Modern psychology maintains that individuals experiencing symptoms associated with non-ordinary state of consciousness such as hallucinations, disorganized thoughts, and derangement of personality suffers from a pathological condition known as psychosis.
However, spiritual literature abounds with examples of individuals experiencing these psychotic-like symptoms; for example, Apostle Paul, as described in Acts 9, experienced a blinding light and the “voice of god” that drove him to his knees while on the road to Damascus. Similarly, Mohammed experienced hallucinations while fasting and praying in a cave.
But, instead of medicating or hospitalizing these “psychotic” spiritual leaders of the past, we revere their words and deeds, hoping to awaken our spirituality.
Psychosis
Published by the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), defines psychosis as a mental disorder characterized by a variety of symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and grossly disorganized behavior.
Monika Goretzki suggests in her PhD dissertation, “The Differentiation of Psychosis and Spiritual Emergency,” that modern psychiatry views psychosis as a disease to be cured, often relying on pharmaceutical intervention.
Citing Richard Bentall, Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature, Goretzki maintains that, to date, researchers fail to link psychosis to any biological or genetic cause. In fact, often times, psychotic symptoms persist even after medical intervention purportedly cured the underlying cause.
Yet, western medicine persists on treating non-ordinary states of consciousness as pathology instead of a possible sign of spiritual awakening.
Multi-layers of Consciousness
Transpersonal psychology views consciousness not as one dimensional, but instead, consisting of various levels of awareness. Accordingly, they realize the importance of maintaining a consensus state of consciousness in order to survive in the material world. Nevertheless, this “normal” level of consciousness exists as a restrictive state that blocks other more spiritual levels of unlimited potential.
Some individuals involuntarily contact these other levels of consciousness due to a traumatic life event such as an accident or the death of a significant other; at times, drug and alcohol abuse stimulate a non-ordinary state of consciousness.
Yet others, by engaging in spiritual practices such as yoga, qigong and meditation, inadvertently, contact various levels of consciousness by awakening kundalini energy.
Kundalini Awakening
Hindu, vedic, and tantric texts describe kundalini as a sleeping serpent coiled around the base of the human spine. When awakened, kundalini moves up the spine, interacting and innervating the seven major subtle energy centers known as chakras.
Chakras represent discrete levels of consciousness. When activated, an individual can experience altered state of consciousness related to the corresponding chakra.
John Nelson M.D., Healing the Split, describes chakras as “archetypes, comprehensive themes around which human life revolves, centers that create unique modes of experience, discrete stages of consciousness that guide spiritual growth throughout life.”
As kundalini flows into the various chakras, this energy shift can sometimes create psychotic-like symptoms, especially delusions and hallucinations.
In the book Kundalini Rising: Exploring the Energy of Awakening, David Lukoff suggests in his essay “Kundalini Awakening,” that during his kundalini awakening, he “spent two months convinced that I was a reincarnation of Buddha and Christ, and wrote a forty-seven-page holy book to unite the world around a new universal religion that I would create.”
Gopi Krishna, in the article posted by the Kundalini Research Foundation, “Proposal for a Scientific Investigation into the Biological Mechanism Behind Human Evolution,” describes his experience with kundalini energy: "After my first experience (with Kundalini), I oscillated between life and death, sanity and insanity, for nearly twelve years and experienced the indescribable ecstasies of the mystics on the one hand and the agonies of the mentally afflicted on the other."
Spiritual Awakening or Psychosis
What is the difference between a psychotic individual from one experiencing psychotic-like symptoms due to the awakening of kundalini?
According to the discussion paper by Dr. Patte Randal and Dr. Nick Argyle, “Spiritual Emergency—a Useful Explanatory Model?” non-psychotic individuals that experience altered states of consciousness are usually more open to exploring and discussing the experience. In addition, the content of the hallucinations usually revolves around “spiritual themes, including sequences of psychological death and rebirth, encounters with mythological beings, feelings of oneness and other similar motives.”
Goretzki, citing Jackson, “Psychotic and Spiritual Experience: A Case study Comparison,” points out that non-psychotics experience socially accepted content whereas the psychotic experienced idiosyncratic, bizarre and alienating content.
In addition, even though both groups expressed a divine calling, the non-psychotic group expressed “humility and recognition of personal fallibility, while the psychotic group expressed themes of grandiosity and a sense of infallibility.”
Lukoff suggests that the difference between the two is not necessarily the content of the hallucination, but the willingness of the non-psychotic person to objectively discuss the content while the chronic psychotic individual will embellish the account with his self-aggrandizing statements.
“The non-psychotic person clearly acknowledges the extraordinary and unbelievable nature of his experience.”
Likewise, Bonnie Greenwell, Kundalini Rising, states in her essay, “Kundalini: The role of Life-Force Energy in Self-Realization,” that if a person “had presented me with a description of an awakening experience, if he did exercises such as meditation, yoga, or a martial art regularly, or if he experienced strong meditative states where he went beyond concentration into stillness or a sense of unity, then I would be more likely to consider it Kundalini.”
Curse or Blessing
Those that undergo psychotic episodes due to their spiritual emergence usually awaken to a new, positive life-changing perspective while those crippled by chronic psychosis often fall prey to ascending destructive behaviors.
According to Lukoff in the 1985 Journal of Transpersonal Psychology article “The Diagnosis of Mystical Experiences with Psychotic Features,” non-psychotic individuals get well and then they “get better than they ever were.” Lukuff refers to these as psychotic episodes with growth potential--as long as the individuals have the opportunity to “express and integrate the experience in a safe environment.”
Emma Bragdon warns in A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems, that an individual can experience difficulty integrating the kundalini experience if the “family, friends or helping professionals of a person having the experience see the phenomena in terms of psychopathological symptoms which have no possibility of being positive.”
However, for those receiving support and guidance, kundalini can provide the opportunity for spiritual growth.
In the essay by Andrew Newberg MD, “The Yogic Brain,” Kundalini Rising, he suggests that those able to “suffer through their physical and emotional upheaval due to their spiritual awakening reported a “greater sense of meaning and purpose in life, better interpersonal relationships, and improved perspective on their jobs and life goals.”
In other words, transpersonal psychologists warn of the dangers for unsuspecting individuals experiencing kundalini, but point out that given the proper guidance and support, this experience can be a positive life-changing event.
C.G. Jung wrote, Psychological Commentary on Kundalini Yoga, that when kundalini awakens, “moving out of her mere potentiality, you necessarily start a world which is totally different from our world: it is a world of eternity.”
Sources
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa et al., Kundalini Rising: Exploring the Energy of Awakening. Canada: Sounds True, Inc. 2009
John Nelson, Healing the Split. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1994
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used for diagnosis or to guide treatment without the opinion of a health professional. Any reader who is concerned about his or her health should contact a doctor for advice.
Gregory Rubino - null
