Energy/Subtle Energies Record Type: Review   ID: 500
Energies of Transformation: A Guide to the Kundalini Process Greenwell, Bonnie
The author is a transpersonal psychotherapist and yoga teacher, and her book is aimed at both experiencers and therapists with clients who have had psychic, mystical, kundalini awakening, and other types of exceptional human experiences. Greenwell concentrates on kundalini because she subsumes other EHEs as indications of kundalini awakening. In the first chapter she points out that the latter awakens one to "radical spirituality," which is in line with this Journal's position on EHEs. Next she outlines the many kinds of EHEs associated with kundalini, which are often viewed as symptoms of illness but could also be seen as signs of kundalini awakening. The third and fourth chapters are entitled Yogic Views of Energy, the Body and the Self and Western Physiology: Pleasure and Pain in the Brain, which provide background orientation and context for the kundalini experience. The next chapter is on the literature of spiritual awakening and is in three parts: self-reports and case histories of Eastern spiritual teachers, self-reports of Westerners who followed Eastern spiritual traditions, and reports of kundalini experiences outside of Eastern traditions. Chapter 6 presents experiential accounts by ordinary people who are not spiritual leaders, yet along with the experiences they describe—"have a new sense of certainty and awareness about who they are—a connection with self in its most profound sense" (p. 179). These accounts, in effect, are "EHE autobiographies." The seventh chapter offers advice on dealing with the nonordinary energies awakened by kundalini. The next is on dealing with the emotional accompaniments and identity problems/opportunities associated with kundalini awakening as well as some of the EHEs that arise during the process, such as visions, voices, and remembering past lives. The final chapter is on the prospect "after awakening," or for continued spiritual growth in a Western context. Greenwell deals briefly with the possibility that "increased reports of kundalini awakening at this time in history suggest that a larger purpose at work, a universal planetary movement" (p. 302).
Publisher Information:	Cupertino, CA: Shakti River Press, 1990. 312p. Chap. bibl; Glossary: 305-307; Index: 309-312

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