I’ve had a lot of experiences with meditation. My ‘awareness’ has no sensation whatsoever, it is neutral, empty, Teflon. Teach the life-changing skills of meditation and mindfulness Help your students stress less and get in the zone with this free collection of expert-led meditations and mindfulness tools. (also my feet always fall asleep while I’m meditating, is there something I can do about it?). I’m afraid I don’t have much experience in teaching meditation to people who have panic attacks. Do you feel or know for sure that you have fallen into depression pit? I’m assuming you’re speaking literally when you say it “feels like” your head is moving, and that it actually isn’t moving. I’m actually thankful they are brief because it can be quite startling. I’d suggest (if this is still going on) seeing if you can notice the underlying sense of energy separate from the movement, and accept it as a normal part of meditation. That might help. Another (possibly related) mechanism is that there is a part of the brain (the parietal lobes) that keep track of the spatial orientation of the body and of parts of the body relative to each other. I think it’s because there’s a “correction filter” in the brain that “scales” body parts and makes the internal feeling of the body correspond more closely to the external visual appearance that we see. In reality, I was sitting in the meditation yurt, in a beautiful patch of desert way out in the Arizona wilderness. After a gap of few months of no mediation whenever I try to meditate in few minutes, when I am Paying more attention to a subtle synesthetic signal that arises in our experience as the mind is calming encourages the mind to become even calmer, and so the synesthetic signal becomes stronger. Namaste, in the past few days my mediation has moved to the view of breath to breath becoming a vibration in my forehead and heart. Any help would be much appreciated. When sensations arise, just experience them. You really shouldn’t end meditation feeling spaced out, John. Otherwise your meditation practice will get “stuck” at this rather dreamy level. I had an experience recently and wasn’t sure what to make of it. :), Newly started meditation. You’re not your body either. Also, I’m curious about how you’re sitting, and whether your spine is actually straight. I have been through all your comments in this blog and the closest thing that I think may relate to my experience is your comment here: ” It’s not uncommon for the sense of our body shape and sense of separation from the world around us to change (even to disappear) during meditation. I really appreciate your work on this website! The question arises, where, in all this ever-changing experience, can a stable and permanent self lie? After finishing the thoughts and feelings meditation, the room was moving back and forth in a kind of swaying motion. My eyes were closed. Be mindful of them as best you can, and just allow them to be there. Just keep practicing, and stay focused more on questions such as, “Am I becoming kinder? Ya? I guess it’s like the steadiness of being in love compared to the rush of falling in love. I started experiencing sensations of tingling/cold shivers during meditation. any advise. And spend some time relaxing with these feelings, and even when they’re not present. it’s caused by random firing of neurons in the visual processing centre of the brain, connected to the optic nerve, and the effect is noticed when in the absence of visual stimuli. I prefer the pull feeling because that is when I feel closer to the force of universal energy and more blissful. I have a Question This event feels completely different than what I have ever experienced in the past. In certain forms of meditation there’s less activity in the parietal lobes of the brain, which maintain our spatial sense, and this leads to these experiences.”. My relaxation is good, and my bodily sensations are pleasant and not distracting, and my awareness of breathing is fairly strong and steady. I do notice that the Piti? It’s okay to be lost and confused, no worries! It’s just another sensation. I’d say that your experience is a samapatti. It’s only when we’re still, and the mind is calm, that these experiences emerge. I’m wondering about your opinion, could it be only because my shoulder pain? So mostly, my experience is waves up and down, twitching and involuntary movements. White is a calm, pure, color. I noticed it would go from a red, to orange, up to indigo. I tried ignoring that but then I felt numbness around my nose and feels like m short of breadth. It’s not something I’m at all familiar with, so writing to me is like asking a tennis coach for advice about your golf swing :), I am new to meditating, and i struggle, that when i begin to relax and quiet the mind fully, that i have the extreme urge to urinate. An example of a relatively common physical reaction during meditation is what’s known as a “kriya.” A kriya is a jerk or spasm of the body that while not painful can be powerful. A thought came to me. Sometimes it’s physically painful while that thing shoots up during sleep. Why don’t we feel that the hands and lips are huge all the time? Yes, indeed, Bernie. Question: Last year I learned Primordial Sound Meditation and since that time I have been meditating every morning and evening. Most understood brother! Yes, I take a medication for anxiety and I'm withdrawing off of another anxiety med now, which could be why I don't feel good. Tingling between the eyebrows is quite common. I seemed to bring myself out of this state by trying to find some part of my body to touch. But it was a very comforting feeling. No, you weren’t touched for real. Then at the end both arms went down and I felt like they were very heavy and SO relaxed and my chin went down to my chest and I felt blackness all around me. I’m afraid I have no idea what a “third eye” is, Eva. Now, I’ve noticed during Savasina, I am lucid dreaming beautiful dreams. I don’t have any other carrier path than to find out what is real? I’m enjoying it, and it makes me crave meditating. Apply cold to the pulled back muscle. At first this only lasted what seemed a second or two but I am seeing it last longer now. It’s a good sign, in fact. What could that be? Every time i meditate i have numbness in my body in 5 min.By numbness means i stop feeling the existence of my body specially legs and hands.my chest and spinal cord become extremely tight and still,and feels like my chest is shrinking and i have difficulty maintaining my breath.it happens all the time and my frequency of breathing increases and small in time .there is a sensation of constraint on my body as itvhas stuck ,specially my neck which does not move and bexomes extremely hard, and i feel the muscles inside my head …. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons! Can you comment on this and perhaps advise me? I also feel twitches and movements in my back muscles. I felt like I was seeing thing through my forehead I couldn’t feel any emotion, no feeling of spirituality or sensation. Hey there. I attended vipassana meditation for 7 days. Sometimes people say it’s “energy being released” although I don’t know if that’s the case. One other time that I found completely bewildering was when I meditated and then the next time I opened my eyes, four hours had passed. thank you Bodhipaksa. The thing is, Kams, that this is normal. If it does, then just accept it. I felt as if there is no body and I have melted into the universe. According to Buddha, DOUBT is one of the five hindrances in the progress of meditation, and I don’t think you are going down the wrong path in meditation. For the first time I was doing meditation and within 5 minutes of me closing my eyes, I saw a big blue eye. It’s not exactly common to have involuntary movements of the body take place while meditating, but it’s not extremely rare either. Instead, just keep on with your practice. This is caused by the fact that a lack of oxygen in the areas of the brain that interpret our vision/hearing result in the things we see and hear becoming distorted and nonsensical. However, if you read the Buddhist scriptures it seems that the Buddha liked a good rant from time to time, and he seems to have used language that would shock many “nonjudgemental” Buddhists. It feels nice to be able to relate out own experiences with others. Keep practicing! The problem with this is that it creates tension in the back of the neck. I felt scared and immediately came out of the meditation, and I noticed that I had a cool feeling in my mouth and behind my eyes. And I felt great. is this normal? The effects of meditation has come to me quickly, I helped cure my lack of sleep and thanks to it I sleep well at night now. Tension or tension-type headaches (TTH) are the most common cause of pain in the back of the head. First it annoyed me when saw in mirror there was no water only feeling. But i felt it. The swirling colored lights are something I describe above. I am reading The Mind Illumined by Yates in the Vipassana tradition and following his advice/ instructions. What was that? Then purple does the lava lamp and a yellowish \green light appears. I had a completely different experience during my meditation this morning that I would like to share (and I am very interested in any feedback) – it was very unusual for me. To get in the right position to meditate, sit in your chair with a straight back and with your feet flat on the floor. But occasionally it seems like the part or parts of my brain that assign meaning, order and familiarity to my perceptions are turned off. I’ve had this feeling since I was a kid, that I could sometimes ask God for something and I would get it (not something material, per se). Saying that you’re “feeling thoroughly lost and confused,” that you’ve “fallen into a depression pit,” and that you “get really dark and harmful thoughts” that you think might lead you to insanity is what I was describing as “serious.” It’s up to you whether you seek effective help. There is no desire to finish the sit. 10-Minute Meditation. There’s nothing wrong with not experiencing these things, Z. Hello, I would like to comment on my meditation. The jolt courses thru my entire body for only a split second and then is gone (until the next jolt). Hello, I meditated for the first time today, Not sure whether its normal on a first experience, But after about 10 minutes I just got most of the sensations described above, first came like a pressure right in the middle of my forehead, and on my eyes but it was almost a pleasurable pressure, felt really weird! It felt almost good , but in a sense too powerful – pure pleasure. Your body should adjust and get used to your new positioning over time. I feel I was guided to your site to ask about it. You’ve probably heard them called the “formless jhānas” or “higher jhānas” but that’s not a term the Buddha used, and they’re distinct experiences from the jhānas proper. It startled me and i came out of my meditation. Still, I don’t blame you for not meditating again! One curiosity question from my side. “Is it likely that I have some sort of illness and my brain is trying to tell me?”, “Why do I get to a scary “layer” when my meditation is successful?”. If the thing you’re doing that you call meditation is leading to problems, then I’d suggest talking to the person who taught you that practice (although most of the time when I ask, people say it’s something they found on Youtube). I don’t know how long I sat, but it was very peaceful and I felt myself expand a little beyond my normal sense of where my body boundaries are. The problem is that you’re probably focusing on the piti in a way that intensifies it, and being more aware of joy will take the heat off by dividing your attention. I tried to do a Google search to better understand this concept and have ordered some books that might help. Can you recommend any strategy? If you want to explore meditation more seriously I’d suggest that you switch to sitting upright, which will help you experience more clarity, alertness, and mindfulness. I don’t believe in god and I’m very skeptical about the existence of non-physical beings of the type you describe, but I don’t think that what you described is “bullshit” at all. Sometimes people are unaware of or ignore feelings and thus cut off from one intelligent part of themselves, and sometimes they are over-trusting of their feelings and in effect cut themselves off from their rationality (another intelligent part of themselves). Perhaps it was my particular state of mind tonight, but I dissolved easily into simply being aware of my breathing. This sounds like the experience we call piti (Pali) or priti (Sanskrit). “Am I reopening some sort of trauma (I did have a stressful childhood due to geopolitical factors).”. I just started meditation 1 month ago and I have had all of the 5 types of symptoms listed above. While shopping at a Hmong marketplace I stumbled upon an interesting object- an animal horn split in half. For example, it’s like sometimes I feel like my third eye is open and I’m staring into the void… I don’t think I’m special, I’ve just been meditating a lot lately…. I’m new to meditation, and during my session today, while extremely relaxed and drifting, something screamed at me to come out and pulled me to a highly alerted state! It totally freaked me out causing me to open my eyes and stop the meditation. It’s not my intention to be combative or embarrass you publicly, but I thought maybe it might help for me to reach out. Sometimes when I meditate I get a feeling in my spine, like a little massage from my tailbone to the middle if my back and back down again. So it’s a good sign. Really they’re not. About the shivers i found out that i have them more when i meditate in dark, should it have some connection? has also affected my eyesight. Oh, and it can also be tedious receiving enquiries from those who don’t bother to read the articles they’re commenting on, in which they’d often find the answers they’ve been looking for :), * to the moderation queue :) * Each week i write down my experiences and then move on, so not focus on them at each session. But there’s no need to look for things like that in order to see life as being imbued with magic. These comment threads exist out here for decades with whatever we’ve said set in stone and, frankly, with little attachment to the articles they began with. I hope I have understood correctly your advice. Yes, I did experience that and have quite a lot of visions. I felt I had no control over my head and my arms. But what you have said have given me reassurance and comfort. Mediation- Day 11, The Color Purple | Jesus on the Bathroom Door, an article on the subject of tinnitus here, https://scienceline.org/2014/12/why-do-we-see-colors-with-our-eyes-closed/. Your legs are working all on their own :). I used to meditate quite often. Anyway, I hope this is reassuring and helpful. You might find the clarity of the in-breath helpful in bringing about a more “wakeful” state. I also practice sutra recitation in the Mahayana tradition. I’m not to sure but I am about to have stomach surgery and have been stressed. This can manifest in many different ways, from mild tingling in the muscles and skin of the hands (or other parts of the body) to rushes of energy (plus or minus twitching) to the whole body being filled with pleasurable energy. The experience is usually subtle but I can focus on it and make it more intense. In certain forms of meditation there’s less activity in the parietal lobes of the brain, which maintain our spatial sense, and this leads to these experiences. It is good to know that I got company. That quieting is a good sign in terms of meditation. I dont meditate much nor regularly. It’s very unlikely that meditation is going to lead to migraines. As a child I had what I assume were night terrors. And when you say “I was disappointed to read that this article wasn’t written by a Buddhist who experiences these phenomena” I’m not sure what you mean. Thank you so much for such valuable information. Strange as it seems I’m worried I will fall in love with the world and loose ‘myself’ :) It therefore makes sense that love is the next unfolding of ‘awakening’. I’d be interested to know how you get on. Thanks. Or instead, learn where we are coming from: Buddhist leaders and meditation instructors tend to focus on all the trouble we students may have with meditating. A little bit of research could really help these kiddos. But was amazing experience, I also started to get a tingle sensation all over my body and this happened for quite sometime, also It was just darkness with a white small dot in the distance can anyone explain that? Hi, I am new to meditation. It feels very real, like my body is expanding beyond itself and sometimes I feel tempted to open my eyes and double check. Nothing to be afraid about the last one, if you need to breathe the body will remind you of it. Stage 4 – Cultivating metta towards a “difficult person”, When meditation seems to stir up negative emotion, Stage 5 – Cultivating metta toward all sentient beings, Balancing the metta & mindfulness meditations. I don’t think I’m special or finding enlightenment ;p I was honestly curious as to why, when I was finally calm and relaxed, something ripped me from it. However, the dominant experience was that of a huge bubble of peace and clarity of nothing. This sounds like the unhelpful, dream-like kind of nimitta, so it’s probably not taking you anywhere, but is just mildly distracting. As i focused on my body, i didn’t saw or felt my whole LEFT body side, my right side felt heavy. I feel tired and sleepy most of the time. That’s one of the goals, Lot. I have to confess it’s often rather tedious having long, rambling, “colorful” descriptions of people’s meditations, especially when they don’t even get around to saying what meditation they’re doing. since i started i have also noticed my skin has changed, its smooth with no spots. I’ve just been on vacation and haven’t had a chance to log on and see the comments queue. I’ve really no idea why, I’m afraid. I had an experience one early morning, when I got a feeling that some one has entered my body. Some nights I get an itch in silly places which is so distracting it puts me off meditating the kind that twitches your whole body. Doors seem ordinary but it’s only because I’ve seen them so many times. Here, we describe causes and treatments for a feeling of pressure in the head. Vangelis- how to I learn about the 4 Brahmaviharas? When I did, the sensation was very heightened, with much more clarity than a normal touch sensation. There occurs some pressure and changes in the feeling of the forehead. Don’t worry about it. During the meditation, I feel tingling in my hands and feet. At one point ( not sure which stage ) I had the strange sensation of my mind being stuck/jammed. Usually when “something happens” during meditation, I feel great peace, or else a feeling of a wiser, loving presence turning inside me, though not separating. If you don’t want people’s opinions then perhaps it’s best not to ask for them? or is it just your body that is feeling it. So pay attention to nimittas (and learn to distinguish them from samāpattis). Hateful words could come lovingly, and Love can come across very stern. That’s all the image means, really. It’s like I’m living in my head most of the time. The flow of piti that you’re talking about may well constitute a “nimitta,” or an indication that you’re getting close to jhana. Our normal sense of spatial orientation and separation is lost. Any help would be more than appreciated. Bodhipaska, For the first time during meditation, I immediately picked up the sound of chanting. I love you brother, Bodhipaksa! So don't attach to the negative notions just see that it is there. What you’re describing sounds quite serious, and you need to seek solid support rather than just ask questions on a blog. Sometimes it happens that there is a moment during a sit, when the type of experience changes in a way that can be hard to describe (but I’ll try anyway). I like your attitude. The energy inside my body (arms, spine, stomach, neck, legs, genitals mostly etc.) I was home alone today and I decided to do a little meditation before I get to working on my dissertation. And now I know it’s possible to be whole. It’s probably not a neurological disease, but one of the “samāpatti” experiences I’ve discussed above. I’m just being struggling which the choosing of my mantra, i still didn’t find the right one for me, the one that i will fully concentrate, any advice about i can put myself in right path to chose it? You don’t mention what kind of meditation you’re doing, where you learned, or what your teacher has said about this. Namaste, during meditation would you say that chants or tones via vocal cords would be a distraction or a way to channel your energy? I was so relaxed Then i seen a small black hand grabbed my fingers on my right hand. Plz help me why it’s happening to me , is it evil spirits , good spirits or is this my mind playing with me . I was in deep meditation and I felt a ripple like a sound wave …. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all the questions people such as myself are having. I’ve never participated in one myself, and so I don’t really know what they teach or hoe it might lead to symptoms like this. Next time you’re walking down the street, catch yourself in motion and notice that there are no voluntary instructions being given to the body. His companion said, “He’s telling us there’s another entrance around the corner.” So they headed off in that direction and the guard smiled and nodded. I was sleepy and then something happened.I watched my mind and my thoughts as if they are object, as if they are not me anymore. During my sit I saw a bright white/yellow circle shape flash of light in between my eyebrows (closed eye meditation). So try seeing if you can accept them. Anyways.. it was interesting enough to have me googling for an answer lol.. Im chalking it up as a possible electrical impulse through my nervous system. I feel there is some kind of knot behind my throat and it pains sometimes. It feels like my subjective filter is momentarily turned off and I’m no longer projecting my conditioned associations and feelings of order, meaning and familiarity onto the world. Anyway, keep on going! My post is also about fear based experience like most of them. All the best. If I focus on the breath it sort of anchors me and acts as a vessel. Also the most weird thing about it, was I didnt feel like i was ‘above’ my body, I just felt like I wasnt In it and I was trying to stop the meditation but I just physically couldn’t because I felt like I was being drawn in further.. it seems to be my own eye (the left one) looking at me and blinking normally. When I meditate sometimes I feel like some energy is pushing me to the side, or my body is twisted. Paying attention to phosphenes is relaxing, but it’s not recommended for meditation because it leads to a dreamy unfocused state and not to alertness and mindfulness. Regards kamal. It can be see as just a fact. Further exploration should be interesting, but I have no pressure to push anything.. You can also subscribe without commenting. And I also feel a lot of other “stuff” like patterns surrounding me (also overwhelming). Do feel free to let me know how you get on. And once I am in meditation for 20-30 mins, I can easily trigger the stiffness in any of my fingers at will followed by the sensation of coolness in body which I DON’T understand a bit.