Let’s discuss Kundalini awakening and the growing trend toward spirituality as we awaken. As humanity accelerates forward, more and more people are reporting spiritual experiences and opening into the awareness that physical reality is only a fraction of all that is. No one knows for certain just what kick starts the unfolding of spiritual potential.
For some, spiritual awakening is a gentle and integrated process which develops as a natural consequence of many years dedicated to service and prayer or meditation under the guidance of a teacher or guru. Others may experience a more abrupt awakening, possible due to practices which awaken transformative energy before the person has done the necessary base groundwork.
Awakened Energy
It is thought that practices such as yoga, bio-energetics, polarity work or breathwork cause the awakening of Kundalini energy which heralds the transformation of spiritual potential. Kundalini is the Hindu word for the sacred, transformative energy that awakens consciousness. According to esoteric literature, this energy has been coiled at the base of the spine in a latent form since birth, awaiting the stimulus to unfold its potential.
As this energy becomes active, it is usually sensed as a vibrating or energetic force in the body, together with a strong sense of spirit. It’s movement may be experienced as a rushing, outpouring, a steady streaming up the spine, or a slowly coiling spiral motion.
Awakening Through Distress
Another common catalyst seems to be intense physical or emotional distress. As people confront the limits of their endurance and come face to face with death, they will often move into non ordinary or trans-personal states of consciousness.
Experiences with natural disasters, near death experiences, or life transitions such as pregnancy, midlife or separation, may be emotionally tense situations which can lead to spiritual awakening. Regardless of the specifics of each individual’s experience, the Kundalini awakening signifies a great period of change in a person’s life.
Spiritual Emergency
When a spiritual seeker or someone who doesn’t even consider themselves to be on a spiritual path, find themselves experiencing levels of awareness or energy transformation that they are unable to handle or for which they have no reference, then the result can be traumatic. This is like a spiritual state of emergency.
In this state, a person feels highly vulnerable and oversensitive to incoming stimuli. Typically you will feel overwhelmed, fragmented, fearful, confused and disoriented. With your absorption in inner process, you may not be able to tend to basic self care.
This type of situation can be bewildering and frightening. You might need support and reassurance as you undergo your transformation.
Symptoms Of Kundalini Awakening
While Kundalini awakening may be a dramatic experience, the resultant shift in consciousness can be accompanied by years of physical and psychological upheavals. The process of Kundalini awakening does vary greatly from person to person.
Some people have intense physical symptoms, while others experience mainly emotional or psychological symptoms. It’s like the energy gives you a spring clean throughout your entire system. Unresolved physical or emotional conditions come up for resolution and release. The life transforming changes which accompany a Kundalini awakening cover the entire physiological, emotional, mental and spiritual spectrum.
Here are seven categorised symptoms which have been observed during Kundalini awakening.
1. Pranic Movements (Kriyas)
Prana is the Hindu word for vital energy. As intense energy moves through the body and clears out physiological blocks, you may experience intense involuntary, jerking movements of the body, including shaking, vibrations, spasm and contraction. As deeply held armour and blockages to the smooth flow of energy are released, you will bring up memories and emotions associated with past trauma and injury.
2. Yogic Phenomena
Some people find themselves performing yogic postures or hand mudra gestures which they have never learned or could not do in a normal state of consciousness. Similarly, they may produce Sanskrit words or sounds, or have an awareness of inner music or sound, mantras or tones. Unusual breathing patterns may appear with either very rapid or slow, shallow breathing. Some people may not breathe at all for extended periods.
3. Physiological Symptoms
A Kundalini awakening often generates unusual physiological activity as intense movement of energy releases toxins in the body. Symptoms include apparent heart problems, pains in head and spine, gastrointestinal disturbances and nervous problems.
Internal sensations have been reported as sensations of burning, over sensitivity to sensory input, hyperactivity or lethargy, great variations in sexual desire and even spontaneous orgasm. Symptoms can be erratic, coming and going without provocation, but are generally unresponsive to medical treatment.
4. Psychological Upheaval
Spiritual awakening offers a direct challenge to the primacy of ego consciousness and the myth of separation. It brings with it a challenge to move beyond the unconscious responses ruled by drives and instincts and remove ego consciousness from the centre stage of the psyche.
It comes as no surprise that such a challenge produces a period of confusion and unbalance. People find themselves beset by inexplicable emotional states as they move to clear out unresolved issues. The emotional roller coaster may swing from feelings of anxiety, guilt and depression, through to compassion, love and joy, with accompanying bouts of uncontrollable weeping.
5. Extra Sensory Experiences
As perception expands outside of consensus reality, people experience atypical visual phenomena, including visions of lights, symbols, entities, or review of past life experiences. Auditory input may include hearing voices, music, inner sounds or mantras. Even the olfactory system may be stimulated with perception of scents of sandalwood, rose or incense.
There may also be disruption of your bodies proprioceptive system, with losing a sense of self as a body, or feeling bigger than your body, or out of the body, with the resulting confusion and disorientation.
6. Psychic Phenomena
With the opening up of psychic abilities, you may experience precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis, awareness of auras and healing abilities.
7. Mystical States of Consciousness
You might shift into altered states of consciousness where you directly perceive the unity underlying the world of separation and experience a deep peace and serenity with a profound knowing of wisdom.
In some cases, the state of emergency due to psychological upheaval is so acute that it resembles a psychotic episode. Many clinicians still regard phenomena associated with spiritual emergence as indicative of pathology because the signs are so easily confused with the indicators of psychosis, mania, depression, schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder. Many people undergoing spiritual emergency are misdiagnosed and treated with suppressive medication which further complicates their process.
Support For Kundalini Awakening?
When Kundalini awakening happens to people who are not on a spiritual path or who have no context or framework to understand the bewildering upheaval of mind, body and spirit, the experience can leave them fragile and fragmented. As the Kundalini process involves a redefinition and reintegration of self, it adds extra pressure when health professionals or significant others wish to suppress the transformation and insist that the person conforms to old ways of being in the world.
Of greatest benefit is a supportive framework which can allow people to make sense of the intricate connection between spirit and the movement of physical energy in the body, rather than fearing they are going insane.
It is more empowering to understand that Kundalini awakening is a process which taps into the blueprint for higher consciousness which is latent within every human. While the enormous changes associated with a spiritual awakening may demand psychological and social adjustments, they are not in themselves necessarily indicative of illness.
Communication and connection with others who can provide support and a meaningful context for understanding the process reduces the isolation and overwhelm and can help to minimise the disturbance. Someone who has the personal qualities of creative adaptation to change and a flexible mental framework is more likely to weather the changes with grace and style than someone who is rigid in their beliefs and world view.
Wake Up Call For Humanity
Usually Kundalini awakening is a process which only occurred after years of spiritual practice and meditation. Yet increasingly, the Kundalini experience is being reported among people who are not undertaking spiritual practices. Since the early 90’s, when Shared Transformation, an American journal for connecting people going through spiritual awakening first began, it has been contacted by over 700 people in the throes of spontaneous Kundalini arousal (Collie & Kress,1995).
These increased reports of spontaneous Kundalini awakening at this time of planetary upheaval may be indicative of a larger purpose at work, the beginning of a planetary wake up call. Anyone who is on a spiritual path, or engaging in practices which change body energies, such as meditation, yogic practices, breath work, re-birthing or polarity balancing, may find they begin to resonate with the changing energies at this time and that they begin their own Kundalini awakening process.
Is Kundalini Awakening Spiritual Enlightenment?
It is important not to confuse Kundalini awakening with spiritual enlightenment. Enlightenment rarely results from a single encounter with the numinous. The energetic awakening initiates an expansion in consciousness, which in turn sets the scene for a progression of many experiences with trans-personal states of consciousness.
The intensity and duration of each of glimpse into higher consciousness varies with your readiness to contain and integrate each event. Therefore Kundalini awakening is not an end point in itself. It’s the beginning of a transformation of consciousness which expands your capacity to know the infinite.
Spiritual awakening often includes expanded perceptual abilities, increased energy, creative expression and a dedication to being of service for the greater good. (Read more on Spiritual Enlightenment)
