Kundalini Syndrome Narratives: Contemporary Accounts of Challenging Spiritual Practice Experiences

This paper discusses preliminary research findings investigating accounts of a challenging meditation and yoga experience known as ‘kundalini syndrome'. Since the terms inception by clinicians in the late 20th century, kundalini syndrome has since become a widely used term by practitioners of various types of decontextualised mind-body practices, spiritual crises support organisations, and spiritual healers of different religious affiliations. More specifically, kundalini syndrome narratives and discussions can be found extensively across public forum websites and social media groups, whilst organisations such as The Spiritual Crisis Network and The Kundalini Collective also present information on kundalini syndrome via their websites and offer support and resources to individuals expressing kundalini challenges. Furthermore, spiritual healers such as Tara Springett, Joan Harrigan and Bonnie Greenwell claim to have worked with thousands of people describing what they understand as challenging kundalini awakening effects which result from the use of some kind of practice. The preliminary findings discussed in this paper outline plans and ongoing efforts in gathering first-hand interview data from individuals who describe kundalini syndrome experiences. Data is being gathered across three countries – the UK, US and Japan – to create a cross-cultural and comparative qualitative study. The main purpose of this paper is to gain feedback and insight from colleagues on the preliminary findings, however, the paper also intends to highlight kundalini syndrome accounts within the wider discussions and examples of contemporary adverse meditation and yoga practitioner narratives.