The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence

Kundalini in the idea of Dharma, identifies a kind of primal energy or shakti said to be located at the base of the spine. Different spiritual customs teach methods of awakening kundalini for the purpose of reaching spiritual enlightenment and a range of supernormal power.

Writer Joseph Campbell describes the idea of Kundalini as the figure of a coiled girl serpent a serpent goddess not of gross but of delicate substance which is to be thought of as surviving in a torpid, slumbering express in a simple center, the first of the seven, near to the foot of the spine the purpose of the yoga then being to rouse this serpent, lift up her head, and bring her up a understated nerve or channel of the spine to the so called thousand petaled lotus Sahasrara at the crown of the head.

She, growing from the cheapest to the highest lotus center, will pass through and wake the five between, and with each waking the mindset and personality of the practitioner will be totally and fundamentally transformed. Kundalini awakening is said to result from deep meditation, and therefore enlightenment and bliss.

However, as every individual is unique, Kundalini awakenings can occur through a number of methods not limited to deep meditation. This awakening includes the Kundalini in physical form moving up the central channel to attain within the Sahasrara Chakra near the top of the head. Many systems of yoga give attention to awakening Kundalini through deep breathing, pranayama deep breathing, the practice of asana and chanting of mantras. In physical terms, the Kundalini experience is generally reported to be always a feeling of electric current running across the spine.