What Does a Person Feel When Their Kundalini Awakens? Root Chakra Signs and What They Mean

Many spiritual practitioners and schools start their students by working directly on the root chakra. As someone who has guided students through kundalini awakening for over 20 years, I can tell you this is often a mistake. What I share in this article comes from my own research and spiritual practice — from years of observing energy movements within the body and closely studying the progress of several advanced souls on their path of spiritual growth.

Kundalini awakening and kundalini rising are significant milestones in spiritual development, but they are frequently misunderstood. In this article, I'll explain what kundalini awakening actually involves, why the root chakra plays such a central role, what a person genuinely feels when their kundalini activates, and why rushing this process is dangerous.

The Root Chakra and Its Role in Kundalini

The root chakra (Muladhara) is the primary gateway for Earth's energy entering the body. Most people assume that our bodies are sustained only by food, water, and air. That is not the full picture. The Earth emits energy that enters through the root chakra and ascends along the spine through the Sushumna channel, nourishing the body's organs along the way. This energy — what the ancient traditions call kundalini — is what keeps us alive at the most fundamental level.

The root chakra is also the most clogged chakra in the average person. In a typical 3D-vibration individual, it is only about 3-4% open. Opening it to 20-30% is extremely difficult, and opening it to 100% is not possible at such low body vibrations. This is by design — the root chakra acts as a safety valve. If it were to open too fast or too far without the rest of the energy system being ready, the results could be severe.

If you are new to meditation or have less than two to three years of consistent spiritual practice, I strongly advise against focusing directly on the root chakra. Start with the higher chakras (C2-C7) and let the root chakra develop naturally as your overall system matures. Rushing to activate the root chakra without this foundation creates real dangers with kundalini energy — including health problems and energetic instability that can take years to resolve. I have seen this happen many times in my practice, and the recovery is always harder than the prevention would have been.

Symptoms of kundalini awakening

What Happens When the Root Chakra Truly Opens

When the root chakra opens to a meaningful degree — say 30%, which is already a lot — both physical and energetic symptoms become noticeable. These are not subtle impressions or hopeful interpretations. They are unmistakable changes that confirm real energetic progress.

Physically, the person experiences frequent jolts of energy through the spine. The body begins to feel different — less rigid, almost as if it were made of a softer, more pliable material, regardless of age. There is a distinct sensation that the body's relationship with gravity and density has changed.

On the energetic side, several spiritual abilities (siddhis) corresponding to the lower chakras begin to activate. These include: seeing in a wider range of frequencies — perceiving energies and entities that are invisible to most people; starting to feel the energy movements of Mother Earth, since the connection to Her has now genuinely opened; the ability to forecast major Earth events that are unknown to ordinary people; moving energy through the body by intention alone; connecting easily and directly with animals and plants; and being able to influence the function of body organs at will.

At least four or five of these abilities need to be currently active — not experienced once or twice but consistently present — before you can conclude that your root chakra has genuinely opened to a significant degree. Anything less is likely just energy surges from the lower chakras that may feel dramatic but do not represent real kundalini awakening.

The Historical Context: Siddhis in Ancient Traditions

Every human being carries latent capacities — siddhis — that can be activated through sustained spiritual work. This is not a modern idea. Ancient druids in the British Isles, as well as spiritual masters in Egypt, India, Tibet, and China, spent entire lifetimes developing these abilities. Through disciplined practice across multiple incarnations, they learned to harness and direct kundalini energy and its ascension through the chakras. This allowed them to connect with and govern not only souls but also plants, animals, and the natural world around them.

When they activated these abilities, they became extremely powerful — powerful enough that invading forces would target them first. When Julius Caesar invaded Britain in the 1st century BCE, he issued orders to kill all druids precisely because their command of higher energies made them dangerous opponents. The druids' abilities were not mythology. They were the product of systematic spiritual development over many lifetimes.

To put this in perspective: Buddha, Yogananda, Vivekananda, and other fully enlightened souls — those whose soul vibration reached the 7th chakra level — did not have their root chakras fully open. At the end of their lives, their root chakras were open between 30% and 50% at most. They did not need more than that. Full root chakra opening is only relevant for the path of physical ascension, not for spiritual enlightenment.

The Safe Approach to Opening the Root Chakra

The correct sequence is to work on releasing limiting beliefs first. These beliefs — fears, attachments, worries, low self-esteem — are what clog the chakras and block the flow of kundalini energy. As you release them, the higher chakras (C2 through C7) gradually open. Once these are at least 25-30% open, you can begin to work on the root chakra more directly and safely, allowing a higher flow of Earth's energy into your body.

Opening the root chakra further improves your health, gives you access to spiritual abilities, and supports deeper stages of spiritual awakening. But pushing the root chakra beyond 30-50% has little purpose unless you are aiming for physical ascension — the process of transforming the body into light by building the rainbow body. This is an extraordinarily difficult path that very few have ever completed.

Spiritual ascension — which leads to enlightenment — is a far more attainable goal and does not require extreme root chakra openness. What it does require is balance. I advise anyone on this path to maintain a steady balance between raising soul awareness and progressing in their kundalini rising. Use your own spiritual discernment, or rely on a competent spiritual guide to help you navigate this correctly.

Seeking Support Along the Way of Kundalini Awakening

Kundalini awakening is deeply personal. No two people experience it in the same way, and the process can bring up physical, emotional, and psychological challenges that are difficult to navigate alone. Working with an experienced practitioner who can assess your soul and body energies directly is the most reliable way to confirm whether what you are experiencing is genuine kundalini activity or something else entirely.

In my practice, I have received many requests for help from individuals who attempted to force their kundalini awake without adequate preparation and ran into serious problems. These situations are avoidable. With the right guidance, patience, and respect for the process, kundalini awakening becomes what it is meant to be — a natural and deeply rewarding stage of your spiritual growth, not a crisis to survive.

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