Treatment: Types of Spiritual Emergency
KUNDALINI
Clinical Description
Specific Features
Online Resources
Clinical Description
Kundalini is a complex physio-psychospiritual transformative process described in the Yogic tradition. Kundalini energy is presumed to reside at the base of the spine. When aroused, it can rise through the chakras (psychic centers situated along the spine from the tailbone to the top of the head), creating physical symptoms ranging from sensations of heat and tremors to involuntary laughing or crying, talking in tongues, nausea, diarrhea or constipation, rigidity or limpness, and animal-like movements and sounds. Kundalini awakening can resemble many disorders, medical as well as psychiatric. The physical nature of the symptoms can mimic conversion disorder, epilepsy, lower back problems, multiple sclerosis, heart attack or pelvic inflammatory syndrome. The emotional reaction to the awakening of Kundalini can be confused with disorders involving anxiety, depression, aggression, and organic syndromes. A variety of spiritual practices, including meditation and hatha yoga, can bring it on, and it can also occur.
Unlike those suffering from psychosis, individuals experiencing Kundalini rising are "typically much more objective about their condition, communicate and cooperate well, show interest in sharing their experiences with open-minded people, and seldom act out" (Grof, 1986).
Bonnie Greenwell, PhD (1990) in Energies of Transformation: A Guide to the Kundalini Process presents case studies of persons experiencing kundalini and developed seven categories of symptoms which have been observed during Kundalini awakening. Psychologist Karin Hannigan summarizes her criteria as:
Specific Features
1. Pranic movements or kriyas
Prana is the Hindu word for vital energy. Thus as intense energy moves through the body and clears out physiological blocks, a person may experience intense involuntary, jerking movements of the body, including shaking, vibrations, spasm and contraction. As deeply held armoring and blockages to the smooth flow of energy are released, the person may re-access 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, oversensitivity 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 center 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 the proprioceptive system, with losing a sense of self as a body, or feeling bigger than the body, or out of the body, with the resulting confusion and disorientation.
6. Psychic Phenomena
With the opening up of psychic abilities, a person may experience precognition, telepathy, psychokinesis, awareness of auras and healing abilities.
7. Mystical States of Consciousness
A person may shift into altered states of consciousness where they 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.
Online Resources on Kundalini
What is Kundalini?
Interview with Lee Sannella, M.D. author of Psychosis or Transcendence
Spiritual Emergence: Toward a Spirituality-Inclusive Psychopathology
by Stuart Sovatsky
Home Page of Stuart Sovatsky, Phd
Clinical Director, Kundalini Clinic
Kundalini Awakens
by Ruth Trimble
Kundalini and the Awakening of the Spirit
4 pg article, focusing on the following areas: How does kundalini begin? Symptoms of Kundalini Awakening and its relation to enlightenment.
Serpent Fire: Kundalini and Spiritual Crisis
3 pg analysis of kundalini awakening or "serpent fire," its effects to the individual, and explanations for the phenomenon.
Kundalini Resource List
Bibliography providing a starting place to find information on kundalini and related topics
Kundalini FAQ
2 pgs of questions: What does kundalini have to do with spiritual enlightenment? Does everyone agree that kundalini awakening is necessary for enlightenment, etc.
Kundalini Awakens
5 pg analysis of kundalini awakening |
