It means there's a meditation that is supposed to provide direct spiritual realisation. As this involved a transformation of consciousness, it was known as alchemy - change.
However, historically the instructions were kept secret and shared using coded language. All that philosophers stone business, changing lead into gold etc. But they were just symbols which basically refer to sexual energy and consciousness.
So, as far as someone like Newton was concerned, a quest for direct spiritual experience rather than just belief makes sense. Some of us just have to know.
This experience - raising the kundalini underpins most major religions IMO. A simple look on reddit should convince you this is a very real phenomenon [1]. Gopi Krishna is the canonical case illustrating the dangers, which is likely one reason the meditation was kept secret.
> Gopi Krishna is the canonical case illustrating the dangers, which is likely one reason the meditation was kept secret.
Curious to learn more, kept secret by who? And why was he the lucky one to receive that information?
Just spent the last hour reading his work here: https://www.ecomall.com/gopikrishna/. Sounds like any other charlatan and guru. From his last interview, seems like a lot of his foundation comes from the same principle that Godel invokes: "Now, please tell me, can such a vast creation be purposeless? Can such a vast creation come out of nothing? Can such a vast creation ruled by laws be all composed of dead, insensitive matter? The very idea of being - existence - - comes from the mind. A rock or a mountain or an ocean has no idea of existence, this existence comes from intelligence, and the author of the universe must be intelligent. If we didn't have an intelligent creator, there would be no purpose to this existence. There must be a purpose".
Additionally, the site's claims are frankly funny:
"All of these books are scientific wonders—miracles! Each is packed with new information not available to scientists and scholars. It was easier to sequence the human genome than it would be for any person to write the books Gopi Krishna wrote.What do you think will happen as soon as thousands of men and women begin to manipulate human DNA for the “fun of it?” It will easy to do. Wait just two more decades, less than 20 years, and hundreds, if not thousands of bright, young boys and girls will be able to clone just about any animal (including humans). Who will stop this from being done? The reason why Gopi Krishna’s miraculous writings are not known by more than a few is because they are beyond the grasp, or comprehension, of our many of our present-day intellectuals."
Are non-believers are too stupid to comprehend his great works?
Ah sorry I was referring to his experiences in his book [1]. He awoke kundalini without proper preparation and it nearly killed him.
I don't care for anyone's beliefs tbh since it's direct experience that matters. But in aggregate there are sufficient similar reports to convince me kundalini is a real, universally accessible experience (and now my own experiences are enough to keep me moving forward).
And I meant the techniques to awaken it were kept secret. Possible reasons were that it was viewed as too powerful for the masses, but also that without proper preparation it can make people think they're going mad (hallucinations, etc).
BTW if you do want to learn more, the best resources I've found are [2] (lessons) and [3] (for anatomical locations).
>"We are looking for backers to help produce a feature film about the life of Gopi Krishna similar to Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi or Einstein. It will tell the complete story of Gopi Krishna from birth to death and describe his own personal awakening and all of its ramifications - it will be an instant classic."
I read the Wikipedia article on this and it seems to suggest meditation can lead miracles like telekinesis:
"Hearing this, I mentally repeated the mantra, I noticed that my breathing was getting heavier. Suddenly, I felt a great impact of a rising force within me. The intensity of this rising kundalini force was so tremendous that my body lifted up a little and fell flat into the aisle; my eyeglasses flew off. As I lay there with my eyes closed, I could see a continuous fountain of dazzling white lights erupting within me"
Although I respect meditation and the religious beliefs of all, I don't believe any of this is possible. I don't know if an afterlife exists, but find it telling that nothing paranormal has ever been recorded in a verifiable manner.
I think the only way to know is to have the experience. I'm with you - it sounds too farfetched. It can't possibly be true... on the other hand, almost every single book I've read on the subject, including by people I've met, talk about such things.
In Indian yoga these abilities are known as siddhis. But as they seem impossible the only way I could be convinced is if they happened to me.
Healthy scepticism is the point though. If we were content just with belief, we'd never need these practices.
Psychologists have accepted the experience as real. The American Psychiatric Association added a diagnostic category for religious or spiritual problems some time ago.
Yeah I realised after I posted that that I'm biased from studying and practicing this for several decades.
The warnings section about possible death chimes with Krishna's experience, but also browsing the posts is interesting. People talk of intense heat, strange sensitivities etc, but I can see how someone new to this would probably just write them off as a load of weirdos.
However, historically the instructions were kept secret and shared using coded language. All that philosophers stone business, changing lead into gold etc. But they were just symbols which basically refer to sexual energy and consciousness.
Here's an example of some of the symbology from the Taoist tradition: https://www.mantakchia.com/inner-alchemy-level-iv-lesser-enl...
So, as far as someone like Newton was concerned, a quest for direct spiritual experience rather than just belief makes sense. Some of us just have to know.
This experience - raising the kundalini underpins most major religions IMO. A simple look on reddit should convince you this is a very real phenomenon [1]. Gopi Krishna is the canonical case illustrating the dangers, which is likely one reason the meditation was kept secret.
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/kundalini/wiki/warnings