The Kundalini Effect and Contemplative Prayer<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
On a pro-contemplative spirituality web site, I came across the descriptions of those who had experienced the effect of contemplative prayer. Some of this is very disturbing and should be read with care:
 
I have been practicing Centering Prayer for 2 ½ years.… I began experiencing Kundalini-like symptoms three months after beginning the practice. They were quite intense at first. They have continued in various forms since then. Lately, I only experience them at the very beginning of prayer. I am not aware of any other moral manifestations. Father [Thomas] Keating [ long time contemplative supporter] advised me personally to ignore them if I could, and if they were too bothersome to "balance the energy" with physical exercise or a yoga practice.-<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Gary
 
I began to feel energy or electrical current rushes through my body, and some stomach muscle cramping. For the next few weeks, these sensations intensified, and bodily shaking/twitching began, lasting from several seconds to perhaps 5 or 10 minutes. A mild euphoria accompanied. I could willfully stop these sensations, but instead prayed fervently to Christ to help lead me away from them if they were not efficacious to his will.… After meditation, I am left with a tingly face and neck (sometimes arms) and a full or pressured feeling inside my crown. In recent weeks, I am getting more release as the energy eventually gently fizzes out of the top of my head.… Also, euphoric energy flows come [and go].-Richard
 
Other effects Richard described included:
• Body frequently vibrating.
• Energy from fingers or palms can be felt on face, arm or leg,-a buzzing cool/warm breeze.
• Energy ridges around the body.
• When people are close to me-even my back- as when shopping, I get a sense of a different energy field entering mine, and they all feel different.
• Bringing a palm within a foot from my heart chakra is like physically squeezing it, and can actually make me cry.
 
What these two men were experiencing is called Kundalini meditation or the Kundalini effect. Symptoms can include headaches, nausea, tingling sensation, and uncontrollable twitching. The Sanskrit word Kundalini means the curled one, and is also called Kundalini awakening or the awakening of the serpent. Practitioners describe it as a curled channel in the tailbone area. It can rise through the chakras (psychic centers situated along the spine from the tailbone to the top of the head), creating physical symptoms ranging from sensations of heat and tremors to involuntary laughing or crying, nausea, diarrhea or constipation, rigidity or limpness, and animal-like movements and sounds.
 
A variety of spiritual practices can bring on the Kundalini effect as described here from a pro Kundalini website in Sweden:
 
A Kundalini release can be triggered by erroneous meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, reiki, qigong healing, tantra, transcendental meditation and other eastern or new age spiritual exercises. When the Kundalini energy is rising through the chakras, it can cause big problems for the bodily and mental health. We have got hundreds of e-mails from people around the world who have been damaged by these artificial spiritual exercises.
 
Other Kundalini symptoms include:
• Burning hot or ice cold streams moving up the spine.
• Pains in varying locations throughout the body.
• Vibrations, unease, or cramps in legs and other parts of body.
• Fast pulse and increased metabolism.
• Disturbance in the breathing-and/or heart function.
• Sensitivity to sound, light, smell, and proximity of other people.
• Mystical/religious experiences.
• Parapsychological abilities.
• Persistent anxiety or anxiety attacks, confusion
• Insomnia, manic high spirits or deep depression. Energy loss.
• Impaired concentration and memory.
• Total isolation due to inability to communicate inner experiences out.
• Experiences of possession and poltergeist phenomena.
 
I mention these symptoms because they can happen in both Kundalini meditation and contemplative prayer meditation.
 
Cassandrah Batya, who as a Christian decided to practice contemplative meditation because she wanted to feel a closer relationship with God. However, the more she got into contemplative spirituality, the worse things got. Listen to excerpts of her candid and compelling testimony:*
My spiritual focus and prayer became less about Jesus, and more about mystical spiritual highs and insights. Contemplative spirituality became my drug. During prayer, a voice in the back of my head would tell me I was a witch. One night, my thumb/hand began to shake on its own during prayer. By nature, I am a kind and loving person and have been told such, but I started to have hateful and venomous mood swings and became at moments verbally abusive to my loved ones. I was surprised at my own behavior and language.
 
Eventually she realized she had entered a dangerous demonic realm. After conducting her own research she discovered the symptoms she experienced were the same as the Kundalini effect. Immediately, she began praying for guidance:
I repented and renounced all contemplative practices, inner/esoteric spirituality, and mysticism. Actually, I wept aloud, fell on my knees, and begged God's forgiveness. I threw out all books and music that dealt with mystics, mysticism, and esoteric/inner/ contemplative spirituality and anything else related to it. I immediately knew I had done the right thing. The atmosphere in my home changed, and for the first time in a long time, when I prayed to God I felt a peace and joy in my heart, and not great fear or terror.
 
Does it not ever occur to proponents of contemplative prayer that there might be something wrong with this practice? Sadly, the answer is usually no.
 
Imagine a health food store that recommends arsenic as a healthy supplement and when they receive complaints from people describing stomach cramps, headaches and nausea they just tell their customers to ignore these things. Ridiculous you say? Right. But that is exactly what those experiencing the Kundalini effect are often told by their spiritual directors. And such advice is completely irresponsible.
 
* This portion of the testimony was used with permission of the author.