El Collie and C. Kress

   Kundalini is the Hindu word for the sacred transformative element that awakens consciousness. When it becomes active, it is usually felt as a high vibrational, electromagnetic energy or powerful force in the body, and/or a strong sense of the inner presence of the Spirit. The Kundalini Signs & Symptoms section lists an array of physical and mental/emotional changes that may accompany the awakening process. The exact symptoms and experiences vary with each person. Also, as time goes by, people may find they are experiencing different things on the list. Some phases are blissful and magical; the more cathartic and cleansing parts of the process may be difficult. This process is also called shamanic awakening, ascension, awakening the light body or the energy body, rebirth, or simply transformation.

   We are El Collie and C. Kress, editor and publisher, respectively, of ST. This is El Collie speaking. C. Kress is my soulmate and collaborator. He is the strong, silent one behind the scenes whose abiding efforts, creativity, faith, forbearance, generous nature and not least, computer skills, makes it possible for us to do this work together. I am a writer, innovator, organizer, shamanic artist, and spiritual counselor who, in 1991, experienced a totally unexpected, involuntary Kundalini awakening. I have been engulfed by continuous, 24-hr-a-day Kundalini manifestations ever since.

   Throughout my life, I have followed an eclectic spiritual path, exploring many traditions and practices. Never did I deliberately attempt to rouse my Kundalini, nor was I doing anything known to trigger the release of Kundalini when my mysterious symptoms began. In the beginning, I had no idea what was happening to me. Because my initial Kundalini experiences were severe physical symptoms, I was in and out of the hospital for five months, being tested for nearly every disease under the sun. No pathology could be detected; my doctors were at a loss to explain my strange illness.

   Then, through a series of synchronicities, including the increasingly bizarre changes in my symptoms (I was by now experiencing the more classic Kundalini manifestations such as extremely heightened consciousness, seeing brilliant lights, feeling tremendous internal electricity, incandescent heat, etc.), I discovered the true cause of my peculiar ailment. Realizing that I was experiencing the emergence of Kundalini was incredible to me. From the literature I had previously read, I had been under the impression that Kundalini awakening -- especially spontaneous awakening -- was the most rare of human experiences. Apparently, up until recent times, this was true.

   Within a year, to my further amazement, I learned that three friends I had not heard from in ages were also involved in lengthy, spontaneous Kundalini processes. I have never been much of an optimist. Judging by the current condition of the world, had my own Kundalini not risen, I would have doubted the New Age proclamations that we are in the midst of a collective developmental leap in human consciousness. But from what has transpired in my own life, on top of the testimony from countless others going through similar experiences, I have a growing spark of hope that as a species, we are truly evolving.

   In my mostly isolated first year of trying to cope with rapid personal transformation, it dawned on me that those of us who are in the midst of spiritual awakening need communication and interconnection with others who know about this. Thus the vision for ST was born. Since we began ST newsletter in 1993 -- on a shoestring budget and with marginal publicity -- we have been contacted by over 1000 people in the throes of spontaneous Kundalini arousal. Many of them are finding it is an enormous challenge. For people in whom Kundalini rises involuntarily, the months/years of the process are often both a magnificent odyssey and a painful ordeal.