In this article, I’m going to share with you my research about the phenomenon of kundalini.

I experienced the awakening of kundalini, and it was an experience I wasn’t prepared for. During the awakening, my core Catholic beliefs kicked in, and I totally demonized what I was going through.

It’s difficult to find truly reliable information about this phenomenon, because usually those who write about it never went through this experience.

As a result of my awakening, I came to the conclusion that teachers and texts encouraging artificial awakening of this energy put people into grave danger.

It’s better to live a pure and moral life, and allow kundalini energy to naturally rise. Because when you do specific exercises for its opening, this energy will forcefully leave you through your crown chakra, opening you up to all sorts of influences. This leaves you vulnerable. I believe some cults encourage this awakening, because when the crown chakra is open, it’s easy to get in control of such individuals.

I misunderstood what had happened to me because I was not fully knowledgeable of this phenomenon. When I started going through spiritually dark experiences, my old religious beliefs kicked in (which were inherited from past generations), and I wished I would have never awakened that power in me. It took me several years to fully reintegrate myself.

It’s much easier to go through a kundalini awakening when you aren’t from a Christian culture. This will save you from demonizing the darker parts of the experience, during which you go through internal cleansing. Without getting frightened by various internal phenomena, you’ll complete your reintegration much faster.

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In this article, I will share with you my research into this phenomenon, so that you’re better prepared and your kundalini awakening goes much more smoothly.

This post will be useful for those going through this awakening process or who are interested in what this process is.

Gopi Krishna’s awakening experience

My most favorite book on kundalini so far is written by Gopi Krishna and is called Kundalini: Path to Higher Consciousness. He experienced this awakening in a similar way to my own. He was completely unprepared for it, and he got totally frightened when this happened to him.

He wrote several more books about kundalini, such as Living with Kundalini which I recommend everyone to read before getting themselves into this process, and Kundalini: the Evolutionary Energy in Man, which provides more details about what kundalini is.

Only later, when the kundalini benefits started materializing, did he realize that his conclusions about his awakening experiences were wrong, and slowly the love for everything spiritual came back. So this is almost an identical story to my spiritual awakening.

Scientific Opinion About the Kundalini Phenomena

Kundalini Rising, the book written by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa and other authors, is a collection of essays from PhDs and MDs on the phenomena of kundalini.

It’s a good reading for those wishing to gain more scientific and medical insight into this biological happening. Here I will extensively quote from this book as well as comment on the quoted passages. The quoted passages will be in italics.

The nature of kundalini

While kundalini is most often associated with the snake, the term itself in Sanskrit stands for “that which is coiled”. 

So kundalini doesn’t meant a snake but “that which is coiled”. People personalize it and say it’s a snake.

In traditional Hindu mythology, kundalini is sometimes referred to as a “goddess”. A fierce and powerful energy that works according to her own sense of timing and the evolutionary needs of the situation. Her movement through the body can be thunderous, destroying whatever energetic attachment is obstructing her free-flow. 

This can cause a person with Christian beliefs to demonize the clearing, thinking it’s demon possession or negative spirit activity.

Indeed, I did not even know anyone who engaged in such esoteric pursuits. As a university professor of English and Women’s studies, I had lived primarily in my head with virtually no awareness of the inner energies and the life of the spirit they engaged.

This university professor had nothing to do with Hinduism, yet kundalini awakened in her. I found this frequently to be the case throughout the books I read. People who had no connection with Hinduism experienced kundalini awakening when they had near-death experiences, childbirths or critical illnesses.

Some individuals have awakened this universal power when they spiritually matured, even though they might have never heard of yoga, meditation, or other Eastern spiritual practices.

Bioelectrical energy

Those most informed on the subject hold kundalini to be the bio-electrical energy of the physical body and the creative energy of the universe as a whole.

That’s how I perceive it as well. It’s just the energy of the body. It’s not some external energy. It is always within you. When you mature enough, it awakens.

For most people this energy typically operates by itself well below the threshold of consciousness.

Some of that energy sustains life and makes organs work. In those who are awakened, this energy starts working full-force.

The Intelligent force of nature

It’s the elemental life force, what keeps us going for as long as we are alive. Generally it is believed that pain results when there are blockages, that is the constrictions in mind, body, emotions or psyche. People with major unresolved psychological issues as well as those with serious physical challenges may be especially at risk. As the kundalini works through the system it flushes out these hidden blockages and presses on until they’re cleared.

This energy keeps working in you until it clears all the blockages in your system.

It is almost as if the kundlaini has an intelligence of its own (It does have an intelligence of its own!), as it presses forward. Its promptings may be strong or weak at various times, but it generally continues until the task is completed.

… which results in total transformation of the body, mind and soul. You are born-again in a literal sense.

Preparation is a must

In ancient India yogis prepared for years for the ultimate experience of enlightenment.

New-age philosophies deceive us into thinking that this process is easy and that you can force it to happen without any negative consequences. This is a far-cry from how kundalini was viewed in the past. You should prepare much more than ancients did for the arousal of this power, since the conditions have changed for the worse (polluted environment, toxins in our bodies, toxic people around us, among other things).

Yogis took years to prepare for this transformation; this means we should take a very long time to prepare for the born-again experience if we want it to go smoothly. If this energy is aroused in an average city-dweller whose diet is fast-food, the results are likely to be disastrous.

They followed strict ascetic disciples, ate a carefully controlled diet, performed obscure rituals of cleansing and purification, and mastered extreme yogic techniques to be able to withstand the awakened energy.

Anyone beginning a journey must first possess the desire for such an undertaking. The Sufis called this initiation state “yearning”. Spiritual yearning is indeed the sign of the serious student; one who acknowledges that something is lacking in her or his life and wishes to discover what this may be. The desire may not be pointed directly toward kundalini arousal as such, nevertheless it is an important step in the overall process of kundalini, if kundalini is to be more than a fleeting bodily sensation.

The desire for spiritual progress is required to naturally awaken kundalini.

We’re in a very literal sense reborn when kundalini awakens; made new, and we emerge from our encounter wearing new garments in which to greet the world. At last our being is complete. Finally we know who we are.

But this doesn’t happen instantly, as new-age philosophies put it. It might take years after the crown chakra opening for that transformation to happen.

Cleansing sessions

Many have noted that when the suffering becomes too intense, at the moment when they think that they can bear no further stress, the kundalini-begotten pressures will withdraw and allow a period of rest before the next challenge appears. It is as if the kundalini is conscious of our limits and knows when to back away and when to resume.

When purification starts, many people describe what’s happening to them as “sessions” of purification, and I completely agree with that. You’re going through purification and you may start swinging or moving in any other rhythmic way.

Sometimes movements are fast and energetic, and this can be exhausting. But when you’re getting exhausted, kundalini as though knows that you’re tired, and it ends the session, to continue it the next day, until all the blockages are dissolved.

During this stage of awakening you may become aware of your negative behavior traits and actions, and this is brought into your awareness so that you no longer take such actions.

Awakening will prompt lifestyle changes

Also, many now realize that the diet needs adjustment, that harmful habits of excess of various kinds such as addictions, unresolved conflicts and other destructive patterns of behavior all need to be confronted.

Bit by bit, you will be shown what adjustments you need to make in your life, so that you no longer abuse yourself.

For the latent issues will come up and demand to be dealt with and emotions may run strong. It has often been noted that meditation itself can bring into consciousness painful past issues still awaiting attention, much to the surprise of those expecting to enter unbroken bliss in the new state. Likewise, kundalini acts as a teacher to the soul, pointing out in unmistakable ways those areas needing to be healed.

New-age philosophies make you believe that when you open the crown chakra, you will be enlightened. This is incorrect. Yes, the opening is a major step towards it, but much more transformation needs to happen for you to get illuminated. You will need to deal with all the remaining negative aspects of your character.

The Dark night of the soul

Although the initial awakening may have been preceded by a time of grief and despair, Underhill asserts that the most trying dark night of the soul comes at a later stage. 

Even the awakening can be really frightening, but later it is claimed that the real dark night of the soul will come.

After the bliss, after the many convolutions and returns, there is suddenly a seeming withdrawal of divine favour,…

When kundalini is awakened, you feel protected, and you know that you’re not alone. I believe this to be the Kingdom within. You always feel that undercurrent of bliss and happiness. It’s always there. Sometimes, you may be taken out of it if something bad happens in your life, but you always know it’s there, and you can just center yourself back, and you’re again in the Kingdom of Heaven.

…bliss which may have become a regular feature of ones life, suddenly departs and one is left to ponder what has gone wrong. For the Christian disciple the feeling is often one of profound despair, as if God has simply turned His face away from an unworthy subject. And for those on the kundalini path the effect is much the same.

The Christian saint thrown into the abyss of despair must make the final surrender, acknowledge and repent all sins and weaknesses, and allow herself to be guided by the Divine authority into favor once more.

The lesson is much the same for the kundalini novice. We discover again that the journey is not under our control, that it is directed by some still, mysterious force, seemingly both within and outside the self. We must release all attempts to guide or force the return to the earlier state and simply stand still and wait in patience and humility for the renewal of connection.

This also applies to the purification process. You cannot control it, you need to really trust this energy of the universe, totally surrender to it, and this will make you go through the purification process much quicker.

I blocked this process for a year because I was afraid. Due to my Catholic conditioning, I thought it to be demonic energy. It’s not, and you can pause this transformation process if you wish – it’s not going to overpower you. But it’s better to let it unfold, so that you quickly go through the cleansing and enter the next stage.

The honeymoon is now over and we must deal with some very urgent issues before we are ready to go forward to the next stage. What we have experienced thus far is a massive leap into another level of existence. That part was easy, now the real work begins.

And then in the midst of our struggle the blissful energies return and all is in harmony once more. We know we are on the right course. We are in alignment with source and so move ahead. Even now, though we make discernible progress, we suffer setbacks and returns, shifts and oscillations, as we continue our struggle on this uneven and unpredictable path. The rewards are many, but the cost may be extreme. (What you don’t get told in new-age circles!)

Most gurus don’t tell you that, because they never went through the awakening themselves, so their knowledge is only theoretical.

A universal phenomenon

At the same time, deep spiritual transformation is itself universal human experience, one with a very long history across time and space. Whether it’s the journey of the Christian mystic into divine union or the Sufi seeker yearning for the beloved, this story of the soul’s encounter with inner reality carries certain features common to a great many traditions and lineages.

Kundalini operates as the basis for all such entries into transcendence. And it will emerge into consciousness for many on the path, whatever their orientation, for it is the vibration of the ultimate mystery that constantly calls us to awakening.

Underhill and others have discussed that there are also certain recurrent motives or themes that seem to run through many personal accounts of spontaneous inner transformation. That is the feeling that we are now a new being,…

When you go through this experience, you know you’re born-again. However, people will not recognize anything different about you physically, unless they have a spiritual sight. If they do, they might see that you’re now a brighter being.

…we appear to be the old self but are in fact the new self in disguise.

…The feeling that we have been granted a gift we have not earned. We ask, “How this could happen to me, of all the people?” The difficulty of expressing such ineffable experience in words, deep hesitation over sharing such intimate an unfamiliar experience with others; “How could anyone else possibly understand?”

In the East this is called “the way of the Bodhisattva”. One who forgoes personal enlightenment to help others as they progress.

The Deconstruction of the false self

Consequently, the developmental tasks of kundalini in the center are those of deconstruction of the false self and explication of the true self. According to my observations, this deconstruction process is a stage of spiritual development that can last for up to several years if the kundalini continues its motion upwards. In the case of a stuck process, deconstruction turns into depression which can stay for life.

When this is happening, it’s best not to resist, as deconstruction can be scary. Kundalini can go up to the crown first and then come back and do that process. It depends on each individual.

Everyone who is awakening will have to go through that deconstruction process, because from the moment we are born, we are in a totally unnatural civilization. We are harmed because of our culture, false beliefs, false education, toxic food, and so forth. So during this deconstruction stage, the energy of nature takes you apart so that you are put back in the right way.

During this stage, some people, when they meditate, feel that their hands, heads and everything else is detached from their bodies and then put back together. You can go through this process differently, but everyone has to go through this deconstruction process.

The abyss experience

Another similar experience that many awakening individuals will have to go through is being sucked into the abyss. I experienced that abyss, but I was afraid to get sucked into it and did not let go.

However, now I’m resuming my spiritual activities and if again that experience of abyss happens, I will try to let go. But it’s terrifying; it’s probably the scariest thing that can happen to you. Some people will not know what I’m talking about, but some will know exactly what I’m saying.

Those people who actually let go, emerge as new beings – completely transformed. It’s like a mini death followed by a transformation.

The key event during Leukemia, which, I believe, was instrumental to my friend’s recovery, was that when he managed to stop his mind, he attained the condition of no mind while reading Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”.

It cut through the maize of negative thoughts that were, in fact, existential obscurations of the nature of his own being. After reality emerged from this obscurity, my friend experienced a potent episode of kundalini. Energy rushed through his entire body and he became telepathic and able to perceive subtle energies.

I’m quoting this because this shows that kundalini can awaken without you being engaged in yoga in any way. This person experienced kundalini awakening simply by being present. So how can people say that kundalini is demonic or that it’s invited through yoga only, when this person awakened simply by being present? Or when during childbirth kundalini awakens, this has nothing to do with Hinduism.

Hinduism simply most thoroughly documented this experience, and that’s why it became associated with it. But in reality, kundalini is not connected with any religion.

Restructuring your life the right way

The task at this stage was rooted in looking at his deepest convictions and regulating his relationship with certain parts of himself.

When kundalini is awakened in you, it will bring to light the beliefs that were unquestioned in the past. They were accepted as reality, but the awakening makes you realize that they are not true. This is again a part of the cleansing process, during which you are transformed into the being that you’re supposed to be.

The latter took several years and culminated into bringing to consciousness and reeducating the earliest parts of self. While he matured to a greater understanding of himself he was not able to let go of his efforts to control many areas of his life, which contradicted his spiritual insight.

You’re sometimes really challenged during this awakening process, and it sometimes happens that you do not want to acknowledge that you were wrong. Your whole life may be built on a certain belief, and the awakening makes you choose whether to continue with your growth by discarding the belief, or to stop the process by keeping it.

If you let go, it would result in total transformation. Your reality would shift, and you may lose the things no longer in alignment with you, like some friends, for example. It will be wroth, however, because you won’t be living a lie anymore, and you will perceive this reality more clearly.

Preparation is the key

It might also be the case that a negative kundalini awakening experience may be very difficult for an individual to recover from because of the potentially longer effects on the brain itself.

When people don’t adequately prepare, or when they force this awakening through drugs, brain-damage can be great, and some people never recover. That’s why it’s very important to prepare thoroughly for this awakening.

When novices who don’t have the proper education or guidance begin to naively or carelessly engage in mystical experiences, they are playing with fire. Danger exists on the physical and psychological levels, as well as on the level of one’s continued spiritual development.

Whereas spiritual masters have been warning their disciples for thousands of years about the dangers of playing with mystical states, the contemporary spiritual scene is like a candy store, where any casual spiritual tourist can sample the goodies that promise variety of mystical highs.

The new-age movement promotes the benefits and ease of spiritual transformation without mentioning the dangers – because it sells.

Kundalini is misunderstood in the West

Stanislav and Christina Grof coined the term “spiritual emergence” and founded the Spiritual Emergence Network in 1980’s to support individuals experiencing psychological difficulties associated with spiritual practices and spontaneous spiritual experiences. SEN provides information and makes referrals to therapists for such problems.

When interviewed in 1955, Stanislav noted this, from his experience with SEN:

“There exist spontaneous, non-ordinary states, that would in the West be seen and treated as psychosis. Treated mostly by suppressive medication. But if we use the observations from the study of non-ordinary states, and also from other spiritual traditions, they should really be treated as crises of transformation, crises of spiritual opening, something that should really be supported rather than suppressed. If properly understood and properly supported, they’re actually conducive to healing and transformation.”

Most Westerners totally misinterpret kundalini symptoms and effects. They think kundalini symptoms to be mental imbalance, when actually a person is in the process of being transformed. If this process is gone through without drugs, the individual becomes born-again. Unfortunately, if this awakening happens in the West and the individual doesn’t know anything about this process, he might cause his own institutionalization.

#The Spiritual Emergence Network newsletter reported in 1988 that 24% of its hotline calls concerned kundalini awakening experience. In kundalini awakening there is a typical surge of energies along the spine and throughout the body that can overwhelm and incapacitate the ego and leave a person adrift in a sea of profound consciousness changes at every level – physical, emotional and mental.

Kundalini awakening most commonly occurs as an unintentional side effect of yoga, meditation, Qigong or other intensive spiritual practices. Some also consider psychotherapy, giving birth, unrequited love, celibacy, deep sorrow, high fever and drug intoxication to be the triggers.

Others believe kundalini awakening can occur spontaneously without apparent cause.

Most probably, kundalini spontaneously awakens in people mature enough for this awakening, unless something triggers it, such as childbirth.

If the person had presented me with a description of an awakening experience, if he did exercise such as meditation, yoga or martial arts regularly, or if he experienced strong meditative states where he went beyond meditation into stillness or a sense of unity, then I would be more likely to consider it kundalini.

Kundalini awakening symptoms

“Prana” is the Hindu word for “vital energy”. As intense energy moves through the body and clears out psychological blocks, some people experience intense involuntary jerking movements of the body including shaking, vibration, spasm or contraction.

Some people find themselves performing yoga postures or hand mudra gestures.

This happened to me and it totally frightened me. Both of my hands lifted and started doing different kinds of mudras. As a result, my Christian conditioning kicked in and I thought it to be external spirit activity. But actually this was a normal kundalini awakening symptom.

When this energy is moving through you, it sometimes expresses itself through harmonious signs and movements. This is connected with creation – the whole universe is sustained by those harmonious rhythms. I totally misunderstood this and got frightened when this happened. But it’s actually one of the yogic phenomena that happens to some individuals during the awakening process.

You do hand mudra gestures that you never learnt or could not do in a normal state of consciousness. Unusual breathing patterns may appear with either very rapid or slow shallow breathing. Kundalini awakening often generates unusual psychological activity which can present as heart, spinal, gastrointestinal or neurological problems. Internal sensations of burning, hypersensitivity to sensory input, hyperactivity or lethargy, great variations in sexual desire or even spontaneous orgasms have been reported.

Emotions can swing from feelings of anxiety, guilt or depression with bouts of uncontrollable weeping to compassion, love and joy (and it’s all to cleanse your subconscious mind).

Some people experience visions of light, symbols or spiritual entities, auditory sensations may include hearing voices, music (very usual), inner sounds or mantras. There may also be disruption of the proprioceptive system with the loss of sense of self as a body or an out-of-body experience.

A person may experience precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis, awareness of auras and healing abilities. Some people shift into altered sate of consciousness in which they directly perceive the unity underlying the world of separation and experience a deep peace and serenity.

Also, in this book, it is told that kundalini rose in one person after emotional release work.

Grounding is important

Diet energy work, modifying her meditation practice, grounding exercises, deep therapeutic work on the emotional issues activated by the rising kundalini energies, journal writing and mobilizing her support system were some of the things that helped in her process.

These are all the activities that are claimed to help you when kundalini is rising, to deal with these new energies.

This is why balance, taking care of ourselves, being in nature, and regular physical exercise all help. As with yoga, Qigong, especially when practiced alone and unsupervised and to extremes, can trigger a kundalini awakening crisis. And most of these crises resolve after the practice is terminated.

Great focus on spiritual practices may awaken this energy. If you’re not ready to deal with this, you can stop this process. The quicker you stop it, the better the chances of the spiritual phenomena and the changes in the body stopping.

When Asian meditative practices are transplanted into Western context the same problems can occur.

I’m quoting this so that people are aware that yogic and meditation practices that came from the East were designed thousands of years ago in the conditions that were totally different from our Western civilization. So these practices need to be adjusted in order for them to meet our requirements.

Treatment involves discontinuation of spiritual practices at least temporarily, and engaging in alternative grounding activities (like eating heavier food and being outside a lot).

The above quote mentions how to stop this progress if it becomes too intense for you.

Kundalini triggers

Like so many other westerners that did not know about it and didn’t ask for it, phenomena associated with kundalini process are occurring with increasing frequency among westerners who have never heard of it before, and like those who had near-death experiences they did nothing intentionally to arouse it.

Over the years, as a public speaker addressing hospices, hospital staffs, universities, churches and support groups, I have heard of other spontaneous triggers of kundalini rising besides the NDE.

Audience participants have told me about their experiences in child-birth, meditation, intense prayer, experiencing the death of a loved one, withdrawal from chemical dependence, bottoming out from an overwhelming loss, alien encounters including angels and other beings, intense transcendent sexual experiences, being in nature, reading spiritual literature or hearing a spiritual talk may trigger kundalini.

The reason most kundalini experiences happen when people start engaging in yoga and meditation is because these practices are directed at awakening that energy, whilst other practices may not be specifically designed to awaken it.

Dealing with the subconscious

Once we have a spiritual awakening and move into the kundalini process, our unconscious material from our inner life tends to come into our conscious awareness in powerful ways.

This is very important. When you start awakening, you will have to deal with what’s in your subconscious. You might see frightening images in your mind’s eye. Some people think it’s demons, but these are just frightening thought forms (not that demons don’t exist, of course).

You yourself created and suppressed those thought-forms, and if you don’t face them or try to block them, those issues won’t get resolved. If you face them and accept that they are there rather than denying their existence, they will dissolve, and the freed energy will be left for you to use.

If you deal with all such frightening thought-forms, eventually all of them will dissolve, and you will be able to integrate your subconscious mind into the conscious one, therefore no longer being a house divided against itself. In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus tells us that we must become one in order to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven within.

Greater sensitivity to toxic people

With this new awareness come new choices. These include being able to choose whom we care to be  around. Before awakening to this process we might have been able to numb out when in the company of toxic people. Now the signs of another’s toxicity are collecting and part of becoming psychologically and emotionally healthy is to learn to protect ourselves instead of numbing out.

When kundalini is active, you feel who the people really are. You naturally distance yourself from those that are toxic because if you don’t, you may start feeling even physically sick in their presence.

As we heal and proceed along our spiritual journey which may be directed by what has been named kundalini in the East, we can release our past emotional and psychological wounds and replace them with positive feelings and a clear mind. As we work through our kundalini process and find balance, so much more comes with it than we could ever have predicted.

Becoming integrated

As our physical beings and our souls become one, our journey and destination become one. All our striving to become who God meant us to become comes to fruition. We realize that we are one, even the belief in heaven after this lifetime recedes as we experience creating heaven here. We remember who we are, and we are home.

Again, this kind of realization may not happen instantly, but may come years after the awakening.

But growing up in a dysfunctional family and a dysfunctional society, we may have become wounded. That wounding made our child within or true self go into hiding and the only one left to run the show of our life is our ego. And since it’s not competent to run our lives successfully, we often end up feeling confused and hurt.

Two spiritual traps

There are some traps in spiritual awakening. After we have had our particular spiritual experience and a possible kundalini arousal, one trap is being misled by other people who may try to steer us off our personal path. They will label this awakening as being psychotic or work of the devil, or hallucination, and they may try to invalidate our experience in some other way.

This can lead to the second trap. They may try to prescribe or even force us to take toxic psychiatric drugs, from sedatives, to antidepressants, to major tranquilizers, to mood stabilizers, in the most extreme cases they might lock us up in mental institutions or shame and guilt us in other ways, and this may stop the transformation process.

Taking medications is the worst thing you can do during the awakening process.

When we allow our kundalini process to evolve naturally, the result is usually psychological and spiritual growth over time. A problem is that many of the associated symptoms and experiences mimic what psychiatry and psychology call mental disorders or mental illnesses.

Medication shuts down the awakening

Today most psychiatrists and some psychologists, social workers and counselors are unable to recognize kundalini and instead prescribe and recommend one or more psychiatric drugs in an attempt to lessen the patient’s symptoms.

In kundalini awakenings we become progressively more connected to self, others and God, but these psychiatric drugs are toxic to the brain and body, and tend to shut down or aggravate the normal flow of the kundalini process.

The drug slams shut the door to our psycho-spiritual growth. Breggins’ work has reflected the sometimes missing conscience of psychiatry. If you accept help in the form of psychiatric drugs, realize that your’e entering into the area that you may regret or be unable to stop. Each drug has its toxic effects that turn out to be at least as bad as the original complaint, and such drugs often lead to more drugs to counter these toxic effects which include drug withdrawal.

In his ground-breaking book “Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence?” Lee Sannella, MD writes:

“There are many undergoing this process who at time feel quite insane. When they behave well and keep silent, they may avoid being called schizophrenic or being hospitalized or sedated. Nevertheless, their isolation and sense of separation from others may cause them such suffering.

“We must reach such people, their families and society with information to help them recognize their condition as a blessing and not a curse. Certainly we must no longer subject people who might be in the midst of this rebirth process to drugs or shock therapies – approaches which are at opposite poles to creative self-development.”

The Dark side doesn’t want You to awaken

The powers that control this world know exactly what’s happening. They created the medical system in this way.

Doctors straight away prescribe toxic medicines for those who experience any mental change, or, even worse, put them in mental hospitals. This assures that potential lights of the world never fully transform, and therefore don’t threaten those dark forces.

During stages zero and one clinicians who don’t understand or are not educated about kundalini arousal may want to prescribe psychoactive drugs. This will usually have a detrimental effect that has the potential to abort the transformational process.

These drugs may give give some relief for a short time but will soon numb the person out and numb them down, like a chemical straight-jacket. Even worse, they can cause anxiety, depression or psychotic symptoms for those who are in a delicate phase of their process.

Dealing with suppressed thoughts

Spiritual practices and awakenings can revive and exacerbate unresolved conflicts. This is not necessarily bad…

When you’re experiencing this awakening, all the unresolved conflicts will come to the surface, giving you an opportunity to resolve them once and for all.

…and so when you deal with them, this can result (This will result) in considerable healing and personal integration.

You become a more integrated being when you are not afraid to face all the darkness and unresolved inner conflicts. You must face all that has been suppressed within you if you want to integrate your entire personality.

One must not deny anything that’s in them but accept that it’s there. If you do this, the negative structures will be released in the form of energy, which you can use for better purposes.

Transformational and organizing force

Kundalini was described as a normally dormant mechanism or organizing principle that could become activated or aroused under certain conditions to strengthen and purify individual’s prana (vital force), transforming its energies.

Comparable potential forces and organizing principles have also been described in other traditions. Examples are Shakti, the Odic force, the Holy Spirit, the pearl of great price, serpent power, the rod of Aaron, sacred fire, Osiris, and the sun behind the sun.

Kundalini as Life-saving force

However, the same ancient eastern traditions have also recognized that when the brain is deprived of oxygen, kundalini as the life force in rare circumstances may actually rush to the brain in an effort to sustain life (…).

Which again proves that kundalini is the force of life and not a demon as some people believe.

This theoretic arousal of kundalini by life-threatening crises was generally regarded by eastern philosophers as dangerous. If awakened without proper guidance, as social psychologist Kenneth Ring believes happens in NDEs, kundalini can be raw, destructive power loosed on the individual’s body and psyche. 

It’s also hard to recognize the energy’s presence as it manifests in so many patterns as its symptoms mimic so many disorders of the mind and body. Even people familiar with the kundalini process are unsure whether they are witnessing kundalini or the disorders of the mind and body. However, taking psychotropic medications to alleviate symptoms on the assumption that these represent a psychiatric disorder may disrupt the natural healing mechanism of kundalini activation.

This energy is wise. It’s the energy of the universe and it knows what it’s doing. We should not interfere with it at all. The less we interfere with it, the quicker it will do its job in transforming us.

It’s also usual during this purification process happens for the body to get locked into different positions. Those are usually the yogic poses a person may have never been exposed to.

Also, you may…

…experience audio-visual symptoms, such as internal lights or colors that light up the body, internal voices, and internal whistling, hissing or roaring noises, and psychological symptoms such as sudden bliss or ecstasy for no reason; speeding or slowing of thoughts and expanding beyond the body, and watching the body from a distance.

Kundalini and NDE (Near-Death-Experience)

Also of note, among the 153 NDE experiencers there was a significant positive correlation between NDE scale score and number of physio-kundalini symptoms reported. That is, those with deeper NDEs reported more kundalini symptoms.

Given that the increasing frequency of NDE experiencers was estimated by a Gallup poll more than a quarter century ago to be 5% of the adult American population, this study suggests that the physio-kundalini syndrome may be far more common in western society than previously imagined.

Since more and more people are awakening and sharing their experiences for others to be exposed to spiritual maturing, now this percentage is probably higher.

Contrary to one popular myth, kundalini is not some exotic energy that shoots up the spine without warning. It’s a natural flow of energy inherent in each person, part of the subtle structure of each human being. It is at home and flowing through your nervous system right now, even as you read this.

New-age philosophies tend to mystify kundalini as some supernatural force. But it’s always in us, although in most people, it’s dormant.

Kundalini as a healing force

We have all seen the ancient caduceus symbol used to represent the modern western medical profession.

Through eastern eyes the two serpents intertwined on a staff represent the rise of kundalini energy through the two nerve centers, the ida and the pingala.

The central channel, the staff, is the sushumna. It raises the question. Was it known or intended that this symbol of modern medicine signifies these three channels of ancient healing?

Kundalini and nerve channels

These three channels are called “nadis”. The ida, pingala and sushumna.

Yogis close the right nostril and breathe slowly through the left in order to achieve this effect.

Be cautious if you attempt this and don’t do it for long, as these channels are directly connected to the brain.

The pingala channel is experienced by breathing through the right nostril. This relates to the sympathetic nervous system. It’s energizing and warming and allows assimilation.

People who have difficulty digesting, sometimes intensely and rapidly breathe through the right nostril after eating so that this fiery energy would help them digest food quicker.

Instead of rising through the middle sushumna channel, sometimes kundalini starts rising through the fiery pingala channel.

This happened to Gopi Krishna, and he almost died of internal fire. This kind of awakening is very dangerous, and it happens to those who don’t know how to properly arouse this energy.

Kundalini and chakras

Hence, the being-consciousness-bliss of one’s formless self is distorted and constricted and under the tyranny appears in a restricted forms known as the chakras.

It’s for this reason that the chakras are properly referred to by the terms of “knots” and “contraction”.

In the Chandogya Upanishad we read, “In acquiring the traditional doctrine there’s release from all knots.”

Kundalini rises through all the knots (chakras). These are the energy concentrations in the body, and they must be resolved for the kundalini to rise to the crown.

Every time kundalini works to unbind those knots, you will have to go through different situations in your life associated with those knots (that keep them in place). So it’s not a purely spiritual cleansing but you have some work to do as well.

Liberation, in short, is not the actual untying of those knots but the silent admission that they are already untied.

I disagree with this. Those knots are real. Before my born-gain experience I saw the chakras and I saw one spinning in one direction and then it changed the direction.

This is one of the signs that it’s being undone. All of them will have to change their spinning directions in the end.

Kundalini yoga, therefore, wisely proceeds to reverse this tyranny of awareness and bliss step by careful step, untying the knots in what it sees as roughly the reverse of the order in which they were tied until finally the chakras themselves lie dissolved – that is, fully “opened” – and transcendent bliss is returned to its proper and unobstructed condition, a condition essentially similar to the polymorphous freedom of the infant but now transmitted through a mature and fully developed personality.

The aim of kundalini yoga, therefore, is to free transcendent bliss from its dilutions and restrictions and to recognize it as boundless, oceanic, without limits in time or space. Each dissolving of a knot, each opening of a chakra, represents – and actually feels like – a return of transcendent bliss to a more oceanic and unobstructed state.

The cause of genius

Variations in the size of the energy stream determine the intellectual and aesthetic development of an individual with geniuses having a comparatively larger volume of bioplasma streaming into the brain.

It is kundalini that is responsible for the extraordinary mental capacities of some people. Such people receive a greater influx of that energy into the brain than others.

The wide variation in types of genius depends on the particular region of the brain that is irrigated and developed by that energy. Thus, through certain occult techniques (occult doesn’t mean evil, it simply means “hidden”) and spiritual disciplines an individual of normal intelligence can accelerate to an evolutionary process to attain a stature of an intellectual prodigy and beyond, to genius. This concept directly challenges current notions that intelligence is basically determined at birth by one’s genes.

Anyone can gain greater intelligence by awakening that force within. It travels to the brain and awakens dormant brain centers.

During the kundalini process the entire nervous system undergoes a micro-biological change and is transformed, especially the brain. The result of a fully awakened and developed kundalini is both perceptible changes of organism and a new state of consciousness – the cosmic consciousness of mystics and enlightened seers. This vital awareness of unity with God, Gopi Krishna says, is the core experience behind all the world’s major religions and is the goal of all true spiritual and occult practices.

Humanity has an innate hunger for this state of paranormal perception. Morevoer, bountiful nature has provided the means of achieving it: kundalini, the biological basis of religion and genius.

This is the secret behind yoga and all other spiritual disciplines, esoteric psychologies, hermetic philosophies and genuine occult mysteries. It is also the key to genius, psychic power, artistic powers, scientific and intellectual creativity, and extreme longevity with good health.

Full awakening is a rare phenomenon

Local gurus and holy men were unable to give Gopi Krishna any relief or understanding, so he undertook a reading program through the literature of religion, psychology and occultism. He found that kundalini was recognized at least five thousand years ago, but was always a closely guarded secret recorded in veiled language and allusion that made little to sense to someone who had no personal experience of it.

When Gopi Krishna experienced kundalini awakening, he went to different sages and gurus. In the land boasting of this sacred knowledge (India), nobody was able to help him. Some gurus talk about it, but they never experienced it, so they remain unregenerate men, no matter how beautiful robes they wear.

Some gurus deceive people into thinking that this awakening happened to them because they have power. Unfortunately, that power did not come naturally from within, but they acquired it through sacrificing to demons or by making the right political connections (it’s usually a combination of both).

Such gurus enslave the very souls of their followers and use them for money and worship energy. Thus, like in any spiritual path, there are plenty of dangers, including the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Seeing God face-to-face

Greek myths told us that to see God as it was would kill you. The ordinary mind and body had to be trained and transformed to withstand that vision and influx of divine power. 

We find the same told in the Old Testament. If you survive after this awakening, you can say that you saw God face-to-face, because you have a direct Divine experience.

Kundalini is classically viewed as having two aspects. One maintains the entire existence of our body, mind and spirit, the other other aspect, considered dormant, is the power of Consciousness to know the Divine in its infinitude as Self.

Kundalini is a dormant DNA

I share the same opinion as some others have – that kundalini is a giant DNA strand that’s inactive in most individuals. The spiral movement during its awakening confirms it.

Kundalini erases negative conditioning

First, kundalini moves through the sushumna nadi, erasing, if you will, the impressions stored there and releasing the energy bound up in them. This extraordinary purification process then releases us from the patterns in our lives created by those impressions.

You’re no longer the same person when this happens. It erases useless habits and the way that you lived before no longer seems good for you (if that lifestyle was harmful). It frees the brain to now record more beneficial information. You also no longer have the habit to dwell on your past, and you mainly live in the present moment.

Second, she (kundalini) opens up the states of consciousness that give us access to unbounded awareness. The spiritual side of DNA, Christ’s fiery baptism and that of his followers ever since (…).

Celibacy and kundalini

Furthermore, to fit modern values, the inwardly erotic celibacy known as brahmacharya held for thousands of years to be essential to kundalini yoga has been largely dispensed with.

For those who want to awaken this energy, celibacy definitely helps. My kundalini awakened when I was following a strict celibacy lifestyle.

The secret of that gigantic intellectuality, spirituality and super-human moral force which we see pulsating in the ancient philosophy, in the supreme poetry, arts, sculpture and architecture of India was the all-important discipline of brahmacharya.

As subsidiary householder’s brahmacharya of one sexual union per month is considered within dharmic rhythms suitable for a moderated practice of kundalini yoga.

The real purpose of yoga

The purpose of all branches of yoga is to raise the kundalini, to raise the dormant power of the being, so that he can have excellence.

Very few know of the real purpose of yoga. I don’t believe that all the people these days engaged in yoga would continue practicing it if they knew the dangers involved in awakening this energy unprepared.

In this book, we also read that the ancients hid the science of kundalini so that it wouldn’t be perverted. That’s why reading very old accounts of kundalini doesn’t help much – they are too veiled in symbolic language, it’s almost impossible to understand.

Conclusion

This book is a very thorough introduction to the phenomenon of kundalini. It will especially benefit those who are interested in a scientific/medical side of this awakening process.

Again, this book is called Kundalini Rising: Exploring the Energy of Awakening by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Sivananda Radha and others.

I hope that this article made you understand that kundalini is not a Hindu phenomenon, but is the energy latent in every human being. Those who are prepared for it will probably experience it. Kundalini can also simply “favor” some and start its upward progress into the crown chakra.

Most commonly, however, it’s those who take action to awaken this energy through spiritual practices that experience it rising.

Therefore, kundalini is a universal energy present in all and is not limited to those following Hindu doctrines. When you are ready, it starts rising, purifying and transforming you into a better-functioning and more spiritual being.

Recommended Books:

• Kundalini Rising
• Kundalini: the Evolutionary Energy in Man
• Living with Kundalini
• Kundalini: Path to Higher Consciousness