Yogic Yang Spiral

The Yogic Yang Spiral is a group yoga meditation where the participants, holding hands, form an uninterrupted spiral sometimes with as many as 5,000 participants. In this particular manifestation here is a strict ordering of people in the spiral by sex and zodiacal sign: men alternate with women and are ordered according to their zodiacal sign. After each 24 people (2x12), the whole sequence is repeated. The spiral turns anti-clockwise, which corresponds to what is said to be the yang sense of rotation, hence the name of yang spiral.

General context
Group meditations in yoga
The practice of group meditation and prayer is nothing new. From time immemorial in yoga and other religious practises people have come together to worship, pray or meditate. Paramahansa Yogananda said "Why shouldn’t you strengthen your own vibrations through fellowship with people seeking Self-realization, and by group meditation with them? This practice will fortify your own spiritual convictions; you will find that many seemingly insuperable barriers in your life will crumble and dissolve in the waters of meditation. Your devotion and love for God will commingle with the devotion and love of others. Divine bliss will radiate from you, helping all persons you meet."

The group effect
The premise of the group meditation: "the group is greater than the sum of its parts" is a concept present in many cultures around the world. Thus, in a group every participant is supposed to meditate better than alone, having invested the same personal effort.

Large groups can arguably have measurable effects
The "Maharishi effect" has been studied in a scientific manner with repeated experiments over the years. Their sometimes contested results tell that there is a measurable effect of the group meditation on society as a whole. The test consisted of intense meditations over a determined period of time in a large city or geographical zone, aimed at reducing the criminality rate in that area. Results of over 20% have been achieved with just 1% of the population participating in the experiment.

The Global Consciousness Project has a different approach, trying to measure a so called "Global Consciousness Field" by the use of multiple random number generators as sensors. Over the years they claim that global events and group meditations had the power to skew the perfect balance of the random number generators, sometimes even in anticipation of an unknown event like 11 September 2001. In fact one such spiral meditation has been recorded by the Global Consciousness Project - see http://noosphere.princeton.edu/149.mars.yang.html.
The Global Consciousness Project of course has his detractors and is an experiment in progress.

The occurrences and symbolism of the spiral shape

The spiral is one of the fundamental forms present in nature, art, science and religion. In nature it is seen at all the levels, in the double helix of the DNA, a hurricane or typhoon, a finger print (whorl), hair growing from the crown on our heads, a sunflower's seeds, the inner ear (cochlea) and up to the macro scale, the galaxy itself.

The spiral might be one of the oldest of symbols, occurring in thousands of years old cave paintings, houses and graves. In art and religion it is related to the cycles of nature and human life, evolution, the concept that everything emanates from a center point (source) and the possibility of expansion into infinite, because the spiral is always open ended. It is a circle in motion, with every complete cycle also advancing one step on another level, adding a new layer. In math the spirals are an object of study: the Archimedean spiral, the logarithmic spiral and the golden spiral are just the most famous. The Mandelbrot spiral which spans from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, forking new spirals at all levels, has become famous for its beauty.

In yoga the spiral is connected to the kundalini energy, the fundamental energy of the human being and universe. The Ida and Pingala nadis are said to be spiraling around the Sushumna nadi. The force centers are sometimes drawn as spirals of energy. The matrika concept in Kashmir Shaivism represents the whole universe as a wheel (spiral) of energies emanating from the Supreme Transcendence, God, represented by the spiral's center.

Effects of the yogic yang spiral meditation, according to their initiator
This is an account of the intended effects of the yogic yang spiral, as described by its initiator Gregorian Bivolaru:

Global effects
# The holographic effect: everyone present in the spiral is reflected in one, and one is reflected in everyone else. As everyone is focusing in a spiritual sense, all the benefic aspects are shared and reflected into each other.
# The yin-yang harmonizing effect: due to the alternation between man and woman and also because the spiral is made of an equal number of men and women, it connects the opposing polarities creating complex interactions between yin and yang. Every person has both polarities and they naturally complement and harmonize each other.
# The personality harmonizing effect: because the spiral is composed of people from all the zodiac signs in equal proportion, all the qualities of the archetypal man, the so called "cosmic man", are awakened. The benefic qualities of one zodiacal sign are reflected and amplified in all the people of the other zodiacal signs. Because the strict zodiacal order is observed, there is a cyclical repetition of the signs, like a sinusoid, amplifying the resonant effect.
# Amplifying the solarity (yang): globally the yang energy is amplified, allowing for a greater state of control of ones energies; a state of optimism, solarity, luminosity is induced in the participants.

Description of specific influences according to the zodiacal sign
# Aries channels the primordial impulse and endless enthusiasm;
# Taurus channels the sustained creative effort;
# Gemini channels the mysterious polarity of creation;
# Cancer channels the state of passivity and attachment;
# Leo channels the energy of life and love in its most expansive form;
# Virgo channels the power of discernment and intuition;
# Libra channels the power of sociability and the just middle way (through which contraries are harmonized);
# Scorpio channels the mysteries of disintegration of matter and profound spiritual transformation;
# Sagittarius channels the duality between instincts and superior spiritual aspirations and the finding of the way toward the source of creation;
# Capricorn channels the process of transcendence;
# Aquarius channels the superior spiritual states of consciousness;
# Pisces channels the power to explore the inner world and to reach the state of spiritual liberation;

Description of the tattvic influences
# the Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn persons relay the vibrations of the earth element (prithivi tattva)
# the Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces persons relay the vibrations of the water elemen (apas tattva)
# the Aries, Leo and Sagittarius persons relay the vibrations of the fire element (tejas tattva)
# the Gemini, Libra and Aquarius persons relay the vibrations of the air element (vayu tattva)

About The four gross tattvas
# prithivi tattva - earth, corresponds to materiality
# apas tattva - water, corresponds to emotive sensibility
# tejas tattva - fire, corresponds to passion and enthusiasm
# vayu tattva - air, corresponds to intellectualism, expansiveness and warm feelings of love

Influence of the planets
# Through the Leo people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of the Sun, which will give the tendency to fight against the darkness, to experience a refinement of consciousness, development of healing powers, the revelation of the divine spirit (Atman).
# Through the Cancer people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of the Moon, which will give creativity, effortless control of emotions, harmonious personality, the awareness of the social level, tendency to meditate.
# Through the Virgo and Gemini people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of Mercury, which will give an increase of intelligence, desire to learn and know, articulate communication, power to convince people, inventiveness.
# Through the Aries and Scorpio people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of Mars, which gives quick reactions, tendency to act spontaneously, strong sexual power, inexhaustible energy, just judgement. Moreover, Scorpio people resonate also with Pluto, which gives spiritual renewal, magical powers, ability to transcend the personality, crystal-clear lucidity.
# Through the Taurus and Libra people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of Venus, which gives refined love, intense and refined eroticism, transfiguring thoughts, artistic inspiration, attraction to everything that is beautiful and harmonious, good taste, tenderness.
# Through the Sagittarius people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of Jupiter, which gives profound states of mental understanding, refinement of thinking, expansiveness, enthusiasm, tendency toward the practical study of religion, success in everything, the intuition of the final aim of the human existence.
# Through the Capricorn people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of Saturn, which gives responsibility, seriousness, love of philosophy, prudence, honestity, power of adaptation to all kind of difficult situations.
# Through the Aquarius people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of Uranus, which gives spirit of adventure, creative power, search of meaning, focused attention, will power, self-control.
# Through the Pisces people that participate to a yang-spiral, all other participants can experience through resonance the beneficial subtle influence of Neptune, which gives deep spiritual intuition, expansion of consciousness, direct experimentation of the beatific void, divine love without object, the transcendence of the inferior structure of personality, mystic revelations, the perceiving of the grace of God, ability to project into parallel worlds.

Effects due to the large numbers of yogis participating in the yang spiral
It is asserted by practitioners of this technique that human beings whose bodies, emotions and minds are purified and balanced enough, and who succeed to focus and actively involve themselves into the yang-spiral meditations in which there are a large number of participants (3000 - 4000 people or more) can easily enter states of samadhi (cosmic ecstasy).

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