![Vishnu With Shridevi And Garuda. Close up View centre of mandala is Vishnu as para or Supreme deity, painted white as described in Panchratra Samhita. He is accompanied by his mount Garuda and consort Sridevi](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2026-08/AMEThalerArticle.jpg.resize.jpg?itok=UVW70NVw) # Gopi Krishna’s Kundalini Rising August 04, 2026 [ Marleen Thaler ](https://rw-ktf.univie.ac.at/en/teaching-fellows/marleen-thaler/) Gopi Krishna (1903–1984) was a South Asian author who gained international recognition in 1967 with his book Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. This was Krishna’s second book out of a total of seventeen, all of which stemmed from an extraordinary experience he underwent some thirty years earlier. On a fateful morning in December 1937, Krishna experienced a bodily sensation while meditating that led to various psychosomatic effects that would utterly change his life. He began to frame this experience as the rising of kundalini.\[[1](#notes)\] The religious idea of kundalini originates in medieval tantric and yogic texts and encompasses various concepts, including that of kundalini, a stream of energy located at the base of the spine. Kundalini is linked to South Asian subtle-body concepts, i.e., models of subtle anatomies and physiologies, as well as to concepts of kuṇḍalinī śakti, a Hindu goddess and divine feminine energy. During the late nineteenth century, South Asian members of the Theosophical Society translated key tantric sources, thereby revitalizing and interpreting medieval kundalini concepts. This led to a growing interest in kundalini across South Asia, Europe, and North America, notably propelled by the subsequent work of Arthur Avalon—a team collaboration including Bengali authors and the British judge Sir John Woodroffe (1865–1936)—and ignited by Krishna’s book Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. By underscoring its universal and evolutionary potential, Krishna popularized the concept of kundalini as a means of inner transformation and world peace. His book was a first-person autobiographical account of his own transformational story, which involved not only the experience but also his personal response afterward. To enhance his credibility, Krishna supplemented his account with psychological commentary from the American psychologist James Hillman (1926–2011) and a foreword by the American scholar of religion Frederic Spiegelberg (1897–1994). The peculiarity of Krishna’s experience report lies less in his description of the ascension of the energy stream, which is similar to other accounts, and more in his endeavor to contextualize the transformative experience using universal premises detached from any cultural framework. Moreover, Krishna emphasized the importance of using empirical scientific methods to study kundalini.\[[2](#notes)\] Through international projects and collaborations, he initiated and promoted empirical kundalini research, including efforts to find evidence for it in laboratory settings. This led to his recognition beyond spiritual and religious circles. Arguably, in the wake of Krishna’s seminal publication, kundalini developed into the symbol of an era, encapsulating the therapeutization and psychologization of twentieth-century religion.\[[3](#notes)\] ## Source Gopi Krishna recounted what he viewed as the rise of his kundalini energy in numerous publications, but the description of this experience in his book Kundalini: *The Evolutionary Energy in Man*\[[4](#notes)\]remains unparalleled. The significance of this particular description is twofold: First, it was Krishna’s initial attempt to share his experience with readers; and second, it demonstrates the transcultural roots of modern kundalini concepts, encompassing aspects of South Asian religion, new-age language, and Theosophical narratives. > Gopi Krishna, Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man \[[5](#notes)\] > > One morning during the Christmas of 1937 I sat cross-legged in a small room in a little house on the outskirts of the town of Jammu \[...\] I was meditating \[...\] Long practice had accustomed me to sit in the same posture for hours at a time without the least discomfort, and I sat breathing slowly and rhythmically, my attention drawn towards the crown of my head, contemplating an imaginary lotus in full bloom, radiating light. \[...\] > > The intensity of concentration interrupted my breathing; gradually it slowed down to such an extent that at times it was barely perceptible. My whole being was so engrossed in the contemplation of the lotus that for several minutes at a time I lost touch with my body and surroundings. During such intervals I used to feel as if I were poised in mid-air, without any feeling of a body around me. The only object of which I > > was aware was a lotus of brilliant colour, emitting rays of light. This experience has happened to many people who practise meditation in any form regularly for a sufficient length of time, but what followed on that fateful morning in my case, changing the whole course of my life and outlook, has happened to few. > > During one such spell of intense concentration I suddenly felt a strange sensation below the base of my spine \[...\] The sensation was so extraordinary and so pleasing that my attention was forcefully drawn towards it \[...\] Suddenly, with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of liquid light entering my brain through the spinal cord \[...\] The illumination grew brighter and brighter, the roaring louder, I experienced a rocking sensation and then felt myself slipping out of my body, entirely enveloped in a halo of light. ## Notes \[1\] Gopi Krishna, *Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man* (Ramadhar & Hopman, 1967). \[2\] Gopi Krishna, *The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius* (Harper & Row, 1972). \[3\] Thaler, Marleen, *The History of Modern Kundalini Research* (University of Vienna, 2024). \[4\] Gopi Krishna, *Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man* (Ramadhar & Hopman, 1967). \[5\] Ibid., 7–9. ## Bibliography Borkataky-Varma, Sravana, and Anya Foxen. The Serpent’s Tale: Kuṇḍalinī, Yoga, and the History of an Experience. New York: Columbia University Press, 2025. Degler, Teri. Gopi Krishna: A Biography. Markdale, ON: Institute for Consciousness Research, 2023. Krishna, Gopi. Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. New Delhi: Ramadhar & Hopman, 1967. ———. The Biological Basis of Religion and Genius. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. ———. “The True Aim of Yoga.” Psychic Magazine (February 1973): 13–19. ———. The Awakening of Kundalini. Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala Sons, 1975. ———. Kundalini: Path to Higher Consciousness. New Delhi: Orient Paperback, 1975. ———. The Dawn of a New Science. New Delhi: Kundalini Research and Publication Trust, 1978. Thaler, Marleen. "Approaching a Universal Pattern? Gopi Krishna's Initial Kuṇḍalinī Experience within the Frame of Universalism and Religious Scientism." In Intentional Transformative Experiences: Theorizing Self-Cultivation in Religion and Esotericism, edited by Sarah Perez, Bastian van Rijn, and Jens Schlieter, 179–209. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2024. ———. The History of Modern Kundalini Research: Gopi Krishna and the Transformation of a South Asian Goddess in the Late Twentieth Century. PhD diss. University of Vienna, 2024. White, John W., ed. Kundalini: Evolution and Enlightenment. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1979. Author Biography ### Marleen Thaler Marleen Thaler holds a PhD in Religious Studies (2024) and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Graz and a research fellow at the University of Vienna. In the past, she has been a research fellow at ETH Zurich (2022), UC Riverside (2022), and UC Santa Barbara (2023), and served as a scholar-in-residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur (2022–2023). Thaler co-edited a volume on *Subtle Energies* (2025), is finalizing her monograph on *John Michell’s Sacred Place Theory* (2026), and is preparing two books on the modern history of kundalini’s transformation (forthcoming). Her main areas of research include global religious history, the modern history of yoga, and alternative religious currents of modernity. ![Marleen Thaler looking into the camera](/sites/g/files/omnuum4346/files/styles/hwp_1_1__480x480/public/2025-12/Marleen%20Thaler%20headshot.jpg?h=d6944730&itok=mlsuN1Lc) See also:- [ Archive of Mystical Experiences ](/topic-tags/archive-mystical-experiences) - [ Buddhism ](/topic-tags/buddhism)