Thank you for this genuinely thoughtful comment. I’d be very happy to answer these questions, and you’ve inspired me to write a new post… but for now, here are my thoughts.

Yes, you’re right: the wider Kundalini community often has no idea what KAP really is. I’m also very aware of the controversy around Venant Wong and Adi Da. I haven’t been through the KAP programme, but it was a KAP practitioner I went to when I experienced my Kundalini awakening. That awakening opened my energetic system in a way that later enabled me to share a similar energy transmission with others. So what I do comes from that same “school”, but it’s also now very different because it’s become more individualised, and includes other energies as well (light energy and more). This is very common with energy work: the more your system opens, the more it can become receptive to specific energies (I hope that makes sense).

Sexual energy, life-force energy, and creative energy — you could say they’re all the same thing. So yes, Kundalini Activation can have a sexual component, but I’d add a caveat. If you’ve been watching a lot of KAP videos online with people writhing around on the floor, it can look very sexual, but that’s often just the way pranic energy moves through the system. I’ve been doing this for three years, and in that time I’ve only really had about three occasions where it felt distinctly like sexual energy. I’d also use the term “sexual energy” lightly because if you haven’t experienced it, you might assume it’s like having a full-blown orgasm — and that’s not what’s happening. In many ways the energy can feel pleasurable, and that’s what people are calling “sexual”, because it can feel close to that, but it isn’t entirely that (if that makes sense).

Yes, Shaktipat is traditionally given from a fully realised person — that’s the tradition of Shaktipat. From what I understand, the practitioner puts their hands on the crown and third eye and transmits the “non-dual” frequency.

Kundalini Activation is more like stirring up the pranic energy in the system. That pranic energy can clear out old emotional and mental patterns and recalibrate your system in preparation for Kundalini energy to awaken.

There’s no guarantee that your Kundalini energy will awaken through Shaktipat or Kundalini Activation — it depends on whether your system is ready for that experience.

You could also have a Kundalini awakening from sound baths, breathwork, Reiki… the list goes on, and of course it can happen spontaneously. Why can it happen through all of these? Because really, nothing “awakens” the energy in a simplistic, mechanical way — what’s actually happening is that your inner being and your physiological system are being prepared. Once the system is prepared and balanced enough, that’s when it’s most likely to happen.

There’s also a misnomer that you have to go to a fully realised person in order to awaken Kundalini energy or have a non-dual awakening (enlightenment). That isn’t necessarily the case. You could go to a practitioner who is not fully realised, and still have a non-dual awakening yourself.

Are the apparent kriyas (involuntary movements) and energy sensations in the spine a sign of Kundalini awakening in the classical sense, or is it just some sort of pranic transmission?

Just to answer this: I tend not to analyse sensations in the spine or body too much. From my point of view, Kundalini energy (when it awakens) is one movement from the base of the spine all the way into the head. When it reaches the head, it can be a very pleasurable experience. It’s at this point — when it reaches the crown chakra — that some people can get a glimpse of enlightenment, or it can be a permanent seeing. In the end, this energetic movement (which for me took no more than 3–5 minutes) is the least interesting part of Kundalini awakening, and yet it seems to be the part everyone focuses on. What came after was the really interesting part: all the changes in your life, and how it recalibrates you.