Saturday, December 17, 2011

Psychotropic medication recovery, Kundalini, and shamanic initiatory illness


Shaking, vibration, altered states of consciousness ranging from comatose to euphoric, extremely long periods of insomnia or hypersomnia, inability to tolerate eating, food cravings, headaches, nausea and vomiting, nightmares, suicidality, pain, heart palpitations, fear of going crazy, feeling tormented, terror, being bed-ridden, agitation, weakness, cognitive confusion, seizures, muscular rigidity, tingling, impaired vision, hearing unusual sounds, seeing lights, other hallucinations or visions, obsessive or impulsive behavior, rages, crying jags, severe depression, vertigo, seeming drunk without taking any substance, exhaustion, chills, heat, sweating, tendency to isolation and agoraphobia.


What am I describing?

a) psychotropic medication withdrawal / neurological recovery
b ) Kundalini awakening
c) shamanic initiatory illness
d) all of the above

The correct answer is d) all of the above!


Kundalini awakening and shamanic initiatory illness are both naturally occurring phenomena that were first observed and described many millenia ago. And they continue to be observed -- in more and more cultures.

Kundalini is an ancient Indian model of neuro-psycho-spiritual evolutionary potential in humans. The ancient Indians really mapped this phenomenon, kind of the way the ancient Chinese mapped the chi health system. However, this phenomenon has been described in many different spiritual and philosophical traditions throughout history, including Christianity.

Shamanic initiatory illness is a phenomenon with roots even further back in the mists of time, when humans drew their inspiration directly from nature (celestial bodies, elements, animals, plants) and ancestors, before the advent of gods. Again, this phenomenon has been described in isolated, indigenous cultures around the globe, suggesting that it is a universal human potential.


The syndrome is unpredictable in how it is precipitated, but toxic exposure is one of the possible factors. It often lasts for years. The symptom set includes significant mental and physical symptoms, and doesn't fit into any of the culture's recognizable illnesses. The symptoms are intractable -- that culture has no adequate treatment. The syndrome remits spontaneously and it is impossible to predict when it will happen. The syndrome does end.


What am I describing?

a) psychotropic medication withdrawal / neurological recovery
b ) Kundalini awakening
c) shamanic initiatory illness
d) all of the above

The correct answer is, again, d) all of the above!


Kundalini is a neuro-psycho-spiritual developmental potential that traditionally resides latent at the base of the spine until it is activated. It can be activated on purpose by spiritual practice, or by accident through physical or psychological trauma. Once it is activated, it involves a deep cleanse or purge of the body, psyche, and spirit. Psycho-physiological traumas from throughout the lifespan are repaired. The grueling symptoms listed above are merely the side effects of this repair process.

The final result is a rewired neuro-endocrinological system. The person who goes through the process and comes out the other side takes a quantum leap in health, happiness, peace, wisdom, sense of mission, and, potentially, "extended human capacities," or what we call psychic abilities. It's like being born again into a second life without actually dying in between. And it's supposed to result in a literally more evolved human being.

A shamanic initiatory illness is a transformative ordeal that either comes on unexpectedly with no known precipitating event or can be activated on purpose by spiritual practice. It shows up as an odd amalgam of mental and physical symptoms, as mentioned above; is typically very debilitating; and takes the individual to very odd and dark mental and physical places. Interestingly, the illness seems to create a field that affects family and friends around the sufferer, who sometimes go through their own tough times in parallel.

Most initiations seem to be involuntary and un-asked-for, and, consequently, resisted. Eventually, the resistance in broken down, and the sufferer agrees to be a shaman. Symptoms can remit quite dramatically once the initiate starts to "shamanize" in some way, such as performing healings (using herbal knowledge, psychic healing, or a combination) or divination, involving knowledge and abilities s/he did not have before the illness. Shamans are considered to be more advanced in their development or more evolved than people who have not gone through the initiation.

So, what does this have to do with us?!

Exposure to toxic 21st century psych meds, removal of the toxin, and recovery from the consequent neuro-endocrinological damage may be just the latest way that humans are being triggered into a transformative experience that re-wires them. It might be said that the transformation leads people back into who they were supposed to be before the oppressive influences of family and society pushed them off track. Or it might be said that the transformation leads people into what the collective unconscious or planet *needs* them to be right now for the commonweal.

In the last several years of observing people recover from these meds, I have noticed that as people recover they often report significant changes in how they view the world, the purpose of their lives, what's most important, etc. Many people become more interested in spiritual matters. Others become politically aware in a new way. Or environmentally aware. Some people become more intuitive or psychic. Almost everyone gets their eyes opened in some way, and becomes more of a critical thinker when it comes to accepting the word of the authorities.

So, horrendous as recovery from psych meds is, it's interesting to look at it as a transformative experience that may serve a broader purpose than we might have imagined and that fits into a very ancient framework about how rapid spurts of evolution may happen for individuals, societies, and civilization as a whole.

8 comments:

  1. When Is it a kundalini release or a oscillation malfunction due to NmdaR hypo function influence on gabba,glutamate'acetycholine,dopamine,serotonin,and norepinphrine neurotransmition in prefrontal cortex etc.
    Psychosis, schizophrenia', desperate mental health condition requiring medication just to keep within a safety zone of reasonable cognition offering some relief from the bombardment of subconscious thoughts and voices that promote delusions and paranoia

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    1. Safety first! We do whatever we have to do to stay safe, and as wholesome and self-compassionate as possible, while we explore ways of improving our lives. It's a process. A person's best option at the moment might be medication. Maybe they will have other options in the future.

      Consider the possibility that it doesn't have to be either / or -- Kundalini or neurotransmitter malfunction. Both things could be going on at the same time. Focus on whichever aspect of the situation seems most fruitful to focus on. I go back and forth between a physical, psychodynamic, and spiritual perspective, depending on what feels more helpful to me at that moment. We need all of these perspectives, because we are physical, psychological, and spiritual beings.

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  2. How does kundalini resolve? For a month I've resisted. And it is so powerful. I don't know how I've managed to make it to two months with so little sleep and have this level of functioning. I was obsessive compulsive. I'm young. I still live with my parents. And thinking the drugs had crushed my mind and body at a time when I should have been blossoming as a young woman, is still unbearably painful. I feel old, tired, scared, and like I'm deteriorating. I would hallucinate smelling like there was something burning. I'd think the kitchen was on fire or the Christmas tree. Other times I couldn't smell anything at all. I thought the drugs had crushed my sense of smell. In bed my mind would be reeling from all the obsessive thoughts. I felt nauseous. Then I would feel extremely hot. Most nights I don't sleep. I don't know what to call it. I'm usually very sweaty and hot and anxious. I want so bad to sleep. But this powerful unrelenting force inside just won't let me. I was so scared my mine and body would just rot from the insomnia. I feared to grow old and tired. To degenerate before I had been given a chance at life. I am overwhelmingly afraid of death. I think I'm just going to give up and let it have its way. Do you have any suggestions? Your website has been the biggest help I've encountered in this whole process.

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    1. I sounds like you're going through an extremely hard time, and that you're dealing with Kundalini, obsessive compulsiveness, drugs (prescription meds?), terrible fear, and severe loss of sleep.

      It's a lot, but I myself and hundreds of others I've seen have been where you are now and healed and gotten to the point where life is most definitely worth living. You're just at a low point right now -- the lack of sleep can really make us feel hopeless and overwhelmed. But there are a million ways you can get better.

      If you want some suggestions that are safely tailored to your specific situation, you can email me and I'll give you some ideas. Also, if you're referring to psych meds, I encourage you to look at --

      http://survivingantidepressants.org/

      -- which is an excellent resource for coping with problems caused by all classes of psych meds.

      I find it helpful to start from the premise that there is a reason for what we're going through, draw some comfort and reassurance from that, and then look for the way to use the situation for my own benefit.

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  3. Hi how strange! I mean the fact that family and friends go through a similar process while one undergoes kundalini awakening. Is that very common? At the moment I'm undergoing what I believe is kundalini, and every other person in my life is facing the hardest trial of their life. As soon as my process began then everyone around me began to undergo their own process. I can't get over how strange this is.

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    1. Well, yes, I haven't come across much literature on this, and I don't know how common it is, but yes, it does happen, and it's strange, isn't it? When an individual goes through some kind of opening, it does happen sometimes that the people connected with them seem to be launched into their own disruptions, disjunctures, difficult transformative events. Whether this is due to the field effect of the initiate or some other cosmic mechanism, I don't know.

      And oddly enough, you are writing this to me just as I emerge from a similar group synchronicity around myself. I, and a dozen people around me (who don't all know each other; I'm the common denominator) have been going through a marked uptick in facing personal worst fears, and / or having long-held dreams come true. I believe these two things are connected -- worst fears and dreams come true.

      So, perhaps make a special effort to discern if any of the people around you might be getting closer to their truest dreams. They may not even realize it, because the fears and flying debris can obscure it.

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  4. I had been meditating for a year using guided meditations on youtube and all was fine. Then I bumped onto kundalini guided meditation with benaural beats and theta waves , ironically I didn't know what it was but I liked it and I did it like month or two and since then I have had severe head pressure and it destroying my life.
    What is happening to me , is this kundalini or some other imbalance of some kind?
    How to stop it?
    Please help.

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    1. Of course, I cannot know whether you have something as simple as a sinus infection, or have started any other activity, food, medication, or supplement that might be causing your head pressure. But, what you report does happen sometimes. So, assuming that the severe head pressure really is due to the guided K. meditation with binaural beats, then try stopping any meditation at all or binaural beats until you stabilize. Do things that are very grounding -- walk on grass barefoot, soak your feet in warm water, maybe with Epsom salts, lavender essential oil. Eat beef if you already eat beef sometimes. Eat plenty of food in general. Drink water. Breathe into your belly gently, consciously. Get some exercise. Release / relax your muscles. Massage your whole body gently but firmly. Read or watch TV that is funny, uplifting, soothing.

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