What Is Kundalini? 3 Kundalini Awakening Stages

Kundalini is often described as the fundamental life force that exists within every living being. It is the vital energy animating everything – from you reading these words, to a flower blossoming, to a dog barking outside. This same energy, when awakened within the human system, is called Kundalini.

Understanding Kundalini Energy

Think of your human system as a “life package” filled with layers of energy. One dimension of this energy activates immediately at birth to support your survival. The other dimensions remain dormant until you become aware of them and activate them through conscious effort or spiritual practices. The dormant energy within you is far greater than the energy currently in use.

The mind of an ordinary person often lingers in the three lower energy centers – those connected to the navel, the sexual organs, and elimination. When the mind dwells there, it focuses on lust and material wealth, losing higher spiritual vision. Yoga and deeper spiritual growth are not possible while the mind remains tied to these lower centers.

According to yogic teachings, there are three primary energy channels in the spine: Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna. Kundalini, described as a primordial energy, resides at the base of the spine in the Muladhara (root) chakra, coiled like a sleeping serpent. Awakening this energy leads to spiritual evolution, self-realization, and ultimately union with the divine.

The Chakras Along the Sushumna

Along the Sushumna lie six main chakras or lotuses:

Muladhara (Root)
Svadhisthana (Sacral)
Manipura (Solar Plexus)
Anahata (Heart)
Visuddha (Throat)
Ajna (Third Eye)

Above them all is the Sahasrara (Crown) chakra, the thousand-petalled lotus at the top of the head. As Kundalini ascends through these centers, the aspirant experiences increasing levels of spiritual consciousness.

When Kundalini reaches the heart center, the mind begins to withdraw from worldly objects and glimpses higher spiritual light. At the throat center, one becomes free from ignorance and illusion, caring only for truth and the divine. When it reaches the third eye center, the aspirant perceives the form of Satchidananda (Existence–Knowledge–Bliss Absolute). Finally, at the crown center, the individual self merges with the universal consciousness, attaining samadhi – the state of non-duality and ultimate realization.

Duality vs. Non-Duality

In ordinary consciousness, we experience duality – such as light and dark, right and wrong, positive and negative. In samadhi, reached at the final stage of Kundalini awakening, this duality dissolves, revealing the non-dual nature of existence and merging the individual with the ultimate reality.

3 Stages of Kundalini Awakening

In ancient traditions, three primary methods were practiced to awaken Kundalini:

1. Breathing Technique (Pranayama)

By controlling the breath (inhale, exhale, hold), over disciplined practice spanning years – sometimes decades – one can awaken Kundalini. This method is powerful but must be practiced under the supervision of an experienced guru to avoid complications.

2. Chanting Mantras

Mantras are specific sound vibrations that resonate with your biomagnetic energy and life force. Repeated chanting of mantras, even without fully understanding their meaning, can create powerful energetic vibrations that gradually awaken Kundalini. As with pranayama, this too should be practiced under the guidance of a trained master.

3. Visualization and Imagination

Focusing your mind on specific imagery – such as the full moon above your head, a sacred flower, a deity, or a serene landscape – can align your brain frequencies with subtle energies, allowing Kundalini to awaken naturally. This also requires proper guidance to ensure safe practice.

The Importance of Devotion

A person’s spiritual consciousness cannot awaken unless Kundalini is aroused. Along with these practices, prayer and devotion to the divine play an essential role. With sincere dedication, Kundalini awakening leads to spiritual growth, expanded awareness, and ultimately enlightenment.

Michael Sutherland

Michael Sutherland is the founder of TrueCosmic and a devoted student and practitioner of Neville Goddard teachings. His path to this work was not academic — it was forged in crisis. Raised as a devout Jehovah Witness and Baptist, Michael walked away from the church at eighteen and spent the next 25 years in what scripture calls the far country — the prodigal son, wandering. He built a life by the world rules, searching without knowing what he was searching for. When the biggest crisis of his life arrived, he turned back — not to the church, but to scripture itself. Through Neville Goddard teachings he found what the church had never shown him: that the God of scripture is not an external being to be feared and appeased. God is your own awareness. Your own consciousness. Your own imagination. The I AM within. What he discovered was not a set of Neville Goddard principles — these are cosmic laws, written about not only in the Bible but across every ancient spiritual tradition the world over. The same truth, expressed in different language, in every age. The law of consciousness operates whether we are aware of it or not. We are manifesting constantly — the wanted and the unwanted alike. Understanding how this law works allows us to work with it consciously and intentionally, directing it toward the experiences we actually desire rather than the ones our unexamined assumptions are silently producing. In 2017, guided by two mentors — Dr Bruno R Cignacco and Roupa Jetto, a hypnotherapist and Buddhist practitioner — Michael had his first transcendent experience during deep meditation. In 2018 came something he could never have sought or engineered: what is described across traditions as a Kundalini awakening. A sound like rushing wind in both ears. An electrical current rising from the base of the spine, so intense it seemed impossible to survive. Every experience that followed — out of body states, movement along the spinal cord, sensations inside the skull — was documented in scripture, passage by passage, hidden in plain sight. This is not something that can be earned or manufactured. It is grace. According to scripture, it is every soul birthright — every one of us will experience this unfolding, in this lifetime or another. Michael does not share this to define himself above anyone else. He shares it because it confirmed, beyond any doubt, that what Neville Goddard taught is true — and because that confirmation is the foundation on which TrueCosmic was built. TrueCosmic today is home to the most comprehensive Neville Goddard library available online — 292 lectures — alongside an academy of courses, masterclasses and workshops, and 13 specialist coaches serving students across every continent. At its heart is a global community of over 92,000 members, all discovering what happens when you begin to work consciously with the law that was always operating anyway. The invitation is simple: become aware of the law. Understand how it works. And begin, deliberately, to use it.

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