A snake is coiled at the base of your spine. Awaken and uncoil the serpent within you to achieve God-consciousness. That’s the goal of Kundalini yoga.
This connection between Kundalini and yoga has led some Christians to speculate that a Kundalini spirit has infiltrated the church. Satan’s tactics aren’t new, and he often dressed up old tactics with new terms, like meditation or exotic spiritual experiences.
Should we be concerned?
What Religion Does the Kundalini Spirit Originally Come From?
The Kundalini comes originally from a mixture of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, packaged with a Western audience in mind. According to the New Age website Gaia.com, “the term Kundalini means ‘a spiritual energy or life force located at the base of the spine,’ which is usually conceptualized as a coiled-up serpent.”
As this serpent uncoils, it must break through different blockages at each chakra, which can result in significant pain and discomfort.
Chakras are places in the body where spiritual energy collects more intensely. There are seven chakras between the spine and the top of the forehead. Practitioners awaken these chakras, by practicing Kundalini breathing and yoga.
Yogi Bhajan brought Kundalini yoga to the West in the 1970s and got fabulously wealthy in the process. He combined different ideas of Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism to form the most often practiced form of Kundalini yoga. Decades later, several women accused Bhajan of harassment and creating a cult-like environment.
Does the Bible Mention a Kundalini Spirit?
The term Kundalini spirit is not found anywhere in the Bible. However, some demonic possessions in the Bible resemble a Kundalini spiritual awakening. For example, the demons that Jesus casts out often fall to the ground violently, which is similar to how Kundalini Spirits manifest themselves. The Kundalini spirit is not a biblical category, so people have looked back and applied it to the current manifestation of what they consider a false Spirit.
Some also categorize a Kundalini spirit under the umbrella of the Greek word pharmakeia, which means witchcraft. The Kundalini awakening would fall under the Biblical category of witchcraft. Some Christians also speculate that yoga invites the Kundalini spirit. However, according to Mark Singleton’s book Yoga Body, Western yoga came from European bodybuilding practices. It was rebranded as a spiritual exercise partly by Eastern advocates introducing Hinduism to new countries and partly by writers like Carl Jung, who discussed Eastern yoga’s spiritual elements (for example, Jung’s book The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga).
So, Kundalini spirits are never mentioned in the Bible, and Westernized yoga practices like Kundalini yoga may not have much to do with any Eastern religion.
Still, some Christians worry that the devil is getting his foothold by people accessing the Kundalini spirit.
Which Christian Denominations Talk about a Kundalini Spirit?
Kundalini Spirits are mostly talked about in Pentecostal or Charismatic circles, where the Spiritual realm is given more credibility. It is explicitly condemned and seen as something Christians should seek to be delivered from. These groups view the Kundalini spirit as a spirit that comes into a person who practices yoga and yokes them to the Hindu deities. These groups stress the religious origins of yoga as a way to dissuade people from practicing it.
People who want to guard against a false manifestation of spiritual gifts accuse some hyper-charismatic churches of having a Kundalini spirit because of the ecstatic and seemingly out-of-control worship that breaks out in these environments. They don’t see these forms of worship as promoted or encouraged in scripture and rather see the more extreme examples as demonic.
Some more mystical Catholics view a Kundalini awakening as a positive experience. Philip St. Romain wrote a book on a Kundalini spiritual awakening in Christianity called Kundalini and Christian Spirituality. He is a Roman Catholic who reports he experienced a Kundalini spirit in the 1980s. He relates that he got into Kundalini, like many Christians do, through contemplation and asceticism. Each of these practices led him into himself rather than out of himself.
While we can’t precisely say that a demon officially named the Kundalini spirit genuinely exists, we do need to watch out for unclean spirits that go under many names. As John 8:44 reminds us, Satan is the father of lies.
Any time a teaching or practice offers to awaken something in you, run. Awakening things within us is a surefire way to invite the enemy into our lives because our good comes from outside of us, from God, who sent his son to die for us and to give us the Holy Spirit.
What Traits Are Associated with the Kundalini Spirit?
Some people mistake Kundalini for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and claim that the Kundalini awakening process results in more benefits. However, people who came to faith after practicing Kundalini and attempting to awaken it have reported that the fruit of the Kundalini does not match the fruit of the Spirit. The Kundalini spirit arises spontaneously rather than after prayer and reading the Bible.
Pentecostal churches describe the Kundalini spirit as people experiencing uncontrollable laughter and violent jerking. These traits align with what happens in the Bible when people are delivered from demons. To say that the Holy Spirit and the Kundalini spirit are the same thing is dangerous.
So, how do we tell the difference between the Holy Spirit and an unclean spirit? Jesus’ teaching helps us in this area. He gives this advice in Mark 9:38-41 when his disciples bring a concern to him:
“John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will never lose his reward.’”
Therefore, the main thing to consider is whether a spiritual activity is done in Jesus’ name or not—if not, there is a problem.
Another important factor when evaluating whether a church has the Holy Spirit or the Kundalini spirit is to look at their preaching and ministry. If the people point people toward God and toward loving his people more, then it is not a Kundalini spirit. Satan wants people to look inward and to be focused on themselves and their desires rather than God’s will. The danger of hyper-Charismatic Christianity, therefore, is desiring the manifestation of spiritual gifts more than the giving of those gifts.
St. Romain described a need to become increasingly separated from the world and to commune with God more and more at the expense of his effectiveness in the world around him. He also mentions that he had a sore throat for multiple months with no discernible explanation and headaches, which he saw as different chakra blockages being cleared. He mentions a compulsion to meditate for multiple hours per day. The problem here is that the symptoms, do not match a biblical approach to awakening to God. Kundalini awakenings are inwardly focused.
Mystical experiences tempt Christians to seek, but looking inward will never bring us what we need. Mysticism’s goal is to look inward for the divine. We won’t find him there. He reveals Himself to us through His Word and His Spirit.
Another reason Kundalini spirits are problematic is that they often require the seeker to empty their mind to meditate. This is not the Christian definition of meditation. Christian meditation means ruminating and considering God’s word throughout the day. Looking inward will never bring us closer to God; we must look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
Should We Worry about a Kundalini Spirit?
Christians don’t need to worry about a Kundalini spirit if they aren’t actively pursuing a Kundalini awakening. Given how little Westernized yoga has to do with Eastern religions, there is little reason to worry that practicing yoga will awaken unclean spirits—unless it involves praying and inviting spiritual forces. We do need to consider whether we are seeking spiritual experiences in the wrong places—whether that’s through Eastern meditation or some New Age activity that seems harmless.
Christians should know what authentic spiritual gifts look like. To do this, we would all benefit from studying 1 Corinthians 14. Paul mentions that both mind and Spirit should be active, yet many who are experiencing these charismatic utterances do not know what they are saying. Paul’s instruction to pray with the mind simultaneously as they pray with the tongue helps diagnose the case of the Kundalini.
Spiritual warfare is real and should not be taken lightly, but God is the ultimate victor and able to overcome everything. If our worship does not consist of emptying our minds but rather of filling our minds with God and his Word, we will be okay. However, if we empty our minds through Eastern meditation, we will be worse off than before.
Matthew 12:43-45 helps us see the importance of filling rather than emptying our minds. There are numerous parallels between the Kundalini and this passage. The Kundalini awakening involves seven openings, requiring a spiritual emptiness that Eastern meditation seeks. Each of the seven chakras with more compulsive and negative aspects could represent increasingly evil spirits. What is perceived as the seven chakras awakening is the increasingly evil demons filling up the person’s spiritual house. More spiritual emptiness invites increasingly evil spirits in. Therefore, we need to fill our minds with God and his Word.
Another helpful way to diagnose whether a spirit is holy or unclean is to look at the fruit of the ministry and where it came from. Unclean spirits want us to remove our individuality and become one with god-consciousness. The Holy Spirit desires our cooperation (Philippians 2:13).
If we want to “supplement” faith with greater spiritual experiences, we must remember that 2 Peter 1:5-9 already shows us what to seek. The qualities Peter lists in 2 Peter 1 are all focused on our walk with God and our whole being, not just our emotions. Each of these qualities is focused externally—on how we react to the world around us. We do this by filling ourselves with God and increasing our awareness of His Spirit through the Word, not by pursuing some inner super-spiritual awakening. Love is a full-sense action.
It’s also important to remember that if we’ve strayed into unhealthy spiritual practices, we’re not doomed. God has forgiven us and is greater than any demon or false Spirit we can pursue. We can turn back and make Him the only focus of our worship.
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Photo Credit:©GettyImages/Chepko
Ben Reichert works with college students in New Zealand. He graduated from Iowa State in 2019 with degrees in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and agronomy. He is passionate about church history, theology, and having people walk with Jesus. When not working or writing you can find him running or hiking in the beautiful New Zealand Bush.
