I had a sensation of floating whem I meditated!

scout108

I am a meditation novice, however after a warm bath, I laid down to meditate (I have a condition that prevents me from meditating in a sitting position), and after about 5 minutes I fell asleep. Didn't mean to, but it's Friday, what can I say?! However, when I woke up, I had this very pleasant feeling of floating. it was as if my mind and head were there, but i didn't have a body at all. Can anyone please explain why this might happen? Thanks

Mountains

Don't worry about explaining it. Sleep is not the same as meditation, which is why closing the eyes is not recommended. Sleep is fine for what it is, but it's not meditation. It sounds to me like you were just very relaxed when you woke up.

Try sitting in a chair and keeping your eyes open to meditate if you can't sit in a more traditional position. Lying down facilitates napping, which isn't the point of the exercise.

federica

yes, it's very common, don't let it bother you or distract you.
It happens to me a lot. Apparently a medical/scientific explanation is that through extreme relaxation, your brain is at a different relaxation level to your body. Hence you feel a bit 'disjointed'. It soon passes.

You feel back to normal, right now, don't you?
See? I told you it passes!

Bodhgaya

I usually associate that feeling with the 'laughing gas' at a dentist office.

Dakini

Fascinating, Federica.

I, too, have always meditated lying down, Scout, due to health issues, though I don't fall asleep. The chakras are still all lined up when you're prone, so it's ok. Carry on

CoffeeBean

Usually like that before morning coffee.

ShiftPlusOne

Just wondering, floating up or sinking down?

Sabre

Dear scout,

This happens when you abandon the bodily senses. You totally forget about your body and there is only the mind. This is natural and you'll have this more often. I know it is kind of strange.

But this probably wasn't a real sharp meditation and can also have been a delusion kind of thing, because you just got out of sleep. Then the mind needs to attach to the body again or something. Some people also have experienced being unable to move their body when they just wake up, but being able to feel it.

You can meditate lying down, but don't do it after a hot bad on a friday night, because then it is called falling asleep, lol. Just sit on a chair, it is very hard to meditate lying down especially as a novice.

Sabre
:vimp:

Starduster

I like to meditate lying down, when its time for bed because there isn't anything else I should be doing, and fewer distractions around. I have a lot of time to work on it then, uninterupted, about 8 hours. Find it helpful also to put the pillows under the feet instead of the head. And if I fall asleep that's okay too. Like I said elsewhere, you can set you snooze alarm to help keep you awake if you want. If I fall asleep, well so, meditation is a good way to fall asleep.

Cloud

Good quick tip... if you come across some teaching, or even anything in your life, and you feel like you're starting to put the pieces of some puzzle together, meditate right then. Allow yourself to go with it, with a calm and focused mind.

formermonkJohn

i was taught by an advanced monk meditation teacher to go "out of body" to where you literally feel you are floating feet or even hundreds of feet above your body, quite wonderful bliss experience but very hard to reproduce alone at home, the monk blew me away as when i was first feeling out of body several feet above my body he read my mind and said " you are feeling a floating feeling, this is not important, just keep meditating". Personally i see it for me as evidence that there is a soul or spirit within that can go out of the body and still have consciousness, but those are "fighting words" here on new buddhist!!!!

Cloud

How about thinking that nothing is truly separate, and because there is no soul or self, there's no reason that the perspective or view can't come from another direction. After all, how would a soul see the body? If there was a soul would it not be energy/consciousness alone? Where do eyes come in for it to see in the same way a human body does? Doesn't make much sense. I'm not being serious at all, obviously (lol).

formermonkJohn

the buddha told us to test his ideas through experience, my experience propels me in quite the opposite direction, cloud, that's all.(with regard the soul/spirit)

Cloud

Ah, but the same experience can be interpreted in different ways. This would lead to the need for further testing, as obviously the arguments "I think this..." and "Yeah so? I think this instead..." are equally valid! Therefore they are useless.

formermonkJohn

kinda like a seventh day adventist(no soul) argueing with a catholic, there are different "churches" within buddhism too, doesnt mean you have to consider all opinions "useless".

Cloud

@formermonkjohn, That wasn't my point exactly. The point was simply that if two people can view the same experience in completely different ways, then that experience alone can not constitute proof for either person. It would mean it's 50/50 if it happens to be one or the other; then again it could be a third, un-thought-of option! See what I mean?

If I say a color is red, and you say it's green, and we both believe our own view... then all we have is that belief, which we either cling to or investigate to see in fact what the truth of the matter is. We could argue 'til the cows come home, just for someone else to walk by and say "you're both wrong ya know... it's clearly blue!"

As far as the situation we discussed, I for one choose not to believe either case at the moment, since I can't prove the mechanics of out-of-body experiences or the existence of a soul. Maybe you think you can, or then again, maybe you just "believe". This is only meant to point out the insubstantial nature of either claim, not to say I'm right in it not being soul-out-of-body (I decline that argument entirely).

formermonkJohn

if einstein looks and says e=mc2 and someone else looks and says e does not equal anything, does that mean the're both right, or as you say its 50/50 so the're both wrong, i think it possible that you haven't even experienced going out of body, but you're still making an arguement. your second two paragraphs i basically agree with, though, cloud. personally if i did not believe in a continued existence after death, i would most likely live this life a lot more recklessly, and that would be bad, for you it must be different, though. no problem

Sabre

To each his own views, of course. But John, you're stating that your experience are opposite to the Buddha's and maybe that is not true.

If you feel like you go out of the body, but still percieve things, that can be possible of course. You then left the body behind and focus on the mind. But don't forget the Buddha also told that conciousness of the mental states is still a form of conciousness and therefore is subject to rising and falling like all things. Just the fact you can be concious of something without your five senses interfering doesn't imply that this conciousness is 'yours' and is going to last forever.

rainbowwarrior

how much of it is perception for not to say hallucination?

rainbowwarrior

how much of it is perception for not to say hallucination?

Sabre

I think you can't make a distinction between hallucination and perception. If you hallucinate you are still perceiving something. And all perception filters the raw experience.

Somebody percieves a carrot as being disgusting, somebody else will think it is delicious. So what is it really? It can't be both at the same time. So it's just the taste of a carrot with different perceptions added on top.

That's als why when the police questions 10 witnesses of a crime, they always get 10 slightly different descriptions while every 10 of them is sure they have seen the real thing.

Also on a more subtle level that's why the perception of mental states can be explained differently by different people while they did experience the same thing. At a certain bliss Christians will be sure they saw Jesus while Catholics claim they saw Mary. Buddhist might say they saw the heart of the lotus or whatever. But did they really see it or was it added by the mind later on?

Was it a soul really going out of the body or was it just a perception of the mind that there is such thing as a soul that got out of the body? Who'll say.

John may believe what he wants of course. I'm not opposing his view and I don't call it hallucinating. I'm convinced he really experienced this. I'm just saying that maybe it is not directly opposing the word of the Buddha as he said.

formermonkJohn

Hi Sabre,i wasn't saying anything about being opposite in experience to the buddha, the same, maybe. i experimented with a lot of drugs in the 80s and i know what hallucinations are like, this feeling of going out of body is very different, a much more real natural feeling, (and happened many times to me only when free of drugs) if you haven't ever experienced it its kinda hard to pass judgement on it, not saying that you are.

i was just introducing the idea that there are meditation techniques that experience this, and its kind like floating, it is definetly above the body and not below, and for the believer, me in this case, strong evidence of the spirit separate from the body.

i also believe a lot of dreams are bona fide real out of body experiences in different realms or planets even, ive had dreams about buddhist heavens as well. but this is another topic entirely, the common thread being my evidence for the spirit being able to break free of the body, as at death i believe.