Kundalini.Tantra.by.Satyananda.Saraswati

Each of the chakras is independent; they are not connected with each other. This
means, if kundalini shakti awakens in mooladhara, it goes directly to sahasrara, to a
particular center in the brain. Similarly, from swadhisthana the shakti passes directly to
sahasrara, from manipura it goes straight to sahasrara and so on. Kundalini can be
awakened in an individual chakra or it can awaken throughout the whole network of
chakras collectively. From each chakra, the awakening shock moves up to the top of
sahasrara. However, the awakening is not sustained and those centers in the brain return
to dormancy. This is what is meant by the return of kundalini to mooladhara.
If kundalini awakens in an individual chakra, the experiences which are characteristic
of that chakra will be brought into consciousness. This may also occur when one does the
practices for an individual chakra. For example, swadhisthana practices will raise joy;
manipura practices will increase the self-assertion; anahata stimulation will expand the
love; vishuddhi practices will awaken discrimination and wisdom, and ajna practices will
increase the flow of intuition, knowledge and perhaps extrasensory abilities and so on.
If the nervous system is highly aroused, we may have other faculties opening because
of the general arousal of the brain. This probably results from stimulation of an area in
the lower end of the brain called the reticular formation. The function of this area is to
rouse the whole brain or to relax it, as in sleep.
The reticular formation and related areas have an inherent rhythm which is
responsible for our sleeping/waking cycles, but it is also largely activated by sensations
from outside - by light, sound, touch, etc., and from inside via the autonomic nervous
system. It is the latter which seems to account for the more general arousal caused by the
kundalini practices and other powerful yoga practices such as kumbhaka or breath
retention.
Kundalini - energy or nerve messages?
There are a number of schools of thought as to what kundalini really is. Many yogis
say that kundalini is a flow of pranic energy along an esoteric pathway (sushumna)
associated with the spinal axis. They consider that it is part of the flow of prana within
the meshwork of the pranic body and that there is no anatomical counterpart. Other yogis
relate their perceptions of kundalini to the flow of messages along the nerve fibers. These
arise in the networks of the autonomic plexuses and ascend along tracts in the spinal cord
to definite anatomical centers in the brain.
These schools of thought use different descriptions to convey the experience of
kundalini, but they all agree that the experience of kundalini is a total
psychophysiological event which centers around the spinal cord. Within the spinal cord
there is a very important fluid, the cerebrospinal fluid. When, through practices such as
pranayama, awakening occurs in mooladhara chakra, this fluid gets excited. We cannot
really say what happens to it because even the scientists are not exactly sure, but by
studying the experiences of kundalini awakening, one thing is apparent. When the