Hi Weaver:
The so-called delayed effects of excessive pranayama come in the form of various kundalini symptoms, like what has been described in the forum by several recently. The same effects as from the other means. They are all tied together.
It is not necessarily purification of the spinal nerve that causes this. It is the energy going elsewhere due to a buildup that is beyond what the spinal nerve can conduct between root and brow. This is right in line with your suggestion to wait for some clearing and clarity in the spinal nerve in spinal breathing before pressing too hard to awaken the energies further.
To clarify, it is not the tracing of the spinal nerve in pranayama that causes the potential difficulty. It is the restraint of breath that does so, especially kumbhaka, which is suspension of breath. But even slow breathing for long periods has a kumbhaka-like effect, because it produces a prana deficit in the nervous system that is ultimately responded to by the huge storehouse of prana in the pelvic region. This is a primary way that kundalini is awakened, in conjunction with the mudras and bandhas. Spinal breathing is both awakening the energy and opening the channel of the spinal nerve for it, so it is by far the safest and most effective means to conduct this operation. It clears the channel (spinal nerve) and awakens the energy at the same time. All other forms of pranayama (and kumbhaka) in AYP also incorporate spinal breathing (tracing the sushumna) for this reason.
The "doubling up" effect that is warned about has to do with adding more restraint of breath on top of the AYP basics, without spinal breathing incorporated. It may well be that opening of the spinal nerve (sushumna) achieved with the AYP methods can absorb additional energy flow from other causes -- but we do not know that for sure. We only find out when there is a buildup and a release (often time delayed), which can be quite uncomfortable. The caution on doubling up on restraint of breath is for that.
In the Secrets of Wilder, the discovery of spinal breathing came after extensive kumbhaka had been practiced which led to a major kundalini event that took a long time to recover from. The sushumna was not ready for this -- no spinal breathing. Once spinal breathing was discovered and added, the imbalance cleared up quickly and the capacity for energy flow was vastly increased, leading to a resolution of the kundalini issues and opening the door to tremendous progress toward enlightenment. This scenario mirrors what my own path was many years ago. In the case of John Wilder (and me) long time practice of deep meditation preceded the kundalini releases, which made the whole thing bearable (presence of the witness).
The Gopi Krishna case was similar except he instigated the release of kundalini using crown practice, ultimately far more problematic than the kumbhaka approach which tends toward more controllable imbalances. Crown practices can lead to far more chaotic situations, especially if there has been no work to open the spinal nerve, which was the case with Gopi Krishna. What made matters worse for him was the fact that he found no help -- he never did have a systematic approach involving spinal breathing, though he did ultimately use his attention to redirect the energies up the middle channel, which was a sort of poor man's spinal breathing approach.
It is very important for us to be having these conversations, so the process of energy awakening in the nervous system can be fully understood and the most effective means for promoting and managing it applied.
Weaver, the formula is
as you suggested: Take it one step at a time, beginning with deep meditation, adding spinal breathing when ready, then looking for signs of spinal nerve (sushumna) clearing and conductivity before charging ahead, self-pace, and, of course, have fun! It does not have to be a perilous journey if one is familiar with the parameters and observes good common sense in applying the means for purification and opening.
The guru is in you.
