Why is activation of kundalini potentially so dangerous?

For the last 18 months or so I have been experiencing increasing energy flow up through the chakras and this has intensified in last few months. Now it feels like a sea of energy flowing through my core and slightly around it that is as real as my normal physical body. It seems to keep opening into areas that felt constricted and also seems to have a life of its own in terms of how it is evolving. I have also gone through huge transformations in terms of tightness, and also clarity on my persona/false self which continues to unwind. Also feels like amazing shifts in consciousness have happened with intuition increasing and also just experiencing the world from a different place of consciousness - especially out in nature when I can spend 15min just looking at a flower or the bark on a tree - like I had been viewing the world on an etch-a-sketch and now it's Ultra HD TV or something.

This all started after years of life threatening heath issues and followed what I considered to be a pre-awakening in the mid 90’s. About 18 months ago I just kind of spontaneously started meditating with the verbal Ohm sound after reading a few paragraphs about this by Mickey Singer. Seemed like something inside took over and took me on a journey over next months, spending hours a day in mediation. [I realize now that I also probably overdid the meditation and pranayama since I have a bit of an addictive personality and was also using it to push away a lot of trauma I had experienced in the world.] I Initially went through a couple months of absolute bliss but back then this energy through chakras seemed like just a trickle compared to what it is now.

The reason I am writing is this journey has also been very intense and destabilizing and I am trying to stay surrendered to it and facilitate its work. Also working once a month or so with OpenHand facilitator (Cut out pranayam work and now doing a lot of grounding as well.) So with things seeming upside down at times, I have seen a lot on the internet about dangers of awakening kundalini and how it can result in frying the brain or hospitalization etc. Not so easy to stay surrendered to it if I’m not sure what I’m surrendering to! As I continue to go through these transformative experiences, I am wondering about the internet comments that this is a divine creative energy that is intelligent enough to purify the psyche, remove blocks, and even create life situation to do this etc.. What puzzles me is why, if this is divine intelligent energy, it would not temper itself etc to avoid causing insanity, hospitalization etc.. Seems like on the one hand the energy is all knowing and purifying etc. but on the other hand comes with warnings that it can cause insanity, which doesn’t sound so intelligent – to the maim the host? Sounds rather impersonal and blind as well. Any suggestions on this or if what I have described does in fact sound like kundalini arising. Thanks. Looking forward to Chicago..

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Dear Open,

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

I so appreciate it and I do hope that there is a way to return to the sensitive, compassionate and deeply loving person I was before this happened.

Tilly mentioned attending the event next week.

I will try my best to be there.

Warmest wishes,

Angela

 

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Hi Gary,

My sense is there's no need to worry - the paramount aspect to the Openhand Approach to walking the spiritual path is to listen to your heart-felt feelings - not to override these with strongly prescriptive and disciplined practices. Commitment yes, but definitely not dogmatism.

It doesn't feel like you're doing that. And if kundalini had in any way fully activated, you'd know about it - I don't believe that has happened.

Yes, when the energy of the soul starts to flow, it will at times cause confusion as it contradicts with the ego and starts to unravel it. But if you keep listening to your heart and observing the synchronicities as you are, all will be fine.

Source pain versus pathology? In the Openhand view, pathology is ALWAYS the result of source pain karma - that's why it's so important to work toward the karma - everything else will then come into alignment.

Wishing you well

Open *OK*

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Thanks Open.

I feel that my recent experience is a call to get much deeper into the OpenHand work.

I guess the confusion for me comes partly from the fact that I didn’t go out seeking to raise kundalini or embark on some meditative path but it just happened kind of spontaneously at a time of desperation and I stumbled upon an end display at Barnes & Nobles which happened to have Books for Soul and ran across Michael Singer book talking about meditation. Then later that day thought came, wonder if I could do the Ohm meditation. Usually when I try something like that on a lark I move on to something else and it doesn’t stick anyways. But, once I started, something inside seemed to remember and take over and from there it seemed to have a life of its own in terms of what I was doing - not coming from a book or teaching. So I had assumed I was being led by Higher Guidance and I seemed to stumble upon right resources at right time i.e. finding OpenHand video on YouTube etc. But then I went through period 3-4 months ago where I got really upside down energetically and was still doing a lot of Pranayam work. At that point I fortuitously cracked open the 5 gateways book to paragraph about being wary of Yogic breathing methods and becoming unbalanced etc. Also around that time I had a dream where there was an emerald glow in my heart chakra and this wise old lady was there and she was saying “we will teach you now” or time to find a teacher and the feeling I got was to slow down. Then within a few days 3 different people had used the term grounding in our conversations, so I took the cue and worked more in that direction. Thus, I was still feeling like I was following the guidance that was coming up on this journey but sometimes I am not so sure. The confusion for me, with my history of severe social anxiety/agoraphobia etc. and with a lot of that coming up now really intensely, is that I am wondering if all of this source pain stuff coming up to be worked through or is it coming up just from being out of balance and spiraling in the wrong direction. Trust has always been a huge issues to begin with, so I find myself vacillating between trusting the awakening process with Open Hand approach and wondering if I am just off course from doing so much of the energetic work early on (Pranayam etc) that you caution against – they say that once it is awakened, you can’t put the Kundalini genie back in bottle? Hope that makes sense.

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Hi Gary,

Great to hear from you. Kundalini is indeed highly intelligent, but unfortunately all-to-frequently the ego gets in the way!

The activation of kundalini is necessary to advance down the spiritual path and to be connected to the source - kundalini is the natural flow of soul consciousness 'down' from the source, through the various layers of the bodymind, and back to the source again - when flowing freely as it is meant to, it leads to a blessed and divinely magical life.

However, for various complex reasons, the majority of people have been disconnected from this energy - by living unnatural lifestyles - separated from the natural flow of the universe. Society - and most people in it - are living in a highly conditioned eddy current of the flow. And within that, within each person, the soul has been fragmented into the lower bodily vehicles (mind, emotional body and physical body), and basically then plugged into the matrix through highly conditioned and repetitive behaviourisms, based around judgments - this is how we 'should' be in our relationships, careers or general living circumstances.

When we start to activate kundalini through meditation, for example, then what happens is we start to break down this conditioning and so the fragments of soul in the lower self begin to reconnect with the soul in the higher self - higher and lower begin to connect up, which in itself is the activation of kundalini and can feel incredibly blissful (as you describe).

But if kundalini is forced, through very excessive dogmatic and highly disciplined approaches, then it can initiate a strong 'upward' flow of kundalini but avoiding many of the soul fragments contained in the lower bodily field. The two can become disconnected, you can go out of body, and it becomes very hard to reintegrate. I've witnessed several people this has happened to, who've then become even bedridden because they have little connection to the consciousness of the soul in the physical body.

It can also lead to multiple personality disorder - where for example you might move into a higher mind state, which is not integrated through lower mind. This causes polarity and a the risk of schizophrenia - or the like.

These are the kinds of risks people are taking using forced kundalini practices - Halucinogens can cause this, such as Ayahausca and DMT for example.

In the Openhand approach, we mix different meditations incorporating breathing, movement and also nature. And not some fixed disciplined mode - but as you know, our primary approach is to get people to follow the soul - the soul, which is essentially activated kundalini, knows best of its own accord. If we listen to it, rather than a forced dogmatic approach, it will guide as to what the best practices in that particular moment are.

An essential thing I've spoken about in 5GATEWAYS, is the need to balance such meditation work through the chakras with the effects of the meditations in one's outer life. So if for example, you're working on the sacral chakra, to then watch the outer emotional impacts in one's relationships. Likewise, if you're working on the solar plexus, to look for inner child and teenager conditioning that might arise in family situations.

I've gone into great length about this in 5GATEWAYS (particularly Gateway 3) - the importance of integrating inner work into our outer lives. That way, kundalini is progressively activated and integrated directly into your life - it's not going to be dangerous, but a profound blessing.

Open *OK*

In reply to by Open

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Hi Open,

I cannot seem to figure out how to post a question here and so I am adding my question as a comment to this post I came across.

I have been going through a Kundalini Awakening for a year and a half and 3 months ago things took a very bad turn. I had a series of experiences of energy going straight to the brain and creating an explosion feeling after an excessive amount of orgasms in a row. I was able to do this much more than should be possible I realize now because it was the kundalini energy. I had been deep in panic and had been trying to relieve the panic through orgasm not thinking that this was manipulating the Kundalini energy or that it could be dangerous.

I am now in a very, very primitive state and have suffered massive cognitive decline, very serious memory issues, lack of emoiton and personality and have very little functional ability. I feel as though I am losing touch with reality and it is very scary. I am unable to think properly at all or to feel connection with my loved ones. I am just surviving. I cannot work and cannot take care of household responsibilities. 

I am hoping and praying that this state can be reversed, that my cognitive functioning can return, that my memory, emotions, and sensitivity can return.

I am well aware that this issue was caused by Kundalini and there is little that can be done psychiatrically when this is the case. 

I feel completely desperate for a ray of hope, for a solution or a path to healing and recovery.

Any advice offered or anyone that you feel could help me would be so appreciated. 

If there is a better way to reach out please let me know.

Warmest wishes,

Angela

 

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

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Greetings Angela, welcome to Openhand 🙏

My heart goes out to you in your challenges with the strong activation of Kundalini. Yes, it can be destabilising if it is forced in some way - through excessive pranic kundalini breathing, for example or through plant medicines such as Ayahausca. Although I've not come across it through excessive orgasm as in your case. But I can see that if you're doing this, combined with breathwork, and driving attention upwards to higher chakras (like the 3rd eye), that it could happen. I would say though, in your case, it's most likely related to a karmic past-life experience where forced kundalini practices were being applied. The sense of a "goddess temple" comes to my intuition. I would say your experience is karmic also because it's unlikely that excessive orgasm, of itself, would cause the state you describe. If you've activated karma, then what's likely happened, is you've triggered a past life state, which you've not yet managed to integrate, and that's caused you to go out of body to a degree.

You said...

I am now in a very, very primitive state and have suffered massive cognitive decline, very serious memory issues, lack of emotion and personality and have very little functional ability. I feel as though I am losing touch with reality and it is very scary. I am unable to think properly at all or to feel connection with my loved ones. I am just surviving. I cannot work and cannot take care of household responsibilities. 

This confirms, almost certainly, that your consciousness has gone "out of body" to a fair degree, probably caused by the activation of the past life experience. This means that the consciousness of your soul is not able, at the moment, to fully infuse in the lower bodily vehicles: lower mind, the emotional body and even the physical body. What needs to happen now, is a meditative regression through the experiences that have caused this, so that soul fragments stuck in the experience can be retrieved (soul-retrieval as the shamans call it). Then a progressive reintegration of soul through these lower layers, through gentle chakra breathing attunement (the kind we apply at Openhand), connection with nature, good healthy diet with plenty of dense foods (healthy organic and ideally plant-based). Then to work on integrating higher with lower self - again through gentle breathing meditations.

I have come across several people who've experienced debilitating physical consequences due to forced kundalini practice. But I also know that it can be healthily reversed and the soul integrated through it. I have been party to many integrations through challenging past life situations, which if handled properly and with expertise, can dissolve and integrate quickly.

What I would recommend is that you reach out to our Community Connector, Tilly Bud. Because I believe it would be best for you to work with an experienced facilitator to help you regress and integrate.... contact Tilly

Love and well wishes

Open 🙏