Many people have heard of the extraordinary phenomenon of kundalini awakening, and over the years, a growing number of men and women have had firsthand encounters. In some cases, the experience involves very disturbing physical and psychological effects. This volume, which has sold 50,000 copies, documents numerous case studies to demystify the process & reassure those who sometimes fear for their own sanity.

Many people have heard of the extraordinary phenomenon of kundalini awakening, and a growing number have had firsthand experience -- in some cases, involving disturbing physical and psychological effects. This classic work documents numerous case studies to demystify the process and reassure "victims, " who sometimes fear for their own sanity.

Coiled like a snake at the base of the spine, kundalini is the spiritual force that lies dormant in every human being. Once awakened, often through meditation and yoga practices, it rises up the spine and finds expression in the form of spiritual knowledge, mystical vision, psychic powers, and ultimately, enlightenment. This is the classic first-person account of Gopi Krishna, an ordinary Indian householder who, at the age of thirty-four, after years of unsupervised meditation, suddenly experienced the awakening of kundalini during his morning practice. The story of this transformative experience, and the author's struggle to find balance amid a variety of powerful physiological and psychic side effects, forms the core of the book. His detailed descriptions of his dramatic inner experiences and symptoms such as mood swings, eating disorders, and agonizing sensations of heat—and of how, with the help of his wife, he finally stabilized at a higher level of consciousness—make this one of the most valuable classics of spiritual awakening available.

Account of the awakening of the kundalini process by Philip St. Romain, with reflection on the meaning of this process from the perspective of Christian spirituality. Foreword by Thomas Keating. Appendices by James Arraj. 2nd edition. Original work by Crossroads, NY, 1991.

"Kundalini yoga presented Jung with a model of something that was almost completely lacking in Western psychology--an account of the development phases of higher consciousness.... Jung's insistence on the psychogenic and symbolic significance of such states is even more timely now than then. As R. D. Laing stated... 'It was Jung who broke the ground here, but few followed him.'"--From the introduction by Sonu Shamdasani Jung's seminar on Kundalini yoga, presented to the Psychological Club in Zurich in 1932, has been widely regarded as a milestone in the psychological understanding of Eastern thought and of the symbolic transformations of inner experience. Kundalini yoga presented Jung with a model for the developmental phases of higher consciousness, and he interpreted its symbols in terms of the process of individuation. With sensitivity toward a new generation's interest in alternative religions and psychological exploration, Sonu Shamdasani has brought together the lectures and discussions from this seminar. In this volume, he re-creates for today's reader the fascination with which many intellectuals of prewar Europe regarded Eastern spirituality as they discovered more and more of its resources, from yoga to tantric texts. Reconstructing this seminar through new documentation, Shamdasani explains, in his introduction, why Jung thought that the comprehension of Eastern thought was essential if Western psychology was to develop. He goes on to orient today's audience toward an appreciation of some of the questions that stirred the minds of Jung and his seminar group: What is the relation between Eastern schools of liberation and Western psychotherapy? What connection is there between esoteric religious traditions and spontaneous individual experience? What light do the symbols of Kundalini yoga shed on conditions diagnosed as psychotic? Not only were these questions important to analysts in the 1930s but, as Shamdasani stresses, they continue to have psychological relevance for readers on the threshold of the twenty-first century. This volume also offers newly translated material from Jung's German language seminars, a seminar by the indologist Wilhelm Hauer presented in conjunction with that of Jung, illustrations of the cakras, and Sir John Woodroffe's classic translation of the tantric text, the Sat-cakra Nirupana. ?

It is an outstanding book from both the scientific and spiritual points of view. It is the unique record of the pioneering experiments which presents clear, electrophysiological evidence of the existence of the network of chakras and nadis which form the infrastructure of the subtle energies existing in the pranic and psychic dimensions, which underlie and activate the physical, material body of man. The experiments in the book successfully integrate the subjective and objective dimensions of knowledge and will serve as guideposts and blueprints for experiments in the years ahead. The chakras and other components of the human energy field were largely brought to the attention of the Western world by clairvoyant Charles W. Leadbeater. His pioneering work is discussed in detail in this fascinating exploration of the subtle body, along with that of other respected seers and yogis. "This book represents a monumental effort to review and correlate much of the accumulated knowledge of the subtle energy systems...Such a book could only be written by a person who has had the life-long personal experiences which Dr Motoyama so generously shares with the reader. These experiences provide a step-by-step illustration of unfolding and expanding consciousness. The book is necessary reading for all serious students of the subject of consciousness." - George W. Meek

States of Consciousness, a classic by world authority Charles T. Tart, is a basic understanding of how the mind is a dynamic, culturally biased, semi-arbitrary construction and system. A systematic exploration of how and why altered states can come about and their possibilities. As a student of his remarked, “For the first weeks of class I didn’t understand what those diagrams were about, but I’ve realized the book is all about the way my own mind works!” Useful in understanding some of the important ways your mind works before you start altering it.