Triggers for Kundalini, Intentional and Otherwise…

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by Tao Semko

Kundalini is a biological process with psycho-spiritual effects. The initial release of energy through the nervous, endocrine, meridian, and musculo-skeletal systems can be quite dramatic in sensation, as can subsequent rises or kriyas (“actions” or “movements” in sanskrit).

A great many conditions can stimulate releases or movements of kundalini, though it is important to understand that merely experiencing these energetic discharges will not likely result in any great spiritual maturation. For kundalini to result in permanent awakenings and integrations of increased empathy, compassion, charisma, non-physical awareness, intuition, unity, non-dual awareness, etc, repeated or continuous experience of the energy is necessary, but so is consciously shifting awareness itself into the desired modes of perception and expression associated with each region of the body, as the “energy” experiences move through those regions.

It is just as possible for kundalini to rise (and subside) “spontaneously” as it is to experience kundalini rising as the result of an intentional kundalini practice. Indeed, since kundalini experiences can be so dramatic, individuals experiencing a sudden spontaneous rise with no cultural frame of reference for the experience, often panic and end up in the emergency room, or worse, temporarily institutionalized. Those who manage to simply relax, ride out the initial experience, research, and seek context from those knowledgeable in spiritual emergence, usually end up integrating their experiences very well.

5 conditions that together guarantee kundalini rising and integrating, in both intentional and spontaneous cases:

  1. Increased breath activity (intra-abdominal pressure and oxygentation) in the pelvis and lower abdomen.
  2. Amplified sensory and emotional experiences, matched to each region of the body, especially while simultaneously engaging the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems (simultaneously relaxing and arousing the senses/emotions)
  3. Increased proprioceptive and kinesthetic awareness in the core axis (longitudinal) of the body, along the region occupied by the cranial vagus nerves, resulting in increased entrainment and harmonized oscilation in the vagus nerves. Certain visual gazing techniques can also shift neural activity in towards the visceral core, creating a similar effect.
  4. Good circulation of oxygenated blood, hormones, neurotransmitters, cerebral-spinal fluid, interstitial plasma, lymph, etc., with good spinal suspension (not impingement), and strong but flexible visceral and fascial tonus.
  5. Following the principles of neuroplasticity, daily repetition of the above four factors to assist in promoting new neural networking and neural-endocrine networking.

KAP is a simple and powerfully elegant system, that works directly to activate and exercise the very principles involved in kundalini’s unfoldment. It is physiologically based and playful rather than dogmatic, and works all of the above 5 conditions in much greater refinement and detail.

For those who have experienced or witnessed what you believe to be a spontaneous/ unintended rising, here is a partial list of factors that may have helped to trigger kundalini in a spontaneous rising. The more factors present at once, the more likely a rising is to occur. Order presented is not indicative of power or importance:

  • Profound rapture or wonder, induced by sensory perception of artistic works (music, statuary, painting, etc) or natural beauty (geological wonders, sunsets, the human body, childbirth, etc), or transcendent experience (skydiving, childbirth, sexuality, etc)
  • Prolonged and profound focus/concentration
  • Conversely, prolonged and profound open / expanded/ panoramic states of sensory awareness
  • Extreme physical and/or emotion exertion, and/or the period of exhausted relaxation that follows
  • Sudden shifts in context or worldview, especially those in which one’s realm of possibilities radically expands, or conversely, is constrained rapidly by apparent danger to self or loved ones
  • Prolonged sensual or sexual arousal / stimulation, especially accompanied by deep breathing, deep physicality, and/or deep relaxation, accompanied by shifts in states of consciousness
  • Prolonged and profound devotion (religious or spiritual devotion, profound romantic love, parental devotion or awe at the birth process, etc)
  • Intense breathwork or prolonged, deep, abdomenal/pelvic breathing
  • Deep and repeated rhythmic stimulation of the perineum, tailbone, sitz bones, or the larger muscle groups of the legs and buttocks – this can be through dance with a heavy base drum, exercise on a vibrating platform, sexual stimulation, yogic tadan kriya, etc…
  • Deep abuse or trauma, physical, sexual, and/or emotional, though usually with a strong emotional component / adrenalization
  • Use of entheogens, especially coupled with any of the above

Q&A?: If you wish to contextualize your own energetic/consciousness experiences within the continuum of human spiritual experiences, please feel free to email one of the certified KAP instructors on this page, or talk to KAP Instructor Tao Semko directly, for free, via scheduled Skype appointment at http://TaoSemko.com/appointments/