The Kundalini Process: A Christian Understanding
by Philip St. Romain
Paperback and digital editions; free sample

Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality
- by Philip St. Romain
Paperback and digital editions

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Kundalini process: Personal Reflections, Symptoms Login/Join
 
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An Interview with Philip St. Romain on kundalini energy and Christian spirituality

(interview by Jim and Tyra Arraj for their Christian Prayer and Contemplation forum newsletter)

In order to clarify the nature of the kundalini experience we talked to Philip St. Romain. After the publication of his book, Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality in 1991, he heard from people around the country, many of them Christians, who are trying to understand the nature of their own kundalini-like experiences.

Forum: Could you say something about your own kundalini experience?

Philip: All day and all night now, there is an energy pushing "upwards" in my system. Its course runs through the heart, which it fills with bliss and good-will toward all creation. From here it flows through the throat, then along the sides of the face, pushing through the ear pinnae, where the most extraordinary sensations of pressure and release are experienced at times. After pressing through the ears, its streams from both sides of the head converge in the middle of the brain, creating a most pleasant "knot" of pressure in the center of the forehead. A new way of seeing is possible from this center. When, for a number of possible reasons, the passageways through which the energy flows become blocked, there is pressure in this area, and a gnawing away by the energy until the block is removed. If I do not consciously cooperate with the "intent" of the energy to work through the block and flow freely, the pressure and pain become so intense that I eventually do cooperate. These are very real experiences to me, now a common occurrence in my everyday life. I have forgotten what it was like to live without this energy, its blocks, its gnawings and breakthroughs. To ignore the reality of this energy would be more difficult than to ignore the reality of my body. It is just that real!

Forum: Just what is kundalini energy?

Philip: It is easier to say what it is not than what it is. Quite frankly, I don't know what it is. What is feels like, however, is pure life energy, uncolored by emotion or passion. This life energy is of a strange quality, however. Unlike emotional energy, which I know most definitely belongs to me, the energy I have been describing does not seem to belong to me. There is an impersonal quality to it which at first seems quite strange, but later becomes most satisfying. In saying that it is impersonal, I do not wish to imply that it is anti-personal. It is not. It seems to be completely non-subjective, that is all. How to describe the reality of life energy that is neither personal nor antipersonal is most difficult.

Forum: What are some of the physical consequences of awakening this energy?

Philip: Here are some of the most basic ones:

1. Inner vision illuminated when the eyes are closed, especially during times of prayer and meditation. Visual background turning blue, purple, ultraviolet, gold, silver, or white, sometimes forming circular, amoeboid, or tunnel-like patterns.

2. Sensations of heat and/or cold in different parts of the body, especially the shoulders and the top of the head.

3. Tingling sensations in the brain, ears, forehead, spine, and other parts of the body. Feeling like an electrical current is shooting through these places, often snapping or popping through nerves.

4. Sensation of a warm, energized fluid slowly pushing its way around the brain and/or up the spine.

5. Perception of inner sounds -ringing, chirping, buzzing, ringing in the ears.

6. Strong compulsion to close eyes tightly, especially during quiet prayer.

7. Alteration of breathing patterns - sometimes slow and shallow (especially during meditation), short and choppy, or deep and smooth. Growing preference for abdominal breathing.

8. Sensations of electrical energy rippling through reproductive organs.

9. Sensations of gaseous bubbles arising from the area of the reproductive organs.

10. Compulsion to move facial muscles and bodily limbs in yoga-like postures.

11. Sense of an inner eye seeing with the two sensory eyes. Sense of warmth and strength emanating from the center of the forehead.

Forum: What about the psychological consequences?

Philip: The first is the healing of emotional pain. There is no longer a background of anxiety, shame, guilt, and resentment in my consciousness. With the healing of emotional pain has come a stabilizing of my moods.

The second major psychological consequence is the diminishing of my false self ego. Something of my self experience was once acutely attuned to the emotions of shame, anxiety, guilt, and resentment. This dimension of my self experience was inherently defensive and controlling, intent on making my life meaningful by doing the right kinds of things. It made me restless and desirous, robbing me of the beauty of the NOW. Since it was a compensation for emotional pain, this dimension of ego was lost when emotional pain was healed.

Forum: What is the goal of this process?

Philip: The healing of emotional pain, the diminishment of the false self ego, and the purification of the body are all beneficial. They are not the real goal of this energy process, however. The goal seems to be the awakening and embodiment of the true self. The consequences described above are prerequisites for this awakened embodiment.

Listed below are a few phrases from my journals which attempt to state some of the most characteristic features of the true self.

1. A direct, non-conceptual realization "That I am."

2. Non-interpretive attention, awake to the fact of self as the subject of attention (not the object, as is the ego.)

3. Being awake to myself prior to any thought, act of will, or movement of my consciousness. "Before I think I am, I am." Knowing this.

4. Knowing without a doubt that "I am here," looking out of my eyes.

5. Knowing that the "I who am" is one with all that is, and feeling this in the heart.

The body center in which the true self awakens is the center of the forehead, sometimes called the third eye in occult literature. When the energy flows freely into the third eye, the true self is realized. As the energy flows to the top of the head and beyond, the cosmic dimension of the true self is seen. Without making intellectual judgments, one can clearly see that there is a level from which all things arise, and all things are one at this level. Although the senses continue to perceive the distinct separateness of things, the intuition of oneness can be so strong as to eclipse the information of the senses. When the cosmic sense is strong and I gaze upon an object, I feel its existence in my heart as though it is somehow within me. This holds true even when gazing at people, although with people and higher animals, I am intuitively aware of the existence of another freedom separate from myself.

It is my belief that the realization of the true self is the goal of our human development. I see the energy process we have been talking about as directly related to this goal. Indeed, it may well be that this energy is none other than the energetic dimension of the true self, and that the awakening of this process signals the dawning of the true self.

Forum: If kundalini is such a central human reality, why is it that many people who appear integrated and devoted to the interior life don't seem to experience it?

Philip: This may be explained in a number of ways:

1. The energy has risen to the 4th or 5th chakra, but not much higher. They would certainly be moved at these levels to do many great works, but they would not be experiencing the fireworks that come with a fuller awakening.
2. They laid such a good foundation that the fully awakened energy was hardly noticeable to them.
3. They are moved by extraordinary graces to do these works, but it has not resulted in personal transformation. They have not integrated their own body-mind with these movements of the Spirit through them. As we know, some of our Catholic saints seem to be of this type: not much personal integration, but lots of willingness to be used by God.
4. The awakening has been so gradual that it was imperceptible.
5. Elements of all of the above, in combinations.
 
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