Are You Crazy, or Is It Kundalini?
Madness need not be all breakdown.
It may also be breakthrough.
—R. D. Laing
There’s an old saying: if you think you are insane, you probably aren’t. The truly insane usually think they are quite sane. Even then, it’s hard to tell. Growing up, I had a great aunt, Marianna, who loved to give us strange Christmas presents. One year she gave my parents a coffeepot that didn’t have a top; it was a great planter, though. Another year, I received a half-dozen socks from her. None of them matched, and each went up to my thighs. They made terrific slingshots, however, and were a welcome addition to the armory necessary to survive a neighborhood of boys. Was Great Aunt Marianna crazy or simply wiser than the rest of us?
Having said that, sometimes kundalini can make us feel insane, which isn’t a particularly comforting reaction.
Kundalini is an energy. It is information that moves, or light that reverberates. Most people also report it as a conscious energy, and if nothing else, it does make us more conscious. Because it is a blend of matter and spirit, working within our energy system, as the collective nadis and chakras are called, it has a very energizing effect. This has earned kundalini a reputation for being a potent, strong, and sometimes overpowering ally.
Many practitioners stress that you must be ready for a kundalini awakening, or activating and working with it will endanger your health, your well-being, and sometimes your sanity. Many of these dire warnings stem from the unusual, puzzling, and sometimes dramatic reactions that can occur with an awakening, be it cultivated or spontaneous.
This chapter discusses the many and varied effects of a kundalini awakening. Because kundalini can manifest itself dozens of different ways, I’ve included several lists and descriptions of symptoms and signs. You’ll also learn a method of distinguishing kundalini symptoms from your everyday garden-variety psychoses, as well as ways of healing and dealing with kundalini’s effects.
Your Own Private Idaho: The Individual Kundalini Experience
If everyone on the planet somehow managed to live in a single geographic area—or own a piece of their own private Idaho—they would still feel like they were living in a different country. Kundalini on the rise affects different people in various ways. Yours might be activated in the middle of the night, after a healing, in a therapy session, after decades of spiritual growth, or for no apparent reason at all. The signs might be slow and gradual, almost imperceptible. Your kundalini might be alive and kicking long after you think it settled down, and you might not even know it. The combination and intensity of kundalini symptoms will be unique to you, but there are some common, classic signs.
I received a crash course in how diverse kundalini symptoms can be when, one Sunday in May, not one or three but five clients came to see me because they were dealing with a recent or recurring kundalini awakening.
The first gentleman was a famous musician, a singer with an incredible voice and a bevy of young, swooning female fans. He had been lying in bed a few days earlier when the lyrics for a new song sprang into his head, as if “delivered by God.” Then he felt the earth shake and a voice say, “There will be more,” before he realized that it was not the ground giving way, but his own body.
“For days, I’ve been trembling and experiencing sensations of hot and cold,” he complained to me, shivering. “And all I can think of are lyrics, song after song after song.” He added, “If this is a creative muse, I’d like her to go off-duty.”
Another client was a mother with three children, and she had spent years being angry with her husband. Upon finding out that he had been having an affair, a “boiling energy” starting rolling up her spine, and she was now alternating between intense sexual urges and a feeling of rage.
Two of the other three clients were a bit frightened of their experiences. One man’s encounter followed a long retreat in an ashram, in which he had sat in silence and devotion to the Divine. A student of yoga for years, he reported having had a series of gentle kundalini experiences long before the retreat; these experiences had included a throbbing between his spine and his crown, moments of tears and remorse, times of bliss and ecstasy, and a compelling desire to be of service. This recent experience was more intense. Bouts of white light were flashing in his head. Neurologists had ruled out a stroke or a physical cause, leaving him to wonder what the spiritual message might be.
Another individual had experienced a “bad trip” during a drug-induced state. Besides swearing off recreational drugs forever, he was willing to do anything to make good of his life, if only I could stop the guilt and moroseness that kept sweeping through his body like a “hot, searing pain.” The fifth client was a young girl whose mother brought her in because, since birth, the girl would break out in a strange chanting every so often. The child’s hands would then heat up, and she would pray for people. The mother had just read about kundalini and was wondering if it could be a part of what was happening.
As I worked with these individuals, I saw that kundalini and its effects were at least a part of every single experience. Because it is important to rule out other causal factors such as physical or psychological disturbances, I commonly send clients to licensed health practitioners to do just that. Because all my “mayday” clients had already done so, I was certain we were dealing with kundalini. Each person was exhibiting at least some of the classic signs of an extreme kundalini awakening:
- Tingling, itching, crawling, stinging in the body or brain, sometimes described as ants walking
- Heat or cold, pinches or burning, flushes in the skin or inside the body
- Energy running between the nadis and chakras
- Muscles twitching
- Sense of electricity charging your system; you begin to blow out lights, clocks, or electrical objects; objects knock over when you are around
- Alterations in eating or sleeping
- Times of extreme hyperactivity or fatigue
- Intensified or diminished sexual desires
- Racing heartbeat, pains in chest (you must check these out with a medical doctor)
- Numbness or pain in limbs (same as above)
- Emotional outbursts, rapid mood shifts
- Hearing inner melodies, sounds, beautiful music, or noises like ringing in ears
- Mental confusion, difficulty concentrating
- Altered states of consciousness and mystical experiences, including out-of-body projection, extrasensory perception (ESP), past-life memories, increased psychic visions, channeling, body sensitivity, a sense of altruism, healing powers, contacts with spiritual guides or ghosts
- Increased creativity; new talents or interests
- Deeper understanding of spiritual truths
- Pressure in sixth chakra; some describe this as a band, others as an internal pressure
- Seeing flashing white lights
- Sudden short-lived bursts of energy
- Spontaneous urges to perform asanas, or yoga movements
- Overwhelming feelings of love and desire for a partner (I believe the lust that some report as overtaking them, whether or not drug- or alcohol-induced, is not kundalini but rather a symptom of issues that must be worked through; see “When the Snake Is Too Sexual” later in this chapter)
- Pain in lower back or wherever kundalini feels a little stuck
- Vibration, often in the inner ears
- Spontaneous bliss and unity; awareness of the Divine
- Receiving the Holy Spirit, as Jesus’s disciples did at Pentecost; as described in the Bible, receiving the Holy Spirit can result in speaking in tongues, healing abilities, experiences of the Divine, knowing of truths, revelations, visioning, speaking the “Word of God”
- Arms and legs move like a baby19
Since the kundalini’s path takes it upward through our chakras, chakra-specific issues may also be signals that our kundalini is on the rise, as can the sudden manifestation of chakra gifts. Experiencing a sequence of issues correlating to each of the chakras in turn—first some root-chakra security issues, followed by second-chakra emotional upheavals, then third-chakra mental-clarity challenges—is a clear tip-off that your kundalini is going somewhere. Following is a list of energetic blocks within each chakra that might alert you to a kundalini transformation:
First chakra: Intense physical sensations or pain; burning in the coccyx; pain in the very low back; intense skin sensitivity or inflammations, or alternating patches of cold and hot; electrical pulses through spine or along skin; rectal, adrenal, vaginal, bladder, or similar conditions; struggle with finances, poverty mentality, or critical conditions, including alcohol or hard drugs; gambling, shopping, sexual, or other thrill-seeking addictions or compulsions; sudden craving for sexual orgasms or complete shutdown of sexual desires; intense memory recall of abuse; hyperawareness of others’ physical conditions to the point of sensing or being afflicted with their illnesses or physical issues.
Second chakra: A release of long-stored feelings or a heightened awareness of current feelings; spurt of creative urges or sudden block of the same; waves of various feelings, sensations, or food cravings, especially for carbohydrates; desire to touch and be touched; oversensitivity of others’ feelings to the level of feeling their feelings for them; problems with womb, testes or ovaries, hormones, or intestines.
Third chakra: Anxiety attacks; awareness of inner fears; low self-esteem or self-confidence issues; mental chatter; hyperawareness of information and data because of sensing others’ inner mental life instead of one’s own; problems at work or following a structure; digestive issues; caffeine, soda pop, coffee, and beer addictions.
Fourth chakra: Love and relationship issues; healing crises; challenges with heart, lungs, breasts, or shoulders; oversensitivity to others’ relationship needs; codependency; nightmares or scary dreams; struggle with sugar, wine, or other sweet substances.
Fifth chakra: Communication challenges, such as difficulties with expressing the self or healing others; hyperclairaudience, such as intense channeling, transmediumship, or the hearing of spirits and voices; problems with throat, neck, jaws, ears, and teeth.
Sixth chakra: Visual issues, including hallucinations, psychic visions, spots or blurs in eyes or in the inner mind; flashes of the future for yourself or others or, conversely, difficulties planning or foreseeing the future; challenges with eyes, hormones, and balance.
Seventh chakra: A sense of the Divine or fears regarding the Divine; intense spiritual or religious experiences; desire to perform higher service; activation of miraculous abilities; intense reactions to others’ lies and negativity; an overwhelming attraction to truth, integrity, and the light; unbounded optimism and cheer; sleep issues; flashes of light in the head; activation of anxiety or depression or bouts of both; awareness of spirits, good and bad.
Signs of activation of the other five chakras in my twelve-chakra system include the following:
Eighth chakra: Shamanic experiences, including out-of-body and astral projection, a sense of being in two places at once; hyperawareness of others’ needs, illnesses, feelings, and thoughts; interaction with entities, spirits, and other dimensions and planes of existence; flashes into your own past lives or those of others; absorbing of others’ issues and, as a result, experiencing challenges in discerning self from others; autoimmune disorders; inflammation in body; challenges with thymus or immune system; any or all addictions or addictive tendencies.
Ninth chakra: Sense of higher purpose for yourself and others; awareness of global needs or sudden draw to helping a certain group or cause; interest in or notice of numbers, symbols, or colors that provide signs or insight; issues with breathing.
Tenth chakra: A draw to nature; receiving signs and communiqués from the natural world, either in everyday life or through dreams; reactions to chemicals, inorganic substances, cosmological or geographical energies or areas, or human-made energies, such as cell phones or power lines; visitations from natural beings or deceased ancestors; problems with a house or housing; compulsion to track or understand genealogy or lineage; genetic or bone disorders.
Eleventh chakra: Interface with natural and supernatural forces or sudden jolts of the same, such as tornados or windstorms; insights into personal force or ability to command; disorders in muscles, fascia, or connective tissue.
Twelfth chakra: Highly personal, resulting in a calling to understand or fully become the true self.
Multiple Awakenings, Multiple Effects
You might also have several kundalini awakenings, each of a different nature. This is what happened to me. My big blowout occurred in my early thirties, but subsequent smaller awakenings happened as years passed. I believe the aftershocks resulted from an incomplete initial rising, and, in fact, the granthi and chakra at my heart level had been stuck.
One of the clues to this diagnosis was that, after my first kundalini shakeup, I developed a heart arrhythmia, or aberrant heartbeat, that took years to completely dissipate. Afterward, I worked on absolutely every relationship issue ever invented by humankind, learning how to put the “kind” into the concept of being human. During many of these years, I also had white flashes in my head, and these flashes would beam all the way down to my heart. A neurologist insisted that I wasn’t experiencing white flashes. I believe these flickers were helpful nudges from the masculine spiritual energy coming down from the top of my head. The heart condition and bright lights disappeared as soon as I thoroughly forgave both those who had harmed me in my life and myself, for my part in the experiences.
My own first awakening occurred right after a man tried to molest me. While I got away from the attacker, the next day, an indescribable heat began climbing up my spine. I could literally feel it hit various blockages in my body over the next couple of months. Some blocks were emotional, and I would find myself crying, once for almost seven days straight. Other blockages were physical. My neck would cramp, for instance, but it also healed almost immediately after I saw a chiropractor. Other symptoms were mind oriented. One entire evening I worried about almost everything until finally I decided that worry was a worthless endeavor. I heard a pop in my head and a voice say, “All is love.”
When the most demanding kundalini symptoms died down, I was a changed person. I felt prompted to do something different with my life and also to be something different. I examined my diet and exercise. I looked more deeply at the romantic relationship I was in and saw how I was confining myself within it. I pursued even more travel than I had before, seeking the answers to that provocative question, “What is this all about?” And I started my business as an intuitive consultant, whereas previously I had been in marketing for a nonprofit organization.
One of my favorite subsequent awakenings occurred when I was traveling in Mexico and had the sense to stay in my room when all my friends went out. I had been feeling strange and uncomfortable all day. Finally, I lay down and began to meditate, drawing my breath up from my abdomen and practicing the nostril-breathing exercise included in chapter 6.
I heard the voice of God. He—or she—said, “It’s time to choose your purpose.” At the same time, I felt a “bump” behind my heart; I believe now that my kundalini had been resting there, having only partially risen before, and was now ready to proceed upward again. Without much warning, I felt rushed out of my body and found myself in a space I could only call heaven.
There, a voice spoke through an enveloping, cloudy mist. “Are you willing to heal?”
I said yes, and I was suddenly jolted back into my body.
My heart felt different, like there was more energy now moving through it. I believe that at least part of the heart-centered granthi, or lock, had now unwound. The heart chakra is about healing. As the kundalini continued to flow in and through my heart over the next year or so, I experienced an intensely increased desire to learn more about energy healing and medicine, in addition to the arrhythmic condition. I was also prompted to step up my own self-growth work, through family-systems therapy and other venues for strengthening my relationship with my inner selves, as well as with my loved ones.
Mayhem Possible: When the Serpent Lunges
Even though we prefer to have control of when, how, and why our kundalini awakens, sometimes it just doesn’t happen that way. Even the most carefully supervised cultivation process can cause kundalini hiccups in which the serpent energy rises in spurts, each bout leaving the student breathless, emotional, shaky, and feeling overextended and scared. And sometimes circumstances—or fate—intervenes, and the kundalini rises abruptly and fast, exploding us into a state of spiritual emergency.
Both the ancients and many contemporary spiritual leaders warn us that an out-of-control Shakti can leave you feeling—and being—out of control. Let’s examine the potential mayhem—and magnificence—of a snake that has startled itself awake, including ways to recognize and alleviate a too-sudden, not-so-charming uncoiling of the kundalini.
Spiritual Emergency
We’re all familiar with everyday emergencies: the pasta water boils over, the dog really does eat the homework. Worse are the dreaded, bigger crises—those that leave us gasping for breath: a parent goes to the emergency room; we lose our job.
Atop these is another category of emergency that’s not often named: the spiritual emergency. Bottom line, it involves experiencing heightened levels of awareness or energetic trauma for which we are unprepared. We become so startled that we’re unable to take care of ourselves.20
Discerning between a genuine kundalini emergency and other problems can be complicated. In reviewing the symptoms of a kundalini awakening, you’ll see that they can be confused with other real-life issues and, in fact, are often one and the same. Just because your kundalini is causing heart palpitations doesn’t mean you don’t have heart palpitations. Distinguishing kundalini from organic issues can help us create the spiritual breakthrough we’re looking for and deserve.
When “Too Hot” Hurts
One way to sort kundalini from other catastrophes is to categorize the kundalini signs. I know it’s easier for me to create a plan if I’m a little better organized. If nothing else, by classifying symptoms, you can better approach a professional for assistance.
In her book Energies of Transformation: A Guide to the Kundalini Process, Bonnie Greenwell outlines seven categories of symptoms accompanying sudden kundalini activation. While some of these signs echo those listed earlier in this chapter, I think the way they are categorized here is helpful. Also, these particular symptoms relate specifically to spontaneous, or sudden, awakenings.
Pranic movements: When the prana, or vital energy, is released suddenly, this intense energy can trigger physiological blocks. The result can be involuntary jerking movements such as spasms, contractions, and shaking. The release of these blocks can rouse previously hidden memories, emotions, traumas, and injuries.
Yogic phenomena: Some individuals begin performing yogic postures (asanas) or hand positions (mudras) that they could not have learned in their current everyday life. They may speak Sanskrit, hear music or tones, or start chanting mantras. They may experience unusual breathing patterns or not breathe for an extended amount of time.
Physiological symptoms: Kundalini can generate a release of bodily toxins, leading to the appearance of heart problems, head and spinal pain, gastrointestinal disturbances, and nervous-system issues. Individuals have reported sensations of burning, overwhelmed senses, hyperactivity, hypoactivity, variations in sexual desire, and even spontaneous orgasm. These indications can be erratic and may not respond to standard medical treatment.
Psychological upheaval: A spontaneous kundalini activation can challenge the ego state and the myth of our separation from the Divine. It can stimulate responses to drives and shift instincts—from ego-based consciousness to psyche-centered consciousness, for example. These changes can produce confusion, often accompanied by unexplainable emotion swings—from anxiety, guilt, and depression to compassion, joy, and love—and bouts of uncontrollable weeping.
Extrasensory perceptions: Our perception enlarges, expanding outside of our previously typical reality. The result can include visions of lights, symbols, and entities, or an awareness of past-life experiences. Auditory stimuli may include voices, music, inner sounds, or mantras. Some people experience various smells, while others lose a sense of self as a body, feel larger than the body, or travel outside of the body.
Psychic phenomena: Various psychic abilities might activate within us, including precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis, healing gifts, and the awareness of auras.
Mystical states of consciousness: We might shift into altered states of consciousness, perceiving the unity within reality. This altered state can produce experiences of peace, serenity, and wisdom. This psychological upheaval can be so great that it seems like a psychotic episode.
Hundreds of my own clients report similar and additional kundalini-related symptoms. I also have had the “pleasure” of experiencing my own kundalini awakenings—both sudden and spontaneous risings and chronically slow climbs. Based on my professional and personal knowledge, I would add the following indications of a sudden kundalini awakening to Greenwell’s list:
Alteration in composition or appearance of the body: One of my clients grew two inches overnight; another person’s hair color changed from brown to blonde within a month.
Loss of memories: One client lost memories of about one-third of her childhood—all the traumatic events—leaving her in a newly achieved blissful state.
Extreme changes in diet or cravings: One client shifted from an omnivorous diet to a vegan diet within a day.
Fresh sense of destiny: Several clients report being called for a unique mission and even receiving brand-new talents. One gentleman started drawing pictures of people’s souls. He quit his job as an engineer to pursue this new, innovative career.
Sense of being “someone else”: Several clients reported feeling that they had never been their “real selves” and were now struggling with how to assume this “true self” in their current lives.
New knowledge: I worked with a fourteen-year-old girl who got up one morning with a full knowledge of the French language. Who knows what might be awakened through the kundalini?
Gender identification issues: One client suddenly knew she was supposed to have been a man at birth and underwent a gender change, with the full support of her (now his) family of origin.
Belief that the experience will kill you: Sometimes the kundalini experiences are so strong, we think they might actually do us in. When someone calls in a panic, scared for his or her life, I first check to see if there really is a true crisis and direct the person accordingly. Often, however, the real issue is a fear of death or, conversely, a fear of life. Especially when inside or close to the first chakra, the kundalini surfaces the most primal of questions and needs, and I often encourage a direct interface between a client and the Divine to discover the meaning of life and death.
Any or all of these symptoms can be awful—and awesome. You might need trained assistance to understand if you are experiencing a clinical breakdown or a true spiritual breakthrough, as the signs can be similar. Or you might be experiencing both: kundalini can trigger a true clinical breakdown that ultimately results in a spiritual breakthrough. Consider this list, which outlines the physical or psychological disturbances often mirrored by the kundalini:
- Heart attack, stroke, or sudden onset of systems-based conditions
- Brain disorders, tumors, uremia, diabetes, infection, toxic cardiac states, hormonal challenges, and injuries
- Reaction to life changes, such as divorce or loss; midlife crisis or other transitional time periods and trauma
- Reactions to drugs, including medications or use of recreational drugs
- Psychosomatic breakdowns, including psychosis, mania, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, borderline personality disorder, paranoid states, persecutory delusions and/or hallucinations, use of mechanisms (including projection, exteriorization, and acting out) or other mental health issues21
So Is It Kundalini or Something Else?
How can you distinguish kundalini from “else-wise”? The key is that kundalini eventually invites the emergence of your true self, alleviating the spiritual emergency. As you emerge from the state of emergency (rather than simply living in it), you find yourself evolving, becoming more creative, peaceful, and calm. Eventually you feel drawn to concentrate on more than the crisis or uncomfortable sensations and feelings. You begin to care, not only about yourself, but also about others. At this point, you know that you really are here on earth at this time on purpose. You are here to serve, love, and create more love.
In other words, one of the primary ways to know if you are having a breakthrough versus a breakdown is the eventual outcome. I know that doesn’t sound immediately encouraging, but think about this: no matter what you are going through or why, you can transform challenge into an opportunity.
Always Seek Professional Help
The Kundalini Syndrome
You know what it’s like. You’ve been looking forward to a vacation for months, and the first day has arrived. The alarm goes off at 5 am, and you stumble out of bed, stepping on the kids’ toys and injuring your foot. There go all those romantic walks on the beach. You barely make it to the airport in time before your beeper goes off. Of course, there’s a work project that didn’t get done—and your mother is ill, asking if you can bring her to the emergency room. Finally, just before the airplane is supposed to leave, the pilot says, “We have a malfunction. Please remain in your seat for an hour, and we’ll keep you apprised of when we might be taking off.”
You haven’t even gotten off the ground, and “real life” has intruded.
Well, the kundalini process is the same. Even when we carefully cultivate our kundalini awakenings, we can still experience challenging effects when our kundalini begins to climb.
Years ago, noted teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was giving a talk on spiritual development. He started by asking how many members of the group were just starting their practice. When a number raised their hands, Rinpoche said, “Fine. My suggestion is that you go back home.” He explained, “It is a lot more difficult than you know when you begin. Once you start, it is very difficult to stop. So my suggestion to you is not to begin. Best not to start at all. But if you do, then it is best to finish.”22
One of the reasons that Rinpoche was so cautious is because enlightenment transforms one’s life. The process can be quite dramatic—and difficult. Awakening to our divine self via kundalini requires a bit more than showing up for yoga class, praying to God, or breathing accurately. It involves more than acting with altruism or worshiping in a sacred space. It involves feeling and healing the body, dealing with long-held issues, suffering through once-ignored emotions, examining negative beliefs, quitting addictions, eating right, and taking actions that might be new and frightening. In essence, kundalini asks us to mature on every level. For some, it calls attention to the stuck issues in remarkable and challenging ways.
A new term has arisen in response to the ever-increasing appearance of symptoms resulting from kundalini activation. This term, “kundalini syndrome,” is the brainchild of theorists within humanistic and transpersonal psychology, as well as near-death studies. The symptoms calling for compassion and treatment include various physical, motor, sensory, mental, emotional, affective, and cognitive problems.
It is important to note that this syndrome is not associated with a typical kundalini rising or a single kundalini episode, such as a sudden, quick rising. Rather, this term relates to the result of prolonged and intense spiritual or contemplative practice, such as meditation or yoga, or an intense life experience, such as a trauma, a close encounter with death, or a near-death experience.
The most prominent symptom is the intense rise of energy along the spine, which usually triggers tremors, shaking, involuntary body movements, and changes in respiration. It is often accompanied by changes in body temperature, such as heat or cold; a sense of electricity in the body; headaches or pressure inside of the head; tingling; vibrations; and gastrointestinal problems. Symptoms can include psychological upheaval, severe stress, depression, a sense of nonreality, intense mood swings, altered states of consciousness, and hallucinations, but they can also include moments of peace and bliss.
The good news is that the means by which we nudged our kundalini awake—such as those described in chapter 6—often work well in helping us overcome the effects of kundalini syndrome, as do the healing methods described in the next section.
What Might Help?
What do I tell my clients who need help with their kundalini symptoms? First, I often refer them to therapists, psychiatrists, or medical doctors who understand the idea of a spiritual emergence. If the practitioner believes it would also be beneficial for the client to work with me, I draw on the following tools to provide assistance:
Regressions to remember and reframe childhood problems: Many of our issues lie in our childhood. We must rescue our “inner children” if we are to mature into the adults we deserve to be.
Regressions to past lives in order to sift through the deeper spiritual issues: I believe that past lives often establish the ground for our current life experiences. I don’t encourage past-life therapy as a way of life, however. We shouldn’t retrieve the past to retreat within in it, but only to look for themes to resolve the present.
Use of healing to connect with the Divine: This usually involves searching in the past for reasons clients perceive a disconnect between themselves and the Divine. Most often the issue is abandonment or guilt, the sense the Divine left you in danger or won’t forgive you an error. The healing for both misperceptions is the acceptance of unconditional love and grace.
Release of energies that are not our own: I believe that up to 80 percent of our problems are caused by absorbing others’ issues, including illnesses, emotions, beliefs, spiritual ideas, and even experiences. A simple way to release others’ energy is to ask the Divine to take it to the rightful owner’s higher self. This higher self can determine a safe or appropriate way for the energy owner (dead or alive) to work out his or her issues. It’s important to then ask the Divine to fill in the remaining hole within ourselves and return us to wholeness.
Setting of energetic boundaries: Our auric field acts as an energetic boundary, determining the type of psychic data we let in, process, or disseminate. Abuse, trauma, and wounds create holes in our boundaries. After pinpointing the cause of the wounds, we must also energetically seal the energy boundaries. The Divine will do this upon request.
Elimination of energetic bindings, curses, or entity attachments: Yes, I believe in curses and all things that go bump in the middle of the night. I’ve seen individuals heal almost overnight upon releasing these energetic entrapments. Ask the Divine to help or seek assistance for this work.
Integration of soul fragments or aspects of the self: Trauma splinters our soul, and parts of it can lie repressed within the self, in other dimensions or planes, or even inside other people or beings. Work with a professional to help you track, heal, and place these parts of yourself back into yourself.
Activation of intuitive and spiritual gifts: We all have intuitive gifts. Each chakra carries its own gift; in fact, as explained in chapter 2, kundalini often awakens these gifts, and it’s important to define and cultivate them.
Connection to spiritual guidance and protection: We all have spiritual guides. I usually help clients ask the Divine for a gatekeeper, a God-appointed guardian that shares intuitive messages and screens energetic callers.
Projection to possible future, in order to establish a new path: There are myriad potential futures. Clients love asking the Divine to show them the best possible ones so they can create a desirable life.
Making of healthy lifestyle choices: Part II of this book includes information about proper dietary, exercise, and other lifestyle changes for health and well-being. We are physical beings and deserve to take care of these beautiful bodies. Self-care alleviates many kundalini-based concerns.
Embracing of limits: We have limits. We really have to sleep, eat well, and exercise. We can’t work all the time, even if we wanted to. Most kundalini-based practices help us perceive and accept the limitations that keep us healthy and whole.
While these guidelines are broad, I often find that clients must follow at least a few of them upon a kundalini awakening. For instance, I once worked with a woman whose kundalini shot open when her oldest son was killed in a car crash. Her natural devastation was compounded because she immediately began experiencing surges of heat up and down her spine. She was also plagued with daily flashbacks of a car accident she had been in as a child, and while she was sleeping, she experienced dreams in which her son appeared to her. These dreams caused her great agony, as she couldn’t figure out what he was communicating.
She was already seeing a chiropractor for treatment, but I also sent her to a spiritually friendly psychiatrist to evaluate her emotional state. She found some relief in the prescription medicine, but not much. I then used regression therapy to help with the “child within” who was still cycling through the childhood car accident.
During the regression, my client remembered being hit on the head and flying to heaven, where she had wanted to stay. Apparently paradise was preferable to her family home. God had sent her back, however. She became so angry that she closed down her lower chakras, as well as her intuitive gifts. If God wouldn’t bring her up, she wouldn’t let him in “down here.”
The loss of her son cancelled out this protective maneuver, forcing upward the life energy she’d been repressing. Her psychic gifts also activated. When she was able to calm her inner child and foster a relationship with the Divine, every symptom—all of which pointed to a kundalini experience—disappeared, save the psychic connection with her son. After I helped her accept her psychic gifts, my client was able to relate to her son, who only wanted to coax and coach her into a better life from his new home on the other side. Then one evening, he departed, telling her it was his time to dwell in heaven and her time to live on earth. She ended therapy with me, ready to rejoin humanity and live in wholeness within herself.
I have found that each kundalini client requires a different type of support, comforting, healing, and training. But I also know that every person experiencing kundalini symptoms is being assisted by the Divine. If you are experiencing a true kundalini awakening, be assured that you are already being guided and comforted. Isn’t the kundalini really the Divine moving through your body? To follow the kundalini is to flow with the Divine.
When the Snake Is Too Sexual
One of the most discussed outcomes of a spontaneous kundalini awakening is increased sexuality. Unfortunately, this is the symptom that frequently gets sensationalized in the “spiritual newspapers,” which often report it as compulsions, fantasies, a craving for multiple orgasms, and an unquenchable desire for sex.
I have found that any extreme kundalini symptom indicates the need to address deeper issues. In the case of overly potent sexual desires, the wounds are most likely sexual or relational in nature and often point to an abuse of power. These are usually first-chakra issues, which are often the most challenging to deal with, as they are primary and primal and beg the question of our true worth and value. Compulsive sexual behaviors might stem from sexual abuse, the misuse of sexuality, an exposure to inappropriate sex, rape, violence, or even religious judgments causing sexual repression. The drive for sex isn’t usually about sex at all. It often indicates a fear of intimacy or a misapplied way to feel powerful. If you experience an overwhelming sexual desire that that interferes with your life, seek professional therapeutic help.
Be cautious about judging your sexuality, however. Some spiritual teachers or organizations teach that you can only reach enlightenment if you are celibate. While certain individuals might be called to this path, it’s too extreme for most. As pointed out by Gopi Krishna, author of Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man, one of the first books to introduce Western readers to kundalini, there was no system of celibacy in India during the Vedic times, nor was monasticism a part of the early Christian church.
Here are a few more words of wisdom from Gopi Krishna regarding the proper use of sexual energy:
- Sex energy creates spiritual energy and can lead to more creativity.
- An excess of sexual indulgence, however, leads to lost energy and obsessiveness.
- Invite true sexual pleasure by waiting. Let the pleasure build and truly give to your beloved.
- Remember that periods of abstinence will not make you insane; sexual energy can be directed to other endeavors.
- Moderate the sexual urge; do not repress it.
- Strive for what brings true bliss—oneness with the Divine. This is the ultimate goal.23
exercise
Softening the Kundalini
Mantras, as we’ll learn in chapter 6, are chants that soothe the soul as well as the kundalini. They can clear out the nadis and chakras and connect us with the Divine. One particular mantra, called the Soham, is particularly designed to clear the energy channels. Also called the Hamsa mantra, it asks the question, “Who am I?” The answer is Soham, or “I am that.” Said repeatedly, the Soham mantra actually means “I am that I am, that I am, that I am.” It employs two sounds:
- Sooooo is the sound of our natural inhalation.
- Hummm is the natural sound of exhalation.
It is safe to use at any time.
This is the mantra:
O mind, sing the sound So Ham
Soham Japalehe Manawa
Soham, soham, soham.
I am that I am, that I am, that I am.
You can listen to an audio version of the Soham mantra on the website Swamij.com: Traditional Yoga and Meditation of the Himalayan Masters (www.swamij.com/soham-mantra.htm).