Kundalini.Tantra.by.Satyananda.Saraswati

most of our waking, dreaming or sleeping lives. At the same time we enter a
hypometabolic state in which our breathing rate slows down and the oxygen need of our
tissues lessens. We should note that it is also possible to produce a sine wave on the
ballistocardiograph by stopping our breath, however, we quickly develop oxygen
deficiency and have to overbreathe to restore balance. In meditation, however, this does
not occur; we are balanced at all levels.
The oscillating circuits
The up and down movement of the body produced by the heart during meditation
affects the brain which is floating in its protective bony and fluid casing, the cranium and
CSF. According to Bentov, this micromotion up and down sets up acoustical and possible
electrical plane waves reverberating in the skull. Mechanical stimulation may be
converted into electrical vibrations.
The acoustical plane waves are focused within the third and lateral ventricles, small
cave-like, CSF filled structures deep within the brain. The plane waves activate and drive
standing waves into the ventricles. While the body stays in meditation, the frequency of
waves within the ventricles of the brain will remain locked to the heart/aorta pulsation.
Bentov felt that these vibrations within the brain are responsible for the sounds yogis hear
in meditation. This aspect of meditation is called nada yoga, listening to and following
the inner sounds, and is said to herald the coming of kundalini.
The loop circuit
According to Bentov the standing waves in the ventricles are within the audio and
superauditory ranges. They stimulate the cerebral cortex mechanically, eventually
resulting in a stimulus travelling in a closed loop around each hemisphere. The lateral
ventricle lies just under the corpus callosum, the part of the brain connecting the two
cerebral hemispheres. The roof of the lateral ventricle acts as the taut skin on a drum
which moves rapidly up and down and thereby produces mechanical waves in the
ventricles which stimulate the sensory cortex lying just above the corpus callosum.
We can understand the effect of this stimulation by looking at the diagram of the cross
section of the brain (see figure 3). Waves would commence at number 1 and travel down
to number 22 and back to number 1 again creating a loop circuit. As the current returns to
the starting point it stimulates the pleasure centers in the various areas of the brain which
surround the lateral ventricle, such as in the cingulate gyrus, lateral hypothalamus,
hippocampus and amygdala areas, all part of the limbic system, and this may give rise to
the bliss and ecstasy reported by meditators whose shakti awakens. The sensory current
travels around the cortex at about 7 cycles per second.