I don't know if we can say "BK meditation is a cross-section of a number of techniques" as that suggests it is equally safe, equally understood, equally explained and as competantly practised as traditional practises.
I would clearly argue that it is not (
and that it does not appear to be having a significant effect on its oldest practioners), partly because of the nature of practise - all the spiritualistic element (
invoking possession by other unenlightened spirits etc) - and, partly because of the context. The BK collective.
And I don't think Lekhraj Kirpalani was as enlightened as you are about other practises to see or know any other roots or similarity, or pick and choose any potential beneficial elements.
As far as I can see, Lekhraj Kirpalani was having some kind of mid-life crisis - let us suspect;
a) for having achieved vast material wealth but still being unsatisfied; and
b) being unsatified in love/marriage (hence his marriage to his young paramour Om Radhe)
- and went to some saddhu handing him a fortune for an initiation into some kind of siddhi (
this is what the history says); had his mind blown but did not understand how or why or had any framework to deal with it, i.e. was not part of any religious tradition; and, was potentially was empowered by said siddhi ... seemingly the ability to send people into trance and have visions. Possibly - if one believes in such things - he opened up as a 'spirit medium' to other spirits for them to work through (
again what the BKs claim). But not understanding it either.
We know now for sure there was no God Shiva until after 1955, so for the first 20 years there was nothing but his charisma and the psychic seances going on. There is some record of the nature of those seances.
I would say the nature of seances are much more different from the meditation forms you list above.
Now, Friend's question relates to the present day practises and how it evolved.
I think part of that ... the guided meditation of the soul leaving the body and travelling up into space etc, only dates back the likes of Jayanti's and Diane's involvement (
this needs to be confirmed).
By the 1950s, the likes of Jagdish, Nirwair and other older/more educated Brothers had become involved ... the question arises how much did they bring, and how much was adopted from outside? I don't know. Elements of influence arise in the Murlis. How the meditation practise evolved, and through which stages, I don't know.
I think there is one other element you miss out in your summary, Pink, and that is the similarity between BK practises and hypnosis or self-hypnosis.
One would have to
a) ask Jayanti where she got that from, and
b) look at what went and goes on in India.
Again, I don't actually know and, shamefully, it's not documented by the BKs.
I would argue that the early days of trance induction involved some Mesmeric hypnotic element (specifically namechecking
Franz Anton Mesmer, the famous Western hypnotist of the same era), and that a similar hypnotic effect was developed, again, most obviously, or in a most polish manner, within the early trance tapes Jayanti and her followers produced.
How much of the early practise was no practise at all, just sitting patiently witnessing the mediumship and waiting?
It's far to say the early Om Mandlites were not intellectually developed and so, one presumes, it was all done by feelings. They were feeling the light and bliss and remember it without a clear visualisation of its source as being a point.
I have BKs argue that the idea of a living supreme being being infinite point was *far* too conceptual for backward Indians and, hence, they took 20 odd years to get there. Or to have their "Krishna Bhakti" beaten or eroded out of them.
The BKs buff themselves up a lot about the tapasya or "bhatti" period of "intense" meditations and preparation. I doubt it very much. Clearly they are presenting a polished up revision of what actually went on. I suspect it was years of not very much at all. Not even the formalised day to day practise they have now.
In fact, I'd suspect was probably just 20 years of stupid. Boredom, doing housework, getting on each other nerves and nervous about running out of money; and sitting at the top of the hill waiting for the Destruction which did not happen in 1950 to happen.
I'd say there's no real evidence of anything else. I don't see them as psychic argonauts mapping out their interiors.
Who added in Shiva to the mix when they already had every other major Vaishnavite deities? Was it just marketing to attract potential Shavites devotees too?