Kundalini and Dream Yoga in Tibetan Buddhism (Bardo Yoga)

In the Buddhist tradition, ‘Bardo Yoga’ is the preparation of death (the most famous Tibetan practice) through lucid dreaming. The dream participant can prepare for the in-between state of living and dying. Karmic traces left in dreams form clues, indicating potential fears and traumas for the future. The lucid dream therefore, becomes an experimental site to test out nightmares, understand one's limitations, and to train the dream body/participant to combat these fears.
‘Dream yoga’ is a cultivation technology that is similar to activating the Kundalinī energy (the inner heat in the body).  
 
According to Michele Stephen, in her essay The Yogic Art of Dying, Kundalinī Yoga and the Balinese Pitra Yadnya (2010), Stephen discusses the relationship between Laya Yoga (Kundalinī Yoga) and possession, body and spirit. The dead body is a proxy/vessel to be animated through the dreaming body or in yogic practice.
 
“Thus it seems evident that in the pitra yadnya, the Brahmana priests, at least, are employing a form of yoga on the behalf of the deceased – and it is similar, or linked, to Kundalinī yoga.“ - Page 431
 
Releasing Kundalinī back into the world, similar to waking up from a dream or seeking consciousness again. 
 
“When the yogi wishes to return to normal consciousness, the Kundalinī must be directed back through the six cakra in descending order, thus bringing the material world back into being. At the approach of death, the yogi can use the same techniques to leave the body and achieve liberation (Woodroffe 1974:411, 280-1). Essentially, Kundalinī yoga involves a process of dissolution (laya) whereby the embodied soul (jīva/atman) is returned to the original unity from whence it came.” - Page 437
 
 These acts of initiation/turning on and off resemble the process of the lucid dream; Stephen also notes on the elements involved in ritual and death; water, fire and air.
 
“When Kundalinī moves up through the cakra, a reversing of the process of emanation takes place, so that earth is dissolved back into the tattva from which it emanated, that is earth into water, water into fire, fire into air, and air into ether (Woodroffe 1974:241-2)”. Page 436

Tibetan illustration of the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the post-mortem intermediate state (bardo). Some Tibetan Buddhists hold that when a being goes through the intermediate state, they will have visions of various deities. (Wikipedia)