Stages of Aberrant Kundalini Awakening

By George A. Boyd © 2017

In some people, the Kundalini energy is partially awakened, and this core energy of the mind awakens their awareness through the Subconscious mind and up into the Self at the core of the personality. When the Kundalini awakens your awareness to this stage, you are said to be Self-aware.

In a few other individuals, their Kundalini rises through the bands of the Superconscious mind to awaken awareness up to the level of the Higher Self, or Soul. When this state dawns, you become Soul-aware. There are a group of spiritual teachers who regard this state of ecstatic union with the Soul as the state of enlightenment.

These first two stages represent normal Kundalini functioning: the Kundalini rises up, you gain union with the Self or Soul, you gain some insights and understanding, and then the energy goes back down to ground.

Where the Kundalini begins to cause problems is when:

  1. It remains fixed in a higher state of awareness, so it does not go back down to the grounded state of awareness, and your attention is locked in that altered state of awareness.
  2. It is lifted into states of awareness beyond the presence of the Soul—nuclei of identity or ensouling entities of the Cosmic and Supracosmic Spheres.
  3. It is lifted into states of awareness beyond the presence of the Soul, and there is concurrent unfolding of the spiritual essence in which the Kundalini becomes anchored—this creates a spiritual imbalance, moving one or more vehicles of consciousness out of alignment with the axis of being.

There are many well-intentioned spiritual traditions that emphasize Kundalini awakening that produce these three types of problems through the practices they disseminate. Moreover, many of the Supervising Initiates in these traditions actively use spiritual attunements to actively awaken the Kundalini in others—this induced awakening is called Shaktipat or Deeksha.

What we see—when people contact us with Kundalini Syndromes generated through either using techniques that create these three types of aberrant Kundalini awakening, or having this awakening induced through the attunement of a Kundalini Master—is that these syndromes appear to express in seven levels of intensity:

  1. Very mild – The Kundalini energy produces some spacing out and mind wandering, it is possible to refocus the mind and function normally. You find yourself readily drifting off into trance or reverie if you do not keep re-focusing your mind on the task at hand.
  2. Mild – The Kundalini energy produces states where your body, your mind, and the world around you seem unreal. This is the stage of derealization and depersonalization. You can function, but you feel like you are functioning in a dreamlike state.
  3. Low moderate – The Kundalini energy begins to deaden your emotions, and you begin to lose motivation to perform any action or pursue your personal goals. You may begin, at this state, to want to continually meditate. You may feel you have no personal purpose other than to realize God: most personal pursuits seem fruitless and meaningless. This is the stage of dissociation and detachment.
  4. Moderate – The Kundalini begins to produce somatic symptoms. You start to have sensations of heat moving in your body, unexplained aches and pains, strange perceptions like your head has disappeared. As you deepen into this stage, you may find your hands move into spontaneous postures (mudras), or you cannot move the body at all (catatonia). This is the stage where some people recognize something is wrong, and may start asking for help. You may find it difficult to carry out the activities of living at this stage. You may spend a lot of time alone, and feel immobilized when this energy surges within you.
  5. Moderate high – The Kundalini lifts your attention into an altered state of awareness and you cannot return to your waking state of awareness. Action occurs, seemingly by itself, and your life seems to seem unreal, like you are watching your life in a movie. You do not sense that you are the actor in your life.
  6. High – At this point, your personality functions begin to shut down, and you experience profound inner silence and stillness. When you do speak, you speak from your spiritual essence. When you feel, you feel the spiritual essence in which you are fixed, in others. When you think, it is revelation about this spiritual essence. You no longer identify with a separate Self; only the spiritual essence with which you are identified seems real. Carrying out the responsibilities of a job or raising a family become extremely difficult at this stage. You may require the care of others to help you function in the world.
  7. Very high – This stage appears to take two tracks in individuals. (1) The first track is the track of dissolution—here, the Kundalini energy continues to burn upward through the vehicles, and you are unable to function; some experience terrible physical pain in this state. (2) The second track is the track of empowerment—in this scenario, you reach that stage of advanced unfoldment on the path upon which your spiritual essence dwells; you become able to awaken the Kundalini in others.

By the time you reach stage five or six, it is nearly impossible to intervene in the complete take over of your personal functioning through a progressively totalistic absorption in your Kundalini experience. You will benefit from identifying these different levels of intensity for Kundalini awakening, and seek assistance before your energetic profile shifts into a state that is irremediable.

We offer Kundalini Syndrome Readings to the public on a donation basis—if you think you are developing a Kundalini Syndrome, you may wish to obtain one of these readings.

We also encourage you to read our articles on Kundalini, “Dealing with Kundalini Emergencies,” “Illusions about Kundalini,” “A Kundalini Arousal Scale,” and “Reflections on Kundalini.”

There are also additional articles on this topic in our Library.