So I've recently tried some jhana practice. I was able to have good concentration, feel some absorption, and joy. I can't say for sure which jhana I got to yet. But my question is, after meditating this way I have these dreams that are a little crazy. During these dreams (I've had them more than once) I'm almost half awake, and can feel strong tingling sensations, this "energy" (for lack of a better word) in my body. I'm highly certain the sensations exists not only in the dream but in reality. Because it is strong and it wakes me up after some time. The part of my mind that is awake can direct and control this "energy". And it translates into my dream as me controlling physical things using this energy. Such as shaping things with my hands without touching them, or just flying.

I'm trying not to read too much into them. But the last time I had them was a long time ago when apparently I was also doing jhana practice, but without knowing what it was. And yesterday after a long break (more than a year - during which I did mostly just mindfullness) as soon as I tried jhana practice again, this time knowingly, I immediately got the same thing. There is definitely a correlation. So I'm just curious if other people have had similar experiences and if such things are common with jhana practice.

Given your other thread, I would note I had something broadly similar when I was going through A&P.

I can relate. Last year after about 3 months of insight practice, i had a half awake experience of a huge vortex of energy that felt like it was sucking my ego up into a tube above my body. It felt like I was dying , and was a little scary as well as exhilarating. I woke up completely and my body was tingling with energy, which continued for the next couple of days. I'm pretty sure it was me re-crossing the A&P(first time was a decade previous, outside of practice), as it was soon followed by a week of existential angst. I have similar experiences here and there, but that one was the most profound. I'm not sure what to make of them really.

Two possibilities--

Vibrations, stuff happening in sleep, etc is typical of A&P, especially if it's occurring automatically. It's involuntary in a sense.

Second possibility is that you are going OBE in your sleep and experiencing pre-exit vibrations. Confusingly, this is also associated with A&P, but strictly speaking it is a siddhi and can occur without any insight training.

I guess the big question is this-- is reality arising and passing very quickly? Are you "learning" anything at a deep nonconceptual level about the nature of reality?

Any way I can explore these more?



Could you elaborate on what exactly you mean by it? The sensations are very tingly. Tingling has a quality of as if made of tiny particles that are bubbling (or ants crawling), and I think it is high frequency. Maybe it could be said that the sensation is made up of very small sensations that arise and pass away quickly. But not in a way that is greatly different from any other tingling any one else can feel. Other than that there is no specific experience of reality arising and passing very quickly.


I'm learning that such sensations exist and they can influence your dreams in strange ways, if that counts. I don't know what to do with that information though.

I appreciate the comments.

Certainly, it's called astral projection and there's tons of stuff about it on the internet.

Check out the book Astral Dynamics, and check out the forum here:

http://www.astraldynamics.com.au/forum.php

There's also a big online community called the Astral Pulse:

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/

Be sure to check out Robert Monroe's three books, especially Journeys Out of the Body, his stuff is great. I think you can download pdfs for free but I don't remember where to find them off the top of my head.

Also read the section about the Powers in MCTB.


I won't be able to give you a clear answer because I've only A&Ped once, and am currently bouncing around pre-path. But the easiest way I can describe it, is that reality seems to be shimmering, and this shimmering is composed of little particles arising and vanishing very very very quickly.

If this is A&P, just bring mindfulness to the fore and note what is happening, and the process will unfold from there

Your description of being "half awake", with tingling sensations, then later flying sounds like you are entering into an OBE exit or lucid dream sleep paralysis which is often preliminary to entering into the lucid dream.  Flying is a strong indication that you are in one of these phases, it is as common as walking is in waking reality.

As has already been described, 'the vibrations' as they are called, are commonly felt before an OBE or lucid dream type experience.  I used to be heavily involved in the OBE community way back when.  From what I've been able to figure out and also by what is commonly suspected by others, what IMO probably happens is that when you feel the vibrations, you are shifting your attention to something you normally don't notice.  I suspect there are always vibrations and probably they do change tempo and what not to some extent, but they are always there, just that during certain activities you are noticing them whereas in most waking states, your attention is elsewhere.  So IMO, it's not that you suddenly experience the vibrations/tingling, it's that you suddenly notice them and/or a change in them.  Also, I do personally believe that our attention travels hither and yon all night, during different types of sleep, REM, deep, whatever, I suspect just means a different type of attention.  That which occurs in deep sleep I think is just really so alien to waking consciousness that it doesn't/can't get remembered easily because it just doesn't translate to how our brain works in normal waking consciousness, whereas during REM dream state, that consciousness is more like here so we are better able to remember some of it.  You remember the dreams most easily because they are the most like waking state here.  The trick is not really to go out of body, you shift your attention every night to other places and things so you are always doing that in a sense, but the trick is to remember it later when you are awake here what you were doing there when you were asleep. 

Anyway, some say not to get too distracted by all the flashy stuff like OBEs and whatnot and I think that makes sense for people who are already dedicated to meditation for the long haul and already believe in it.  If you spend a lot of time looking at the scenery, although it may be pretty, your progress down the road may well be much slower.  But for me, it did help me see that there was something beyond what is commonly accepted as fact by society.  It gave me a reason to wander down a strange road, so in that way, I think such kinds of weird things can sometimes have their benefits for some as they can serve as a kind of encouragement and mind expander.