Kundalini: Be Cautious

A respected expert on kundalini comments on our article "The Day My Kundalini Woke Up."

By KURT KEUTZER

February 23, 2000 2:13 PM

For those with experience with kundalini, Mr. Yam's article The Day My Kundalini Woke Up is very good.

For those who don't, it reads to me a bit too much like:

"I read about a guy who nearly blew his head off while making model rockets without instruction. I was cautioned, but I decided to try it anyway. I shopped around for information on how to do it -- I'm not going to describe precisely where I found any of my instructions, or give any of the their proper context, I'm just going to relate them as I tried them. Here are the details of my experiments and how I got a model rocket to actually take off.''

I empathize with Mr. Yam's pragmatic approach, but I don't know how one could interpret this as anything other than a mildly cautioned invitation to try the same thing. Some may get the rocket off the ground. Some may damage themselves for the remainder of this life -- at least.

To give some context, I get an email once a week like this one:

"I am seeking more information for a close friend of mine... he became involved in a form of Kundalini yoga... He did achieve the raising of his Kundalini... Unfortunately, this produced in him a condition that has been diagnosed by Western doctors as schizophrenia... Are you aware of any resources that my friend may be able to use to help him heal?"

Even sadder messages come from the affected people themselves rambling on and on and on about their visions, terrors, etc., all of which started "when I picked up that book on kundalini''. We are far from a well-rounded account of the phenomenon. The email above came from somebody who thought he was going to reputable teachers.

Apparently he wasn't. We should all be cautious, but sensible.

Regarding your question, the responsibility of your article, I appreciate your dilemma. Responsibility is always an interesting question in spiritual matters. Can anyone else ever be responsible for our spiritual practice?

Nevertheless, I would simply pose the following question back to you: If one person on this planet reads Freddie Yam's article, repeats precisely his experiments as described, and has unpleasant and perhaps devastating results, then would you judge the article as being responsible?

Kind regards,
Prof. Kurt Keutzer
Kurt Keutzer's Website

Kundalini
Our main reference page on kundalini. Overview, links, book reviews.

The Day My Kundalini Woke Up
By Freddie Yam
The article to which the author of this letter is responding.

Kurt Keutzer's Website