Kundalini
article continued from last page,
click
here!
As
a yoga instructor and a budding yoga
therapist, I have not only experienced
many of these symptoms myself, but
have heard many of my students and
clients describe similar baffling
experiences. In ancient yoga philosophy
many of the above symptoms and a myriad
of others were attributed to a phenomenon
called “Kundalini rising.”
(Read: Gopi Krisha's Living
with Kundalini) Roughly, Kundalini
is the energy of enlightenment said
to be lying dormant at the base of
the spine. Represented symbolically
as a coiled serpent, Kundalini
energy or “shakti” is said
to climb up the spine as ever-greater
spiritual truths are grasped, often
wreaking havoc on its host in the
process. Here are some signs that
you may be in spiritual crisis or
under Kundalini's powerful shift:
1) Varied and rotating mental,
emotional, and physical symptoms:
There are a wide variety of ways people
have reported Kundalini impacting
their bodies, and it appears to be
highly individual depending on the
areas of power you're coping with
and your own unique energetic profile.
However, the near constant shifting
of symptoms appears to be one telltale
sign. For example, in any given week,
under the spell of Kundalini you might
gyrate through a myriad of emotional
and physical states. Physically, you
may feel hopelessly fatigued one day
and the next highly-energized, but
“spacey.” You might experience
travelling, vague aches and pains
with no determined cause, or feel
bizarre shifts, surges, or fluctuations
in body energy - experienced as feelings
of heaviness, heat, tingling, dissociation,
breathlessness, etc. Of course, each
of these taken by itself can be a
sign or symptom of a medical condition
and may require medical attention.
However, key differences seem to be
the sporadic nature of symptoms and
their continuous shift interspersed
with hours or even days of almost
complete “relief.”
2) Concomitant shift in perceptual
awareness: For me, a perceptual shift
first manifested as a transient, but
profound recognition of the sanctity
of all life. Vengeance against even
the most heinous criminal no longer
seemed like a “powerful”
choice. It was not a pardoning of
a perpetrator's guilt or a relinquishing
of his accountability that felt “right,”
but rather it was a sheer
“knowing” that vengeance
would neither alleviate anybody's
suffering, nor lead to a more peaceful
society. Importantly, this was not
experienced merely as an intellectual
understanding, but as a deep, bodily
knowing. Surprisingly, I also began
to lose some of the fear and dread
that formerly consumed me when confronted
with the concepts of death and suffering.
Life became precious, but not dire.
At times, I have a deeper appreciation
for the simpler things in life and
have begun to catch glimmers of cherished
“light” in even the smallest
of things. New perceptions continue
to emerge with a frustrating “straddling”
period between the new perceptual
experience and return to old, stale
beliefs and behaviors. Gradually,
I suspect (at least hope) that many
of the new perceptions will supplant
the old.
3) Heightened awareness of
external energies: You may begin to
notice the subtle influence of the
energies around you and you may even
feel more profoundly affected by these
energies. For instance, the atmosphere
of a room will immediately and profoundly
strike you as uplifting, supportive,
or conversely dull, flat, “thick,”
or even vicious. You'll begin
to be more aware of, and perhaps even
more sensitive to, the impact of individual
people on your energetic state. You
may start to notice the subtle energies
supplied by elements of the environment
as well, including everything from
electronic equipment, to fragrance,
to food and even seemingly inert objects
such as rocks!
Kundalini