Kundalini Activation: Super-Sensory or Nonsensical

I have a question re: the new workshops I see popping up everywhere called KAP. Kundalini Activation Process. Many people are being trained in KAP around me. I now have a student who is a KAP practitioner, and I've also had people ask me about it. I don't know anything about it, but I've seen videos of facilitators moving their hands above people's bodies, inducing movements in the student. I wonder is this safe? What is it really good for? Is it compatible with Kundalini Yoga?

I wonder if we are living in times of many false practices coming up - or maybe they are always around. Maybe it's also a symptom of people wanting a quick fix without putting in effort.

It's a spiritual law that one doesn't disparage anyone else's path or practice, but if there's the possibility of harm occurring, then it's a civic responsibility to provide the information so that others can make an informed decision. We feel that "Kundalini Activation" is a dicey proposition. It's akin to the "Mesmerism" fad in France in the late 1700s. People will be people, and one thing that characterizes what people do is to experience life through the lens of the second chakra. In second chakra mode, we have an intense yearning for novelty, fanfare, and excitement. Whatever breaks the mold of the mundane. That's all good, but not as an end in itself. Overall, people tend to indulge to meet expectations, including their own. Not to mention that attempting to move someone's energy is not a pastime for the unprepared (for both giver and receiver). In Kundalini Yoga, we move our own energy. We don't want to be dependent on anyone to deliver ourselves to balance. Self-reliance is part of the Kundalini Yoga ethos.

You nailed it when you said it's "a symptom of people wanting a quick fix without putting in effort." The world is awash in the "something for nothing" mentality, but the overriding truism is: There's no liberation without labor, there's no freedom that is free.

There is often a fine line between the authentic and the nonsensical. Sometimes, certain paths contain elements of both! There are spiritual methods that center on simply being receptive to a certain kind of energy. The central practice of Indonesian Subud is the latihan ("spiritual exercise" or "training of the spirit"). This exercise is analyzed, learned, or trained for. It is unique for each person and the ability to "receive" it is passed on by being in the presence of another practicing member at the "opening." Subud members go to a local center to participate in a group latihan. After a period of sitting quietly, members are advised to follow "what arises from within, not expecting anything in advance, and to not focus on any image or mantra, or to mix the exercise with other practices, but to simply surrender to the Divine. During the exercise, practitioners may involuntarily move, make sounds, walk around, dance, jump, skip, laugh, cry, etc.

Many Indian gurus dispense "shaktipat," which is the transfer of energy that initiates the flow of Kundalini energy. Subsequent meditation practice entails allowing this new energy to do what it will for healing and balance to occur. The manifestations of this energy are called kriyas.

Again, the potential problem with these approaches is that these practices don't happen in a vacuum. Each practitioner, understandably seeks to meet expectations or indulge a bit out of the deep desire to experience something transcendent, grand, or novel. If nothing is quite happening, people feel inclined to make something happen. When I (Ravi) was about 14 years old (in 1967), a friend and I smoked banana peels (not a typo), because we had heard that it could bring about a psychedelic experience. We wound up convincing ourselves that we were on the trippiest of trips, when in fact, smoking banana peels does nothing (except make you quite queasy).

What does it mean to "activate" one's Kundalini? Bottom line: our Kundalini is already activated. It's our basic bio-energy. In other words, Life Itself. Above and beyond our very aliveness, Kundalini's expression is in the degrees of human excellence and potential. The penultimate Kundalini experience called Para-Kundalini is a bestowal of Grace.

Divine Grace has its place, but we don't want to make the Universe do all the work. Our body, our nervous system, and our attendant energy grid are designed for the practice of yoga. We don't need to try to raise Kundalini. We are in training to further the projects that an awakened human undertakes out of love: to mind our mind and grow our soul, turn karma into dharma, and to leave the world better than when we found it by using our gifts to heal, uplift, and inspire on behalf of all beings.