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The Impact of Kundalini Yoga on Concepts and Diagnostic Practice in Psychology and Psychotherapy

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Yoga Traveling

Abstract

The teachings and practices of the Eastern spiritual and contemplative traditions have witnessed an enormous rise in popularity in Western society since the early 1980s at latest, and also been steadily propagated among the general public. Parallel to this, what is known as “spiritual crises” or “spiritual emergencies” have increasingly become the object of attention of the psychotherapeutic profession. The present article focuses on the way psychology throughout its history has studied and reflected on the intended goal of Kundalini Yoga, the so-called “kuṇḍalinī awakening,” and its influence on the current conceptualization and diagnosis of such spiritual crises. This example will be used to illustrate the input that psychology, and in particular its practical applications in psychotherapy and psycho-diagnostics, have received from culture-bound concepts and practices. The example of kuṇḍalinī awakening is a fine case in point for outlining the specific challenges and adaption processes, as well as some of the major developments in psychology, psychotherapy, and psycho-diagnostics that have recently emerged in response to the need to show greater consideration towards world views and culture-specific patterns of interpretation in the psychotherapeutic context, and as a result of the transcultural encounter of health- and development-related concepts and methodologies.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Galuska (2003), Grof and Grof (1989, 1990), Hofmann (2009), Lukoff et al. (1998), Nelson (1994), Scharfetter (1991), and Wilber et al. (1986).

  2. 2.

    The term “Kundalini Yoga traditions” in the present article encompasses all the Indian spiritual traditions in which a central part is played by a systematic approach to the kuṇḍalinī energy and its awakening with the aim of transforming consciousness.

  3. 3.

    Feuerstein (1990).

  4. 4.

    Chatterjee (2010), Feuerstein (1990), Pandit (1971), and Woodroffe (1964).

  5. 5.

    Feuerstein (1990, 189).

  6. 6.

    Ibid.

  7. 7.

    Greenwell (1990), Grof and Grof (1989, 1990), Krishna (1972), Madert (2007), Reinelt (2006), and Sanella (1987).

  8. 8.

    Taylor (2001).

  9. 9.

    Newcombe (2009, 990).

  10. 10.

    Shamdasani (1996a).

  11. 11.

    Shamdasani (1996a, xix).

  12. 12.

    Jung, cited in Shamdasani (1996a, xivi).

  13. 13.

    Jung (1958, 537) and Shamdasani (1996a).

  14. 14.

    Shamdasani (1996a).

  15. 15.

    Shamdassani (1996a, xl).

  16. 16.

    Shamdasani (1996a, xxvi) and Jung (1996).

  17. 17.

    The reader is referred to the finely nuanced analyses by Coward (1985), Schwery (1988), and Shamdasani (1996a).

  18. 18.

    Coward (1985), Hauer (1983), Krishna (1988), Madert (2007), Schwery (1988), and Shamdasani (1996a).

  19. 19.

    Jung (1996 (1932), 57).

  20. 20.

    Coward (1985, 123).

  21. 21.

    Ibid.

  22. 22.

    Shamdasani (1996a, xlvi).

  23. 23.

    Jung (1958), Schwery (1988), and Shamdasani (1996b).

  24. 24.

    Jung, cited in Shamdasani (1996a, xxi).

  25. 25.

    Jung (1958 (1936), 537) and Shamdasani (1996a).

  26. 26.

    Jung (1958 (1936), 532).

  27. 27.

    Jung 1958 (1936), ibid.

  28. 28.

    Keyserling, cited in Shamdasani (1996a, xxx).

  29. 29.

    Krishna (1967).

  30. 30.

    See http://www.icrcanada.org/gopikrishna.html (accessed 21 September 2010).

  31. 31.

    Ibid.

  32. 32.

    Weizäcker von (1972, 5 and 22).

  33. 33.

    Weizäcker von (1972).

  34. 34.

    Angelé (1994), Reinelt (2006), and Schwery (1988).

  35. 35.

    Angelé (1994).

  36. 36.

    http://www.ramdass.org/biography, (accessed 10 June 2010); Angelé (1994).

  37. 37.

    Angelé (1994) and Melton (2001).

  38. 38.

    Angelé (1994), see also Reinelt (2006, 20).

  39. 39.

    Angelé (1994, 12).

  40. 40.

    Jones (1973), Muktananda (1971), Reinelt (2006), see also Ossoff (1993).

  41. 41.

    http://www.nityanandatradition.org/lineage/muktananda-associates.html (accessed 6 October 2010).

  42. 42.

    Grof et al. (2008, 56).

  43. 43.

    Maslow (1968) and Suttich (1969).

  44. 44.

    Vaughan (1982).

  45. 45.

    Walsh (1992).

  46. 46.

    Maslow (1971).

  47. 47.

    Walach et al. (2005).

  48. 48.

    Wilber (1986a, b, c), Wilber et al. (1986), see also Washburn (1995).

  49. 49.

    Walsh (1980, 1988).

  50. 50.

    Ibid., Wilber et al. (1986).

  51. 51.

    Eg. Walsh and Vaughan (1993b). The actual relevance of clinical patterns of this kind is, however, hard to estimate because to this day representative data is available neither from the American nor the German fields.

  52. 52.

    Bragdon (1988), Grof and Grof (1989, 1990), Hood (1984), Walsh and Vaughan (1993b), and Wilber (1986a, b).

  53. 53.

    Wilber (1980).

  54. 54.

    Walach et al. (2005).

  55. 55.

    Tart (1972), Walach et al. (2005), Walsh (1980, 1992), Walsh and Vaughan (1993b), and Walsh et al. (1980).

  56. 56.

    Walsh (1980, 1988), see also Walsh et al. (1980).

  57. 57.

    Walsh (2009, 115).

  58. 58.

    See here Charles Tart’s (1972) much-regarded article in Science, “States of Consciousness and State-Specific Sciences.”

  59. 59.

    Walsh (1980).

  60. 60.

    Walsh (1992, 2009).

  61. 61.

    Walsh (1992).

  62. 62.

    Summarized after Walsh (2009, 116).

  63. 63.

    Walsh (1992), Walsh and Vaughan (1993a), and Wilber et al. (1986).

  64. 64.

    Grof and Grof (1990) and Bragdon (1988).

  65. 65.

    Sanella (1987) and White (1979).

  66. 66.

    Grof and Grof (1989, 1990).

  67. 67.

    Greyson (1993), Nelson (1994), and Thalbourne and Fox (1999).

  68. 68.

    Greenwell (1990), Hofmann (1995), and Sanella (1987).

  69. 69.

    Nelson (1994, 273–274).

  70. 70.

    American Psychiatric Association (1994).

  71. 71.

    Lukoff et al. (1992, 1995).

  72. 72.

    American Psychiatric Association (1994).

  73. 73.

    Lukoff et al. (1992).

  74. 74.

    Turner et al. (1995).

  75. 75.

    Lukoff et al. (1998).

  76. 76.

    Turner et al. (1995).

  77. 77.

    Summarized after Lukoff et al. (1992, 1995); as well as after Turner et al. (1995).

  78. 78.

    American Psychiatric Association (1994, 844).

  79. 79.

    Ibid., xxiv.

  80. 80.

    Ibid.

  81. 81.

    According to the DSM, the “qi-gong psychotic reaction” refers to an “acute, time-limited episode characterized by dissociative, paranoid, or other psychotic or nonpsychotic symptoms that may occur after participation in the Chinese folk health-enhancing practice of qi-gong (‘exercise of vital energy’)” (ibid, 847).

  82. 82.

    According to the DSM, this diagnosis is listed in the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders (ibid.).

  83. 83.

    Thus, for example, an article in a special qi-gong issue of the German language magazine DAO Magazin fernöstlicher Lebens-Kunst reports on an increased incidence of clinical phenomena triggered by the practice of a special form of qi-gong that had many adherents in the early 1980s. According to the author, this led to a drop in the number of people who practiced this particular form of qi-gong. Both the description of the phenomenon as well as the “traditional” interpretational schemata associated with these practices (releasing energy blockages etc.), evince strong parallels with those of the kuṇḍalinī phenomenon (Engelhard 1994).

  84. 84.

    Unlike the geographically and extensionally determined concept of culture that held sway for so long, Welsch’s concept of “transculturality” is marked by the interpenetration and interweaving of cultural contents—as for instance daily routines, social etiquette, beliefs, or world views—across various areas divided in terms of their geography and national identity.

  85. 85.

    Welsch (2009), see also Welsch (1999).

  86. 86.

    German original, ibid, 47.

  87. 87.

    The categories “meditational” and “denominational yoga” were suggested by De Michelis (2008).

  88. 88.

    See Walsh (1988).

  89. 89.

    German original, Brück (2009, 42).

  90. 90.

    German original, Welsch (2009, 61), see also Welsch (1999).

  91. 91.

    German original, Welsch (2009, 62).

  92. 92.

    See in this connection Hofmann (2009); for a critical analysis of transpersonal psychology see Ferrer (2002) and Walach et al. (2005).

  93. 93.

    On the findings on meditation research with implications for clinical practice see Scharfetter (1991), Wilber et al. (1988), and Shapiro and Walsh (1984).

  94. 94.

    Benor (2004) and Madert (2007).

  95. 95.

    German original, Brück (2009, 45–46).

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  1. Department of Cultural Studies and Social Research, Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany

    Liane Hofmann

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    Beatrix Hauser

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Hofmann, L. (2013). The Impact of Kundalini Yoga on Concepts and Diagnostic Practice in Psychology and Psychotherapy. In: Hauser, B. (eds) Yoga Traveling. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00315-3_4

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