized and trained from about the age of 5 or 6, tutored directly by the lineage holder in their village, who carries the accumulated wisdom of multiple generations. There simply aren't many experienced shamans in the west, because our shamanism was killed off from our culture a very long time ago during the European "witch hunts". Unfortunately, there are alot of New Age posers quick to play the part and very likely to place you in danger.
Ayahuasca is a plant that literally spreads the veil between the physical reality and the astral dimension. There is a major need for safety because of this. Shamans are skilled in their ability to hold a safe space for the apprentice while the veil is open and are also initiated to work with specific entities on the other side who (you hope) have good intentions for you and aren't just going to feed on your energy and draw you into negative mind-states. You simply cannot trust that parting the veil is going to be a safe experience for you without a strong guardian. If you open that door, things will come through, and when you have not done adequate cleansing to raise your vibration to a higher level, you will attract low-level beings that may continue to visit you and/or hitchhike back into your reality with you. If you have experimented with ayahuasca without being under the direct supervision of a true shaman who works for the Light, I recommend you pay a visit to a high-level qigong practitioner to get cleaned up.
Wrongful Treatment or Victimization by Gurus / Healers
Under ordinary circumstances, I do not recommend becoming dependent on psychics, mediums or energy workers, because the risk factor can be very high. There is no way for the student / patient to validate what an energy worker is doing to your energy body unless you yourself are at a level of sensitivity wherein you can actually see the other realms yourself. The average fees being charged for these services is very high (from $70 - $4000 a session) and the student has to weed through the people providing these services very carefully to determine who is qualified to scan you at this level - do they really have the skills they claim?
When you give your power over to a Master or Guru, you also risk putting yourself in a situation where you are repeatedly paying a counselor to tell you your faults without you experiencing any improvement. This can turn into a negative situation that is a repeat of earlier childhood-experienced criticism and fault-finding by teacher-parents. While I'm not saying that this type of treatment is never helpful, I do feel that the risk factor here is very high and that for the beginner, your money is better spent on organic live food, a cleansing or meditation retreat, and a yoga mat. There is always the danger that you will choose an inexperienced or unqualified person and they will actually cause harm to your energy/astral body. Sexual victimization by abuse of power relationships is also always a very real possibility. Do not ever give away your ability to think for yourself - your decision-making process and basic sovereignty should never be given to another person.
I recommend strong discernment when pursuing martial arts training, esoteric systems, or kundalini yoga, again - not because they do not work but because the number of Westerners developing psychosis in response to these practices is becoming overwhelming. This is because the market is currently saturated with people claiming teacher status who are not true Masters. I recommend only a handful of people within these traditions - please check the resources section.
The higher you get in your seeking, the greater the risk factor for encountering practitioners and teachers who are experimenting with dark practices and/or have enough power to actually harm you (either intentionally or naively). There are people who practice energetic vampirism of students both deceptively and without complete awareness. I cannot emphasize enough the risk factor here, particularly to women, especially if you have a history of physical or sexual abuse in childhood (which means your boundaries have been compromised and you may not be able to recognize predatory situations for what they are). There are other ways to cleanse the energy body and reset the body's boundaries that are safer, that can be accomplished without retraumatizing oneself(2).
Recommendations
The safest practices I have pursued and observed, that get excellent, visible and measurable results with the lowest risk factor are ashtanga yoga and the raw vegan diet.
Both ashtanga yoga and the raw food diet are extremely grounded in their approach to cleansing, by focusing on the physical body to stimulate the organs, flush out parasites, accumulated toxins and debris, while strengthening the physical body through nourishment and exercise that rebuilds it in a new form. These practices in combination balance the yin/yang natures of the body and will effectively blow out any blockages in the energetic / emotional systems while cleansing low vibrations from the astral without ever having to go out of body.
These practices have been used successfully by small illuminated brotherhoods such as the Essenes, certain Tibetans, Indian yogis, and Chinese Daoist adepts. I know of one dedicated ashtanga teacher who literally glows with an aura of bright light, and I have met a number of dedicated vegan raw foodists who glow and radiate energy.
As you progress through your own research and self-experimentation you will be drawn toward the practices and teachers that best serve your process. Just don't be naive, because perhaps the hardest lesson on the path is that the world is not all love and light, and the enlightenment arena is no exception - one does not need to practice at being kind, selfless or good to be enlightened, and these folks have real power, so watch out for the dark side - it is definitely out there.
I also highly recommend a formal daily sitting meditation practice focused on cultivating calmness and well-being, which can then be drawn upon during times of transition or destabilization. I also highly recommend adding to this mindfulness meditation, which can be practiced continuously in order to gain control over the mind's habitual fixations (read Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Wherever You Go, There You Are" to learn the technique). A third aspect of meditation practice I recommend is a daily journaling practice to scrutinize the habitual self-talk and personal history/story line. See Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" if you need help getting this practice started. It is my opinion based on personal experience that the meditation practice is the single most important foundational practice in your repertoire. If you go astray during the search for enlightenment, this one practice will keep you sane during the greatest chaos.
Super Powers
I highly recommend reading Kosta Danaos' books on Indonesian mystic John Chang (Magus of Java, and Neikung: Secret Teachings of the Warrior Sages), as well as Thomas Cleary's "Opening the Dragon Gate", and the Medical Qigong manuals by Dr. Jerry Alan Johnston. You may discover, to your surprise, that healing by the transmission of energy through the palms is not evidence of Jesus' Godly nascence, but rather, our natural ability as humans that can easily be developed through proper training. Awareness of our energy bodies enables us to transmit qi to others for healing. Skillful use of our astral body enables us to travel to ascended Masters in our dreams and receive valuable spiritual guidance and education. A direct connection with Nature keeps our physical bodies fit, energized and glowing with a youthfulness that resembles immortality in comparison to the current norm you see all around you. Practicing the ancient wisdom will transform you into a being that appears to have superpowers, but really this is our natural state.
Remember, ascension means leaving behind the things that no longer serve you in order to create a new self that is more resonant to higher frequencies. It is your constant opportunity to shed aspects of yourself and recreate yourself anew. It is possible to do this in a way that enables you to be happy, to have strong, healthy love-bonds that foster mutual growth, and to be socially interconnected and a positive contributor to your current community. Leave behind the idea that the enlightenment process equates with isolation, selfish behavior and negative mind-states.
There are, surprisingly, quite a number of people doing the work from different angles. Seek them out and learn from them, while always staying true to your own process, and keeping a close watch on your "Light meter".
The End of The World
Lastly, there are a number of unknowns coming into play at this particular time. We are approaching a significant cosmic alignment in 2012 that places our planet into a position that only occurs once every 20,000 years. Secondly, global warming is not entirely accurate - it is not just earth that is heating up - all the planets in our solar system are heating up. There is a great deal of speculation by fringe scientists and religious scholars as to what this all means. There are a number of ancient texts and oral traditions that offer predictions that may apply to what we are facing in the next many years - the Mayan calendar, the White Buffalo prophecy and Judaeo-Christian texts as well as a prolifera of channeled material suggest many outcomes from a global catastrophe to the return of alien species we've hereto considered our gods. The truth is - nobody knows with any certainty what our fate is as humans in 3D.
Christians have been long-awaiting the return of a church-loving but vengeful God who will destroy their enemies along with all immoral people and the planet itself, liberating them to a perfected reality elsewhere. Maturity demands we question our childlike thinking: who is this Judeao-Christian God who created us, placed us on the planet and then abandoned us, who displays such racism, cruelty and lust for blood in the old testament/Torah? That entity is not synonymous with the Ultimate Power in the universe, source of the entire system of Life.
High-level whistleblowers from the military across the globe, including a former Canadian Minister of Defense, have now leaked enough collaborative evidence of government-E.T. interactions that it can no longer be dismissed as sci-fi fantasy. A former U.S. military officer leaked information documenting that the government is aware of more than 57 different E.T. species, and a number of political environments beyond our own. If you are a Christian, it might be more pertinent to think about who the alien being in the ancient writings actually is, and whether you would want to "bow down and obey" it if it does show up. Add to that the stories of a disturbing predatory agenda, and we're here in a very complex and interesting situation. It is not the time to numb out with movies, addictions and pop culture, or to trust the infrastructure of society, but instead to be alert, aware and actively committed to your own process of intelligence.
There is so much information available it is difficult to know what is true. Will there be E.T.'s? Will they be actual or just another illuminati chess move? Will there be a global catastrophe? Will you live? Will you die? Who knows? You can't know. Alot of the dramas at play in the different realms are outside of your control. So it would be best to use the tools available to you to sharpen your powers of self-control, so that you can make conscious choices and direct your process both in and out of body.
This is what we have been searching for - to live the story of Buddha, Jesus or Tara - we have the opportunity to wake up, to realize our full potential, and to ascend. It isn't something that is going to spontaneously happen to us, and it isn't something that's going to be handed out in a public service. If you really want it, go looking.
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(1). These recommendations are for the highest degree of safety and ease and are based on my personal experience over 35 years of spiritual training and exposure to various spiritual sects and practices, including Christianity (10), Buddhism (10), Hinduism (3), Wicca (2) and Esoteric Daoism (4), and are rooted in extensive personal reading, study at the university level, personal engaged experimentation, personal interviews, and workshop and treatment exposure.
(2). For seekers who have experienced significant trauma, the risk factors involved in the esoteric Chinese qigong arts are very high. I do not recommend esoteric Daoist energy-cultivation systems to women who have PTSD from sexual or childhood abuse. Even martial arts systems should be approached with great care, particularly if a woman has suffered physical attack. There are very few male martial arts teachers who can effectively address the special needs of a female sexual-abuse survivor, and so the risk of retraumatization is extremely high. I also do not recommend energy treatments to women trauma sufferers until they have completed a significant amount of physical cleansing and have a strong meditation practice (minimum of 2 years). Even then, there is significant risk of provoking a nervous breakdown. There is always a risk of retraumatization due to choosing a practitioner who is not qualified to work specifically with female sexual-abuse survivors. Please exercise extreme personal caution in this area.
For more information, check out the Resource Guide.