Kundalini Activation and Spiritual Awakening

People often come to me describing something they can't quite name — a sudden rush of energy up the spine, waves of heat or tingling, vivid dreams, a feeling that something in them has "switched on" and won't switch off. Most of the time, what they're describing is a kundalini activation, and the first thing I want them to know is: this is not a malfunction. It's a real, documented phenomenon in the traditions I've trained in, and it can be moved through safely with the right support.

What kundalini actually is

In yogic and shamanic traditions, kundalini is described as a dormant energy held at the base of the spine. When it activates — through meditation, breathwork, ceremony, intense life stress, or sometimes with no obvious trigger at all — it moves upward through the body's energy centres, the chakras. As it moves, it can loosen old patterns held in the nervous system and the body, which is why the experience can feel physical, emotional and psychological all at once.

What it can feel like

No two activations look the same, but common threads include: heat or electricity moving through the spine and limbs, spontaneous body movements or shaking, waves of bliss followed by waves of fear or grief, insomnia or unusually vivid dreaming, heightened sensitivity to light, sound and other people's energy, and a sense that old identities or roles no longer fit. For some people it arrives gently over months. For others it arrives suddenly and can feel overwhelming — this is when people most often reach out for support.

Why it happens

In my experience, kundalini activation tends to show up at genuine thresholds — after a period of deep meditation practice, following plant-medicine ceremony, during grief or major life transition, or simply when someone has been quietly doing inner work for long enough that something shifts. It is rarely random. It's usually the nervous system and the energy body responding to real change.

Moving through it safely

The single most useful thing I can offer someone in the middle of an activation is grounding — practical tools like time in nature, regular sleep and food, gentle movement, and reducing stimulants, alongside energy work that helps the system settle rather than escalate. Reiki and other energy-healing modalities can help regulate an activation that feels too fast or too intense. Shamanic practices — smoke-clearing, grounding drum journeys, and conversation before and after any deeper work — help hold the process so it moves through rather than gets stuck.

It's also worth saying plainly: if what you're experiencing includes symptoms that could be a medical or psychiatric emergency, please see a doctor first. Energy work sits alongside good medical care, not instead of it.

You don't have to do this alone

A kundalini activation can be one of the most disorienting experiences of someone's life, and it can also be one of the most meaningful — a genuine opening, if it's given somewhere safe to land. If this is what you're going through, I'd rather talk it through with you directly than have you navigate it from a page. Get in touch and we'll work out what kind of support makes sense.

A lot of what settles an activation like this is the same grounding work I do in a shamanic healing session — smoke-clearing, drumming and conversation, held rather than rushed. If the activation surfaced alongside a psychedelic or ceremony experience, Psychedelic Integration: A Practical Guide may also be useful. Sessions run at La Tierra Curativa on the Central Coast, and when I'm touring Sydney or Gold Coast.