What Is Kundalini? Understanding the Ancient Concept Beyond Popular Myths

Summary: Kundalini is not a power to be acquired or a sensation to be chased. In the classical Tantric texts, she is the divine energy (shakti) that lies coiled at the base of the spine—the same energy that pervades the universe, present in every living being . The popular image of a serpent rising through seven chakras owes more to a 1918 English translation than to the fullness of the tradition . The goal is not the experience of energy but the recognition of union—Shiva and Shakti, awareness and its power, meeting at the crown . Modern research documents the phenomenon, including its physical intensity and its potential to be confused with psychopathology . The myths obscure a subtler truth: Kundalini is not something you get. It is something you already are.

Key Points:

• Kundalini is the individual reflection of a cosmic power (parashakti) that creates and pervades the universe, resting coiled in the muladhara at the base of the spine
• The six-chakra model popularized by Arthur Avalon’s 1918 translation is one version among many; earlier texts list varying numbers and locations of energy centers
• The tradition’s goal is not energy experience but union—the ascent of Shakti to the crown, where she meets Shiva, dissolving dualistic perception
• Awakening can be spontaneous or induced, and can produce intense physical sensations—trembling, heat, involuntary movements—that are not necessarily pathological
• The Upanishadic criterion is not whether kundalini has risen but whether “I-ness” arises; even a risen kundalini can feed the ego
• Medical literature notes that Kundalini-like experiences can mimic mania or psychosis, and advanced practices should be undertaken with expert guidance

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The Coiled One at the Root

The Sanskrit word kundalini means “she who is coiled.” The image is precise: a serpent, three and a half times coiled around the linga at the base of the spine, sleeping in the muladhara chakra . She is not a metaphor for a psychological state. She is the divine feminine—Shakti—the power that manifests the universe.

The Saradatilaka Tantra, an eleventh-century text, describes her as both macrocosmic and microcosmic. She is “the omnipresent consciousness assuming the form of the universe,” beyond space and time, present in her pristine purity within all beings. And she is also “eternally present in the entire universe, where she lies coiled up inside the muladhara of all living creatures, dazzling like a flash of lightning” .

The double location is the key. Kundalini is not a personal possession. She is the same power that generates the cosmos, appearing within the body as the potential for liberation. The microcosm mirrors the macrocosm. The serpent at the base of the spine is the universe at the base of the self.

The Myth of the Seven Chakras

Most modern accounts of Kundalini describe a serpent rising through seven chakras, from the base of the spine to the crown. This model is not wrong, but it is not the only one, and its dominance is recent.

A Brill study on the history of Kundalini explains that earlier yogic and Tantric literature contains “various lists with a wide array of different numbers and locations of the cakras, ranging from four to five to eleven to twenty-four or more” . The six-chakra model with a seventh thousand-petaled lotus at the crown became standard only after Arthur Avalon’s The Serpent Power was published in 1918. Avalon was a pseudonym for Sir John Woodroffe, a British High Court judge, and the Indian scholars who assisted him .

This is not a debunking. It is a clarification. The tradition has never had a single “authentic” model of Kundalini. A 2025 book on the subject states it plainly: there has “never been one single ‘authentic’ model of Kuṇḍalinī but a multiplicity of visions” . The popular image is one vision among many—powerful, influential, and incomplete.

What Awakening Is For

The popular imagination treats Kundalini awakening as an experience to be sought—energy rushing up the spine, lights, sounds, bliss. The classical texts describe something more demanding.

The goal is union. The Sat-cakra-nirnaya describes the energy first awakened and then led upward through the central channel, piercing each chakra, until it arrives at the sahasrara, the thousand-petaled lotus at the crown. There, Shakti meets Shiva. The dualistic perception that separated the divine feminine from the divine masculine, the world from its source, collapses .

The ascent is not an achievement. It is a return. The energy was always there, coiled and dormant. The practice does not create it. It removes the obstacles that kept it sleeping.

The Body’s Response

The tradition is unusually honest about what awakening can do to the body.

A study of Kundalini in the context of spiritual emergencies describes the physical phenomena with clinical precision: “trembling and shaking of various parts of the body,” sometimes simulating convulsions; involuntary movements “similar to Hatha Yoga exercises”; systematic breathing “similar to Pranayama exercises”; palpitations; sensations of burning or electricity moving along the spine; depersonalization, in which “the person’s consciousness is dissociated from the acting self” .

The same source notes that “there is no fear, but a calm and intoxicating bliss” that can block sensory input and simulate a trance. But the intensity is real. The experience is not a gentle awakening. It is a reorganization of the body-mind at a level that can be overwhelming.

A 2020 case series in Asian Journal of Psychiatry documented patients who developed manic and psychotic symptoms after practicing Kundalini yoga. The authors are careful: “Kundalini awakening can sometimes mimic mental illness,” making it difficult for clinicians to distinguish between them. They emphasize that advanced yogic practices “should not be performed properly without necessary precautions and preparations, under the guidance of an expert” .

The tradition would not disagree. The texts that describe Kundalini also describe the need for a qualified teacher, ethical preparation, and patience. The serpent is not a toy.

The Criterion the Popular Myths Forget

The most important correction to the popular understanding comes from the Upanishadic tradition itself, as interpreted by Osho in a commentary on the Upanishads.

The seers, Osho notes, do not say that the ultimate knowing is the vision of God, or the opening of all chakras, or the awakening of Kundalini, or the blooming of the thousand-petaled lotus. They say something far simpler and far more demanding: the criterion is that “no ‘I-ness’ arises” .

Even Kundalini creates arousal of the ego. The seeker feels that now they are not ordinary, that their kundalini has risen, that they have achieved something. Osho’s reading is blunt: “Whatever creates ‘I’ is still out of ignorance, no matter what beautiful names you go on giving it.” A person sitting in a shop whose kundalini has not awakened but whose ego does not arise has reached the ultimate state. A yogi on a Himalayan peak whose ego is as high as the mountain has not .

This is not a rejection of Kundalini practice. It is a reorientation. The energy is real. The experiences are real. But they are not the goal. The goal is the dissolution of the one who would claim them.

What Kundalini Actually Is

The question “What is Kundalini?” has an answer that resists the usual form of answers.

Kundalini is not a force you acquire. She is the power that you already are, coiled at the base of your being, waiting to be recognized. The practices do not create her. They remove what obscures her. The ascent is not a journey to somewhere else. It is the return of the energy to its source, and the recognition that the source was never absent.

The myths—the serpent, the chakras, the rising energy—are pointers. They are useful. They have helped generations of seekers orient themselves. But they are not the destination. The destination is the meeting of Shiva and Shakti, awareness and its power, in the place where the one who was seeking is no longer separate from what was sought.

The serpent was always there. She was only sleeping.

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Medical Disclaimer: This article is for educational and philosophical purposes only and does not constitute medical or mental health advice. The concepts discussed are drawn from classical Tantric and yogic texts and from medical literature on spiritual emergencies. Kundalini-like experiences can be intense and can mimic symptoms of psychiatric or neurological conditions. Advanced yogic practices should be undertaken with the guidance of a qualified teacher and, where appropriate, a licensed healthcare provider. If you are experiencing disturbing physical or mental symptoms, please consult a medical professional.

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References:

_{Brill | https://brill.com/downloadpdf/display/book/9789004736221/BP000020.pdf
Internet Archive | https://archive.org/download/spirituality-psychopathology-and-genius-leonardo-r.-mazzini/Spirituality%20Psychopathology%20and%20Genius%20-%20Leonardo%20R.%20Mazzini.pdf
OSHO | https://www.osho.com/osho-online-library/osho-talks/awakening-upanishads-kundalini-25917cf2-1db
ScienceDirect | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1744388120311609
De Gruyter Brill | https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.7312/bork21252/html}