Shaktipata (Sanskrit: शक्तिपात, romanized: śaktipāta) or Shaktipat refers in Hinduism to the transmission (or conferring) of spiritual energy upon one person by another or directly from the deity. Shaktipata can be transmitted with a sacred word or mantra, or by a look, thought or touch – the last usually to the ajna chakra or agya chakra or third eye of the recipient.

Shaktipata is considered an act of grace (Anugraha) on the part of the guru or the divine. It cannot be imposed by force, nor can a receiver make it happen. The very consciousness of the god or guru is held to enter into the Self of the disciple, constituting an initiation into the school or the spiritual family (kula) of the guru. It is held that shaktipata can be transmitted in person or at a distance, through an object such as a flower or fruit.

The term shaktipata is derived from Sanskrit, from shakti "(psychic) energy" and pāta, "to fall".

In Kashmir Shaivism, depending on its intensity, shaktipata can be classified as:

Swami Muktananda, in his book Play of Consciousness, describes in great detail his experience of receiving shaktipata initiation from his guru Bhagawan Nityananda and his spiritual development that unfolded after this event.

Paul Zweig has written of his experience of receiving shaktipata from Muktananda. In the same book Itzhak Bentov describes his laboratory measurements of kundalini-awakening through shaktipata, a study held in high regard by the late Satyananda Saraswati, founder of the Bihar School of Yoga, and by Hiroshi Motoyama, author of Theories of the Chakras.

Barbara Brennan describes shaktipata as the projection of the guru's "aura" on the disciple who thereby acquires the same mental state, hence the importance of the high spiritual level of the guru. The physiological phenomena of rising kundalini then naturally manifest.

In his book, Building a Noble World, Shiv R. Jhawar describes his shaktipata experience at Muktananda's public program at Lake Point Tower in Chicago on September 16, 1974 as follows: