In my experience, the vast majority Kundalini literature is focused on the classic “bottom-up” Kundalini rising, but it has been very enlightening for me learn about the “top-down” awakening, which might be seen as an alternative, but it in fact, it could be more accurate to see them as two parts of one thing.
I’m writing this blog in an attempt to shed more light on this. I don’t consider myself an expert (far from that), I’ve simply been curious about my own experience, and I want to share what I learned so far. It would be great to hear what others understand and have experienced themselves.
Trying to map my experience
When I first experienced my spontaneous Kundalini awakening, I didn’t have a name or any reference for what was happening, but after a few months I stumbled on the meaning of Kundalini and began to realise that my “symptoms” matched perfectly to this mystical, spiritual phenomenon. I was eager to understand what I was experiencing and began to research how the Kundalini process worked. But as I explored the information available, the descriptions of the process didn’t seem to match up to own energetic and psycho/spiritual experience very satisfactorily.
Classic (Bottom-Up) Kundalini Awakening
Most of the information I have found describes the Kundalini Shakti coiled at the base and when awakened, is said to rise from beneath the Muladhara chakra upwards through the central channel (Sushumna), purifying and integrating various energy centres (chakras) along the way. It involves a profound and comprehensive transformation of the individual's entire being, absorbing and transforming psychic structures. There are typically six different routes Kundalini can take through the subtle body and they all have different experiences associated with them (Joan Shivarpita Harrigan, 2006).
However, when I studied the six risings, it didn’t quite marry up to my energetic experience. Most often, I could feel energy rushing from the base of my spine directly into my head space, where it felt as though it was expanding my Sahasrara. My penial gland was very active, and I could feel it pumping hormones like serotonin into my head, I was full of bliss, my heart space was also opening; and the activity of energy seemed to have completed skipped all the lower chakras. I read a lot about all the different types of Kundalini rising and non-seemed to match up with my experience, so I sought out “expert” advice.
Miss Diagnosed - I was told by a very experienced guru from a respected lineage, that I had a Vajra rising, which is a “deflected rising”. It kind of matched my experience and I accepted the diagnosis given the apparent credibility of the guru. The Vajra rising is often seen as problematic, difficult and associated with strong sexual impulses (it rises up the same energy channel (nadi) as used when we experience a sexual orgasm).
A better diagnosis – about 18 months into my awakening process, I stumbled upon another Kundalini expert/consultant (see reference below: Shailaja Damaraju/The Kundalini Guide). I was struck by her comprehensive knowledge, she does a wonderful job of explaining so many aspects of Kundalini in her youtube videos. I contacted Shailaja and talked to her over zoom. She quickly told me that she believed I was experiencing a “Top-down” awakening, something she herself had experienced.
Top-Down Kundalini Awakening
Some may not classify a “top-down” awakening as a true Kundalini awakening, regardless, it’s a powerful, transformational, spiritual experience based on the flow of Shakti throughout the body.
Shailaja describes this occurring when Grace or Shakti or cosmic energy descends “from above”. Often described as a dense, electrically charged mist enveloping the body, starting from the head and moving downwards. It feels like a great blessing and is not painful. Activities that promote self-improvement, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion are said to attract this pranic energy from the universe.
Because the energy is descending top-down through the crown, it typically activates the pineal gland and heart first and this was exactly my experience. My spontaneous awakening happened at the end of a mediation session - I unexpectedly began thinking about my relationship with my mother and, in a nutshell, went from feeling broken-hearted to feeling engulfed by love. It felt as though my heart burst open and I was overcome with a sense of being loved, that I had always been loved, I only ever been loved and that in fact I was pure love. It was a very visceral, psychological, spiritual and physical experience for me that led into a long period of feeling blissful and often feeling ecstatically happy and free.
An Alchemical Process (cyclical contraction/expansion)
I’ve come to see the process as an ongoing evolution, involving expansive states and contraction phases, with each descent of grace bringing about a new phase of transformation.
According to Shailaja the Kundalini energy activates and alters various brain centres and integrates the left and right sides of the body. It’s working to clear out psychic baggage, helping individuals heal from past traumas and unnecessary beliefs, upgrading the nervous system, leading to enhanced intuition and often psychic abilities.
In my experience and from what I’ve read, in a top-down awakening Shakti is working through the chakras and rather than going one at a time, it can work through various areas that need to be purified at different times. This will happen many, many times over many years, so it’s a different to the classic Kundalini model where Kundalini works in sequence from the lower chakras upwards. I’ve certainly felt different chakra’s being cleared at different times and not in a “bottom-up” sequence.
The emotional and psychological effects are significant. During expansive phases, the decent of grace and the presence of Kundalini energy can feel very strong and intense, with people sometimes experiencing the “void” or samadhi states. During these periods we feel very connected to the divine, can have “peak” spiritual experiences and can be full of gratitude for our great blessings. I’ve often felt this very strong connection to the divine and I have had brief experiences of “unity consciousness”.
However, due to the alchemical nature of this process, there will also be times when the intense periods of connection subside, giving way to feelings of disconnection or longing. This can lead to periods of “spiritual depression”, when people may experience a kind of depression characterized by a deep longing or separation from the divine. I’ve come to learn that it’s important to embrace this cyclical, alchemical process and understand that periods of “depression” will pass. Clearing out trauma is all part of our expanding consciousness, but it can be psychologically very testing for us during these times.
Healing and Transformation: The Light Body
If you’re experiencing a top-down awakening, you will feel your light body building over time. This energy can be felt as liquid light or an airy, electrical mist enveloping the body. In my own experience it feels like an electrical energy throughout my body, in my head and into the arms, hands, legs and feet. The energy is said to create an expanded electromagnetic field around the person, and this can affect electrical equipment – I remember well someone talking on a podcast about light bulbs popping around them, so much so, they had to buy them in bulk!
Spiritual Ascension
The light body, is activated over many lifetimes, allowing a person to hold more light and increasing their vibration. As DNA repairs itself through the influx of light, the person gains more power and potential, gifting them more freedom, greater psychic abilities, spiritual knowledge and enabling them to access higher astral realms after death. According to Shailaja, once the light body is fully developed, the individual transcends the cycle of life and death, existing as a being of light. I’ve read that when the Sahasrara chakra, located above the head, is processed fully, this leads to the realization of universal consciousness.
Top-down and Bottom-up
My top-down awakening has been complimented by a bottom-up awakening. Without going into too many details, I had a very clear and unmistakable experience of my Bramha Granthi breaking and my symptons changed significantly when Kundalini began rising from the base. Shailaja also told me her top-down awakening moved into a bottom-up process.
I also found a brilliant and fascinating summary of what Kundalini is from Christopher Wallis (also known as Hareesh) who is very respected Sanskritist and scholar-practitioner of Classical Tantra with thirty years of experience. He points to the texts that describe a process where the top-down and bottom-up movement of Kundalini works in tandem and that this might well be the more accurate understanding. Furthermore, that the classic bottom-up process is less accurate way to see the process. Here’s a excerpt from his excellence blog (see the reference below, definitely worth a read or listen in YT):
“ūrdhva-śakti-nipātācca adhah-śakti-nikuñcanāt / rudra-śakti-samāveśam yo jānāti sa panditah: “One who experiences the [type of] immersion into Divine Power that occurs due to the descent of the upper energy and the [beneficial] contraction of the lower power is a truly wise one.”
In classical Tantra, there is a doctrine of two Kuṇḍalinīs: an upper Kuṇḍalinī in the crown of the head, which is to be brought down towards the heart, and a lower Kuṇḍalinī in the base of the body, often associated with sexual energy, which is to be ‘compressed’ and encouraged to rise up. The two Kuṇḍalinīs, it seems, are supposed to meet and merge in the central channel and thereby become one Kuṇḍalinī, causing the stabilization of awakened awareness. This is a fundamental concept in some forms of classical Tantra (we see it, for example, in The Recognition Sutras Chapter 18) and it suggests that the normal human condition is an unintegrated one. The primary integration, then, is to unite the upper Kuṇḍalinī with the lower Kuṇḍalinī. In Haṭha-yoga, however, this doctrine was lost, and so Haṭha-yoga gave us the popular current understanding of a dormant power at the base of the body (or the base of the spine) that needs to be impelled upward until it reaches the crown of the head, which is the end of its journey. This is markedly different from anything we find in classical Tantrik sources. Furthermore, from the nondual Tantrik perspective, this Haṭha-yoga view is out of balance, and even dangerous in a certain sense, because it encourages a relentless upward movement which is inherently transcendental and therefore anti-embodiment.”
Top-down, bottom-up – does it matter?
On one level any Kundalini or spiritual awakening is an expansion of consciousness, and it may not be important to focus on “the technicalities”. However, I have been hungry to understand the process as I find myself wanting to facilitate it as best as I can. I am curious about how the process works and while everyone has a unique experience, I also find it helpful to understand some basic reference points and context for what is, a very mystical and mysterious process. I’m glad to have learned more about these concepts and I’m interested to hear what others have experienced and come to know for themselves.
References
Joan Shivarpita Harrigan (2005), Kundalini Vidya The Science of Spiritual Transformation: A comprehensive system for understanding and guiding spiritual development. Patanjali Kundalini Yoga-Care, Knoxville, USA.
Patanjali Kundalini Yoga-Care: http://kundalinicare.com/kinds-of-kundalini-risings-2/
Christopher Wallis (also known as Hareesh) – The Story on Kundalini (2022). https://hareesh.org/blog/2022/1/31/the-real-story-on-kundalini
Shailaja Damaraju, The Kundalini Guide.
Brent Spirit
Thanks Jeanette, yes "roaring through me" sounds familiar!. Also, the interesting thing about Top-down is that the energy enters in through the crown, but also builds in the lower base and then rushes upwards into the heart space/head space and activates the third eye etc. So it can feel very bottom-up, but isn't necessarily that. In the end, what ever is happening, consciousness is expanding :).
I don't have very much a systematic approach of Kundalini. Somebody in beginning told me that Kundalini awakening exists, in a specific voice by which, when I speak of some personal development in such voice, I usually have it later. Then, I have had an intense flow of experiences later, which involved being part of grander symphony of life, where more enlightened beings existed.
I did not do Kundalini yoga or exercise, but I did read about it and indeed used all the concepts I could intuitively understand, in my own meditations, which quite randomly unites all religions and my own intuitive developments. Sometimes I think it's a Viking tradition to use things, which work, from all religions - Vikings,…
thank you for writing on this topic. the tone of your writing feels authentic xoxo
I am also immersed in unraveling all aspects of my process ... and am curious about the nature of the different flavors of a kA.
my kA was a bottom up. the symbols were of mixed traditions, Eastern and Western, including sound.
I would say that my bottom-up was predominantly eastern, uniting with Shiva, with the presence of the Cosmic Christ overseeing.
Later, I experienced Holy Spirit ... specifically in that flavor, taking over in a top-down in order to facilitate the christian initiation of another. Perhaps it was not specifically a top-down kA but the experience of Holy Spirit. There was definite feeling that…
Dear Nige, Thank you for this wonderful account of your experience and thoughts, and for what you found to describe it in the literature. The references are very helpful.
I remember a period around 2006 or 7 when I would meditate and definitely feel energy coming bottom up and top down. When the two met, a stronger energy would move upwards.
I remember once both my in- and my out-breath were fanning this energy, building the force of it until it was roaring through me and I thought my head would explode. I was terrified and found a way to stop the process. I have definitely not reached any kind of stabilized awareness!
I also remember other times (before this)…