What is the “Sat Force” as promoted by Sat Shree?
This is a very important question because the combination of feeling an energetic stimulation when meditating with Sat Shree—and Sat Shree’s claim that this “force” is what everyone needs to quicken their spiritual journey—attracts and binds people to him as a guru.
When dealing with esoteric, energetic matters, our modern culture recognizes no established accepted science or paradigm. There are many models. We are all called to use our spiritual discernment and inner experience to create a coherent context or “view” of the world in which we find ourselves. What follows is such a view, which is informed by study with the late Swami Chandrasekharanand Saraswati, a jivanmukta and holder of a 500-year lineage in the science of Kundalini Vidya. More about this science can be learned from the books of Joan “Shivarpita” Harrigan.
What is “Sat” and “Kundalini Shakti”?
Sat is the all-pervading, absolute, universal, indestructible, indefinable, fixed and eternal reality or truth. Sat is uncreated, indivisible and indistinguishable. It is the essential nature of the universal, supreme reality, the ultimate and the highest state, which is described in the Vedas as Brahman.
Sat is unmanifest. All manifestation is in duality, and Sat is undifferentiated Oneness without a second. Sat is not a force. Brahman (or Sat) is the source, and Kundalini Shakti (Prakriti) is the force. Our spiritual evolution is the province of Kundalini Shakti, the vast intelligence of creation. The movement of Kundalini Shakti is far too subtle to be experienced in the physical or subtle body. The subtle body, however, is a network of the processes of Kundalini Shakti; the pranas and vayus. When one has energetic “spiritual experiences”, one is feeling movement in the vayus, and possibly the movement of prana.
The Problem of a Deflected Initial Rising of Kundalini Shakti
If one is properly prepared spiritually for the initial rising of Kundalini Shakti (KS) from the Muladhara Chakra (root chakra), KS will generally rise in the central channel (Sushumna Nadi) either with a partial rising to the Anahata Chakra (heart chakra), or a stable rising to the Vishudda Chakra (throat chakra) or beyond to Ajna Chakra (the brow or third eye). If the rising of Kundalini Shakti is precipitated by trauma, a planned or unplanned intense experience or life shock, the route up the central channel may be blocked, and the rising deflected into either Vajra Nadi or Saraswati Nadi.
Scot Barbour (Sat Shree) has all the signs of an individual in a deflected Vajra Nadi rising. From this nadi, there can be no culmination of process, no true realization. What happens instead is that KS will rise up to Sahasrara, the 1000 Petaled Lotus, where she opens and stimulates brain centers. Then, she falls back to Muladhara. This process repeats intermittently, and the individual can develop insights and awareness and temporary or lasting powers (siddhis). Individuals with a Vajra rising tend to be charismatic, forceful, compelling, and often have the capacity to “stir the vayus”. This means that they can focus energy to directly impact your subtle body.
The Powers that can be Activated with a Vajra Nadi Rising
Vajra nadi’s origin is in Svadhisthana (genital chakra) and is associated with Vyana vayu, which is what emanates outwards as the auric field. The special charge with a Vajra rising gives people like Scot a great capacity to attract and seduce others, and it allows them to merge with another’s auric field. Because of its origin in the genital chakra, this energy is somewhat sexualized, impacting the whole body with what some experience as a thrilling sensation. Scot can direct energy that will find receptive centers in those who seek him out, and they may have “big experiences”. If there has been trauma or wounding, or if there are intense desires (including a rajasic desire for enlightenment or liberation), the subtle body will be more porous to this “force”.
It is interesting that very advanced souls have reported feeling nothing when meditating with Sat Shree. A highly advanced or realized being is immune to this probing, stimulating force, as their subtle body is strong, in equilibrium, and not compromised by the vulnerabilities of attraction and desire, or fear and repulsion. If subjected to attempted “merging”, however, they will likely feel dis-ease, and close their auric field.
This directed, manipulative force emanating from the deflected Vajra sender’s second chakra and vyana vayu is what Scot calls “the Sat Force”. He chose that description of what’s happening because that’s what he has made himself believe is happening. He has deluded himself and many others. Intense energetic experiences can be manufactured and manipulated by non-spiritual beings, and they can be as addictive as crack cocaine. And, they are not directly related to spiritual progress, or spiritual transformation. The drama of such experiences disturbs the highest state, which is equanimity. This drama and experience in the body however, can feel like evidence, or proof, that something is really going on in someone’s spiritual life. It may enliven their aspiration and charge—or recharge—their commitment to spiritual practice. Many who have come to Sat Shree have a long history of working with a variety of spiritual teachers and gurus. His “Sat Force” may seem like the special ingredient that had previously been missing in their spiritual endeavors.
Spiritual Growth: Grace and the Seeker’s Own Love, Attention, and Sincerity
What is particularly confounding is that when the vayus are “stirred” and aspiration is heightened each seeker may bring forth their own great love, attention, and sincerity. They can and do make progress; having insights, transforming old patterns, and moving towards a greater presence. And, an individual’s fully engaged presence may well invite an outpouring of true grace unrelated to Sat Shree’s directed vajra force. Many former students, while decrying the distortion and manipulation experienced in regard to their families, friends, and finances, or their broad shock and disgust at the Sat Shree’s treatment of others, still acknowledge positive aspects to their time with Sat Shree. Many have loved the community that formed around New Dharma, and many have deepened their spiritual life.
Living “As If” and Holding onto Experience
Scot (Sat Shree) teaches from his own experience. So, he teaches about how to try to “hold” your spiritual experiences because he has a lifetime of losing them. Again and again he says something like instead of having your experiences come and go, they will come and grow. This relates to his inner experience of having brilliant insights and flashy experiences, which then fade when KS drops back to the root chakra. He has learned to live “as if” these insights were lived in him daily: he lives from memory of his experiences, not in a fluid emerging “now.” This assessment of his rising was confirmed for me when he returned from his first trip to Rishikesh in many years. He described crossing the bridge over the Ganges and experiencing the same incredible experience he had had so many years before. He was overcome and weeping as he told us that “it was the same!” His deflected, unstable rising had at last given him another glimpse of an earlier, veiled realization. When there is realization in the central channel, KS progresses upward through Sushumna to Bindu and beyond, and you are not repeatedly thrown back to the energies of the first and second chakras. Your spiritual progress will provide challenges, but there will be stability and grace.
In Vajra Nadi, the experiences come and go, and the deepest longing for union and eventual dissolution in the Absolute is not satisfied. And, the individual, in this case Scot, is still living from an egoic structure of tamas and rajas. Scot desires to be and manifest as a great world teacher. New Dharma was never primarily about assisting seekers or seers in their personal journeys. From the website: “Our ultimate purpose is to create a base by which the teachings of Sat Shree can go into the World to open the way for a New Humanity”. Also from the website: “If enough come, then (the) purpose for my existence will be fulfilled.” That’s some serious pressure on fund-raising and recruitment.
Sat Shree’s Limited, Flawed, Human “Vehicle”
Sat Shree, on his website, discusses how when God illuminates and transmits through a person, the manifestation of that transmission will be shaped by the vehicle (the human being) and its limitations. Under the pressure of the revelations about his abuse, manipulation, and lack of integrity, he is also finding a bit more truth about his own limitations. On August 2nd , 2022 he confessed some of them—acknowledging his flawed vehicle:
“I doubt myself and my motives. I am weak. I am a coward. I don’t have faith in my own experience. I do not live in my true heart; I am afraid of the immediacy. I get overwhelmed easily in conflict. Any one of these diminish my capacity to manifest. I am human. I have succeeded in being fully human. Congratulations, I’m with you, we qualified. We made it. We’re fully f**ked up. “
This saddens us. Our group of former students replies with this:
“We suggest that Sat Shree speak for himself. Embracing our humanness, many of us actually stand in our authentic nature, act on our own authority, acknowledge and make amends when we make mistakes, and delight in the immediacy of each moment with hearts full of presence. We hope he finds his way.”
Sat Shree’s “Sat Force” is a powerful marketing tool as he searches for “enough people to come to fulfill his existence”. It is important to understand what it is not.