CRYSTAL SKULL

A replica of an ancient human skull hewn out of a single rock crystal and found by Anna Mitchell-Hedges in 1927 in the Mayan burial-ground, Labaantún, British Honduras. Light reflected from the zygomatic arch and funneled along the optic bridge causes the eye-sockets to shine brightly. The skull also emits concentrated pinpoints of light and serves as a magnifying glass and scrying ball. If suspended properly, the jaw will open and close, the eyes will flash and it will easily nod yes or no. Tests reveal that it was not carved by metal tools.

Small crystal skulls have throughout the past couple of centuries been unearthed in Central America and a large one, similar to the Michell-Hedges skull, was already in the British Museum. The M-H skull is of far superior quality, however, and the British version is derived from the former.

 CSICOP

"Committee for the Scientific Investigation Of the Paranormal," founded in 1976 by New York professor of philosophy, Paul Kurz. Its membership originally included many well-known, rigid authority figures from the scientific establishment, such as B.F. Skinner, Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan. It is dedicated single-mindedly to the discrediting of any technically unsubstantiated, over-imaginative or simply "unscientific" point of view.

(See also: CRYSTAL SKULL, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Kapal:

skull or cerebrum

(See also: Kapal, Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

Skull

• To dream of skulls grinning at you, is a sign of domestic quarrels and jars. Business will feel a shrinkage if you handle them.
• To see a friend's skull, denotes that you will receive injury from a friend because of your being preferred to him.
• To see your own skull, denotes that you will be the servant of remorse.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Skull, Meaning of Dreams about Skull, Dream Interpretation Skull)

kapala:

kapala - the skull

(See also: kapala, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Kapalini:

Kapalini: skull

(See also: Kapalini, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

kapala:

Human skull.

(See also: kapala, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Kapala:

Kapala. Human skull.

(See also: Kapala, Tantra, Tantra Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Phrenology:

The reading of character and mental ability from the shape of a person's skull.

(See also: Phrenology, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Kapala (Sanskrit) The cup of Siva, formed out of a human skull, "out of which he drinks the blood of the slain" (Caves & Jungles 514).

(See also: Kapala, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Kapalbhati pranayama:

a breathing technique aimed at cleaning the frontal part of the brain; also called skull polishing - done through rapid breaths with more force on exhalation.

(See also: Kapalbhati pranayama, Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

phrenology (head-reading): Study of human skulls with the aim of learning personality traits and mental capacity.

Phrenologic considerations include the shape of the skull, the size and location of protrusions thereon, and hair growth. Drs. F.J. Gall (1756-1828) and J.G. Spurzheim, coauthors of The Physiognomical System, were notable pioneers in the field.

(See also: Phrenology, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Golgotha (from Greek of Hebrew gulgoleth, Chald gulgalta skull; in Greek cranion; Latin calvaria, whence Calvary.)

The site of Jesus' alleged physical crucifixion; often used metaphorically to signify crucifixion or trial.

(See also: Golgotha, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Golgotha (from Greek of Hebrew gulgoleth, Chald gulgalta skull; in Greek cranion; Latin calvaria, whence Calvary.)

The site of Jesus' alleged physical crucifixion; often used metaphorically to signify crucifixion or trial.

(See also: Golden Thread, Golden Cord, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

MEMENTO VIVERE

Zarathustra's gospel according to Nietzsche. As the skull on the 19th Century poet's desk was a reminder that one day we shall die, so today we need a reminder to live. Jung: "Life is a preparation for the ultimate goal of death."

(See also: MEMENTO VIVERE, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

CranioSacral Therapy (CST, cranial balancing, cranial osteopathy, cranial sacral manipulation, cranial technique, cranial work, craniopathy, craniosacral balancing, Craniosacral Osteopathy, Cranio-Sacral work): Method whose goal is to remove impediments to a patient's energy. It involves manually aligning skull bones. Dr. William Garner Sutherland, a student of the founder of osteopathy, developed cranial osteopathy in the early 1900s.

According to its theory, movements of the skull bones cause movements of the sacrum and vice versa. John E. Upledger, D.O., developed CranioSacral Therapy, a derivative of Sutherland's work.

(See also: CranioSacral Therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Brahmarandhra (Sanskrit) (from Brahman cosmic spirit + randhra opening, fissure, cavity)

Brahman's crevice; a mystical suture or opening in the crown of the head, through which a person leaves his body at death. Connected with the heart by means of the sushumna-nadi, a psychovital channel in the spinal column. "A mystic term having its significance only in mysticism" (TG 63). Anatomically the fontanel is a soft, pulsating, unossified area in the skull of an infant, which hardens as the child develops.

(See also: Brahmarandhra, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brain-mind Used by theosophists for the astral mind of the personal ego, the pale and too often distorted reflection of the intellection of the reincarnating ego. It is, in fact, the representative in the physical world of kama-manas, mind conditioned by materiality.

The lower mind or psycho-nervous effluvia of the brain acts through the nervous ganglia in the kamic centers, such as the liver, stomach, and spleen, though the central ganglia of this nervous system are situated in the base of the skull. The brain, and with it the heart, however, are likewise the organs of spiritual and intellectual powers far higher than those represented by the merely human personality working through the brain-mind; hence the higher forms of thought, supersensuous, superconscious, correlate with the cerebral and cardiac centers.

The body in general and the brain in particular are compact of finer and grosser elements, the former responsive only to the breath of divine wisdom, out of reach of the winds from the passion-laden lower mind, whose function is to act on and arouse the grosser elements of the nervous system.

The brain, therefore, is a kind of reflector of thought-currents and emotional tides which arise in the kamic centers of the inner self, and are distributed through the nervous ganglia in the skull to the physical kamic reflection centers in the trunk. Thus we scarcely use at all the brain itself in the true sense, or at any rate only in its lowest aspects or functions; and it is only in rare moments that the brain tissues are suffused with the glory emanating directly from the higher nature and working through the pineal and pituitary glands in the skull and through the secret center in the heart.

(See also: Brain-mind, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Clinical Kinesiology: Offshoot of applied kinesiology developed largely by Alan Beardall, an American chiropractor who died in 1988.

One of its principles is that points on the skull (cranial diagnostic points) represent different areas of the body and thus facilitate finding areas of dysfunction. Another is that points along the Central meridian represent therapeutic entryways.

(See also: Clinical Kinesiology, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Ushnisha usnisa (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root ush to be warm, flaming; mystically warmth through inner light, intuition, vision]

A turban, diadem, or crown; also a kind of "excrescence" on the head of a buddha. Like the long ears so often seen in figures of the buddhas, the meaning of the ushnisha is entirely occult, and was in no sense whatsoever intended to signify a tuft of hair, nor any fleshly excrescence on the skull, but was a way of suggesting the radiating power of the eye of Siva or organ of vision and of intuition, working at relatively full power within the skull of a great adept.

The eye of Siva is the pineal gland; originally an external and active eye in the head of primitive mankind during this fourth round on earth, it gradually retreated within the skull, which grew to cover its place with bones, skin, and hair. As this presently so-called third eye retreated within the skull, its place was progressively taken by the two present organs of vision. At this period of our racial development it is buddhas, avataras, and other initiates of relatively high status who alone use the organ of spiritual vision, for in them the pineal gland has become active and is to some extent physiologically enlarged; although in everyone else it is more or less nonfunctional, yet to some degree functional.

Hence the ushnisha represents that radiant crown of buddhic fire that surrounds the head of initiates when they are in deep samadhi or meditation. The initiate's head becomes surrounded with rays from the vital inner fire of the third eye, the spiritual organ of the brain, which likewise is the source from which radiates the spiritual, intellectual, and psychovital nimbus or aura surrounding the head -- known to the iconographies of every religion. These rays thus form a glory around the head and sometimes even around the entire body. "They stream upwards from the back of the head, often symbolically represented in the buddha-iconography as one single, lambent flame soaring upwards from and over the top of the skull. In this case you may perhaps find that the ushnisha is missing, its place being taken by this flame issuing from the top of the head, a symbolic representation of the fire of the spirit and of the aroused and active buddhic faculty in which the man is at the time" (Fund 493).

Many statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas possess certain peculiar headgear called crowns or ushnishas. Hence ushnisha is also used in the sense of turban, because this particular headgear, given to these statues, somewhat resembles a turban of spiral conical form, somewhat like the spiral shell of some snails.

(See also: Ushnisha, , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

YAMA

Lord of the Underworld, our first father and the angel of our death. Yama is the Hindu equivalent of Pluto, the guardian of Hell. But along with the dreaded Yama is the even more intimidating Yamataka, Yama's destroyer who is both a bodhisattva and an aspect of Shiva. He is black, has many heads, eyes, legs and arms bearing mystic implements and human skulls. He is engaged in intercourse with a female bodhisattva, a concubine/succubus. Another of his names is Varja-Bhairava ("Terrible Lightning") and he is the protective God of the Tibetan temple of Gelugpa.

(See also: YAMA, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )