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 have no word to say great website thanks for good tips keep it up….
Hi Shilpi,
Often early breakthroughs and openings happen spontaneously or under “non-spiritual” circumstances, such as exercise, time of grief, injury, etc. I consider these “invitations” from within to begin the journey in earnest.
So yes, awakenings can and often do happen under traditionally non-spiritual situations, such as yours for example.
The article, Universal Principles of Yoga, goes over the various types of yoga you are asking about :-).
Best,
Anmol
Hello Anmol,
Thanks for your quick response. But as I mentioned, I was not spiritually active AT ALL. Can the awakening happen even if you are not practicing it in any way?
I also wanted to ask you about the difference between Kundalini Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Kriya Yoga etc. if there is any. I know these are lots of questions. I hope you don’t mind. Thanks in advance for everything.
Hi Pawan,
You have as I mentioned strong spiritual energy. Don’t think of Kundalini Awakening as a one time event, just practice on doing more so more refinement and purification keeps taking place. More energy will thus flow.
Best,
Anmol
Hi Shilpi,
Yes your experiences, especially the first one was certainly related to Kundalini. The paralysis is a very very common sign, as kundalini will hold your body still to do her work.
Glad you are enjoying the website and hope it helps you in your journey.
Best,
Anmol
Hello Anmol. I came across your website while searching google for Pranayams 3 days back. And I have to tell you that I can’t take my mind off the information provided here. I have always been kind of spiritual person but never persued it until now.
While reading about the experiences from Kundalini Awakening, I instantly remebered what happened to me in my student years once in the year 2000 and again in 2003. I was sleaping at night and I woke up suddenly. I couldn’t move myself…I wanted to call for my friends(I was living in an apartment with friends)…I was trying to open my mouth but no words were coming out. It felt like things are revolving like a tornado. My heart was pounding and I could hear something like vacuum, as if when you will cover your ears with an empty glass. And then suddely, I don’t have the idea of duration at all, it all stopped. And it was very quiet.
Second time I was sleeping under the open sky, and I thought at that time that it was like an encounter which you would see in horror movies. I thought that it was my encounter with some force from the other world. Do you think that this was a Kundalini Awakening experience? But I was NOT doing any yoga or was not involved in any spiritual activities – I never have in actions. I am just a spiritual person at heart beleiving in some kind of Divine presence.
Please cure my curiosity.
hi
very thanx for guidance i will proceed as u guided
thanx again
just one more hing is my kundalini awakened or not please answer this too
Hi Pawan,
Spiritual energy seems very pronounced in you already. Try to use this energy to witness your thinking process and mind and see what kind of revelations you have. Start to observe your mind and understand it’s movements from moment to moment.
Let me know how it goes.
Best,
Anmol
hi anmol,
now a days i feel an astral sound of high frequency originating within my ears and it increases when i concentrate and do practices.
I m in hostel these days, before somedays when i was in my home i was doing 2 or 3 pranayams my vibrations were considerably increased and due to that i think nightfall became frequent nd i hav to leave some of pranayams and condition was so that if i practise just 2 cycle pranayam my vibration increases and nightfall occurs that night, but now adays if i perform some vigoroys pranayams then also no considerable change in vibrations occurs what could b the reason and were those symptoms favourable.
actually in one of spiritual book i read that nightfall is obvious and we hav to control it by will power but my will power is not that much strong presently, i think u r understanding plz slove this problem
yes i can see flash of light on computer screen some times and heat in forehead reigion and nowadays current like sensations or vibration r decreased as i reduced my practice and i only feel them when i stop my breath and concentrate in my forehead region is mmy kundalini awakened please guide me.
by the way, I have added the Chair pose, Archer pose, and abdominal set to my KY routine.
my KY practice now includes Chair pose, Acher, prosperity meditation, abdominal set (forgot what Anmol calls it), and eagle pose. this is on top of my usual 50 minute Zazen with various mudras that I’m trying out.
Physically, I am feeling like a million bucks. spiritually, I believe that my mind is in better spirits!
I only have Anmol to thank for this transformation!
Puja,
just my two cents….yoga will enhance your digestive health and part of a healthy digestive system is a flourishing microflora. what does that have to do with lucid dreams?
well, the beneficial bacteria in our guts create B vitamins. if and when these bacteria are flourishing (as in healthy individuals) they will create more B vitamins including Vitamin B6 which is the “dream vitamin.”
more B6 (and other B vitamins) in your system will certainly kick start a lot of hormonal changes in your body and it would seems like flood gates of emotions were opened up and you all of a sudden get these various vivid/lucid dreams and mood swings.
as Anmol has stated, keep practicing slowly and give your body time to adjust to the surge of beneficial vitamins and hormonal changes. your body will eventually adjust to it and it will take care of itself.
I myself had just gotten back to meditation and I am slowly adding KY into my practice in order to avoid that surge of emotions caused by your body adjusting to the influx of B vitamins and hormonal changes (vitamin B1 controls your thyroid function, a surge of B1 will cause hormonal spikes that will boost your energy and metabolism which may also have an effect on your dreams and of course, your mood).
Yoga, I believe is very scientific, we need to understand the changes that our bodies undergo when starting KY so that we can handle the changes and know that it will eventually level off (soon as your body adjusts).
simply doing Pranayama will oxygenate your body which in turn would have a lot of strong effects as well (higher metabolism, higher energy, effective detox, which in turn allows your endocrine system to boost its hormone production which leads to many mood swings and metabolic changes).
again, simply my two cents….but to prove my point, I’ve lost 10 lbs since I’ve started meditating again and have started to remember a lot dreams lately (although not as violent dreams but mostly pleasant ones). my metabolism has kicked into high gear and my energy levels are spiking (used to do 4 sets of 30 push ups, now, I can 4 sets of 50 push ups for my workouts…energy boost is phenomenal), and I’ve dropped 2 inches off my waist.
yoga is good for you, just allow your body to adjust slowly.
Hi Puja,
Sometimes with meditation and yoga the dam breaks suddenly and lots of suppressed emotions come gushing out, as in your case. Although this is not optimum, it is hard to predict, and can be challenging to deal with as you see.
Just relax for a bit and restart the practice slowly again. Certainly do the breathing as that will help to cleanse the mind/body of these emotions.
Let me know how it goes.
Best,
Anmol
Hi Mim,
Yes this is related to Kundalini. Actually early in Kundalini Yoga practice, opening such as this are not uncommon as blockages are cleared and energetic pathways start to flow.
Just keep up with your practice. Allow things to unfold naturally.
Best,
Anmol
Hi, My experiences are not as intense as those described before me. However, I started your beg. yoga morning routine a while back on advice that I center myself. I was told the healing energy is already present, but I am out of alignment. Yoga was what was recommended. I started the breathing practices separately for a while, and then I started the yoga practice slowly with lots of days in between (just general poses aimed towards specific chakras). However, after my first full set of your kundalini morning set I had a huge emotional response. Lots of very vivid nightmares (very scary) where i would wake up breathless and about three days of constant crying. My good dreams have become much more helpful and vivid also. However, I am afraid now to restart the yoga. I haven’t done it since. I feel that this is just part of the cleaning process, but how can I get over my fear of these responses? I get so scared! I cant sleep for days and my work and school are hindered. I end up incredibly quiet and almost obsessive about my experience at hand. Do you have any suggestions for me? What exactly is going on? Thank you for your time!
Puja
Hi again,
I posted a question earlier today on another page, but I have another one – hope you don’t mind.
I’ve only been doing ky for a few weeks, but yesterday I had this really odd thing happen just 10 minutes into my 1 hour set. It was like this feeling of crazy heat in my..um..genital area. Not my spine, just between my legs basically. And it went on for I would say at least a minute. Just really intense heat in just that area, like a fireball or something! haha.. Is this to do with kundalini? After only a few weeks? It was very odd.
Thanks again for a super helpful website!
mim
Hi Ed,
Yes meditation may well have played a key role in helping you out of your troubles during those years.
Feel free to ask any questions or discuss any issues you might run into.
Best,
Anmol
Hi everyone,
I found some very interesting videos of Swami Vivekananda on
youtube.This is one of them.
You can also check many others of his there.They would be really helpful.
All d best,
Rahul.
Hello Anmol,
Thank you for your reply. I certainly appreciate the knowledge that you’ve been giving everyone.
I have been continuing my meditation practice and have given myself a goal of meditating on a daily basis. I’ve been using the Eagle pose (1 minute for now), the Prosperity meditation (two to three minutes for now), followed by zen meditation for 10 minutes until I can safely increase the time since I find that my abdomen get sore after this (I guess my abs are not as strong as it used to be, LOL!)
I must say that I never looked at meditation as a means for spiritual enlightenment. when I practiced meditation during my Aikido years, it was simply a tool to attain a relaxed state of mind and body which in turn allowed for better Aikido training. Since Aikido involves a lot of joint locks and literally being thrown around as you practice the martial art techniques, a relaxed mind and body is necessary in order not to get hurt and for not to hurt your practice partner.
when I had to stop Aikido, I never thought of continuing zen meditation since I never understood the benefits of it outside of simply getting relaxation ( i should’ve attended advance Zazen! my past Aikido Senseis where Zen priests). Now I know better and I am starting to see that meditation should involve a higher goal than simply attaining relaxation.
I attributed the practice of Aikido in easing my problem of depression during those years and I never thought that the meditation part ACTUALLY helped more. I now believe that the few minutes of meditation actually completed my transition from a depressed state back then.
Aikido in itself has been called “moving zen” since it involves (i would say, it requires) an almost meditative state while practicing the techniques, yet I am now certain that the meditation (called “misogi” in Japanese) I did before class during those years is of even greater help in easing my turbulent mind back then.
Again, I am now committed to continuing my practice and I hope that I don’t stumble again. it is of great help that I found your site (I believe I was led to your site by a higher power, if you will). I hope that you won’t mind if I email you every once in a while with questions about my newly restored meditation practice.
onegai itashemasu!
Thanks!
Hi Ed,
Glad to hear you are enjoying the website, and of course even happier that you have restarted you meditation practice. Yes what you experienced was a Kundalini Awakening.
Gyan mudra is very effective for enhancing meditation, so your combining that with your meditation is certainly a plus.
Consider the awakening an invitation from your Higher Self to join the party :-). Welcome.
Best,
Anmol
Hi Jhumki,
Please see the article, 10 Things to Try to do Daily. It might help you find a balanced, healthy approach and give you a stabilizing routine.
Best,
Anmol