Kundalini Awakening: Definition, Signs, & Experience

Spiritual traditions define kundalini as an energy located at the base of the spine (Wikipedia n.d.-a). This energy is thought to remain dormant until activated. Although few psychologists take an interest in kundalini, Carl Jung, one of the leading psychologists at the intersection of Eastern spirituality and Western psychology, recounted the experiences associated with kundalini phenomenon in the book The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga. He defines kundalini as the spark that urges you forward in your personal growth and prevents you from turning back (Shamdasani, 1996).

Kundalini Awakening & Chakras
​During a kundalini awakening, it is believed that the kundalini energy moves up from the base of the spine through the chakras (or energy centers). Awakened kundalini moves through the root chakra, sacral chakra, solar plexus chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra, third-eye chakra, and to the crown chakra at the top of the head (Wikipedia n.d.-a). Once kundalini reaches the top of the head, it is thought to produce an extremely elevated level of consciousness (Wikipedia n.d.-a).

It is important to note that “full” kundalini awakenings are fairly rare. They involve processing huge amounts of physical and emotional material in a very short period of time (Shutan, 2015). If you believe you’re having a kundalini awakening and you are experiencing distress, a spiritual guide can be of great help. 

The mainstream has adopted the term kundalini awakening as a placeholder for a wide variety of slower awakenings. I believe this is because the term ‘spiritual awakening’ doesn’t really resonate with many people in our modern world—awakening is just as likely to occur among people who are not spiritual or religious. 
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Ideally, we’d have more words to describe awakening experiences, but for now, we will adopt the mainstream definition of kundalini awakening, which is fairly broad and seems to refer to any awakening that involves chakras or physical symptoms.

We are always growing and learning through our lives. During awakening, however, we begin to undergo a series of processes and experiences that lead our conscious mind to expand. As our consciousness expands, we gain greater and greater awareness of all aspects of reality, especially the mind; namely, the unconscious, subconscious (body & emotions), higher mind, collective unconscious, and ego. 

Kundalini Awakening Explanation
You might think of your conscious mind like a light bulb with a dimmer switch. Before Kundalini awakening, we have a dim light so we can only see things that are very clear and obvious. As we awaken, it’s like someone is slowly (or quickly) lighting up the room so we begin to see lots of new things. They were always there, we just never noticed them before.
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Note that some spiritual circles refer to this process as 3rd initiation (Leadbeater, 2007). During this process, the entire personality is revealed by the light of consciousness. I believe (although I’m not sure) that completing this stage of awakening (3rd initiation) is also what is required for “harvest” (i.e., moving on to the next level of the game of life), as described by Rueckert & McCarty (2021).

As we awaken—and light from our consciousness light bulb continues to shine brighter and brighter—we start to become more aware of what was previously in the shadows of our awareness. Because this area of the mind holds much pain and trauma, many of us will reflexively numb ourselves further with things like alcohol, drugs, relationships, media, work, or food. In fact, because we often use these substances to avoid pain, addictions may actually get worse initially as painful thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and memories from our unconscious can be seen by our conscious mind.

Most of us have shoved all kinds of dark and scary monsters into our unconscious. And as the light of our consciousness shines brighter, we’ll eventually be forced to see these monsters—i.e., the shadows, traumas, false beliefs, and anything else that we’ve been hiding from ourselves. If we choose to face these things and process them through a combination of awareness and acceptance, we can continue moving forward with our personal growth. If we resist, the pressure just builds and life begins to place obstacles in our path that force us to look. 

(Note. In “full” kundalini awakenings, this process can be a lot faster and harsher.)

Just as the dimmer switch was turned up so you could see your unconscious mind, your consciousness also begins to light up your subconscious mind (bodily awareness). Much of our trauma is stored in our subconscious (i.e., our bodies). 

Kundalini Awakening Signs
As consciousness begins expanding into the subconscious, you may experience intense physical symptoms, movements, illnesses, sensations, itching, twitching, vibrations, sounds, kriyas, or a variety of other weird bodily experiences. These are signs of your body becoming aware of the trauma that’s held there and beginning to process it. 

It may be disconcerting if your body or limbs start to shake, but this is actually quite common in trauma release. For example, in breathwork, the experience of tetany (or severe muscle spasms) is well noted (Ginzburg, n.d.). Shaking, twitching, and tingling are also really common when releasing trauma through psychotherapeutic techniques such as somatic therapy (Levine, 2008). Animals also experience intense shaking immediately after undergoing trauma to release it from their bodies. Check out the video below to see how animals shake to process trauma.

“Full” kundalini awakening may involve shaking very similar to what animals experience to process trauma. This can be extremely disconcerting if you don’t know what is happening to you. Those of us undergoing slower, gentler awakenings may experience gentler twitches, vibrations, or tetany. 

Watch the video below to see Kundalini in action.

Even though these symptoms may have spiritual causes, medicinal approaches (especially alternative medicine) are often necessary. Conventional advice, like seeing a doctor, eating healthy,  exercising, and taking time for self-care can be especially helpful.

On a happier note, the dimmer switch also gets turned up on our higher mind. In the psychology field, higher mind might be called intuition or imagination. Others may experience their higher mind through experiences like synchronicity. Still others might begin to experience their higher mind’s insights through new abilities like clairvoyance, clairaudience, or connection to spirit guides. This can be quite exciting or it can be really weird. It all depends on your perception and experiences. ​

Carl Jung was famous for the term collective unconscious. The collective unconscious includes archetypes, primordial images, and instincts that reflect basic patterns that are common to us all (Jung, 1936). As the light of our consciousness brightens, we also see more of the collective unconscious. 

For example, you may become aware that you are playing roles. You may have been deemed the scapegoat or golden child in your family, and now you suddenly realize that you’ve been playing that role automatically. Or, you see that you’re playing the role of ‘mother’ or ‘father’ rather than parenting in a way that feels authentic to you. 

Other more complicated archetypes that you might discover include the roles of ‘hero’, ‘savior’, or ‘god’. You might suddenly realize that you’ve been playing one of these roles and decide to stop. Ultimately this newfound awareness gives you the freedom to choose whether or not you want to keep playing these roles.

Ego is defined in a variety of ways, but I’m going to use the definition provided by Ramana Maharshi, an enlightened sage from India. The ego is defined here as the “I-thought” (Maharshi, 1985). This one thought—the thought that “I am”—is responsible for a whole network of other distorted thoughts that lead to suffering. If we’re lucky, our awakening will shine a light on the I-thought, and we can begin to unravel the thoughts that make us miserable.

As we progress through our awakening, we may begin to realize the ways in which we were in denial, experience the pain that we repressed as children, and experience a range of physical symptoms as our consciousness continues its expansion. One way to describe these experiences is to think of them as realizations. 

Kundalini Awakening & Realizations
Each time we discover thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and habits that we were not previously aware of, we have what is referred to as a realization. Small realizations can be exciting or neutral but big realizations are often accompanied by grief or sadness. We may suddenly gain access to repressed memories, realize that we are in a toxic relationship, or discover something that we were in denial about.
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These realizations can be challenging, as each one involves undergoing a loss of some sort—for example, we might lose an identity, belief, or role we have grown attached to. We may, at times, feel depressed, tired, or lonely. It is important to remember that spiritual growth comes in waves, we will get through this, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Better not to begin. Once begun, better to finish!” (Ingram, 2018).

Awakening is like riding a wave (or being thrown into a raging river). So we will be greatly benefited by having worked through as many of our issues as possible beforehand. 

Here are the key areas of self-development that help make awakening easier:

1. Stability. Grounding, connection to the physical body, financial stability, sense of safety, etc…
2. Emotion. Emotion regulation, nervous system regulation, fear tolerance, physical movement, etc…
3. Self. Good self-esteem, self-expression, stable sense of self, etc…
4. Other. Social connection, love, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, etc…
5. Self-Other. Communication, listening, boundaries, etc…
6. Mind. Thinking abilities, learning, analyzing, imagination, intuition, etc…
7. Oneness. Play, surrender, trust, spirituality, etc…

​By engaging in psychological skill-building and honest self-reflection about how well we are operating in each of these areas, we can root out many of our blocks and issues before we are thrust into the river of awakening. You can still do this work once awakening starts, it will just be more intense, difficult, and fast. You may be forced to deal with many challenges at once, so I highly recommend starting your self-growth work right now.

As our consciousness expands, shining the light of awareness on the unconscious,  subconscious, higher mind, collective unconscious, and ego, it can feel like a roller coaster with the ups of expansive bliss and the downs of crushing depression. Each time we become consciously aware of a new piece of information—whether good or bad—we need to process it effectively (basically integrating it with the conscious mind) to ensure we don’t go flying off the roller coaster. This processing and integration is supported by psychological tools such as radical acceptance, forgiveness, and self-love. 

Processing & Integration During Kundalini Awakening
Processing & Awareness: To effectively process information, we need to allow the information to come forward into awareness and just look at it. For example, if we are looking at a thought, we might try to observe it as a thing, notice the emotions associated with it, look for the beliefs that created it, and watch it fade away. You can think of it as moving through your awareness as if on a conveyor belt.

Integration & Acceptance: As we begin to see the truth, we might have the urge to resist, fight, ignore, or otherwise push away what is. Effective integration involves allowing the information to exist as it is (you can’t change what already is!) so that it can be “absorbed” into your conscious mind. Acceptance is the key to releasing the negative charge of the experience.

For example, if you realize that you’re miserable in your job, accept the truth of your experience. It doesn’t mean you necessarily need to quit. If you can allow your true thoughts and feelings to exist (they do anyway) and accept them as they are, they can integrate into your conscious mind. 

If you resist, deny, repress, or otherwise distort these experiences, then they can’t be integrated properly. For example, maybe a part of your mind struggles with fear of the unknown when you think about how much you dislike your job. These two parts of your mind, the fear part and the job-hating part, will have to figure out how to co-exist for successful integration. Usually, with enough time and self-reflection, you can resolve these internal conflicts.

Disidentification During Kundalini Awakening
Disidentification. Once we’ve fully processed and integrated the reality of our current experience, we can begin to disidentify with it. We can literally just discard that aspect of our reality. 

Beliefs are like fish hooks—they snag onto us, and they’ve been there so long that we forget that they are not actually who we are. Disidentification is like unhooking the fish hooks from yourself. For example, maybe you realize that you’ve spent your whole life trying to please your parents. After awareness and acceptance of this information, it’s not so sticky, and you can now choose to be different, if you want to. Maybe you decide that you are no longer a people pleaser, and that identity falls away. Although we may grieve the old identity, a kind of peaceful emptiness arises eventually.

Avoiding Re-identification. Once we’ve fully disidentified with any part of our identity, we have to be careful not to re-identify with something new. Disidentification creates an empty space, and the ego wants so badly to fill it and be “complete” again. For example, maybe we no longer identify with the mind—we are now certain that we are more than our thoughts. At this point, the ego will say, “Well then what am I?” If we haven’t yet realized the truth of what we are (most of us haven’t), our minds will just create a new answer. Maybe we decide we are a soul, a spirit, or even an extraterrestrial. Or, maybe we decide we are special, gifted, or godly. Be careful! These are just more fishhooks. They are not us, and worse, they hurt when they are snagged on us!

If we allow the ego to re-attach itself to things (thoughts, beliefs, identities, etc…) we’ll just have to keep discarding things (and believe me, it doesn’t feel any better on subsequent rounds). If we can instead just sit in awareness and acceptance of the emptiness, we’ll eventually move through the ego to the other side—the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Personally, I believe Internal Family Systems Therapy to be a great resource (both before and during awakening), as it helps you locate difficult thoughts, beliefs, habits, and identities. I also recommend these excellent spiritual awakening books, which can provide more tools and insights for navigating this process. 

As we continue to move through our awakening, our risk for negative outcomes increases. For example, our ego may attach itself to the feeling of superiority related to spiritual achievement. Or, we may be overwhelmed by the pain of trauma that we still don’t have the psychological skills to face. Kundalini awakening does involve the risk of mental illness, spiritual narcissism, illnesses, and other poor outcomes. 

Note. That’s why building your psychological toolkit before awakening can greatly aid the process and help it go more smoothly.

We also would benefit from keeping an eye out for the double-sided nature of our realizations. For example, perhaps we finally process our chronic sense of helplessness. We don’t feel helpless anymore—in fact, we feel all-powerful. In this example, we would now have to continue being honest with ourselves to ensure we don’t become drunk on power. 
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For more help with shadow work, check out this book: Shadow Work for the Soul: Seeing Beauty in the Dark

My awakening wasn’t that fast—it worked its way through the chakras over about 6 years (so far), increasing consciousness along the way.

Because of its slow movement, it was easier for me to track what happened at each step, so I’ll use my experiences as an example here. 

Kundalini in the Root Chakra. Intense fear of death that led to adrenal exhaustion. 

Kundalini in the Sacral Chakra. Developed ovarian cysts and malfunctioning ileocecal valve pain in sacral area.

Kundalini in the Sacral Chakra. Developed SIBO, which led to leaky gut, which led me to lose 20lbs in 2 months, which led me to develop intolerance to almost all foods, and ultimately massive gut health issues. 

The kundalini blew through the first 3 chakras in a few months. It’s thought that blocks in these chakras are what causes these negative effects (Shutan, 2015). I was very ill for 4 years before moving to the next step.

Kundalini in the Heart Chakra. Realized the abusive nature of several of my relationships and came out of denial about my childhood abuse. My heart began to open and I began to understand true forgiveness and love.

Kundalini in the Throat Chakra. Began setting boundaries in relationships, speaking about my abuse, and advocating for my needs. I also had mucus and an itchy chest and neck for several months.

Kundalini in the Third-Eye Chakra. Developed clairaudience and access to my higher self and spirit guides. 

Kundalini in the Crown Chakra. Started to experience glimpses of the true reality. Illusions began to fall away. (I’m still not complete with this step yet).

That’s the short story, I’ll write the full story at some point.

At the completion of 3rd initiation (Leadbeater, 2007), or what we often call awakening, the light of consciousness now shines on all aspects of the mind. According to Leadbeater (2007), there is a transition period here which some have likened to the Sanscit word, Avīci (or a type of hell) which is an experience for purification, or burning away remaining mental attachments (Wikipedia n.d.-b). 

Indeed, it feels like having awareness of all the old pains at once but none of our former coping mechanisms work to lessen them. None of the strategies I used to cope with the pain of human existence—alcohol, TV, relationships, food, travel, exercise, working—work anymore. All that is left is me (the I-thought) and emptiness. 

If we can get through this step, equanimity lies on the other side (Ingram, 2018). Without all the mental attachments, we can just live and not get so upset about things that, ultimately, don’t matter.

Benefits of Kundalini Awakening
If we can walk this kundalini path, experience it fully, and look at everything that is now lit up (good and bad), we will eventually find inner peace, contentment, and equanimity (Ingram, 2018).

• Ginzburg, T. Methodology of Psychic Integration in Modern Breathing Techniques.
  
• Ingram, Daniel. (2018). Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book – Revised and Expanded Edition. Aeon Books.
  
• Jung, C. G. (1936). The concept of the collective unconscious. Collected works, 9(1), 42.
  
• Leadbeater, C. W. (2007). The masters and the path. Cosimo, Inc.
  
• Levine, P. A. (2008). Healing trauma. ReadHowYouWant. Com.
  
• Maharshi, S. R. (1985). Be as you are. Arkana, London.
  
• Shamdasani, S. (1996). The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes on the Seminar Given in 1932 by CG Jung. Princeton University Press.
  
• Shutan, Mary Mueller. (2015). The Spiritual Awakening Guide: Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and the Conditioned Layers of Reality. Findhorn Press.
  
• Shutan, Mary Mueller. (2024). Shadow Work for the Soul: Seeing Beauty in the Dark. Findhorn Press.
  
• Rueckert, C. & McCarty, J. (2021). The Ra Material: An Ancient Astronaut Speaks (Law of One). Whitford Press.
  
• Wikipedia. (n.d.-a). Kundalini. Retrieved 5/6/2024 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini#Kundalini_awakening 
  
• Wikipedia. (n.d.-b). Avīci. Retrieved 5/6/2024 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Av%C4%ABci
  
• Wilber, K. (2001). The eye of spirit: An integral vision for a world gone slightly mad. Shambhala Publications.