Question: I have just begun to do a powerful yoga practice and initially I felt marvellous from it. In the last few weeks, however, something has changed, and I have been feeling spaced out and confused and for the last few nights, have had pins and needles going up my back and it has felt as if I am on fire. I am a bit afraid. Can you advise me what I should do?

Serge’s advice
Who told you to do this practice? Was it a respected teacher? If so, go to him at once and tell him what has been happening and take his advice. If not, and I suspect not as you are asking me, just stop the practice at once. Stop any form of meditation you may be doing and eat plenty of meat and do lots of exercise. What you need is grounding.

The point about spiritual practices is that they are powerful awakening tools and so doing them in an unsupervised way can sometimes be dangerous. Just as if you have never done much exercise, it is unwise to go into a gym and lift weights and go on the various machines without instruction – you may strain something and hurt yourself badly – so it is unwise to do unsupervised spiritual processes.

Kundalini
It sounds to me as if you are doing a process which is prematurely activating your kundalini energies. This is a wonderful thing if it happens naturally, as this powerful energy coiled up in the base of your spine can unwind itself and move up through our whole energetic structure, clearing away the blockages and expanding our awareness in the process. I believe this arising awakens our latent evolutionary intelligence.

However, if we try to force this process and activate this awakening before we are ready for it, we are, quite literally, playing with fire, for this kundalini energy is a kind of spiritual fire and can psychically burn us very badly and at worst can turn us psychotic. So take great care. Ask yourself why you are doing this process and if it is your ego self that is driving you, spiritually, to try to run before you can walk. Remember: there are no real short cuts on the path and the further we progress, the more important it is that our essential foundations be strong. In the Tao to Ching, Lao Tsu wisely tells us that ‘Going on is going back.’ You may need to do a bit of going back! There are many books on the kundalini energy and I recommend any by the Indian Gopi Krishna. In his first book he talked about how a premature arising of this energy nearly sent him mad. So take great care. Lastly, if it was a teacher who recommended you do this process and if he does not respond with care and sympathy, then he is not being responsible, and I recommend you move away from him as quickly as possible.