Kundalini is a term used for a dormant potential force in man’s subtle body, which is a system consisting of energy channels, chakras and subtle energy, etc. In some traditions it has been described, among other things, as a serpent, which may to some extent match certain kinaesthetic sensations of the “energies” moving about.

Automatic purification process

An active kundalini amounts to what seems to be a quite autonomous process of gradual purification of the chakras and subtle channels, and as such it is quite sought after in some spiritual traditions. Although there are exceptions, my impression from what I’ve read, and which matches my personal experience, is that it usually begins in the lower chakras. From there it according to the traditional view gradually works itself upwards through the subtle body, clearing out “karma” and residual emotional or mental impressions over time.

One may easily realise, if one believes this view of the process, that tossing new karma on the top of the fire so to speak is not a very good idea. An active kundalini may also be considered a possible mechanism for shortening the delay of a hypothesized karmic cycle; i.e. the delay until karmic actions come back to you, so to speak. I’d also like to point out for clarity that the direction of the process as moving upwards along the chakra system is not linear, but rather a bit iterative as not everything on lower levels is likely to get cleared out at once. The term “kundalini awakening” is also common for such experiences, and some claim that enlightenment follows as the process completes itself.

Difficult cases

Unfortunately for some, this process can be very difficult and troublesome. This especially seems to be the case for those who have had a premature kundalini awakening, sometimes spontaneously through near death-experiences. Another trigger may be spiritual practices that, although intense, do not provide proper preparation; in fact I would suspect that very intensity may be the reason for the kundalini being activated prematurely for some.

About such cases there are some disturbing stories, Gopi Krishna being one often quoted example. After several years of intense spiritual practice he managed to forcefully start the kundalini, and was then for a long time severely messed up. Concerning such stories though, I get the impression that there is a tendency that those who have had particularly difficult and somewhat spectacular kundalini awakenings have spent more effort writing about it in order to alert others, and perhaps also gotten disproportionately more attention than those who have not been so troubled. But even though I personally think one shouldn’t have an exaggerated view of the risk of encountering such kundalini-related problems, it seems prudent to be aware of the possibility. Also, apart from the obvious difficulties such experiences may lead to in themselves, there is according to various writers a risk of misdiagnosis of some such problems as a number of serious mental disorders. If nothing else, these things may serve as a reminder that pushing too far ahead too fast is probably not a good thing, and that patience and more gradual advances are likely preferred.

A bit about my experiences

For my part there isn’t much to write about. The first things I experienced were some kinaesthetic sensations of something slithering about in the abdomen. It lasted a few days perhaps, if I remember correctly. Since then, though, similar experiences have usually been milder, for the most part more like airy “energies” moving about now and then. But I have also at some times had sensations of something with more substance, such as a cool fluid, or something denser or more viscous, moving upwards along the spine. This has most often occurred during exercises, but occasionally it’s happened spontaneously. During exercises I’ve also more often as I kept up practice had a feeling of a concentrated and quite intense flow upwards to the crown chakra or higher.

Apart from these things there have been some tingling sensations, and a few mild aches or pains and even sharp focused pressure, usually in the head area. Sometimes when going to bed all the chakras, primary or mid line secondary on either side, spontaneously sync and start rotating in a similar tempo for a short while. There was also a brief episode of some weird sensations while falling asleep, but not much to write about here. In most cases these things have been easily managed with a trick or two, which I’ll get back to.

Some times my mood has also been a bit worse, but I mainly connect that to some experiments with exercises that didn’t turn out so well in the sense that perhaps old mental junk might have come loose in an uncontrolled fashion and perhaps in too large amounts at once. In situations when such things affect ones mood it’s probably a good idea to just keep in mind that it’s just some irrelevant old emotions that will soon pass, kind of like a hangover or getting up on the wrong side of the bed.

Overall, well over a year and a half into it now at the time of writing this, I’d say that it hasn’t been hard at all for me. Then I’d also like to point out that during periods I’ve been quite actively working with a number of chakra balancing exercises in order to root out lots of old mental junk I’ve apparently had lying around. Considering that, I would say that it’s actually been very smooth and steady, nothing similar to the scary and somewhat bizarre stories one might read about.

A channel system analogy

Earlier on I made the comparison with tossing more fuel on the fire while it’s already burning heavily. Talking about the kundalini as a fire is quite common, but actually I don’t think it’s a very good comparison considering my experiences. For me the experience is almost always that of cool flows, or temporarily something sharper. Only on some rare occasion has there been any heat involved.

One explanation that I’ve come across is that the usual talk about fire is due to a faulty translation to “fire” in a context where the word actually meant “force”, and that this error in an important text has then been spread in the literature. Feelings of heat would also, according the same author, be due to attempts to force the kundalini process to start prematurely. If these things are correct I don’t know, but since I think the common comparison with fire is odd considering my own experience I felt I should mention this.

A better analogy for the chakra system in my mind is that of a channel system, where the channel crossings are the chakras and with the kundalini mainly flowing through the channels. One may think of it as a fluid to get a clearer and more easily imagined image, but actually it usually feels airier. There would be one main vertical central channel and one on each side, with a number of horizontal channels connecting them, and then a lot of smaller channels and crossings here and there.

In the channels and the crossings there is lots of dirt like big pieces of dry mud. There’s so much dirt and blockages that the flow can hardly get through. If one gets rid of enough blockages however, a stronger flow can start to build and gradually erode, dissolve and wash away the dirt from the system. But when that happens, some larger clumps of dirt might come loose from their place and if they don’t get entirely dissolved quickly enough they might get stuck some place else where it’s narrower. When that happens it can be uncomfortable both mentally and physically.

So when the purification process starts things may get a bit unbalanced and chaotic until the worst is cleaned out, but then it flows a lot more smoothly than it did before. If one is actively doing a few exercises to deal with the worst collections of dirt during, or preferably before, the process one might be able to get through this stage faster and with less difficulty.

To return to and replace the less appropriate analogy of tossing fuel on the fire; if one pictures that the quite clogged up channels have just been starting to open up more to allow greater flows, it’s not a good idea to throw in new junk that then risks clogging up the system again, or perhaps get dragged along with the current for a bit and then get stuck further ahead where the passage is narrower.