— Yes, from my time in the ashram and working in a psychiatric hospital, I realized that there is really a hierarchy of states that people have to go through before they can move into higher consciousness. Today, people tend to centralize on the brain, rather than the rest of the body. I felt like people were getting way too intellectual because of mindsets like, 'I'm not the body. I'm transcending the body. And the body is not me.'

What I started to realize was how many unhealthy and poorly functioning yogis there were out there. There were all kinds of excuses for why they had these illnesses and diseases. I thought 'There's something missing here.'

On the other hand, I was studying chi kung with a Korean master at the time, and they are full of vitality. But, to be frank, I also noticed that they were not as enlightened as all my yogi friends. So I wondered: where can we join these paths?

In the Western way, people move beyond the body too quickly. When the focus is always on higher states, energy will tend to flow away from the body. That's where we get into trouble, if we don't pay attention to the body. Diseases and malfunctions start there.

— Yes, I brought in chi kung masters to work with the lower centers, to get people to be friendly with their bodies again. It's especially important for meditators working with higher states.

For example, if the goal is to experience clear consciousness – or pure consciousness – where high-frequency gamma (40 hz. and up) is maintained, that's going to evidence a tremendous amount of energy. It's an energy that's impartial, so that if somebody has some negative issues, it magnifies what's worked out and what's not. It's kind of like sunlight shining on the flowers and the weeds.

We've found that you really have to go slow with gamma. People have to be prepared for it. It's important to transform the nervous system so it can handle high-frequency states. Our biological circuitry has to be very refined: the limbic system has to be stable and the myelin sheath (covers the spinal cord) myelinated. Chi kung helps with this.

— This is the 'real' neurotheology. It depends on what body you are talking about. The genius behind the ayurvedic regimes and Chinese medicine is that they took into account different body types, and although now these methods are applied to general health, originally they were to prepare the body for transformation (alchemy).

So, in general, you would want a sattwic diet (ayurvedic term meaning 'lightening' ), but also one that pays attention to grounding and building the nervous system with ojas shakti from ghee (clarified butter) and various herbs. Minerals also create the electrical environment, so these have to be put back in the body, because we have depleted our soils so terribly. Phospholipids and neurotransmitter precursor amino acids and other co-factors are also very important.

I take all this into account when I work with a client. The fundamental preparation, though, involves the quieting/neutralizing of the reactive patterns of aversion and attachment in the brain because this is where we lose energy and wreck the autonomic nervous system. These are the samskaras in yogic philosophy. Meditation, chi kung, chanting are all ways to facilitate this. Kriya yoga actually creates gamma brainwaves.

— How do you accommodate this expansion process in yourself? And how does consciousness expansion feel to you?

— I meditate as much as I can. I would spend all day if I had time. Honestly, I would be in a cave or monastery in the Himalayas, but my guru told me to share what I know with the world.

It takes me about a minute or two, and I can now go into higher samadhi and stay there most of the time. I pay attention to diet, exercise, etc. and take lots of whole food supplements/organics. I have cosmic consciousness (expansion) accessible when I turn attention to it, but for the most part chop wood, carry water.

Twenty-five years ago I would get extremely high (in consciousness), so I had to learn to ground, stay firmly connected with this earth we inhabit for now in these bodies. And this has made a huge difference.

Walt Whitman personified cosmic consciousness. He was very well integrated with this plane, and I love his musings. My grounding came from my chi kung practice, so I try to teach almost all of my clients how to do this. When you learn to ground, all the spiritual knowledge/light can manifest.

From the pole star to the center of the earth is a ray of creation and transformation of energy. We are a part of this ray, serving as transmitters. We just have to learn to cooperate with this by transforming our nervous system into what it was intended to be.
The more electrically efficient the brain is, as a vehicle, the more clear consciousness will be expressed through it.

— I think it's possible for virtually everyone to attain the highest state of self- and God-realization. That is the birthright of every human being.

— Here's the joke the universe plays on us. It's just a matter of pulling the veil away. What it looks like is what you see when your sight is clear. You look out the window: It's pure consciousness.

For people to be in this awareness all the time is the challenge and requires some work. The most important work is to surrender the notion that they're not there yet.

— We all need a systematic program of self-actualization. There are those fortunate people who have spontaneous awakenings, but these are relatively few.

Find an authentic path – and there are many out there, everything from Buddhism to yoga, Taoism to Christian mysticism. But it has to be systematic, and it does require self-discipline, surrender, and a stick-to-itiveness. When we start jumping from one thing to another without getting our feet firmly planted, we may never get the meat of what we're looking for.

Finding a good teacher is a start. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. My experience has been that suffering is a huge path, unfortunately. Most people I run across who have achieved a degree of consciousness have usually been through some significant suffering. It makes us cry out to a universe that's responsive. And it will respond.

— Yes. We're in a divine presence. We just don't know it. There's nothing to fear. Everything is that. There is no separation. There can't be. It's just a matter of reminding ourselves to acknowledge that. You don't have to go anywhere. It's right here.

All the myths and legends point to this. The Holy Grail was always right in front of you.