http://biologyofkundalini.com/

KUNDALINI - (Sanskrit kund, "to burn"; kunda, "to coil or to spiral") a concentrated field of intelligent, cosmic invisible energy absolutely vital to life; beginning in the base of the spine when a man or woman begins to evolve as wisdom is earned. Kundalini has been described as liquid fire and liquid light. The ultimate outcome of kundalini is the union of Will (sakti- kundalini), Knowledge {prana-kundalini) and Action (para- kundalini)
 
http://biologyofkundalini.com/
Jana's energy amazes me. When you see everything she has tied together and researched, it's amazing. I've never talked to her or emailed her or anything. I've just enjoyed this site off and on over the years.  I also like her for not being afraid of saying some far out shit. To be honest, there are parts of this book I have not read. Most of my time has been spent in a specific location of the book. 
This is a bit out of her chapter - toxic mind theory. 
Progressively it is coming to light that there is a large neuro-detoxification component to the kundalini phenomena. After reading Peter Levine, Robert Scaer, Alan Schore, Arthur Janov, Joseph Chilton Pearce and Ellie Van Winkle it is apparent to me that kundalini arises either spontaneously or through provocation in an effort to bleed of tension held in the limbic brain from the fossilized repression of emotion. Kundalini is a process by which the body is attempting to "throw off" its former conditioning through detoxification, death and regeneration.
I am a big fan of the Toxic Mind Theory of mental and emotional illness which is described by Ellie Van Winkle at www.redirectingselftherapy.com/toxicmind.html

He suggests emotional repression of the full expression of the fight/flight response and the consequent lack of resolution back to a neutral set point, results in the atrophy and toxicosis in catecholamine-noradrenergic neurons. A toxin is anything that cannot be utilized by the cell, and when elimination is impaired, toxins accumulate to intolerable levels and trigger a detoxification process. This cycle of toxification and detoxification shows up in the form of a mild to extreme disturbance in the emotions and personality.
A kundalini awakening represents an intensive and extensive detoxification process during the temporary lifting of the repressive mechanisms of the "conscious" ego. Very many if not all factors lead me to this conclusion. For example fasting or going on a raw diet awakens kundalini because the body at last receives the energy and resources needed to bring about a detoxification crisis. Whereas the normal cooked diet requires so much energy and resources to process that it becomes an ally in the spiritual repressive mechanisms of the ego, as do all such addictions. Thus natural growth and transformation is thwarted as the personality clings to its past imprints by various means of self-suppression; including getting others to victimize you.

Toxic Mind Theory is an elaboration of the stressing and unstressing process. A kundalini awakening is an amplified version of this normal cyclic detoxification process that affects us all. "A detoxification crisis is the sum of many crises in separate neurons, and depressive and excitatory symptoms may occur simultaneously. Whether symptoms will develop depends upon the extent of the toxicosis, and persons who are experiencing symptoms are healthier than those who are not because they are detoxifying their nervous systems." E. Van Winkle

The bipolar shift from over excitement to depression is characteristic of nearly all mental disorders including addictions and Alzheimers. Van Winkle associates the hyperactive stage with excess norepinephrine and other metabolites flooding the synapses; first this causes excitation in postsynaptic neurons and then noradrenergic receptors become bound up with these other factors (dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin, GABA, peptides, amino acids and various waste products) and depression ensues.

The voice of silence or The stanzas of Dzyan.

Translated by H.P. Blavatsky from an esoteric Yogacharya Buddhist text which she called “The Book of the Golden Precepts,” this little book is really a handbook for treading the true spiritual Path which leads to initiation and enlightenment.
Comprised of three fragments – “The Voice of the Silence,” “The Two Paths,” and “The Seven Portals” – it presents the high ideal of the Bodhisattva Path and is replete with the ethics and virtues of compassion, altruism, self-sacrifice, and consecrated service to humanity.
A former Panchen Lama of Tibet described this book as being at that time the only true and authentic exposition in the English language of the Heart Doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism. It has also been praised and endorsed by the present 14th Dalai Lama, as well as the late Buddhist scholar D.T. Suzuki who described it as “the real Mahayana Buddhism.”
Blavatsky writes that it is “For the daily use of Lanoos (Disciples)” and “Dedicated to the Few.”
The-Voice-of-the-Silence.pdf
or download it for free from the webbsite:
https://www.theosophy-ult.org.uk/book-review/the-voice-of-the-silence/

In my opinion, we are incarnated for specific reasons and things we must learn. One of those things is to find a balance between love and strength. Ive noticed that many people that naturally have a lot of love are many times internally weak and need strength. Many people that have a lot of strength many times need to build their love.
Ive seem to get a lot of questions from people after I post something about the occult. Usually it involves spirits harassing them or they just feel beaten down. Knowing how to build one's inner strength is important, which can help with both these issues. Some people wait for the universe to grant them strength just because they are loving but it doesnt work that way. We are responsible for creating ourselves according to our will. Only we can do it. We alone are our own creators.
This might be a long post but if you want to build inner strength and your intention is pure, these techniques can radically change your life. I will underline points to pay particular attention to.
In all energy work, the keys used are visualization, breathwork, emotion and intention. Ritual is used as a way of intensifying emotion and intention.
This requires you to have a healthy relationship with strength and power. If you reject strength and power, it will always be a problem. This is similar to people thinking rich and prosperous people are evil and selfish. They attract poverty and weakness like a powerful magnet and repulse prosperity.
1. Get yourself comfortable in your sacred space. Breathe deeply through the diaphragm and scan your body to release any muscles that are not relaxed. Lock onto the present moment as it flows and stay there.
2. First thing is to concentrate the mind. Many "energy workers" have very little energy because they dont know whats important in building energy. This can be done by simply staring intensely at a point, such as a candle or dot. Focus harder than you have ever focused in your life. After about 10-15 minutes, you should feel an obvious shift in your consciousness. After you feel the shift, you are ready to work with energy. Skilled meditators can get into this spot like flipping a switch. When you are in this spot, lock yourself into it.
3. Next, I like to clear the area and myself of any negative energies. There are banishing and cleansing rituals but my favorite way to do it is to chant the divine's name 3-5 times. Then I express gratitude to the divine and ask for guidance. Chanting is done similar to how the Tibetan monks do it. Its like a low, monotone vibration. After you do this, allow yourself to fully feel the divine energy in the room. 
4. Next, you will raise your vibration and purify yourself by utilizing gratitude. Gratitude is an extremely powerful energy that can be utilized for healing and building internal strength and love. Turn your attention to some things you are grateful for in your life. It could be something as simple as being grateful for the extreme beauty you experience in nature. See, in your minds eye, a small spark in your chest. This spark represents the gratitude you have summoned. As you exhale, purify yourself by releasing attachments, fears and aversions. Feel your body relax even more as you release these.
5. FULLY FEEL THE GRATITUDE. FEEL IT. FEEL IT. FEEL IT. - with all the intensity you can muster. I put this as a separate point because it is so important.
6. Turn your attention to the divine energy you have called into the room. As you breathe in deeply, see liquid light being absorbed into your body with with your breathe. This light represents the energy of gratitude. You are drawing it in from the divine as a source outside yourself to get something you dont yet have. As you exhale, you see the displaced negative energy being expelled. As you breathe in this light, see the light in your chest getting brighter and brighter until it shines like the sun. FULLY FEEL THIS INTENSE GRATITUDE.
7. Next you are going to transmute this high vibrational energy of gratitude into high vibrational inner strength. This type of transmutation is referred to as inner alchemy in the occult. Start to feel this strength. Allow this feeling to grow in intensity. Feel this strength coursing through your body. Notice your posture. Are you sitting like a god/goddess? How does a king/queen hold their head? FULLY FEEL THIS STRENGTH.
8. Know and accept that your "identity" is simply what you are in this exact present moment and has nothing to do with the past. Know and accept that this strength is "attaching" to your energy and permanently changing you bit by bit. Be mindful of doubt as that will detract from your efforts.
You can work with this regularly and take it to whatever level you choose but its a very powerful technique. I like to end any session with gratitude and devotion towards the Divine.

Getting into a bathtub with a strong bleach water is about the best.  Duct tape is often used The Life lesson number is a person's birthdate added up and reduced down to a single numeral unless it's a Master number. It was a good way to get a feel for this particular number with all the people who I had known any at all with thier birthdate right on thier Gravestone.
For me, this particular book is special among all numerology books. Anyone who likes Meditations on the Tarot would probably like this book.

It's called SAAFE. TJ Reeves created the test. I have SAAFE report that tells me scores.

This is a great short book/poem about pure nonduality. Written by the Third Chinese Chán (Zen) Patriarch Jianzhi Sengcan. I recommend it highly for contemplation, for giving up the illusions you are stuck in.
You can find it here.

I've put out a list of my most recommended books for seekers of enlightenment with little blurbs describing them. Comments and questions as always are welcome.

Well, that might not read quite as well as the situations are a bit different. Men tend more-so to be empowered by being men and developing their masculinity because masculinity is much less shrouded in the collective shadow than femininity is. So, for a man, the idea of being a man and developing one's masculinity can be a self-esteem boost and encourage a man toward personal development. There are some double-edged swords here, of course. So, it's not hazard free. But it's a lot closer the surface of collective consciousness.
For a woman, it's always a mixed bag of the most positive and negative things to embody femininity. So, a woman who is not ready to embody the feminine, can really get knocked down the rabbit hole of low-self esteem by trying to embrace their femininity as to embrace the feminine is to have the shadow projected upon you. You really have to unpack a lot of baggage for it to be empowering, and most people aren't clear enough for it. And part of unpacking that baggage has to do with setting Feminist beliefs aside for a time and letting the shadow of misogyny penetrate you to see what it is, where it comes from, how to dismantle it, and how it resides in ourselves.
There are a lot of ancestral wounds around womanhood and femininity surrounding oppression, it's not so easy to feel empowered by trying to be more feminine which is often seen as disempowering by its very nature. And this is the way that it's unconsciously taught. 
Most women, when they were children, came to a fork in the road where there seems only to be two paths. The first path is in the direction of the societal script around femininity, which is very disempowering and narrow. It's either too sexualized/objectifying or reflects a narrowing down to only the feminine/care-taker role. Not much can grow in that box. And women who choose this path will be stunted in their growth.
The second path is to reject their femininity and embrace their masculinity as a means of empowerment and then rebrand masculinity as neutrality and consider it to be just a social construct. Now, this path is far superior to the former narrow box of the societal script around femininity but it ultimately cuts women off from their feminine power source, where the majority of feminine growth is to be had.
But to really find the feminine,  you have to dig your own path and open yourself up to the awareness of the feminine wounding. You really have to dig yourself open to do this. And you must cast aside desires for significance or status, which is difficult for a woman on the second path to do as she probably cast off her femininity as a child to be accepted, praised, and seen as valuable/valid to begin with. The woman on the first path will never even get to this point. But a woman on the second path can come to the threshold of it and lose heart as it makes her face directly with what she fears.
And this is a very vulnerable thing, where you come face to face with your own internalized misogyny and self-loathing. And you come to grips with many disturbing truths about your place in society in this work. But you also find many hidden treasures in the dragon's lair, so to speak.
Once you've done it, you are much more receptive and in touch with your emotions. And you can become a source of refuge for people. The feminine can't survive much in such a hyper Yang environment. So, it is quite rare to find someone who can really be receptive and empathetically hold space for others and truly embody the feminine. And you also become much more intuitive and are able to flow downstream more easily.
Also, society tends not to value the traits within the feminine principle very much. So, there feels like there's not a lot to gain but a lot to lose in being more feminine. So, most women will balk at the suggestion to be more in touch with the feminine, because what it translates to is often a nullification of what they actually are. There are people everywhere that are always trying to cast away the feminine while simultaneously fetishizing it. So, women tend to have quite an allergy to such a notion... as do I. So, I'd be unlikely to make that kind of post because I know that I'd be stepping on toes. It can be like lemon juice on wounds for a lot of women to receive any advice on being more feminine. And many would at least regard it suspiciously. 
It's a painful and uncomfortable thing to traverse. And in order to embody the feminine truly, you must be incredibly iconoclastic and willing to face with many subconscious monsters. It's not something to dabble in. 
 

All the meme and jokes aside, I think it would be great if death and suicide could be culturally re-contextualized.
Actually there is nothing wrong in the the drive for death or to commit suicide. It is one of the natural(probably the most intense) urges of the mind. Why? Well because death is the ultimate release. It is the innate intelligence in us that does everything for seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, it knows that dying will be the ultimate happiness/release.
Osho used to say that it is probably impossible to find a person who has never contemplated suicide. If a person never glimpsed the urge for his own annihilation or meaninglessness of life, he is either an animal or just plain stupid.
In any endeavor to fulfill any of our desire, we actually don't crave the object of desire. We merely crave for the release after that desire is subsided, that even, clam, self-happiness or relief.
Looking in this way, it is obvious that an urge for suicide is actually a wake up call; not something that is to be treated as taboo. It's a wake up call to wake up from the dream and be what one really is.
But there are countless stupid ways to treat this intelligent message. Killing the physical body is probably the most stupid way out of them. The urge for suicide is not the urge for annihilation of the physical body. This flesh doll is already dead. It is the urge to get relief from the hideous cancer which is the sense of being a separate self, the ultimate tyrant there is

Sounds like Alfred Korzybski.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski
Manhood of Humanity

For those of you interested in spiral dynamics and medicine and healing, i thought i'd introduce you to one of the most sophisticated healers of all time, which happened to also be at stage turquoise.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna
Believe me, combining his content will elevate your modern understanding of human body and mind to a whole other level you can't imagine right now!

Zen has teachings but they're not ideological.  Read this book: (Skip the Carl Jung intro. though, it's rubbish and will only confuse)
https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Suzuki-DT-Introduction-Zen-Buddhism.pdf

@Monkey-man
Everything you need to know to start self-inquiry. Also debunking many usual traps and misconceptions
https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/quotes/sadhu-om-self-inquiry.htm

@Shakazulu https://www.thegreatcourses.co.uk/courses/strategic-thinking-skills.html

Haven't done any since my teenage years for better or worse. I am what I am. 
Wanna hear some serious enlightenment stuff? Listen to what Deepak Chopra says at the beginning of this video. He nails it! It has all the psychedelic properties you'll ever need if you are willing to be open.
 

This is not true but I can see how the truth could be distorted to look like this from the outside.
Women don't like to be below men in value and don't like to be treated as lesser. And if women are treated this way, she'll lock up and go into masculine mode and come at the man who suggests this swinging, if she has healthy boundaries.
However, women do tend to like to take the receptive role in relationships and generally like to be feminine in relation to a masculine guy. It's just that society frames femininity as lesser than masculinity, so it looks like women want to be beneath men because there is an implicit assumption that to be feminine is lesser. But it's really just a different orientation to life and relationships that is more free-flowing and receptive. And it's fun to be lead by a man in many situations, as there is something romantic about it and it puts most women in a very soft and melty state that feels really good. But this is the case, if and only if they feel safe with that man and trust that he won't abuse his power. Otherwise, there is no capacity to be in that softened state and women have to harden themselves and be in the masculine to fight against the man that abuses his power and treats her as lesser.
So, an imbalanced relationship relative to value and power, makes it to where women can't be fulfilled. So, your impression is the exact opposite of what women generally want... which can be summed up in the four masculine archetypes... King, Warrior, Magician, Lover.
And relative to King and Warrior, there is an attraction to men who can be protectors. And being a protector implies the ability to lead and be aggressive and do violence if there is a threat. The problem comes when he instead uses that capacity to lead and be aggressive to harm the woman instead of protect her due to his lack of self control and lack of emotional integration and mastery. So, an attractive man is like a lion tamer with a lion. The more aggressive the lion is and the more self control the man has, the more attractive he will be as a partner because he has the capacity for aggression plus high levels of self-control and emotional mastery. A man with a weak lion is not attractive because his lion tamer has nothing to tame. A man with an unskillful lion tamer is not attractive because his lion won't obey him and it will wreak havoc on the lives of his romantic partners. The problem is when women can't tell that the man's lion tamer has no control over the lion.
So, at once, I recognize why you would be under this impression that women like to be beneath men. But I also see how your lens distorts this pattern and makes it about a dominance/submission relationship between men and women instead of about a communicative/receptive relationship between men and women.
Also, men who are always sexual with women and wearing their sexuality on their sleeves is a clear indication of an unskilled lion tamer. So, this also is not attractive. It comes off more as desperate and creepy. 
But a man whose sexuality subtly glimmers out through his platonic ways, is a very fetching man because it shows that his lion his fierce and that his lion tamer is highly skilled and has a lot of control over the lion. Tame lions are very fun to play with. Untamed lions are not.

Seeing a higher level of interpretation in the New Testament in part, regarding the idea of the devil.
Within the following long excerpt I just pasted below:
The conception of the Gospels is that Man is continually being dragged down by evil forces, which are in him, not outside him, and to which he consents. By Man's consent to these forces in himself, progress in human life is prevented. The evil powers are in Man, in his own nature, in the very nature of his self−love, his egotism, his ignorance, his stupidity, his malice, his vanity, and also his thinking only from the senses and taking the seen world, the outer appearances of life, as the only reality. These defects are collectively called the devil, which is the name for the terrible power of misunderstanding everything that undeveloped Man possesses, the power of wrongly connecting everything. The devil is the aggregate of all these deficiencies, all these powers of misunderstanding in Man, and all their transmitted results. So the devil is called the slanderer or scandal−maker, from one point of view, and the accuser from another point of view.
 
THE IDEA OF TEMPTATION IN THE GOSPELS 
PART ONE 
As we shall study in the next chapter the Miracle of the Transformation of Water into Wine, which in its internal or psychological meaning is about a certain definite stage reached by Jesus in his individual evolution, approximately just before he began to teach, it may be as well to consider the temptations of Jesus and the idea of temptation in its general significance in the Gospels in this connection. Now here it is necessary to grasp clearly something that is not usually understood. What has to be grasped is that Jesus had to undergo inner growth and evolution. He was not born perfect. Had this been the case he would not have suffered temptation or experienced such despair. Some religious people make a mistake in thinking that Christ had from the start such exceptional powers that anything was possible to him. But, as one instance, Jesus mentions the difficulty of healing a certain form of illness and says that much prayer and fasting is necessary before it can be undertaken. Later on we shall study some of these examples, but it can be said here that the most extraordinary views exist about the unlimited powers that Jesus had on earth, so much so that people even argue that if he were the Son of God, why did he not heal all sickness and convert the whole world? This is the same kind of argument used by people who say that if there is a God why are pain, illness, suffering, war, and so on, allowed on earth? The whole standpoint of both arguments is wrong. The idea of the meaning of life on earth is not grasped. In fact, the central idea of the Gospels is not grasped—namely, the idea of individual evolution and re−birth. 
Let us repeat the words used above to make the issue of this chapter as clear as possible: Jesus had to undergo inner growth and evolution. Let us start from this point. Jesus was not born perfect, as a fully−developed, a fully−evolved Man. On 
the contrary, he was born imperfect in order to carry out a certain long−prophesied task. He had to re−establish at a critical period in human history a connection between the two levels called" in the Gospels "earth" and "heaven", and this had to be done in himself practically, so as to reopen a way for influences from a higher level of the Universe of Total Being (which extends up through different degrees of the Divine Being to Absolute Being) to reach Mankind on earth and so make it possible for Man to have a possibility of inner development and also for some kind of intelligent culture to exist for a definite period or cycle of history. Of this period Jesus asks himself whether "faith will be found on earth" at its culmination. "Howbeit when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on earth?" Such are the words of Christ and these words suggest that he doubted whether faith would be found on earth at the end of this cycle. 
Jesus then had to bridge the human and divine in himself and in this way re−establish a connection between heaven and earth. He had to undergo all the difficulties of an inner evolution of the human in him so that it became subject to the higher or "divine" level. He had to pass through all the stages of this evolution in himself by trial and error, until it was perfected, through endless inner temptations, of which we are only given a few glimpses. And all this took place over a long period about which we only know something of the teaching he gave during the latter part of it, which terminated in the final humiliation and so−called catastrophe of the crucifixion, and a few details of the earliest part, but nothing of the comparatively long, intervening part. Here is silence. We do not know where Jesus was taught during this period or by whom he was given directions for the final drama he had to enact, the heralding of which was given to John the Baptist (who did not know him by sight) and the ordained culmination of which is referred to by Jesus in many places, and, in the Miracle of the Transformation of Water into Wine, in the words he is made to say to his mother: "Mine hour is not yet come". (He does not say "mother", but woman. ) Yet some religious people imagine that Jesus was crucified because of Pilate—as it were, by chance. This view is absurd. He had to play the part allotted to him. It was pre−arranged. 
Now in the earliest references to the development of Jesus it is said that he advanced in wisdom and stature. Jesus advanced by stages. In Luke it is said: "The child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was filled with wisdom, and grace was upon him". (Luke ii 52). Luke—who never saw Jesus—also records his first words when he was found in the Temple at the age of twelve by his father and mother after a search of three days. His mother is made to say: "Son, why have you treated us like this? Do you know, your father and I have sought you sorrowing?" To which Jesus is made to answer: "How is it that ye sought me? Do you not know that I must be in all that belongs to my Father?" Notice that the distinction between "father on earth" and "Father in Heaven" is made—that is, between the idea of the first earthly birth and the second higher birth which was the subject of Christ's teaching. Even at the age of twelve those who listened to him in the Temple were "amazed at his understanding and his answers". The idea, then, of Jesus advancing in understanding is quite distinct. And it is clear that a long period elapsed before he had advanced to his full inner stature and attained his supreme development, called in the Gospels the moment of his glorification. This final fulfilment of his evolution began when Judas went out into the night to "betray" him, as it is called, and when Jesus said to his remaining disciples: "Now is the Son of Man glorified". But even then, it was not yet attained for he obviously had to undergo two further and very severe temptations—the temptation in Gethsemane where he prayed: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt, " and the temptation on the Cross where he cried out: "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Here must also be remarked that Christ began to teach some three years before he attained glorification—that is, before his full development. 
Let us ask ourselves: How is inner evolution reached? All inner development is possible only through inner temptation. Three temptations of Christ by the devil are mentioned in detail in the early parts of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and referred to very briefly in Mark, in terms of "wild beasts". Nothing is said of this in John but the Miracle of Water into Wine is made as the starting−point of the teaching and miracles of Jesus. Let us study for the present the version of the three early temptations as given in Luke, in order to realize that Jesus had to advance by undergoing development by the method of temptation and so pass through stages of inner growth, by means of inner self−conquest. But let us first remember that the conception of Mankind in its unawakened state as given in the Gospels is that it is in the power of evil and this is represented by the idea that Man is infested by evil spirits. That is, Man is under the power of evil moods and impulses and thoughts, which are personified as evil spirits, whose object is the destruction of a man and of the human race. The conception of the Gospels is that Man is continually being dragged down by evil forces, which are in him, not outside him, and to which he consents. By Man's consent to these forces in himself, progress in human life is prevented. The evil powers are in Man, in his own nature, in the very nature of his self−love, his egotism, his ignorance, his stupidity, his malice, his vanity, and also his thinking only from the senses and taking the seen world, the outer appearances of life, as the only reality. These defects are collectively called the devil, which is the name for the terrible power of misunderstanding everything that undeveloped Man possesses, the power of wrongly connecting everything. The devil is the aggregate of all these deficiencies, all these powers of misunderstanding in Man, and all their transmitted results. So the devil is called the slanderer or scandal−maker, from one point of view, and the accuser from another point of view. But we shall see a little more clearly what is meant by the devil when we begin to understand what temptation really means. 
In the account of the tempting of Christ by the devil given in Luke, it is said that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, "being tempted of the devil". This number forty appears in the account of the Flood, where the rain lasted for forty days and nights, in the allegorical account of the Children of Israel wandering forty years in the wilderness, and it is said also of Moses that he fasted forty days and nights before he received the Commandments written on tablets of stone. Here, in Luke, the forty days in the wilderness are directly connected with the idea of temptation: 
"Jesus was led by the Spirit in the wilderness during forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he did eat nothing in those days and when they were completed he hungered. " (Luke iv, 1−2). 
Then comes a description of the first resulting temptation of this period of temptation, which is represented in the following way: 
"And the devil said unto him, If thou art the Son of God command this stone that it becomes a loaf of bread. " (Luke iv, 3. ) 
Let us take the superficial literal or first level of meaning. Christ hungered and the devil suggests that he should transform a stone into bread. 
 
"And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone". (Luke iv, 4. ) 
On the literal level this is just as it appears—a physical temptation. Notice, however, that it is said above that Jesus was in the wilderness forty days "being tempted of the devil". If we suppose the wilderness to be a literal physical wilderness, how is it that nothing is said about how he was being tempted all this time? One might merely say that he was starving. But in connection with inner development we must understand by the term wilderness a state of mind, a general inner state, comparable with a literal wilderness—that is, a state where there is nothing to guide a man, where he is no longer among familiar things and so is in a wilderness, a state of distress and bewilderment and perplexity, where he is left entirely to himself, as a test, and does not know in which direction to go and must not go in his own direction. This itself is temptation, for all the time he is being starved of meaning. Why should a man leave the familiar and go into a wilderness? He hungers for bread—not literal bread but that bread that we ask for in the Lord's Prayer, so wrongly translated as "daily" bread—namely, guidance, trans−sub−stantial bread, and, literally, bread for the to−morrow, in fact, meaning, for the development of our lives, not for our lives as they are to−day, now, but as they can become, the bread necessary for our support in growing, the bread for successive and necessary stages of understanding. (For the Lord's Prayer is a prayer about inner evolution and the bread asked for is the bread of understanding necessary for it. ) In such a state the temptation is to make bread for oneself— that is, to follow one's own ideas, one's own will—exactly as the builders of the "Tower of Babel" used bricks and slime of their own making, in place of stone and mortar. They thought they could make a new world from their own ideas. Why should one not fall back on oneself and so on life once more instead of waiting for something that seems doubtful? In Matthew the answer of Christ to this temptation is: 
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. " (Matthew iv, 4. ) 
See clearly that the devil has asked Christ to make bread by himself to ease his state—that is, not to await the Word of God. The devil says: "If thou art the Son 
of God, command that these stones become bread. " That is, nourish yourself by your own powers and ideas. But the mission of Christ, which began immediately after the temptations in the wilderness, was not to manufacture truth and meaning by himself, but to understand and teach the Truth and meaning of the Word of God—that is, of a higher level of influences. The test was as to his own self−will and the will of a higher level. He had to do the will of "God"— not his own will. He had to bring the lower human level in himself under subjection to the will of the higher or divine level. It is the human level here that is under temptation for Jesus was born of a human mother. To mistake the lower for the higher is the annihilation of a man, for then he will ascribe to himself what does not belong to him. A man will then be tempted to say: "I am God", and not "God is I". If he says: "I am God", he identifies himself with God from a lower level. This annihilates him. If he says: "God is I", he surrenders his self−will and makes the will of God "I" in him and so is under, and must obey, God— that is, a higher level. Notice that the devil is made to address Jesus in the words: "If thou art the Son of God... " and so suggests that Jesus can do as he likes, as if he were at the level of God. All this was in Jesus. It took place in him. And although this temptation can be taken quite simply as one relative to overcoming the appetites, in this case, hunger, it is clear that other and far deeper meanings lie behind the literal meaning and that they are concerned with those problems of self−love and power—and violence—in which human nature is rooted. Jesus had human nature in him from the woman—his mother. The task was to transform it. This is quite obvious in the second temptation, where Christ is offered all power over the visible world. The devil is represented as leading Christ to a "high place" and showing him all the kingdoms of the world in a point of time: 
"He led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall be thine. " 
(Luke iv, 5−7). 
This is temptation as to earthly power and the deep vanity that lies in everyone. It is again directed to the self−love. It includes love of the world and its possessions. The devil will give Christ the world. Love of power (authority) and love of possessions represent two sides of self−love. Here the human level in Christ is represented as being subject to the most tremendous temptation conceivable in regard to worldly gain and possessive power. The temptation is described in such a way as to bring this out clearly: the whole world is presented to Jesus "in a point of time"—that is, simultaneously. Jesus is made to answer: "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. " That is, not the world and its possessions. The answer is from the same ground of understanding as that given in the first temptation. There is something apart from the world and the love of possessing it. There is something else that Man must possess. This higher level, both possible to Man and already in a man, is the direction in which his desire for power and glory must turn. But even although a man knows and is quite certain about this direction, he can still be tempted—and even more so. Otherwise Christ would not have been tempted in this way. His human side was still open to this temptation. It is not only the overwhelming effect of the senses and any immediate appeal to self−interest and vanity that has to be thought of here but perhaps the far subtler ideas of being able, by worldly means and outer power and authority, to help mankind by becoming a king on earth. We know that the disciples thought Jesus was going to be an earthly king possessing the whole world and give them earthly rewards. They thought from the lower level about higher things. They could not at first see what Jesus was talking about—namely, the reaching of a higher or inner level which has nothing to do with the lower or outer level of life. We must remember here that the path that Christ had to follow led to apparent failure in outer life, and outer powerlessness—and to a death reserved only for the worst criminals. He had only a few ultimate followers. It looked as if everything had been useless. Certainly we cannot expect to understand this unless we grasp the whole idea of two levels. But we shall speak more of this later on, and only say here that temptation in the real sense is about these two levels and relates to the passage from one to the other. If Jesus had been born perfect, he would have been beyond all temptation. He would not have represented the New Man or the Way to it. He called himself the Way: "I am the Way", for this reason. 
This is chapter 2 of Maurice Nicoll's The New Man
Its easily found for free on the net in PDF 
 

@snowleopard
Bashar is not the only channeled higher dimensional entity. Bashar is probably the most well known, but there are many more.
I recommend to read the material on the links below. All this information was channeled.
If you are wondering, is this is for real? Is this another new age topic? Higher dimensional beings don't exist or whatever, these are just thoughts, it doesn't matter.
The only question here worth asking is if this information is practical enough that it can transform your life and the answer to that, is a definitive yes.  Extraterrestrials and higher dimensional beings don't give a fuck if you believe in them, they want you to believe in yourself, and the information that was channeled Will help anybody that is willing to keep an open mind and experiment with it. Believing in higher dimensional stuff is a bonus.
 
Elan core teachings ---> http://iasos.com/metaphys/elan/
Bashar core teachings ---> http://iasos.com/metaphys/bashar/
Ektar core teachings ---> http://iasos.com/metaphys/ektar/
Abraham core teachings ---> http://iasos.com/metaphys/abraham/
 

The recommended technique is Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry. It's very simple. You know that "I am" right now, right? It's obvious. Well, how do you know it? Where is that feeling coming from? Try to find out where in your experience it is coming from, that certainty that you are. Start in your body. Just like if someone asked you where you were feeling cold, and you searched your experience and said "Oh, my feet are feeling cold." In the same way, ask about the feeling of the "I" that you somehow know with certainty.
And every time you think you know where it's coming from, the rule is that you must ask yourself if you are aware of that thing which you think is the source of the I. If you are, you haven't found the real source yet. So you keep going
If, for example, you say "It's coming from my head" -- well, ask yourself "Well, I am aware of the feeling and sight of my head, right?" Notice that. So where is the "I" that is aware of the head? It's not coming from the head -- it is aware of it. So where is the I feeling? It's just like you notice that there is light in a room, and you're looking for the source of the light. Is it coming from this chair? No. The chair is lit up by something else. Is it coming from that table? Same deal. So keep searching until you find the light bulb. You'll know it when you find it.

Ramana Maharshi's approach, most certainly. Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi is a wonderful thing. But to understand that, I'd recommend reading as background other advaita texts like the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Vasistha. 
I'd also recommend looking into your psychology. That's where 90% or more of the work usually is -- figuring out psychological obstacles. I highly recommend getting psychodynamic psychotherapy -- or even psychoanalysis if you're willing to spare the time. If you want a good analyst, PM me and I will help you find one. A good analyst is a great guru to have.
Finding an expressive medium like writing or drawing and being able to express your emotions accurately and originally can be a critically useful instrument as well in understanding yourself and quieting the mind. Reading good literature and being acquainted with culture generally helps a lot with this.
Finally, the game is actually first and foremost figuring out your own desire. Therapy, expressive art, and everything else has to be oriented around that. And it is your own desire that will lead you to the Truth.
Edit: I'll also add in The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma. Beautiful.

@Nahm Beyond basic self-realization there are god consciousness, Unity consciousness, Blue consciousness, Shiva consciousness and perhaps many more. I simply want to know how these stages (as they are known in Siddha Yoga) relate to stages as denote by spiral dyanmics (which granted I don't fully know). Does spiral dynamics simply group these up and put them in turquoise? What exactly is coral and why do you say its unattainable? There are people who are at an incredibly high level of enlightenment currently alive (for example Shri Anandi Ma who is at Shiva consciousness). 

The talk starts from around 6 minutes mark.

Idk if this is the one on the book-list, but here are instructions supposedly by yogananda, and it's 2 bucks