THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THOUGHTS🔗

Contrary to what was once believed, the brain is not the only center where our neural responses are stored. There is now growing evidence that our thoughts— which are no more than electrical signals whizzing along our neural pathways—are stored in our cellular and somatic memory, resulting in permanent changes in the way our body and mind influence each other. Somatic memory includes 3 types of memories: engraved memories (engrams), muscle-memories and bio-memories. Engrams are bio-chemical changes that occur in our neural tissues as the result of a powerful or persistent reaction to any situation. An engram is not an ordinary memory, but more like a photograph of the situation or event, complete with the emotional response that accompanied it. Engrams exist just below the level of our consciousness, influencing our emotional responses without our knowledge. While engrams affect our emotional responses alone, muscle-memories are memories that have become so deeply embedded in our system that they can recreate the physical symptoms accompanying these emotions, like those experienced during strong fear or anger. Muscle memories are also responsible for our performing repetitive mechanical actions that do not require our conscious intervention, like typing or cycling.

Bio-memories are memories that are locked into our cells. They carry hereditary memories, past-life memories and memories that have become part of the very fiber of our current personality through constant repetition for years. Both physical and mental patterns can become part of our bio-memory. Bio-memories have the power to trigger physical actions like fight or flight. Mental states like depression and anxiety can quickly become part of our bio-memory if we are not careful. Bio-memories are not only unconscious, but are usually untraceable to any particular source incident.

How does a thought become an engram or a bio-memory?

A thought is simple. It rises and falls. It does not leave a mark inside you. For example, if a thought comes to you—I would like to have a coffee—that is just a thought, not a pattern or engram. But if you fulfil this thought every time by the action of drinking coffee, after a few days it becomes an engram. That is, you start feeling a craving for that particular action—you start feeling, how I wish that I could have a coffee!... Engram is like flowing water... it creates a certain movement in your mind. After some weeks, you actually start feeling afraid that if you don’t get your coffee in the morning

every day, you will have a headache! This means that this thought is solidifying like water becoming ice—it has become part of your muscle-memory.

After one year, if you keep pursuing this habit, one day if you don’t get your coffee in the morning, you will ACTUALLY get a headache! When a pattern becomes so solid that it starts affecting you physically, it is called bio-memory. Bio-memories are tough like crystal and are very difficult to break!

Can Kundalini Awakening alter our thought-patterns?

Yes and no.

Our thoughts carry a miniscule physical weight that can be a drag on our bodies. Everybody has experienced how we feel heavy on certain days, and light as a feather on certain days—even though our physical

weight remains the same! This shows that our thoughts and engrams can actually pull us down. Kundalini awakening and initiation have the power to temporarily free us of our binding engrams. But if the negative patterns continue to be encouraged, they can return and persist even after Kundalini awakening. The first initiation is an inspiration, a glimpse of a different space, an encouragement to return again and again to that high-energy space. With repeated initiation, we are constantly exposed to that elevated space. Gradually, our muscle-memory starts enjoying this space, and it becomes part of our bio-memory.

How does energy-transfer happen during initiation?

Entanglement is a term used in quantum theory to describe the way that particles of energy/matter can become correlated to interact with each other in predictable ways, regardless of how far apart they are. This means that the state and actions of one of these particles can influence the

state and actions of the other through the process of interference.

Entanglement is the principle behind all processes involving energy transfer, whether spiritual healing, kundalini awakening, levitation, teleportation or materialization. An enlightened being has the power to raise others into his own elevated state by the subtle pressure of his presence. When the mind of the receiver comes in touch with the no-mind (thought-free mind) of such a being, a process similar to entanglement happens, and thoughts subside in the mind of the receiver. Entanglement happens when the receiver is mentally in tune with the source and is open to receiving the energy, eg. during spiritual healing.

When entanglement happens at the deeper level of muscle-memory, Nithyananda gives it the name 'Entrainment'. During Kundalini awakening, entanglement can happen irrespective of the mental state of the receiver.

During initiation, entanglement penetrates the bio-memory of the receiver. That is why initiation has permanent physiological and psychological effects. Nithyananda calls this Enlightenment, in the sense that during the moment of initiation,

the receiver actually experiences a space identical to that of the enlightened being. But lacking the yogic body and nervous system to retain this space, the receiver gradually loses the experience through energy 'leaks'. With repeated initiations, the experience becomes bolted into the system, and the receiver moves closer to being established in the state of enlightenment. At INNER AWAKENING, the yoga & meditation program conducted at Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam's international headquarters in India, participants receive a series of powerful initiations on 21 consecutive days. This ensures that the physical and mental transformation experienced during the program are rendered long-lasting or even permanent.

Let us take the example of a bird flying. When a bird flaps its wings, the surrounding air is pushed downward, creating a certain pressure. This downward pressure produces an opposite force that is powerful enough to defy gravity and lift the bird into the air.

We too are grounded because of the weight of the engrams we are carrying. During initiation, our engrams are momentarily lifted from us by the pressure

of positive vibrations entering us from outside. Our inner space becomes light enough to combat the pull of gravity on our physical body, and we lift off the ground for a few moments. In Vedic philosophy, the human body is compared to an open pot, in the sense that the same space exists both inside and outside of us, separated only the seeming boundary of the pot (the body). The space inside us is known as ghataakaasha (literally, pot-space), while the space outside us which forms our immediate physical and mental environment is chittaakaasha. Beyond both these lies the cosmic space, paraakaasha.

During levitation, the inner space of the receiver enters into entanglement with the pure inner space of the enlightened being, and loses the dirt of thoughts and engrams contaminating it. The receiver's ghataakaasha becomes much lighter than the surrounding chittaakaasha, and as a result, the body is lifted off the ground, much like a helium balloon rises into the air.

The interpersonal transmission of energy to entrain the kundalini is one facet of Paramahamsa Nithyananda's research. He has also conducted studies in teleportation and materialization, the production of physical objects seemingly from "nothing". Since we have seen that thoughts are not "nothing"— they have energetic existence—Paramahamsa Nithyananda is simply demonstrating the science of transforming the energy of his thought into physical matter. He visualizes an

English scientist called Thomas Young performed a simple experiment that would, for the first time, destroy the comfortable solidity of the Newtonian universe. In this classic experiment, which came to be known as Young's Double-Slit Experiment, the scientist used basic tabletop equipment to prove something astonishing: that light could exist simultaneously in the form of matter as well as energy, ultimately manifesting as either matter or energy depending on the observer. This extraordinary finding was to have a ripple effect on the most basic postulates of the Newtonian world, including the reality of matter itself. The dual existence of light implied the shocking possibility of a dual universe itself, existing simultaneously as matter and energy.

Interestingly, Isha Vasya Upanishad, one of the primary spiritual texts of the Hindu Vedic tradition, had declared more than 10,000 years ago that all that exists in the universe is energy, including whatever appears as matter:

object mentally, and subsequently it appears. His recent experiments have ranged over a wide variety of objects. The manifestations are usually of a religious nature because the abundant energy of devotion in a religious setting facilitates the process.