Printed in the Winter 2023 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Buys, Lauren , "The Esotericism of the Spine and the Cerebrospinal Fluid" Quest 111:1, pg 28-30
By Lauren Buys
Behind the glare of my computer screen lay a womblike and mysterious space impregnated with Persian rugs, pink lilies, and plump billows of incense smoke. A commandingly calm voice oozed through the speakers with a sentence that immediately made me sit up a little straighter: “The energy of God in the body is the spine; it’s a very exquisite thing.”
My first sip of knowledge from the offerings of my teacher, Carolyn Cowan, stirred a thirst within me for more. What did she mean by this statement? How did she know? Was this Divinity that she spoke of within my spine too or just everyone else’s?
Living in a society obsessed with getting ahead, I’d paid little attention to the architecture that was supporting my every movement. Many of us modern-day humans, in our technologically advanced and goal-oriented matrix, tend to thrust our skulls forward, ahead of the rest of our bodies—a stunning surplus of spines moving about the world in mostly unconscious misalignment. Whether they’re craned forward to gaze at our cellphone screens to avoid eye contact with a stranger or as a desperate attempt to separate our thoughts from our feelings, our heads are getting away from us.
Anterior head syndrome is the term for this postural problem plaguing the planet. If the energy of God does reside in the spine, could our saddened postures be limiting our ability for self-actualization or liberation? Could a deeper understanding of the spine and its shrouded mysteries open us up to a higher level of awareness?
The ancient Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, and Hindus all taught that within the human composition lay the laws, elements, and powers of the universe. Everything that existed outside of man had its analogue inside of man. Pagan mystery teachings focused on demonstrating the relationship between the macrocosm and the microcosm—between God and human. They also held that there was a microcosm of the entire physical body within the brain.
By studying the human constitution, the sages, hierophants, and priests of antiquity were able to understand the greater mysteries of the celestial blueprint. Every part had its secret meaning; every measurement formed a basic standard by which it was possible to measure all parts of the cosmos.
It was believed that the human being herself was the key to the riddle of life, for she was the living image of the divine plan. The human body, not the individual but rather the house of the individual, was thought to have been the tomb of a sacred principle. In hatha yoga, the spine is considered the center of our sacred anatomy, the axis mundi, a ladder to the Divine. To the early anatomists, the upper vertebrae of the spine were known as Atlas: the same Atlas as the giant of Greek mythology, who carried the heavens upon his shoulders (the heavens being represented by the cranial sphere). In ancient Hindu thought, the spine was represented by the Ganges River, a river of life flowing downward. Its tributaries were the distributors of nerve instinct and impulse to all parts of the body.
Before we go any further into esotericism, let’s take a look at the more practical and scientific side of the spine and the magical fluid with which it is bathed.
In the womb, the first part of the fetus to develop is the neural tube. From this tube, the spine is manifested downwards, carrying the central nervous system along with it. The central nervous system, which can be thought of as the electrical wires that run the machine that is your body, then branches off to form all the vital organs (that Ganges River analogy begins to make more sense here).
The entirety of this developing central nervous system is immersed in a substance known as the cerebrospinal fluid. In fact, the brain and spinal cord of the growing fetus are both organized around this clear fluid. As adults, we make 450 to 600 milliliters of it (over two and a half cups) per day and have approximately 150 milliliters of cerebrospinal fluid in us at all times.
The cerebrospinal fluid bathes the outside of the brain and the cavities within it, known as ventricles. Then the fluid travels down the hollow central canal of the spinal cord and saturates the outside of the spinal cord too. Although the spinal cord ends at L2 (the second lumbar spinal vertebra), the cerebrospinal fluid continues to move down through to S2 (the second sacral spinal nerve), where the root chakra and the kundalini energy, esoterically speaking, reside.
Although many people (including me) have spent most of our lives knowing very little about it, the role of the cerebrospinal fluid is huge. It is a vehicle for the transmission of information to the brain, a transporter of nutrients and hormones to the central nervous system, an instructor of stem cells on whether to proliferate or differentiate, a manager of circadian rhythms, a regulator of appetite, an eliminator of waste, and a shock absorber for the brain, pineal, and pituitary glands.
Among the brain cavities mentioned above is the third ventricle, the exact midline space of the head, which is surrounded by the pituitary gland in front, the pineal gland in the back, and the hypothalamus and thalamus on either side. This third ventricle is called the Crystal Palace by Daoists, the Cave of Brahma in Sanskrit texts, and the Third Eye by Theosophists, and it happens to be filled with cerebrospinal fluid.
On the inner walls of this third ventricle are cilia: slender antennae with receptors to monitor information, light, growth factors, hormones, flow, movement, and vibrations. Through the water experiments performed by the Japanese researcher Masaru Emoto, we know that fluids absorb, store, and transmit energy. We also know that our ancestral cerebrospinal fluid was seawater and that it evolved as a way to receive signals from the environment. Could this mysterious liquid be the fluid conductor of Source energy into our bodies? Could this essence be the Divine spark that allows us to be aware of our beingness?
Dimethyltryptamine, more familiarly known as DMT or the “spirit molecule,” is widespread throughout the plant kingdom. It has been used in shamanic rituals to create mystical, psychedelic experiences. Hypothesized to be released at birth and death and during vivid dreams, this amber substance is also endogenously present in the cerebrospinal fluid. Randolph Stone, the founder of polarity theory, stated, “The soul swims in the cerebrospinal fluid.” Dr. Andrew Still, founder of the American School of Osteopathy, envisioned the cerebrospinal fluid as an intermediary in the movement of divine intelligence.
If you were to tag a single molecule of cerebrospinal fluid and follow it throughout the course of the day, it would move through the four different ventricles of the brain, all the way down through the spine to the sacrum, and back up again. In a healthy person, it would take twelve hours for this process to reach completion. Simply speaking, we flush our brains with this substance twice a day.
Since the breath is the vehicle for delivering energy to the brain and we have the ability to control and manipulate the breath, we can use it to accelerate the movement of the cerebrospinal fluid. Through this breath control and the application of tightening and squeezing the muscles typically used to digest our food, assist in elimination, or create a baby (also known as the body locks or bhandas), we begin to rapidly push the cerebrospinal fluid up into the brain. As the breath is held, the cerebrospinal fluid creates a mechanical stress, a pressure against the pineal gland. As the breath is released, a stimulation of the cilia takes place, and sacred chemicals (dimethyltryptamine and serotonin) are released from the pineal gland, which allows for the opening of the thalamic gate at the brain stem. This gate, which is usually closed, is connected with the reticular activating system or RAS. The RAS is responsible for our levels of awareness. Most stimulation of the RAS comes from our senses, from what we see or what we hear. If we were in bed at night and heard a tinkering at our front door or something rattling at the window, our RAS would be responsible for that awareness.
However, when our senses are closed off and the sympathetic nervous system and pineal gland are aroused through the control of breath and the application of the body locks, the thalamic gate opens. Energy from the lower centers of our body moves right into the brain, causing superconscious states of gamma brainwave patterns. This would feel like bliss, ecstasy, an orgasm of the brain—a release of the kundalini energy.
Our spinal columns are made up of thirty-three vertebrae. The number thirty-three has many sacred associations. According to tradition, Jesus was crucified at the age of thirty-three. The thirty-third time that the name of the patriarch Jacob is mentioned in Scripture, he has a vision: “And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28:12). There are thirty-three deities described in Vedic litanies. This number is also regarded sacred among secret societies in Europe and America.
Included in these thirty-three vertebrae is the sacrum. Sacrum, literally translated, means sacred bone. It consists of five fused vertebrae. Could these five fused vertebrae represent the five senses brought under control in order for the thalamic gate to open? Just as David in Scripture had to strike Goliath, the egoic giant within us, with five stones between his brow, could silencing our five senses allow energy to be correctly elevated to the space between the brow—the third ventricle, the area of the pineal gland? Is it also possible that the anointing, the chrism, and the oil of gladness spoken of in the Bible, could refer to the sacred secretions released by the pineal gland upon activation through the pressure created by the cerebrospinal fluid? Is the Promised Land, “filled with milk and honey,” a metaphor for a state of transcendence reached through the process of raising the kundalini energy or the Christ seed? Could reaching this milk and honey‒filled heaven be the result of liberation experienced through the release of serotonin and DMT (serotonin being a milky substance and DMT amber in color, like honey)? “And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Genesis 32:30). “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Matthew 6:22).
That compelling sentence spoken in my first kundalini yoga class enabled me to delve into a world of which I previously had almost no knowledge but will continue to make all the difference in my own spiritual practice. The spine, serpentine in its flexibility but strong enough to support the entire architecture of our bodies, is a structure that, if paid attention to, can be a powerful magic wand. Our bodies, the robes of our spiritual nature, are actual universes that may be used to access the Divine within each and every one of us. If we take a moment to breathe, pay attention to the inner workings of our miraculous beings, to pull our anteriorly positioned heads out of our cellphone and television screens, and bring ourselves back into alignment with our truth, we may be able to climb the ladder of ourselves, slay the egoic Goliath causing our inner turmoil, and reach the Promised Land of liberation, even if for a moment.
Born and raised on the luscious coastline of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, Lauren Buys is a Kundalini Global Yoga teacher who now resides in New York City.