hi sage, and welcome 
.
nice argument it reminds me of a beautiful vid with a wonderful sage in it which i saw on youtube yesterday and he said smthg about what you mentioned.
take a look at it, this is nice to see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta1cZYXMShI
Love,
Ananda
Ananda,Im watching now the videos from your first post and they are incredible.Specialy when he recieves the mantra form his guru and starts crying.When he calls the name of shiva…wow…i felt it inside me.Then he begins to enter in a trance state of inmense joy and bliss.Incredible.Thanks Ananda.
Miguel, that’s the bit that stuck in my mind as well. A really powerful image. Like you, I felt it deep inside me.
Another quite good film on sadhu life in general - there are a couple of aghoris in there - is Naked in Ashes http://www.nakedinashes.com (which is finally on Netflix, for all you Americans). It doesn’t have the focus of the aghori film and certainly not the sensationalism of the flesh-eating piece on YouTube, but it’s stirring and sort of whistful: the sadhus’ otherworldliness confronting the madness of modern wired culture and realizing it is losing the battle.
Meanwhile, as soon as the weather clears up (and the kids are at school, and the neighbors aren’t looking) I’m going to experiment with ashes. I’ve got to get it out of my system, for whatever reason… 
Hi grihastha ,
After writing the last post i continued watching the you tube videos,and i dont know why exactly,but after watching all the videos i began to feel very bad feelings.Probably due to a shock with my westlife environment…I began to feel that specially when some people in the video criticize his life stile,and when his guru says that that the agori looks like a dark man and things like that…
Thanks for the link to that video.It seems really amazing.
And after your experiment with ashes,it would be much apreciated a report here of the experience (If you want and if you have an interesting experience from it… 
.I cant imagine what are you thinking to do exactly ,which procedure will you follow, but sounds amazing…
all the best and good luck.
Hi Miguel, always good to have your light presence around .
namaste brother,
Ananda
grihastha , i think that we are very lucky to have someone like yourself around this post and would like it if you could share some good sources such as books and movies on aghories and kapalika and if i wasn’t drawn from the inside to this stuff i wouldn’t be posting all this 
.
but i must admit openly that even though i am tempted i won’t and don’t think i can follow a life like that of an aghor.
i’ve seen the movie naked in ashes and recommended it in the movies topic in the forums.
this is smthg which might interest you, i haven’t seen it yet (take a look at the reviews): http://www.amazon.com/Thread-Yoga-Sivananda/dp/B000TB1X6K
by the way you mentioned smthg about “Dom” in your first post, could you elaborate some more on this point for i can’t find anything about them.
and would like your opinion on Svoboda’s books.
and would love to hear some feedback from you on the “ashes” part.
kindest regards,
Ananda
Thanks for your light here also, ananda.
Good luck
i wouldn’t say that if i didn’t sense the goodness in you brother miguel.
you are a kind soul, keep on the good you’re doing.
love,
Ananda
Many thanks for your welcome, Ananda. This is a special place. I’m really grateful I’ve found you all.
I read the first Svoboda. I thought it was fascinating, it gave me some genuine insights and sent my practice down some interesting channels. Then I gave it away… I found Vimalananda extremely engaging, but in the end - and this is part of my own spiritual confusion really - I couldn’t accept the aspect of Aghor that is, essentially, pure old fashioned magic. Curses, moving through space, powers. I’ve never wanted any power for myself other than the strength to crawl into my Mother’s lap. I know that in India Aghoris - and Tantrikas in general - are often regarded as having mystical, magical powers, affective powers (curse my neighbour, make my cow fertile) and this certainly isn’t - necessarily - fair. In the 6-part YouTube film, though, the guru is explicitly a sort of witch-doctor. He is regarded as dealing with, and controlling, unseen, presumably demonic forces. Which is fascinating, but very definitely ‘scenery’ and completely at odds with any kind of non-dual worldview.
It would be interesting to know if it’s always been so. The original Kapalikas carried skulls in imitation of Lord Shiva, who carried one as penance for killing a Brahmin. They also, apparently, indulged in sex rites, cannibalism, corpse sadhana etc etc, and this they passed on to the Kaulas, who we know much more about. That so much Tantric imagery has to do with the smashan makes me believe that these rituals were purely Tantric - ie ‘magic’ for the initiate’s mind, to help him/her attain jivanmukti.
I don’t know a whole lot about this. It’s mostly what I’ve picked up over a lifetime’s fascination with the subject. Like you, Ananda, I’m drawn to it from the inside. I’m a devotee of Kali, but I’m extremely attracted by two of her manifestations: Smashan Tara and Chandalini, who in turn is an aspect of Matangi, one of the Mahavidyas. A Chandalini is a female cremation worker (the Doms are the caste that work in the cremation grounds), so she’s the Goddess as outcaste, as untouchable, who deals with defilement and the end of life, but who also, as an aspect of Matangi, rules over speech and the creative powers. Matangi has been called the Tantric Saraswati, as has Tara, in her aspect as Nila Saraswati, who is virtually indistinguishable from Matangi… It’s complicated! Some uselful links, if anyone’s interested:
http://www.shaktisadhana.org/Newhomepage/shakti/maatangi.html
http://shaktisadhana.50megs.com/Newhomepage/Resource/essays/matangi.html
http://www.geocities.com/rigvedsamhita/matangi.htm
Meanwhile I’ve simply always (as long as I can remember, probably since I was 5 or 6) been attracted by skulls, cremation grounds (specifically: not graveyards particularly or anything Gothic. I loathe horror movies!) and the sadhu lifestyle, but as I’m well and truly a householder right now my experiments will have to be limited to the back garden. I will definitely, faithfully report anything that happens, or doesn’t happen, most likely having to sign a Fedex slip while stark naked and smeared with bonfire ash :-0…
I’m trying to find something inside me, though, and as a Tantrika I’m following my instinct that these forms and symbols are some sort of key. And if they turn out to be more scenery, well…
Love!
Thanks ananda,for you kind words.
Light and love.
thk you for the links grihastha and i appreciate your opinions, honestly speaking all this talk about aghories and siddhars like usual makes me dream of one of them.
the talk yesterday and the mixture of samyama practice on the whole body b4 sleep last night (smthg i do every once and then) made me dream of an aghorie which i saw near a river and was supposedly my master than he entered a cave and told me to wait outside.
after that when i was coming to look inside the cave (from the outside) i heard a powerful sound saying to me you are HELUK than suddenly i started chanting HA HA HA HELUK repeatedly and instead of a sound from the cave i started to hear strong powerful heartbeats and after that i pulled back and there was a slide into another dream 
.
no need to go to India, got all the aghor i want on my pillow
love,
Ananda
Great dream, Ananda… If the guru is in you, then maybe India is too!
Love!
(India is in me, I think - especially as I cooked saag gosht and dal last night!)
Love!
hi grihastha, it remains just a dream but it seems that i have done some heavy heart opening with samyama yesterday b4 sleep.
the universe is in youmacrocosm inside the microcosmas above so below .
namaste,
Ananda
Hi Ananda,
Actually this is really strange, relating to your dream: this morning I checked my emails and what should I find but a message from a Tantric master and Aghori in India whom I’ve been trying to contact for months… He does live in the Himalayas (but not in a cave, as far as I know!).
Very odd - and it only just sunk in.
Love,
Grihastha
dear grihastha, say hello from my behalf next time you interact with that Aghori.
peace