Kundalini Awakening, Kundalini Awareness
Abstract
The Kundalini Awakening is a type of spiritually transformative experience, also referred to as religious, spiritual, mystical or transcendental, that has traditionally been associated with eastern meditative / yogic practices, but recently in the west is often associated with spontaneous, enlightening shifts in consciousness. Subjects report such Kundalini experiences typically involve intense physical sensations associated with the spine and nervous system, and evidently occur most frequently in mid life (modal age ~30-35). They have also been referred to as ‘cosmic consciousness’ experiences inducing long-lasting, life-changing shifts in intellectual and spiritual sensibilities. The experience may be more common than thought in the west because subjects often did not use the term Kundalini. Nevertheless the term is becoming more often used in western reports. Many consider the Kundalini awakening phenomenon, a natural, evolutionary, developmental phenomenon, not unrelated to the natural energetic dynamics of organic systems, especially the nervous system. Vedantic and Tantric traditions have long recognized the Kundalini as a universal force (energy or prana) that manifests in humans with remarkable physical, psychological and spiritual effects.
References
Avalon, A. 1919. The Serpent Power: the secret of tantric and Shaktic yoga. 529p.
Barfield, O. 1965. Saving the appearances: a study in idolatry. Wesleyan University Press 190p.
Blavatsky, H. 1966. The Secret Doctrine. Theosphical Publishing House Wheaton, Illinois. 260p
Bentov, I. 1977. Stalking the wild pendulum: on the mechanics of Consciousness. Destiny Books 208p.
Blaxland-de Lange, S. 2006. Owen Barfield: romanticism come of age. Temple Lodge, London, 352 pp
Bucke, R. M. 1901. Cosmic Consciousness. Innes and Sons, 384p.
Caudill, M., 2006. Suddenly Psychic Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, VA, 290p.
Dixon, J. 2008. Biology of Kundalini. Lulu Publishing Co. 580p.
Douglas-Smith, B. 1983. The mystics come to Harley Street. Regency Press, London, 48p.
Fetterman, L., 2018 Clairvoyance and Conceptualism: Rudolf Steiner’s higher modes of cognition as higher order theory of Consciousness, Journal for the Study of Religious Experience, 4: 41-63
Flanagan, S. 1989. Hildegard of Bingen. Routledge 230p.
Galbraith, J. 1998. Spontaneous rising of Kundalini Energy: pseudo-schizophrenia or spiritual disease? Scientific and Medical Network. 67: p. 29.
Galbraith, J. 1999. Is spiritual emergence up the spine always a benign process. Scientific and Medical Network. 71: 11-14
Galbraith, J. 2010. Spiritual Emergence: a reply to the article by Stephen Taylor. Scientific and Medical Network. 102, p. 31-32.
Gebser, J. 1986. The Ever Present Origin. Ohio University Press. Athens Ohio, 615p.
Hardy, A. 1997. The Significance of Religious Experience. Occasional paper 12, Religious Experience Research Center, Oxford University, p. 1-8.
Huxley, A. 1945. The Perennial Philosophy. Harper Brothers, New York, 312p.
Huxley, A. 1952. The Devils of Loudun. Harper Brothers New York. 340p.
James, W. 1905. The Varieties of Religious Experience Colliers, New York.
Jung, C. G. 1996. The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga. Princeton University Press, 128p.
Kason Y., 2000. Farther Shores: Exploring How Near-Death, Kundalini and Mystical Experiences Can Transform Ordinary Lives. Harper Collins, Canada, 324p.
Kiefer, G. 1996. Kundalini: empowering human evolution. Selected writings of Gopi Krishna . Paragon House. 302p.
Konig, K. 1969 The First Three Years of the Child. Anthroposophic Press
Krishna, G. 1967. Kundalini: the evolutionary energy in man. Shambala, Boston, 252p.
Krishna, G. 1972. The Secrets of Yoga. Harper Row, New York, 208p.
Krishna, G. 1976a. The Awakening of Kundalini. Taraporevala Sons and Co, Bombay 129p.
Krishna, G. 1976b. Path to higher consciousness. Orient paperbacks 2008 p.
Krishna, G 1993. Living with Kundalini. Shambala. Boston, 401 p.
Krishna, G. 1994. Three perspectives on Kundalini. UBS publishers.
Krishna, G. 1995. Ancient secrets of Kundalini. UBS publishers.
Lockley. 2000. A broader look at the spiritual emergence experience: implications for consciousness studies. Scientific and Medical Network. 72: p. 18-19.
Lockley, M. G., 2010. The evolutionary dynamics of Consciousness. The Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17: 66-116
Lockley, M. G., and Morimoto, R. 2010. How Humanity came into Being: the evolution of consciousness, Floris Books, Edinburgh, 358p.
Marshall, P. 2005. Mystical Encounters with the Natural world. Oxford University Press. 324p.
McGilchrist, I., 2009. The Master and His Emissary. The divided brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press, 608 p.
Morgan, P. 2015. Continuing the heritage: William James, Alister Hardy and the work of the religious Experience Research Centre. Journal of the study of Religious Experience. 1: 3-19
Muller, F. M. 1873. Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by the religions of India, Charles Scribner’s, New York, 382p.
Piaget, J. 1976. The Grasp of Consciousness: action and concept in the young child. Harvard University Press 360 p.
Rankin, M., 2009. An introduction to Religious and Spiritual experience. Continuum, London 288 p.
Rivas, T., Dirven, A and Smit, R.H. 2016. The self does not die. International Association for Near Death Studies Publications, Durham, North Carolina, 367p.
Rohen, J. W. 2007. Functional Morphology. The dynamic wholeness of the organism. Adonis Press, Ghent, New York. 429 p.
Sanella, L. 1987. The Kundalini experience. Integral Publishing. Lower Lake California, 168p.
Scott, M. 2005. Searching for the real Kundalini. Scientific and Medical Network. 92: p. 23-24.
Schad, W. 2018. Understanding Mammals: Threefoldness and Diversity Adonis Press. 1310p.
Semple, J. J. 2014. The Biology of Consciousness: cases studies in Kundalini. Life Force Books.
Sheldrake, R., 1981 A new science of Life. Harper Collins 287p.
Shusan, G., 2018. Introduction: Special Issue on religion, Culture and Extraordinary Experience. Journal for the study of Religious Experience, 4: 1-2
Snow, C. P. 1959. The Two Cultures. London: Cambridge University Press. 58p.
Spilka, B., Brown, G. A. and Cassidy, S. A. 1992. The Structure of Religious Mystical Experience in relation to Pre- and Post-experience Lifestyles. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2(4) 241-257.
Stace. W. T. 1960. The Teachings of the Mystics. Mentor Books, New York
Starbuck, E. [1899] 1908. The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Study of the Growth of Religious Consciousness. New York: Charles Scribner.
Steiner, R, 1924. Anthroposophy an introduction. Gt. Barrington, MA: Steiner Books
Steiner, R. 1991. Human and Cosmic Thought. Bridgend, UK: Rudolf Steiner Press
Steiner, R. 1994. How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation. Hudson, NY:
Anthroposophic Press
Steiner, R. 2008. The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World: Zodiac, Planets and
Cosmos. Gt. Barrington, MA: Steiner Books
Steiner, R. 2008. The Philosophy of Freedom. Forest Row, UK: Rudolf Steiner Press
Steiner, R. 2009 The Riddles of Philosophy. Steiner Books 479p.
Taylor S. 2009. Spiritual alchemy: when trauma and turmoil lead to spiritual awakening. Scientific and Medical Network. 101, p. 11-14.
Verhulst, J. 2003.Developmental dynamics in humans and other primates. Adonis Press, 413p.
Vitaliano, G. 1997 A new integrative model for states of consciousness. NPL World 7: 41-82
White, J. 1990. Kundalini: evolution and enlightenment. Paragon House. New York. 482p.
Wilber. K. 1977. The spectrum of consciousness. A Quest Book., Wheaton, Illinois,. 374p
Wilber. K. 1986. Up from Eden: a transpersonal view of human evolution. New Science Library, Shambala, Boston 372p.
Wilber, K. 1997. An integral theory of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies 4, p. 71-92
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The Journal for the Study of Religious Experience is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors and the Journal for the Study of Religious Experience. Â Authors would need to request the reuse of the article in case they want to publish it elsewhere and they should acknowledge the initial publication in JSRE.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) a link to the Journal’s website where the article may be downloaded for free.
Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright clearance for any images, tables, etc. which are supplied from an outside source.
Â