After 3 days anapana samadhi practice:

1 visited by diamond point of light frequently but it never hung around - nimitta?

2 during session in my room: hot lips, then my attention drawn away, something shifted / slipped and then gentle leg and arm spasms followed by very contented feeling (sukha?) (filling my body) - vitakka and vicara present. Concentration clear felt could stay there but then gong went for next session so I had to come out - 1st Jhana?

After 7 days - vipassana practice but doing occasional samadhi session in my room:

3 as number two above but then something else happened. I felt a internal movement then realised I was at the centre of an expanding circle awareness felt clearer and sukha / piti slipped away. Then the gong went for next group session and I had to come out of it - something / nothing?

After 8 days during group sitting practicing scanning

4 various miscellaneous phenomena inc; light show behind eyes, heavy pressure behind forehead, distortions of size and positions of parts of body, and lots of pain in back, shoulders and stomach - ?

5 a patch on my face about 1 cm square dissolved - a place of emptiness arose there but paradoxically filled with vibrating strings I had thought that 'this was not self, could not be self' and for 1st time realised anatta experientially rather than intellectually. I also thought if my whole body was like that I would be but 'there would be no I - cool'. The hole / empty space lasted about 3-5 mins - something / nothing?

Anyone know of a good critique or comparison of Goenka Vippassana technique compared to others - advantages / disadvantages.

Help putting experiences into context - sorting the wheat (if any) from the chaff.

Nobody with anything to say?

Pain is good: did you have the experience of having pain but sticking with it until it disappeared/dissolved? Learning to do that over and over again everywhere with everything was the most important thing leading to stream entry, in my experience. Then it becomes clear that these "meditation pains" are just nervous tension getting released. Pain is your friend, in a way.

I got the sensation of expanding space in a Goenka retreat also, and later on. I can't replicate it at will. I also had it on the days preceding and following stream-entry, but I can't attach any specific purpose or meaning to it.

Check the conversatio on Kenneth Folk´s web site on Scanning VS Noting. Might be helpful. Sounds like you are on the right track. I´dkeep doing what you were already doing!

http://kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/thread/3676076/Scanning+and+Noting+Compared+and+Contrasted