During periods of accelerated spiritual growth when there is a rapid shift in the sense of self the main adjustments we need to make are adaptation to the:

• Loss of a rigid sense of the known
• Loss of the sense of sure identity
• The sense of infinity, space, groundlessness and emptiness
• Loss of routine habits
• Amplification of sensory acuity
• Magnification of or loss of appetites
• Increased psychic and subtle abilities
• Greater range and depth of emotion and feeling
• Changes in one's sense of energy and embodiment
• Distortions in the sense of time

The spontaneous symptoms of kundalini awakening can be arranged into the various practices of yoga. Yoga practice or Sadhana, is essentially the speeding up of the flow of consciousness.

The unconscious nervous system is the autonomic nervous system...which yogis do have some control over. Many of the kundalini symptoms arise from the brainstem, which consists of the medulla, pons, cerebellum and midbrain...that is the majority of kundalini symptoms originate from areas of the brain that are beyond our normal control. Hence many of the symptoms and feelings arise directly from physciological events triggered by specific neural circuits. The ultimate outcome of kundalini awakenings is a reduction in background fear, body armor and emotional volatility.

Although the first impulse of fight-flight activation does decrease immune response in order to conserve energy for the immediate danger, after this the immune system kicks in to prepare for bodily injury. Candice Pert discovered that receptors for neuropeptides and neurotransmitters are on the cell walls of the immune system, showing that the immune and endocrine systems are modulated not only by the brain but also by the central nervous system. The meta-activation of the sympathetic nervous system of course would profoundly facilitate changes in the immune system and endocrine system. It is fascinating that the immune system is activated with the fight or flight response during danger to prepare for possible damage to the body.

Lysosomes are acid-containing vesicles that enable cells to digest unwanted material. They are characterised by specific hydrolases which are most active at low pH. Sometimes called "suicide bags," lysosomes are organelles used for the digestion of macromolecules from phagocytosis (ingestion). They form the cell's recycling process, where old components such as worn out mitochondria are destroyed and replaced by new ones, and receptor proteins are recycled. Other functions include digesting foreign bacteria that invade a cell and helping repair damage to the plasma membrane by serving as a membrane patch to heal the wound in the cell membrane. Protein processing in the lysosome system is modulated heat-shock proteins (HSP).

"Thinking hard about subtle energy seems to lessen its influence while just being seems to make its influence stronger." Paul Pearsall, The Heart's Code

The heart then the nervous system are the first things to form in a human embryo. At 5-9 days the heart begins to form and the foundations for the foetal brain, spinal cord, and entire nervous system are set in place. By 10 weeks the heart is completely developed--the organism is developed within the field of the heart. As the dissolution progresses one can assume that the heart muscle itself is relaxed and made more permeable to energy to the same degree that the neuromuscularskeletal system is decontracted. The heart being a holographic representation of the entire neuromuscularskeletal system. As the heart starts to experience this "new space" it would go through contractions and expansions which in effect feel like gravity warping and crushing.

Breathing is the key to the benign integration of kundalini. It's hard to breath sometimes perhaps due to hyper or hypo-activity in the vagus nerve, especially during heart expansion periods. Also histamine release during panic prompts nitric oxide to plump up the air passages making breathing laborious. The breathing difficulty always arose at the same time as the panic states for me. But rather than find it a source of "pathology" I interpreted it as Spirit forcing me out of the house to go for very long fast walks. One walk I encountered a form a fish breathing in which I kind of breathed in and out at the same time. God knows how I accomplished that, I can't remember.

"As Kundalini moves up through the sushumna, She transforms the body and makes it fit for spiritual sadhana; it is only after the body has been purified that the Shakti can work with full force." P. 28 Swami Muktananda, Kundalini, The Secret of Life.

The inner-conjunction is the most intense kundalini experience when it feels like thousands of volts are tearing through one's system. There are many ecstatic experiences during a kundalini awakening, but the shooting up the spine and its associated "Silver Cord" or "Sex with Eros" is the most extreme experience one can endure energetically. I haven't found a name for it in Western literature and no corresponding Eastern name so I call it the inner-conjunction.