“Like a Vibration Cascading through the Body”: Energy-Like Somatic Experiences Reported by Western Buddhist Meditators
Open accessAbstract
There are numerous historical and textual references to energy-like somatic experiences (ELSEs) from religious traditions, and even a few psychological studies that have documented related phenomena. However, ELSEs remain an understudied effect of meditation in contemporary research. Based upon narratives from a large qualitative sample of Buddhist meditators in the West reporting meditation-related challenges, this paper offers a unique glimpse into how ELSEs play out in the lives of contemporary meditation practitioners and meditation experts. Departing from studies presuming a “kundalini awakening” framework, this paper presents a broader scope for understanding ELSEs by describing the metaphors practitioners used when speaking about them; the trajectories and impacts of ELSEs, including the factors that were reported as influencing their nature or trajectory; the various ways in which they were interpreted and appraised by practitioners, teachers, and specialists, such as doctors and therapists; and how practitioners responded to them or managed them with particular remedies. Deciding how to interpret and manage ELSEs entailed recruiting frameworks from within and/or beyond the meditator’s specific Buddhist lineage.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Consistent with other VCE papers, student-teacher relationships were characterised by considerable individual variability.
“Consistent with other VCE papers (Cooper et al. 2021; Lindahl and Britton 2019; Lindahl et al. 2020, 2023), student-teacher relationships were characterised by considerable individual variability.”
From The Teacher Matters: The Role and Impact of Meditation Teachers in the Trajectories of Western Buddhist Meditators Experiencing Meditation-Related Challenges (2025) · cites this paper as Cooper et al. 2021
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners
Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., Lutz, A., Schaefer, H. S., Levinson, D. B., & Davidson, R. J. (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0606552104 · Cited by 983 · see citing works
Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R. J. (2008) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001897 · Cited by 942 · see citing works
EASE: Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience
Parnas, J., Møller, P., Kircher, T., Thalbitzer, J., Jansson, L., Handest, P., & Zahavi, D. (2005) · Psychopathology · doi:10.1159/000088441 · Cited by 905 · see citing works
New Age Religion and Western Culture
Hanegraaff, W. J. (1996) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/9789004378933 · Cited by 853 · see citing works
McAdams, D. P., Reynolds, J., Lewis, M., Patten, A. H., & Bowman, P. J. (2001) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167201274008 · Cited by 822 · see citing works
The Making of Buddhist Modernism
McMahan, D. L. (2009) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183276.001.0001 · Cited by 661 · see citing works
Intensive Meditation Training Improves Perceptual Discrimination and Sustained Attention
MacLean, K. A., Ferrer, E., Aichele, S. R., Bridwell, D. A., Zanesco, A. P., Jacobs, T. L., King, B. G., Rosenberg, E. L., Sahdra, B. K., Shaver, P. R., et al. (2010) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797610371339 · Cited by 623 · see citing works
Lindahl, J. R., Fisher, N. E., Cooper, D. J., Rosen, R. K., & Britton, W. B. (2017) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0176239 · Cited by 476 · see citing works
Self-citationSomatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy
Payne, P., Levine, P. A., & Crane-Godreau, M. A. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00093 · Cited by 344 · see citing works
Mindful America: Meditation and the Mutual Transformation of Buddhism and American Culture
Wilson, J. (2014) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827817.001.0001 · Cited by 303 · see citing works
Characteristics of mental health recovery narratives: Systematic review and narrative synthesis
Llewellyn-Beardsley, J., Rennick-Egglestone, S., Callard, F., Crawford, P., Farkas, M., Hui, A., Manley, D., McGranahan, R., Pollock, K., Ramsay, A., et al. (2019) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0214678 · Cited by 254 · see citing works
The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India
White, D. G. (1996) · doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226149349.001.0001 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
Advances in Cultural Linguistics
(2017) · Cultural linguistics · doi:10.1007/978-981-10-4056-6 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
Mindfulness-induced selflessness: a MEG neurophenomenological study
Dor-Ziderman, Y., Berkovich-Ohana, A., Glicksohn, J., & Goldstein, A. (2013) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00582 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Is Mindfulness Buddhist? (and Why It Matters)
Sharf, R. H. (2015) · Transcultural Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/1363461514557561 · Cited by 192 · see citing works
Amihai, I., & Kozhevnikov, M. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102990 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century
Samuel, G. (2008) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511818820 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Metaphor and Cultural Cognition
Мусолфф, А. (2017) · Cultural linguistics · doi:10.1007/978-981-10-4056-6_15 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Meditation, Buddhism, and Science
(2017) · Oxford Scholarship Online · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190495794.001.0001 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
Kozhevnikov, M., Elliott, J., Shephard, J., & Gramann, K. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058244 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Lindahl, J. R., Cooper, D. J., Fisher, N. E., Kirmayer, L. J., & Britton, W. B. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01905 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Self-citationSpiritual Emergency: The Understanding and Treatment of Transpersonal Crises
Grof, C., & Grof, S. (2017) · International Journal of Transpersonal Studies · doi:10.24972/ijts.2017.36.2.30 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West
Samuel, G. B. (2013) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203558249 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
The Science of Respiration and the Doctrine of the Bodily Winds in Ancient India
Zysk, K. G. (1993) · Journal of the American Oriental Society · doi:10.2307/603025 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Using Metaphor to Find Meaning in Life
Landau, M. J. (2017) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1037/gpr0000105 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Handbook of Religion and the Authority of Science
Lewis, J. R., & Hammer, O. (2011) · BRILL eBooks · doi:10.1163/ej.9789004187917.i-924 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
The rhetoric of recovery and change
Hydén, L. (1995) · Culture Medicine and Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/bf01388249 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Woollacott, M. H., Kason, Y., & Park, R. D. (2020) · EXPLORE · doi:10.1016/j.explore.2020.07.005 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Lindahl, J. R. (2017) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel8080153 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Self-citationSanches, L. J. M., & Daniels, M. (2008) · Transpersonal Psychology Review · doi:10.53841/bpstran.2008.12.1.73 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Struggling to meditate: Contextualising integrated treatment of traumatised Tibetan refugee monks
Benedict, A. L., Mancini, L., & Grodin, M. A. (2009) · Mental Health Religion & Culture · doi:10.1080/13674670902788908 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation
Lalljee, M. (2019) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808640.001.0001 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Deane, S. (2019) · Journal of Religion and Health · doi:10.1007/s10943-019-00775-0 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
The Resonance of Metaphor: Evidence for Latino Preferences for Metaphor and Analogy
Ondish, P., Cohen, D., Lucas, K. W., & Vandello, J. A. (2019) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167219833390 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
The Secrets of Buddhist Meditation: Visionary Meditation Texts from Early Medieval China
GREENE, E. M. (2021) · doi:10.2307/j.ctv16t66q7 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Samuel, G. B. (2019) · Journal of Religion and Health · doi:10.1007/s10943-019-00774-1 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Physical activity and anomalous bodily experiences in patients with first-episode schizophrenia
Nyboe, L., Moeller, M. K., Vestergaard, C. H., Lund, H., & Videbech, P. (2016) · Nordic Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/08039488.2016.1176250 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Physio Kundalini syndrome and mental health
Valanciute, A., & Thampy, L. A. (2011) · Mental Health Religion & Culture · doi:10.1080/13674676.2010.530648 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Energy and awakening: A psycho-sexual interpretation of Kundalini awakening.
Taylor, S. (2015) · The Journal of transpersonal psychology · Cited by 10 · see citing works
The Concept of Purification in some Texts of late Indian Buddhism
Sferra, F. (1999) · Journal of Indian Philosophy · doi:10.1023/a:1004361801440 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Kaselionyte, J., & Gumley, A. (2017) · Mental Health, Religion & Culture · doi:10.1080/13674676.2017.1422237 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Chaoul, M. A. (2006) · Rice Research Repository (Rice University) · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Worldviews and the construal of suffering from depression
Palitsky, R., Sullivan, D., Young, I. F., & Dong, S. J. (2019) · Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/jts5.46 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Secrets of Buddhist Meditation: Visionary Meditation Texts from Early Medieval China
Greene, E. M. (2021) · University of Hawaii Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9780824886868 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 15
- Albanese, Catherine L. 2007. A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Buttner, Phillip Ross. 2016. A Precarious Path: An Inquiry into the Travails Faced by Westerners Practicing Theravadin Buddhism. Ph.D. thesis, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
- Daniel, E. Valentine. 1994. The Individual in Terror. In Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self. Edited by Thomas J. Csordas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 229-47.
- Gerke, Barbara. 2013. On the 'Subtle Body' and 'Circulation' in Tibetan Medicine. In Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body. Edited by Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston. London: Routledge, pp. 83-99.
- Goretzki, Monika, Michael A. Thalbourne, and Lance Storm. 2013. Development of a Spiritual Emergency Scale. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 45: 105-17.
- Greyson, Bruce. 2000. Some Neurophysiological Correlates of the Physio-Kundalini Syndrome. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 32: 123-34.
- Grof, Christina, and Stanislav Grof. 2017. Spiritual Emergency: The Understanding and Treatment of Transpersonal Crises. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 36: 30-43. First published 1986.
- Jacobson, Eric. 2007. 'Life-Wind Illness' in Tibetan Medicine: Depression, Generalized Anxiety, and Panic Attack. In Soundings in Tibetan Medicine: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Edited by Mona Schrempf. Leiden: Brill, pp. 223-43.
- Jung, Carl Gustav. 1996. The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932 by C.G. Jung. Bollingen Series; Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Lindahl, Jared R., Willoughby B. Britton, David J. Cooper, and Laurence J. Kirmayer. 2021. Challenging and Adverse Meditation Experiences: Toward a Person-Centered Approach. In The Oxford Handbook of Meditation. Edited by Miguel Farias, David Brazier and Mansur Lalljee. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 841-64.
- Lopez, Donald S. 2008. Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- McAdams, Dan P., Jeffrey Reynolds, Martha Lewis, Allison H. Patten, and Phillip J. Bowman. 2001. When Bad Things Turn Good and Good Things Turn Bad: Sequences of Redemption and Contamination in Life Narrative and Their Relation to Psychosocial Adaptation in Midlife Adults and in Students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27: 474-85.
- Nyboe, Lene, Marianne K. Moeller, Claus H. Vestergaard, Hans Lund, and Poul Videbech. 2016. Physical Activity and Anomalous Bodily Experiences in Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 70: 514-20.
- Ossoff, Jon. 1993. Reflections of Shatkipat: Psychosis or the Rise of Kundalini? Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 25: 29-42.
- Palitsky, Roman, Daniel Sullivan, Isaac F. Young, and Sheila Dong. 2019. Worldviews and the Construal of Suffering from Depression. Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology 3: 191-208.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Lutkajtis, A., & Evans, J. (2023) · Journal of Psychedelic Studies · doi:10.1556/2054.2022.00232 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
The Inventory of Nonordinary Experiences (INOE): Evidence of validity in the United States and India
Taves, A., Ihm, E. D., Wolf, M., Barlev, M., Kinsella, M., & Vyas, M. (2023) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0287780 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Cowley‐Court, T., Chenhall, R. D., Sarris, J. J., Bouso, J. C., Tófoli, L. F., Opaleye, E. S., Schubert, V., & Perkins, D. (2023) · Psychoactives · doi:10.3390/psychoactives2020014 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
The roles and impacts of worldviews in the context of meditation-related challenges
Lindahl, J. R., Palitsky, R., Cooper, D. J., & Britton, W. B. (2023) · Transcultural Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/13634615221128679 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationGalante, J., Montero-Marín, J., Vainre, M., Dufour, G., García-Campayo, J., & Jones, P. B. (2024) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0305928 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Sandilands, O., & Ingram, D. M. (2024) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1340335 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Divino, F. (2023) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel14070941 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Leveraging meditation research for the study of psychedelic-related adverse effects
Palitsky, R., Canby, N. K., Dam, N. T. V., Levin-Aspenson, H. F., Kaplan, D. M., Maples‐Keller, J. L., Raison, C. L., Grant, G. H., Dunlop, B. W., & Britton, W. B. (2024) · International Review of Psychiatry · doi:10.1080/09540261.2024.2420745 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationLiu, C., Lin, L.-J., Chen, H., Liu, T.-H., Lin, H.-L., & Chiou, W.-K. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1492692 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
K. Canby, N., R. Lindahl, J., J. Cooper, D., Joseph, N., Palitsky, R., & Britton, W. B. (2025) · Contemporary Buddhism · doi:10.1080/14639947.2025.2485677 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Consistent with other VCE papers (Cooper et al. 2021; Lindahl and Britton 2019; Lindahl et al. 2020, 2023), student–teacher relationships were characterised by considerable individual variability.”
Self-citationEmbodying Devī: Śākta Narratives of Healing and Transformation
Perkins, S.-A. (2022) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel13121149 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Perkins, S.-A. (2023) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel14070935 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Solomonova, E., Lindahl, J. R., Gold, I., Cooper, D. J., Little, C., Arteca, D., Cao, C., & Britton, W. B. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1644684 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationMeditation and Aspiration at Kagyu Monlam Chenmo in Bodh Gaya
Krajewska, M. (2026) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel17080911 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Molina, M. D., Molina, L., & Zappaterra, M. W. (2024) · doi:10.31219/osf.io/cgb6e
Alone in Thought: The Risks of Meditation from a Psychotherapeutic Perspective
Wepner, J. (2025) · Psychoanalytic Perspectives · doi:10.1080/1551806x.2024.2439359
Dietary changes as a risk factor and remedy for meditation-related challenges
Lee, J., Canby, N. K., Cooper, D. J., Lindahl, J. R., & Britton, W. B. (2025) · Frontiers in Nutrition · doi:10.3389/fnut.2025.1651167
Self-citationFisher, N. E., Irvine, E., Yonkovig, M. Z., Cooper, D. J., & Lifshitz, M. (2025) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel16111436
Self-citationOżarska, M. (2026) · Life Writing · doi:10.1080/14484528.2026.2618825
Azanlansh, O.-S. C. (2026) · Religions · doi:10.3390/rel17070824
Applications of Mindfulness in Media and Communication Studies
(2026) · Frontiers research topics · doi:10.3389/978-2-8325-8309-8
González-Rodriguez, D. (2026) · Philosophies · doi:10.3390/philosophies11040120
When somatic attention creates sensation: a new class of bodily experience
Iwasinski, D., Delahaye, O., & Beißner, F. (2026) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2026.1884618
- Authors
- Cooper, D. J., Lindahl, J. R., Palitsky, R., & Britton, W. B.
- Affiliations
- Brown University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Britton, Willoughby B.
- Venue
- Religions
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-11-24
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1042
- ISSN
- 2077-1444 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3215235944
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Religions (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
- Keywords
- Buddhist meditation, Kundalini awakening, practitioner narratives
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
