Researchers propose neuroscience framework for kundalini experiences

A researcher proposed a new theoretical framework to explain Kundalini experiences through the lens of neuroscience and contemplative traditions.

These experiences involve sensations of internal energy moving through the body, a sense of dissolving boundaries, and reports of expanded consciousness. The author argues that these phenomena represent a state-dependent expansion of perceptual capacity, which is the range and dimensionality an organism uses to understand patterns of integration and coherence.

The framework distinguishes between what an organism can perceive and the specific content it perceives at any given moment. The author suggests that Kundalini phenomenology reflects a shift from narrow, body-local, and temporally fragmented perception toward a multidimensional and integrative awareness. This theory draws on three neuroscientific models: global neuronal workspace theory, predictive processing, and network integration approaches.

The author tested this framework against liberation phenomenology from seven different contemplative traditions, including Śaiva and Tantric Hinduism, Pātañjala Yoga, Advaita Vedānta, Theravāda and Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism, Sufism, and Greek Stoicism. The author notes that these diverse traditions converge on a shift from positionally fixed to non-positionally witnessing consciousness. This consistency suggests a common phenomenological structure shared across different cosmological and linguistic frameworks. The proposal includes five falsifiable predictions regarding the direction and measure of effect in these states.

It also suggests that the safety of a practitioner depends on whether the rate of perceptual expansion matches their individual integration capacity. The author offers provisional clinical heuristics to help distinguish between these contemplative states and psychotic episodes, though these require further validation.