What is Kundalini
Shakti?

Features of a
Kundalini Rising

Kinds of Kundalini
Risings

Supporting Kundalini
Process

Facts and
Misconceptions

Individual experiences of Kundalini process vary considerably.
The basic signs of a Kundalini rising that a person might experience include:

• feeling different, not fitting in
• a deep yearning for inner development
• inner sensations of light, sound, or heat
• a heightened inner awareness
• glimpses of bliss
• feelings of energy flowing or vibrating within
• special sensitivities, capacities, and talents
• non-ordinary phenomena
• spontaneous bodily movements
• emotional fluctuations
• atypical sensations
• an interest in spiritual growth or in metaphysics or the esoteric
• compassion and a desire to serve others
• a sense that something non-ordinary, transformative, or holy is
  happening within
• personal development, and optimally, spiritual transformation
  and realization

Although there are discernable patterns to Kundalini process, Kundalini risings offer a limitless array of possibilities, and each is unique. A Kundalini rising does not necessarily result in automatic holiness, virtue, genius, special abilities, extraordinary experiences, or peculiar discomforts. Many people have risings that produce few remarkable manifest characteristics other than some form of sensitivity and discontent and a talent or quality that stands out to some degree. The individual is more aware of the subtle aspects of life and is unsettled enough to yearn for more. This may develop into an intense longing that urges the individual to seek spiritual life, if they are not unduly distracted into less satisfying temporary substitutes in the mean time.

Not all Kundalini risings manifest phenomena that can be called spiritual experiences. In fact, some incomplete risings can be quite difficult because Kundalini Shakti's efforts to improve her status can affect subtle body dynamics, causing a variety of experiences, including subtle body activities that feel physical and may be uncomfortable. Blocked risings or risings through cul-de-sac routes may yield some distressing and non-ordinary symptoms and will thwart further spiritual development until the block or misdirection is corrected. The strain on the subtle body may render the experiencer ultra sensitive, especially if they do not know how to properly support their rising.

Individuals might also use or misuse any special abilities provided by their risings for their own worldly purposes, and this might eventuate in some discomforting side effects. If the gifts provided by an arisen Kundalini Shakti are harnessed for non-spiritual purposes, the resulting dissipation or misdirection of vital energy and likely ego inflation can postpone further spiritual progress until the diffusion is contained and the inauspicious focus corrected. In addition, other unhealthy and unspiritual lifestyle behaviors may complicate an individual's process, stressing the subtle body, impeding spiritual advancement, and possibly yielding eventual uncomfortable consequences. Other factors are sometimes present that complicate a rising, and an emotional reaction to the rising itself can further disturb the subtle body.

An uncomfortable rising can result when Kundalini Shakti emerges spontaneously by means of non-spiritual catalysts (such as life shock or incorrect intervention) in an unprepared individual whose subtle body is weak, toxified, or unbalanced and who may have no frame of reference for interpreting and responding to the experience as potentially spiritual. Kundalini Shakti will work to resolve such a limitation in the individual, and the experiences produced by her effort may be felt as uncomfortable and thus be considered problematic by the experiencer. It may also be labeled a “spiritual emergency” or be pathologized by others because it may meet enough criteria to be deemed a diagnosable disorder or syndrome. Any blocked rising may eventuate in some discomforts, and the purification and restoration that follows an improvement in a rising may also involve some discomfort. Eventually, these difficulties can be improved with spiritual understanding and correctly cooperating with Kundalini Shakti's efforts to advance the person's spiritual progress.

A healthy, spiritual lifestyle supports a positive Kundalini process. With this, difficulties with risings can be improved over time with the dedicated and correct effort of the seeker and grace bestowed by the divine. Practicing appropriate spiritual methods allows Kundalini Shakti to correct (divert, unblock, elevate) a stuck rising. Unimpeded risings through a culminating route will eventually impart full spiritual attainment.

To avoid confusion, it should be emphasized that Traditional Kundalini Science defines “kundalini” not as a mere energy but as Shakti, the divine source of energy. In the Vedic and Yogic texts, the various kinds of subtle energy in the human system are referred to as the pranas or vayus. It should also be noted that the popular term “kundalini awakening” may be used to refer to an initial release, arousal, or stirring of Kundalini Shakti in a person with a new rising. But it is also used to describe something different: a new awareness of an already existent rising that a person was born with, unbeknownst to them. Such showings of an unknown rising are often mistaken for an initial release. An individual's rising can become apparent at a karmically ripe time when the process makes some attempt to improve its status or is stimulated or strained by some other factor. According to this model, these individuals experience a spontaneous "ripening" of the rising, possibly with few apparent external catalysts to explain the change.