Well some things I do find out on my own but this is a topic I've been thinking about for a while now and the only answer I have so far was to ask here.
SI, to me it was effective. that is, after reading the lessons, I was able to perform kryia correctly, as I ascertained during an initiation and a revision by a monk.
The explanations in the lessons are pretty clear.
You may start on your own and have yourself checked by a monk as soon as the opportunity arises.
While this is true it should be added that unlike everything else there is to learn in the SRF lessons a requirement of Kriya Yoga is accepting Paramahansa Yogananda as your Guru. This comes with many ideas of what loyalty means and what SRFers think and interpret loyalty to mean. Also what Paramahansa actually meant by having this requirement. Many other Gurus do not require this commitment for their meditation techniques.
