Nuralshamal

It depends on the person. For me I primarily feel the vibration. It feels like electricity. It's like you feel the very particles of energy moving, vibrating. But now after 100 students some feel it like magnetism, pressure, heat, movement, a spinning, a light, a color or like there's an object there they can attach their awareness to and rest it there until eventually the awareness merges with the object (dharana - dhyana - samadhi). I feel a lot of heat in the muladhara usually, and some of the students I've had also feel heat in muladhara. Some have also felt heat in the crown. I think it depends on the person and their energy. After a while, no matter which chakra, it starts with the energy, but the longer you rest, the dharana - dhyana - samadhi starts to happen, so you eventually merge with the universe, i.e. you go through the 5 koshas and simply rest in peace, bliss and ecstasy. You reach back to your true nature, your origin, and simply rest there.

Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with the Simplified Kundalini Yoga by Vethathiri Maharishi. I'll describe my experience in 4 parts: 1) Overview of the system 2) My personal experience 3) Summary 4) Conclusion Overview of the system: Simplified Kundalini Yoga is the creation of Vethathiri Maharishi. It includes the following: a) transfer of energy from the master through touch, through the eyes and through the mind to open the chakras of the students (sparsa diksha, chakshu diksha and manodiksha) b ) meditation (on the chakras as they're opened progressively, the stars and planets, the 5 elements, the senses and finally the universal energy field and the universal absolute space) c) tratak or gazing meditation (on a ghee lit earthen clay lamp and later on a mirror) d) simplified physical yoga postures (asanas) and breathing exercises (pranayama) e) transmutation of the sexual vital fluid through simplified kaya kalpa yoga (breathing and postures) f) introspection and refinement of character (analysis of thoughts, moralization of desires, neutralization of anger, eradication of worries, self-realization, sex and spirituality, and finally how to achieve harmony in the family, workplace and in all relationships) My personal experiences This is the best spiritual system I've ever tried. I've tried everything under the sun: mantra meditation, pranayama, tibetan and buddhist tsa-lung and meditation, dream and sleep yoga, physical yoga exercises, sexual qigong, qigong meditation, standing meditation, sufi mantras and meditation, rituals (praying, fasting, giving food and charity), pilgrimages to holy places, vedanta, jnana/gyana yoga, psychological self development, sexual transmutation, semen retention, daoist lovemaking, gazing on the sun, moon and stars and much much more. However, SKY still rules supreme as to the simplicity, power, effectiveness and practicality in all aspects. From the very first day, from my initiation into the system (where your lifeforce is transferred from the root/muladhara chakra to the brow/agya chakra) my life was never the same. That very first evening when I meditated after returning home from the initation, I had the deepest meditation of my life. My mind became still and peaceful, no thoughts or emotions, just pure and deep peace. After the meditation I was extremely energized and full of power. Furthermore, my sleep became the best it's ever been (and I've had life long issues with sleep). Every single initiation (brow chakra, root chakra, crown chakra, the universal energy state, lamp gazing) keeps surprising me as to its power. It just works. It's easy and simple, yet profoundly powerful. Summary SKY has been the best I've ever tried, and it keeps improving with every initiation. Furthermore, it's a complete system. It has everything you need: physical, breathing, psychological and energetic exercises, improvement of character, meditation and transmutation of the sexual vital fluid. Conclusion If you're into meditation, definitively check SKY out. It has changed my life. When I went to the first initiation, several seasoned meditators who've been meditating deeply and going on retreat yearly for the past 20+ years were also surprised at its power. They thought it sounded too easy... Yet it worked SO! Check it out Be blessed

In SKY system manipura is fire element, heat, metabolism, confidence, vitality, life force and digestion. However it's very connected to spiritual world. Just like we attached to mother through navel, we are attached to spiritual beings through energetic cords in our navel. If we have pure energy, only good souls will attach to us. If not, evil souls will attach to us. Hence manipura should not be meditated on much unless you've complete all levels of SKY, purify your character and are under protection of guru. If you're good, manipura will open to spiritual world, good souls will connect to you and help you in doing good, and finally your astral body can leave through navel and travel the universe. However, other beings can affect you during this journey, so shouldn't be taken lightly. These are SKY view on manipura.

Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with Tulku Lobsang (known for doing Tummo in -5 degrees celsius on "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" on NGC). I'll share in 4 parts: 1) Intro and Background 2) Medicine Buddha 3) Dream Yoga 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued 1) Intro and Background I heard about Tummo when I was a child from my dad. He learnt about yoga on a hippie island camp full of naked women burning bras when he was a child, forced to go with my hippie grandmother in the 60s. He had a life changing experience as a child with yoga and mantras, while on this naked women camp. So in his late teens when small yoga and meditation workshops started in the West, he started attending. Buddhism was super famous in my country on the spiritual scene, as it still is in much of Europe with the New Age crowd I would say. While I grew up, my dad told me of naked monks in the snow-clad Himalayas drying wet sheets with their body temperature through magical yoga practices. So now the family saga continues; as an adult, I've also pursued further what my dad exposed me to as a child. This time, I saw Tulku Lobsang with Morgan Freeman. Being able to be comfortable in a t-shirt in -5 degrees on television I took as a "good enough" show of Tummo skill, that maybe I could finally pursue this magical practice myself. However, I still had some doubts. So, when I saw he was coming to my country, I decided to go check him out. If he "checked out" I would be willing to give it a go and fork over my hard earned cash to flight, hotel and the Tummo workshop (when the time comes). With the intro out of the way, let me share how it went! The first day he taught Medicine Buddha. The following 2 days it was one long workshop on Dream Yoga. 2) Medicine Buddha He gave us the mantra and we all chanted together for maybe 5-15 minutes. Then he instructed us step-by-step in the visualisation. After having stabilised the visualisation, we resumed chanting together (we were maybe 20-30 people). During his transmission, I felt a special kind of energy coming into my head center. I felt like it made it easier for me to visualise. I also felt the energy from each of the lights we visualised in all of my body, and felt pleasantly relaxed. Since this day, I've been doing a minimum of 108 reps of the mantra and then the visualisation meditation procedure he explained. Already on the second day of the practice, it's like the energy had increased in power. Now it's growing day by day with my daily practice. So far so good! He's definitely legit. 3) Dream Yoga My dad took me to a dream yoga weekend workshop when I was about 18-19 years old with a Rinpoche visiting my country. I thought the whole idea of lucid dreams and using them for spiritual practice was extremely fascinating, and even at that young age I practiced quite consistently for about 3 months (while also reading his book). However, I had no results whatsoever. Then again when I was in my mid 20s, I picked up the book again and decided to give it a go. I practiced again for about 2 months, but zero results. In my late 20s, I again read yet another book by a tibetan teacher on dream yoga. I tried it again. No results after 1 month. All of the above practices were the usual "visualise a red drop in your throat chakra, surrounded by a white lotus flower with 4 leaves". In this book there was also a tibetan letter on each leaf, and you said them one by one as a kind of mantra for a while, then proceeded to only visualise until falling asleep. However, at the end of this particular book was also a shamanistic bön practice for lucid dreaming. After 1 month of failing with the vajrayana buddhist practice, I tried the shamanic practice. After about 7-14 days, it happened! I was super excited. Then it would happen every single day like clockwork for about a week. However, with each day I felt like I got more and more tired. Like I used up energy while sleeping, instead of regaining it. I remembered a warning from a daoist qigong teacher who had (as usually) dissed buddhist practices, especially their dream practices. He said "night is for sleeping and resting, that's what nature intended". So I thought maybe my bön lucid dreaming practice was sapping my energy and discontinued it. Lo and behold, now I'm in my early 30s, and I was faced with yet another tibetan vajrayana buddhist practice of visualising a red drop in my throat. "Here we go again!" I found myself thinking, however I still had an open mind during the workshop. During the workshop I felt Tulku Lobsang transmitted different states as well as different energies. I also found him to be extremely grounded in Being, never losing connection to himself, even if some of the people were weird or asked weird questions etc. He remained in Being, very relaxed, very present and extremely grounded and Embodied. I was quite impressed! However, no succes with lucid dreaming, neither during the nights between the workshop days, nor during the workshops when we actually slept for 10-30 minutes under his guidance and blessing. I really felt he transmitted a lot of energy during these sleeping sessions on the workshop, but still no lucid dreams. However, now after the workshop, I have actually had 3-4 lucid dreams so far using the typical tibetan buddhist vajrayana practice with the red drop! Something that's never worked for me, even though I've tried it on/off since I was 19. So that also tells me that his transmission is legit! 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued So to wrap up, Tulku Lobsang is legit! He's extremely grounded in Being, in Presence and in his body, and he really does transmit states and energies. There's no more doubt in my mind - I will glady fork over my time and cash to learn Tummo from him when the time comes

Just wanted to give an update on the Medicine Buddha practice. If you keep going for a longer period, the power grows. I have had a lot of interesting experiences with it now, but it took a lot of time to start to "get going". So if anyone out there is practicing, just wanted to share: be patient, if you get the mantra and practice from a master, it's worth it to keep going in the long term. And also see the master often, building that connection over a longer period of time and seeing the master often gives a level up each time in how much energy you can receive from him. Have seen him 2x times since, and each time all practices he's given me levels up, even if the specific teaching is different. Just connecting to him and the lineage field levels everything up, ofc provided you've been practicing daily without fail in between

Dear Dao Bums, Here is my experience with Tummo with Tulku Lobsang. I'll share in 2 parts: 1) Background & 2) The Course Itself 1) Background Since I was a child my father told me stories of naked monks in the snow of Himalaya staying warm through yogic siddhi power. How teenage tibetan monks had "exam" at school to see how many wet sheets they could dry with their body heat from sunrise to sunset using tummo. I learned from Tulku Lobsang that the accepted amount for a "good grade" is 21 sheets. In my late twenties I saw Tulku Lobsang on the show "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" where he meditates in a t-shirt in -5 degrees celsius seemingly unbothered by the cold temperature. Morgan Freeman wears cap, gloves and a big jacket. This reminded me of my desire to try out Tummo for myself. 2) Tummo Weekend Course The course was just 2 days. There was a lot of people, maybe 100 or so. I was there with one of my friends, who's also into meditation, energy work, out of body travel etc. The practical part of Tummo consists of physical exercises, breathing exercises and meditation exercises. The meditation method used is visualisation as well as focused awareness in your body. We meditated all together maybe 7 times at the course, and 5 or 6 of the 7 times both me and my friend felt very warm. We felt heat in our bodies due to the transmission from Tulku Lobsang. For me there was only 1 time I didn't feel much, and for my friend it was also only 1 time or so. So overall, we very both very happy with the course. However, I spoke to several other participants at the course. One was a girl sitting next to me, the other was a random woman I spoke with in a break. Neither of them really felt anything during the course. So my conclusion is that: 1) Tulku Lobsang is legit and does transmission for sure, 2) Whether you pick up that transmission is then apparently dependent on several factors. What these factors are, I of course can't say for sure. Both me and my friend have meditated with many masters for many years of our life, and have been exposed to spirituality since childhood. So it makes sense that in accord with previous karma (thought, words and deeds) you have built up a "vessel" in your soul to receive the transmission. The bigger your vessel to receive is, the more of the transmission you receive. I for example felt my friend received it much more than me. Interestingly enough, he's been mainly involved with Buddhist practices in his spiritual life, whereas I've been mainly involved with Hindu practices. Of course they're both branches on the same Dharmic tree, but maybe that's why he picked up more. He already is connected to the Buddhist stream to a much larger degree. The girl and the woman then maybe did receive something, however, their vessel to receive was smaller, hence what of the transmission they could pick up was proportionately smaller. So if you wish to try Tummo out, build your vessel to receive as big as possible through: 1) daily spiritual practice without fail (discipline - you reap what you sow, if you work more, you will in the end receive more), 2) have a big desire for the practice, the bigger the fire of your desire, the bigger your vessel to receive will grow, 3) be on the same "wave-length" as Buddhism, read about it, study, meet & connect with Buddhist people, watch interviews etc 4) when you finally learn Tummo, dedicate X amount of time to it daily for a specified period of time. The transmission is simply the seed, you need to water that seed daily for it to over time grow into a plant, then a bush, then a tree, and finally a mighty tree reaching far into the sky. Depending on your karma, it can take a couple of weeks, a couple of months, a couple of years, or a couple of decades to nurture that seed of Tummo into a mighty tree, allowing you to stay warm naked in the snow. I can say for myself, I think I will need at least 6 months to a couple of years of daily practice to be able to do that. I feel the heat, but there's still long to go to grow it so powerful. I wish you all the best with your practice!

Hey everyone, Just wanted to give a quick update. Went to a Vajra Yogini weekend retreat with him, where tummo was integrated into the practice too. Must say it was a huge level up for me. I don't know if it's because I've just been connected to him longer now, so I can receive the energy better, I reached some kind of "critical mass", or if power of mantra is just higher for me than physical, breathing and visualisation alone. But having added the mantra on top now and integrated Vajra Yogini into it, just wanted to say it helped me a lot

Just wanted to give a general SKY update; Will give short summary of pointers of my learnings, then long one where I go in depth with each of the 3 pointers. Short 1) I've initiated about 100 people now, about 10 "all the way" (meaning all levels of SKY) 2) I've learnt some of the secret, hidden, discontinued SKY meditations (pranava, astral travel, manonmani, pidari kann) 3) Been "hit" by the stumbling block of Indian politics MANY times Long 1) I've initiated about 100 people now, about 10 "all the way" (meaning all levels of SKY) 1.1. Power of Vethathiri What I noticed is that Vethathiri's energy comes EVERY SINGLE TIME. It's honestly incredible and mind blowing. Out of 100 people, you'd think it didn't work for some, they didn't feel it, energy didn't come etc. Just like working out, building muscle, cardio, brushing your teeth, no matter if you do everything perfectly, some people just won't suceed. It's the camel curve, or bell curve of average distribution, all are average, then some few big failures and some few big winners. But out of 100, 100 felt the energy. 1.2 Different people's response to the energy Further what I noticed is that people close to me, who love me, or who are just very open to me, receive the energy much more powerfully. E.g. my mom, my wife, my wife's family, my siblings, my cousins, some few coworkers interested in yoga who came to the course (so we knew each other a bit), and again some few "strangers of the internet" who just found my webpage but for some reason were super open to me. All the people who were more open received it so powerfully; e.g. my mom started having visions of the future, visions of her past life, getting lucid dreams, this was her first week of the very first diksha/initation. It was crazy. My wife and her family all also got visions of their ancestors, life guidance, felt the energy strongly and clearly as vibration. My siblings and my cousins went deep into the thuriyateetha state on the very first day of that particular diksha, where you merge completely with the universal state. It took me about 3 years of twice daily practice to stabilize going to that state and staying there. My cousin who's not really into spirituality, though he belives in Almighty God (he's an orthodox Christian), he was quite shocked and stated after the meditation "it was as if I disappeared, I was one with the universe, it was scary! I had to move my arms just to feel I still existed". So his ego was wiped clear, he went to the last and final of the 5 koshas/sheaths and because he had never heard of that experience before, he couldn't understand nor roll with it. Only when I explained afterwards did he understand he had a glimpse of the goal of yoga, union with the universe. One of my childhood friend's little brother saw clear visions of the universe and stars, and also the local spirits in our area observing our meditation from a distance. His ancestors are from the Middle East and Central Asia, so figured he had some kind of connection with shamanism from central Asia since he connected with the world of local land spirits and protectors. 1.3 Personal stories An elderly lady who's quite clairvoyant had 360 vision during the deekshas of the room and got pretty interesting visions and guidance about me and my father's type of energy and life path (as we found out she had met my dad about 5-10 years earlier). What she told me made real sense, she had a vision of my dad as a "flagbearer" in an army, with fire coming out of the footsteps behind his trail. My dad has been main man in taking Indian spirituality to our country, real, authentic and undiluted. Whereas she saw me as an ocean, calmly embracing the planet earth and the universe. As you've read in my different posts, I've been in deep contact with a lot of ancient, traditional spiritualities, and embrace all and share freely. A depressed, early 20s gay guy who had dropped out of his education, moved away from his family in another part of the country, and felt life was meaningless started getting his energy back, feeling vibration and energy, being able to observe his thoughts without getting sucked in and found his new life-path with renewed energy after about 3-5 months of meditation and introspection, having received the thuriya or crown diksha/initiation. I have so many stories to share. I actually feel my heart being touched by all these personal stories, I also feel warm inside. So happy to share what changed my own life. There was also a 60s something gentleman who worked his whole life as a manual laborer. In his youth he had a kundalini experience while trying some yoga, and he had spent 40+ years having that in the back of his mind, just knowing some day he would explore further. e drove 4 hours from the other end of the country to see me and get diksha. He was so content, we actually spent about 60-70 minutes in deep agnya meditation together, where I boosted his chakra many times (which is quite unusual in SKY, in the courses we only meditate 10-20 minutes together, we focus on opening people's energy so they themselves can keep working on it at home). But he had literally spent his whole life waiting for this moment, and drove all the way to get it. So we meditated deeply together. We've stayed in contact via email, and he's now meditating several hours pr day, has bought all my books, and says he finally has hit home with Kundalini and chakras after 40 years of wondering about it. My cousin's boyfriend from Morocco spent 5-7 years following Sadhguru, doing his surya kriya religiously 1 hour every morning, shambhavi, inner engineering, the whole shebang. He works in IT and has even volunteered many hours and weeks to arrange Sadhguru events and come-togethers here in our country. When he did SKY he was so surprised, he was like "I feel the vibration in my agnya.. what's that about?" - I'm like "it's your Kundalini, it's now gone to agnya". "But then.. now what? what do I do?" - "simply observe the vibration when you meditate, it will make it grow stronger". "okay." After 3-6 months he contacted me to try the next level, thuriya or crown chakra. Again he was like "I clearly feel an energy in my crown, it's physical, it feels like the size of a peanut, yet electrical and giving off vibrations. What does that mean?" - "it means your Kundalini has now reached your crown, traditionally seen as the highest yogic realization. Usually they say 12 years to reach agnya, now in 6 months your Kundalini is in your crown". He was like "that's true, sadhguru has said it's 12 years of surya kriya, shambavi etc, and there's still no guarantee". I said "through SKY you just skipped 12 years. You did it in 6 months!" - his eyes widened in disbelief "What... how's that possible?" - "it's the power of SKY and Vethatiri, it's just a way suited for modern people living in the world, instead of celibates on a mountain". His paradigm was shattered, he had done surya kriya daily for 5 years or so, he had spent so much time, money and energy, travel to India, you name it. And now he got it from his girlfriend's cousin in 6 months, easy, simple. That is SKY - SIMPLIFIED Kundalini Yoga. I could go on and on, just wanted to share some stories. It is truly a deep satisfaction in my soul to look back on all these people and how SKY helped them, just like it helped me. 1.4 People's emotionality, personality and enneagram affecting their spiritual journey A big pattern I've discovered is in how people approach the spiritual path in general. E.g. I've had a few 4s, and they crave drama and excitement and feeling special, so instead of choosing a practice and sticking with it 'till completion, they ride their emotional wave of drama, including letting go of authentic paths, should they come across them. Similarly I've seen 2s, they're all about helping others and showing merging heart love, so even if progressing on the spiritual path, they will stop and instead pursue other activities that let them help others instead of cultivating themselves. 3s want to just achieve, peacock and show others their achievements on the social scene, so these will do a lot of "hopping" to whatever is trending, no matter if it's real an authentic, simply to peacock on the social stage 5s will get caught up in reading, studying and understanding, instead of actually practicing. 7s will investigate system after system and compare them with each other endlessly, but not necessarily practice. 9s get complacent and lazy and will tell themselves "anyway, spiritual journey is about letting go, it's all good... so I don't need to practice. It's actually very spiritual of me to let go of my practice". So I have been very, VERY suprised by these patterns. I am personally a 6, which in the "essential enneagram" is all about solidity, stability, accountability and daily discipline until the goal is reached. So the moment I find something "that's real", I will stick with it to the end. That's how I succeeded in SKY. Just a note to self, people will pursue their fixation. Meaning many of the people who came to the SKY courses, no matter how much energy, vibration, spiritual power, visions, glimpses of higher worlds and possiblities, oneness with the universe, you name it. No matter what they experienced, they won't see its value, they will instead "keep on keeping on" with their fixation. This suprised me for the longest time, as I saw people (like the stories I shared above) reaching in just days or weeks what took me many years of twice daily practice without fail to reach. Just to shrug it off and "on to the next thing" in case of 3s, 4s, 5s, 7s, you name it. So this is definitely a surprising observation, that people are not at all rational creatures, we're emotional, we don't necessarily do what makes sense "regarding spiritual progress", but instead choose to act out our fixation instead. We're stuck in "saving the family" by staying in our ego-fixation instead of working through it to realize our soul station (nafsi maqaam and insan al kamil in sufism, enlightened state in buddhism, daoism and hinduism). I also feel I personally "clicked" with SKY as it gave me a solid, stable, disciplined and systematic path to enlightenment as a 6 (trying to save my family by giving them endless support), and reaching that "universal state" in meditation allowed me to touch on my soul nature as a 9. So pay heed to your type if you want to "hack" your spiritual journey and reach your goal. Ask yourself "why do I want to do this?" and see if it's truly from your soul 2) I've learnt some of the secret, hidden, discontinued SKY meditations (pranava, astral travel, manonmani, pidari kann) 2.1 Firstly, was super disappointed with the astral travel meditation, wrote about it here (latest post) https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/56944-found-a-place-that-teaches-astral-travel-but-you-need-to-be-indian/?tab=comments#comment-1065498 2.2 The pranava is very interesting, I feel like it could potentially help with achieving REAL astral projection in the future with continued practice. You "expand your astral body", first vertically (up to the sun, moon, stars, shakti kalam or universal energy state and shiva kalam or universal static state and then back point by point), then horizontally (to the room, to the city, to the country, to the continent, to the earth, then shakti kalam and shiva kalam, then back step by step) 2.3 The manonmani meditation is REALLY good. For simplicity's sake, in SKY you meditate on the front of the body instead of in the center of the body. Simply because people had a hard time finding the correct location with their awareness in their body. These points all on the central front line (ren mai or conception vessel) are called "kshetras" in hinduism or activation points for the chakras in the middle of the body. However if you look up the points in qigong, each also have a spiritual function. E.g. navel that is used for astral travel is called "shen que" or spirit gate, interestingly enough, drawing a parallel between Indian and Chinese understanding of the energy and spirit bodies. The only meditations in the center of the body in current official SKY system are muladhara (hui yin) and sahasrara/thuriya (bai hui). However manonmani is the very centre of the brain, where you meditate directly on the pineal gland. The rogue master that taught me this meditation said that this is the ultimate point for all supernatural powers, inner vision, predicting the future, merging with Divinity, acquiring all knowledge, you name it. I have only shared this meditation with 2 people so far, and unfortunately haven't had enough time to practice to share my own personal experiences, other than that I feel deep peace when I meditate on it. 2.4 Pidari Kann is what is called "the jade pillow" in qigong, the nape of the neck. It's called "the neck eye" in some tamil texts. I feel a real opening of my entire central channel and spine when I meditate on it, but haven't had the chance to go deep with it yet, so still more to be experienced. 3) Been "hit" by the stumbling block of Indian politics MANY times I took about 3 years of me actively pushing and ruthlessly networking before they taught me the final dikshas in SKY, namely how to initiate to the universe as well as how to initiate the "lower chakras" (genital, navel, heart and throat). Similarly, I spent yet another 5 years ruthlessly pushing, pulling, affecting, working, networking before I found this rogue master who taught me Pranava, Manonmani, Pidari Kann, Astral travel and so on. He even shared some of Vethathiri's personal stories and experiences that deeply touched my heart, showcasing the incredible personality and character of this great Guru and Master. I was deeply touched to learn more about the man that changed my life through SKY. So just want to warn everyone out there if you personally want to progress to master level - be prepared for some serious corruption, confusion, indian power play, politics and downright tyrannical dictatorship if you want to become a full master. I also discussed this with Steven Sadleir who's one of the few "white masters" out there still teaching SKY, and he gave me his own crazy stories of direct contact with corrupt, Indian power play politics in both the US and India. So be warned and be prepared if you ever reach this level.

Dear Dao Bums, Those of you that know me are aware I've been searching for astral travel for some time. The best system I've ever done is Simplified Kundalini Yoga (SKY for short), everything works: the pranayama, the physical yogic exercise, building and transforming sex energy, awakening kundalini, opening the chakras, becoming one with the divine. It's so easy, so simple, yet it all works. It all works due to the grace of the master, Vethathiri Maharishi. He has devised a system of shaktipat were the enormeous energy cultivated by great masters can be transferred to the student, awakening his energy and chakras in minutes. From thereon, ok, you need to put in the work to "level up", but at each initiation you receive more and more power from the masters touch, gaze and even mind power. I finally became a master in this system after 5 years of daily practice, and I was so shocked. Just as easy and simple as my own chakras were opened one by one, just as easy the power from Vethathiri and my teacher comes to help me when opening new peoples' chakras. I was shocked. Everything just works, it's easy, more than 100 people in my country have gotten their Kundalini and chakras opened by now. All is well and good, I'm so spiritually content with SKY. Alas, there is only one thing that ails me, and that is astral travel. It used to be part of the system on the master's level, but has been removed. However, the past 3 years or so, I've managed to slowly build up a network of local masters I know. There is so much politics and hierarchy in India because of poverty and desperation, but there are several "rogue masters" that still teach astral travel. There is also official masters who were authorised to carry on teaching it in spite of the official stoppage. I finally tracked down one of these masters and her ashram in India, pretty close to the official temple. Now the next thing is that you need a local person to take you there, you need an introduction, a formal "he's good" from someone they know and trust, since astral travel is obviously a very powerful skill to have, and even more powerful to have in your teaching arsenal as a master, alongside kundalini awakening and chakra opening. However unfortunately, all the "higher ups" I know don't like this supposedly "authorised astral travel teacher" and won't take me. Further, the masters that do are afraid to be frozen out, because obviously any european there is rumored immediately, and he's afraid everyone will think he's taking me there because he's getting money from me and not because I'm actually a SKY master wishing to pass on the full system, including astral travel like Vethathiri used to do. Then he will lose his job, social status in the community and so on. So now I'm thinking about finding someone that's not "locked in" in that local community to help me. So anyone here on the forum Indian? Tamil would make it easier, as the temple and astral travel ashram is in Tamil Nadu. It would be about 6 months to take all the SKY online courses with about 1 initiation per month. After 6 months and having gotten Brahma Gyanam certificate and having had all chakras opened, this person would be eligible to go to the secret astral travel ashram (I will share name, whatsapp numbers, adress and so on). Then I would be happy to go there with this person anyone know someone who would be up for that? Full kundalini awakening, opening all chakras, learning astral travel through direct yogic shaktipat, even being given the power and blessing to also transfer this siddhi to others, what's not to like? It's a win/win/win

Dear Dao Bums, This post is about sexuality and spirituality, and joining these two together (which may mean different things to different people). Three parts: 1) Intro 2) A newfound discovery (link to interesting stories!) 3) Inviting you guys for sharing knowledge, experiences and helping me answer some interesting questions Intro Sexuality and Spirituality has been my own two main interests in my life. This has made me venture into many interesting things, including: Sri Vidya which I've written about here: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/53122-sri-vidya-yantra-mantra-tantra-mudra-guru-karunamaya/ Genital weightlifting and daoist lovemaking, which I've written about here: https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/52045-my-experience-with-genital-weight-lifting-sexual-qigong-daoist-lovemaking-and-meditation/ https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/52880-healing-in-different-systems/ I feel like I've managed to a certain degree to blend and understand both domains (sexuality and spirituality), but I am still searching, looking, living, exploring and experiencing. Lately I've been very fascinated by the power of ancient Sri Vidya rituals (including mantra, yantra, tantra, mudra and nyasa used in rituals). While researching online, I discovered that Sri Vidya has been kept secret until very recently, where my own Sri Vidya Guru's Guru (my paramguru) made it open to the public. My Sri Vidya Guru is Guru Karunamaya. His Guru is Amritananda Saraswati Natha. Amritananda has build a small place for the practice of Sri Vidya called "DeviPuram" (city of the Goddess). While reading and researching more on my paramguru, I came across this very juicy and very amusing story! 2) A newfound discovery In Devipuram, sex rituals are a very big part of their practice! This really surprised me, as India is known for being extremely conservative. The spiritual abstain from alcohol, meat, sex etc. You can read this very interesting story here: https://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/05/sex-messiah-the-virginal-monk-adult/ https://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/05/sex-messiah-breaking-the-master-adult/ In short, it's about the son of two western hindu converts, who grew up in a puritan hindu ashram in the US. He was celibate and trained to be a religious leader, however, in his 20s he rebelled and went to India. He came to Devipuram. And was involuntarily immersed in all kinds of sex stuff. You can read his amusing and interesting take on it in the links above. 3) Invitation for you guys' participation and questions 1) Have you been to Devipuram? 2) What was your experience? 3) Do you know anyone who's been there? 4) Do you know where one could obtain the way to conduct "yoni puja"? (worship of the woman's "bab'ul-jannah" or doorway to paradise ;)) 5) Do you know where one could obtain the way to conduct "linga puja"? (worship of the man's lingam or sexual organ) 6) Do you know where one could obtain the way to conduct "maithuna" or ritual lovemaking? After having experienced the power of Sri Vidya rituals and mantras on my life, I would be very interested to give it a go, and try to say these mantras while worshipping the Divine in another's body. It's cool, fun and interesting to sit and worship a turmeric cone or pyramid with water to get money and happiness, or worship a yantra with milk and ghee to heal yourself... but imagine how much fun it would be with your partner It sounds fun and exciting and if it works, even better! I look forward to hearing you guys' reaction to the stories, thoughts on this whole subject, and hopefully some who can share some experiences or point towards manuals explaining the rituals. Be blessed by the Divine!

Dear friends, It's now been 3 years, and I've completed all 3 levels of DeviPuram Sri Vidya, including going there 2 times for 7-10 days each time. What I will say is the following: 1) The Sri Vidya is real, 2) The sex practices have gone underground since the mahasamadhi (passing) of Guru Amritananda, 3) There are some weird vibes going on in DeviPuram (a clash between the spiritual energies of power and peace, with animalistic desires, power play, politics, dominance etc), So definitely go and learn, get the dikshas, complete all levels and get all mantras. If you want to do the more sexual stuff, it can be "inferred" from having learnt Devipuram Sri Vidya. Because in the manuals for the last and final puja done on either the 2d sri yantra/chakra or the 3d Meru, you learn exactly how all the mantras and yantras simply depict the human body. It's just like qigong, it's the whole micro- and macrocosm idea. Once you understand that, you can easily adapt the rituals to do them on yourself or on a partner. The general idea is to activate each "devata" through all 5 elements (earth, water, fire, air and akash). Akash is both space and energy, just like sound waves traveling through space, interdependent. That's the dual symbolism of many Gods/Godesses wielding the chakra/discus as well as the conch. The chakra is a spinning force, just like the milky way spiral galaxy, as well as the chakras or energy wheels in our body. It's movement, energy, electricity and vibration. Whereas the conch comes from the sea, ocean, symbolizing a great holding space. Within it is also space, and you know you can hear the sound when you hold the conch next to your ear. That's the space and sound principle. So it's the shiva shakti, yin yang, movement and stillness, electricity and magnetism, energy and space. E.g. the muladhara chakra is activated through worship of Ganapati. It's activated by giving food to others (bhojanam), doing tarpanam and marjanam (water ritual), havan (fire ritual), puja (all 5 elements), mantra japam (akash) and dhyanam (meditation, mind) You can do the tarpanam on yourself instead or the yantra or a turmeric pyramid, or literally on the penis if you're a man. The trunk of the elephant. Then you simply overlay the yantra on the penis, worshipping the different points. Bala or the swadisthana chakra, same thing, do it on the yantra, on a turmeric cone, or on the clitoris of a woman. All the yantra points are simply overlaid on the genital organs and then worshipped. Same with Chamunda around the navel, Raja Shyamala on the breasts of a woman, Varahi on the head and so on. Lalita Tripura Sundari is worshipped using the Sri Meru, you can again do that physically on yourself or on a partner. That is then the whole body. If you want to offer a sexual act, just use the general "skeleton" of a ritual: guru mantra, pranayama, sankalpa, offering and so on. Then you simply offer the sexual act and visualise yourself as the god and partner as goddess or reverse. So if you learn through Devipuram, you can infer how to do the sexual practices. The best bet if you want to learn directly, is to connect with some of the white students of Amritananda, who don't suffer from all the cultural and political consequences as the indians, who are free to teach. I might actively do that at some point, as Sri Vidya is honestly pretty great at activating the latent powers within the human body. Further, we're anyway having sex, might as well use some of those sessions to activate our energies and draw closer to the divine in a conscious manner.

Hey everyone, Just wanted to give a somewhat dissapointing update. I managed to work my way in, it was hard, it took 8 years, but through networking with all the official and unofficial masters, volunteers, my friends, people I met while in the temple, I finally managed to find a rogue SKY master who's no longer official who agreed to teach me astral travel. As you can imagine I was over the moon, I have after all been searching for this skill for 10 years, and have tried A LOT of methods. However when I was in the temple grounds with this rogue master, I was so at peace. It felt so normal and natural. Even though he's left the organisation, he exudes deep vibes of a sense of discipline, gratitude as well as the awe of the holiness and sanctity of Vethathiri Maharishi's teachings. It was a very religious feeling, in a positive way. During my stay he taught me several discontinued SKY meditations, so was happy to learn all of these things. When the morning came and we had to get up at 4 to do the astral travel, I was very much at ease, despite ofc being tired from jet lag as well as getting up at 4 Indian Time The meditation was much, much simpler than I had imagined. Just like I had heard, you meditate on a particular chakra the night before, blessed by the master. Then you go to bed and fall asleep while meditating with the masters blessing and prayer on that chakra. When you wake up you go to the temple, lie down flat, relax your whole body, then you do the meditation itself, which is super simple. You start with the well known SKY chakra meditation, then you visualise step-wise certain things. Out of the 6-7 steps, at the 4th step I was SURE I was leaving my body. From one moment to the next, the sensation of my physical body completely disappeared, my breathing also stopped, yet it felt very normal and natural, I felt at ease. I felt "ok, now my soul will soar". However for some reason I didn't get the full seperation, so instead I kept going with the step by step visualisation as guided by the master lying next do me (we were both covered by white sheets/blankets). Then we finished the visualisation and "visualised coming back". The moment I visualised my spirit coming back I felt a huge burst of energy all over. It was as if my whole aura or energy field had been somewhat small because of tiredness, lack of sleep, jetlag etc, hence I was a bit tired. But after the meditation (we visualised going to certain places to get energy), when I visualised returning, it was "real", meaning the energy we had collected came into my body. So my whole energybody / aura / field expanded and I felt so refreshed. The master told me that there's a specific 108 day long practice to go through first, which will ensure you have the power and energy to actually seperate that I should now go home and do on my own. And the visualisation is a kind of practice, but suddenly one day it will really happen, and you will really fully seperate and fly around. I was 100% convinced I would get it when I returned home to my country with the 108 day practice, as the practice under the master's guidance was so powerful, I really, truly deeply felt "ok, this is it". Now I've been home for more than 4-5 months and I did the practice, but I unfortunately still didn't get it. So am somewhat disappointed, yet also feeling satisfied "that I gave it my all". I went to the end of the Earth, I spoke to 100s of people, networked, travelled, spent money and time, took off work, I did all in my power "to get it". I got something, but still kind of "failed" at my main mission, unfortunately. I've spoken with several of the other SKY masters now, revealing I learnt the secret technique, without revealing from whom (as that would create political havoc and negatively impact the rogue master), and they shared their own experiences of astral travel and simply advised me: "it's not the technique, it's just 2 things: 1) be fully relaxed with your physical body, 2) completely shift your attention to your energybody". When you do this, you automatically pop out one day. So right now my plan is to simply keep practicing, 1 hour pr day Master Wu's qigong (the best I ever did), and 1 hour pr day SKY meditation. Then hopefully 1 day it will happen on it's own. My last hope is some of the tantric, magical daoist and sleeping qigong programs I'm sometimes doing particularly for astral travel will one day work, but so far I've done 3 tantric methods (some for 41 days, some for 90 days, and some for 100 days), I didn't succeed. Then I did daoist ways (mantra, mudra, talisman, meditation and connecting with particular spirits), some again for 49 days, some 100, and one method I really believed in I did for about 9 months straight every single night. I also failed. Sleeping qigong I've been doing for about 6 months, where 2 of the meditations can cause soul travel, but so far nothing. Will keep going. Anyway, just wanted to give you all an update, several people have privately messaged me asking about the results of my India trip and astral travel adventures/searches, so just wanted to share for all to see.

Dear friends, Some time ago I shared the post below on another thread. I stumbled upon it again recently, and I felt it could potentially help a lot of people. That's why I'm reposting it now with some edits, as well as an "update" at the end of the original post. Here's the original post. ORIGINAL POST I will share in 4 points:1) Intro 2) My experiences with evil spirits 3) My experiences with black magic 4) My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc)IntroIn my opinion, this is an extremely important topic, that is extremely ignored, belittled and misunderstood by the vast majority of cultivators. Especially those with a western background. Also, even by high level masters who simply don't know about this particular area or haven't trained and studied it.My experiences with evil spiritsI have personally suffered many extreme and terrifying experiences, and no matter where I sought help, I was belittled, ridiculed, ignored or misunderstood.I have seen books flying out of shelves. I have seen bagpacks and other physical items dragged back and forth on the floor. I have experienced "wind" indoors, even though it was a closed off room with no windows. I have seen shadowy/smoke like figures physically moving around, experienced physical touch even though no physical beings are there and much more.When I sought help from a hindu monk, he advised me to start japa of my guru mantra when it happened. I did it... Didn't work.When I sought help from a high level "shamanic" qigong master (you would think spirits would be a walk in the park for a shaman), I was belittled and told "not to pay attention to this illusion I am experiencing". There's nothing illusory about physical objects being thrown around by an unseen force. It's pretty much as concrete as it gets. Almighty God bless him, and bring him to clarity and allow him to actually help people with his powers of qi.When I sought help from another qigong master specialised in healing, he told me to say a prayer and do a mudra. When it didn't work, he explained it away saying that "you're just not powerful enough to do it yet, you need to cultivate more. Be my one-on-one student for 2-3 years, meet me on on a weekly zoom meeting priced at 1.600 dollars for an hour, and then in a couple of years, you will be able to do it".This healing qigong master stated that I have a very loving and very spiritual energy, and that's why troubled spirits get attracted to me. They seek help and healing from me. That's why it worsens when I travel to new places or stay overnight at places that are not my house. The troubled spirits in that place see me and come to get help.I actually believed him, and met him 3 times, wasting thousands of dollars. It didn't work! And on top of that, the clairvoyant things he told me about me and my health were flat out wrong (he said I had weak sexual energy, ejaculated in seconds and drank a lot of alcohol which damaged my liver). I am at a very advanced level of sexual qigong and lovemaking, haven't touched alcohol in more than 10 years and make love for hours daily without ejaculating with very strong erection power.So after 3 meetings, I realized he was simply a semi-psychic (he did say correctly that I had a spine injury, although there were so many other things wrong about his psychic reading), yet pretty good healer (I could feel my back getting better when he gave healings), but most of all he was just thirsty for money. So, of course I stopped seeing him. Dear God, bring him to the straight path, let him let go of his greed for money and selfishness, and instead lead him to the straight path, that he may use his gift of healing for good.I then spoke with a highly clairvoyant sufi master, who did a check on me (for free). He related my entire life story regarding troubles with spirits (without me telling him anything), and he also stated that it's because I have a lot of "light" (noor) inside my soul. This is because of all the prayers and mantras I say each day (since I was a child). He said the spirits are troubled where they are (in "bardo" or "barzakh" as it's called in Islam), and seek my help.He said I should visualise putting up spiritual sign posts around my aura, my house, or anywhere I go that says "I am sorry, I cannot help you. I myself need help, that's why I pray to the light and get that light into me. Please don't come to me, I am in no position to help you, I myself need help, that's why I pray so much. You should yourself pray to the light, then you will get help".I tried it for some time, and it helped in my own house. However, when I went to new places, it didn't work. God bless this man, he is extremely loving, knowledgable and powerfully clairvoyant.When I sought help from another sufi (via the internet), he for free did a "spiritual check" on me. He stated that yes, I have some low level evil spirits around me. He gave me (for free!) a one week program of readings of salawaat (prayers to the prophet), and reciting "bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim" (the bismillah, "in the name of God) many hundreds of times in a day. Then blow on water and drink it.I did it for 7 days, and it worked! It was from his heart and soul he wished to help me. He did it for free.I sent him 100 dollars and said that it worked, and asked if I could keep training with him. I must have paid him only a few hundred dollars, yet I spent 6-9 months corresponding with him via email. He would give me different salawaat, dhikr (name of God), verses of the Qur'an and du'a (prayers). Whenever I did a program (e.g. 7 days, 11 days, 21 days), he would tell me how it went. He would give me feedback on the energy, without me telling him anything. He was very good, he helped me a lot, and he didn't ask much in return. However, after 6-9 months, because he wanted to remain anonymous, I felt that to be a bit weird after so long, so when I had completed a big program, I stopped corresponding with him. We haven't been in contact since.What became my go-to after training with this last sufi guy is 5 verses from the Qur'ran. Ayatul kursi (Verse about the Throne of God), and 4 verses called "the 4 qul". They are the last 4 verses of the Qur'an, and they all start with "qul" which means "say". It's Surah Nas (verse of Man), Surah Ikhlas (verse of Unity), Surah Falaq (verse of the Daybreak / rising sun) and Surah Kafiroon (verse about the Unbelievers).You recite each 11 times (11x ayatul kursi, 11x surah nas, 11x surah ikhlas, 11x surah falaq and 11x surah kafiroon). Then you blow on your right index finger, and visualise your hand coming down from the sky, and drawing a protective circle around the 4 corners of your home, and then finally around yourself, or the room that needs extra protection (e.g. bedroom, prayer room).This has been my go-to for more than 6 years. It has been the only thing that worked for me in this area. If you want to keep your house energy pure, you say 21x ayatul kursi, blow on a glass of water, and sprinkle it around your house. The combination of these two readings saved my life.God bless this man who helped me without demanding anything in return!Unlike these chinese qigong masters, just wanting money and doing nothing to help.Lately when I'm learning Sri Vidya, I feel that some of the mantras and rituals from Sri Vidya will eventually be able to give spiritual protection on an even higher level. There are 2 specific "deities" or energies generated from mantras and rituals for the navel chakra (Durga) and third eye chakra (Varahi) which specifically combat negative spiritual energies, including black magic, evil spirits, the evil eye etc.All of the above are my experiences and solutions for evil spirits so far.My experiences with black magicI have worked for the army in my country. One of my functions was as a translator and interpreter. I have been deployed several times to a UN mission in West Africa.On one of my deployments, there wasn't much work. We only worked from 6 in the morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The rest of the time we we're pretty much on standby.Being stranded in a war zone, there's not much to do. So I spent all my free time reading, studying and practicing (mantras, meditation and qigong).I was in a very good spiritual state at the time due to so much practice, so I was seeing auras and energies most of the time.One time, we were training the local special forces to save hostages. The only building we could use was a big fancy hotel, yet no tourists (because of the war). So to survive, the owner of the hotel rented it out as a brothel.One day, in a break between exercises, I saw one of the prostitutes sitting on the other side of the courtyard (they just sat around and waited for the 3-4 hours that we and the local soldiers used it as a training compound). When she saw me, she started whispering something, and I saw a small cloud of black energy generating in front of her face. Then she did something with her hands, and started blowing towards me. This sent the small black cloud of energy across the courtyard towards me. It just landed in the outskirts of my aura, it didn't go in (thank God!). So nothing happened to me.When I was back in my room later that day, I meditated. Then I understood she was trying to do some black magic on me. Maybe she was trying to seduce or attract me. For a prostitute in a war zone, hooking up with a soldier deployed from Europe could be her ticket out of the warzone to a better life. Luckily, the energy wasn't powerful enough to penetrate my energy field (which was pretty charged at the time due to so much spiritual practice). And as I meditated, the cloud was just destroyed and disappeared from my field.One of the local maids cleaning my place actually put my tooth brush up in her vagina when she was cleaning the bathroom. She thought I didn't know, as I was sitting in the living room. I guess it's a primitive form of African black magic. If you ingest some of the fluids (spit, sweat or sexual fluid) of someone (especially if they say mantras while doing it), you can become more partial to liking that person (becaues you will have some of their energy inside your physical body). I bought a new tooth brush!Another woman working in the restaurant spat in my food and stirred it around to hide it. I ordered a new pasta You need to be very careful in many places of Africa, the Middle East, South America and certain parts of Asia. It's rampant with black magic and desperate people. Luckily they are usually not powerful practitioners, but you can still catch something if you're not protected and observant.My second experience is with my girlfriend. She comes from the Middle East, i.e. the vast majority of her family still lives there. When we got together, it was made public, her ethnicity in our European country as well as her family and relatives in her home country in the Middle East became aware of it. As soon as this happened, she started to fall sick.She would get wrist tendonitis, elbow tendonitis, sore knees, sore lower back, her vision would suddenly drastically reduce, she would get nauseous for no reason, got rashes, stomach ache, started to suddenly lose weight and appetite. For no reason!It just came suddenly out of the blue. She would suffer for some time and recover. Then a new problem came back. This continued for about 6 months. Before we made our relationship public, she wasn't sick even once. After we made it public, she kept continually falling ill again and again.After 6 months of this story of suffering and disease, once when I was meditating, I saw a cloud of red and black energy entering our house. It went to my girlfriend. Then it went into her wrist.That same evening, she started complaining that the wrist tendonitis was coming back.I was very surprised. I was praying and meditating, trying to understand what had happened. A few days later, I got a dream, where I saw planet Earth from above. Then I saw her country in the Middle East (Kurdistan). Then I saw clouds of red and black gathering and forming, and then they travelled to Europe to our country.When I woke up, I understood that God had heard my prayer, and given me this dream to let me know that someone in her home country was cursing her.That started an 8 month period of fighting this magic.First I consulted this qigong healer about it (the psychic one, who told me correctly about my spinal injury, but wrongly about alcohol, sex etc). He to my great surprise said that someone was putting black magic on my girlfriend, and that she should practice his "small universe" meditation to transform the energy.I was surprised he went straight to Black Magic as an explanation, even though I didn't tell him about my dreams and visions. We tried what he suggested, but it didn't work.Then I went to a hindu tantric, who has mastery over spirits, done sadhana (spiritual practice) in graveyards, and done many tamasic tantric rituals to control these spirits (e.g. animal sacrifice, bathing in blood, smearing yourself with your own filth and urine etc). When I spoke with him, he asked me to send a photo of my girlfriend.After 2-3 days, he called me and said that there is black magic on her. We should just worship and pray to God like normal, remain vegetarian, avoid alcohol, and when he visits our country, he will put a kavach (shield/armor) on her. From that day we spoke, everything stopped. So he did something remotely. After a few nights, I had a dream where I saw this swami doing something. A beam of energy went to the Middle East, where I saw someone had buried a charm inscribed with mantras and signs under the plot of one of my girlfriend's family's buildings. The beam from the swami went in and neutralized the black/red energy.I would again highlight that he did all this for free. It seems again that this phenomenon that spirituality costs money and is a business is mostly related to chinese qigong traditions. Sufis and hindus have helped me completely free of charge, just from their heart.It was about 2-3 weeks where it was completely gone, but then it returned.I tried many different sufi methods, prayers, Qur'an, tasbih (prayer beads). It was always the same. It would make it go away, but after a certain period of time, it would return.Later, after I had done a specific reading of a passage from the Qur'an about Moses fighting the black magicians of Farao, the black magic completely stopped. It took me a month, and you have to recite late at night. Then I finally had a dream where I saw this black magician in Kurdistan. Every new moon, or on specific astrological days, he goes to a kind of basement or cellar underground. Here he conducts terrible black magic rituals, involving animals, kidnapped orphans and other terrible things. That's why it's all black and red energy, because it's dirty and bloody what he does. It's someone from my girlfriend's family who's jealous of the part of the family that's gone to Europe.Then I saw him get hit with my one month program of Qur'an, and he lost all of his powers. All the energy drained from him, he became thin, weak and pale.After this it was about 6 months where we were completely free from this black magic. I thanked God and actually thought it was over. I felt kind of bad that it seemed my Moses-reading had damaged him, but I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted to protect my beloved girlfriend. It hadn't really hurt him, just taken away the energy he had built up and the evil spirits he was working with.After 6 months, he decided to start to try again, and start from the bottom to build up his energy (he was the most powerful black practitioner I've ever seen). But this time the things he sent were really weak. We just read some Qur'an and du'a, and it stopped.Finally, after starting Sri Vidya one and a half years ago, and we did a 41 day Varahi tarpana. Now we've been clear of black magic for about 1 year. I feel like we have built our spiritual protection so strong now, that we're mostly safe.My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc)I've highlighted a bunch of my experiences above. Now I'll try to make sense of it and provide an explanation.I'll use an idea of different dimensions of reality to try and explain why people misunderstand each other when it comes to black magic and evil spirits.For simplicity I'll just use the following terms:1) Physical (shared physical world, objective reality, different beings interact with each other in an objectively verifiable sense).2) Energetic (shared energetic world, objective albeit non-detectable reality for untrained people, objectively verifiable by people with their energetic senses open)3) Mind (inner, individual world, unique to you, subjective reality, there's no one else here but you)4) "Astral" (objective and shared reality with different beings interacting with each other through energy and mind)Buddhism:A big problem is that many Buddhists will brush these kinds of things off and say "it's all just mind". Someone even told me "spiritual beings viewed with ignorance, are demons", "spiritual beings viewed with wisdom, are devas". That sounds great philosophically, but it's a completely useless viewpoint when shit gets serious. Books are flying around your room, or your girlfriend is falling sick. It's not something mental, it's concrete and physical. You need to do something.Just like an intruder in your home trying to steal your stuff "it's just mind, it's just illusion". Yes, fine illusion when he slaps you in your face and rapes your family. You need to take practical action and protect yourself and your family.So all this "it's all mind" is great for a meditator going inwards, but it's not useful if you have a concrete, practical problem. Just like feeling hungry "it's just an illusion in your mind", no, you need to eat something.I feel like the misunderstanding is because the buddhist meditator is talking about "mind", whereas the person talking about problems with black magic and evil spirits is talking about the astral, energetic and physical dimensions.It's true that you can meet "darkness" in your own subjective mind, but this is not the same as the objective, shared reality in the astral, energetic and physical dimensions.Some people who are also generally confused and vague in their life experience will not have the ability to discriminate between "mind" (their own fears) and "astral" (a real, verifiable, shared and objective reality). These are the people that buddhists in general target when they say "it's all in your own mind", because they think it's just imagination. For these meditators getting lost in their own subjective minds, it's a great piece of advice. However, for people truly experiencing objective problems in the astral, energetic or physical domains, it's ridiculing, belittling and just not helpful advice.SufismSufism states that there are unseen beings living in an astral, objective dimension. They also differentiate between the subjective mind or ego called "nafs" and the astral world called "malakut" or world of light (angels are called malai'ka, or powerful beings of light).HinduismAlso differentiates between your own subjective mind, and the astral world.MartinusAlso differentiates between inner subjective world (mind, you and your own mind), and inner objective world (spiritual world, your soul and the soul of others).ConclusionI am sure buddhism also discriminates somehow between inner subjective and inner objective world, I just don't know the correct terms. Maybe someone can help me out?The reason that these qigong masters failed to help and just tried to extract money from me, is simply because even though they're master healers, the just haven't trained in and studied the astral world. They know about the physical, energetic and mind, they just don't know about black magic and evil spirits in the astral.The sufis who helped me, they knew about energy and astral, so they could easily see what was happening and what I should do. They had trained in this and understood it.Similarly, the tantric swami had knowledge and power to help us quickly. The black magician was just very powerful, so he could break the spell from the swami and start his black magic again after a couple of weeks by repowering his buried charm through rituals.Mostly when people belittle or ridicule black magic and evil spirits, it's just because they themselves didn't have karma in this area, so they don't know about it. That's why they brush it off as unimportant and not necessary, because it wasn't important to them in their cultivation. However, if you have karma in this area, there's no escaping it. You need to read, study and understand about it, then you need to train in it (mantra, meditation, ritual etc). Then you will master it and be able to go beyond it and continue your cultivation undisturbed.All traditions have sections of their teachings dealing with this, it's just not all masters who've studied this section of their tradition. Because they didn't need it, they state that no one else needs it (wrong assumption and bias to think everyone is like you and need the same as you did. Wrong. We're all different and unique, we need different things).God bless you all! UPDATE SINCE THE ABOVE ORIGINAL POST On top of our spiritual cultivation, we've employed some very basic truths in our everyday lives, which is usually taught at the basic level in most traditional spiritual teachings, albeit largely ignored or misunderstood by western people (myself included, that's why I'm emphasising it now): 1) "Conceal your blessings" (this is as to not invoke a feeling of lack in others, which could trigger jealousy, envy, evil eye or black magic - practically it just means not to talk about your succes in love, money or spiritual journey publicly (e.g. insta & fb) and even to your loved ones, close friends and family members. We just share it with each other, me and my girlfriend, celebrate our sucess and give thanks to Almighty God) 2) "Certainty" (Yaqeen in arabic) consisting of 3 points 1) everything is from God, 2) it's for my highest good, 3) it has a message for me, about something I need to change. For me the message was simply to accept that "evil" is indeed a part of God's creation, and evil spirits and black magic is real. I always shunned it off and looked down upon it as mere superstition. Nope, it's real! So take it seriously and take mindful precautions, it's simply a test from God. Don't lose your certainty, your faith, have full trust in God and do your daily spiritual work 3) The best spirituality you will find is free or very low cost - all the people and healers I splurged money on failed to deliver and actually help us. The people who had true love, compassion and heart were the most powerful, they helped us completely for free or at very low cost. All these commercial gurus are simply fitna, illusion, they're a Golden Calf or temptation from the straight path. Truth is hiding in plain sight, simple, yet most profoundly powerful. Be a good human being, trust God, have heart and mercy for your fellow human beings and the animals, and you'll be showered with a tsunami of power and protection directly from the Lord Most High. 4) The importance of "local" spirits - each place you go to have a Kshetra Palaka (Local Protector) or TuDi (Earth King/God) who are the Spirit Kings of that place. Further, there are also local spirits living in that location. If you do cultivation there without permission/friendship with the local Spirit King, you can start to get into spiritual trouble. This is a big part of traditional Hindu sadhana as well as Daoist cultivation. After each hindu ritual you give Bali Dhana (spirit charity offering) to the local spirits and the Kshetra Palaka, or in the case of Daoist magic or cultivation you say the An Tu Di Shen Zhou (Pacify Earth Spirit Mantra). It's even one of the Daoist Ba Da Zhou (8 Great Mantras) to be said daily. So be aware if you travel to new locations - make sure to include the local Kshetra Palaka or TuDi to be in harmony with the spirits of that place. 5) The importance of spiritual lineage (sampradaya). When you're part of a true, authentic spiritual lineage, you will also have much more spiritual protection and power. If you call upon your guru or master with the appropriate mantra and mudra, it's the combined energy of thousands and thousands of years of people doing spiritual practice coming to help you spiritually. A complete game changer!

Yes, so many of my wife's family were among the people who defeated ISIS. Just imagine the strength and fighting spirit of Kurdish TEENAGE men and women in flip flops with no training defeated ISIS which was largely trained and equipped by CIA and America before they rose to prominence and was deemed an enemy of the West. Imagine you sitting at home, watching television of brigades of heavily armed ISIS fighters taking over huge modern cities in mile long convoys of pick ups with heavy machineguns, decapitating thousands live on twitter, you're a 15 year old girl, and your reaction is to grab your flipflops and your AK and go to fight them. That's a very special kind of inner strength and courage. It's truly tragic, as the kurds are some of the "most normal" in the Middle East, simply meaning reasonably European and sensible in many ways, compared to many of the more fanatical regimes. If a united Kurdistan was created, it could potentially be a kind of beacon of light, humaneness, sensibility and just "normal living" to help stabilise the whole region. An oasis in a sea of fanaticism. What they lack is a strong leader with this powerful vision of unity, as unfortunately due to millenia of wars, the mentality of "caring for yourself first" is extremely strong. Nationalism is also there, but it's a largely unguided force, intercepting militarily when things are grave and you need to defend (e.g. ISIS), but not with a vision of unity for all the kurds. And realistically every major power is against them in the region, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey. They would lose land, power, ressources and influence if Kurdistan became a unified country. Actually Israel is one of the only powerful countries in the Middle East that tries to help Kurdistan - e.g. buy a lot of their oil, covertly sell them weapons, provide secret agents to help defeat fanatics that are trying to rise to power and so on. The Isreali story of being a persecuted nation without a homeland, with all major powers against them is so similar in spirit to the Kurdish story of being a persecuted people without your own country, and all major powers using you and your land as a plaything in their own games. That's why they help each other since modern Isreal was founded, even though ofc many modern Kurdish brainwashed by islamic fanatics are not aware of it, but the older generation remember when secret isreali agents brought them food, water, ressources, clothes etc in times of war and crisis, also weapons for self defense, and still financially today they support by buying oil in massive quantities at a fair price. Yes, Africa could almost be declared the black magic capital of the world, the magic there is very powerful

So fascinating, you really made the whole culture and history come alive! It's truly mindboggling how connected (for better or worse) people close to nature are to spirit. But unfortunately they use it both for good and evil. Yes, awesome idea about Kurdistan. In my dream I saw a carved rock-like charm bound with leather skins, both of them inscribed with ancient signs, buried under a plot of land in Kurdistan. This was then re-energized through rituals every now and then. So if we could find it, dig it up, and destroy it, I'm sure it would stop everything for ever. Luckily things have been ok for a long while, but every time one of the family members returns from a trip to Kurdistan, all family members here in Europe start having physical, health, mental or family issues for 1-3 months. So I think when they're down there, it somehow "re-ignites" the fire of hate and jealousy in the hearts of the people living there permanently, prompting them to restart all their black magic against this branch of the family. Luckily we are more aware now and combat it proactively. Just having that awareness that black magic is real, it makes you stop and think every now and then, when everything suddenly goes wrong for no reason out of nowhere. Then you can do something about it, instead of just suffering through it, when it could be stopped/improved by spiritual means.

It's so crazy how widespread it is! Thanks for sharing, it really brings into light "the reality" of life in these precious and beautiful regions of the planet

Yes, some even say the were originally South Indias who fled/migrated. If you see their temple in Lalesh, it's very hindu like in structure. Further, Yazd means "south", so it could be an explanation for the name "yazidi" - people from the south. And just like so other ancient Middle Eastern spiritualities including reincarnation, meditation, all kind of beautiful spiritual teachings, they have to hide it to avoid getting their heads chopped off. In Southern India Subramanya/Skandha/Karthikeya/Murugan is very popular, he's the other son of Shiva (more wellknown son is Ganesha the elephant God), and you guessed it, he rides a peacock. So it's possible they're related, that the yazidis were from South India who worshipped Subramanya.

Hey @goretex, Thanks for your comment. Interesting that you're writing now, as it is actually pitru paksha right now it started a few days ago, and me, wife, father and an aunt visiting are doing rituals daily. It's something me and my wife have discussed a lot. As if her ancestors were alive and saw us doing "hindu stuff", they would probably disaprove, as they were strict muslims. My ancestors did voodoo, and hinduism is insanely similar. I have this aunt visiting from the US right now, she's lived in Haiti many years of her life, and have been much more in touch with voodoo. She told us during the fire ritual that it is more or less exactly the same. However, regarding my wife's ancestors, I have felt them coming every single time, and they do indeed "get better" from it. The number of ancestors showing up has decreased from year to year, it also decreases almost daily during pitru paksha, both factors ndicating it actully helps them. The intensity of their negative energy also decreases almost daily, but markedly from year to year. We've come to the conclusion that from whereever they are, they don't necessarily "see" exactly what we're doing. From where they are, they just feel/sense/receive the energy itself. The energy behind the ritual guided by our intention (which is always clearly stated in the beginning durin the step called "sankalpa" in hindu rituals). So it's a great question indeed, something we've pondered, and so far experience seems to indicate that the world they're in now (it's called pitru loka in hinduism) is more energy based, and the connection to them is autmatically governed by your lineage/DNA connection, so whatever energy you use, it gets filtered through that before being sent. These are anyway some of our thoughts on the subject so far

Dear Dao Bums,I'd like to share my experiences with ancestor worship, as all as hear your experiences with ancestors. A hindu holiday called "Pitru Paksha" (Fortnight of Ancestors) just finished, it was 16 days in total from the full moon on the 29th of September and just concluded here on the new moon 14th of October. In this period I did particular ancestor practices each day consisting of mala japa (mantras recited using a rosary), puja (prayer ritual), tarpanam (water ritual) and havan (fire ritual). I'll share my experiences in 4 parts: 1) My personal bias against ancestor worship 2) My reason for trying ancestor worship 3) My experiences with ancestor worship 4) Conclusion 5) Questions for you 1) My personal bias against ancestors worship Growing up very influenced by monotheistic ideas, I was always very biased against ancestor worship. Why worship spirits, when you can worship Almighty God? So I always kind of looked at worshipping anything but "The One Surpreme God" as a kind of waste of everyone's time at best, and on par with black magic at worst. 2) My reason for trying ancestor worship In spite of the above bias against anything related to clairvoyance, chakras, energies, spirits, higher beings, ancestors etc, I decided to try it. The reason being that over the course of my life, in spite of the above mentioned bias, it was practical life experience which taught me the validity of many of the above things. Through SKY I learnt that chakras are real, through terrifying experiences I learnt that black magic & evil spirits are real, through Hindu rituals, mantra & meditations I learnt that these things indeed work and can improve your life spiritually and materially. So because everything Hindu-related I tried actually "worked" practically, gave me results & experiences, I decided to give the Hindu version of "ancestor worship" a go this Pitru Paksha holiday. The reason being that my horoscope indicates "Pitru Dosha" or "Ancestor Problem". Another motivation to curiously be open to new things and actually try it. 3) My experiences with ancestor worship I'll share a bit about what I experienced from each modality below. 3.1 Mala Japa I committed myself to 110 malas of 2 different mantras during Pitru Paksha (as advised by Hindu astrologers). The first was "Pitru Dosha Nivaran Mantra" or "Remove Ancestor Problem Mantra". The second was a Vishnu mantra said to give Atma Shanti (Soul Peace) to troubled ancestors, namely Dwadakshara Mantra (12 syllable Vishnu Mantra). The first day while reciting my 7 daily malas of the Dwadakshara Mantra for Pitru Atma Shanti, I felt a peace come over me unlike any peace I've ever felt before. It was so deep, profound and restful, I never knew such peace existed. The next day during practice, instead I started having spontaneous memories of my maternal grandfather. This continued for about 2-3 days and brought me a lot of joy to remember. It was all things from when I was very young, because he passed away when I was only 11 years old. After that a period of about 4 days started where I would have memories of my paternal grandfather. I loved him very dearly, even though we mostly saw each other when I was a kid, and again the last 2 years before he passed away in my mid twenties. Further, the last 2 days, I felt some negative feelings related to wanting to love your family and truly loving them, but also feeling very annoyed and aggressive with your family because of their negative traits. After that I saw sporadic memories of different family members for a day or two, and after that a new phase started. During the remaining days, whenever I sat for japa of this mantra I wouldn't have memories, instead I would have feelings. E.g. feel restless, annoyed, irritated and many such minor negative feelings, however it was quite intense. As soon as I finished my 7 malas it stopped, and I returned to the mood I had been in before starting japa. On the final 16th day, the deep, profound and restful peace again enveloped my being, and I knew that I had helped my ancestors overcome their spiritual troubles and give them peace. As well as cleanse and purify their physical and spiritual imprints in my body and soul. The Pitru Dosha Nivaran Mantra was extremely powerful and energizing to say, even though it was a long mantra and took deep concentration to remember. It also took much, much longer to recite the 7 malas each day, as the mantra was so long. During the entire 16 day period, I mostly felt energized while doing it, and only a few times I felt restlessness and at another time extreme boredom. 3.2 Pitru Puja I did the puja daily with my wife, it's a very short puja where you offer your ancestors "the 5 offerings" (panch upachara) namely 1) sandalwood powder (gandham) for the earth element, 2) flowers (pushpam) for the space/energy element, 3) incense (dhupam) for the air element, 4) the flame of a lamp (dipam) for the fire element, 5) fruit (naivedyam) for the water element, 6) mouth freshener (tambulam), 7) finally burn camphor (kapoor) to purify the mind (manas). My wife has middle eastern background, and many of her ancenstors in the past century have fought and killed and been killed in wars, as well as endured torture, unjust imprisonment etc. During the first day of puja, I "felt" or "saw" 7 ancestors enveloped in a golden aura coming on my side, and I saw what must have been about 150 ancestors or so envoloped in a red aura standing on her side. When we offered the food, I felt a physical sensation of something "grabbing" into the food in my hand and "taking a portion" of its energy. As each day progressed, fewer and fewer ancestors would be there. My number reduced from 7 to 4, then to 2, and finally 0 would come. For her it reduced from about 150, to 120, to 70, to 40, to 10, and finally 0 would come. It was already after about 1 week of daily puja that 0 would come. I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I took it as a positive sign that they had been satisfied and were in no further need. We still continued the daily puja for the entire period, though I didn't feel like anyone came after that. 3.3 Pitru Tarpana During pitra tarpana, you offer water with sesame seeds. As a man I offered black sesame seeds, my wife offered water with white sesame seeds. You say a mantra and pour the water into a plate. I felt different positive & pleasurable sensations when offering to different ancestors (pitrus), but I couldn't identify a pattern of which ancestors triggered which sensations. Another thing I noticed was that the lamp we had burning (from the puja, we always did the two rituals right after each other) would seemingly change color and shine different lights! I was focused on pouring water into the plate, so I couldn't watch it closely, but it seemed it was a particular great grandfather or great grandmother, then the lamp would shine a dazzling rainbow light with shining silver specks in it. This happened about 3-4 times. I just took it as a positive sign that this ancestor received our offering. 3.4 Pitru Havan Towards the end of Pitru Paksha my wife's sister visited us. She unexpectedly called my wife up one day and said she'd like to visit. She stayed and stayed and stayed, even though she had work next day (also against the normal pattern), and late in the evening I said we needed to do a ritual and if she would like to participate. To our great surprise she happily obliged to participate in a fire ritual for the ancestors. We were both extremely surprised, as that's not something she would normally be open to, and especially this late on a weekday. So off we went and did the fire ritual, and she completely changed during the ritual. She has a general sad tendency in her mood, but when we did the ritual, the more mantras we offered into the fire, the more energized and passionate she became. Towards the end as we were to finally pour in all the remaining offerings, she jumped up and down and around the fire almost screaming the mantras. She was fired up!!! It was quite an interesting experience. Finally, on the new moon and last day of pitru paksha, me and my wife went alone to the nearby bonfire place to perform the "full" havan. We had performed a very shortened version to accomodate her sister's participation last time. It was extremely powerful. It was as if the fire was alive, it eagerly ate up all offerings, and on different ancestors names it would change color (the flame would be yellow, red, orange, white, blue) and it also changed its pattern (sometimes circulating in the fire pit, sometimes staying in a particular corner, sometimes suddenly rising much higher, then suddenly falling much lower) etc. Sometimes the offerings in the pit "exploded" which was very unsual, luckily we weren't hit by it. We took it as a communication from the ancestors, which ones we had a good karma with, who did we have a bad karma with etc. At the end of the ritual you walk clockwise 3 times around the fire, and at that point my whole being dissolved in extremely restful peace. I was shocked, because we were both in a quite energetic and dynamic mood, but like lightning, very suddenly and powerfully, when we circled the fire I was plunged into extreme peace. 4) Conclusion After completing all of the above sadhana (spiritual practice) during pitru paksha I must admit that I am now a firm believer in ancestor worship. It didn't feel spooky, scary, unnatural or any of the prejudiced ideas I had about connecting with "spirits". It felt very normal, very natural. It's still your family, they just don't have a body anymore. I truly believe you can really change yourself, your life, your destiny, your karma & your relationships by ancestor worship. My wife has always had an extreme rageful temperament, so has her family, at the drop of a hat they can explode. Since the very first day we started Pitru Paksha, she has been much, much calmer. I don't think she's gotten angry even once since, which is extremely unusual. Usually every day or every 2 days she will have a short ragefit. I believe now it's all the ancestors who died young in the war and are still full of violence, anger, rage & agression about the war, torture, imprisonment etc, they need someone to "see" them. See their rage, see their pain, see their anger, only then do they feel seen and understood, and then they can "let go" and move on. Now after all our prayers, they have found peace. Then they can move on, instead of "lingering around" my wife and her family, simply waiting for the right moment to "jump in" and express their rage through their descendants. We'll see how it goes from here, but I have a profound respect for ancestor worship now, and can imagine doing it every holiday suitable for it or when otherwise needed. 5) Questions for you What's your experiences with ancestor worship?

My cousin's husband is from Morocco, he also told me these stories. How poor and desperate people do black magic in the street while begging or scamming people for money. Yes, unfortunately each nation or people has certain strengths and weaknesses, or we could say blessings and tests from God. A huge test in the muslim ummah in general is jealousy and hate, competing with your close ones instead of cooperating, and social comparison and judgement is an enormeous weight pulling also down on the already burdened shoulders of Middle East. Whereas I would say the joy of life, love of living, zest and ofc a natural social inclination as well as enjoyment of gathering together, having food together, just enjoying each other is a big blessing of these people. Just being human, and aliveness itself. I always enjoy when we just get together as a family, even if we speak different languages, just sitting and having tea together, sharing funny/silly insta videos I feel so connected to my extended family members. This is a big blessing without a doubt too.

great points! yes, as interesting as all this is, we’ve drifted completely away from the topic. SO! back to black magic. it sucks, and is super prevalent in the Middle East. in my wife’s village where she grew up, it was standard practice and you learnt since you were small. different things you could do, eg if someone has gotten a new home and you’re jealous, you write some things from the Quran in reverse on a slip of paper, say a curse, blow on it, crumble it up and hide it in the new home somewhere not to be found. As long as it’s there, it’ll give bad energy to the new home. Similarly at weddings, again, if you’re jealous, you can tie a string or a ribbon say on the chair, the utensils or any other thing to be used by the target, again saying a curse and blowing on it. If the victim then uses the thing, they will get cursed. there was also another trick, again if you feel jealous that they ‘have it better’ than you, where you peel a fruit, etch signs into the peel, then hide it in the home of the target during your visit. The peel again being ‘trash’ so giving off bad energy. these are simple and Childs play versions, but everyone in the village had learnt basic ‘black magic 101’ as kids. so just imagine if you really want to go into it, the ancient systems found there all the way back to ancient pre-Islam Persia and ancient Babylon, using blood, piss, feces, and systematic cultivation of dark energy over decades. And just to remind, this young dude who cursed us, Zhongxian Wu inspite of cultivating since the age of 4, having all magical powers, healing, having done 1 year dark retreat in a cave, you name it, he couldn’t remove it. Chunyi Lin who’s also got healing and psychic powers, having fasted 30 days in a cave meditating until he could see with his eyes closed, he also wasn’t powerful enough to remove it. Hindu Swami who’s done sadhana since his teenage years, having done tantric graveyard sadhana and tamasic worship using blood to control spirits, having siddhi of Mahavidyas, he also couldn’t remove it. sufi having done innumerable retreats in Iran and Afghanistan, the most psychic and clairvoyant I ever met, having healing lots of people on the brink of death deemed unsaveable due to blood cancer, marrow cancer, brain cancer, you name it, he also couldn’t remove it. this is serious stuff, and from what I gather it’s a kind of specialty niche in cultivation, that unless you’ve gone deep, you cannot counter it, no matter how strong your general energy is, and even if you at a high level in tamasic tantric controlling spirits. So I feel you need to train in this specific area in order to be able to fight someone who’s also trained specifically in this area. And people who do that are extremely rare, even the most powerful masters I met in my life (all cited above), as well as my SKY masters, none could remove it.

Thanks for chipping in! Yes, it really is crystal clear, very obvious. No judgement in that, it's just super helpful to know and understand this in order to be in harmony with each other.

Thanks for sharing! Yes, being mixed and growing up between cultures it’s blatantly obvious just how different people and cultures are, and from an early age you learn exactly what the key differences are, sometimes in a painful way. Eg I have so many painful experiences in my school years, where I was the only person in class who thought and felt a certain way about different topics, like gender roles, importance of a higher power, hierarchy, respect, just things as basic as sharing your candy with your friends I got a huge scolding for. It’s a special kind of life when your whole reality is one way, but all the people you meet and interact with in school, at sports, at work, at the store, when you’re out and about act in a way you don’t understand, that’s in complete opposition to your own natural way of life. Eg ‘just being happy’ is hugely triggering, but it’s a well known thing, they call it ‘African happiness’, a natural love for life itself. ‘Don’t worry, be happy’, just my own simple, natural, happy temperament can make people attack you. Simply existing, being yourself will trigger a desire in others to correct you to their way of life. Kind of like what Cobie was doing. A natural desire to convert others to what they themselves believe and think, cause all else is ‘wrong’. I could go on and on about examples, but ofc if you are born and raised mono culturally, and you live in a country with the same culture, you won’t necessarily experience these things as shockingly, therefore not seeing how big the differences in daily way of life, thinking, feeling and acting really is. It’s huge! Doesn’t mean we can’t be in harmony, but it starts with seeing and acknowledging our uniqueness, then proceeding on what we agree on in a mutually pleasant, beneficial and respectful way.

Yes, sorry for dropping all these truth bombs. It's not my intention to in any way, shape or form paint a "negative only" picture, I'm just sharing some of my personal observations. I do think he's overall a pretty good human being, sharing ancient wisdom, practical methods and so on. But like I said, he's also just a human being like the rest of us, with family and marital issues, issues around money, sex, being social, family issues and so on, it's normal and natural. So hope it's not giving off the wrong message. Ofc for me personally I was so hurt by what happened to me, but I don't see him as all good or all bad, he's just a guy, he has his positives and negatives, just like we all do.

@Cobie You're the most judgemental one here pal, you're prejudiced coming like that dropping a value judgement on another human being with zero sense of humanity and no value add whatsoever. Do you even know anything about culture? What she's stating is research based and used by Special Forces units in active warzones for optimising possiblity of sucess in interaction with combatants as well as civilian actors from different countries. I know cause I've been there alongside them, trained them, fought alongside them and was sought after by PhD and cultural researchers at the national army academy as an active duty officer with several deployments behind me for my cultural knowledge. It's called "neutral vs affective" and based on data from more than 40 countries by Trompenaars and Hamden-Turner, and is supported by parallel findings of other highly reputed cultural researchers like Edward T Hall, Hofstede, Ekman and Schwarz. If you consult any of them, you will indeed find Dutch, German and Scandinavian countries to be some of the cultures the LEAST emotional and the least valuing emotional display, actually actively disliking it, with the most extreme being russians, indians and japanese, whereas on the other extreme you'll find countries like the US and South America highly valuing the open display of emotionality. So coming in and saying "you prejudiced" just showcases your own lack of knowledge in this area and your own prejudice Asides from my army career, university degree and professional intercultural experience, I also personally live in Northern Europe, and what she's describing is indeed the real, objective, factual truth about these peoples, as backed by science. And of course @Lala Nila's experience.