Kundalini Syndrome - Academic and Clinical Discussion

Academic and Clinical Discussion

Discussion of Kundalini-symptomatology has appeared in a few mainstream academic journals, including Psychological Reports, where M. Thalbourne operates with a 35 item "Kundalini Scale". In addition to this, the understanding of Kundalini-symptomatology as a clinical category has been briefly mentioned in two mainstream publications, one article from The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, and one article from The Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Also, in an article from the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, authors Grabovac & Ganesan use the term "Kundalini episodes" to describe a category to be used in a proposed academic lecture series on religion and spirituality in Canadian Psychiatric Residency Training.

A more marginal publication, but historically significant in relation to the topic at hand, was the early groundwork of commentator Lee Sannella. In the book "The Kundalini Experience" (first published in 1976) he was as able to group symptoms into categories, which Kason picked up with some modification. For Sannella, the indications consist of motor phenomena – auto-movement, unusual breathing, and paralysis; sensory phenomena – tickling, sensations of hot and cold, inner lights or visions, and inner sounds; interpretive phenomena – emotions, distortions of thought, detachment, disassociation, and a sense of oneness; and non-physiological phenomena – out-of-body experiences and psychic perceptions. According to Transpersonal theory the awakening of such energies are "accompanied by alterations in physiology and consciousness understood in terms of the Hindu chakra system". Knowledge of the chakra map may therefore be helpful regarding the interpretation of symptoms.

In the book "The Stormy Search for the Self", Stanislav Grof, whose wife Christina underwent the dramatic shaktipat experience, gave prominence to increased levels of energy, shaking, memories of traumas, extreme emotions, inner sounds, visions, sexual arousal, and difficulty controlling behaviours. They recommended anyone having these experiences have a medical examination by a clinician knowledgeable about kundalini because of the similarity between these symptoms and indications of psychiatric and medical problems. The biological plausibility of meditative practices and Yoga causing acute psychotic illness has been suggested by a psychiatrist as being related to alterations in neurophysiological parameters such as P300 which may be used to prescribe or proscribe yogic and meditative practices to certain people.

Commentators mention the dangers, or psychological difficulties, associated with intense or excessive practice of spiritual disciplines. According to writers in the field, such practices may, in unfortunate instances, trigger kundalini symptomatology, and lead to states of spiritual emergency. Greyson notes that contemporary western culture is poorly equipped to deal with signs of kundalini activity. Therefore, such activity might lead to major disruptions in the social and psychological functioning of people experiencing kundalini symptoms. According to Greyson, such disruptions are often confused with psychotic disorders.

Even though the symptoms, at times, may be dramatic and disturbing, several theorists tend to interpret the kundalini phenomenon, and the related symptomatology, as largely non-pathological, even maturational. Sovatsky, representing the hermeneutic of kundalini yoga, tend to interpret the energetic manifestations of Kundalini awakening as a "spinal puberty", a spiritual and somatic maturation of body and soul. Other writers also interpret the phenomenon as a psycho-spiritual and transformative process. Kason, for example, tend to view the symptoms as part of a spiritually transformative experience, a "psycho-spiritual house-cleaning". Several commentators seem to imply that the phenomenon has a developmental and evolutionary significance for humanity, signifying both biological and spiritual evolution.

Both Greyson and Scotton underline the importance of differentiating between Kundalini phenomena on the one hand, and mental illness or psychopathology on the other hand. According to Scotton, Kundalini-symptoms may, or may not, be associated with psychopathology, but are not reducible to any psychopathology. He thinks that it is important to differentiate between the signs of Kundalini and the symptoms of pathology, and not subsume the signs of Kundalini under a pathological diagnosis. He also notes that classical western psychiatric treatment may not be the most appropriate approach towards kundalini symptomatology. He does mention a few circumstances (mainly involving psychotic ideation) where he finds drug treatment to be appropriate, but he prefers to handle Kundalini episodes with as little physiological intervention, and drug intervention, as possible.

On the other hand, Sovatsky believes that it is important to differentiate between Kundalini as a yogic energy term (and as a marker for Kundalini awakening) and the symptoms of different preliminary yogic processes or pranic imbalances. According to this view, many reported Kundalini phenomena may rather be signs of the precursor energetic state of pranotthana. The difference between pranotthana and Kundalini is also noticed by other commentators, such as Bynum. A similar observation is also mentioned by Greyson, who refers to commentators who believe that Kundalini symptomatology is a less profound effect of bioenergy or prana. Sovatsky also notes that: kundalini has become a catch word at this early time in its entry in American culture... and attracts those with unspecified, chronic neurological/psychiatric complaints in search of an explanation for their symptoms; the use in the West of Gopi Krishna's problematic kundalini experiences as a standard giving the awakening a reputation as more dangerous than it is.

The field of Transpersonal Psychology describe several phenomena that can be understood as a spiritual emergence, or as a spiritual emergency. In addition to mystical experiences, near-death experience, "shamanistic initiatory crisis", and "psychic opening", the authors mention kundalini awakening: "a complex physio-psycho-spiritual transformative process described in the Yogic tradition". If there is an uncontrolled emergence of spiritual phenomena, causing a significant disruption in a persons daily life and daily functioning, then we may speak of a spiritual problem. Spiritual problems have been discussed in relation to the DSM-IV diagnostic category "Religious or Spiritual Problem".

According to Turner and his associates, religious and spiritual experiences, when deemed as problems "need to be subjected to more research to better understand their prevalence, clinical presentation, predisposing intrapsychic and interpersonal factors, outcome, relationship to the life cycle, and ethnic factors. Although there is a wealth of clinical literature on these problems, the clinical research on religious and spiritual problems is minimal, with the exception of the many well-designed studies on NDE (Near-Death Experiences) They indicate in the article their hope that increasing research and an openness to alternative cultural narratives, among the authors of DSM-IV, "will help reverse the predicaments surrounding psychiatry's treatment of religious and spiritual issues, i.e. "occasional, devastating misdiagnosis; not infrequent mistreatment; an increasingly poor reputation; inadequate research and theory; and a limitation of psychiatrists' own personal development".