In all traditional African societies, there are priests and priestesses, interpreters between two worlds, guardians and protectors of the balance of society. They are often credited with mystical powers, the capacity of driving away demons, healing as well as preserving society of major disasters.

In Ivory Coast, the Akan population, or more precisely the Baoule (the ethnic group I am from) call these priests and priestesses ‟Komian”.

As a reminder, the Baoule form the majority of the population of Ivory Coast. They settled in the center of the country after leaving the Ashanti confederation (the equivalent of today’s Ghana) around the 17th century, because of a military and political war. Measured up to religions of revelation such as Christianity and Islam, the Komians have had much bad press. They are arraigned as Satan worshippers or impostors whose only faith is money.

When I was still child, I used to enjoy watching the Komians perform in my village, Mlan-Kouassikro, in the Bouabe district, the second largest city in Ivory Coast. The Komians’ performances in public are preceded by a preparation. They need to dress up and the musicians that accompany them need to install themselves. The latter, equipped with tom-toms, small bells and various other instruments, play rhythms while waiting for the Komian to come out of his sanctuary. When the Komian comes out, the rhythm of the drums change, from a slow rhythm to a fast one.

The dress of the Komian varies. It can be a simple white loincloth tied on the chest, with a second one covering the hips. The Komian can also wear a red hat adorned with cowries and pieces of mirror. Their skin is anointed with Kaolin while amulets and strings are tied here and there. The Komian holds a fly-whisk. Their ankles are adorned with small bells that emit sounds that follow the rhythm of their dance steps.

During the dances, the Komian, with their arms stretched, rotate like the Whirling Dervishes. That movement matches the accelerating rhythm of the drums.

According to ROUGET, in ‟Music and Trance”, during the ceremonies, it is the accelerating rhythm that opens the muscles, the innards, the head, to the penetration of the expected divinity. The dances performed by the Komian are diverse and varied. They strike the ground at a slow beat and suddenly change the pace, accelerating it. They also emit messages in a clear or obscure language.

Sometimes, during the rotations, a member of the audience enters a trance. It is often claimed that the Komian has transmitted something to that person. Sometimes, the Komian touches a member of the audience to let them enter a state of trance. Kaolin powder and eggs from African chicks are thrown on the faces of the “possessed”, whether to free them from their trance or to help them deliver a message from beyond to the living.

In the light of Dr Lefebure’s discoveries, we can clarify certain facts that take place during these ceremonies.
During their public performance, the Komian practice several exercises related to the phenic system. First, it can be noted that the Komian almost only come out during sunny days. Unconsciously or not, as soon as they come out of the sanctuary, they gaze up towards the bright sky, as if they were checking the spirits were present. Without a doubt, the Komian do a phosphene at that moment. Indeed, their entire choreography is punctuated by that gesture.
Then, they perform something that could be called a rhythmic march, hitting hard the ground with their heel, thus making the bells tied to their feet ring. Hitting the ground with one’s foot stimulates the Osteophene, the phene related to the elastic properties of the skeleton, as well as the Myophene, the phene related to muscular activity. According to Dr LEFEBURE, any march or dance creates synchronizations between the cerebral hemispheres. That march is sometimes performed toward the musicians and sometimes toward the audience.
Consequently, hearing the sound of the tom-toms in turns in the right and the left ear, stimulates the Acouphene.

Finally, when the traditional priest performs rotations during the dance, the Gyrophene is stimulated, the phene related to the sense of balance. That provokes an amplification of the power of Kundalini. At that stage, the cerebral rhythms of the Komian are amplified so much that they can transmit rhythmic thoughts and stimulate subtle energies in other people: a thought, fantastic images, the perception of subtle planes or other phenomena. These ceremonies are genuine moments of transmission of energies through phosphenic telepathy and thus constitute an initiation.

We have just seen how an African priest sets into motion the entire phenic system.
Phosphenism, we can understand fully facts that used to be an arcane mystery which secret was kept by a caste of initiates.

Our african societies are often immersed in beliefs such as soul eaters, bewitchment…
School failure is often interpreted as caused by the jealousy of a third party who has accomplished a transfer of intelligence from one person to another…

At the beginning of the 21st century, though science has managed to explain, rationally, phenomena that, for a long time, were considered to belong to the metaphysical domain, Africa, for its part, still remains tied to certain beliefs. Though we certainly do not want to adopt a iconoclastic (1) attitude, we believe that it is the right time for evaluating certain futile beliefs, that nowadays can be called superstitions, and that have acted like a psychic poison on many Africans.
Though the governments have been able to draw borders in order to encircle populations tightly in certain determined territories, that did not actually build a tangible barrier between cultures and beliefs. Consequently, many African societies present similarities, on the historical, religious and cultural points of view.

From belief to superstition
It is a fact that African societies are organized in a community-style manner. And, when a child is born is such a society, he or she belongs to the entire community, from which he or she receives education. The life of the community, its social organization and its balance are based on both proven and unproven beliefs. Most of the times, these beliefs stem from tales and legends that are completely unrelated to direct experience.

In certain societies, the children of the same generation receive an initiation in a supposedly sacred forest, with the purpose of making adults out of them. It is said that they are transmitted knowledge that come from a long line of ancestors, though the keepers of the tradition certainly have an influence on that knowledge. That is why children grow up surrounded by multiple beliefs. Often, the candidate is not allowed to ask questions, for fear of frustrating the initiators or provoking the wrath of the ancestors. The individuals live in that fear. They are told of the existence of certain forces, of all kinds of genies, of a totemic system, of evil sorcerers who, when the night comes, transform themselves and eat the soul of innocent persons; and many more things.

In my village, located in the center of Ivory Coast, precisely in the town of Bouake, it was formally forbidden to fish in the river that ran across the village. However, because of the war, soldiers have made delicious soups out of its fishes and nothing wrong happened to them…

The irrational perception of the real
In Africa, the perception of the supernatural seems so natural that it is the natural that becomes supernatural. The consequence is that everyone always tries to find an irrational explanation to every phenomenon. And, when a satisfactory explanation cannot be found, the cause is attributed to the mood of a divinity, annoyed by the infringement of a customary law.

That is why an epidemic that strikes an entire village is considered as a sanction for the violation of a totemic system. Since 1997, in the west-central area of Ivory Coast, more precisely in the town of Daloa, cases of the Buruli ulcer (2) have broken out, provoking the invalidity of several children. The local populations have put down the cause of the disease to sorcerous spells rather than to a microbe living in nearby pools of water where the children bathe.

In Burundi, there have been massacres of albinos (3) because of the belief that certain of their organs can make one rich.

Today, the sudden death of an individual that appears perfectly healthy is put down to the works of a brotherhood of soul eaters; failure of a clever child at school or at an exam, is considered the responsibility of a jealous co-wife or uncle who has stolen their chances.

With the sole intention of finding an “irrational reason” to such events, people often have recourse, usually to confirm their own views and suspicions, to the services of a marabout, a medium or a komian (African priest) who often cannot be trusted. Consequently, it is not rare to hear people say: “I knew that it was so-and-so who was responsible for all our troubles”.

Sometimes, the deceased have to designate the persons they hold responsible for their death before being buried. So, today, in many African villages, the body of the deceased is carried around the village so that they can point out the individuals that have caused their death…

The consequences of superstition
– On a psychological level, we face a twisting of reality and a deviation of behavior in certain populations, including high-ranking executives who refuse to go back to their native village, under the pretext that a secret brotherhood will steal their soul.

– On a social level, any kind of failure is interpreted as the action of an occult hand: whether it is school failure due to a dysfunctional system of education, failure in the realization of a project, unemployment…

– On a global level of development of Africa, superstitions play an important blocking role. As Africa is still trying to comprehend certain subjects that are understood clearly scientifically in the West. Corollary to the above, Africa ends up outstripped by discoveries that would have allowed it to start a genuine development based on indisputable knowledge.

We feel that the development of Africa must start with a change of beliefs. And that this new beliefs should be based upon experimental data, rather than on speculations drawn from popular imagery.
We feel that the development of Africa must start with a change of beliefs. And that this new beliefs should be based upon experimental data, rather than on speculations drawn from popular imagery. It is also necessary to probe our inner world to discover by ourselves the divine potential that will allow us to know what is REAL.

To sum up: though certain beliefs have brought balance to our societies, many more have enslaved them. And the diffusion of Dr LEFEBURE’s magisterial works in our generation, will doubtlessly shatter certain taboos but will also contribute to the awakening of all Africa and of the new African.

(1) Iconoclastic: who attacks violently the established traditions.
(2) Buruli ulcer (BU): disease provoked by the infection of Mycobacterium ulcerans, is among the most neglected tropical diseases, though it can be treated. The causal agent belongs to the same family as the bacteria that are responsible for tuberculosis and leprosy.
(3) Albinism is a genetic disorder. This affection is characterized by the non-pigmentation of the skin.

KUNDALINI

The Sanskrit word kundalini means ‟coiled” or ‟coiled like a snake”. There are other translations like ‟the power of the snake” that illustrate the energetic nature of the concept. Certain authors suggest a connection between Kundalini and the Caduceus, a Greek symbol constituted by two coiled snakes.

The concept of Kundalini comes from the yogi philosophy of ancient India and is related to the motherly intelligence that governs spiritual awakening and maturation: Kundalini Shakti.

According to the Yogic tradition, Kundalini stems from the root chakras and is coiled three times and a half around the sacrum. The awakening of Kundalini is associated to the emergence of characteristic energetic phenomena, experienced by the yogi in a somatic way. The surge of this energy is a vibratory phenomenon that accompanies a period of spiritual development.

The most ancient references to Kundalini can be found in the Siva Sutras (8th century). Nevertheless, the concept of Kundalini dates back to much older times.

One of the first Europeans to introduce the concept of Kundalini into the West was Sir John Woodroffe, who wrote The Power of the Snake under the pen name of Arthur Avalon. Later, C.W. Leadbeater of the Theosophical Society and the psychologist C.G. Jung did a lot to popularize the concept.

Today, Kundalini can be considered as a popular concept, as it is widely refered to by the yoga and New Age circles (mainly thanks to the works of Gopi Krishna). Nevertheless, the popularization of the concept in the West has not particularly contributed to a genuine understanding of what Kundalini really is. Certain authors claim that Kundalini is a dangerous force, difficult to awaken. Others assert that only a handful of great initiates, hidden in the depths of Asia, are capable of transmitting this teaching for which the masses are unfit.

Shedding a new light on the subject, Doctor Francis Lefebure, a French physician and scientist, studied the physiological aspects of Kundalini and designed a device allowing its awakening on a scientific basis.

In his book From the Praying Wheel to the Spiritual Dynamo, Dr Lefebure presents the theoretical discoveries that have led him to the creation of the Gyrascope, the machine for awakening Kundalini. Dr Lefebure describes how anyone can build this device, that can produce the awakening of Kundalini with one hour of practice a day. The power of this awakening is of such magnitude that the experimenter will not doubt that it is the true Kundalini that they have experienced. The result is absolutely convincing. The subject can then stop practicing or further their spiritual develoment with the device.

Extract from the book From the Praying Wheel to the Spiritual Dynamo:

‟For the persons who are not familiar with the oriental traditions of Kundalini, let us say that it is a force that one is completely conscious of when it manifests itself. It even produces various states of hyper consciousness.

This force fundamentally assumes a WHIRLING ASPECT. It appears in the lower part of the trunk, approximately one or two centimeters above the perineum, and then rises.

Certain authors describe the rise of this force as a helical movement around the axis of the body, through the center of gravity, along a virtual vertical line.

According to other descriptions, it rises inside the spine, following its curves. This sensation is particularly surprising as one does not usually feel one’s spine. Nevertheless, we have been able to experience ‛something extraordinary’, a seemingly supernatural force, rising inside our spine, thanks to the exercises described in our book.

Various authors state that the surge of Kundalini ‛puts the chakras in motion’, i.e. the main organs of the first subtle body (called etheric body). The movement felt in the chakras being a rotation, a whirling, it thus seems that it is simply particular locations of the Kundalini, a veritable whirling of the mind.

We have stated that this force rises in a helical movement. This is important for our experiments and for our explanations about what happens when it reaches the head: a state of inner illumination arises, together with a purification of thoughts and feelings as well as the development of mental powers (…)”
It is by introducing rotations in one’s thoughts that Kundalini, whirling force, is activated. The dance of the whirling dervishes or the Tibetan praying wheels are based on the same rotational principle. The effect on the psyche is similar to a centrifugation. During the centrifugation of blood, for example, the heavier elements are pushed at the periphery by the centrifugal force when, as a reaction, the lighter elements (pure water, in the case of blood) are concentrated in the center of the device. The process is the same with consciousness and a genuine cleansing of thoughts and feelings takes place.