5/19/17

I learned a new word.

I overheard a conversation today in which one woman smugly said to another woman, "I engaged my kundalini today."

The first thought that occurred to me was that it sounds like something you'd order in an Italian restaurant.  I'll have the Kundalini with Clam Sauce, please. Yes, paired with a nice red, thank you. Or maybe the name of a great magician of yester-year, Kundalini the Magnificent or some such.

But after listening for a while, it started sounding like it was something physical, or perhaps made of some kind of invisible energy.  The first one "engaged her kundalini" like it was some kind of powerful weapon of the future. "The Borg are attacking the ship! Should we engage the Kundalini, Captain?  "Make it so, Number One."

The second woman didn't so much engage her kundalini, she was all about "releasing" hers, which sounds more like something from a shitty monster movie where some evil mastermind sets the Kundalini loose to wreak havoc on the townspeople.  DEAR GOD! SHE'S RELEASED THE KUNDALINI!! RUN! RUN FOR YOUR VERY LIVES!

So with the vast power of the internet at my fingers, I did some hard-core research on The Kundalini, and by that I mean I typed it into google and followed the link to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Merriam-Webster says The Kundalini is the yogic life force that is held to lie coiled at the base of the spine until it is aroused and sent to the head to trigger enlightenment.

That sounds pretty suspect to me from a straight up physiological standpoint.  If I had something coiled up at the base of my spine, I'd probably know it, especially if it got aroused.  I'm getting up there in age, and as far as I can tell, never in my life has anything from my ass been railroaded up my spine into my skull (although I've been accused of having my head up my ass, but that's a totally different thing.)

I encourage everyone to go read this book.  It will explain in very accessible language exactly why all of this sort of BS is just that.  "What's the harm?" you may ask. "If a person wants to believe that some self-proclaimed hippie chick shaman who smells like weed and essential oils can shoot invisible beams out of her hands and "help" heal their broken leg or sooth their angry hemorrhoids, then why not?"

Well -- because it makes us dumber as a society, that's why not.  It's another step backwards toward the days when we were cowering in our caves wondering what made the gods so angry that they were shooting bolts of fire from the sky.  You may think I'm exaggerating, and maybe I am, a little, but it makes me angry and a little sad to see people buy into these things. Everybody wants to believe in magic, I get it, but just because it's ancient doesn't mean it's not complete bullshit. They used to bleed people and drill holes in their head to let the evil spirits out, too. Of course, in the 1800's they also used cocaine to treat depression and that shit totally worked, at least for a few hours, so there's that.

Is there something to natural medicine? Herbal remedies? What about massage therapy or acupuncture?  Sure there is.  If you're taking a natural supplement for your aching joints and it's "all natural" and it's really working, check the ingredients. You'll probably find willow bark extract, which contains salicin, which is a chemical similar to aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid). That's why it works. In fact, the first aspirin was synthesized from willow bark. But now you're paying $21.95 for a bottle of 30 pills of questionable quality control when you could pick up 300 Bayer aspirin for two bucks.  Massage and Acupuncture are simpler -- they both cause your body to release endorphins, which are the body's natural pain killers.  Eating spicy food will do the same thing, apparently. Probably nipple clamps will too, for all I know.

Anyway, back to The Kundalini.  Here are a few descriptions  of it.  I'll let you all form your own opinions after reading that. It sounds like maybe a nice thing to have, but if it's truly sitting at the base of the spine, I only have this to say -- I was staining my deck all day and now my Kundalini is killing me.  I think I angered it.  I'm going to try to fix it with a vodka martini and a dunk in the hot tub.

Wish me luck.  If my head explodes, you guys know what happened.



19 comments:

  1. I think I read that it's supposed to rotate two and a half times on the way up. Seems like that would play hell with your spinal cord.
    Then there was the Love and Rockets song "Kundalini Express":

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mnx8jnsYfc

    -Doug in Oakland

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    1. So three times and the top of your head blows off? Sounds legit. I don't think I've ever heard that song, although I vaguely remember the band. I like the guitar riff at the beginning.

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    2. Soooo, our spines apparently have twist like a rifle barrel. Good to know.

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  2. Oh! You make me laugh so hard! Wish you wrote more often.

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  3. Thanks for the enlightenment, Johnny!

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  4. Please write more. Please?

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  5. Anonymous11:09 AM

    Thanks for adding to the intelligence in the world. We're suffering from a severe intelligence suck right now.

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  6. Soooooo, I was alerted to your particular brand of madness thru your fan installation discovery of an ancient manuscript's dissection. JC Penney gift cards for Christmas seems like a fun idea this year. Am on a road trip with my beloved of 40 years to the "wild, Wild West".
    He's playing Death Race 2000 the last 470 miles, while I'm laughing til the tears flow in the cockpit catching up on all your articles and wondering why there aren't more? And why have I not heard of you before? I'm old, but very blogworthy savvy. It's like finding buried treasure when you were looking for another dog pile to pick up. Why don't you have an option to subscribe to your posts?
    Tired of the "why don't you write more" comments?
    I can tell you are a busy man enjoying/photographing nature and wildlife and thinking up ways to inform your fan base of all that is well and good in the world. Or not.
    I hold you personally for this fixation and unlike telling everyone about the best fishin hole or greatest campsite, or a great babysitter that is now so popular you can't book her; I don't have to worry there's not enough to go around.
    Don't get me wrong, I plan on telling everyone I know who reads, has a sense of humor, and that I want to impress, about your gift. Cuz I've still got your archives, and 3700 more miles to go.

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    1. Hey there, I'm glad you found me, and are enjoying the blog! I was writing more when blogs were a "thing" but now I don't think anyone knows how to read something that's longer than 140 characters. So I post here once in a while, when something strikes my fancy. And I post on twitter sometimes. I really have a few stories ready to go, but I haven't had a chance to write them down yet. I really should make the time, but this pesky job that I need to pay the bills keeps taking up all my free time.

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  7. New to your posts. Love em. Traveling with beloved of 40 years to the Wild Wild West and listening to old archives. Keep em coming. I'll keep reading and laughing and learning.

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    1. You have a lot of archives to wade through.....

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  8. OMG. I have an acquaintance who this post was made for. She's such a crunchy, hippie, mermaid, sparkles Kundalini type person. I have a distinct urge to smack some sense into her. But, of course, she would just say that we aren't enlightened enough to understand. :)

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    1. sometimes I wish I could go through life like that. :)

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  9. I would make a pithy comment but i have to hit the bathroom and drop a Kundalini

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  10. Wasn't Linda Kundalini in that TV show "Freaks and Geeks"?

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  11. If you have ever been caught out in an aluminum canoe while a summer thunderstorm passes directly over you, you would cower and wonder why the gods were mad, too. When those bolts were hitting the water around us, making the water flash, and we could smell the ozone, my kundalini had grabbed my asshole and puckered it so tight that a team of mules would have had a hard time dragging a greased knitting needle out.

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