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| i don't practice pranayama exclusively without some other posture very often
but
if i'm ever really stressed--it is a must--but only to relax and feel peaceful
or
if i just want to re-energize my practice I'll do this one exercise that has always made this 'vision' of a ever blooming flower/lotus appear so that I don't see anything else until the room comes pulsing back and the lotus fades away......
Has anyone else ever had this happen?
What is that?
It's neat, but sorta strange, too.
I don't do it often, because I really don't know what's happening when it occurs, but it is very predictable, and has happened the same way for years and years.
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| I close my eyes in pranayama but I regularly see a bright orange sun - the mind just opens up I guess.
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| Some sort of visions or lights are common when you practice Pranayama regularly. There are however somethings to remember. I know some people who have seen lights or feel that there is tingling sensation in the spine just because something like this is mentioned in the books :-). Such visions are of course false. However, if one is practicing pramayama regularly then the mind becomes clear and calm day by day and visions often come. In advance stage you may even see some future events in such visions. Of course this is my personal openion and others may not agree with it completely :-) |
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| I was wondering what kind of pranayama you were doing? And what color the lotus flower is ...How many pedals? Have you checked a chart on the relationship to the different chakras and your vision?
From a western stand point a vision is subjective to the person's social influences. From an eastern stand point a vision has to do with the certain chakra that is being freed up or channelling through your meridian channels. Or it relates to acertain diety(but isn't a diey a social construct?). What I find fascinating is that the same vision will appear to most people when they open up a certain chakra in question. It doesn't sound like coincidence.
I've had two visions in 'meditating'.One was during a long meditation and yoga 'marathon' and the vision of an island showed its self in in a vast body of water.
The other time was when I was trying to astral project and the image of a bearded man's face with long blonde hair descended down from a light above me. His face was not unlike the image of the western idea of Christ , his expression was peaceful and benevolent. Very soothing. He just ascended back up to where he came from after a few seconds of looking at me. I came to after that.
I did have one more when I was meditating, a lot of colors sort of bubbling up from the bottom of my eye lids. This was disturbing; because I just read a book by Carlos Castenada and it mentioned in the book that that type of vision is spawned by the demon world. I didn't do that type of med. again, but it may well have been just the book's influence on me.
Visions shouldn't be fixated on or expected or desired. Let it come and go if it does. Just a guess passing through. Most visions and feelings of qi or pranayama don't mean anything except that your body is waking up from being closed up for so many years.
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| well i just did the breathing that was in my yoga book that Swami Vishnu-devananda said to do
.....
and then a throbbing pulsating feeling, accompanied with a nearly all incompassing visual of what looks like the lotus chakra thing
but it was like blooming from the inside out, flowing from the center out the whole time the throbbing pulsation(TP) was going on
then after the TP was over i just felt really 'high'
it's weird, and i don't do it very often, probably five times over the past 16 years, but every time it is exactly the same
so I figured other folks probably had similar experiences, yes? |
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| I've read about the lotus, specifically the lotus in Kundalini meditations, and also In some of Jung's writings, I believe it was(long time ago). But, I've never experienced the lotus myself. Personally, I'd not focus on the crown chakra, if I were you, unless you want a kundalini awakening. It sounds like that's where you're heading, I don't know the kind of meditation you're doing; but Gopi Krishna experienced the lotus budding over his crown chakra. I don't have the book with me now, but as I remember, that was the beginning of his kundalini awakening. Hurt really hurt bad and almost killed him. Good book though. It's called, 'Living with Kundalini'. |
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| holy crap--i doubt anything of that sort of super duper stuff is going on
i was figuring that it is some sort of archetype vision that happens to everybody
it's because of this sort of thing that i'm seriously considering going to one of Swami Vishnu-devananda's ashrams here in the USA
it comes because of a breathing technique he recommends to "prove" the authenticity of yoga's power and anytime i need to invigorate my excitement for my practice I'll do the breathing exercise, and WOW everytime it's so WEIRD
it's the same thing everytime
like everyone's body does the same thing
that's why he wrote it
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Location: Upstate NY | When in deep Pranayama.......Kapalabhati..at times I feel a pulsing at my ajna chakra with visions of an orange sun or flower................ |
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| Ravi - 2006-05-11 8:15 PM
When in deep Pranayama.......Kapalabhati..at times I feel a pulsing at my ajna chakra with visions of an orange sun or flower................
Kapalabhati..yeah!!! that's it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
for me the pulsing takes over my sight! it's like i can't see anything except the flower
and the flower is opening up forever and ever
it is soooooooooooooo intense!!!!!!!!!!
Ravi, i don't know if it will be soon but i really am seriously considering coming to the Ashram.  |
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| Yogis call it Yoga Nidra and scientists call it Hypnagogia but it’s really the same thing. You are lying on your back with your eyes closed in savasana after a vigorous yoga class and suddenly you see a flash of color or maybe even a very detailed image. Maybe you hear a student near you quietly sob in grief. What the heck is going on?
Hypnagogia is a scientific phenomenon that has been studied by philosophers and scientists since the time of Aristotle. In the brief transition between wakefulness and sleep many people experience a state of consciousness called the hypnagogic state. In the hypnagogic state, images, sounds and other unexplained sensations may be perceived. You may see splashes of colors, geometric shapes, landscapes, or even people. You may hear spoken words or sounds even though no one is speaking. You may feel a handless touch. Emotions may suddenly emerge. Hypnagogia is different than dreaming. Dreams are rarely actually observed. You recall the dream, remembering details of the dream the best you can before it disappears forever. In Hypnagogia you are conscious of the phenomena as it happens. Your mind is in both the dream state and the conscious state at the same time.
It's pretty cool stuff and it is for real. |
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| thank you! |
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Location: London, England | Hi Don,
Thanks for that information-often people are very scared by these experiences, and it is great to be able to reassure them by virtue of the fact that it normal rather than abnormal.
Do you find that your training in optomology has given you any useful insights into the techniques of yoga practice? i have a degree in chiropractic, which i found very enlightening on a neuromusculoskeletal level, obviously. I use the head righting reflexes and the oculomotor reflexes to try to get the students to use the eye focus to improve body position and movement.just wondered if your training had thrown up many interesting things
Nick |
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| Thank you, DrDon, for the interesting information. I get my best ideas during hypnagogia, yet it is a vulnerable state to be in. At least that's what I feel.
Do we experience hypnagogia during meditation or do we surpass it? How does hypnagogia relate to alpha - theta states? ( I hope I got my states right)
Thanks in advance for your answer, DocDon. |
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| Meditation starts in Alpha, quickly drops into Beta and after a period of time might or might not drop you into Theta. Thats the Yoga Nidra or hypnogogia. If your in Delta your sleep. I personally manage to get to Theta in 2/3 of my daily meditations. In 1/3 of my meditations, I see simple objects. And in 1/3 I see complex images, usually of people. |
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| DocDon, do you think hypnogogia has anything to do with a kundalini awakening or shaktipat? |
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| I don't think so. Hypnagogia is a calming release of the higher consciousness. The Kundilini phonemena seems to be just the oppisite. It's a super exicited release of the autonomic nervous system. |
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Location: London, England | Hi Docdon,
Which part of the autonomic nervous system? I mean, i would think that the rush of emotion on feeling a surge of the parasympathetic nervous system might be as great as that felt during an upsurge inthe sympathetic nervous system?
Take care
Nick |
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| Hi Nick:
I don't know. I'm more a hypnagogic guy than a Kundilini guy. I have been studying hypnagogia pretty thoroughly. The actual neurological event of Kundilini would be a great subject to research. Let me know what you learn
Don |
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| I don't think a rush of emotion is necessarily fealt in a surge of the parasympathitec nervous system. That would be subjective emotional response on the individual. |
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Location: London, England | Hi Doug,
I don't think it necessarily is either-but it could be-let me hit you with a fact that I personally find hard to believe-but I've read it in a few places of repute-There are more ways for the human nervous system to be connected than there are atoms in the universe. There! I can't believe it either! but let's assume it's true. Just trying to comprehend these kinds of figures (100 million neurons in the human brain) makes my brain crash!
This makes for a infinite degree of variation in what we feel-perception and sensation are not the same thing-some people like being tickled, others hate it, some like bitter, others like sweet.
In other words, what makes you feel relaxed?Jumping out of an aeroplane?Or lying on your back in a swimming pool?
One thing that doesn't do yoga practicioners asny favours in the eyes of the medical world is that many have jumped on the supposed divide between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Rather than look at them as two opponenents in a tug of war, we should see them as two men operating a two-handled saw-they are co-operating, not fighting.
My memories of the study of the ANS are a bit sketchy to say the least, but it's complex to say the least. The receptors in a target organ will inhibit or excite depending on whether they are alpha or beta, and this means that parasympathetic does not necessarily mean "relax."
I dont want to study anatomy and physiology all over, so I think I 'll stop there!
Just remember-you are the most complex thing in this universe! There!That makes me feel good , don't know about you lot!
Nick |
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| Very interesting point Nick; yes I'd have to agree with you on what little knowledge of the symp. and parasymp. nerv. systems I have. Mostly self-education. But What I'm basing it(my previous logue) on is my experiences on energy channeling up the governor channels and various qi-gung and yoga books and the feeling during a meditation. I believe that the emotional stimulous is a reaction to our experiences of our nervous systems and our thoughts come quickly after,or in other cases our thoughts can come before and we react to those. You can separate your emotions from a sympathetic and paras. response. Traumatized people do that all the time- a deffense mechanism. As you emntioned, I think it depends on what a person needs to be whole at that time( I could be dead wrong). Some people need to jump out of a plane, others need to take a walk, and we become whole emotionally. The more we do it the more our emotions get used to the stimulation of the event and the less our emotions react. It'slike living on a lake, if you don't make an effort to be conscious of it emotionally we don't notice it so much, but the transformation is still taking place. Taoists believe there are eight energy bodies that an individual posseses. The most dense in vibrational level is the physical body. The second is the chi body, then the emotional body, the mental, psychic, causal, the body of the individuality and the body of the Tao. The higher vibratory energies will effect all the lower energy bodies, but the lower energy bodies don't always effect much more than two energy bodies lighter than itself. So, a physical reaction may not always affect an emotion. It's old knowledge, but it seems to make sense to me.
I think doing hatha yoga works from the bones and on up to the highest levels energetically.
Personally, I've never experienced the blossuming lotus. And I wonder how an architypal symbol, as hynagogia, pervades many consciousnesses. And why is it a reaction of a calming release?
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| When I practice pranayama I don't see a lotus, but I do see a predictable set of visuals. After 30 seconds or so I can see a bright yellow light which begins at my stomach area and narrows up towards my face. It continues up past my face and is also in front of my body. I also see a kind of purple color around my body. Lately, I see less purple and a white ring around my body. I don't like to just meditate, but if I continue for a while then the pulsating begins and a bluish energy comes from wherever I concentrate on. If I concentrate on my forehead, the energy pulses from there. If I concentrate on my right hand the energy pulses from there. After my one samahdi like experience four years ago I started trying pranayama and that's when I started seeing those things. At first I thought it was really cool, but now I'm kind of unimpressed with it. Now if only I could see my past lives, then I would be excited.
Edited by trikotripod 2006-06-11 11:13 AM
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breathing and visions
