question: chakra opening techniques (mudras & chanting)

**Sinera** · 26th July 2011, 08:17 PM

ok thanks for clarifying this, what if I just do the usual OM (or just O) for all of them and concentrate on the chakras while Om-ing, plus the mudras (or better without?) any dangers conceivable?

**CFTraveler** · 26th July 2011, 09:15 PM

Frankly, I think the danger is in my head, but sure.

**Beekeeper** · 27th July 2011, 08:54 AM

Originally Posted by Volgerie

(Sorry, but you see I've got no clue about these things, and too lazy to google for info now, although I had joined a yoga class 2 years ago, but I admit it was only for a few times

).

Chances are your yoga teacher wouldn't know unless they came from India anyway. If I'd known Crowley was associated with it, I wouldn't have commented.

**Sinera** · 27th July 2011, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by Beekeeper

Chances are your yoga teacher wouldn't know unless they came from India anyway. If I'd known Crowley was associated with it, I wouldn't have commented.

oh no, these were just Western people (and even changing teachers), but we only used OM sounds and a chant like 'shanti.. (anything)' in which I did not join as they already were too much attached to religious rituals for me.

moreover, focus was more on the bodily exercise with some breathing exercises combined, rather than on long meditation (as said ... Westernized...)

so, still no definite answer .... is Lam, Ram, Vam with chakras/mudras ... WRONG? (please see website again)

and what if this Crowley guy just 'adopted' these chants, methods which have been there before in yoga teachings since eons? A lot of this stuff could just be / have been misused ...

(thinking of Bono now: "This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. We're stealin' it back." when playing Helter Skelter live in 1987 on their US tour)

**Beekeeper** · 27th July 2011, 12:09 PM

and what if this Crowley guy just 'adopted' these chants, methods which have been there before in yoga teachings since eons? A lot of this stuff could just be / have been misused ...

I'm guessing there's a good chance here.

**iadnon** · 27th July 2011, 01:27 PM

It is nearly impossible to say what is best for you (chants, symbols...). For good or bad you are constructed in a unique way, as the rest of us are. I've tried many techniques to achieve different things. My experimentation's breakthrough happened when I started to experiment on my own in a playful way. So to say, I loosened the straps of other authors' teachings because they didn't fit me.

Nowadays I bet for eclecticism... a delicate selection of different things that work for each one of us. Rituals? No, thanks. Chanting? Not now. Mental work? Absolutely. Meditation and anthropomorphizing approaches? A must!

By the way... Plato talked with a daemon... I think Descartes also had some sort of little subtle being... Maybe they're not that bad those so called demons... I wouldn't deal with them, just in case. I've got enough bearing with my family... haha.

**CFTraveler** · 27th July 2011, 04:35 PM

A few comments:
First of all, Crowley was a great magician, who took what he learned from a variety of sources and became very successful, at least at the time- he wrote many books on the interpretation of older works, and created a system that at least in the beginning, worked for him. But (and it's a big one) as time passed it is said he lost his mind, became more and more depraved, and the end was not good for him.
Now, the demon we are talking about here is the post-medieval version of a demon, and it was a specific entity whose name I've already posted (and I won't repeat it). This is searchable, although I read about it years ago before I even had internet (which is probably why I remember it, internet ADD hadn't struck yet, lol) so if you want to understand why I wouldn't chant it, maybe you need to look it up. Like iadnon said, what's right for you may not be right for me, and most of the time I'd rather be safe than sorry.
As to Plato and Descartes, I have to clarify that the original ancient Greek idea of a daimon (notice I spelled it different) just means subconscious- the daimon is the 'genie', the subconscious that has access to information the conscious mind doesn't- which we access by going into trance, and usually is objectified enough to think of as 'another'.
So in essence, much of what we do here is accessing our inner daimon, and tapping into it's information-
But what Crowley did was far different, and eventually, if you read the history, went south.
That's why I would hesitate before chanting anything that Crowley did to invoke a demon. But, as I said before, that's just me.
And now I'm done with this theme, because everything I said can be looked up, and everyone needs to make their own decisions.

**Sinera** · 27th July 2011, 07:04 PM

Okay, I'll stick to the (hopefully) harmless Om then.

**blis** · 27th July 2011, 08:43 PM

Theres nothing wrong with chanting those words. The excersises appear in several books I have by the Bahar School of Yoga.

If the word itself had such power then shepherds everywhere would be summoning demons every time they said lamb.

Having said that though, now that you've read all these posts you probably wouldnt be able to say it without thinking of crowley's demon. That very well could summon it.

I'm just glad I dont eat lamb lol