Enlightenment: When enlightenment came to Sweden…about Anette Carlström

By Marie-Thérèse Charperntier

Dressed in white and straight-backed she sits on the stage in Amorinsalen in Sollentuna outside Stockholm and looks like an angel with her long, corkscrew curly, blond hair. She is going to have a guided meditation with the expectant audience that has gathered to listen to her, to experience her. “Focus your attention on your heart, or on the third eye, and pray from the bottom of your heart to get in touch with your antaryamin, your higher self”; she says slowly. The silence where 170 people are gathered this evening is compact. Some are sighing, and shivers run through their bodies. Some are crying quietly.

Anette Carlström, or Nette as many calls her, is a 42 year old mother of two children, living in Helsingborg. After a past in Hollywood amongst other things as a model and guest hostess for TV-shows she now works as an alternative-therapist for instance with Kinesiology. When I for the first time met her the first of October 2003, I was sceptical, and it was with curiosity and a big portion of suspiciousness that I went to Sollentuna to attend this three hour evening seminary.

On the information flyers that had been issued a few days earlier, inter alia on the internet, you could read “What we all been waiting for – and longing for such a long time – have become reality. A Swedish woman, Anette Carlström from Helsingborg, have become enlightened!” That someone got enlightened after meeting a spiritual master in India was something I had heard before. But I had as often heard that the enlightenment state was something that was very hard to achieve and was just feasible for a few chosen ones.

Anette Carlström is a disciple to the spiritual masters Kalki and Amma, a married couple living at an ashram in southern India, 90 km outside Chennai. Kalki and Amma are the founders of The Golden Age Foundation and have been active spiritual teachers since 1989. The main message in their somewhat eclectic spiritual teaching is that enlightenment is close approaching to us all on this earth; they say that they are convinced that the time right now is ready for mass-enlightenment, because the stars presently are in an unusually good position in the sky. A part of Kalki’s and Amma’s message is that if approximately 64 000 people get enlightened before 2012, it will be enough to get the rest of the planet enlightened.

The most sensational thing with Kalki’s and Amma’s message is that enlightenment not are seen in first hand as an mystical phenomenon, but are instead considered to be a neurological process that happens in the left side of the brain (in the corpus callosum). These thoughts are also found among the founders of the Neuro-theology. This was first introduced in USA by James H. Austin and discusses the interplay between religious experiences and the brain. 1982 the American neurologist Austin became enlightened without any notice when he was waiting at the underground in London. He lost his experience of a separate “I”-identity, was overwhelmed by an eternity-feeling with the absence of fear, and started to feel a deep inner peace. Associated with this enlightenment he also got a total understanding of everything’s innermost being, his experiences have since then inspired several scientists, among others the radiologist Andrew Newberg and the therapist Eugene d’Aquili, who have been photographing the brains of Tibetan Buddhists and Catholic nuns while they where in deep states of meditation or prayer.

The scientists found out that the great reduction of the brain’s activity that happens in the left brain in a meditative state, prevents the brain from being able to feel any separation between the self and the non-self. At the same way a decreased stimuli in the right side of the brain gives a space- and eternity-feeling. In other words the scientist considers themselves to be able to prove that religious experiences of God’s presence are connected to neurological processes.

After being a spiritual searcher for more then twenty years, Anette came in contact with Kalki’s and Amma’s teaching during a course that was held during the spring 2002 in Sweden. After 2 more courses the same year it was time for her to go to India to do what she calls her “life’s journey”. This ten day long trip to India began with a three day course, called Samskara Shuddi, which initiate and speed up the cleansing of the body’s koshas (the body’s energy centres). After this Anette participated in a Homa, a Vedic fire ceremony that gave her strong spiritual experiences. At last it was time for her to meet Kalki and Amma, four days after her birthday. This was done in a group, and in the end of the gathering it was Anettes turn to come forth to Kalki and Amma to receive their blessing. Since she just got to know that the masters should give mass-enlightenment next Sunday, she listened to her inner voice that said to her “Ask Bhagavan for what you are wishing.” It was therefore with a big smile she said: “I would like to get enlightened on Sunday!” That it should happen she still didn’t believe fully, but as she had been told to be honest and not hold back her deepest longing, the question was natural to ask.

Anette is moved to tears when she revives the experience that changed her life in such a radical way. She tells that on the Sunday the 17 of August 2003, when the enlightenment was about to be given, about 150 000 people came to the ashram to get diksha or initiation. Instead of the solemnity and peaceful ceremony Anette had expected, she was now situated in the typical Indian “chaos” of sound, life and movement and where worldly and spiritual activities are met in an obvious way. Music was playing out loud, children where running around and someone continuously shouted “Mango juice! Mango juice!” The westerners got to sit up front close the enlightened monks and nuns. Anadagiri, monk and veteran in this context, had the evening before informed Anette and the others about what was going to happen. He had told them that those who where ready for enlightenment should get it right away, for others the process could take week or months.

Anette had been praying to get the initiation by a female dasaji (an enlightened person that lives as a monk or nun), but where she was sitting there was only a male dasaji that gave the initiation. Pleasantly enough for her suddenly two females come out as “from nowhere”: Their clothes swept around her and one of them strongly put her hands down on Anette’s head.

This is how she describes the initiation:
“I experienced a golden ball that was dropped into me, and it made my neck to spin around a bit when the energy was in my head; then it went down into my chest and filled my whole heart and at last it landed in my stomach where it completely exploded in warmth and nourishment … can’t really find any words for it … like a honey-gruel that filled my entire stomach with nourishment … so satisfying and lovely … so sweetly and wonderful … all of me was in stillness and joy … I couldn’t move … even though there where so much noise around my attention was not bothered by this. It was like when I looked into my daughter’s newborn eyes … nothing could take this away from me…”

By an unknown reason Anette got the initiation once more by a male monk that repeated the procedure. Already the same evening as she got the diksha she went to the airport and home to Sweden, completely dazed by the strong experiences. She says that from the initiation moment her life hasn’t been the same. She remembers how strange it felt to come back to Sweden. The first thing she did was shopping food and Willys superstore, in other words do those ordinary weekly chores. When she was at the store she felt so much love and joy pour out of her that she didn’t know what she should do with herself! Just the contrast, to be “high” at Willys of all places! – was for her a strange experience. During the first three weeks it was hard for Anette to do her work as she was used to, and she had to change it a bit, the focus of the treatments she now gives her patients now lays on sacral-cranial Kinesiology and healing. Apart from this the stillness, peace and inner joy that she experienced in connection to the initiation, have stayed with her.

While changed states of consciousness fast fade away for the most of us in the contact with the daily trials, the state of enlightenment is permanently and is said to be irrevocable. Anette experiences that something physical has changed within her, in a very tangible way. It is like a warm motor that vibrates without interruption or like “a living fire” in her chest. At the same time she experiences an “egg-formed” energy-centre in the middle of the head, a pulsating energy-source that radiates peaceful beams.

Anette must be experienced. She has after her enlightenment participated in many courses and satsangs (spiritual gatherings) in several countries besides her occupation. When she sits in front of the audience she never know in advance what will happen, what she shall say etc. but it use to come automatically, through what she calls the “Power of Grace”. She is all the time feeling that Kalki’s and Amma’s presence are guiding her. At one of her first appearances the 1 of October, since it had become known that she was enlightened, she got an impulse to start giving healing to everyone that where there. Now she always ends her programs with healing that is given through the eyes and this is by many experienced as very powerful. Anette says that the gratefulness she feels towards Kalki and Amma knows no limits, she has been longing for this during “lifetimes”. She describes her state as a constant feeling of satisfaction, an absence of inner conflicts and suffering, a totally catching joy without any visible cause, a total experience of the world around you, without judging its content, a complete peace and unconditional love that is hard to describe with word. This, that the words are not enough to describe what she feels, is something that comes back again and again in her story.

She says:
“I don’t know what this state I am in is called … I only know it is Divine … it is Peace of Mind … the Origin of Joy … the Eternal Source and the Power of Grace … it just pours out … and gives and gives … and you want to sprinkle down everyone!” Besides that Anette experience that the state leaven through every cell in her body, as tiny “smilies” that dances and jumps around. “There is such a joy and peace within me … deep down in every cell of my body … what ever happens around me … even if people are sad, disappointed or angry … This is experienced totally with the entire body.”

Anette says that she now “experience the world”, as instead of “the world experiencing her”, as it was before. With this she means that before for example she could worry about what people should think about her, something that isn’t interesting anymore. She also says that she doesn’t want to miss a single moment of what is happening around her, no matter what it is.

When I ask her if she is unaffected by outer circumstances and how she think she would react if herself or anyone close to her should be in trouble, she answers that all experiences affect her, that she takes it in and experience the situation fully and includes it in her inner peace. She definitely dismisses the usual occurring perception that the enlightened state should be an escape from reality. “It is just the other way around”, she says, because she feels totally present in every situation and experiences the world and everything that happens around her fully, to 100 %. She adds: “In this state there is no longer any possibility to experience things as really boring or be affected in a negative direction. That way to experience reality is no longer available. You do your daily routines with joy and gratitude. The content of what you experience is not important; it is the experience in itself that gives joy. When you experience something fully, what ever it is, it turns into something that could be called bliss. It is nothing you do … it is only something that happens”.

Anette thinks it is importance to point out that the enlightened state is not a “static final destination”, but something very alive that constantly moves her and is increased all the time. She looks upon her own transformation as “a gift of grace”, a state that you neither can earn or work yourself to achieve through spiritual exercises, but something that is “given” by Kalki and Amma, by grace. “This ‘power of grace’ is a mystery that lies beyond the minds capacity to understand. It is something that has to be experienced”, she adds. She says that she doesn’t have any wishes left, to be or do anything special, she just want to live, or rather “bathe” in this stillness and love that uninterruptedly pours out of its well. Now her only wish is to share her state and experiences to the world to give others the opportunities to live in joy and peace.

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What is enlightenment?
After the article was written and illustrated on three pages, I asked Anette Carlström what her view on Enlightenment is. She answered that there is many different kind of Enlightenment, maybe as many as there are people – the common factor for them is the declutchment of the thoughts in the mind, that the thoughts don’t bother anymore; there are no inner conflicts, you are free from inner suffering. You are filled entirely with this joy that is so huge that it is hard to give it any words.

Anette Carlström’s opinion is that it is a biological change, and not only a psychological process. It is something that happens in the nervous system, in the neurons in the left side of the brain, it is said. “I can only speak from my own experience, when I say it is an obvious physical change that has happened, which make it impossible to “go back” to the consciousness that was before the enlightenment. An energy centre in my head radiates peace all the time, irrespective of outer circumstances. And along the spine there is this energy of warmth running that has an electrical feeling. There is an ecstatic presence of joy and love that exists in every cell in my body. In the heart there is this Presence of something so big and beautiful – you get dazed like it is the first love that ever happened.

But this is only the beginning. Then there is the great cosmically enlightenment, where you become one with the entire cosmos. In this all-embracing ecstatic consciousness you have difficulties to exist for a longer time and at the same time be functional and practical in the world. In this state you can have lots of different experiences. I often get into this states where I experience my body as it is as huge as the entire Universe – and at the same time also as small as the smallest molecule. It is a state that is hard to describe with words – and I am sure there is lots of other states of consciousness to experience, but the absence of suffering and inner conflict are always something they have in common. Added to this there usually come a Divine Presence of Peace and an Ecstatic Joy. At least that is my experience.”

Yes, enlightenment can be described in different ways. Some put this concept in connection to Jesus, some to Buddha, others with the Upanishads teaching etc. But the experience off unity with everything uses to occur as an important part in Enlightenment.

Andrew Cohen has said:
”The insight of every things unity shows an exciting opportunity in man’s evolution. It urge all of us that is aware of this unity to leave behind us everything that stops us from accepting it, so that its fact can become an expression in this world, not only as an inner knowledge by a few individuals, but as an objective fact obvious for many. Yes it seems like heaven could be created on earth if only a few where willing.”

Eckhart Tolle means that Enlightenment is to see “our natural state of unity with the now”. It is a state where you feel affinity with something boundless and indestructible – something that, paradoxically enough, are your deepest core and yet so much larger then you. It is to find your true nature, beyond name and form. The inability to feel this connection creates the illusions that we are separated from everything else…”

Tolle again: “With this peace comes also the understanding – not on the intellectual level but deeper inside from your own being – that you are indestructible, immortal.”

The editor’s info about Kalki
Kalki is a divine character that some spiritual minded Indian’s for a long time have been waiting for, maybe as the Jews a couple of thousands of years ago waited for the Messiah. He should come in the end of kali yuga, the dark age.
Some believe that Kalki now has come. A spiritual person in south of India appears under this name – together with his wife Amma – and have gathered followers around him. Others mean that Kalki hasn’t come yet.
Characteristic for Indian spirituality is a comprehensive view that people’s experience of a separate “I” is seen as an illusion. We are all different expressions of the same and basic reality, Brahman, it is said. Atman, that is the individual soul, is the same as Brahman, the world-soul. These thoughts are also found at the present Kalki, as by many is seen as an avatar, a god-incarnation.


This article, written by Marie-Therese Charpentier, has been published in the Swedish magazine Sökaren (The Searcher). Sökaren is in Sweden available in some bookstores or through Internet. See www.sokaren.se.