1) Various energies can move up and down your spine. What defines kundalini isn't that it rises, it's that it comes from the coccygeal glomus aka Luschka's gland, a "vestigial" structure located right in front of your tailbone. (That's the Western name for the Muladhara chakra.) Any other energy that goes up your spine is just an energy; it's when the glomus cuts loose that everything lights up.

2) That sounds worth trying. No, I don't know of any risk to it.