In this week’s episode, host Lynn Vartan explores the power of meditation and Kundalini yoga with Mandeep Khalsa. They discuss all aspects of meditation based wellness including, sound, alchemy and compassion!
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Lynn Vartan: Hey everyone, this is Lynn Vartan and you are listening to the APEX Hour on K-SUU Thunder 91.1. In this show, you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over, learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations on stage. We will also give you some new music to listen to and hope to turn you on to some new sounds and new genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3pm or on the web at suu.edu/apex, but for now, welcome to this week's show, here on Thunder 91.1.
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Lynn Vartan: Okay. Well, welcome in everyone. It's Thursday. It's the APEX Hour. I'm so happy to be here. It's October here at Southern Utah University and today on campus for APEX Events we have been exploring meditation, yoga, wellness and just the overall well being that comes with a mindfulness practice and our Guru for today and always, is Mandeep, so I'd like to welcome into the studio, Mandeep. Welcome!
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Mandeep Khalsa: Sat nam, yo, yo. Thank you.
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Lynn Vartan: I love it. Well, we had such a great time today. You lead us through a mindfulness practice and we're just going to kind of continue the conversation and get into a little bit more detail. And for anyone listening, I would love for you to maybe talk about the sat nam greeting because actually I think that's just a beautiful way to start talking about the importance of self and the sense of self in it. So would you share with us what is the meaning of sat nam?
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Mandeep Khalsa: I'd love to. So yeah, sat nam, sat is a derivative of satya, which is part of the yogic philosophy, The Eightfold Path. And satya is truthfulness, so be true to yourself.
So sat means truth and sat is identifying with your true self, your true nature. Your authentic self, which is your soul, your spirit, however you wish to identify with your true, authentic self.
And it can be, you know, non dogmatic, it can be secular, could be whatever, right? But nam is bowing, being very devotional to that true self. So when I sat nam you, I'm identifying my soul with your soul and vice versa. So it's a higher consciousness salutation, and it's coming and going. It's either way. Or you can just sat nam a moment like, "Oh my god, sat nam."
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Lynn Vartan: Oh, I love that. That was actually going to be my next question because I wondered if it was more of a an introductory greeting or intro and it can be at any time greeting just an acknowledgement of the moment.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, it's an acknowledgement of the moment, and it is written that sometimes it can be that a person can hear sat nam for the first time and become enlightened.
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Lynn Vartan: Wow!
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Mandeep Khalsa: It's that powerful.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh my gosh!
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, they can have like their "Oh my gosh, I'm waking up" moment.
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Lynn Vartan: Wow. I love that.
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Mandeep Khalsa: It's pretty cool.
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Lynn Vartan: And for those who might be nervous, I mean, would you just suggest like start using it? Is it something that even a lay person and inexperienced yogi could use?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Absolutely. This is a language of universal consciousness. So yeah, it doesn't identify necessarily with any particular sect or you know, dogmatic approach. It's a universal approach to consciousness.
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Lynn Vartan: Wow.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah. Which is, I think what we're moving into in the world these days.
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Lynn Vartan: Well, that's a great segue. I mean, we were going to start by talking about background and things like that. But let's get into the power of the practice, especially in today's [world]. One of the first things, even when you and I were talking before you arrived here was just the importance of supporting and connecting with each other. Now, I mean, we're talking in October of 2020, people may end up listening to this in the future, who knows, but I wondered if you could talk about how your mindfulness practice helps you now and and could help all of us, like why now? Why mindfulness now?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, in particularly now there's unfortunately there's a strong uprising of mental health disturbances dysfunction. Yeah, it's very, very disheartening. In a sense, and upsetting to see what's happening. And a lot of that has been derived from the social distancing, the mandated social distancing, as well as just the pressure and the stress of all the uncertainty that's going down with the COVID-19 virus and just that it's a whole fear based deal that's going down. So for me, my, my mindfulness, my, my yoga practice, my meditation practice, which we call Sadhana, which means "my personal daily discipline", you know, spiritual discipline. It has, it's been off and on, because I have, I first admit it. I'm human. I've been overwhelmed in the midst of all this. Absolutely. I went into a pretty intense state of low energy, I'd say it was in April and May. They call it depression. But I did go into that state, but I knew that I was going through this state for a reason. So thankfully, you know, I do have that awareness, but I just pulled everything back together in a different way and started anew, and every day is like that. And so if we can have that approach, a beginner's mind with every really every single moment like "How do I address this?" Perhaps there's a huge trigger that comes in out of nowhere. How do I address that mindfully? Breath is key. Just be conscious of your breathing. And yeah, so I just think that this in particular Kundalini Yoga is vital for us to know about the aware of and have the ability to practice in some shape or fashion on a daily basis. And it's a quantum practice, you can get a very strong experience in as little as three minutes. Yeah, but daily commitment is key.
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Lynn Vartan: Yeah. I want to get into some of the details about it. But I was curious, um, you know, what you experienced in in April is, I mean, I certainly felt that, too, in general, lowering of the energy and to have to pull yourself out of that. How, how did you activate your mindfulness practice in that time? Did you find that you had to do more of it or more intensity? Did it change or was it just real, your medium becoming aware again of it or how did it help you?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, I didn't force anything, I just embrace the fact that I was experiencing some very low energy and that I needed to just sit with that. Because typically, I'm in a pretty high vibe state. And so for me, it was just a matter of stepping back and maybe I took a nap during the day, or maybe I really made myself go out and take a walk in nature, because in the midst of all this, I've moved to Las Vegas, and Las Vegas is totally shut down or was totally shut down at that time. So yeah, it was just a matter of day by day processing it and then at a certain point, I'm like, "Okay, I'm ready to get back on the bandwagon." And yeah, I went into a pretty intense practice. Yeah, two and a half hours.
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Lynn Vartan: Wow!
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Mandeep Khalsa: Starting at 330 in the morning for 40 days.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh my gosh.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, but that's me. You know, that's what I needed. And it totally brought me out of that funk, but it was a reset. So it was a big reset and then now I'm doing something else with my practice, I'm doing some things that are 31 minutes, so yeah.
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Lynn Vartan: Well, two things I want to just really emphasize about that. I really appreciate you saying how it's important to just, just be in whatever you're feeling and and for everybody listening, our students, our faculty, everybody, just to to realize that I think that's been a great learning tool for everyone right now, so I really appreciate that, that you, you said that in your experience too and for everyone out there listening that that is a great way to approach this to just, just allow it to be whatever it needs to be right now.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, we don't want to marinate in it.
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Lynn Vartan: Right.
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Mandeep Khalsa: But we do want to acknowledge it.
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Lynn Vartan: Yes.
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Mandeep Khalsa: So when we can walk in the valley of our own shadows, how empowering is that? That is incredibly empowering. So, you know, we don't like, I say, we don't want to marinate in it, but we, I like to verbalize it as swamping; you really just want to get in the swamp and feel.
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Lynn Vartan: That's fantastic. The other thing that you said that I love to just center on a bit is is that your practice can evolve and change, and I think with some students or with some people coming to a mindfulness practice they feel like, okay, I'm going to get into this thing and then I have to be like meditating for an hour a day that they feel the very specificity of it and what but that sounds like very rigid and and I love what you were saying that your practice has changed that at one time of the day it was getting up at 3:30 in the morning and doing hours and maybe now you're in a time where you're doing something different and so I wondered if you could maybe to help reinforce that idea of the evolution of a mindfulness practice. Maybe you could share a bit about how your practice has changed over the years.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, it varies all the time. It really does. And I love that because I like change. And I like things to be consistent, but yet different. Yeah, that's kind of a paradox.
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Lynn Vartan: No, that makes sense.
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Mandeep Khalsa: So for me, I like the structure yet non structure of being able to pick and choose what I want, but there's specific formulas to this this technology. Okay, so there's a 40 day practice and 90 day practice,120 day practice, and then there's 1000 day practice. And then there's also a formula that ties into that of three minutes, 11 minutes, 22 minutes, 31 minutes, 62 minutes, two and a half hours. So it's it's very precise what you're doing with your neuron re-patterning based on those formulas of timelines within days and timelines within the exact time that you're practicing.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh, I see.
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Mandeep Khalsa: And then there's all, it's a very in depth practice.
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Lynn Vartan: And this is all specific to Kundalini?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well it does somewhat go across the board in most spiritual disciplines. Because that leads me to talk about the armored Vila, which is a two and a half hour window before the sun comes up and a two and a half hour window before the sun goes down. And this is where the Earth's electromagnetic field is a little thinner and there's a diet per perfect diagonal connection. And it's exactly where you are on the planet because it obviously shifts. To that location geographically on the planet at that two and a half hour window prior to the sun coming up and it's known as the hour of nectar. The ambrosial hour. So it's in all traditions, it's mentioned all traditions, all spiritual disciplines. Native American, Jewish, Christian, The yogic, the Chinese, everything. It's all talked about that particular element of prayer time and devotional time. So you get much more bang for your buck if you set your alarm and get up at 5:30am wow and do a 30 minute practice, which is doable.
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Lynn Vartan: Yeah, I love that you put it in such a great perspective, you get more bang for your buck. Really, that's awesome.
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Mandeep Khalsa: I'm all about that.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh, cool. Well, that's a great moment to stop for our first song. When we come back, I'd love to get into some of the more specifics of the Kundalini practice and why you love that and everything like that. But first, I have some music for you, um, gosh, you know, I have so many cool things to play and the first song that I'm going to play. I've been listening to this band called Bokante and I played one of their songs, I think in early September on the show, but this one is a sort of a collaboration with the Metropole Orkest and Jules Buckley, and Bokante and the song title is "Bòd Lanmé Pa Lwe." So you're listening to the APEX Hour on KSUU Thunder 91.1.
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Lynn Vartan: We are back. This is our town, you're listening to the APEX Hour. That song is called "Bòd Lanmé Pa Lwe" and the artist is primarily Bokante. And just a reminder we were talking about all the songs on the APEX Hour if you want to go to our website, which is suu.edu/apex. And there, and then you go to the podcast tab, there is the Played on APEX Hour Spotify playlist, which is public and accessible to everyone. So if you're curious about the music we've got, it's all there. All right, but we're going to get back into talking about meditation, wellness, yoga, and I'd like to welcome back Mandeep.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Sat nam.
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Lynn Vartan: So, um, alright. So I want to talk about really the specifics of Kundalini. I know that that is your particular area of devotion and specialty and we were just talking about over the break, and I'd love to get into some of the specifics, like I didn't realize that that music or sound was such a part of it and all the other things. So if you could give us a little more detail on what is Kundalini. What is a Kundalini practice?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, the Kundalini itself refers to the energy that exists in all living things. It's a life force energy and in humans it exists as a dormant spiral that sits at the base of the spine, just below the navel point and you have to do something very specific to activate it and get it to rise up in a three and a half cycle spiral pattern. Which when it does that, it activates the chakra system, the seven internal chakras and the eighth eight external chakra, it activates them in a way that's very high vibe and all working together on a higher frequency, which affects your glandular system, enhances your nervous system, brings your brain into a new neural pathway ultra uber consciousness, and you have this epic experience. I know that sounds pretty fantastic, but it actually happens all the time. So with Kundalini Yoga, which is my- I love Kundalini Yoga. I had practiced other yoga for many years prior to discovering Kundalini about 14 years ago and it actually discovers you is how it works. When you're ready, the Kundalini comes in. So it's a, it's a technology that's involved that involves breath very specific, unique breath practices, mantra, which are sounds, encoded frequency sounds, really powerful encoded frequencies., movement, a lot of diagonal movement cut through obstacles, etc. And let's see. So mantra, breath, and movement, and then the key element or the key focus is to move into a meditative space. And so this meditative space is where things become like in your altered state you bring in a new frequency, a new neural pathway begins to emerge and your frequency shifts to match that neural pathway and vice versa. So I spoke in the conference about this unified field. This is a concept that's that's becoming more and more relevant and scientific. The unified field has to do with a field of energy that's within us, within you, and the field of energy that exists outside of us. In other words, the universe energy. And so everything is vibration. Everything. This mic is vibration. You know, it's a bunch of molecules vibrating and creating this microphone. So when we're in the unified field, our vibration internally and then the outside vibration are perfectly matched. And so it becomes this beautiful, rhythmic, perfectly rhythmic experience and it there's Taurus refer, which is this like cosmic doughnut that surrounds us and it's a replenishing, re-nourishing, elevating consciousness of a field that we can establish very readily and steadily and and operate on a daily basis with this intact all the time.
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Lynn Vartan: And the Kundalini. I mean, when you practice Kundalini Yoga, you are trying to activate that energy spiral within yourself, that then therefore can connect to all of these things.
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Mandeep Khalsa: That's right.
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Lynn Vartan: That's just so fascinating and I didn't realize, as we've been talking about it today, I didn't realize that movement was such a part of it. You had mentioned in the break that even dance can be a part of it.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, I love that.
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Lynn Vartan: Tell me about that part.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, dance is an expression of communication. It's a full form, It's a free flowing form of communication. So it can be ecstatic. It can be mournful, you know, it can be whatever it is that you're wishing to express. But when you just are free flowing, dancing, or ecstatic dance, it's amazing. And again, it, it builds your Kundalini energy. It builds it and then strengthens it.
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Lynn Vartan: The musical part. The mantras that you, the sonic part that you're talking about as part of Kundalini classes or as part of activating, trying to connect with this energy and get it, get the spiral going on your spine and up your system. So that those sort of mantras, those musical sounds are designed specifically to resonate with certain parts of your body to make that happen - how does that work?
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Mandeep Khalsa: It's specifically working with your tongue, which is the largest sensory organ of the body and the 84 meridian points which are on the roof of the mouth, which the pituitary gland sits just above that. So the pituitary then begins to vibrate according to the specific rhythmic vibration that the mantra is encoding it to create. And then with the tongue. So there's a lot going on, just from that. But then the pituitary also signals the pineal gland, which is your master gland in the center of your brain and all the glandular system comes online okay that so it's like a computer. When you plug in the correct operating system, everything starts to flow pretty dramatically and operate pretty smoothly.
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Lynn Vartan: OK, so the sounds that you can make like we were doing, "Ong," O-N-G, you know, can then your tongue can then connect to those system and make it go?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah.
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Lynn Vartan: Wow.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah. So when we- even sometimes there's English mantras, like "I am, I am." And then we have another one, "I am bountiful, I am blissful, I am beautiful." So there's, there's a couple more English ones, but the most powerful ones are in the language of Gurmukhi, which Gurmukhi essentially comes from Northern India, and it means "from the mouth of the good." So back in those times, so this was, we're talking about not that long ago, 700 years ago. I mean, relatively speaking, that's like a, you know, snap of a finger, right, but the consciousness then was all about everything as far as the guru being outside of you. You have to go to a guru to get this enlightened, to have this enlightening experience you have to be the guru's protege or apprentice for however many years and, or, you know, whatever. It was this arduous process to become enlightened and you had to go to someone to get it. Well, it's not like that anymore. We are our own guru. And this is, I think what all of these, the COVID, and just everything else what what is being maybe established and I say maybe because there's so much uncertainty that I would like to think, this is I what I propose: that our ownership of being our own guru, G-U-R-U, is in process and the sooner that we take up that space and that awareness of I am my own self initiator. I have everything I need inside of me. That doesn't mean that you're a standalone and you have to do everything alone. What that means is come into your empowerment, stand up for yourself. Be collective in that standing up with others and hence change happens.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh, I love that.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Isn't that cool? That is, that's what I propose.
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Lynn Vartan: Okay well, I'm, I'm a subscriber! So if somebody wants to, if somebody listening is going, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. Okay, what do I do next?" What, what would you tell that person listening right now?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, there's lots of ways that you can experience Kundalini Yoga. There are several platforms online that I highly recommend. And I will be establishing also a channel online. I am building a center in Las Vegas, it will be called the Kundalini Kollective, so it's Kundalini K-U-N-D-A-L-M-L, excuse me, K-U-N-D-A-L-I-N-I and then Kollective with a K, yoga.com. So that's my website. And from there, you'll be able to tap into online classes, which will be live streamed, very affordable and you know, available and we have social media, IG and F, Facebook active now, which we're doing classes live streaming from my garden from my backyard, which are open on Wednesdays 6 to 7pm Pacific time and 10 to 11am Pacific time.
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Lynn Vartan: So those are happening every week right now.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Right now they are. We just started them.
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Lynn Vartan: And so it's come one, come all. Do you need any experience? Do you need any special gear? What if I want to take one next week? What do I need?
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Mandeep Khalsa: No. Well okay, so let me retract that. Yeah I want you to be well hydrated. I encourage you to be well hydrated and have water next to you. Wear loose comfortable clothes, don't have a lot of food in your tummy. So you don't really want to eat a big meal and then go sit down to a Kundalini class because we do this crazy breath technique known as the Breath of Fire, and you don't want to have a full tummy during Breath of Fire. Yeah, that's not very comfortable. But really, that's all you need. I mean, you can have a yoga mat. You can sit in a chair. You can sit outside on the grass.
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Lynn Vartan: And so, in comparison to other yoga classes, just so people kind of know what to expect, there's some movement, but it's not what you would think of as a physical fitness type yoga class.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Actually, it is. It's very physical, it can be very physically challenging. Absolutely. You're holding your arms up in the air for 30 minutes or 11 minutes. I don't want to scare anybody off, but we're doing real specific things with heart, stomach, lungs, meridians, when we're doing things like that, the wrist, the elbows, the shoulders and across the chest. So yeah, no, there's definitely physical health benefits, but it's not like Hatha yoga at all. It really isn't. It's very, very different from Hatha yoga.
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Lynn Vartan: Right, right.And what sort of feelings might one expect from a class? Like will they feel emotionally raw or peace, or what? You know, just trying to give everyone as much info as possible.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, it varies. I mean, sometimes you can just have tears come up. And you're having a release. And it's like, I just encourage if that happens, just let it flow. And then other times you may feel like laughing hysterically. And you're like, "I'm such an idiot. What's going on," but then it's like, no, it's all good. There's something being released. So it's such a, it's such a huge energetic and with the energy. There's emotions attached to it. So typically when we're done with Kundalini class because we always finish with a beautiful relaxation and in my classes, I play the gongs, people float out of the class. I mean, they may come in in the most raw PO'd, "Everything is horrible. Nothing's going my way." And then they walk out and they're like, "Oh man, I'm, I'm good. I can deal with whatever." Okay, there's some real situations that it's warranted that you may feel that way.
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Lynn Vartan: Right. And you've worked with people with addiction kind of thing too, some trauma. I mean, it can be small or big, you know, and I'm sure there's something in it for everyone.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, we all have issues in our tissues.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh, I love that. Okay. Well, time for another song. You know that that's great. But before, I want to make sure we reiterate the website kundalinikollectiveyoga.com, Kollective is with a K. And then from there you can find Instagram, Facebook and the live classes are being streamed right now from there. And you said on Wednesdays?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Wednesdays and Sundays. Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.
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Lynn Vartan: Perfect. Great.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Thanks.
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Lynn Vartan: Well, I have another song for you. And this is another group that I adore. It's Ibeyi. Those of you have been longtime listeners totally know I love these two these two young women and this song of theirs is called "Weatherman" you're listening to.
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Lynn Vartan: Okay. Well, welcome back everyone. That song was called "Weatherman" and the artist is Ibeyi, one of my favorites. They're just so great, check them out. And you're listening to KSUU Thunder 91.1. This is the APEX Hour, I am joined in the studio with Mandeep and we were talking, we are talking about meditation and wellness and the Kundalini practice. And welcome back, and I want to get into some of the other things over the break. We were talking about some of the more you know, for lack of a better word, not risque, elements because we're going to talk just a bit about the tantric aspects of practice like this Kundalini aspect is a Kundalini practice and how it relates to one's love life or intimate life. And so can you talk just a bit about how it touches into those sort of deeper systems in the body?
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, so this energy, when it comes when it rises up, it activates the lower chakra system first because that's primarily where it sits. Part of that system is the second chakra, which is your sexual energy center your sacred center. And so when this energy rises up, that particular energy center really comes awakened. And as Yogi's, we take the sexual energy and we transmute it into a higher vibration, because it's all, it's naturally in a lower vibration state. It's a primal energy which we all wouldn't be here if it wasn't for sexual energy. And sex is not bad. Let's just get that right out of the gay. It's actually wonderful and beautiful. But we want to elevate the experience of having a sexual relationship, a sexual experience and in Kundalini when the sexual energy rises, it becomes connected with your third eye. The sixth chakra, which is, it just enhances the creativity and the intuitive elements of your awareness. So we, we want to activate that energy in a way that's a very high vibe in a very high vibe scenario but in class, you know, you might get a little turned on. And that's okay when when you're turned on, everything else gets turned on, right? Being turned on is, is really beautiful. So I encourage that, because that means you're really feeling your body and often people are walking around like kind of zombies. From the neck down they're turned off. So when you turn on, it's great. But you do need to understand that this is an energy that you're working with. And, you know, we don't want you to go out and be reckless, or do something that could be detrimental or destructive. Because there is, there are addictions to sex for sure. So we're not addressing, we're not addressing that. But what we're addressing is that we encourage you to get turned on and feel turned on and Kundalini class is a byproduct. It's a cool perk.
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Lynn Vartan: I love how you talk about it, connecting to intuition into it. And again, it's really just connecting very deeply to who you are and and to the world around you, including the people around you and all that so, thanks for sharing that.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Of course, and a Tantra practice refers to tantric practice refers to working with the sacral chakra energy, right? So there's different types of tantric energy, there's red, there's white, and there's black.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh, they're color based.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yes. They're color based. So the red tantric is primarily based on literal sexual activity. Kama Sutra and all of that is a red tantric practice, beautiful practice. Black tantric has to do with the Dark Force, the occult and all of that. So that we, you know, I'm not interested in, but it is available, it is there. And then there's the white tantric, and the white tantric utilizes all the energy of the entire chakra system and really works on elevation of all of that energy in a way that's manifesting and, well, it's just a manifesting energy for sure. The white tantric and it's usually practiced in a group setting.
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Lynn Vartan: So that's all tantric passage, another, you know, realm of activity.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah. And Kundalini is definitely a part of the white tantric realm.
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Lynn Vartan: I see. Okay. Well, that's very interesting to learn about and that sort of brought to mind another aspect of things which is medicine, you know, more and I've heard the term medicinal meditation or medical meditation. And I don't know a lot about that. I wondered if you could maybe help educate me and our listeners on what that means.
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Mandeep Khalsa: Well, there's this is what yogi taught us in specifically this medical meditation for dealing with recovering with from addiction. So it's where we take our thumbs and we press our fingers into the pads of the hands, and then we extend our thumbs out and then we use the pads of the thumbs to press into the temples on either side and then you stretch your elbows out and you vibrate the mantra "Sa ta na ma," as you clench and unclench your back molars. And he was very specific about this being a medical meditation and he said that it was very cutting edge when he gave it and he said, science and medical science won't understand this for quite a long time. But it does work medically, meaning that it affects the whole system and it medically alters your biochemistry.
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Lynn Vartan: Oh, wow.
(00:41:30)
Mandeep Khalsa: I know it's pretty rad. So medical meditation is known for habitual- to deal and clear habituation okay? And habituation can come in all forms shapes and sizes. It can be an addiction to shopping. It can be an addiction to social media, it can be an addiction to sex. It can be an addiction to food. It can be whatever. I mean, there's a world of possibilities in that realm. So this is a very specific meditation, medical meditation to address that and change it.
(00:42:08)
Lynn Vartan: And so medical meditation. That is really specified to that.
(00:42:12)
Yes, that's, that's what it's called. Medical meditation for habituation.
(00:42:17)
Lynn Vartan: Oh, okay. So it's really for that specific thing.
(00:42:20)
Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah.
(00:42:21)
Lynn Vartan: I didn't realize that.
(00:42:23)
Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty radical, but he was very specific in saying that this is a cutting edge meditation and that science, particularly medical science won't understand it completely for a very very long time. But he was going to go ahead and give it to us as practitioners of yoga to have it and utilize it.
(00:42:42)
Lynn Vartan: Wow. And have you, because I know you've worked with people overcoming addiction, have you used this?
(00:42:49)
Mandeep Khalsa: So I overcame my own addiction. Sure, yeah. I have a personal experience with it.
(00:42:57)
Lynn Vartan: So you're proof and you have the experience that it works.
(00:42:59)
Mandeep Khalsa: Absolutely.
(00:43:00)
Lynn Vartan: Wow.
(00:43:01)
Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, it's, it's a very powerful practice.
(00:43:04)
Lynn Vartan: Okay. What about the connection to alchemy and and the alchemy practices and that kind of thing? I was wondering if you had an experience with that and and we were talking about some of the metals and things like that, but I hear people talk about alchemy, particularly with more meditation than with yoga, but I was just wondering what your thoughts were on those cross references.
(00:43:29)
Mandeep Khalsa: well alchemy is I understand it is where you take one element and you transform it into a completely other element, different element. So in practicing Kundalini, you could say that it's an alchemical response that we have every time we practice Kundalini because you shift whatever your state is in to a different state. So that's the energetic alchemy. What I really like to focus on as far as alchemy, and in what I offer is through the gongs and the seven sacred metal bowls. So initially, when I started out with sound vibration, healing sound vibration. It was with the glass infused spawn bowls, which are made from a machine. They're beautiful. They're powerful. They're lovely to listen to their extraordinarily relaxing, but at a certain point, just, it was just a very organic process, I became aware of the metal balls and the gongs and they almost happened simultaneously. This these products are made are these sacred instruments are made very ritually. They're, they're very ritualized they're all hammered out by hand, there's no machines involved. They're very artistically created. So there's a whole out alchemy that occurs. You take these seven specific metals-
(00:44:59)
Lynn Vartan: Yeah, that I wanted to ask you the seven metals. What does that mean?
(00:45:02)
Mandeep Khalsa: So there's, there are seven metals, and- I knew, you're gonna ask me that. It's like, it's like nickel, brass, brasses- yeah. If there's seven- I'm sorry, there's seven separate metals that they put together and create this alchemy, that creates these seven sacred metal bowls, okay, which are also known as Tibetan bowls or healing, sound healing bowls and the gongs are made pretty much from three different metals, I believe. So yeah, you can Google it and it'll tell you what the seven metals are.
(00:45:40)
Lynn Vartan: And I think you were telling me before that the metals coincide to the chakras.
(00:45:43)
Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, they do.
(00:45:44)
Lynn Vartan: Okay. That's fascinating. So maybe in people's practice if they want to, if they want a little extra boost or little extra help, activating a certain chakra, they could research that metal for that.
(00:45:57)
Mandeep Khalsa: Yeah, you could do that. The bowls are always the seven metals. But they're tuned to the chakras. And so they're tuned to like C, C sharp, D, D flat, all that.
(00:46:11)
Lynn Vartan: So the pitch is related to the chakras rather than the bowl being a specific bowl or a blend of the set.
(00:46:21)
Mandeep Khalsa: That's right, and same with the gongs.
(00:46:23)
Lynn Vartan: Well great. I'm, you know, just in the time that we have left, I have one more song I'm going to play a little bit to give a shout out to my dear friend, Loire Cotler, who had a CD that came out this year, and she has visited campus before. She's a rhythm vocalist and I thought that her music fit perfectly with this. This is actually a cover of "Nature Boy," which is a, you know, a classic, but she does it in definitely her own way. So we'll play one more musical tune, then we'll come back for our last little break of talking. This is a "Nature Boy" as realized and performed by Loire Cotler. You're listening to the APEX Hour.
(00:51:22)
Lynn Vartan: All right. Well, welcome back. That was a “Nature Boy” cover of “Nature Boy'' as done by Loire Cotler and Loire's spelled L-O-I-R-E and Cotler is C-O-T-L-E-R. The whole album is amazing. Check it out. And that was "Nature Boy", this is Lynn Vartan. This is the APEX Hour. We are back for just our last little, few minutes with Mandeep and we now have the seven metals, about to share with you and they go-
(00:51:54)
Mandeep Khalsa: They are gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, iron, and tin.
(00:52:00)
Lynn Vartan: Cool and then those come together and that's what the bowls are made out of. Great. Well, in our last few minutes, I have my favorite song, favorite- not favorite songs, favorite questions, that I like to ask everyone. So you are going to have those questions as well. The first one is if you were to meet the you of 10 years ago in a bar fight, who would win that fight?
(00:52:31)
Mandeep Khalsa: I think it wouldn't be a matter of who would win, but that my 10 year ago person would be- okay, hang on, let me start over. I don't think either person would win. I think it would be a draw and a deep friendship would be created and they would be very peaceful, and off we would walk into the sunset.
(00:52:53)
Lynn Vartan: I love it. So no fight at all.
(00:52:55)
Mandeep Khalsa: No, no fight. There might be a little bitchiness back and forth, just a wee bit. But, you know, hey, whatever.
(00:53:01)
Lynn Vartan: I love it. That's great. Well, thanks for being a good sport about that silly question. And then my last question is just for our listeners or for anybody wanting just another little fun insight to you or things that you love, and it's what's turning you on this week? And it could be anything. I mean, really, it could be a food item. It could be a book. It could be a movie. It could be a TV show; we've had the gamut of answers. So Mandeep, what is turning you on this week?
(00:53:29)
Mandeep Khalsa: Well, I have been watching the travel show with Zac Efron. And that is totally turning me on this week. I'm learning some very interesting new things about different concepts of eco sustainability and food and plus the two dudes that are the main stars are super easy on the eye and funny and it's a very well produced show.
(00:53:56)
Lynn Vartan: I love it. I have it in my queue. It's on Netflix, I believe.
(00:54:00)
Mandeep Khalsa: Yes, it's on Netflix. It's a very well done show. I'm enjoying it, and learning quite a lot. I like to learn from shows.
(00:54:07)
Lynn Vartan: Okay, well, that gives me, it's gonna bump it to the front of my list. Well, that's definitely our show for today. Mandeep, thank you for your time. What a joy it has been today to spend time with you and to share energy with you and all that. So thank you so much.
(00:54:20)
Mandeep Khalsa: Thank you, is just beautiful. Waheguru.
(00:54:23)
Lynn Vartan: Great. Well, we will sign off, and we'll see you next time.
(00:54:29)
Lynn Vartan: Thanks so much for listening to the APEX Hour, here on KSUU Thunder 91.1. You can find us again next Thursday at 3pm for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime, we would love to see you at our events on campus. To find out more, check out suu.edu/apex. Until next week, this is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the APEX Hour, here on KSUU Thunder 91.1.