Kalas: Scientific or Physiological Basis

[artilect]

Does anyone know of recent scientific works that have attempted to corroborate the kalas as genuine physiological emanations from the human body?  The idea of charging the endocrine system via various esoteric methods to facilitate the externalization of kalas for further use is an intriguing one but I can't recall ever coming across a good scientific anchor to back this notion up. 

The closest I can get right now would be something like this book, Tantra: Its Mystic and Scientific Basis, but there are no reviews or sneak peeks at the ready.

I am aware of recent studies into endogenous DMT and its potential relationship to occult hyperchemistry, but I think the kalas as Grant deals with them, or at least their charging and method of delivery, is something slightly different.

[Gregory Peters]

I don't recall any "scientific" studies in this area, but can't say I have really looked at it from such an angle. I wonder if that has any relevance from a practical standpoint? I mean it would be interesting to see science catching up, but I don't really require such validation to know that the work we do with kalas (or any other aspects of the work) is worthwhile. Recently there have been some studies showing that meditation has beneficial effects for example. How has that changed meditation practice for anyone that has already been doing it?

Don't mean to sound dismissive or anything like that, apologies if I'm coming across that way. I just think that the trend the past few years towards a "scientific" and "rational" approach to occultism misses the point in a lot of ways, and even moreso when we are dealing with material like the Typhonian tradition which is so rich with trans-rational, artistic, creative manifestations. Kenneth Grant has a great piece in Outer Gateways that I think ties in with what I am trying to get at:

"From the standpoint of metagnosis, or true metaphysic, science is no less a superstition than religion. Both have led man to the morass of which he now flounders. Science has augmented fear of and for this world, while religion has deluded with vague hopes for the next. The secret of everything lies in consciousness. Until investigations are stripped of inessentials, scientific and/or religious, Reality will remain obscured. The only fact of which we have direct, immediate and continuous experience, is awareness of consciousness. So-called unconsciousness is non-existent. Outside consciousness nothing whatever exists for us.

The three vehicles of Awareness (as they appear from the waking state) are identified as body, mind and consciousness. When awareness is identified with the body, then the consciousness of ‘things’ is experienced. But when the stand is in total Awareness, consciousness is no longer experienced individually but cosmically, universally; not personalized but impersonalized. It is then as it always was and will be — the True Self.

… That which is usually considered to be a blank, a hiatus, is in truth all that we are, Consciousness Pure, sometimes called the Self…

1. If one looks through the sense organs, gross objects appear. This is the waking state.

2. If one looks through the mind, subtle objects (thoughts) appear. This is the dream state.

3. If one sees from Mind Quiescent, only the seer remains, and THAT is Consciousness. To the unenlightened, this state appears as sleep; to the enlightened is appears as Reality.”

[triveni93]

Some Japanese philosophers, such as Hiroshi Motoyama and Yuasa Yasuo have taken an interest in this sort of thing. I'm not sure if they covered the kalas specifically, but they do discuss Kundalini activity, ki, and some interesting perspectives on the physiology of meditation.

[ShB]

Magical Revival pg.130

[Nalyd Khezr Bey]

Apr 28, 2015 22:49:04 GMT ShB said:

Magical Revival pg.130

This is not particularly useful as is. You could have at least stated which edition of the book you meant. Your page number would be in the 2010 Starfire edition but what you're pointing to is on page 125 of the 1991 Skoob edition (previous edition(s) I don't know). More specifically you're pointing out Grant's references to Havelock Ellis' Studies in the Psychology of Sex. That work is mentioned twice in The Magical Revival in chapters 7 and 8. Though this work may be useful I think it may be worth noting that it was first published in six volumes between 1897 and 1928 so would not quite fit the description of "recent scientific works" that Artilect asked about.

[artilect]

Neither! I'm rocking the 1972 leatherette Muller edition of The Magical Revival! I'll find the page ShB is referencing in that edition tomorrow.

I'm keen to have a look at the Japanese philosophers that Charlotte mentioned and will post any findings here.

With regard to the recent general trend toward scientific rationalism vis a vis Magick, I get it... this is the stuff of imagination and unlanguageable experience.

By the same token, it's plain to see that the claim is there throughout the Trilogies (obviously rooted in long-standing earlier eastern work) that the kalas are, at least in one of their shades, tangible and therefore measurable 'things'. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that we could one day find a quantifiable link between the brain, the endocrine system and the contents of genital (ahem) expression.

[sandow]

When I read about the following experiment, I couldn't help thinking about the "suvasini", the "sweet smelling lady" in the tantra texts:
www.theguardian.com/science/2008/dec/04/smell-fear-research-pheromone

I quote the most relevant part of the article :
Dr Lilianne Mujica-Parodi at Stony Brook University in New York State and her team taped absorbent pads to the armpits of 20 novice skydivers - 11 men and nine women - on their first tandem jump. The pads soaked up sweat before they leapt from the plane and as they fell. For comparison, the team collected sweat from the same individuals as they ran on a treadmill for a similar duration at the same time of day they had made their jump.

They transferred the two types of sweat to nebulisers and asked volunteers in a brain scanner to breath it in. The team did not tell the volunteers about the experiment. New Scientist magazine reported that the volunteers' amygdala and hypothalamus - brain regions associated with fear - were more active in people who breathed in the "fear" sweat. The volunteers in the brain scanner were unable consciously to distinguish between the two types of sweat.

So it seems that at least one emotion -fear- can be transmitted through one kind of secretion -sweat-. What about the others ?  Not the kalas yet, but perhaps a step in this direction...

[artilect]

Great article sandow! I think you've hit upon what we're looking for...bodily secretions that have a measurable effect on other human subjects.

[triveni93]

Artilect, I plan on doing some work with those authors soon, and will let you know if I come across any specific references to kalas. I don't think there are any that specifically pertain to kalas off the top of my head - just ki, and then some discussion of the physiology of meditation and kundalini actitivity. If anyone has looked at kalas, though, it is probably these two (Yuasa and Motoyama). I'll post something if I find it!