In Search of the Miraculous

for the slow and gradual awakening which precedes it.

"But there are a thousand things which prevent a man from awakening, which keep

him in the power of his dreams. In order to act consciously with the intention of

awakening, it is necessary to know the nature of the forces which keep man in a state

of sleep.

"First of all it must be realized that the sleep in which man exists is not normal but hypnotic sleep. Man is hypnotized and this hypnotic state is continually maintained

and strengthened in him. One would think that there are forces for whom it is useful

and profitable to keep man in a hypnotic state and prevent him from seeing the truth

and understanding his position.

"There is an Eastern tale which speaks about a very rich magician who had a great

many sheep. But at the same time this magician was very mean. He did not want to

hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were

grazing. The sheep consequently often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and

so on, and above all they ran away, for they knew that the magician wanted their flesh

and skins and this they did not like.

"At last the magician found a remedy. He hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them

when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and

even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the

third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it

was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it. Further the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not

sheep at all; to some of them he suggested that they were lions, to others that they were eagles, to others that they were men, and to others that they were magicians.

"And after this all his cares and worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away again but quietly awaited the time when the magician would require their

flesh and skins.

"This tale is a very good illustration of man's position.

"In so-called 'occult' literature you have probably met with the expression

'Kundalini,' 'the fire of Kundalini,' or the 'serpent of Kundalini.' This expression is

often used to designate some kind of strange force which is present in man and which

can be awakened. But none of the known theories gives the right explanation of the

force of Kundalini. Sometimes it is connected with sex, with sex energy, that is with

the idea of the possibility of using sex energy for other purposes. This latter is entirely wrong because Kundalini can be in anything. And above all, Kundalini is not

anything desirable or useful for man's development. It is very curious how these

occultists have got hold of the word from somewhere but have completely altered its

meaning and from a very dangerous and terrible thing have made something to be

hoped for and to be awaited as some blessing.

"In reality Kundalini is the power of imagination, the power of fantasy, which takes the place of a real function. When a man dreams instead of acting, when his dreams take the place of reality, when a man imagines himself to be an eagle, a lion, or a

magician, it is the force of Kundalini acting in him. Kundalini can act in all centers

and with its help all the centers can be satisfied with the imaginary instead of the real.

A sheep which considers itself a lion or a magician lives under the power of

Kundalini.

"Kundalini is a force put into men in order to keep them in their present state. If

men could really see their true position and could understand all the horror of it, they

would be unable to remain where they are even for one second. They would begin to

seek a way out and they would quickly find it, because there is a way out; but men fail to see it simply because they are hypnotized. Kundalini is the force that keeps

them in a hypnotic state. 'To awaken' for man means to be 'dehypnotized.' In this lies

the chief difficulty and in this also lies the guarantee of its possibility, for there is no organic reason for sleep and man can awaken.

"Theoretically he can, but practically it is almost impossible because as soon as a

man awakens for a moment and opens his eyes, all the forces that caused him to fall

asleep begin to act upon him with tenfold energy and he immediately falls asleep

again, very often dreaming that he is awake or is awakening.

"There are certain states in ordinary sleep in which a man wants to awaken but

cannot. He tells himself that he is awake but, in reality, he continues to sleep—and

this can happen several times before he finally awakes. But in ordinary sleep, once he

is awake, he is in a different state;