TheDiddleyMan

I posted this question (without some of the material in this post) in Science and Skepticism but got little response (though thanks to those who did )

I was reading up a yoga and various Asian or Middle Eastern practices and came across something called the kundalini syndrome. Does anybody know anything about this? Apparently some people practicing yoga and other such practices have almost psychotic episodes. What is the scientific explanation? Why does it happen?

Kevin

Sturmrabe

actaully Mahaayaana is involed with it... you should check my "Buddhist requied reading list" post.. those books do touch on it... but only after MUCH progression to get to it, there is no quick road to enlightenment

0

I am a student of Hatha and Triki Yoga, practicing the yoga artform of "Dynamic Stillness." I am not a Swami nor a teacher, but this is my understanding of the topic:

Kundalini Syndrome is something that occurs when a person engages in yoga and meditation without going through the proper systems first. There are stages to meditation, just as there are stages in any exercise regiment you undertake.

It is unwise to run for miles when you haven't properly stretched your muscles. The same goes from practicing yoga and meditation without preparing the body first. If a person is digesting a very unhealthy diet with lots of caffine and sodium particularly, doing yoga and meditation will achieve a high of sorts. The problem is, this meditation because drug-like in that you crash afterwards rather than feeling energized mainly due to the other substances in your system. If yoga and meditation are going to be done, a healthier diet is suggested with less chemicals/addictives that make a person prone to mood changes and physical digestion problems. If your metabolism is all screwed up because you haven't learned to eat right, that physical discomfort will carry over into your meditation, cause loss of focus, and an inability to properly refocus your attention on the world around you once the meditation session is over.


Meditation and yoga properly done revitalizes a person, enables you to breathe easier, move better, be more efficient, calm and less prone to distraction. People that do both as one does an occasional joint will experience sometimes vivid hallucinations, swift mood changes, physical problems such as stomach acid, headaches, severe muscle soreness, and what I call "space out," which makes the person like....a heavy marijuana user in that sentences are stilted, thoughts half formed...just not together.

A person that is seeking treatment for a severe psychological disorder should not do meditation or yoga for extended periods of time without a teacher. Such people are prone to possibly making their conditions worse. However, when I began serious yoga and furthering my meditative states, I was suffering from Panic & Anxiety disorder. Simply learning how to breathe properly was enough to calm me down. I was able to wean myself off without help from Zoloft, lose 40lbs, and finish up therapy will no ill reprecussions.

This is at heart of what you are asking: We are what we meditate on. If I am going to sit down and meditate on what a horrible person I am, odds are the meditative state I attain will be a negative one. Likewise for meditation on death, destruction and other negative images/emotions. This doesn't cleanse the body or the mind, but instead poisons it. The objective is to purify oneself and attain peace through constant dedication to the art of honing body and mind.

So there is discipline necessary to keep a person from developing an influx of kundalini energy while meditating on negatives; it can beget horrible psychotic experiences, breathing problems and vivid hallucinations. Basically, your energy becomes stuck at certain chakra points rather than raising to the crown. Doing chakra exercises before meditation can help this because it gets you focused on keeping energy directed at those chakra points and raising it throughout the body rather than keeping it locked in the lower regions of the body (which wreck the most havok in terms of negative reactions to meditation).

So yes, I believe that this syndrome is real. It has very real consequences, particularly for those that believe that meditation is a state to fool around with rather than take seriously.

I don't know if this is the answer you were looking for, but I gave it my best shot. Not exactly a scientific definition, but this is what I've learned from experience.

My two cents.
Tangie

Sturmrabe

WOW! great explanation! it makes perfect sense! (well to anyone who knows anything about the way Kundalini meditation works)

one of the things that Yoga and Buddhism take into account that most ofther spiritual systems to not is the effect of the physical on the spiritual (diet, excersize, etc) and one of the reasons i have always found it more pragmatic...

i tried to go all out but the smeel of cooking bratwursts and my inborn desire to fight or die for hearth and home brought me back to the Aesir, but i have always had the utmost respect for the "higher chakra" beliefs