K. psychosis

[Guest guest]

>Harsha:

>Dr. Lee Sannella wrote on Kundalini and psychosis in his book

>in the 1970s. Dharma knows about that book and maybe can give us a

>reference.

 

Sannella's book is _Kundalini Experience_. I used to think that he also

had written a book on Kundalini psychosis, and I may have said that.

However, it turns out that this _same_ book in earlier editions was called

_Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendance?_ As far as I know, there is only

one Sannella book.

 

In this book Dr. Sannella is not writing about Kundalini psychosis, but

about the differences between Kundalini and psychosis. I will post one

chapter from the book, which more or less summarizes what he says about

that.

 

What I understand to be Kundalini psychosis is not a misdiagnosis of

Kundalini symptoms... it is a serious problem that can grow into true

psychosis. Sannella touches on it when he says, "Also in at least one

instance (that of the middle-aged housewife) the confusion and turmoil

arising from a spontaneous kundalini awakening led to psychic inflation and

delusions of grandeur."

 

In his chapter of case histories, he outlines her history and Kundalini

symptoms, which were pronounced but not particularly unusual... many

people have such symptoms. But here was the problem:

> Over a period of about three years, she slowly became convinced that

>she had been selected by God to be born anew as an advanced human being.

>Thus she yielded to the tendency that Jung (1975) had warned against: that

>of claiming this impersonal force as her own ego creation and, as a

>result, of falling into the trap of ego inflation and false superiority.

>She expected others to understand exactly what she was speaking about and

>to accept her word unquestioningly, and she grew distrustful of anyone who

>disagreed with her interpretations. This woman has never submitted to the

>discipline of regular meditation, and was also not interested in any help

>I had to offer.

 

Jung explained that when a person who has always conceived of God as

something completely other and separate from himself comes to the

realization, by one means or another, that God/the divine is not something

separate from us, that the divine is within us, he then faces the

internalization of the divine... and there's a danger in that. Jung says

that, speaking as a scientist, he cannot say whether God exists, but he can

say that the God archetype exists. There is great energy in the God

archetype, and if a man is not able to break through the limitations of the

ego and know himself as much more than that, and if he then internalizes

the God archetype and tries to encompass it within the ego structure,

"claiming [it] as her own ego creation," the ego can inflate like a huge

balloon... that is ego inflation.

 

When a person engages in meditation or other spiritual practices and the

Kundalini begins to rise, if it is not raised to the higher centers, then

there's going to be a LOT of energy stimulating the lower centers. And

this is true whether the person has physically active Kundalini and K.

symptoms or not. This can happen because of blockage, or just because the

person gets so interested in what he's doing that he doesn't want to pursue

the process and change things... which we could also see as blockage.

 

If there's a lot of energy stimulating the 2d chakra, the person may get

into all kinds of unusual and wild sexual experiences... I've known people

with this problem to change drastically in their life-styles and pursuits

and even sometimes to divorce and remarry or join some sexual group, etc...

 

 

A lot of energy blocked at the solar plexus will result in stimulation of

the emotions... and the person may go through an extremely emotional

period.

 

This is the reason most teachers who talk about chakras at all usually

start with the heart chakra and work on the lower chakras only much later,

when the developed person is better able to handle them. But even emphasis

on heart chakra, if the person doesn't go beyond ego identification, can

lead to an extreme emphasis on the mental... on the intellectual thinking

mind... in often undesirable ways.

 

So if you have a person with ego inflation and probably stimulation of at

least some of the lower chakras, you've got trouble. ) Needless to say,

any already existing personality problems are likely to be aggravated.

 

Some people get into meditation and/or Kundalini experience and they have a

few big EXPERIENCES! They think they know what it's all about and they're

ready to tell the world about it. Add in some chakra stimulation and ego

inflation, and this person may be sure that it's his duty, his mission, to

tell everybody else THE TRUTH... exactly what they should do. He may

think he's God's messenger to the world... or a new divine incarnation...

Hard to say when this becomes psychosis... there's a fine line between

neurosis and psychosis. And it doesn't have to be either/or... I've known

a person to be diagnosed with a mental problem "with psychotic episodes."

Which means he isn't crazy all the time. But sometimes...

 

A few years ago a good friend of mine went round the bend with K.

psychosis. She was a beautiful, caring, vivacious person... influential

on some lists and running a list of her own... helping a lot of people.

Shortly after I met her, she told me she thought she was a saint... she

wondered if that was crazy, but God had told her. I said I wasn't worried

about anything she thought about herself, as long as she didn't think she

was the ONLY one. And I explained how all the members of the early church

were called saints... "the holy ones." I said there are a lot of us

saints around. She accepted that, but it didn't last... Later on, I

was trying to tell her not to say such extreme things about herself, not to

"brag" about herself. I said there's an old saying, "Don't blow your own

horn." I said she didn't have to brag about herself... let other people

say those things about her. She said, "Yes, but if I don't tell them about

me, how will they know what it's possible for them to become... some day

if they work hard... in this life or another one?"

 

She really did have some gifts... she was doing some long-distance

healing. She was having very interesting kriyas, which she took as more

evidence of her specialness and her abilities. I wish I had known enough

then to recognize K. psychosis, but I don't really think it would have made

any difference. Because she wouldn't listen to anyone. Her various

therapists and friends tried to talk to her, I tried... but she wouldn't

listen. Finally she accused me of not having faith in her. She said,

"Everyone else believes, why can't you believe?"

 

Her family recognized that it might be necessary to commit her, and they

asked me to watch her, since I was living in the same house by then. I

thought I was going to give you the details, but now I feel that it

wouldn't serve any purpose... and I'm finding it difficult to talk about.

I'll just say that when I blew the whistle on my friend, I did it to save

her, to keep her from killing her child or herself or both. She was

committed, but managed to talk herself out in a few days... so she didn't

get the help she needed. More recently, I hear the state has taken the

child... and she's been committed again.

 

I wish I had more authoritative info to give you. I remember reading an

excellent article on the subject on the net, but now I can't find it...

the URL seems to have disappeared. If anyone has references, that would be

helpful.

 

Most people who have some of these kinds of symptoms probably aren't going

to go into full-blown psychosis... probably not going to become dangerous

to themselves and others. And yet when someone is so certain he knows what

is right for everyone else, there's potential harm in that, I think. There

isn't one way that's right for everyone... one kind of practice or therapy

that can save everyone...

 

It's good to talk about our experiences here... If I have an unusual

experience, it's good to know that I'm not the ONLY one. Not unique...

 

I'll close with something I learned a long time ago. I went to a

psychiatrist once to find out if I was crazy... and he asked to see my

husband also. ) I found out that people who are worried about being

crazy probably aren't... it usually means they're changing and growing...

and change can be scary. The people who are really psychotic probably

don't know it.

 

Love,

Dharma