Hi, when in a meditative state I see bursts of intense light, they appear just above the brow, my eyes are closed. These are yellowish to white, just little globes which sit for a second or so then disappear immediately, they don't fade away. After a time my whole field of vision becomes saturated in a deep mauve/violet colour. This has been happening for months now. Don't know what its about. Any ideas?

Thanks, Heather.

Hi Heather,

Could be a lot of stuff, what's your practice like at present? What sort of stuff have you done in the past?

All the best,
- Tommy

All I'm doing is nonfocused awareness; sitting-allowing-observing.

Intense light generally arises at the stage of the A&P.

That said, pure jhana practice also can cultivate intense light, and then the width and other qualities one feels and the sequence in which they arose help sort out which one. Jhanic light tents to be more stable once one gets into it. Them arising and disappearing immediately reinforces my impression that these are A&P related. That said, vision becoming saturated with color is more pure samatha-esque.

Some people are more naturally inclined to see light than others, but just being interested in light and colors can make these experiences more frequent and likely.

Repetition tends to dig channels deeper, so seeing lights more often will make it more likely to see lights more often.

What is your goal in meditation, and how does perceiving light relate to that? Further, what influences and traditions are you drawing from primarily?

Daniel

Hi Daniel, I'm not sure what "Arising & Passing" actually refers to (unless to all phenomena). I've been doing this sitting-being aware for about a year now. The little lights and the bigger sheet of light began from the beginning. I have no influences as such, not even a christian background. I spoke with a guy before ever considering anything deeper than normal day to day life and found him very curious as he had a real impact without being in anyway forceful or suggestive. He got me into "allowing awareness to be" and generally dismisses any questions concerning feelings, perceptions, etc, with a smile. He only ever suggests that I "understand it myself by allowing it to be totally", problem is my thoughts keep chattering on and on!

Ah, the Arising and Passing Away is a standard stage of insight practice development.

Look around the wiki and various posts for more information, such as in MCTB and the first post found on recent posts, namely diagnosing the A&P.