Spiritual Life Coaching – Symptoms of the Kundalini Awakening/Syndrome

Sometimes the Kundalini Awakening/Syndrome is also referred to as a “spiritual emergency.” In their 1990 book, “The Story Search for Self”, transpersonal psychologists Grof and Grof coin the term “spiritual emergency” to describe the difficult stages of a “profound psychological transformation that involves one’s entire being.” They describe the kundalini awakening as one of ten varieties of spiritual emergencies. Some years later, near-death experience author, Dr. Yvonne Kason, set about creating criteria to differentiate between some undergoing a spiritual emergency and someone experiencing psychosis. She explains that a spiritual emergency is when a person is merely challenged by an altered state experience, where as a psychotic episode is when a person is simply overwhelmed by it.

The kundalini awakening/syndrome consists of sensory, motor, mental, and affective symptoms that are also associated among people who have had a near-death experience (NDE) or out-of-body experience (OBE). Dr. Kason sometimes refers to the kundalini syndrome as an IBE or “in-body experience.”

Sensory and motor symptoms include the feeling of cranial pressures (especially at the top of the skull), the perception of inner sounds, experiences of inner lights, vibrating or tingling sensations in the lower back, rapid heart rate, disappearance of heart rate, changes in breathing from lungs to lower abdomen, spontaneous jerking motions (especially of the head and neck), alternating sensations of heat or cold moving throughout the body, localized body pain that starts and stops abruptly, vibrations and itching under the skin, and intense, sexual, sensual, and erotic sensations that can only be characterized as a “full body orgasm.”

Mental and affective symptoms include: prolonged feelings of euphoria and bliss, prolonged feelings of anxiety, fear, intense positive and negative emotions, spontaneous slowing or speeding of thoughts, spontaneous trance states, experiencing oneself as being beyond and not limited to the physical body, automatic writing and/or channeling, and experiences of altered states of consciousness.

Often, the kundalini syndrome will be more than enough to convince the initiate that they are in need of medical attention. But most medical practitioners are not trained to diagnose a “spiritual emergency,” and therefore are not going to be much help. In nearly all cases, no medical attention is required. Only patience and surrender. Consultation with a spiritual counselor, on the other hand, can be helpful, but only with one who has already experienced a personal kundalini awakening. In this way, he or she will be able to provide advice based on their own experience.

The primary common theme with every kundalini syndrome is the involuntary jerking movements and intense tingling at the base of the spine. It is common to experience this sporadically, from weeks to months, even years prior to a full-blown awakening. It may gradually and slowly increase in frequency, but it may not. Sometimes the awakening is sudden, dramatic, and overwhelming. In any case, it is wise to empower yourself with as much knowledge as you can on the kundalini awakening/syndrome.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Spiritual Life Coach and the founder of The Art of Transformation, a company devoted to teaching Self Realization to the world. His Spiritual Life Coaching practice uniquely combines spiritual wisdom with self transcendence, holistic health, life path astrology, shadow & pain-body work, heart-based intention, the power of presence, and the law of attraction.