Mantak Chia - Dark Room Enlightenment (2002) (21 pages).pdf - Mantak Chia - Penelopo

Dark Room Enlightenment

Lesser, Greater, and Greatest Kan & Li

Universal Tao Center, Thailand

18 February 2002

Contents

Dark Room Enlightenment ................................................................................................................ 3

Universal Tao Dark Room ................................................................................................................. 4

As Above, So Below ......................................................................................................................... 5

Consciousness and the Neuro-endocrine System ......................................................................... 8

Autonomic Functions ................................................................................................................. 8

Waking Consciousness .................................................................................................................. 10

Sleep and Dream .......................................................................................................................... 12

Descent into Darkness ..................................................................................................................... 13

Limbic System ............................................................................................................................. 13

Pineal Gland ................................................................................................................................ 15

Fall from Grace ................................................................................................................................ 18

Inhibiting the Divine ..................................................................................................................... 18

Reawakening – The Spirit Molecules ..............................................................................................19

Immortal Body .............................................................................................................................. 20

Chemistry of Consciousness ........................................................................................................... 20

Stages of Dark Room Enlightenment ............................................................................................ 24

Benefits of Dark Room Experience ........................................................................................... 24

‘Melatonin State’ (Day 1 to 3) ...................................................................................................... 24

‘Pinoline State’ (Day 3 to 5) ......................................................................................................... 24

‘5-MeO-DMT State’ (Day 6 to 8) ................................................................................................. 25

‘DMT State’ (Day 9 to 12) ........................................................................................................... 26

Taoist Cosmology .............................................................................................................................. 27

North Star and Big Dipper ................................................................................................................ 27

Nine Sacred Mountain ..................................................................................................................... 28

Nine Palaces .................................................................................................................................... 29

Dark Room Practices ......................................................................................................................... 35

Big Dipper Practice .......................................................................................................................... 36

Exercises ..................................................................................................................................... 37

Nine Palaces Practice ...................................................................................................................... 40

Exercises ..................................................................................................................................... 42

Dark Room Information and Logistics ............................................................................................ 44

Preparations for the Dark Room Retreat ........................................................................................ 44

Inner Preparations – Practice at Home ...................................................................................... 44

Outer Preparations – Practical Advice ....................................................................................... 45

Benefits of the Dark Room Experience ...................................................................................... 45

Dark Room Nutrition ......................................................................................................................... 46

Summary .............................................................................................................................................. 48

Appendices ......................................................................................................................................... 50

References of Interest ................................................................................................................. 50

Notes on the Synthesis of Tryptamine Derivatives .................................................................... 50

5-MeO-DMT Drug Trip Account .................................................................................................. 51

DMT Drug Trip Account .............................................................................................................. 51

Inner Alchemy: A Physical Exploration ....................................................................................... 52

Footnotes ............................................................................................................................................. 54

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Fig. 6. Pineal gland connects with the sexual center in the medtation of self-intercourse.

Consciousness and the Neuro-endocrine System

The dark room environment dramatically alters the chemistry of the brain, manifesting especially in

neuro-endocrine systems, which govern consciousness and regulate body functions. An important neu-

rotransmitter involved in waking consciousness (seratonin) converts into a regulatory hormone (melato-

nin) that shuts down the organ systems, quieting the body in preparation for the finer and subtler realities

of higher consciousness. The pineal gland initiates a cascade of inhibitory reactions, permitting visions

and dream-states to emerge in our conscious awareness. Eventually, the brain synthesizes the “spirit

molecules” 5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), facilitating the

transcendental experiences of universal love and compassion.

Autonomic Functions

The body responds automatically and unconsciously to maintain the integrity and vital functions of the

organism. The hypothalamus, located deep within the brain, is the major regulatory gland controlling

homeostasis, or body maintenance. Factors such as blood pressure, body temperature, fluid and electro-

lyte balance, and body weight are maintained in dynamic equilibrium, shifting with the needs of the body.

To achieve this task, the hypothalamus receives inputs about the state of the body, and initiates compen-

satory changes if anything drifts out of whack.

The hypothalamus directs body functions though two main pathways. First, the hypothalamus con-

nects to the brainstem, located at the top of the spinal cord, providing a link to the Autonomic Nervous

System, the ANS The ANS. has two parts; the sympathetic nervous system activates the “fight or flight”

response; the parasympathetic nervous system activates “rest and digest” activities of the body. The

brainstem, though the ANS, controls the essential functions of pulse, respiration, body temperature, water

balance, swallowing, coughing, as well as our stereotyped reactions and movements.

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Thalamus

Pineal Gland

Hypothalamus

Cerebellum

Pituitary Gland

Fig. 7. Brain Organs

A second pathway is from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland, the master endocrine gland in the

brain. The pituitary gland secretes hormones, which activate major organ systems in the body, for example

the adrenal and sexual centers.

The hypothalamus is of particular importance in the Dark Room because of its affect on circadian

(day-night) rhythms in the body. The suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus is one of the body’s

major biological clocks ( Fig. 8 ). It not only regulates hormones related to the day/night cycle, but it orches-

trates the activities of many other internal clocks. In numerous experiments, it has been shown that when

the SCN is not innervated, the human body clocks run free; they set their own time 1 .

Intermediate Mass of Thalamus

Corpus Callosum

Pineal Gland (in

Epithalamic Nucleus)

Mammillary Body

Suprachiasmatic

Nucleus

Pititary Gland: Posterior Lobe Anterior Lobe

Fig. 8. Detail of the hypothalamic nuclei. Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) regulates circadian (diurnal) rhythms

and activates the pineal gland though sympathetic neurons originating in the brainstem (see Fig. 12) 2

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Waking Consciousness

An “alarm system” is built into the brainstem, to wake us up and bring us to waking consciousness,

called the reticular activating system (RAS) ( Fig. 9 ). Sight and hearing are two major pathways of incom-

ing sensory information, providing cues which maintain our state of alertful wakefulness. The optic and

auditory nerves stimulate brainstem centers, which, in turn, activate higher cortical centers in the brain

though the RAS.

Thlamus

Cerebral Cortex

RAS projections to cerebral cortex

Cerebellum

Visual impulses from eyes

Pons

Recticular Formation

Medulla Oblongata

Auditory and vestibular impulses

from ears and vestibular appeatus.

Spinal Cord

Somatic Sensory impulses (from nociceptors,

proprioceptors, and touch receptors)

Fig. 9. Reticular Activating System (RAS): Fibers that project from the reticular formation through the thalamus to

the cerebral cortex are responsible for maintaining consciousness, muscle tone, and awakening from sleep, with

stimuli from the ears, eyes, and skin, but not the olfactory system, which explains why people die in house fires 3 .

Many of the functions of waking consciousness are maintained by the neurotransmitter seratonin.

Seratonin is a chemical messenger, traversing the synapse, or the gap, between two nerve cells ( Fig. 10 ).

Some of the important nerve pathways assisted by seratonin begin in a region of the brainstem called the

raphe nuclei and extend upwards into the cerebrum ( Fig. 11 ). Seratonin plays an important role in maintain-

ing cortical arousal, concentration, and suppressing distracting stimuli, as well as a role in sleep.

Seratonin is implicated in a wide variety of psychological phenomena, including depression, anxiety,

obesity, and LSD hallucinations. The anti-depressant Prozac, for example, elevates seratonin levels in the

synaptic cleft by blocking re-uptake of seratonin into pre-synaptic neurons. (Seratonin levels cannot be

raised by ingestion, because the molecule is too polar to pass through the “blood-brain barrier.) As another

example, LSD mimics the shape of the seratonin molecule and redirects nerve impulses down unfamiliar

and unstructured neural pathways, giving rise to hallucinatory perceptions and experiences. In short,

seratonin is the most important neurotransmitter governing states of waking consciousness.

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