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.
Hi everyone,
I too had a kundalini awakening experience.It happened in 2003.Initially I had a rush of flow of energy flowing thorugh my whole body and vibes being felt at different parts of my body.A feeling that nails were being embedded into my forehead-the place of the ajna chakra.But now its just a feeling that there is something at my ajna chakra.I also had connections with different people through my heart chakra and some telepathy with them.I have read that ajpa jaap starts in the person having a kundalini awakening experience.The end result is that all the chakras open and the kundalini reaches the sahasra kamal-the thousand petalled lotus.But when does this happens.
Thanx!
Rahul
Hi Chris,
(here my attempt to explain it further from the comments above)
Yes this was quite an experience. It was a long time ago but I remember the sensations quite clearly. It was very very pleasurable. The pleasure is certainly very physical in nature (not like spiritual bliss). The arms and legs moved on their own like that of a baby (cycling motion). I was on my back, eyes closed.
It absolutely cannot be stimulated and I don’t recall anything special bringing it about. It just happened.
Hope those details help.
Cheers,
Anmol
Hi Anmol Mehta,
I wanted to find out what “The arms and legs churn like that of a baby” means? Could you explain that further in more detail as possible?
Thanks
Hi Brandon,
I replied to you via email. Let me know if you don’t receive it.
Best,
Anmol
Hi Deo,
I would attribute most of these symptoms and powers to the opening of the Third Eye (Ajna Chakra). If you can interested there are some free meditation techniques for developing this center on this website as well.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.
All Good Wishes,
Anmol
Dear Hari Gopal,
Thanks you so much from sharing your wonderful experiences with Kundalini Yoga with us.
Some of those experiences are indeed “Vata” (wind) related, although the one’s which involve “unusual” movement of energy I would attribute to Kundalini.
I too love dance and have considered putting together some sets which involve Kundalini and Dance. There are a few out there already (in some books I have), but unfortunately I don’t know of any on the web. The dance though is mostly free form or “Bhangra” type.
Of course Osho’s Kundalini Meditation has dance in it, but that too is free form. One master who does have very structured dance for developing awareness is Gurdjieff, if you would like to explore his profound works.
Thank you again for your presence on Mastery of Meditation.
Sat Nam,
Anmol
Dear Yakari,
Thank you very much for sharing your amazing experiences with us. Hope everything is manageable and not too overwhelming. Glad to have you stop by Mastery of Meditation.
All Good Wishes,
Anmol
I have been practicing meditation for 6 months and have been experience telepathy like you talk on phone, strong intution, when i close my eyes i see some internal tube light has lite and i see bright white light..i also see that i am disolving in nature..pls let me know wht are these symptoms pointing to
I’ve been practicing Kundalini yoga on and off for 9 years now. Reading these writings brings back a memory from when I first began my practice–I was 20 years old at the time.
I remember getting up for Sadhana with my teacher, Saram Singh, who I met at 4:30 am from time to time to participate in this practice. Upon returning home, I had such an intense feeling of joy and happiness, and I was sitting in bed talking to my boyfriend with the straightest and most easeful posture I have ever felt before. My posture was so straight up and down that it felt really remarkable, it was more than just a straight back, it was as if my entire being had aligned and all of the pieces had just shifted into their exactly perfect home.
I imagine that babies have this feeling when they first learn to sit, until it becomes a habit and the muscles begin forming other less useful patterns. The only other time that I have ever had this experience was after doing Contact Improvisation, a dance form that I love because it also takes me to a transcendent place.
Of course during yoga practice there are the usual symptoms of lightheadedness, energy rushing upwards, and for me sometimes nausea. I’m curious as to whether or not you would call these experiences (and the one I described earlier) “wind” experiences, or actual kundalini rising experiences.
I also often feel a very sweet and manageable feeling of joy when practicing. It often just arises as I am doing an exercise, perhaps from really feeling the mantra, or appreciating my physical form. It always causes an uncontrollable and welcome smile to live on my face. I also often think of Yogi Bhajan when this happens, at least I have recently.
Finally, it’s wonderful to get to that place in an exercise when it takes over, and it feels as if it is happening on its own. I’m not sure if this is kundalini rising, but I do think that it is the mind shutting off and allowing the body to take over. It is a wonderful feeling when the mind gets out of the way and plays witness to the rest, as it is in control and the other parts are playing witness to it so often!!!
Thank you for hosting such a meaningful conversation, amongst a whole host of other wonderful resources on your website.
I have a separate question: could you point me to some kundalini yoga sets that include dancing?
Thank you so much and Sat Nam!!! :) :) :) -Hari Gopal
My very 1st time practicing meditation, was last Thursday.
Very weird experience. I saw a orange-esh color ring like object in front of my sight, so I concentrated on it. After concentrating on this ring, I began to feel a surge of energy/sensations, starting from my 4 head to the rest of my head down to my chest. These energy/sensations became strong burning sensations. I began to feel a decent amount of pressure on my brain, to the point it felt like my brain (lol) was on vibrate. I could almost hear the sound of these symptoms. (i’m not even goin to try and describe the sound. VERY hard to describe in words) I became very short of breath, to where I became aware of this and fell out of my meditation.
Woke up the next morning didn’t remember a thing for most of the day until around 6pm. Out of nowhere I remembered what happened to me, along with that memory came a headache.
Hi everyone again
one last post that i wold like to and i forgot to mention, i can identify almost all the symptoms , the most unconfortable of all is the shaking, i look at my hands or anyother part of my body and i dont see it shaking, but i can feel my body shaking like it was coming from inside, and a particular one is that i got is that i usualy give to anyone or my self small electrical charges, or if i touch something i get an electrical charge.
thank’s all for the patience and time.
Blessed be
Hi, everyone
Dont even know were to start, it all started on 8 years ago, when i got back home from an celtic festival, i sat on the bed and started to get realy unconfortable, geting my heart beat real fast, and lots of muscular spasms, since i got at the time 20 years old i thought, this cant be an heart atack, to young for that (i think), anyway, got to the hospital and the doctors sayed that was all ok, done lots of exames, but didnt acused nothing, so i got back home, but since then, i got frequent muscular spasms, including on the head, one thing that i noticed to is that i got more activitie at night, started to stay awake to late hours at the point that in the present day i sleep during the day and make my life during night, sometimes i get emotion explosions , cry when i see something or some act of goodness or compassion, usualy i like to draw, but lately this obby is getting from obby to obssesion, i draw till i cant move my finger, i finish one draw and start another one, i have never got so much creativity, if i got 8 hours of free time, i pass those 8 hours drawing.
A few days ago a particular situation ocurred, a friend of mine that i didnt saw for a few years due to work on other country contacted me, and told me like this “hey how’r u doin” that kind of stuff when u dont see someone from sometime, and we meet to drink a coffee, he started to talk to me about the awakening, of our inner self, about many many things of that matter, i was so involved in he’s talking that it seam that we were on the right frequencie and from a moment i saw my self and him just sat on the place, and it wasnt us , our phisycal body that were talking, it seam that was something else, almost like we were on the space ,between the starts or whatever , cant explain what i felt, jut we wasnt talking in that place ,it was unreal, and the best spiritual experience and unique that i have so far. after that i got even worst, dont even know if its good or bad, my emotions is getting worst everyday, getting to much sentimental, i was before a bit spiritual, but now i’m feeling diferent, dont know in what , but i know that im diferent , i act diferent i think diferent, im sorry my spelling , i know that my post might got confused due to all the subjects , but i’m not much concentrated at the moment, i saw this website, and i didnt thought twice to tell my experience, hopping that i got the answer to my “problem” here.
thank you all that read this
Blessed be
Dear Janina,
Yes this was quite an experience. It was a long time ago but I remember the sensations quite clearly. It was very very pleasurable. The pleasure is certainly very physical in nature (not like spiritual bliss). The arms and legs moved on their own like that of a baby (cycling motion).
It absolutely cannot be stimulated and I don’t recall anything special bringing it about. It just happened.
Hope those details help.
Cheers,
Anmol
Dear Anmol,
Could you please describe in more detail the arms and legs churning like a baby’s? This is of particular interest to me.
Thank you,
Janina
Dear Romi,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and insights with us. You seem to have experienced much and certainly love of Divinity and the Truth is the guiding light for all spiritual awakening.
All Good Wishes,
Anmol
To actually understand what kundalini means is important. Everyone knows about the serpent snake and how it is unleashed in the body. However, it is not your ally. These sensations are not the kundalini giving you them. The mind realises that the kundalini has been activated , and will do anything to return to its old ways. This is why things like headaches, sensations such as things crawling on the body, and many more sensations take place . The mind is so deceptive that it likes to scare off the soul to reach its destination, and that untimate destination is god. True enlightenment envokes giving up fear aswell. trully frightening experiences happen as one gets deeper into their unconcious mind. However, only those that overcome the fear through the love of god, taste gods sweet nectar.
The word kundalini is very highly used nowadays. However, this is just the beggining, and can be quite unfullfilling if one gets stuck in these kundalini ‘sensations’ as one may say. Out of all the syptoms, i have actually experienced them all. Another one which is not listed is nosebleeds. Thats another one i experience due to this so called ‘kundalini’ awakening. However, kundalini is still a game which must be conquered. The true lord is pervading in the timeless stream within the dasam duaar ( 10th spiritual plane ) and if one through the love of god , obtains to that state, then that being has attained true enlightenment. The problem with kundalini sensations , is that they give us a feeling as though we have some sort of power, a sensation to feel. By abandoning these sensations, whilst they are happening is important. To abandon them and to ask for gods love is the last true test. Only then can one reach the 5th plane of spirituallity .
Dear Anmol,
Thanks.There were a couple of times when I experienced this detached state, and it came with the kind of sense you describe, very positive, liberating and I felt full of light, love, forgiveness and true understanding. These episodes came without any problems at all, only the opposite.
But much more often I slip into this observer’s state during one of the white-outs, when those unclear memories come bubbling up and I get really sick to my stomach. During one of these episodes, I’m aware of my surroundings, taking note of them as someone who is seeing them purely as an observer, but at the same time, my mind is full of fear and anxiety because I feel the sickness coming on, and I’m praying that it won’t, or that it will pass quickly. Mostly my mind just keeps saying ‘oh please no no no no no no.’ And of course I can’t help myself trying to stop the experience, or at least calm it down as quickly as possible. When everything turns white after the memory flashes, and the nausea and panic pass, I mostly just feel extremely relieved, refreshed and disoriented, as if a clearning has taken place – but I do not feel all of those good things that I mentioned above.
Those more positive episodes always come to me when I’ve done something BIG to clear out a problem in my life, letting go of a major attachment that was harming me. There’s an exceedingly clear element of ego-sacrifice that immeditely precedes the positive episodes. I say they ‘always’ come, as if it happens a lot, but this feeling has only come to me a few times in life.
I suppose, after writing this, that the difference seems to be between the clearning that I bring about by deliberately removing a gigantic ‘toxin’ or a block in my life, and the kind that seems to be taking place more on its own, moving the blocks and toxins out by its own force. I wonder if that’s kundalni at work, working by her own force now that I’ve ‘unleashed’ her, so to speak?
Hmmm. I hadn’t thought of that before, maybe that’s it….
Thank you for giving me a place to talk about this. It would definitely sound like crazy-talk outside of this context.
All the best,
Marie
Marie,
It’s very hard to compare such experiences.
Usually detached observation bring a sense of freedom and joy. This tends to happen when one breaks free from the thinking apparatus and is able to reside simply as a witnessing consciousness, just watching and understanding that which is transpiring. Mostly this state is encountered during meditation or quiet moments.
Can I ask, what is the mind doing in terms of thinking during this time? Is it possible for you to turn your attention to it and notice what thoughts are taking place?
Only try it if you feel comfortable. I don’t want to promote the state, if it does not feel right to you.
Best,
Anmol
Hi Anmol,
Thanks. It’s comforting to know that you experienced this kind of detachment, because you seem like a verifiably sane person. :) I’m often wondering about my own sanity these days.
The thing is that I didn’t feel happy when I experienced this, I experienced it as a state of purely detached observation. Did you feel anything when you experienced it? I thought being detached from the world was supposed to bring happiness….
All the best,
Marie