Wintermute

Interesting thread. Don’t y’all think that spiritual teachers have to be “con men” in some way? Maybe “con men” isn’t quite the right term here, since it implies ill will. How about “tricksters”? Tricksters who don’t actually want anything from you, but are trying to fool you into the spiritual path for your own growth — for your own good. It’s morally grey, I admit, but that’s been one of the methods for a long time. There’s even a whole article on wiki about Divine Madness (theia mania). A lot of those figures were probably such tricksters. I think there’s a fine line between genuine teachers who mean well and actual crooks who are just selling a flashy show with fireworks but no real value. The Bible says we should judge them by their fruits. =) I’ve read the whole thread, and it seems like quite a few people here have actually tried Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering and his approach to kriya yoga. So how about we just ask them point blank about their purely subjective experiences? After all, it’s pretty hard to design a valid, foolproof scientific study on something as complex as yoga. We do have some data from PubMed, sure, but in my view, that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the subjective reports of those who’ve walked the talk and have something to share. I’d really like to hear your stories (@OBEler @Carl-Richard @Ishanga @The Blind Sage @SamC), and I think they could be useful for others too. You mentioned there were some benefits — but what exactly? And how long did you practice before you started noticing results? Were the results mostly psychological? Physical? Or maybe something more esoteric, like subtle body experiences, energy, kundalini phenomena? What about more low-key effects in daily life? Maybe some of the people you know personally had some interesting experience with it as well? I think kriya yoga is an important part of self-actualization, and this is a great opportunity for us to learn more about it.