"to be rippling and streaming, to feel the glory run molten up the spine, down the limbs, making the eyes glow, burning, bright, and penetrate the buffeting waves of the wind."
Virginia Woolf probably had some form of bi-polar disorder, which ultimately led her to fill the pockets of her coat with stones and drown herself in a river. Nevertheless she was an exceptionally talented and influential writer. The above quote from one of her essays suggests that she may have experienced Kundalini awakening.
A few relatively modern writers, with very little understanding of what the Kundalini is (essentially the inborn force which connects the 'individual' with the universal Self) have suggested that it is potentially dangerous to try to awaken it, that it could lead to mental instability. The canonical texts of yoga, record the experiences of practitioners of yoga and Kundalini awakening in an unbroken tradition dating back thousands of years. There is no evidence in any of these texts that Kundalini awakening is anything but beneficial. What could be more healthy than a state in which the deluding institutions of ego and conditionings are dissolved? Problems can occur, however, if Kundalini yoga is mixed with a lifestyle or practices (eg certain Tantric techniques) which disturb the innocence of the Mooladhara Chakra, the support of the Kundalini. Without the support of innocence Kundalini awakening and Self-realisation cannot be sustained. As attested by the greatest saints and yogis of India, the Kundalini itself is a nurturing inner Mother, and would never do anything harmful.
Woolf's mental stability was shaken early on when she lost several people very dear to her at a very vulnerable period in her life. There was also the formidable intellectual constraint of her time, particularly for women, which must have been terrible for someone as creative and original as herself. Woolf's journals record that her moments of awakening, of transcending her ego, were extremely valuable and therapeutic. It appears that her final depression was due to an inability to reconnect to this life energy.
Woolf's mental stability was shaken early on when she lost several people very dear to her at a very vulnerable period in her life. There was also the formidable intellectual constraint of her time, particularly for women, which must have been terrible for someone as creative and original as herself. Woolf's journals record that her moments of awakening, of transcending her ego, were extremely valuable and therapeutic. It appears that her final depression was due to an inability to reconnect to this life energy.
