What is kundalini energy?

Kundalini is the name given to describe a primordial life force energy that exists at the base of the spine. This energy usually remains dormant for your entire life, typically becoming active before death, which is why our loved ones do not experience pain when they are in the final moments of their physical life.

No, you are not dying! Kundalini energy can also awaken as a result of major traumatic life event(s), or from long-term spiritual practices like yoga, meditation or tantra. However, this should not be construed as meaning such spiritual practices are harmful or that should be avoided. Furthermore, not everyone who practices yoga or meditation will experience a sudden kundalini awakening, even if they meditate every day for their entire life. While the rate at which we are seeing reports of kundalini awakenings are rising worldwide, it represents only a minority of people across a given population.

No matter who you are, where you come from, or your religious or spiritual beliefs, your kundalini energy is always active at some level. For example, your kundalini energy rises from the base of your spine when you orgasm during sex or masturbation, before returning to dormancy again.

If your kundalini energy is meant to awaken during your physical life, it’s going to awaken one way or another, and that is the key point. For those of you that feel this would not have happened to you if only you just didn’t start practicing yoga or meditation, or discovering spiritualism, the chances are high that you are mistaken.

Signs of a kundalini awakening

• Heightened sexual arousal, spontaneous orgasms, and increased libido (sex drive).
• Buzzing or tingling sensation in the middle of your forehead and/or the top of your head.
• Feeling deep emotional instability, crying uncontrollably, and a sense that all of your emotional pain or trauma has been brought to the surface all at once.
• Feelings of emotional and spiritual connection to everything around you, which may be described as a sense of oneness and belonging, or being at one with everything.
• Physical sensation of subtle energy rising from your feet up through your body, often accompanied by a feeling of the nerve endings in your body becoming still or numb.

What you need to do right now

Don’t panic.

The monkey mind is constantly trying to make sense of what’s happening at any given moment. If you are going through a kundalini awakening, the monkey mind is likely to be on very high alert, and does not like what is happening because it threatens its sense of normalcy.

It’s part of the physical body’s survival toolkit, and it will happily go to great lengths to ensure the body’s survival, but this is also its greatest weakness. It can go too far, and cause all the damage itself.

It’s not an external force, and neither is kundalini energy. Your perception of what’s happening, and your reaction to it, will dictate much of your experience.

For example, if a person runs away with the idea that they are losing their mind or that they are possessed, they are convincing themselves of things that are not real, and are introducing unnecessary suffering into their experience.

If this line of destructive thinking resonates with you, ask yourself these questions:

• How do I know that I am losing my mind? Since when did I suddenly become an expert about matters of the mind?
• How do I know that I am possessed? Since when did I start to believe such irrationality? What evidence do I have that this is true, aside from the feelings of fear?

Quite simply, the monkey mind is trying to make sense of what’s going on, but this aspect of the body cares only about one thing: survival.

For those of you that have a good answer to each question which supposedly validates your worst fears, let me give you a fresh perspective. My perspective comes to you not only as a Reiki Practitioner, but also as a Software Engineer. In other words, I know what it is like to be in the head-space, and I know what it is like to be in the heart-space.

Fear #1 – I am experiencing what seems like psychosis or hallucinations

Our role at the Horizon Spiritual Centre is always to help people arrive at their own truth. In other words, to arrive at a conclusion that resonates with you. During a kundalini awakening, it is not uncommon to feel that you may be hallucinating or experiencing a breakdown in reality. However, often more than not, people merely think they are hallucinating when they are not, and convince themselves through unnecessary fear and panic that they are losing their marbles.

It is important to observe your experiences from a position of calmness and rationality. Instead of trying to understand how you think about your experience, how do you feel about your experience?

Yes, of course, you may be hallucinating, but then one could argue that we all hallucinate in some way. When we dream during sleep, is it real? No? Well, we might as well label dreams as hallucinations, then. I mean, they feel real at the time, even if we might otherwise say that dreams are not real, right?

I am not suggesting that your experience is like a dream, or equivalent to a dream. The only thing that I am trying to convey right now is that you have the right to interpret your experience in a way that makes sense to you, not what makes sense to others. We can help you to reach a conclusion that makes sense to you, but we are not here to tell you how to think or what to feel. We can suggest things for you to consider and give you insights about what’s going on based on our many years of experience, but you should only accept what resonates with you.

For me, I never experienced any hallucination during my kundalini awakening, but I say that from my frame of reference only. As I explain my experience to others, I’m sure there will be someone out there that would be entirely convinced that my experience was an hallucination. For example, during the early stages of my kundalini awakening, I saw white light flash in the room while I was falling asleep. My eyes were almost closed at the time. Was it an hallucination? To me, the answer is a resounding no. To others, the answer might be yes. Who’s right and who’s wrong? Well, really, I don’t care.

There are a number of research papers, such as J Adv Res Psychol Psychother 2023;6(1&2):10-13, which document apparent episodes of psychosis or hallucinatory behaviour in persons experiencing a kundalini awakening. ^[1]

One theory posits that a small number of people experience psychosis or hallucinatory behaviour because the intense physiological and psychological changes associated with a kundalini awakening may trigger or exacerbate existing vulnerability to psychosis in some individuals. However, this should not be taken to suggest that such individuals remain indefinitely in a state of psychosis, as a kundalini awakening is also a healing process which naturally promotes balance and integration.

If we see a kundalini awakening as a healing process, it would be sensible to treat psychiatry and medicine as one of the tools in our arsenal that can assist a person in their process of healing and integration. For some people, it may be appropriate to consider this route.

You should always look at your options in an objective way, because fear can make you think that you need medication when it may not actually be necessary. You should also bear in mind that psychiatrists and doctors prescribe medication and treatments based on a rigid framework which, in our western context, does not yet consider kundalini energy to be real. Of course, this will change over time, as more research papers are being published about consciousness and energy by people in the mainstream scientific community.

Fear #2 – I am worried that I might be possessed

It is NOT possible for another spirit to take over your body like that. You always have control over your physical body. It is more likely that the actual issue is an irrational fear. Remember, your monkey mind wants to maintain control in the interest of the body’s physical survival. The ego will happily convince itself of safety issues that do not exist for the purpose of self-preservation, because unknowns threaten the monkey mind’s narrow sense of safety.

If you are ever concerned about your safety, you can ask your spirit guides and angels to protect you. Strictly speaking, it is not necessary to continuously ask for protection because you are never alone and they always know what’s going on for you at any given moment. However, they understand that it may help you feel a sense of assurance by asking them.

In life, intention is key. If you set your intention that you allow only love and light around you, this effectively becomes the law that governs your reality. Remember, you are a being of light with complete sovereignty and free will. Even God (or the Divine), from whom your existence came, must respect this. It is law.

If you are religious, this applies to you as well. If you are a Christian, you may say that you only allow that which is aligned with Christ. If you are a Muslim, you may say that you only allow that which is aligned with Allah. In either case, you are allowing only that which comes in truth, love, and in accordance with your God’s will.

Fear #3 – My kundalini energy is preventing me from sleeping

As I was once reminded by my own therapist, the body will eventually fall asleep no matter what. When the body really needs sleep, it will find a way. Typically, you may feel that you cannot sleep when your kundalini energy starts to rise through your body. When this happens, just relax and allow it to unfold without forcing it in any particular direction. You don’t need to understand what’s happening, or why it’s happening. All you need to know is that this is your own energy and your body knows what to do with it.

Please be assured the lack of sleep is only temporary, and I say this from personal experience. The key word is integration, which happens naturally as your kundalini awakening progresses.

Fear #4 – I am experiencing spontaneous orgasms and heightened libido (sex drive)

This is completely normal.

A kundalini awakening is a spiritual experience which brings you closer to your higher self. The natural state of our eternal being is bliss and joy, and we experience this in the physical form in a variety of ways. Sexual energy, which is also creation energy, is one such way.

It is understandable that this aspect of a kundalini awakening can be distressing, as it may feel like you no longer have control over your body. You might also feel that it is not an appropriate experience as it may be reminding you of the past, whether that’s homophobic abuse, a former partner that you lost, or child abuse that was inflicted on you.

You are NOT having this type of experience because of what happened to you in the past.

It is OK to be angry at God right now if you need to be. God loves you unconditionally. It is law. God must respect your reality. It is law. God cannot violate your free will. It is law. God is always by your side and will never abandon you. It is law.

I would like to repeat again the word integration. This is an inevitable outcome of a kundalini awakening. A kundalini awakening can be interpreted as a gradual process of reclaiming your sovereignty, power, and sense of identity. Our body’s primordial life force energy is helping us to reclaim our sovereignty, power, and sense of self. In effect, reclaiming every aspect of ourself that may be fragmented. Of course, it is not all about sexual energy. It is merely just one aspect of the whole.

^{[1] Zunzunwala S, Preeti, Sharma S, Khedar PS, Kataria D: “Kundalini Awakening and Psychosis: A Case Series Exploring the Psychopathological Manifestations.” The Journal of Advanced Research in Psychology & Psychotherapy, Volume 6, Issue 1&2 – 2023, Pg. No. 10-13.}