Kundalini & the Nervous System

Kundalini (Sanskrit: कुण्डलिनी) means literally "coiled one" — the image of a serpent lying dormant at the base of the spine, at the first chakra (Muladhara), waiting to be awakened. In the Tantric and yogic traditions this is understood as a real energetic potential in the human system, available to be activated through spiritual practice, through grace, or sometimes spontaneously. Modern science has not detected such an energy; what can be studied are the experiences people report.

When kundalini activates, it rises through the central channel of the subtle body — the Sushumna nadi — which runs along the spinal column from the base to the crown. On either side of Sushumna run two subsidiary channels: Ida (lunar, cooling, left) and Pingala (solar, heating, right). Some modern writers map these three channels onto the spinal cord and the paired sympathetic nerve trunks. That is an analogy, not an anatomical identification: the traditional texts do not describe nerves, and no energetic channels have been demonstrated by anatomy or physiology.

As the energy rises through Sushumna it encounters and activates each chakra in sequence — energy centres located at specific points along the spine and in the head, which some modern writers correlate with major nerve plexuses (an interpretive analogy). Popular correlations pair the solar plexus chakra (Manipura) with the celiac plexus, the heart chakra (Anahata) with the cardiac plexus and the throat chakra (Vishuddha) with the pharyngeal plexus. These pairings come from twentieth-century interpretive writing, not from the classical texts or from physiology. When the tradition says that kundalini “passes through” a chakra, it is describing an experience within its own framework.

One of the most striking and least understood phenomena of kundalini activation is the spontaneous physical movement that often accompanies it. These movements — called kriyas (Sanskrit: action, movement) — are not voluntary. They arise from the body itself, without conscious direction, and can range from subtle trembling to dramatic spinal undulations, rotations, rocking, or full body movement.

The traditions attribute kriyas to kundalini energy moving through the body. Physiologically, spontaneous movements, tremors and sensations during intense meditation can also arise from muscle fatigue, hyperventilation, anxiety, expectation and suggestion, and, more rarely, from neurological conditions such as seizures. Meditation research documents involuntary movements and sensations as part of the range of meditation experiences (Lindahl et al., 2017). The idea that “energy discharges through the musculature” is an explanation within the tradition, not an established physiological mechanism; new, persistent or distressing movements should be checked by a doctor.

Spinal rotation and circular movement — the specific pattern that often arises spontaneously in meditation — is particularly significant. In yogic theory, rotation of the spine engages the Sushumna channel, creating a corkscrew-like motion that facilitates the upward movement of energy. Many traditions have deliberately cultivated this movement: Sufi whirling (the Mevlevi sama ceremony), certain forms of qigong, and specific Tantric practices all use spinal rotation as a tool for energy activation. Practitioners take it as a sign that the kundalini process has begun when such movement arises spontaneously in meditation. Suggestion and prior exposure to the idea are hard to rule out, so it should not be read as evidence of an independent energetic process.

Practitioners can become severely overwhelmed during intensive practice — and this is one of the most important things to understand, because spiritual traditions have not always discussed it honestly. Clinical research on meditation-related difficulties (Lindahl et al., 2017; Schlosser et al., 2019; Britton et al., 2021) now documents such experiences, and some clinicians and teachers specialise in supporting people through them.

In the traditional account, the system has a capacity that can be expanded through sustained practice but not forced. In more general terms, the nervous system can only integrate a certain amount of intense experience at a time. When intensity outpaces capacity — through intensive practice, a spontaneous episode, or a group setting with strong emotional pressure — the result is overload.

Overload is not spiritual progress. It is physiological stress. The system that is overloaded is not more awakened — it is dysregulated. The symptoms of kundalini overload look very similar to trauma activation: hypervigilance, sleep disruption, emotional flooding, difficulty tolerating ordinary sensory input, periods of dissociation. In fact, there is a meaningful overlap: both involve the nervous system being held in a state of high activation without adequate capacity for discharge and return to baseline.