I started doing the TRE (Trauma Release) technique a few days ago; which is mostly deliberately inducing involuntary trembling. Now, on the second attempt, yesterday, my body went from the involuntary (but pleasant) trembling to shaking then to making these weird movements for well over an hour. Whole body contortions, first started with my head and neck, and moved on to my torso, and all my limbs, involved my hands/feet, fingers/toes, then my head and face, AND NONE OF THEM WERE CAUSED BY ME!

If I hadn't read about Kundalini in passing in the past, and heard about spontaneous postures, I would have screamed and ran off to find an exorcist right after!!!!! This must be the strangest experience I've had in a while: my body seemed to be operating with its own intelligence, quite independently of me! (Well, my 'usual' me).

I'm not sure why the TRE would cause it; I've been reading about it since yesterday and this does not seem typical. Only the trembling and shaking, maybe movements from side to side. But I was doing these crazy things, with a lot of strength too!! Best I can say is it seemed to me I was posing and moving like all sorts of animals, then freezing there for a moment, before changing my pose or relaxing. At one point I was so twisted up, it was like my limbs and body were trying to do circus acts or something.

I'm not sure what the point was to be honest. I've noted something in my back (emotional pain plus back tensions) for a while and I've been trying to heal it using somatic experiencing; Just 'going in' to the pain and trying not to shut down/run away. I started doing it after coming across Peter Levine's work on trauma in the body. It is painful and can be scary but freeing. But this particular pain in my back had been too terrifying, so I started watching it with loving non-judgment (much as I could handle). So I'm not sure if the weird postures yesterday were trying to aid that. To me, a lot of them (not all) looked like they were targeting my back/spine for extreme stretching.

EDIT// I should also clarify that it went on for well over an hour (closer to two) and I eventually thought I should stop it (was exhausted by then!) and then just consciously shut it down. But later, I still experienced tiny bits of it during the day, and when I did a visualization at night. I also feel the effects of the movement today (the fatigue!!) in my neck/lower back of my head.

I should also say, I've done some some of those weird movements on my own for a few months now (since I started somatic experiencing and some Metta and Vipassana observing, around January) but that was more comparable to a need to scratch an itch inside/stretch, you know? I was feeling the need to do those things with my hands and stretch my back, to feel better due to the emotional "trauma points" inside, but it was like an impulse, sort of like the impulse to yawn/stretch. You're still doing it even if it's to follow an impulse/need. (Except for the face/mouth, which, when I would focuss on the inner itches/pains, would do the weird face things as a nerve thing, I guess).

Yesterday was something else, though! No impulse/need- Just the body acting like an invisible marionette was behind the whole thing, only it didn't feel 'evil' and I could still feel/experience my body the whole time, though I wasn't telling it what to do! Just observing it in utter amazement the whole time and realizing that I really do have much less control over my body than I typically take for granted.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: St. Rubia,

Hi, St. Rubia, nice to see you again. As you know, I’m not a kundalini expert, but I believe these spontaneous movements are called “kundalini kriyas” or just “kriyas” for short. Here is a page Google brought up for me: https://ourlightbody.com/index...are-kundalini-kriyas

UPDATE!!!Thank you, Derek! That's informative. I guess this is a good month to finally get both Phil's books on Kundalini, just in case! I mean, I haven't felt any snake moving up my spine or anything but ya never know. Speaking of, I should do an update.

I experienced them again during visualization/meditation last evening, then again today while saying the Rosary as I sat at the edge of my bed. The ones that happened during Rosary were very pleasant! The body seemed to instinctively follow the sentiments of my prayer. When I was thinking of our Lady in a humble way, my body would form itself in a humble gesture: bend my head, as if I was bowing, and place my hands on top of each other, facing up (open palms) on my laps etc. The more humble the inner posture, the lower my body bent. When visualizing the Transfiguration, I had the thought of the Lord's face shining like the sun and my head instinctively faced up, open chest, towards the sun. On and on.

After the Rosary, I fell on my back on the bed flat, hands out, feet still on the ground, then body started dancing along spine and legs, a bit like a snake-dance, and legs starts going into one another and my hand started dancing a bit like those traditional dancing girls in the East, with the hands and fingers and everything. But the whole time I felt a warm energy all along my spine. Very pleasant. Anyway, inside, I decided to surrender the whole thing to God (was relating it to other life problems). I now no longer feel the fatigue in my neck; it's all really nice.

Another weird one is in my head. I mean INSIDE my head. All around the head. A kind of pleasant, moving pressure/self-massage? Anyway, that's all I have for an update.

I have not felt anything in the base of my spine, so I doubt it's Kundalini. I read around found another related phenomenon they call pranotthana. Apparently, it's prana/energy work but without Kundalini. Kundalini means something very specific.

What's happening to me seems to be completion (or taking it to another level) of the healing work I deliberately began with somatic experiencing (and observing) to heal myself psychologically, several months ago. That either triggered this pranotthana, or the pranotthana is a grace granted me perhaps in answer to my strong prayer/desire to heal emotionally.

St. Rubia, I echo Derek's welcome, and thank you for your sharing.

First: my books do not speak about a snake going up the spine. Just had to get that out of the way.

As you'll note in my book on The Kundalini Process, I don't really consider K a type of energy. It's simply the movement of bios, chi, prana -- whatever term one uses for the bio-electricity that flows through our bodies. What K refers to is the movement of this energy unto cleansing the subtle energy channels that flow through our tissues to sustain higher, contemplative states of consciousness, which you seem to be experiencing. But energy movements in the body can be experienced for other reasons as well -- massage, for example, or therapies like Somatic Experience and EMDR (my wife is a psychotherapist who uses both and sees these energy movements all the time). Energy work such as you've had can be a complement to contemplative consciousness, and it sounds like that's what's going on.

As Derek noted, these energy movements you've described are called kriyas. They eventually do come to pass. I talk about some that I've experienced in my first book on K; I haven't had them for years.

Keep us posted, and enjoy the ride!

Thanks, Phil! I was kidding about the snake, ha ha! I just got the books (epub); but I notice there's an online course too: Would you recommend it too or is it the same stuff as in the books?

Also, a question. It's really quite embarrassing to ask, and I apologize if it makes you as uncomfortable to read as it makes me to write it! But...does this type of thing sometimes get 'stuck' in the lower spine and make you feel like you're having a weird constipation? The urge to move it up or down and out is intense! The last kriya were happening here, shaking my behind vigorously and I think it was trying to get rid of that stuck feeling.

It kept alternating between shaking/dancing my bottom/lower spine + legs (with sweetness felt in the legs! Even in the toes...so strange); and my head massage/pressure thing + smooth rolling of the head on neck, with sweetness felt in my face/head especially the forehead. So it would do that in the head for a moment and stop, then a while later, the bottom would start, then stop; then back to the head. Etc etc.

Anyway, just had to ask! Who knows, maybe it really was just constipation!

They've slowed down a bit now, by the way; at least today: so I don't know if this was only a temporary thing or if it'll return again. I do feel a very faint warmth and sweetness in my forehead, and sometimes in my hands and I've done a few hand/finger freezing things and a few shoulder twitches but that's it.

By the way, word of caution to anyone reading! Sometimes going online will scare you! Some pple out there think this is demonic and that kind of fear sometimes gets into my head even though I don't feel this is evil. I get the need to ask, "Am I being deceived?"

Oh no! Now the 'constipation' feeling has moved a little 'up' but to the side and is very uncomfortable! Basically my right lower back plus sitting area; I feel like I must sit onesidely to be comfortable.

St. Rubia, all sorts of "ordeals" can and do happen, though I've never had the "constipation" experience you're describing. When the energy encounters constrictions and blockages, it can feel intense and uncomfortable in that place, with occasional "breakthroughs" until the area is purified. The kriyas actually help to move things along. Sometimes massage and chiropractic work can help, too.

I don't know what online course you mean. I do have an audio series on the chakra system, but it's not so focused on the k process like the books are. I am planning to do a video series on kundalini sometime in the near future. I wanted to begin by doing one on the Holy Spirit, and that was accomplished last summer.
See http://shalomplace.com/inetmin

Notice how your attention interacts with the energy, and how you can influence it with your attention and will. It's natural to want to help "push" it this way or that, but far better to be "with" it in open and acceptance, even welcoming it, allowing it to unfold "within" your attention rather than taking a stance toward it as an extraneous force. It is, after all, your energy, part of who you are, and even though the Ego seems external to it, the larger Self from which the Ego emerges is not. You might think of K as the energy of the deep Self, which is awakening and extending its influence throughout your body-psyche-spirit system. Or course, ask Christ and his Spirit to be with you and show you how to co-operate with the process.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil:
It is, after all, your energy, part of who you are, and even though the Ego seems external to it, the larger Self from which the Ego emerges is not. You might think of K as the energy of the deep Self, which is awakening and extending its influence throughout your body-psyche-spirit system.

Ah, that makes so much sense, even though I don’t have the practical experience you guys do.

Hey, guys. It's been a minute. I have a thousand updates but I can't list all of them. My body movements have not often happened in the same 'full swing' sense as I reported here, but I've heard them in mild form since my last post. Mostly they are jerks or the need to move limbs in a more flowy/dance/sifter manner.

Since around February 23rd, this year, the jerks have become very rare. I started doing a simple two-minute visualization I found in a book by Tara Springett called 5-minute miracles. She calls the practice, 'higher consciousness healing.' I bought it years ago but couldn't read/finish then remembered it and read it earlier this year and it was exactly what I needed: a simple way to feel better quickly. It's a kind of Metta practice mixed with visualization. I'll explain how it goes briefly, in the next post.

This practice, much to my amazement has melted a very deep anxiety that has been disturbing me for a year. I don't know if Kundalini messes with menstrual cycles, I read around and found nothing. But mine has been going haywire which scared me into thinking I'm approaching menopause at 35/6. It's a big scare because I don't yet have kids of my own and I really want some! Or maybe just one. It's turned into such an ordeal that every month I get anxious for a week/two waiting to see if it'll stop. It's mental torture.

Anyway, the anxiety seems to have melted 80% of the way, and I got back to saying my rosary and giving my situation to God. I then moved on to doing the practice on my deep anger then realized there was a deep self-loathing underneath it, and now I'm onto a deep sadness/grief underneath the self-loathing.

I mentioned before that I had been aware of a pain in my upper back for a while and had wanted to heal it. Its how I got into somatic experiencing that I think triggered this K stuff, along with the TRE I did. I now know that pain which was untouchable before was a mix of all this stuff in layers. I feel so much better! For a year now I've felt like my emotions were too powerful to control and for the first time I feel like they are integrating and calming down.

This the practice I was talking about: I do it for two minutes.

1) You define your problem in terms of feelings: So the formula is always, I suffer from feeling (sad, scared, angry/mad) about problem X.

2) You note where in the body the feeling is, and rate the level of suffering on a scale of 1 to 10 for tracking progress later.

3) You visualize your higher self on a mountain/hill. Then (
i) ask it to show your life path on that hill towards it; You write down the image that pops up, of a road/way/stair/rail etc.
(ii) Ask to be shown where you are on the life-path. Write what you see.
(iii) Ask to be shown what you are doing on your life-path when you suffer from feeling X about problem Y. The whole thing is very intuitive and makes immediate sense when you interpret it.

(4) You ask the Higher Self to give you a healing symbol to overcome your suffering from feeling X about situation Y. Then a symbol pops up, a pleasant one of something usually pretty (for me, flowers, gems, butterflies etc) with vivid colour; You thank your higher self.

(5) For two minutes: You visualize yourself in a protective bubble, with the symbol in your heart, and then breathe deeply in and out; with the outbreath, visualize the symbol blowing its colour into your body and around you, filling the bubble. -You do the Metta wishes, 'May I be well, happy etc'.
-You also blow it into the specific area of the body associated with the suffering.
-If the problem involves other people, you visualize them in their own bubbles and fill them with the colour and wish then the same (happiness, wellness etc).

Updates// My experience is so mild and slow compared to the stories I read about that I'm wondering if it's something else altogether with some mild overlaps with Kundalini.

So far, for about a year my body has been making the strange movements from time to time,

plus weird massages inside my skull and lower spine area and other body parts from time to time,

plus a weird feeling of (sorry to say) sexual feelings totally unprovoked by me, like a little ball of heat that's now in my higher womb (what they call the sacral chakra).

A few weeks ago I felt energy go through my skull. But there was no "pop" like I've seen described, and no rush of energy from my root/sacral to my skull. I just had a pressure below my neck that spread into my head then at some point, it just went through the skull as if there was a hole that had opened like a balloon. It felt more like relief than a pop or burst through. Then it "poured" a cool breeze over my head/face. Since then, I feel a menthol-like feeling in my neck, head, neck, [U]especially[U/] throat, and ears. Like I've sucked on one of those sore throat lozenges, but more penetrating. And in the last few days, I feel the cool breeze more and more. It's like an invisible person is literally blowing air into/over my face, into my nostrils, neck, ears. It's very weird but not unpleasant.

I have:
-Seen no strange lights; heard no strange sounds of rushing water/birds etc
-While some months ago I felt a lot of pleasant/blissful massages into that area called "the third eyes" none of it resulted in those paranormal things I've seen people mention. I just got a nice invisible massage; that's all.
-I haven't even had a "oneness" experience, except the one that followed immediately after my first experience (spontaneous body stuff) last year; It was pleasant and I was in love with the cosmos around me for about a week, feeling that this was the meaning of "paradise" and losing, for hours/days, the fear of death. But since then, nothing.

So far, the spontaneous movements seem about the only "Kundalini-like" experience I've had.

Edit!! As if on cue, as I was reading over this post, the breeze started on/in my left ear. Like there's a cool wind, blowing, except I'm in a house, with closed windows/doors, at 7.30 pm. I'm pretty sure there's no fan/wind. It's quite bizarre. Still, nothing like the stuff I've seen described by people with Kundalini. They mention INTENSE heat, intense cold, and electricity. the feeling in my sacral feels, usually, like a tiny, tiny, prick, so that might be closer to "electric" I guess, and I've had a few stinging things on my skin, but that's it. I'm almost disappointed, ha ha.

Charismatic Christians have involuntary movements as well. Being contemplative like you seem to be leads to that. I experienced electricity shooting through my body from Christian experiences well before I did with Kundalini. The effects on the muscles is the same in a sense, whether it is Kundalini, Holy Ghost, cold shivers, or conscious thought: they contract through electrical impulses from neurons. How exactly these various things trips the wire is probably somewhat of a mystery.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom E:
Charismatic Christians have involuntary movements as well. Being contemplative like you seem to be leads to that. I experienced electricity shooting through my body from Christian experiences well before I did with Kundalini. The effects on the muscles is the same in a sense, whether it is Kundalini, Holy Ghost, cold shivers, or conscious thought: they contract through electrical impulses from neurons. How exactly these various things trips the wire is probably somewhat of a mystery.

Thank you for your thoughts, Tom!

I wanted to report an update.

1) I have recently experienced a revival of experiential/felt faith. It's been very bleak for a few years and now that seems to be gone.
-But as I pray, more and more I experience this: Verbal prayer said mentally or thinking in what Catholics call discursive prayer is literally painful! My head hurts or I can't actually do it for more than a few sentences. This is strange because when I'm being creative, my mind is just fine.
-I'm finding I quite enjoy being at mass/listening to catholic spiritual speakers on youtube, unlike before (a few years now).

2) If this is kundalini, it has reached the point where I feel it hitting specific nervous centers (it seems they are to me) that might correspond to chakras: Crown, eye, the base of the throat (in the back), heart (in the back), sometimes stomach (front), sacral *front and back), root, underfoot and palms. This causes specific body movements, and it seems to me they are trying to push/help it upwards.

3) The old cramping on one side of the lower abdomen is now in my center spine-ish, and no longer painful. Quite the contrary, in fact. Which brings me to this next update:
-The movements of energy are not electricity-like for me, or heat, or cold, as I've read. They seem quite plainly nerve things. And I seem 'stimulated' from within, as it were.
-Sometimes this is fairly uncomfortable in an unpleasant way, my legs and feet twist/arch. But sometimes it feels like I'm being sexually stimulated!
-It used to be the lower areas (root and sacral) but now it's my heart (back of it) and increasingly, the base of the throat, eye/forehead, and even whole head too! It's weird to think of heart/head being sexually stimulated, I know. But it feels like the same thing happening down happens higher up.
-It was simpler before, but it's gotten to the point where I find myself sounding moans out loud, especially when my heart is affected. It's a bit like "too much" stimulation if you follow me. I want to say, "Stop, now, please."

4) I've been experiencing weird "expulsions" or need to rid myself of excess energy or negative energy from painful sensations and thoughts.
- There's been painful sensations/experiences/suffering, which is followed by belching (more lately) or most often, expelling phlegm/mucus which feels like it's generated from that area (back of the throat, back of heart, and solar front).
-There was a lot of emotional upheaval/rage before but it's calmed down. I catch myself projecting a lot. To the point where I've decided my "normal" waking experiencing is at least half-insane! My mind is scaringly good at making up things and then SEEING them! It makes me scared of humans a little bit, considering how much harm I (we) cause/can cause others while in these genuinely insane patterns.
-I am pursuing a thousand creative projects. Almost like creative energy wants to burst through. Actually, this was going on since mid-late 2018 or so, but now it's a bit clearer that it's not just a phase brought on by the professional crisis I then found myself dealing with.
-With my emotional stuff and other energetics, I feel the strong need to expel it physically, through walking and more lately, running. I also sense an inward, subtle guidance to push/not in doing/creating, like a yin and yang dance in self-care.
-With my feet feeling permanently stimulated, I've been drawn to the earth a lot. I feel called to walk barefoot, and ground myself with hands and feet as if I'm transmuting negative energy downward through a prostrating, lying flat, etc posture. Naturally, that leads me to make acts of surrender.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: St. Rubia,

Hi, St. Rubia, I haven't been on Shalom Place much recently and didn't see your post from a few days ago. It's been pretty quiet on SP, to the point that I don't check for messages very often.

I am reading a book titled Healing through Deliverance by Peter Horrobin. I don't particularly recommend the book, since it's quite long-winded. Anyway, on page 903 of my electronic edition, I came across this sentence:

"Unhealed and buried emotions are like food for the demonic, and if there is stored anger and emotional pain, release of this anger and pain will be necessary alongside the deliverance."

Back in April you were discovering stored emotions -- anxiety, anger, sadness, and self-loathing. In your July and October updates, you are more focused on physical sensations.

I wonder if I'm correct in saying that your attention has shifted from emotions to sensations. If so, what do you make of that change?