I tried Kerchari for fun and can reach till stage 3 without snipping,but there is no esctastic sensation whatsoever, just a blocked nose feeling. Is it when my Pranayama becomes more established - then I will automatically get the feeling ?
Should I start to milk my tongue now to reach stage 4 ?
Current Progress
Edmund - My recommendation is to go slowly with this. Sometimes (often!) there is a delayed reaction in the nervous system as it gets used to a new mudra, especially a powerful one like this. Take plenty of time to settle into stage 3, and let everything stabilize. Just because you don’t feel anything doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot going on. You’re fortunate to have a tongue that moves into kechari so easily!
Edmund, don’t rush!
First of all the experience in kechari is likely to be a sense of strain or dicomfort before your tongue and throat and breathing area are able to release enough to get to the actual benefits. This can take some time (months or years most likely). since you can get to stage 3, I would now try to relieve that blocked feeling and learn to rest the tongue in the nasopharynx without discomfort and just make the practice a routine. Maybe lengthen your pranayama practice to 10 minutes in kechari and just get accustomed to the territory. Its wonderful that you can do kechari but you haven’t been practicing long enough to likely experience anything more than your nervous system reacting to a new habit pattern. As for stage 4, I wouldn’t worry about it for a few years
how does anyone even know when they are ready for kechari? do we wait til the tongue naturally goes back or do we initiate it? is one year or less too early?
Hey Edmund, what kind of activity have you been experiencing in the neck and throat area prior to? You mentioned that you tried it for fun, was it stemming from any ecstatic sensation in that region of the body?
If the tongue was being pulled up, or the neck and head become alive with prana, then you probably have a good bit inside that will need processed. And that doesn’t mean it will be unpleasant, just observe yourself with a keen eye. Learn all you can. This first experience is exciting, so enjoy feeling of expanding your horizon.
If there wasn’t a lot of ecstatic conductivity, it could have less of an impact. But holding the tongue up that far is not easy, physically the region should be broken down. As it heals the muscles will be stronger, and the chi will have made the connection and will naturally move upward more and more.
Curiosity leads you there and stops, then inner silence takes over and allows the body to do what it does without our interference. So keep being curious, yielding, and pacing.