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KA To the ancient Egyptians ka was the vital force that infused everything - people, animals and plants. It was also part of the soul.

The precise meaning of ka is no longer clear to us, as ancient Egyptian ideas concerning soul and spirit refuse to fit into any traditional Western categories, but ka is generally portrayed in Egyptian art as a double or doppelganger that lingered on in the tomb inhabiting the body or even statues of the deceased.

KABBALAH Also Cabala, Kabala, Qabalah.
Ancient Jewish mystical tradition that refers to secret teachings handed down from teacher to pupil and promises spiritual enlightenment to those who follow it precepts. The Kabbalah is a doctrine of esoteric knowledge concerning God and the universe. It is largely mathematical in nature and concentrates on the configurations of magical words, anagrams, angel and demon names and the most holy, the secret name of God.

According to Jewish tradition the Kabalah was first taught to Adam by the Archangel Gabriel and passed on from 'mouth to ear' through a long chain of secrete initiates. The Zohar teaches that the ultimate godhead was Ein Sof ('without end'), a limitless being beyond all description.

In attempting to describe the attributes and essence of this god, Kabbalists conceived of their manifestation as 10 interlinking states of activity, called sephiroth, that humanity must achieved to attain wisdom. The sephiroth form the central image of Kabbalah meditation, the Tree of Life, and shoe the descent of the divine into the material world, and the path by which people can reach up to the divine while in their physical bodies. The first sephiroth, Kether, is the state of unity encompassing all the rest and is most closely associated with Yahweh; the remaining nine culminate in Malkuth, the physical world.

Today Kabbalah is enjoying a revival of interest. Thousands of people around the world are turning to the Kabbalah and finding in it a rich, meaningful spiritual practice, whose roots reach deep into the past, and whose path can help them find fulfillment and understanding in the here and now.

KARMA In Hinduism and Buddhism, karma is the sum of a person thoughts and actions, which are regarded as determining that person future states of existence. The law of karma originated in the Vedic system of religion. As a term, it can be traced right back to the early Upanishads, around 1500 BC.

In Hinduism karma literally means 'deed' or 'act', and describes the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction that governs all life. Karma is not fat, for man acts with free will and creates his own destiny. There are three types of karma: sanchita Karma, the sum total of past karmas yet to be resolved; prarabdha karma, that portion of sancit karma that is to be experienced in this life; and kriyamana karma, the karma that humans are currently creating that will bear fruit in the future. The playing out of karma can take place over many lifetimes.

People who undergo past life recall therapy often feel that their present circumstances are the result of actions taken in past lives. Although there are cases of anxieties and birthmarks corresponding to wound from alleged previous lives, scientific investigation of such cases shows no evidence to support karma. It has been suggested that feelings related to karma could be a result of cultural expectation concerning reward and punishment for good and bad deeds.

Western new age reinterpretation of karma us the concept to help explain the reason for misfortunes encountered in life. Karma is frequently cast as a sort of luck that is associated with virtue: if one does good or spiritually valuable acts, one deserves and can expect good luck; conversely, if one does harmful things, on can expect bad luck or unfortunate happenings.

KINESIOLOGY Developed by the American chiropractor Dr George Goodheart, applied kinesiology is a method of diagnosis and treatment that combines muscle-testing with the principles of traditional Chinese medicine to access energy function and bodily health. It claims to induce proper structural and chemical-nutritional organization in the body, as well as left and right brain balance. It also claims to evaluate and correct problems of the nervous, circulatory, lymphatic and skeletal musculature systems, thereby maintaining health. Its practices are believed to permit the even flow of cosmic energy throughout the body, thus nurturing individual organs and systems with the proper supply of chi energy. To be continued.

KIRLIAN PHOTO Controversial technique for photographing people, animals or objects in the presence of high frequency, high voltage, low amperage electrical field to produce photographs that show glowing, multicoloured emanations, said to be auras of biofields. The technique is named after its inventor, Russian Professor of Engineering, Semyan Kirlian.

Work with Kirlean photography continues with indications that it may have diagnostic potential. Experiments using Kirlean photographs to detect cancer and other forms of disease have been sporadically successful.

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS The largest and most power of the medieval Christian military orders, and one of the most powerful monastic societies in Europe.

The Order of the Knights Templars was founded in 1118, in the aftermath of the First Crusade, to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims who flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest.

KUNDALINI is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning either 'coiled up' or 'coiling like a snake', and refers to a psycho-spiritual energy said to be sleeping within the body, which can be awakened through spiritual illumination. There are a number of other translations of the term, usually emphasizing a more serpent nature to the word, e.g. 'serpent power'. The caduceus symbol of coiling snakes is thought to be an ancient symbolic representation of kundalini physiology.

The power of the kundalini awakening is said to be incredible and associated with bizzare physical sensations, pain, clairaudience, visions, psychical powers, ecstasy, bliss and transcendence of the self. The concept of kundalini is also associated with religious experiences of an altered state of consciousness brought about either spontaneously, or through spiritual practice or through a near death experience. Sometimes it is regarded by yogis as a sort of deity, hence the occasional capitalization of the term.

Kundalini is believed to open new pathways to the nervous system. The pain and extreme physical sensations associated with kundalini awakening is said to be due to the inability of the nervous system to cope with it all at once. Yogis stress that the body must be properly prepared for the shock through yoga, as an explosive awakening to someone unprepared for it can cause insanity or even prove fatal.

Western psychologists have determined that people can experience minor kundalini states. Symptoms may not occur all at once but build up gradually over a period of time, creating cycles of kundalini states when the individual thinks, feels and acts differently to normal. Symptoms include involuntary movements, pain, unusual breathing patterns, itching, vibrating sensation's, insomnia, hypersensitivity to environment, intensified sex drive, inability to think clearly, detachment, dissociation and out of body experiences. Symptoms can generally be alleviated through the introduction of a higher calorie diet and the cessation of meditation.

Scientific research has come to no definite conclusions concerning the nature of kundailini, due in part to its unpredictability and to the fact that many of its symptom's are hard to distinguish from those caused by mental illness and stress.

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