WellbeingSeeker

Silence ... it looks like nobody knows and the phenomenon is just a mystery?

Lots of people have been uploading videos and sharing testimonials describing the symptoms they have experienced during episodes of the so-called "Kundalini awakening". The Wikipedia article on Kundalini says the following on the matter: A convenient place to find lots of testimonials on Kundalini awakening is the subreddit on Kundalini, which has been in operation for over a decade. Below a quote from a recent testimonial: Similar stories are available in video form on YouTube. Below some examples: What is the explanation for the symptoms that people report to feel during the "Kundalini awakening" experience, such as energy rising up through the spine, vibrations, electric currents, and sometimes even ecstasy?

Update: changed the title a little bit to be more informative.

Any thoughts on this @Leo Gura ?

I've been recently looking into the so-called "Toronto Blessing", which became quite popular for the controversial manifestations reported during the event. In particular, some people were observed and videotaped behaving like animals (walking like a dog, barking, roaring, howling, etc.). Check out this video. There is a very interesting commentary about the Toronto Blessing phenomenon by Andrew Netwon, a hypnotist. He comments the testimonials of two individuals who experienced uncontrollable urges to 1) fall down and laugh and 2) crawl around and roar. Andrew Newton claims that these are cases of mass hysteria and stage hypnosis. I'm not sure to what extent his claims can be scientifically validated, so I take them with a grain of salt. For the record, there are cases of people behaving like chickens during stage hypnosis events performed by Barry Jones. However, to my layman eyes these stage hypnosis performances look, well, staged, whereas the Toronto Blessing video appears to be authentic. I don't know. Honestly I'm quite far from being an expert on stage hypnosis, so take my layman opinion with a grain of salt too. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ So, what does any of this have to do with meditation? Well, while I was looking into all this weird animal-like behavior stuff, I had a flashback: "wait, Leo uploaded a video time ago in which he talked, among other things, exactly about this." Concretely, in the video The Dark Side Of Meditation, at 24:33, Leo declares: [...] You might start to behave like an animal. Like literally you might start to scratch yourself like an animal, or, crawl around on your knees, or even howl like a wolf [howling]. Can you imagine that you are sitting there, meditating for weeks, and one day you just have this uncontrollably urge to start howling like a wolf, and as you are doing that, your spouse walks in the door ... yeah, that's pretty awkward ... and now you have some explaining to do. And they look at you like you're going insane. What is this meditation thing you're doing? it's turning you into an animal. So expect that. I'm not saying that it'll necessarily happen to you, but if it does, don't be surprised by it is what I'm saying [...] Additionally, I was able to find a couple of testimonials describing similar experiences on this very same site, namely, this and this. They both testify about feeling uncontrollable urges to behave in animalistic ways, giving credence to Leo's claims. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ So, my questions for you guys: 1) How common is it to experience sudden, uncontrollable urges to behave like an animal during meditation? Does this happen with certain kinds of meditation practices? 2) Is there any underlying connection between urges to behave like an animal during meditation and the animal-like behaviors reported during the Toronto Blessing? Let's have an informative discussion.

@Artsu sounds like you have personally witnessed the spirit realm?

@seeking_brilliance do you know what are the physiological symptoms that people experience during kundalini awakening or shaktipat? Do people feel "electric currents", "heat", "fire" or anything similar to the "Holy Spirit" experience of Pentecostals / Charismatics?

@Artsu That would imply that spirits are real though, with the corresponding earth-shattering implications of that statement.

@purerogue Any idea what else could be the cause then? I've noticed many individuals in Christian circles report having these feelings and sensations when someone else lays hands upon them (as if some sort of energy transfer were taking place, which reminds me of the concept of Shaktipat in Hinduism).

Doing my own independent research, I've noticed a clear pattern of religious people reporting feelings and sensations that they usually describe with expressions such as "waves of electricity", "fire", "heat", "burning all over", among others. I've heard expressions like these mainly from individuals in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. For illustrative purposes, here are some example video clips from individuals describing their first-hand experiences: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O. Also, here is a quote from a very descriptive testimonial posted on Charisma Magazine: Source: https://www.charismamag.com/spirit/revival/32085-this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-holy-spirit-s-electric-power-sweeps-over-you (cached version) Reviewing literature about these experiences in Google Scholar, I came across a paper published in 2014 by Julia L. Cassaniti and Tanya Marie Luhrmann titled The Cultural Kindling of Spiritual Experiences (https://doi.org/10.1086/677881). In this paper, there is a very interesting claim made by the authors. Here are two quotes: In other words, these authors are essentially claiming that the overwhelming feelings reported by religious individuals, typically described with expressions such as "waves of electricity", "power", "fire", "heat", "burning all over", etc., would be nothing but physiological symptoms produced by sudden and intense surges of the adrenaline hormone released into the individuals' bloodstreams. However, the paper offers no evidence to justify this claim. Moreover, a quick research into adrenaline rushes shows that they play a big part of the body's fight-or-flight response, which is an evolutionary adaptation that gets triggered by situations that we perceive as dangerous, such as horror movies, extreme sports and similar, which to my layman understanding would make no sense in a typical religious worship setting. So, is it factually correct that adrenaline rushes are the ultimate cause behind the dramatic spiritual experiences reported by individuals in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles?

@Alternest Hypnosis is the 7th hypothesis proposed in this answer, but unfortunately the same answer dismisses it as very unlikely. By the way, I'm having a super interesting discussion with the author of the answer here: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/112139/discussion-between-tony-mobbs-and-spirit-realm-investigator. The guy is a reputable member of Psychology & Neuroscience StackExchange and he got so intrigued with the subject matter that he's planning on publishing a paper on it.

Is there any scientific explanation for this :0000000 ???

Hi people. Please check out this video: This video uploaded a few days ago compares and identifies interesting similarities between manifestations that have occurred in the Toronto Blessing, current Charismatic sects and Hindu Shaktipat. The uploader is Christian, so there is an evident bias to label these manifestations as demonic, but subjective interpretations aside, the similarities identified in the video might be worth considering. Maybe there is an underlying common phenomenon going on that can explain these similarities? Please, feel free to share your thoughts.

Hello people. Just two updates: 1) I found two new astonishing examples: 2) A very reputable user of Psychology & Neuroscience StackExchange posted a very complete answer to my question, check it out: https://psychology.stackexchange.com/a/25800/25376

And Muslims also have their fair share of weird manifestations :