My unusual meditation experience

bookworm

Last night i meditated and i was in a really deep meditation my mind was really still i focused on my breath and eventually i could barely feel myself breathing i felt as though i was holding my breath, i knew that was normal, and as i continued to meditate everything was spinning really really fast, it was like i was caught in a tornado and then all of a sudden while everything was still spinning i felt this excitement rising, it wasn't happiness it was excitement and my eyelids wanted to pry to open by themselves i struggled to keep them closed and this excitement made me want to burst out laughing for some reason, i tried not to cling to it but i couldn't help it

eventually everything stopped spinning and my excitement disappeared and my mind was still and then i gave up and then i opened my eyes after an almost hour of meditation and that was that. I felt a little disappointed not being able to attain anything in my experience. Did anyone one on here ever have the same experience i did?

Sabre

Hi,

I didn't have that exact experience, but similar things can happen. I felt the earth bending, myself sinking into the floor and things like that. Many people report similar things.

The thing is when you are withdrawn from the senses, they may act weird. It's just perception doing some weird stuff, though.

From here: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe10.html

People experience all manner of varied phenomena in meditation. Some people get itches. Others feel tingling, deep relaxation, a feeling of lightness or a floating sensation. You may feel yourself growing or shrinking or rising up in the air. Beginners often get quite excited over such sensations. As relaxation sets in, the nervous system simply begins to pass sensory signals more efficiently. Large amounts of previously blocked sensory data can pour through, giving rise to all manner of unique sensations. It does not signify anything in particular. It is just sensation. So simply employ the normal technique. Watch it come up and watch it pass away. Don't get involved.

With metta,
Sabre

bookworm

That actually makes perfect sense thanks for the info @Sabre

Sabre

@bookworm, glad to be of some help. People say it is a sign of some mindfulness building up and I tend to agree with that. So it is a good sign, but not something to try and recreate in itself. But in my eyes you can use it as a reminder on how unreliable perceptions really are.

bookworm

That explains the dizzy feeling what about the excitement that i felt? was it one the five kinds of joy (piti) one feels in samatha meditation in the absorption factors

Weak rapture: only causes piloerection.
Short rapture: evocates some thunder "from time to time".
Going down rapture: explodes inside the body, like waves.
Exalting rapture: "makes the body jump to the sky".
Fulfilling rapture: seems to be a huge flood of a mountain stream

bookworm

Either way i suppose it doesn't matter, i'll investigate it more as i continue to meditate again later, it wont me to attach myself to it

Woah93

Unusual sensory information usually happens in the visual field for me. After the 20 minute mark I usually start to see bright flashes of colour and light with my eyes closed and they persist even if I open them slightly. It's like waves of light pulsating in my vision every 5 seconds, accompanied with a pleasant tingling in my hands and face.

Jeffrey

Wow these sound cool. I've only had 2 amazing meditations with special effects of tirelessness (6 hour meditation broken with walking) and the other I had my head filled with pleasure. Those could have been dopamine from my illness.

anataman

@woah93 said

Woah93 said:

Unusual sensory information usually happens in the visual field for me. After the 20 minute mark I usually start to see bright flashes of colour and light with my eyes closed and they persist even if I open them slightly. It's like waves of light pulsating in my vision every 5 seconds, accompanied with a pleasant tingling in my hands and face.

Hi @woah93 I get something very similar to this during meditation when my monkey mind has gone to sleep or disappeared for a while because I have not given it the attention it has demanded. I like to keep my eyes open throughout my sitting mediation, after all I can't shut off my hearing, smelling, tasting, or touch senses in the same way.

During this state there is the observance of what you might describe as slow rhythmic pulsing ripples or cloudbursts of an intense bright glowing light that spreads from within, across and through the forms of my visual perceptions. This is quite a deep experience for me as when I have reflected on this observation during meditation that this is perhaps a manifestation and direct understanding of 'form is emptiness' which is inseparable from the mind's true nature which is 'pure and light awareness', I have never felt attached to that experience or wanted it to go away…

But I know some bugger out there is going to tell me I am doing something wrong, and all I am doing is identifying with and getting attached to the experience.

I've also had a lot of other sometimes good and sometimes bad experiences - nihilism, pain, anxiety, excitement, fear, bliss, tingling, numbness, discomfort, love, doubt, hatred, self-loathing, 'get out of here!' etc… and so on, but all these have generally brought some kind of insight or understanding… If not there's always someone who can comment, or has commented on these experiences somewhere, but the experience I have tried to describe above only comes when I behave in a certain way. I just don't behave like that all the time.

:om:

Jeffrey

Trungpa rinpoche said that the experiences are unimportant, but that understanding what they mean is very important. Sorry but I don't know what they mean!

Woah93

Anatman worded it better but yes I get the exact same thing, however I don't really think anything of it rather then my brain being bored because I'm not giving my thoughts the attention they crave so it starts playing tricks on me, it's interesting though as it only seems to happen when you truly quiet the mind, I have noticed that if I get attached or want it to happen it will dissapear.