In kriya yoga, does talabya kriya (tongue stretching) work? What's the benefit?

[Psilocyborg]

I'm starting to work through Kriya Secrets Revealed and came upon this practice. I'm fine with adjusting and omitting certain practices slightly. I dont want to stretch my tongue if it won't lengthen much and generally not be very useful.

[_Archangel_]

@Psilocyborg I completely skipped Talabya in my practice. As i understand it facilitates concentration and steadiness of mind during prananyama.

I would suggest to implement it later, first you should establish your core techniques such as Mahamudra, Kriya Pranayama 1-2-3, Yoni Mudra, Concetration in the 3rd eye and i would add Mental Kriya aswell. In my experience these are the most important.
In the beginning I would also practice Om japa.

For when to begin using them and the number of repetitions you can simply follow the book.
Just don't cought up too much in the lesser techniques. Focus on the ones above, then you can add Talabya, Kumbakha etc. if you wont.
Then, after some months of practice, you can have a good idea of what works for you and what you can replace.

[Flyboy]

From an energetic perspective, getting the tongue into the nasal cavity all the way up to the soft nerve connection point to the pineal gland is THE most important part of the whole practice.  That being said, you should really carefully think twice about whether you WANT to provoke this energy before it is naturally ready to come out.  They're not kidding when they say that your energy body is full of blockages related to your stored conditioning / stress / issues.  If you force Kundalini to rise by creating this huge potential difference, it's like arcing electricity at high voltage -- you have no idea whether it will damage anything or take the wrong path (it's very dangerous unless it travels straight up the spine--if it arcs into one of the nadis you're really going to get messed up).  To me this feels like a dangerous "short cut" attempt to have some mystical experience.  You'd be far better off deepening insight with clarity and concentration, while working through your emotional / ego issues in parallel.  Such practice will gradually and holistically unblock your energy system as they progress.  When you're ready, Kundalini will arise naturally to help the process unfold (I think it acts kind of like a turbocharger).  This is much safer and healthier than skipping all that and going straight for it.