Saturday, January 28, 2017

When Kundalini Isn't Wanted

I receive many inquiries asking how to activate Kundalini. Before answering I always ask the person why he or she wants to. More than likely, the answer is: because… followed a pause and much hemming and hawing. Which shows me that little serious reflection has been given the matter. As a follow up, I ask the person what prompted his/her interest. Often I’m told the person was inspired by my, or by some other writers’, Kundalini books. Gratifying as that might be if the book is one of mine, the reader’s admission makes me realize that I am now, in some sense, responsible for what happens.



Stepping back to analyze the situation objectively, I understand how writing books on Kundalini can appear to typecast writers as cheerleaders for the phenomenon — without any of us wanting or attempting to be one. That’s not why I write about the kundalini, nor is it the way I view my role, which is more educator than evangelist.

To be a cheerleader for something, you must want to elevate it above other rivals. Kundalini is not competing with anything; it is the Life Force.

Nevertheless, I’m probably guilty of cheerleading to some degree; just because kundalini and its physical power has played such an important role in my life. Even after 40 years of living with it…something new happens every day.

To feel the Life Force active inside yourself is humbling and, at the same time, hard to keep still about.

I kept still for many years, but finally after more than 30 years of living with an active kundalini, I felt it was time to add my experiences to the expanding canon of kundalini research literature.

As time goes on, however, and I encounter an increasing number of heartbreaking stories like the following comment submitted to this Kundalini Consortium blog in January 2017, the need to educate, if not to warn, becomes more urgent as you will see after reading, or listening to, the following comment from someone who definitely did not ask for or want kundalini: 
"Why does any of this have to happen? Why can't this kundalini bull shit just bother the people that seek it, why cant they have it??! Their the ones that want it. I don't want this. I hate this!!!! I just want to be normal, I just want to go back. I'm just so tired and freaked out all the time. It's like I take tiny doses of acid every day. I can feel my brain has physically changed, I can feel it, I can feel everything… :("
The comment ends with an emoticon frowning face, hardly adequate in assuaging the pain — the desperation. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon. The following is all I could muster as a reply, not very comforting, but I believe it’s better to be honest and factual than to make empty promises:
"Kundalini is an evolutionary driver; in and of itself, it is not malevolent. Trying to stop, or mitigate it, is not possible. It appears that some spontaneous cases like yours are difficult to bear in one way or another. There is no why or wherefore. Upon activation, Kundalini takes inventory of the body and nervous system, relays this information back to the brain, then begins sending healing energy to the various parts of the body that need it. Its purpose is to jump start your evolution during a single lifetime. There is a regulating mechanism that normally adjusts the energy so that only the right amount is released. Unfortunately in spontaneous cases, this mechanism sometimes releases more energy than the person can support."
Kundalini accounts vary greatly, not only because triggers and effects vary greatly, but also because adepts and newcomers alike do not use the same terminology. There is no authoritative kundalini lexicon or dictionary.


Not everyone agrees on what triggers kundalini, what its effects are, or how to live with it. What is happening inside a given individual is not only difficult to communicate; interpretation is left to the listener’s ability to extract the details correctly and to confirm that the speaker’s terminology is understood. So I often wonder: Am I interpreting correctly what he/she is telling me? And that’s why I believe in keeping the terminology simple, free from doctrinal or scriptural influences.

However, blaming kundalini is senseless; it’s like blaming evolution for enabling us to walk on two legs instead of crawling on our bellies. Kundalini isn’t the culprit. It’s an evolutionary force that’s always present, whether in a dormant or an active mode. In and of itself it’s not malevolent; it’s that the intensity or the dose of energy that certain people have to support is just too much to bear, especially in spontaneous cases.

So what can you do if kundalini should ignite spontaneously? Not much. In fact, the only thing I came up with was something not to do, and that is: it would be useless to see a doctor. Perhaps, medical science will accept, understand, and even be able to treat kundalini symptoms some day, but at the time of my activation, all I was able to do was surrender. Fortunately, in my case, it was the right thing to do.


It May Be Better to "Go It Alone" Than To Rely On Dubious Advice

Sure, there are times when I wish I could lead a “normal” life instead of being a guinea pig for esoteric science. But that’s not possible, not for me or for any person in whom kundalini is active. Problem is: some suffer more that others, which, in our American sense of fair play, does not seem fair at all.

It bothers me to not be able to help. But I have not met anyone who can. Unfair as it might appear, it falls on the individual to wait it out: that’s all you can do. Because It is doing you. There is no turning the clock back.

Kundalini is what it is — the energy behind the evolutionary impulse which seeks to improve yours as well as my Being. Would your purpose in writing books about evolution be to cheer for evolution or would you write to clarify how it works? I write about Kundalini not to cheer, but to educate and communicate the surprise and wonder it provoked when it awakened: What triggered it, its effects, what it did for/to me, how I worked to integrate it into my life, and how I live with it.

One thing I can do is: Not glorify or embellish kundalini, neither its purpose nor the challenges in awakening and/or living with it.

One thing you should do is: don’t pay someone who claims to be able to help you redirect kundalini energy without first checking references! If, by any chance you know of someone who CAN clear and/or redirect the energy, let me know and I’ll do my best to get the word out.

11 comments:

  1. I know someone who can help anyone going through a difficult kundalini awakening. Go to kundaliniawakeningsystems.org or find Chrism on facebook. He has practises and advice to help all who suffer or just help their own process along. Walking bare foot, drinking lots of water, giving up sugar and coffee, eating watermelon, being in nature and holding the thumb and pointing finger together in root chakra lock helps. Also alternate nostril breathing. Plus you must keep doing forgiveness and surrendering to the energy. xxx

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  2. Thank you. Will be eager to find out if your suggestions help.

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  3. drinking lots of water, giving up sugar and coffee, eating fresh yoghurt and zero stress ... these also worked for me at that time, 11 years ago, when it started...

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  4. I tryed to call to the radio when the subject of talk was about," sens of life" I wanted say that sens of life for me is kundalini energy, but my thoughts was cofused and i was unable give a word and my voice in this audition on air. Sad.

    I arise kundalini every in my body every day, the trigger is sex and music, I see this energy streams (nadi).

    Unfortunatly I went to a doctor, I was in psych hospital. The psych drugs ruined my life and brain damage. Kundalini and effects are only things I can feel a pleasure but this is extraordinary, near like something from not human sfere, Psychiatric drugs can stop the energy and turned the man in machine who can only sleeping all the time, eat and defecation. God must holding me.

    I don't care, now. I'm living socjal support, the citizen least category, but with great knowledge what is Live force. Osho say: "no one can help you." this words refer to the kundalini experience. It is alone consciousness. The man who haven't this symptoms isn't close to you.

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    1. I was tempted to look for medical help, but in the 70s I knew I would not be understood, not that, immediately following my kundalini awakening, I would have been able to adequately describe the experience and its effects.

      I've had to live with what kundalini had in store for me, and learn from it. Like Osho, after 40 years of living with kundalini and talking with kundaalini people, I have concluded, "No one can help you."

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    2. I have been reading book Mircea Eliade " Yoga, immortlity and freedom" . Author explain how its possible reach this altering state, samadhi. but not from empirical point of view. About kundalini is at end of book and this transcendent state isn't connected with philosophy at start of pages. He starts on few words: Karman, maya, nirwana, and yoga. and this describes the essence Indian spirituality. He skips Kundalini. I remember that thought: While the men do not exceed the stage of profan's experience he would has only notice ( opposition) to the stage of higher consciousnes, that will be reward for lost normal, profan, state of mind. And however evaluation this stage is no have any sens becouse profan's perespectives (experience) have completly different order than that evaluation has to relate. Yoga offers space of sacrum that always was (in many cultures) something different than norma.

      As we have a simmilar K.awakening JJ? The new form of energy flows into brain? I'm withdrawal, my only earth waitings is to survive

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  5. Hi JJ,

    I have not come across a single person with active Kundalini who doesn't seem a little "off" emotionally and psychologically, including myself, and I believe this can be tied to the effects of "feeling so much", as one of the persons you quoted eluded to.

    There is a real need for a non-judgemental support network for people who have had a K awakening, and very much so needed during the initial stages when everything is frighteningly new. Yet the majority of the K-awakened find themselves desiring to educate seekers on how to awaken K.

    Maybe its supposed to be this way? Maybe such is the way of things on Earth. I do not know, but this article spoke to me more than the others.

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    1. Definitely the point I tried to make: There's more buzz surrounding kundalini awakening efforts than around dealing with the aftermath, should it turn out poorly.

      But even if it happens to turn out well, there's still a need for support. And yet I understand why support is lacking: There's so little useful, accurate knowledge about dealing with adverse symptoms. Repeating phases like "No one can help you" doesn't arouse much interest, either by researchers, kundalini adepts.

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    2. HI, first: I must working very hard to say something have sens. becouse I'm from Poland. Sorry for grammar mistakes.

      " No one can help you" Osho can afford for that words. You know what I mean? It was only his sentence. Another times he says that adept kundalini needs special conditions of life and diet becouse in another way he is in trouble. He thinking about himself he's guru of rich people.

      It's not advice for me. But I had a dream in last year. It correspond with above. Someone was talking to me in this dream: "Listen to this great people and you will have something to put to your stomach,If you would have had rich stomach - you will could be"

      I understood this message from unconscious. First: my stomach is ill many years. Second: Finality everything what lives have some kind of stomach. Third: Stomach is a symbol , Only rich or great people has a good diet. In stomach is metabolism, prana comes also from food. If you don't eat one day you feel very bad and You can't be as being.

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  6. Igor Kufiev's staff said that Kundalini energy can be re-routed when given a shaktipat... which they say is like laying down a blue print for the energy to flow, and that they offer such services to people. People can have many kinds of risings, http://kundalinicare.com/kinds-of-kundalini-risings-2/ I know that meditation and conscious breathing of the energy up the spine allowed what I believe was a deflected Vajra rising, to move up my central column and flow back out of Vajra nadi. Certain mantras helped in this process, like "Prana fana fo fana, fe fi fo prana FANA! YEAH!" actually, really this one "PRANA, APANA, SUSHUMNA. HARI. HARI HAR. HARI HAR.. HARI HAR, HARI..." as well as breathing exercises up the central spine. In my experience, this was like reversing, or diverting the flow a river. I am sure that Gopi Krishna could have done this himself sooner, had he known more about the energetic anatomy of Kundalini. I have my own youtube page dedicated to helping others undergoing a Kundalini awakening... and am happy to serve you! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbEeq8J3Jmv280tvFgZFFQA

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  7. Whether it's guiding an initiate face-to-face or offering a remote remedy, many claim to be able to help. Clinical research findings are indicated – Before and after accounts of symptoms, how they were treated, and what the results were.

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