Anyone have a rational explanation why Kundalini Yoga can make people crazy?

I have found Kundalini Yoga to be a pretty interesting topic. If I could find the time to really dedicate myself to learning it, I would probably do it. When researching it though, I have found the same warnings in most all of the writing about it. Many different authors provide some fairly dire warnings about doing it wrong.

Most are warnings about raising it too quickly or advancing before you are ready but some are simply casual references to people who have gone crazy when getting into it. Either way, it seems that there is something to it. That this particular form of yoga can have some pretty strange side effects.

kundalini.se...

- It happened 22 years ago (article written 1996), she tells. I had been practising yoga and breathing exercises for one year. Then something peculiar happened. I felt sexually excited directly after the exercises, and got the feeling of being "high", like when you have smoked hash. Some weeks later I felt an electric current running through the spine and up into my brain after the yoga exercises, where it felt so good that I can only describe it as a "brain-orgasm".
- During this time I became so acutely psychotic, that is I lost control. This, however, only lasted for three weeks, and never came back.

My question is "Why?"


(there are plenty of examples out there and I would be happy to provide more if anyone is curious)

Hey Karl. Great to see you back!

Hmm well a metaphysical topic can only be answered with metaphysics, so please excuse me if Im a bit vague or subjective.

I think Kundalini energy is the most powerful form of energy that can flow between Chakras. Based on what I've read, opening the portal between the base chakras and the crown chakra releases this kundalini energy and allows it to flow freely. The process is described allegorically as a coiled snake unleashing the full extent of its being, coiling around the CNS/ Chakra pathway.

Metaphysically, I think some people are not capable of containing the power of Kundalini energy; which is why its a topic best approached slowly and built up over time. Typically there are some aspects within the mystic traditions which must be built up this way. The body is still limited by its physical condition (for most) and must have a tolerance for Kundalini. Unleashed at once, the effects could be unpredictable.


From a scientific point of view, I would say Kundalini is nothing but Serotonin and Endorphins. I find that deep meditation produces these relaxing effects, and indeed I do feel a "rush up my spine", which could merely be the nervous system responding to the neurotransmitters. As such, a massive dose of neurotransmitters (ie going into kundalini too fast) is akin to an overdose in my opinion.

Either way, best approached in incremental steps I would say

Hope everything's good with you mate!

I'll hazzard a guess at this....Lots of new energies and emotions,for a few days after a kundalini release,your emotions are supercharged and if you're not aware of this,you may not be able to control it as well had you been prepared for it. From that exert,it doesn't sound like the person having this experience was expecting to wake up a metaphysical force. Maybe had they known that this was going to be an outcome,they'd have been more in control of the emotional side of the trip to crazy town. I must say,I've noticed my moods can swing from one extreme to the other,and whilst I am aware of it and can usually bring myself back around in quite short time,it grabs you by supprise sometimes. And if I'm under pressure at work,get out of my way or that hammer gets stuck in your head

Okay, here's my.02.

Kundalini is a purifying energy... at least in the mild way I have experienced it. It clears out negativity.

So many people have something that they are angry about or they hate that they harbor for entertainment or stability.

I imagine that if they came to a point wher ethe kundaline awakened, before they were really ready to let go of their emotional holdouts, they might have some problems.

Not an expert but here's my take...

The point of meditation, at least in part, is to activate the subconscious mind while in a conscious state. Through most means this is a gradual process of "awakening". Kundalini on the other hand is rather "aggressive" and so can cause something of an overload and an inability to properly process stimuli and activates areas of the brain normally only active in common altered states of consciousness, such as while sleeping, producing something akin to a psychotic state.

I don't practice Kundalini but I do practive Qigong. Qigong can sometimes leave the person if they fail to resolve their qi energy and put it back in it's harmonized place after exercise create an effect called qi lock. Basically all the energy has to go somewhere and when it's not "put away" it will be stuck where you left it. in your back, in your head and neck area and jaw. horrible aches that make it nearly impossible to sleep. The latent energy can make one very irritable.

Another thing that can happen which could cause someone to act a little crazy is if your fire qi is out of control. those people will become angry, hostile. Tense and a little off color and excentric until they get it back under control. They need to work on their air and water qi to get them harmonized again.

Although qigong and kundalini are different in method I bet they are really the same force and the same principles regulate them both. So I'm betting the person in kundalini gets whacky because their internal energies are out of harmony and not balanced.

Thanks guys and gals. I understand how people can explain it with various spiritual / new age explanations but I was mainly curious how people who would deny that there is such a thing as "energy" whether it is Kundalini or Qi or whatever you want to call it. I was curious how they would explain it. I think 44soulslayer gave me the answer I was looking for.

Thanks again. Sure wish I had the time to give kundalini a shot. It really sounds like a pretty fascinating experience.

Years ago, in my twenties, I practised yoga twice daily, got into some pranayama, all that stuff. I stopped when I realised it was making me emotionally unstable.

It was therefore no surprise to hear that a Swedish project to teach yoga to prison inmates actually raised the level of violence among the inmates and had to be stopped.

I've subsequently done quite a bit of qigong and t'ai chi, and this seems to be a much safer and gentler way of messing with your mind and body.

In terms of a "rational" explanation, you're going to be SOL if you judge rationality in a mainstream way. There is no sensible mainstream model of the mind/body problem, no science of consciousness.

However, I've found the works of Wilhelm Reich to be a really useful perspective on the subject and his view (and if he'd known this, he'd probably have been appalled) dovetails very, very neatly with the Taoist model.

Here's the thumbnail sketch.

Very young babies are relaxed and extremely supple. As you get older, you get more and more tense, less and less supple. Why?

Because fairly early on, you'll start to have unpleasant experiences. Maybe Mommy doesn't come and feed you when you're hungry, or change you wnen you need it. Maybe you do something that earns you a smack or a telling-off. You feel upset. How do you stop it?

In Reich's view, you need to damp down the flow of what he termed orgone energy which equates, IMO, with what yogis call prana and Taoists call chi. You do this in two ways: by restricting your breathing and by tensing your muscles.

In Reich's view, these tensions become chronic. They turn into what he called "character armour", which might be defined as the interlocking chronic network of tensions that reinforces (and indeed is functionally identical with) neuroses.

This armour has many layers and each is connected to, or embodies, emotional trauma from a specific event in one's childhood. I've had a couple of sessions of Reichian therapy and my experiences do bear this out.

Kundalini releases force energy* through these blockages on both the physical and emotional levels (which, again, Reich viewed as inseparable) and nence you have all your buttons pushed.

Chi gung and t'ai chi both have a huge emphasis on relaxation, and the postures are intended to allow the chi/orgone/prana to flow naturally through the system rather than being compressed or packed, as will happen in, for example, the plough posture.

Taoists also have meditative methods designed to clear emotional blockages, and it can be necessary to use these techniques in conjunction iwth chi gung or t'ai chi to tackle the physical and emotional levels of a blockage.

And of course, these meditative practices have their dangers too. I've heard of someone who was doing some incorrect chi gung practices who developed a symptom that's made me very cautious in my practice: he started to have spontaneous emissions of semen without warning or any orgasmic sensation. Sounds a bit Fast Show ("I'm sorry, I've just come") but I've heard this from a source I find reliable.

I'm pretty careful about how I practice.

One thing, though: I did learn a pranayama technique that allows one to generate heat. Supposedly yogis in training will have to sit naked on a mountainside and have a blanked drenched in icy water draped around them. They have to dry the blanket several times in one night to show they've mastered the technique.

I did find that even a few minutes' practice generated a lot of heat, which was particularly useful when I was living in a very cold and draughty flat.

Edited to clarify the clause marked *

"Releases" is a noun, "force" is the verb. Reading it back it looks ambiguous.

[edit on 5-8-2009 by rich23]

reply to post by rich23


Thank you for the detailed response Rich. I appreciate it.

Thanks. Hope it made sense.

FWIW, I have some other suspicions/observations (not conclusions, I try not to be too dogmatic about this).

I've always found it interesting that the old symbol for medical aid, the caduceus, depticts two serpents coiled round a winged rod. It's not impossible that this symbolises kundalini, which is, as you probably know, often referred to as "serpent power".

Advanced levels of chi gung practice refer to "the spiraling energy body".

Some people think that a little-known branch of science called torsion physics describes chi/prana/orgone/ruach (that last one is the Kabbalistic term).

From my own experience, I'd say that chi is the medium of sensation, rather than mere mechanical/chemical reactions. I say this because if you're particularly sensitive, you can experience sensations outside the limits of your physical body.

There are some other threads you might find relevant...

www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

There's more detail on matters I've discussed above, some personal experiences, and the last one's got a link to a truly fantastic lecture on Reich.

Enjoy.

I guess to someone unexperienced, it would seem like insanity... but to me, it seems like the desired effect. You don't conduct Kundalini ritual if you aren't prepared for some extreme emotions.

Opening up your mind by years of drug use (specifically weed or more intense mushrooms) helps too.

[edit on 6-8-2009 by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi]

Crazy Shmazy

Qi Qong is the way to go if you want non loony inducing energy zaps

Start with Fragrant Qi Gong, ull be smellig flowers in no time

if you want to tighten muscles, do another yoga, I dont suggest such a energy and physical whack together
Or Tai Kwon Do is very good stretching and muscle building.
Let us know if you go crazy...crazier.
Gnight Zazz

reply to post by Karlhungis


Perhaps because it amounts to issuing an open invitation to be possessed by serpent beings?

Its commonly known as Serpent Power.

Sir John Woodroffe (pen name Arthur Avalon) was one of the first to bring the notion of Kundalini to the West. A High Court Judge in Calcutta, he became interested in Shaktism and Hindu Tantra. His translation of and commentary on two key texts was published as The Serpent Power. Woodroffe rendered Kundalini as "Serpent Power".

en.wikipedia.org...

I mean is it really so much of stretch to reason your way from serpent power to demonic? Hello? It's really obvious why it makes you crazy. Do the math.

reply to post by Bigwhammy


Possessed by serpents? WTF

My religion has everything to do with Kundalini magic and what you're saying is ignorant BS. Kundalini is dark magic, which is indeed serpentine in nature. I don't know what "possession" you speak of.

And talking about "demonic" too? Kundalini belief does not even fall under the same type of religion as Christianity, which primitively and arrogantly believes in those things. Kundalini is about understanding and exploiting the dark side of the balance of energy.

[edit on 7-8-2009 by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi]

Originally posted by Dimitri Dzengalshlevi
reply to post by Bigwhammy

 

Possessed by serpents? WTF

My religion has everything to do with Kundalini magic and what you're saying is ignorant BS. Kundalini is dark magic, which is indeed serpentine in nature.

Magic + serpents + and the title of the thred is why does it drive you crazy... duh :shk:

I don't know what "possession" you speak of.

Exactly... thanks

Let me start by saying this is not theory. I found myself after taking a mental training course and doing off and on meditation. At a point where I was elite bodybuilding. 6 meals a day. 2 hours running. 4 hours training. 2 hours meditation. One hour morning and one hour night. Was not drinking or taking any drugs at the time though I had smoked grass years earlier and other not so hard drugs. Ok here I am sitting in meditation. I sit full lotus cross legged and let me tell you it sucks. Very uncomfortable. I played sounds of the ocean a cd that was one hour long. One day I am doing this and find halfway through I have this intense agitation right in between my anus and my genitals. Because of the bodybuilding and the lotus posture I was used to accepted extreme discomfort so I rolled with it. At one point I distinctly remember my mind screaming for it to stop and picturing my jumping up and down to stop it. I ignored this did not move and meditated with all the focus I had on the sounds of the ocean. This is a pure guess but after say 15m of that anus/genital discomfort it stopped. I do not end meditation early. I was very do or die mentality. But when the discomfort stopped I found myself standing up and laughing. I could not stop laughing. I found objects on the ground and began to play with them and laughed and laughed. Oddly enough my mind at this point was about 99% quiet. As a child I had extreme ADD so this was unusual. I eventually came down from it a little and went to the store to return something. Once there I saw a car with a visor that said let the sunshine in. Without thought or decision I went straight to the beach and played in my boxers I threw dirt laughed and smiled like a 5 year old child. I had no self restraint simply because I was not thinking about what I was doing. I was so happy. Now eventually I came down from all this. BUT ever since this day I feel what is called kundalini energy in my body. It feels like warmth or heat. It is not always there. Focus meditation in particular seems to strengthen it. I found I could push this energy into other peoples bodies. The result was that they felt relaxed and extremely alert for about 12 hours. What is very strange is that this energy reacts to thought and choice. One direction may strengthen it another may replace it with a feeling of ice. I do not mean to say it disappears sometimes. I mean to say if I look at dirty porn on the net I feel my arms, face etc. ice over. It is very very noticeable. I intuitively sensed that this was the energy of god/universe. It feels that way. Now here more recently I have found I can ask a question in my mind and pay attention to the energetic response of my body. Almost like this energy can give me a distinct yes or no to questions. Nothing about this experience has appeared to be evil. It although very weird all seems positive. I can feel it warming as I right this. As if writing this is a good choice. It is very strange. Let me be clear I have a 142IQ for most of my life I was an atheist. I am much more like a scientist in my thinking. The truth is if you have never experienced this you know nothing about it. And if you have you don't take to heart the opinion of a man who is just guessing.

Now to answer the topic. Imagine you have an adaptive power grid that normally runs at 500 energy units. Now say you introduce 750 energy units into this grid well there might be a few sparks but it quickly adapts to it. Now imagine I have found some trick ancient yoga whatever that is 2500 years old on you tube. I think to myself hey I want some kundalini energy lets give it a go. Say this guy adds 2000 energy units to a grid used to handling 500. Hell he might spark and basically strangely function for a week till the system adapts to the new level. Now lets say you really did the research found the baddest yoga system to raise your kundalini. Went gung ho and added 10,000 energy to a 500 energy unit systems. BOOM permanent damage enjoy the psychiatric ward, too much system couldn't adapt. This is just reason and logic but I imagine this is what is causing the short or perma crazy.

Oh and just for fun this is from Trungpa Rinpoche I think about sums up the whole game of all of this.
We live in illusion and the appearance of things.
When we realize this, we realize we are nothing.
And that by being nothing, we are everything.
That is all.
This came out of the mans mouth at a seminar on enlightenment was sposed to last 45 minutes long lol.