Based on this research of cattle - it seems well-documented that constant psilocybin use will DECREASE your natural ability to synthesize serotonin in your brain and body!!
Unlike indoleamine LSD and other hallucinogens that that bind to dopamine D2 receptors to produce the typical dopaminergic “psychotic” experiences, psilocybin and psilocin have no affinity for dopamine D2 receptors [5,99,183],
That hallucinogens ‘stimulate’ serotonin 2A receptors means that they mimic the action of serotonin at the receptor by binding to it, altering its conformation or ‘shape’, and ultimately altering the internal conditions and therefore behaviour of the neuron it sits on. For the serotonin 2A receptor, the key functional effect of its stimulation is an increase in the excitability of the hosting neuron.
Serotonin 2A receptors are primarily expressed on an important type of neuron or brain cell in the brain, excitatory pyramidal neurons. More specifically, serotonin 2A receptors are especially highly expressed on excitatory pyramidal neurons in ‘layer 5’ of the cortex. The cortex is organised into layers of different cell types, like the different layers of a cake, and layer 5 is a deep layer, nearer the base than the icing (Weber & Andrade, 2010). Layer 5 pyramidal neurons are especially important functional units in the brain as they are the principal source of output from a cortical region. They project to hierarchically subordinate, or ‘lower’, cortical and subcortical regions (e.g. from a visual association region to the primary visual cortex). Layer 5 pyramidal neurons project heavily onto inhibitory interneurons and so the net effect of their excitation seems to be inhibitory (Bastos et al., 2012).
Eriton E. L. Valente†, James L. Klotz‡, Gyuchul Ahn§, Kyle R. McLeod §, Hannah M.
Herzing §, Mindy King § and David L. Harmon1,§,*
†Department of Animal Science, State University of Western Parana, Marechal Cândido
Rondon, PR, Brazil, 85960-000
‡USDA-ARS, Forage-Animal Production Research Unit, Lexington, KY 40546
§Department of Animal and Food Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40546
control - tall fescue seeds free of ergovaline, KY 32 seeds (L42-16-2K32); 5Way -
endophyte-infected seeds, 5 way (L152-11-1739); KY31- endophyte-infected seeds, KY 31
(M164-16-SOS) and; Millennium - endophyte-infected seeds, 3rd Millennium (L108-11-76).
The endophyte-infected seed treatments were all adjusted to provide an ergovaline dosage of
15 μg/kg BW.
....Ergot alkaloids also can bind the D2 dopamine receptors, which elicits a secondary
messenger response that mimics the binding of dopamine and decreases circulating prolactin
(Klotz and Nicol, 2016). The dramatic reduction in serum 5-HT caused by consumption of
ergot alkaloids might be a result of any of the following processes: i) decreased synthesis; ii)
increased degradation or; iii) increased storage in the gut
overstimulation of 5-HT receptors may cause negative feedback on the synthesis of 5-HT and
this is likely to be the main cause of the serum 5-HT depletion in steers when exposed to
ergot alkaloids.
Consumption of ergot alkaloids decreases the serum 5-HT concentration in cattle with
no difference between the source of endophyte-infected seeds. However, the mechanism
responsible for this reduction is not known. Alkaloid over-stimulation on 5-HT receptors may
cause changes in the synthesis and transport of 5-HT thereby decreasing the circulating
concentration, but this hypothesis must be confirmed in future studies
Hey Drew!
ReplyDeleteBeen an avid reader of your blogs over the years.
I've got a practical question for you- about extending the length in which one can comfortably sit in full lotus.
As it stands, I can do it for 40 minutes before the right knee starts giving me pain. As Patanjali says, it is not correct asana if it isn't effortless and if pain distracts the mind.
For the longest time, I've been trying to get to the point where I can sit and meditate in full lotus for 3 hours straight. Many years ago, it was impossible for me to get into lotus. Then after a few years of stretching, it became possible for me to sit in full lotus for around 20 minutes before my legs fell asleep or the knees started hurting. And I guess continued asana practice and pranayama has comfortably extended this to 40 minutes now. However, I am still a long way from those 3 hours (I have the free time, so I want to put it to good use).
I've become aware that the fastest way to lengthen this is to not focus on the physical stretching, but rather on the purification of qi/prana and emptying the mind. In that regard, what were your concrete experiences, Drew? I recall having read something about you experiencing progress when you started doing the MCO. But I also read that the full lotus itself gets the MCO going, so why does simply sitting in full lotus not naturally extend one's ability to sit in it in a reasonable time frame? It seems that for me, as for others I know, the numbness and pain set in at predictable intervals and plateau early on. It is also known that those poor guys that forced themselves to sit in full lotus day in and day out at Japanese Zen monasteries just managed to mess up their knees permanently, instead of getting the MCO going by just sitting and finding themselves more and more comfortable in it.
I found an interesting anecdote by Gregor Maehle in his book on Pranayama, where he states that he used to struggle to get beyond the 25 minute mark before he started taking up serious Pranayama practice. He is not sure if it is due to pranic purification or due to having something to distract his mind with, though.
So my question for you, Drew, is if you know of any reliable means to get to that 3 hour mark and how much this has to do with training beyond continous physical stretching.
Thanks for the thoughtful question. Yes I did intensive meditation to start out along with attending the qi-healing classes of Chunyi Lin. So at first for me I had a chair behind me and I used my arms to pull my body up to sitting on the chair - after my legs went numb. Then I would continue doing "small universe" meditation while sitting on the edge of the chair. Then I would do the standing active Tai Chi type qigong to open up the body channels.
DeleteI didn't realize at the time that the standing active exercises are the key to maintaining celibacy of both mind and body - for example Yogananda also taught standing active exercises.
So the other key was I was 29 years old and so my celibacy energy was strong and also I had been vegetarian mainly since age 16 or so - and I was vegan and then I fasted for a week.
So during the week long fast I meditated then at least six hours a day and it was during this time that I experienced the deep physiological changes described in the book, "Tao and Longevity" freely online by Master Nan, Huai-chin. Of course when I experienced those things I had no idea they were already described in a book somewhere. haha.
So then I felt the center of the brain - the pineal gland got very hot. Again at the time I didn't even know it was called the pineal gland as I was calling it the pituitary gland. haha. I didn't realize the pineal gland is the master gland that is also an ether electrogravitic transducer for the whole body...
Anyway after that the qi field got very strong around my body and I didn't realize this meant I had activated the Yuan Qi as a Nirvikalpa Samadhi experience.
So when I attended the Level 3 retreat and I saw ghosts and also the Yuan Shen spirits that Chunyi made through his body - to heal people - and I smelled cancer - then this was my "enlightenment experience." But again I didn't know how to maintain celibacy so soon after I got back then I "lost the alchemical pill" and also I experienced a strong spacetime vortex spinning around me. I had no idea that was explained in chapter 11 of the very book I was studying -the Taoist Yoga: alchemy and immortality book. I could not have imagined I had "skipped ahead" in such an experience.
But as Master Nan, Huai-chin explains people can have experiences of all levels but they are not stabilized. And so I then stopped practicing and my body channels closed up but then Chunyi did his third eye opening energy with his "ouch!" finger against my forehead - after that I stopped practicing for two months just to see if the pineal gland magnetic bliss would go away. It did not go away but it's what Jim Nance calls my "brain blockage." Ideally I would not feel anything and instead in Nirvikalpa Emptiness the body-mind is filled with Yuan Qi and disappears into the spacetime ether - just like in deep dreamless sleep - only the light gets very bright in intensity.
Also if you watch that recent Robert Peng vid - it was from 2005 but I just posted it recently - he describes how he was able to do the horse stance for hours suddenly. So again at first his thigh muscles were very sore and he didn't have his posture properly. But suddenly he felt a strong energy flow up through the Earth - that is the Yin Qi.
DeleteEssentially the lower tan t'ien has to be filled with Yin Qi for the Yuan Qi to get activated. This is the secret and once the Yuan Qi is activated it is this quantum nonlocal reverse time energy that then also resonates the yin qi of the Earth.
This is why John Chang emphasized the need for the body to be naked against the EArth in full lotus posture - to absorb the Yin Qi. Also Chunyi said he buried his feet into the earth when he practiced horse stance - to make sure he got good yin qi connection and absorption.
So I myself have not utilized this yin qi secret enough - but I try to meditate against the Earth on my land up north - it's just that the mosquitoes are bad. haha. So I need one of those good tents that has no floor - and so I can be against the Earth.
Anyway - Robert Peng describes how his sense of time suddenly disappeared and his body was being lifted up - this is the reverse time antigravity Yuan Qi force. And then he come out of it and his body could repel weapons after that. So the Yuan Qi is very powerful.
Thanks for your answer, Drew!
ReplyDeleteSo are you able to pull off the 3h Lotus sit everyday?
As I understand you, it would be impossible to stand in mabu/horse stance or sit in full lotus if one doesn't sit on the Earth under a tree somewhere?
Did the veganism, fasting, and the MCO/standing exercises stop the numbness in your legs and did you notice a measureable difference in weeks/months/years? As I said, I am very interested in these things, as books like those of Nan Huaijin and William Bodri(I am familiar with them) do not directly talk about these changes, except for in theoretical terms. As you might now, when Nan Huaijin died, he left a rather angry/frustrated letter telling everyone that he was just a scholar who got his knowledge from books and Bodri seems see himself as Nan's disciple, even though Nan also stated that he never took on any.
Do you have a link to that letter left by Master Nan? I think I remember that being mentioned on the taobums forum at the time but I don't think I saw a copy of it.
DeleteAs for sitting in full lotus three hours at a time - there was a Moroccan cafe owner who said to me, in astonishment, you sit like that for "hours at a time." He had a security camera to watch the outside of his cafe and I sat outside or even inside his cafe.
But you should realize that I was practicing psychic tantric healing based on the separation of the Yuan Qi into yang and yin qi. So I was burning up my yang qi and turning myself into a "ghost immortal" as it is called in Daoism! Again I had not studied the Taoist Yoga book enough to realize that the passion of the heart is increased from the yin qi going out of the eyes after the pineal gland emanates the yuan qi.
So the pineal gland essentially can split or integrate the yin and yang qi as the yin qi in the blood then increases the yang qi as the pineal gland converts blood into increased cerebrospinal fluid.
So sitting in full lotus for hours at a time - yes I definitely did that but the yin qi energy source I relied on was not the Earth but rather other humans. As Chunyi said he does not practice tantra because the frequency of the shen taken in is too low. Jim Nance had to do a special healing on me to exorcism all the low frequency shen-jing (yin qi) that I had absorbed into my reproductive organ from my tantra practice.
So we do not realize that the shen or quantum coherent biophotons are based on frequency of the chakras with the "intention" or Yi of the body as the Yuan Qi or magnetic moment of the virtual photons from the shen being turned around. Most people are controlled or hard-wired by their subconscious lower frequency shen intentions that I call the Anger-fear-ejaculation cycle that is an escalating addiction of chimpanzee culture on Earth today. haha.
So I was doing psychic healing to be sure but the tantra is just a catalyst to then open up the Yuan Qi of the heart as a kind of magnetic nonlocal connection with another person. As Bill Bodri explains - the tantra is limited to emptying out the lower level of the Realm of Form. By emptying out - meaning accessing the yuan qi. But the Yuan Qi needs to fill up the body and be stored in the small intestines to then achieve the Realm of the Formless as the Absolute Void of Enlightenment to open up the third eye.
So I did have precognition - and psychic healing that was holographic - and I still do. But I try not to use the yin qi as again that is based on the psychic separation. As Chunyi told me, "it's great that you can give females bliss but as long as you keep doing so your energy will be weak."
So even though technically I was physically celibate essentially my yang qi was being "burned off" in my pineal gland to create the yuan qi that then emitted the yin qi. As John Chang explains the amount of yin qi you can emit is only based on how much yang qi you have stored up. This is why Yogananda would get so upset if he lost his celibacy.
And also - then the true realization is that it is the impersonal Yuan Qi that is doing the healing - and not the spiritual ego. The psychic healing is of course also based on the ego as siddhi mind power.
So this is why Poonjaji could have bilocation and not even be consciously aware of it since in the advaita tradition the goal is just the formless awareness as the truth of reality.
So Poonjaji apparently was a long time full lotus yogi in a recent previous life - and all that raja yoga training then made him very ready for the Jnana yoga advaita achievement.
I would say both Chunyi and Jim Nance have also achieved this eternal liberation state. I would say that Master Nan probably achieved it also based on what I read of his books. The Zen state or Ch'an is then paradoxical as it is much easier for the energy to go out of the skull then it is to store it back in the body. Why? The Yuan Qi creates a 5D holographic experience of the shen of people around you - so with the eyes open then other people's blockages are experienced internally in your own body, before there is even a conscious awareness. The yoga meditation then has to clear out those blockages. My understanding is Master Nan said he taught too much and didn't meditate enough and so he took on the karma of his students. Ramana Maharshi is said to have done the same - he just left his body waste away. This is the paradox of the Jnana yogi - for example in the older tradition of the Jains - they will starve to death through meditation.
DeleteYou can find the English translation here in this thread, as posted by infolad(who is a good practitioners):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thedaobums.com/topic/39982-the-energy-cultivators-handbook/?page=2
We know nothing about what William Bodri actually practices and what his attainments are. We do know that he engages in Hero worship though, which is centered on Nan Huaijin. On Meditationexpert.com, he tellingly never announced the passing of his supposed master.
That's why I am careful about both, even though I've read their works.
Robert Peng and Chunyi Lin are interesting, but both highly commercialized their knowledge, US-style, which rubs me the wrong way. What happened to the idea of selling spirituality and the negative karmic repercussions carried with it?
So as you know, Wang Liping encourages this daily 3h Lotus practice as well. However, I've never seen anyone do this in front of me and when you ask people, it's always hearsay. People I've encountered in China, Taiwan, and even India don't sit for that long, and complain about the usual numbness or pain after around 30m or so.
You can find anecdotes everywhere- for example, Xu Yun mentions in his autobiography that his disciples found mold growing over his rice bowl when he had fallen into a kind of samadhi for weeks on end. Similar stories abound in India. But it's difficult to find anyone that can actually demonstrate it in front of you or show you how techniques beyond simple stretching get you there, step-by-step. Which is why I asked you if you can correlate the standing exercises/MCO/fasting with permanent extensions in terms of painless sitting time. These practical things should be discussed more instead of the ubiquitous "oh yeah, I know a guy who's heard of a guy who sits in full lotus for hours/days/decades on end without moving".
Yeah thanks - I remember that statement from Master Nan, Huai-chin. I had to literally read his books three times each just to understand the concepts he was conveying! haha. So I read that statement very differently.
DeleteThe "Tao and Longevity" book - as you probably know - gives the secret of staying in full lotus a long time. I have quoted it before a few times at least.
"1ncl go to sleep during meditation in the crossed leg
posture, it suggests that that one has latent health problems
the nerves and blood vessels in the legs are
...condition. (See p- 37.)
After freeing the legs and waiting until the tingling and
numbness have subsided or abated, one feels a kind of euphoria
never before experienced. If you can persist in meditating until
your qi and blood flow freely to the legs, you will have a strong
internal orgasm from your feet and legs upward to your waist
and back, throughout your entire body' Rest assured'
You would then not want to release your legs and stop your
meditation prematurelY."
The human body can be compared to a tree' A tree sinks its
crooked roots into the ground. With sunshine, air, and nutrition
from the soil it keeps growing. Man, on the other hand, has his
roots in his head. His soil is in space. Man's feet are like the
branches of ginseng. Crossing the legs is therefore tantamount
to bending the branches of ginseng or a pine tree whose crooked
branches form into knots so that its growing force will not be
scattered outside. It can thus return to its original source for
cultivation and consequently become stronger'
Crossing the legs does not bother one's health..."
So we find this in India yoga as well - I remember pondering the paradox of the legs as the branches of the trees while the head is the roots. If we study quantum biology it makes sense though - that article by Jack Tuszynski research group on the auxin of plant roots as similar to the tryptophan in the tubulin of the microtubules of the brain's neurons.
So of course alchemy is based on secrets of energy training and in this cause it is celibacy of the mind as much as the body. That's why there are so few qigong masters. Chunyi said if you want to see if someone is a real qigong master then just see how long they can sit in full lotus in ease!
When I was at the Level 3 retreat I had to rest from full lotus as I sat in each for each meditation session. One time during the meditation I went out of full lotus and I had my feet pointed to the back of Chunyi. Of course his third eye sees in all directions at the same time.
Strangely the next day when I broke my fast at work during break - in a nearby cafe - this lady walked into the cafe. It was just me and the owner (with whom I was friends) and the lady says to the owner how it is very rude to point your feet at the guru.
I thought this was a very strange coincidence. I didn't ask the lady if she had just been at the qigong conference. haha.
Yes Chunyi admitted he had become "Americanized" but I can assure you that at that Level 3 retreat in 2000 he just stated, "Now we are going to do two and half hours of standing, "moving of yin and yang" exercise." We of course never did this but I honestly think Chunyi just forgot that he wasn't doing a traditional Chinese training. haha.
Jim told me later how Chunyi had to realize that he had to simplify his exercises to make them more accessible, etc.
Anyway I definitely saw Chunyi sitting in full lotus in ease for the whole weekend retreat - we did two hour full lotus meditations throughout the weekend.
DeleteNow you say - hey that was not longer that two hours at a time. Yes I would just encourage you to try experiencing the energy directly. Try to realize that in traditional China it is the teacher who chooses the student and most people are definitely not qualified to be a student. This is why Chunyi said to me, "your mind is not quite ready yet." Then 15 years later he said to me, "your mind is very powerful from years of meditation." But at the same time he told me to "just focus on your lower tan t'ien."
So also Yan Xin encouraged people to keep their training secret. And sure enough the government now keeps him hidden away as a National Treasure. Chunyi told me he thinks Yan Xin is living in New Jersey! I find this very difficult to believe but if it is true Yan Xin is doing a very excellent job of hiding out. haha.