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.
I had a strange thing happen to me today at around 10am thursday 25th October 2010. I walked into some new premises that was to do with Psychic awareness in Hertford town center. As I entered through the door into the building, I had to stop suddenly, my body was imobolized. I felt this rush come up from my ankles right through my body through my head. I had to tell the person, that had opened the door to me, that I could not move. I just said. “WOO! that was freaky, there must be a lot of spirits in here!!” I had to stay centered for quite a few seconds as I waited for this experince to pass. I have seen through my third eye as well. And have seen Angels when I was at a low ebb. And have seen ghosts as well. And seen my dead uncle speak to me at the end of my bed. Such experiences are a gift I feel. Only his head appeared at the end of my bed .I am going back to that place in Hertford tonight to be in a Circle..Shall have to wait and see what happens! Will keep you posted! Linda Reynolds Colegrave Love to all XXX
I experienced a rather spontaneous Kundalini awakening which I want to share with others. It happened after I had briefly researched the subject, curious to know what it was. I was lying in bed very much awake with my eyes closed, concentrating on an area in my spine where I envisaged my kundalini to be residing. After a while I started to feel odd. My entire body from the pelvis upwards started to feel like it was having this bizzare hot flash. I opened my eyes in panic but didn’t feel the urge to move. Once I realised what was happening I decided to just go with the flow and allow the experience to continue. So I closed my eyes and allowed the feeling to engulf the upper half of my body. Another thirty seconds or so later I felt lightheaded but very uplifted and optimistic. My head felt as though sparks were flying out the back of it. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. I had not known prior to this that kundalini could manifest itself as ‘hot flashes’, as my research on the subject was quite limited and was surprised to find that many others had experienced something similar to what I had. I didn’t feel anything particularly negative about the whole thing. I guess I was just shocked at how easily this seemed to happen to me, and how rapidly it took hold. I had been trying to awaken my third eye a couple of days ago but stopped because I started feeling the urge to spontaneously vomit, and I was feeling a band of tightening across my forehead which I wasn’t comfortable with.
I practice meditation daily and that too at increasing time period.I chose Anapanasati.Today I felt different emotion than I uasually have.My spinal cord is pushing up off the ground in such a way that I lose contact with the ground.I experienced it many times and stopped meditation.I thought it is nothing but excessive blood pressure.But it continued in me for more time and my neck region is also gets pushed during this vibration and recorded video to identify myself.I feel everything common and I found my brain is catching each and every sound in my surroundings and feel excessively activated.I wud feel it commonly after my meditation but today it is combined with vibration in spine.
I thought I need to speak to someone who can understand it.Thanks to this blog and author for sharing your views.After reading I realised that my kundalini is activated.
I have been meditating for a while and did not really know what kind of meditation I was doing as I just did what came naturally to me. I have been seeing a tunnel with a white or sometimes light blue circle at the end point and lots of colors and strange images like the caduceus and other symbolism that I need to research. A while back, when I would become extremely relaxed mostly before sleeping or sometimes during meditation, I would follow the tunnel to the light and my head would start to feel like it was going to explode and there was a lot of pressure in the center of my brain. I thought that I was about to have a seizure and would get really scared and make myself come back to “normal awareness”. Recently, I tried to sustain the feeling of the pressure and intense spinning and I got to a point where I was very very fearful of death and thought that I was dying. I cried and cried and wanted comfort but ended up crying myself to sleep. Since then I have been having lots of new insights about life and the universe and afterlife and feel like an explosion of knowledge upon me all the time….I was reading about kundalini meditations and realized that this spinning and tunnel visualization may have something to do with all of this. I feel confident that this is what I am experiencing but some doubt still remains…I would like to know how to get past the fear and let go so that i can go all the way through the tunnel into the light….i am curios as to what is on the other side of that light but not sure if i am ready. Anyone else have a similar experience? I would love to talk to someone about this
Another thing I forgot, you have to watch your sleep and diet, I have become more hungry mor eoften, and since I’m always brimming with energy you cannot tell when your tired, yes really, lol…so just be careful. :)
Some of the greatest spiritual minds come from India, search LifeBlissFoundation on youtube.
Forgot to add, finding out your personality type and building from there is what I done.
For me, the Kundalini Awakening happened rather quickly and unexpected, it was like grabbing onto a electrical conduit, my mind was exploding with energy, it got to the point to where I was seeing orbs, ectoplasm, and even had one talk to me, said hi and it scared the crap outta me, haha.
Once you grab onto that conduit, be warned, it will burn your old self away. Since then it has gone away, I can still seem the alittle but not as much as I could when I first awoke, which is kinda disappointing. I still can feel them when they come around me though, I feel like I’m stuck in a freezer sometimes, lmao.. My personality type is INFJ and I’m highly sensitive, which I think is what jump started it so quickly.
I do not practice any form of yoga. I am a spiritual person. When I experience the need to speak to some mis-truth, and prevent myself from doing so, eventually I MUST speak/release the verbal energy. After I do, I feel a ‘fire’ in the base of my spine that slowly ascends my spine, feeling as though it is disintergrating my vertebra. While it is happening, I cannot move. I must wait until it subsides. Is that Kundalini, or should I see a chiropractor? Seriously. It only happens when I am intensely emotionally upset.
Quoted from above: 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).
I have had a constant 24/7 pressure in the center of my forehead for a year now. It started right after I meditated on my third eye. At the time of meditation, I very quickly experienced a tingling and numbness in my third eye. Since that day the pressure is quite intense and never goes away. It is annoying and sometimes becomes painful.
Is there anything I can do to stop the pressure? This was my first attempt at opening my third eye and the entire meditation was only 5 minutes. Is it even possible to open your third eye so quickly with very little mediation experience?
Thank you for any comments or suggestions.
I woke from my sleep at three o’ clock this morning with the overwhelming feeling that I have to meditate. I have a chakra clearing meditation and angel meditation on my ipod so I put them on back to back. Somewhere in between the two meditations I fell asleep, I was awakened about an half an hour later with a cold sweat. I realised I was paralysed, I couldn’t move from the bed and I had a tingling sensation going down my back. above my head I was aware of two what only could be described as sqiggles of golden light. I suddenly began to panic and that shut down the paralysis and the vision of the lights. I could sense that there were energies surrounding my bed stricken with fear I turned to lie on my stomach, hoping that if I blocked them, they would go away. several minutes later I began to relax and I could feel the presence of my dead grandmother behind me. I confirmed out loud that I knew she was there and the tingly feeling went down my back again. I was literally dripping with sweat from head to toe after the experience and I felt migraine like symtoms. I have spent the morning googling my symptoms and I have arrived at this page. could somebody please shed some light into my situation. I have never went to yoga and I have only properly began to meditate in the last 3 to 4 months. I was not prepared for what happened last night, could someone provide me with the necessary tools to deal with this type of experience. Thanks.
Dear Jason Popieniuck,
I find your description very similar to mine. would you like to share and exchange views? my email id seek_first@ymail.com
You have written it so well. Thanks anyway even if you decide not to contact.
Regards
I am generally skeptic of anything that is too far in or out of the generally accepted social paradigm of which I recieved high marks during the indoctrination process they call an “education” these days. You see, I am in my mid-20s and having weird sensations that I couldn’t find a medical correlation for; not that I am trained in the medical field it is merely one of my earliest interests. These sensations I feel almost entirely correlate to the alleged symptoms of Kundalini arising.
I am not a practicer of yoga or martial arts despite achieving some level of success in Su Bahk Do as a youth (it was called Tang Soo Do then) and retain a lot of my muscle range, relexes, and flexibility. In the past few months I have been losing weight, feeling no usual hunger and seem to be more “on the ball” at work. I’m usually just pretty good (i’m a short order cook at a family restaurant…one you’ve probably been to if you live in the us) but lately I find myself being the Kung Fu master of grill cooks easily doing the work of 2 or 3 men and doing it better than 2 or 3 actual men. I find my focus and followthrough have improved; once I start something I actually find myself finishing it which was always a weakness of mine. I have been feeling these strange vibrations in my temple region, having the “ants walking sensation” in my toes so badly I remove my shoes and find myself attempting to “massage” the feeling away. And the back, neck and headaches hurt so bad I’ll have to miss work which I only do when seriously ill.
All this time I figured there was something seriously wrong with me and I had to have it all click to see that maybe there was something seriously RIGHT with me, I just haven’t been taught to look out for it yet. I have always had an inner voice or thought telling myself that hardship was just one way to “pay your dues” and that working hard could only benefit me eventually; it took my reading that the freedom of Kundalini energy, when under intense stresss and circumstance can feel more like a nightmare than self-realization. Merely reading that thought (and re-reading repeatedly that thought) was perhaps my key to understanding why I exist to begin with. Thank you for making this information publicly available to another traveler of this journey we call life.
I have the tingling sensation in my forehead since past two days and I am very happy as I have been meditatin fondly since three months… Never ever before in my life have I done Anything of the sort.. In fact I never believed kundalini awakening could happen to me… I do not however feel any surge of energy or for the matter any type of bliss… Is this normal… What next from here?
Reading the symptoms of Kundalini awakening made me want to share a website http://www.loveexpos.org where they talk about evolutionary orgasms. There are pages of testimony by people about the wonders of Evolutionary Love Burst Techniques and the Unconditional Love Energies released in human orgasms that do not involve any touching of sexual organs. They offer classes in these techniques.
I’m currently experiencing the tingling of my third eye and tingling in my scalp/crown chakra. I’ve been experiencing both off and on for about 3 months now. Also, a lot of headaches…
Twitching of the muscles and i’ve experienced the extraordinary bliss emanating throught my entire body.. It was quite orgasmic actually!
I have a question that I would like to ask: I have been practicing meditation for some time. Lately I have been at times experiencing a mild vibration inside my body that is soothing. I feel energy flowing through my brain and warmness in my heart, also. Are these experiences having anything to do with awakening the kundalini energy center and opening the chakras?
I had a beautiful kundalini awakening years ago, when a surge of energy started to rise from my root chakra on up my spine activating each chakra as went upward till it reached my crown. I then went into full bliss. During this experience my body was shaking quite a it and an automatic type breath took over. I have been trying to learn more about this breath but can’t seem to find any info about it
Many years ago I was taught a simple exercise for focusing ones attention for study and sitting exams (not sure if it worked).
It involved closing your eyes and looking at an imaginary dot in the middle of your inner upper forehead… the immediate effect was to make me go cross eyed, but did have a small relaxing effect.
Over time I’ve managed to obtain a very pleasant feeling from it almost exactly like the inner eye awakening experience discussed on this site.
I can now achieve this feeling in any situation (walking, running – a bit harder or sitting in front of the computer at work) without closing my eyes or going cross eyed!
Over the last few months I began doing breathing exercises to help me warm up for exercise – nothing complex… just deep breath in – hold – out – hold. I used to play the Trumpet so am quite familiar with taking deep breaths! I also did these before going to bed…
Now to the scary part. In the last month I’ve had three paralysis experiences described above. They were quite scary and I wasn’t able to go with it. I actually thought I was being attacked by something not of this world… in the third experience I clearly remember looking down at myself freaking out and then going for a walk around the house.
As far as I can tell it was in real time as when I awoke (in a vast pool of sweat) everyone was doing what I saw when floating around the palace!
Freaky!
It’s so nice to see that there is a sight with information like this. I could have used this when I had my first kundalini experiences. My initiation into kundalini awakening was very abrupt and I was unprepared for it but I made it through and found ways to manage the intense energy. I had been sporadically doing Yoga, meditation, mantra, and working with mandalas. I was also going through a very difficult divorce. I had a deep longing for connection to spirit. I didnt have a teacher or a guide but was working mostly from books and my own intuition. One day while doing my laundry at the local laundromat I was reading The Bhagavad Gita which I’d studied before, I suddenly felt a warm “buzz” from my head to my toes and then a more prominent vibration in my crown. I felt energy pouring through my body as if I was just a conduit between Heaven and Earth. Everything made perfect sense to me for the first time ever in my life. All my physical aches and pains were gone. All my questions were answered. I felt totally connected to and Loved by God, The Universe, Spirit, or whatever you want to call it. That feeling lasted for days. I felt love for everyone and everything in the world. The high was more potent than anything artificial that I have ever felt and I had tried many things. I was able to read and absorb whole books in a few short hours. Food tasted incredible, and though I was never hungry I ate because everything was delicious. I should add that I didn’t sleep for three or four days either. So after days of being totally blissed out and ungrounded I began to crash. The warm buzzy feeling began to become intermittent and I began to cling to it with more and more intensity which I think just pushed it away. When the high wore off I became really frantic. I was totally ungrounded in an urban environment with no guidance, no teacher, no community and I freaked out. When I realized with every part of my being the nature of life in its totality I became split. My old self was still present – with beliefs, habits, desires, fears, and thought patterns, but I had a new sense of self as well. And the two seemed very much at odds when it first happened. So I tried very hard meditating, praying, doing Yoga, Tantra, Mantra, and every other thing I could find to return to the state of intense bliss that I’d felt. For a few weeks I did this and had some wild and far out experience but never did I return to the original experience. In the process of trying to regain the original experience I really burned myself out. Then I began having hallucinations, hearing voices, and experienced other supernatural events that I could not process. I tried to find help and after a search I found an acupuncturist who helped me move a lot of the energy that had become trapped in my body. The main tools he used were “Tapping”, acupuncture, change in diet, breathing exercises, and swimming. After a few days of these things I normalized. I cannot stress how out of balance I had been prior to moving the trapped energy. It was my mother who had the wisdom and clarity of mind to find me help and get me through that impass. I stopped meditating and most of the practices that brought on the initial intense experience for a while because it didn’t seem to serve me. I began to integrate the whole experience into my everyday life and allow the energy to flow slow and steady with its own intelligence. I don’t cling to the experience or the Bhagavad Gita or any practice. I looked extensively here in the US and even went to India to find teachers or a Guru but decided to trust myself and the ordinary evryday world to be my guides and teachers. I’ve learned that the only thing of value I have gained from my most intense experiences is what I can bring to this ordinary human life that I live. I am more alive than ever. I am more aware than ever and I am integrating. I hope this post is helpfull.
-Jason