The Real Nature of Mystical Experience

By Gopi Krishna

What does it really mean to be ‘Illuminated’ or ‘Enlightened’? Gopi Krishna writes: “I literally live in a world of light. It is as if a light were burning in my interior, filling me with a luster so beautiful and so ravishing that my attention is again and again drawn towards it.” This book provides one of the clearest and most graphic descriptions of what it is like to live permanently in this amazing state.

It also provides a clear, concise and logical exposition of the physiological mechanism responsible for Illumination, genius, inspired creativity and paranormal phenomena. It clarifies the role of mystical experience as the common thread running through and uniting all religions, and is the key to the unification of faith and science. It explains how this new faculty of perception, the next step in human evolution, will eventually become a permanent feature of the human race as a whole.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Institute for Consciousness Research
• Release date: Jan 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9780992108243

Gopi Krishna

Gopi Krishna was born in 1903 to parents of Kashmiri Brahmin extraction. His birthplace was a small village about twenty miles from the city of Srinagar, the summer capital of the Jammu and Kashmir State in northern India. He spent the first eleven years of his life growing up in this beautiful Himalayan valley.In 1914, his family moved to the city of Lahore in the Punjab which, at that time, was a part of British India. Gopi Krishna passed the next nine years completing his public school education. Illness forced him to leave the torrid plains of the Punjab and he returned to the cooler climate of the Kashmir Valley. During the succeeding years, he secured a post in the Public Works Department of the state, married and raised a family.In 1946 he founded a social organization and with the help of a few friends tried to bring about reforms in some of the outmoded customs of his people. Their goals included the abolition of the dowry system, which subjected the families of brides to severe and even ruinous financial obligations, and the strictures against the remarriage of widows. After a few years, Gopi Krishna was granted premature retirement from his position in the government and devoted himself almost exclusively to service work in the community.In 1967, he published his first major book in India: Kundalini — The Evolutionary Energy in Man. Shortly thereafter it was published in Great Britain and the United States and has since appeared in eleven major languages. The book presented to the Western world for the first time a clear and concise autobiographical account of the phenomenon of the awakening of Kundalini, which he had experienced in 1937. This work, and the sixteen other published books by Gopi Krishna have generated a steadily growing interest in the subjects of consciousness and the evolution of the brain. He also traveled extensively in Europe and North America, energetically presenting his theories to scientists, scholars, researchers and others.Gopi Krishna’s experiences led him to hypothesize that there is a biological mechanism in the human body which is responsible for creativity, genius, psychic abilities, religious and mystical experiences, as well as some aberrant mental states. He asserted that ignorance of the working of this evolutionary mechanism was the main reason for the present dangerous state of world affairs. He called for a full scientific investigation of his hypothesis and believed that such an objective analysis would uncover the secrets of human evolution. It is this knowledge, he believed, that would give mankind the means to progress in peace and harmony.Gopi Krishna passed away in July 1984 of a severe lung infection and is survived by his three children and seven grandchildren. The work that he began is currently being carried forward through the efforts of a number of affiliated foundations, organizations and individuals around the world.

Book preview

The Real Nature of Mystical Experience

by

Gopi Krishna

Published by:

The Institute for Consciousness Research

and

The Kundalini Research Foundation, Ltd.

Smashwords Edition

The Real Nature of Mystical Experience

Cop;yright © 1978 Gopi Krishna

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Printed in 1978 by:

New Concepts Pbulishing,

New York, U.S.A.

Reprinted in 1978 by:

New Age Publishing Ltd.,

Toronto, Canada

Reprinted in 1979 by:

The Kundalini Research and Publication Trust,

New Delhi, India

Reprinted 1991 (in Three Perspectives on Kundalini) by:

F.I.N.D. Research Trust, Canada and

The Kundalini Research Foundation, Ltd., U.S.A.

Reprinted 2011 (as Brain Evolution: The Real Nature of Mystical Experience) by:

Bethel Publishers Inc.,

Darien, CT, U.S.A.

Published by:

The Institute for Consciousness Research

165 Valley Crescent,

RR #4, Markdale ON,

Canada N0C 1H0

The Kundalini Research Foundation, Ltd.

86 Wallacks Drive

Stamford CT

06902 U.S.A.

International Standards Book Number: 978-0-9921082-4-3

Table of Contents

1. Mystical Experience: The Target of Human Evolution

2. The Mystical State: A More Evolved Form of Consciousness

3. Mystical Experience and Psychic Energy

4. My Own Experience of the Mystical State

5. Mystical Vision: The Basis of Religion

6. Science and Mystical Experience

7. The Need For a Serious Study of the Phenomenon

8. The Divine in Man and How to Achieve It

9. Self-Knowledge: The Crown of Human Life

About the Author

Other Books by Gopi Krishna

1

Mystical Experience:

The Target of Human Evolution

The ideas expressed and the conclusions drawn in this work about the real nature of mystical experience are offered in a spirit of utter humility with an open mind and a sense of preparedness to revise them if, after more than forty years’ day and night critical observation of my own extraordinary mental state, I am still proved to be wrong. These opinions and conclusions, if correct, are of the utmost importance for the race; so important that, from my point of view, there is no other topic of such urgency and importance at this time. The urgency lies in the fact that, from what is revealed to me, the human brain is still in a state of biological evolution, and that the tempo of this evolution has become so fast that a rethinking on and a readjustment of the current values as also the whole social and political fabric of mankind has become necessary.

Constant tensions and pressures in the world situation, a general sense of discontent and lack of peace, a foreboding of approaching disaster, widespread use of drugs, the revolt of youth, tragedies of marital life and a pressing urge in countless minds to rise above reality by religious striving, Yoga, meditation, esoteric disciplines or occult practices provide convincing evidence for what I say. It is palpably clear that the general mental climate of the Earth is not the same as it was at the beginning of the Second World War or even in 1950. But we do not know what factors have combined to cause this rapid change. Why is the gap between older and rising generations all over the Earth becoming noticeably larger and more difficult to reconcile?

What mystical experience has to do with the environment of the Earth will soon become apparent. The class of human beings that has exerted the greatest influence on the thinking and behavior of mankind has been that of the prophets, saviors and mystics, including the founders of all current faiths. Kings, philosophers, rulers, scientists or scholars have, all combined, played a secondary role. Revealed religious teaching has held a fascination and maintained a grip on the human mind that is unmatched in any other sphere of life. This grip has persisted for thousands of years. Why?

What makes millions upon millions of human beings to believe implicitly in the words of the founder of their faith, even in this rational age? While literally flooded by the marvels of technology, why do the masses still have greater faith in the ideals of their religion and the teachings of prophets or saints than in the rational expositions of scientists and philosophers alike? Why do even distinguished scientists subscribe to faith? What is the explanation for this paradox? There are examples where even those rationalists who were rank atheists in youth turned religious towards the close of life. Even materialistic political ideologies