Kundalini Awakening Symptoms
Symptoms of Kundalini Awakening
Real Life Experiences & Descriptions of Kundalini Rising
Are you going through a kundalini awakening episode or experience? Let’s find out…
Kundalini awakening symptoms are truly a very intriguing subject. Really there is no correct answer to the question, “What are the symptoms of Kundalini Rising?”, as thankfully, each of us is absolutely unique and thus, on a unique trajectory on the path to Kundalini Awakening. That said, there are some common kundalini experiences that are often reported, which I would like to share with you in this article.
Although we can draw up endless lists of symptoms from third party accounts, I would like to instead make this series about kundalini symptoms that you or I have actually experienced. In this article, I will give a recent account from one of my students about what she experienced shortly after class, and then I will add my own kundalini experiences and observations as well.
In the comments section, I encourage you to add any kundalini awakening experiences or symptoms you have felt, so others can better understand what they might be going through. Here is the recent email I received from my student, Aida:
Aida’s Experience of Kundalini Awakening:
I am a student of the “Gentle Kundalini Class”. I just finished taking a series of exercise specifically for the spine.
As I left the class I felt energized as I usually feel after each class, but this time it was a little different, I was feeling extra aware of my surrounding. Like a light turned on. My back was so straight. It lasted all day.If I could go to class every morning I would go. It makes my day start right in every way. And there are times when I am not feeling like going to class and I push myself to go and do not regret it.Thank you for being my teacher.Aida D.
For those interested, here is a link to the Spinal Warmup Kundalini Yoga Kriya we did in class that day. Thank you Aida, for sharing your personal experiences with us.
This particular experience of kundalini is very interesting and significant. This is because it is the common experience of advanced meditation and of kundalini yoga. In the article, Powerful Kundalini Yoga Battles Profound Zen Meditation, I described my own such experience with kundalini awakening, but not from doing kundalini yoga, but instead from doing Silent Mind Meditation!
Aida’s experience points at the two things that all yoga and meditation boils down to. Energy and Awareness.
My favorite description of Kundalini Yoga is, “The Yoga of Awareness,” and as you see from her account, she felt more aware, as the energy of kundalini had risen up her spine. In meditation, it is the same. The demand for intense awareness, in order to comprehend the thought process via direct perception, leads to energy (kundalini) rising up and elongating the spine. Awareness then follows.
Jiddu Krishnamurti describes this experience of kundlaini energy flowing up the spine as “The rush of water filling up and thus causing a pipe to stand erect.”
When we insist that the spine be straight during meditation, it is simply to facilitate this awakening and thus, to assist in being more aware. I have experienced kundalini rising and puling up with such force, during meditation, that it sometimes make me feel as if I am going to be launched right off the ground or as if it’s going to pull my head off and up into the sky.
Symptoms of Kundalini Awakening:
I am going to describe some of the physical symptoms my students or I have felt due to kundalini awakening. I know there are many emotional and mental symptoms as well, and you are welcome to share those with us in the comments section below. I am grouping the experiences into 3 categories, common, uncommon and rare, according to what I have observed.
Common Kundalini Awakening Symptoms:
- Tingling in the body and brain region. Also sometimes described as ants walking, tickling energy or flushes of energy. The brain being flushed with energy is quite pleasant :-).
- Heat or cold in the system, or running along various channels and chakra centers.
- Fluttering or twitching of muscles.
- Pinching or burning in various regions of the body or brain.
Uncommon Kundalini Awakening Symptoms:
- Pressure in the Third Eye Region (Ajna Chakra). This is pressure, tingling or other sensation in the center of the forehead. Can go on for years (14 years and counting so far for me). Caution: If the pressure, due to certain practices, intensifies to uncomfortable levels you feel are “immense”, you should cease that practice and consult a competent kundalini yoga teacher.
- Sudden bursts of energy anywhere in the body. These are almost always short lived, from a few seconds to a few minutes.
- Spontaneous yoga asans or kundalini yoga movements. They may come on spontaneously, or they may take over, as if on auto-pilot when one is practicing Kundalini Yoga Kriyas or Exercises (For an example see article: Explosive Kundalini Rising in Class Today).
- Kundalini Shakti rising up and elongating the spine.
- Incredible feeling of love and desire for your partner (not ordinary lust, alcohol induced or otherwise :-). Usually comes upon you spontaneously, deep in the night. Sex feels like it’s the first such experience and the intense feelings of attraction emanate from somewhere beyond yourself.
- Unfortunately, pain in the lower back, back of the neck and headaches.
Rare Kundalini Awakening Symptoms:
- Experience of divine light within. Very intense light, usually pure white and incredibly beautiful. I call it the Radiation of the Lord.
- Tremendous vibratory energy (sometimes feels like it’s coming from the inner ears). Very blissful, but can intensify to the point where it would completely overwhelm your consciousness if you let it.
- Spontaneous bliss, intensely pleasurable.
- This one is a bit scary. Complete paralysis of the body. Complete immobility and rigidity takes place. As with the all consuming vibratory energy, it requires some courage to allow.
- This one is exceedingly rare. I have experienced it only once in my life, and have only ever read about it being experienced by one other – the master of awareness, G. I. Gurdjieff. The arms and legs churn like that of a baby. It happens naturally and cannot be simulated. It is also intensely pleasurable and quite a remarkable experience.
There are of course a wide range of transcendental experiences, some of which you will find described in the category Spiritual Enlightenment Experiences. Above, I have provide those that are more commonly associated with kundalini awakening, although many would argue, including Swami Vivekananda, that all enlightenment experiences have to do with kundalini entering the brain region in some capacity.
So if you have experienced some kundalini symptoms as well, please do share them with us below. I think it will benefit others identify if what they are going through is actually symptoms of the ever mysterious kundalini awakening.
and i also feel increased love and affection for my partner during the night…
i hav experienced multiple symptoms!!! first would be the elongating of the spine and increased awareness, burning in my head, spontaneous bliss, and wat i am feeling now is pain in the lower back and pain in the neck.
Hello Anmol,
I have been going over our site for some time now. I work in a set now and then. I am still learning about yoga philosopy and understanding what it all means and how it works. I have been on quite a spiritual journey for some time now. I have learned more and more how energies live in and around us. I am now looking to take responsibility for this part of my life. I started your Kundalini Morning sets, followed by the energy and prosperity mudra. It is a very powerful combination. But it took me a bit to realize what was happening. My symptoms:
– flushes of energy in my spine.
– my spine is elongated.
– I actually can feel my thrid eye. (first time)
– mental keeness.
– I feel a sense of love and hope.
I also experienced some kind of crazy energy and was wondering if this was normal? I am not sure if it was good or bad. I do struggle with weight especially in the tummy region. I read that this was a place for bad karma? Could this be a release of this negative energy? I stopped the sets on the third day because I wasn’t sure. But then I cam across this article. So I felt assured that all I was feeling was an exchange of all these energies. What are your thoughts? And anyone who understnads these things?
thanks :)
I have been practicing a kundalini awakening meditation 30mins a day for almost a month now and also a 20min Ah meditation. Along with these meditations i do an hour of yoga. During the kundalini meditation i start seeing white light patches and flashing white light when i do the root lock. Also at the end when i am done i feel dizziness. All day and night i feel diffrent things in my body like..Muscle spasms,Hot flashes,Tremors,Almost wanting to cry, And happiness! Is this a good sign that the kundalini is rising? Also I would like to know if you could help me find a mentor/teacher in this field. I am a universal minister in Maryland,USA and would love to teach this and the true teachings of the christ to help others! Please Reply or e-mail me!! Thank you! Namaste.
Hi Anmol!
I like your information on Kundalini Awakening very much.
Since October 2009 I have had Kundalini Awakening, it’s since I met a boy and he became my boyfriend. Every time he kissed me I felt like he sucked all my energy. I felt so weak. He’s also a fellow practitioner but not diligent.
I’ve practiced the Guan-Yin Meditation for almost 2 years.
Last year in December my boyfriend broke up with me through MSN offline message. When I read it I didn’t cry, just a little bit sad.
This year I got to know that I suppressed my emotions. I cry almost every day. Today for example I got so angry about him because his break up is really nonsense…
About my Kundalini awakening I often feel back pain and headaches, sometimes my third eye hurts and while meditating I’m shaking from side to side and also my head is shaking a lot and strongly.
And I have a weird sound in my ears but that is already for more than one year.
Furthermore, I’m over sensitive. I can feel many things like if someone doesn’t feel good, etc..
I hope you can give me some advice.
Thank you~!
hi anmol,
can u plz tell me how to utilize the energy and use it for further progress and take it upwards produced by dhyan and pranayama which would either flow downwards and wastes by some means…..
naman
Hi Anmol, I have pain going from my knees to my shoulders. I feel I can hardly walk and immobility is definitely a problem. I am 30 and you would be forgiven for thinking that I’m 80. I wonder how bad this could potentially get. I am taking the exercises very gently.
Thank you for this site and help,
mary
dear anmolmehta
have you had the darshan of the golden egg,also called the hiryanyagarbha during the kundalani practices.pls let me know your experiences.pls mail me directly
regards
Anmol Mehta Ji sadar charan spersh…….I am 18 year old.I am doing the yoga from 4 years contineously.And i was doing medical entrance exam prepration…but 8 months ago due to doing the yoga excessively i became hyperactive,anxious,and some time feel very dipresssed and some time i became to much excited…I was feeling my self in sky or in very advance stage…..I became agressive also and talks to much with peoples and thinks my self very inteligent……I was irretated to much when the thihgs are not in my undercontroll……I had losted my self controll..Although i was doing yoga and pranayam properlly yet i became so much dipressed…. Then i consulted with a Pshychiatrist and they adviced me not to do seershashan for some days and gave me the medicines then i become normal…..what was this……and how to a person overcome these probeloms………THANK YOU VERY MUCH….
Hello everyone
I am so delighted to read all of these posts,it has really got me buzzing !!
I experienced a strange “awakening ” some years ago after having spent some time ( several hours ) meditating in a group. I had just recovered from six
months of back pain /sciatica. I was also reading a Spiritual novel at the time. My awakening was like a massive opening of the heart. I was filled with an overwhelming love and gratitude.I was crying for days
sometimes groaning and moaning with the intensity of emotion, laughing and crying as I flooded with insights and understanding. My love extended to the whole of creation. It felt very over the top and crazy, but I felt wonderful. This experience prompted me to
to make some sense of what had happened and I enrolled on a course near Glastonbury called ‘Awakening your Light Body”. by Lita de Alberdi. The course was wonderful – taught me how to tune into the energy bodies using the chakra sites as portholes. It helped me tremendously as it gave me a framework to understanding and a way of controlling the energies. I went through a period of inner cleansing as it were generally by feeling compassion for others as well as for myself. I did a lot of forgiving and the more I forgave others the more I could forgive myself. We are who we are .The Divine is all forgiving. My life changed dramatically and I was walking on air and in the Light and everytime I tried to explain it ,it just sounded so corny or like the ravings of a religious fanatic,so I just concentrated on spreading Love as much as possible .
So from there I started going to a Kundalini Class 2x a week and after a year or so, when the teacher left I started taking the class. It was very scarey at first but I soon got into it.
Well seem to be writing screeds about me!
Its really great to be able to share and talk about these experiences to people who understand. During my course we had to write a journal about our experiences in meditation and also how our lives were
changing. I found this exercise to be very beneficial as writing stuff down and/ or communicating it helps to fix it in reality, makes it more real – even though its a struggle sometimes to find the words!
Thankyou Amnol for creating this valuable forum and your wonderful website and for giving such wise and heartfelt answers. It is a wonderful service to humanity !
i feel that i started understanding the cosmic life in the sense all living beings are filled with a divine quality (soul),and it is the only way to reach god, when people sometime behave in a human way that is in a materialistic way i will interpret in a easy way .i started seeing the real world full of negative emotions(ego) which is hinderpath in reaching GOD .i am able to see the trueness(simply god) in all aspects .i will say who lack trueness in view of their intentions will definitely lack humanitarian attitude. if ur intentions r pure and non materialistic all can enjoy godliness(soul) in them
Folks
The best book on Kundalini Shakti (aka divine mother, uma, the dynamic aspect of god, the goddess) is by Swami Muktananda. His book is Play of Consciousness and many of the experiences that he had that are listed in that book are also one’s that I have experienced and are also experiences that are listed on this web site.
After receiving Shaktipat from Gurumayi Chidvilasananda the first time (I have taken hundreds of intensives with Her), I was in bliss for four straight months. According to the scholars, when the Kundalini Shakti is awakened by the grace of a true Guru (sadguru) all of your karmas are obliterated. Then it is up to you to perform sadhana and to clear away the debris left which results in many kriyas on many levels. This is the Siddha Yoga path. One of the key things that Baba Muktananda said (Gurumayi’s guru) is that without performing self-less service the unfolding of the Kundalini Shakti (sadhana) does not go very well.
The kriyas are the gifts of the goddess Kundalini Shakti as she purifies all levels of our being. What is the best thing to do if the Kundalini Shakti is awakened and you seem to be experiencing a lot of unpleasant experiences? You can pray to the goddess – and She will give you what you ask for.
The awakened Kundalini Shakti will also do her best to clear out your samskaras (tendencies) with the grace of your Guru. The Guru is the grace bestowing power of God. After Baba Muktananda received his initiation from Bhagawan Nityananda he said that the guru was the power within him – the awakened Kundalini Shakti.
This is all a mysterious and ancient process that I have also been experiencing for years now. I like the kriyas for the most part and have asked the Kundalini Shakti to please show me what she wants me to do to make Her happy. Through the practice of contemplation on the Siddha Yoga path it is wonderful how our contemplation questions can be answered in many forms and in many ways.
When you obey the awakened kundalini shakti which has been awakened by a shaktipat master, you are obeying the Guru. The Guru is the grace bestowing power of God.
How do you draw the grace of a true Guru? By observing the practices of the Guru and by respecting the kundalini shakti. The kundalini shakti is the power of the universe so she can take us all the way to liberation. She is in all animate and inanimate objects and beings.
Meditate on the Self (God within), offer selfless service, pray, offer donations, serve, study the scriptures of your lineage, watch your mind, take care of yourself the best way that you know how – and try to enjoy everything.
If you want to make sure that your kundalini shakti has been awakened by a master then I would meditate and ask for the right one to appear in your life.
with respect and love,
govinda
I started doing kundalini awakening starting from today and started with the mantra as :
OM HRAM BRAHMANE PRITHVIYADIPATAYE NIVRITTI KALATMANE OM PHUT SWAHA
This will actually purify your feet and take you towards the right direction . I am reciting this mantra 108 times
Tell me see what would happen
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR POSTS! I have enjoyed and loved all of them. As you may know, I posted earlier. Since then I have had even more experiences. Many out of body experiences.
I am finding it extremely painful and difficult to deal with the past, to make peace with everything and move on. Suffering has been an ardent theme of my life, and I just wanted to manifest a better life.
Kundalini allowed me to deal with thing’s I repressed since childhood, but it is too hard to keep buried now. It’s emotionally exhausting and I’ve thought about ‘getting out’ many times. But my stubborness keeps me hanging on. There is still so much regret over past ‘fear’ based choices, and their consequences.
Aroun I’ve had the heat many times, just keep drinking plenty of water, it eventually subsides.
Dear Anmol.
Warm greetings to you!!!.
I recently got to know about this wonderful site. i would also like to ask from you some of my queries.
I have taken Reki fist degree course 10 years back but due to irregularities in practise i left the system. at the time i was just hardly 2o year guy. After that i have undergone some mediation classes in osh centers, my inclination towards meditation brings me there. There i encounters various feelings in my body. Till that time i was not aware of kundalani and i never attended any workshop at osho centres on it.
After this also i stopped the mediation process due to my sales profession.
NOw since one year i have again started doing Yoga, iam regularly doing nadi shodhan pranayma and kapalbhati pranayam. now the promblem is iam feeling myself with some kind of unknown energies.
My body alwasy remains hot even people ask me how this natural heater is inside me. sometimes i feel headaches and its feel like that all blood went to head.
when i sit for mediation and watch my breadth my head and neck automaticaly turn down to left and i feel that iam attached to my center of head.
Nowadays situations seems little disturbing to for me, i feel that iam not sleeping at all at nights but iam not feeling tired also in the morning.
sometimes i feel pressure to my heart and stomach areas too.
my hands are so hot that my wife says that it gives her a feeling of healing when i touch her, this my mother also says to me.
but iam myself become uncomfortable, this heat in my body make me drink more water.iam feeling that in my body fire is buring.
can u tell me is my kundalini is awakened or its already awakened since i learnt Reiki and done meditation courses. Now iam purerly doing pranayam and 10 minutes meditation.
Can u guide me anmol how to channel my these energies.
thanks
Aroun Bharadwaaj
Bishkek, Krygyzstan
Hello
Involving the awakening of the kundalini, can the energy recoil back once it is awakened?
thx
Jag
At first you get the side effects but then it’s like… so what? Onto the next thing…
Hi Jonathan,
The light within even though it is extremely white and bright, generally is an experience of great beauty and I have found I can look at it inwardly without any harm. But, you need to trust your own intuition here, for such experiences are very personal.
Best,
Anmol
I had a bad experience. This week I was in the bathroom and I heard a low deep breathing, but I could not find it. This all happened during the day. This happened because my mind was wondering into different places that it has never been before. For a moment I thought I was going to become a schizophrenic. I am together now, but the process is still continuing.
You must focus in the present moment, in the here and now so your mind doesn’t wander around. Practicing this has helped me so much.
During meditation i experienced very strong flashes of light in the 3rd eye region. it felt like staring to directly into the sun. I opened my eyes and could not close them again, because i was afraid that i’m going to explode.
The next time something like this happens, should i stay relaxed with eyes closed or can it be harmful?
Best wishes,
jonathan