This blog post is from the last chapter of my book.
I am not rendering medical advice of any kind, nor are these suggestions intended to replace medical advice, nor to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any disease, condition, illness, or injury.
Suggestions for those in a kundalini crisis
- Immediately stop all meditation, prayer, pranayama, and other spiritual practices. Consider never restarting these practices again in order to maximize your ability to successfully partake in the activities of daily life, but, in any case, wait at least a month before restarting them.
- Stop thinking about religious, spiritual, and philosophical principles. Instead involve yourself in practical everyday living. Do not go to religious services, satsangs, or group meditations.
- Recognize that you may be having grandiose thoughts or other delusions. Don’t dwell on grandiose thoughts; find something else to do that will hold your attention. Don’t freak out acquaintances by telling them your grandiose thoughts. Only tell trusted people about your grandiose thoughts so they can help you to do grounding activities and give you advice on your decision-making. Realize that grandiose thoughts are a primary symptom of mania. Grandiose thoughts are very intense visions and thoughts so it is extremely difficult to not give credence to them and to not act on them, but do not act on grandiose thoughts.
- Eat substantial food regularly, not small portions and not only raw foods. Eat foods that agree with you. This is not a time to try exotic foods, rather eat foods that you know you can tolerate. Be careful to avoid foods that you may be allergic to or that you may be intolerant of. Preparing food will give you something to do and will distract you from manic thoughts. Most people can probably tolerate a combination of raw and cooked foods. Cooked foods could include things such as fish, chicken, or beef; cooked vegetables and greens; cooked potatoes; and sweet potatoes. Dairy and grains are okay if you can tolerate them. Lettuce salads, fruit, and nuts are some raw foods. If you are an extreme vegan or vegetarian, consider eating fish, eggs, dairy, and chicken.
- Take part in some physical activity according to what is appropriate for your physical conditioning. Long walks, long bike rides, or other long physical activities will help distract you from manic ideas and will help to ground you.
- If you have a friend or family member that you can trust, confide in them. Use them as a screener for your actions. Ask them if your proposed actions are dangerous, unwise, or crazy. You can’t trust your own thinking because manic thoughts can be super-intense, delusional, and euphoric.
- Your trusted friends and family members can help you decide if you need to see a medical practitioner, or you can go to a trusted health practitioner to get advice on what to do. However, very few people have knowledge of kundalini crises, and even fewer people will have opinions similar to this book. Your friends, advisors, and health practitioners may be more helpful to you if they read this book.
From spiritual mindset to terrestrial mindset
After realizing that euphoria and other peak experiences do not indicate that one is growing to higher states of consciousness, it will take time to come to terms and to change one’s mindset.
It is not a small thing to question a spiritual teaching, the guru, or the nature of one’s previous experiences. How can you extract yourself from a way of living that you have been immersed in for a long time? How can you have any self-esteem left when a major part of your prior self-esteem came from being on a spiritual path?
It will take courage to change the status quo, persistence to trudge through uncomfortable territory, and optimism that your future can be better.
Here are some of my ideas on how to change your mindset:
- I suggest distracting yourself in the simple activities of daily living. This will get you away from the grim, heavy thought processes of coming to terms with why you are changing your approach to living.
- Don’t dwell on the shenanigans of the guru and the spiritual movement from which you came.
- Get practical everyday experience under your belt so you will know that you can live successfully having a new mindset. You can experience triumph every time you do something without thinking about spirituality whether it be just doing the dishes or just taking a walk. You can experience triumph when you realize you have gone for longer and longer periods of time without thinking about spirituality.
- Gravitate towards friends who are grounded and/or not in the spiritual movement. Give an honest excuse to former friends that you are taking a mental health break or that you are going to get more balance into your life.
- Instead of getting your self-esteem from being on a spiritual path, raise your self-esteem by realizing that you are going to persist in a very difficult transition to a practical, terrestrial life.
- If you need help, seek help from family, friends, and/or professionals.
My Enlightenment Delusion 