by Barbara Bottner and C. Montana
“Joy is our natural state,” says
Rohanna Salom, doctor of Oriental
Medicine in Valley Village,
California. “But we seem to have
forgotten our true nature.”
Of all the 21 st century
organizations working to heal this
condition, one of the newest and
largest is undoubtedly the Oneness
Movement, started in Chennai, India
in 1991 by twin avatars Sri Bhagavan
and Sri Amma. The declared intent of
the Oneness Movement is to uplift
humanity’s consciousness from a
state of chronic separation and
suffering into a state of
enlightenment - the awareness of
wholeness and oneness – mainly
through an energy transmission
process called the Oneness Blessing
or Oneness Deeksha. Currently
acknowledged as teachers and
bringers of enlightenment and
god-realization by more than 20
million adherents around the world,
Sri Bhagavan and Sri Amma’s goal is
to bring enlightenment to a minimum
of 64,000 people worldwide by the
year 2012.
The primary methodology to
accomplish this is Oneness Deeksha,
a transmission of the energy or
frequency state of enlightened
oneness, which often takes the form
of a laying on of hands. The
transmission, which is accomplished
by a trained initiate who has
undergone a 21 Day Process at the
Oneness University near Chennai, is
designed to re-pattern neural
functioning in the brain, and thus
create a shift in thought processes
and the dissolution of personal
perceptual filters that foster the
illusion of separateness.
Since 2003 millions of
individuals around the world have
received the Oneness Blessings or
Deeksha on an ongoing basis.
Although those attracted to
participate in Oneness Movement
workshops and experience Oneness
Blessings are advised that a lasting
experience of oneness rarely happens
instantly and that it doesn’t
automatically occur in everyone,
most report that their participation
has resulted in significant change
in their lives in terms of
peacefulness and an ability to
co-exist with others more
harmoniously.
This increasingly peaceful state
probably doesn’t match most
Westerners expectations when they
hear the terms “enlightenment and
god-realization,” but according to
Sri Raniji, Oneness Movement lay
Spiritual Leader of North America,
the state of oneness is really “a
non-mystical state of mind that is
the constant recognition of the
reality of connectedness.”
Pauline Bauman, a former
naturopathic physician from Ashland,
Oregon who has been to Chennai and
regularly gives the Oneness Deeksha
to others, agrees. “This is not all
exotic and mystical and that sort of
thing,” she says. “It’s about
becoming functionally awakened.”
World peace - One person at a
time
The Oneness University campus
The Oneness
University at Batthalavallam, 70 km
outside Chennai (formerly Madras) in
southeast India is close to the
movement’s headquarters in what is
now known as the Golden City. Called
“the university of universities” by
Sri Bhagavan, its purpose is to
assist individuals to become true
human beings and realize the
connectedness of all life. The
Oneness Blessing or Oneness Deeksha
is the primary tool used to
accomplish this.
But what exactly is Oneness
Deeksha and how does it work? Sri
Bhagavan explains that the energy
transmission actually dampens down
parietal lobe activity while
enhancing frontal lobe activity in
the brain. German Ph.D. biochemist
Christian Optiz, who has performed
extensive brain scans on individuals
before and after Oneness Deeksha,
concurs with Bhagavan’s explanation.
Utilizing an advanced
electromagnetic frequency diagnostic
device developed at the University
of Milan, Opitz established
individual’s baseline brain
functions, then retested individuals
after the Oneness Deeksha had been
given. His tests showed significant,
replicable shifts in subjects’ brain
activity and striking changes in
certain areas of the brain.
“I checked what Bhagavan was
saying against what I could measure
about the deactivation of the
parietal lobes and the activation of
the frontal lobes,” says Opitz. “And
I found that this was really true;
that in people who had received a
substantial amount of Deeksha, the
parietal lobes were so much more
quiet than the frontal lobes, which
were so much more activated - and
always with a slight dominance of
the left frontal lobe.”
As Opitz determined a consistent
pattern, he expanded his
investigations to include studying
the wave forms that participants’
DNA emanated. Apparently, the wave
forms increase in strength as a
person continues to receive the
enlightened transmissions, which are
frequently described as a golden
ball of energy descending into the
head. He found that the reptilian
brain, or brain stem, which holds
much of our primitive fight or
flight responses, was quieted
through administration of Deeksha.
He also measured growth in certain
brain centers.
“In some of the dhasas (direct
disciples of Bhagavan and Amma) in
India, I measured their septum
pellucidum, which is also called the
brain’s joy center, and it was huge.
I mean, I've never seen anything
like that. It's a brain center
that's under-active in most people,
and it's severely shrunk in people
who are depressed. It grows when
real joy becomes a basic experience
of the person's life.”
Opitz’s tests also seem to
indicate that, unlike results of
similar investigations monitoring
long-term meditators and people who
do other kinds of energy work, the
effects of Deeksha appear to be
permanent. Rev. Dr. Michael Milner,
who is an ordained a Taoist and a
Christian minister, has written
about his experiences at the Oneness
University and the effects of
Deeksha over the years. “ As I
continued to receive the Oneness
every week, bad habits and
addictions began to simply fall
away. Annoying thoughts and feelings
couldn’t “stick” to me like they
used to. There were so many changes…
painful memories, thoughts and
aspects of personality have simply
lost their “charge.” They just don’t
cause suffering any more, because
the ‘person’ who suffered, the
suffering ‘self,’ is no longer
there.”
A non-sectarian, non-religious
organization, The Oneness Movement
has centers throughout the world.
But so far, nowhere is the impact of
the movement’s focus more apparent
than near its home base in Chennai.
Anandagiriji, who was
one of the three main disciples of AmmaBhagavan, was 12 years old when
he joined the original residential
School Jeevashram, founded and run
by Sri Amma Bhagavan. When he was14
he began to receive Oneness Deeksha.
Today Sri Anandagiriji heads up the
Oneness Movement in India. He also
manages a rural development project
called the “100 Village Project” and
many other social development
projects in and around the vicinity
of the Oneness University. The “100
village project” is primarily aimed
at achieving social development
through spiritual transformation in
the 100 odd villages surrounding the
Oneness University headquarters. The
guides of the Oneness University
travel around these villages
conducting Oneness Blessing events
to raise the levels of consciousness
of all the villagers. To date most
who travel in this region note
increased levels of cooperation,
happiness, prosperity and
fulfillment in these villagers.
But the global impact of the
Oneness Movement is spreading
rapidly. When the largest structure
at the Golden City, the Oneness
Temple, reaches completion it just
might make a quantum leap. A mammoth
three floor marble structure twenty
times the size of the Taj Mahal, the
Oneness Temple was designed by Sri
Bhagavan for many functions. But one
of the most important will take
place in the great hall where 8,000
people will meditate together
non-stop, specifically with the
intent of influencing the
morphogenetic fields across the
earth helping to elevate the
consciousness of humankind.
For those familiar with studies
about the effects of meditation done
by John Davies, Ph.D. co-director of
Partners in Conflict and Partners in
Peacebuilding Projects, and the work
of quantum physicist John Hagelin,
Ph.D. Director of the Institute of
Science, Technology and Public
Policy at the Peace University in
Fairfield, Iowa, this shouldn’t
sound like science fiction. And the
number 8,000 should ring a bell. It
is, roughly, the square root of one
percent of the world’s current
population of 6.5 billion, which is
the number calculated by Hagelin’s
staff during years of research on
the field effects of meditation, as
the minimum number of people
necessary to affect the
morphogenetic fields of human
consciousness worldwide and trigger
a paradigm shift. Sri Anandagiriji
and Sri Raniji also travel around
the world, attending conferences and
Oneness Movement events, and
coordinating with other Deeksha
givers, spreading the Oneness
Blessing . On June 17th, in Los
Angeles, the public is invited to
attend the largest gathering of
Oneness Blessing givers ever held in
the world. This will be a day of
intense experience of the Divine,
intelligent energy, healing, and
breakthroughs from personal
suffering. This exceptional
opportunity is rendered even more
unique because of the appearance of Anandagiriji,
Presentations will also be given
by Sri Raniji. Tony Robbins,
regarded as the father of
life-coaching, who has impacted the
lives of millions of people around
the world through his workshops,
books and tapes, is now affiliated
with the Oneness University and will
also present.
The June 17th event is
non-denominational and non-sectarian
and will be held at the
L.A. Convention Center starting at 8
a.m. The public is welcomed. Bring
your drums and musical instruments
to join in a healing drum circle
lead by Rick Allen, drummer of the
Def Leppard band.