Head tingling

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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 4:17 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 4:14 PM

Head tingling

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
For the past few months I've been feeling a tingling sensation on or in my head. The tingling is slightly to mildly pleasant, covers a diameter of about 2-5 inches, anywhere from the surface of my skull to maybe 2 inches in, and has happened about everywhere on my head by now. On active days it happens maybe 5 times, and it usually happens at least once a day. The tingling comes on suddenly and lasts about 1-5 seconds. It feels somewhat like chills and somewhat like a tiny packet of bliss pops and radially diffuses a short distance. I haven't noticed a correlation between the times of the tingling and anything else. It seems random.

For a couple months before it started I was doing regular Reichian/Bioenergetic work. After sessions I started to feel energy flowing through my face and (seemingly) eardrums. My orgasms also became less genital-localized and more full-bodied. A few times I felt orgasmic waves reach my face and head. Although, since I've done less bodywork that has stopped.

Meditation-wise my practice has been much less hardcore the past few months. I've mostly stopped formal sits. Most of my practice is daily life stuff, several 10-15 minute 'microhits', experimenting with Direct Path stuff, metta, surrender, etc. I've been through several cycles and baseline shifts that have left 'the Field' a lot more clear, direct, and simple. Path-wise I may be in anagami territory but I really don't know. There have been a lot of shifts.

I have a couple theories about the feeling.

1) This feeling is normal. I just previously had an 'energetic block' preventing the flow to my head.
2) This feeling is abnormal. Most people have an 'energetic block' preventing the flow to the head. I just slightly unblocked mine.
3) This feeling is abnormal. I'm feeling it as a result of my meditation and bodywork. 'Prana'? 'Kundalini'? 'Shakti'? New side effect of A&P?

I've put off making this thread because I figured it was temporary and harmless. But, now that it's happening with a little regularity I'm curious if this is a normal people thing or a normal meditation thing. If anyone's ever experienced something like this, especially regularly, please let me know.
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Not Tao, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:09 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:04 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 995 Join Date: 4/5/14 Recent Posts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response

If this sounds like what it is, try searching for ASMR on youtube and watch some of the movies with headphones on - see if it triggers anything for you.

EDIT: Actually, does it almost feel like a paddlewheel in the center or back of your head?

http://www.ichikung.com/assets/images/IHC_UpperDT.jpg

Does that picture look like how it feels a bit?  I had some weird sensations in my head a while back when I was doing a lot of concentration practice.  It almost felt like brain bubbles, and an arrow through the center with pressure.  I found that image when searching for stuff about the upper dantian, so maybe the taoists have an explanation for you. ^^
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:45 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:45 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
This ASMR thing is bizarre. I've definitely had the experience of my head tingling when someone whispers in my ear, or I hear a clicking sound but these videos aren't doing it for me. Also, my tingling happens with no obvious triggers.

No paddlewheel or bubbly feeling either. You're probably right about the Taoists being able to account for this though
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Dream Walker, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:50 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:50 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 1657 Join Date: 1/18/12 Recent Posts
We all slowly become our avatars..choose one wisely. Looks like your "eye" is opening....don't blink.
Wink,
~D
Derek, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:53 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:53 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
I've read several accounts of head tingling in forums discussing kundalini. It's one of the common symptoms of "Kundalini syndrome," a phenomenon well-known enough on the Internet to have its own Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini_syndrome
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Not Tao, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:55 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:53 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 995 Join Date: 4/5/14 Recent Posts
I've read some speculation that ASMR could be tied to the learning centers of the mind, and watching someone do an intricate task or explain something could set it off as a kind of reward for paying attention.  (Maybe a carryover from childhood?)  They think it also might be tied to grooming, haha, because haircuts seem to be a trigger for some people.

I wouldn't doubt that concentration practice could make it more pronounced or even cause it to happen when it didn't before.  I first read about it when I was trying to figure out what my jhana experiences were - maybe there's a tie-in there...

EDIT: Ah, I see you said you ALSO experienced ASMR, and this new thing wasn't it. Well maybe you answered my second paragraph then, haha.
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:55 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 6:55 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
10/10 on mysterious comment scale. Rhymed and everything
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 7:25 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/23/14 7:25 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
@Derek
Good idea, thanks.

I'm still unsure about kundalini. I have several books on the subject that I've yet to dive into, but from what I gather from the Kashmir Shaivite tradition, kundalini is correlated with but not identical to the progress of insight. Swami Laskhmanjoo goes into excruciating detail about the different ways kundalini can rise, and the different effects depending on how it rises and the beliefs the individual holds in Self Realization in Kashmir Shaivism.

Christopher Hyatt believes that Reichian exercises combined with mindfulness meditation can trigger kundalini awakening and expedite the process. Hyatt studied and practiced Tantra but one wonders what Hyatt is referring to with 'kundalini'. I consider it perfectly possible that there is an insight dimension to 'enlightenment' and then several physio-energetic processes all of which are related. Is the whole physio-energetic process referred to as 'kundalini'? Is the A&P just a stage of kundalini awakening? Is 4th the completion of the kundalini process? It seems like it isn't considering 4th pathers still cycle. If cycling goes on indefinitely does the kundalini process go on indefinitely? Does anyone know of someone who claims not to cycle post 4th?

@Not Tao
I also think ASMR could be several different effects in one. It seems probable to me that almost anyone can experience that sensation if their head is 'energetically free' (whatever that means). I also think it's plausible that many people willingly hypnotize themselves into remembering the sensation and evoking it, or possibly creating it for the first time by focusing on it (still self-hypnosis). If they're searching for ASMR on Youtube they're probably going to cooperate to have the experience.

No this probably isn't it, but it's pretty interesting anyway emoticon
John M, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 5:11 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 4:54 AM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 135 Join Date: 2/11/12 Recent Posts
My early recollection of, well, whatever this is would seem to resemble your own present experience. Brief, pleasant, sporadic tingles and waves -- mostly around the crown, in my case. Tiny raindrops on an otherwise still pool. At the time I attributed it to a pot habit (even though they would emerge when entirely sober), as the sensations weren't unlike the "body trip" that especially good cannabis can impart.

After crossing the A&P for the first time (an event I could just as easily identify with as being kundalini release) the sensations really took on a life of their own. It got wild. Pulsing / drilling sensations across the temples, streams shooting from out of the forehead, etc. I'd sometimes have to look in a mirror to convince myself that nothing was actually writhing beneath the scalp. Though, at times the temporal muscles would spasm visibly. In short, it was a real light show.

Three years later and these sensations are simply another aspect of my everyday lived experience. In fact, I think if they were to suddenly cease, it would feel very strange (and more than a little uneventful) to go back to owning a normal head. In part this is simple acclimation, I'm sure, but it's worth noting that the sensations themselves have also calmed down.

As to what these sensations are, what they're doing, and what it all means -- well, that's where we get to the frustrating bit, isn't it? As MCTB notes, there's absolutely no consensus. And the more detailed and explanatory the belief structures that surround these phenomena -- thousand-leaf lotuses with sanskrit phonemes inscribed on them come to mind -- the more they test one's credulity. For all my research and direct experience, I've still had no choice but to yield to my own unknowing. To (and I quote a Coen brothers film here) "accept the mystery."

That said, keep us posted!
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Simon Ekstrand, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 5:48 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 5:48 AM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 245 Join Date: 9/23/11 Recent Posts
Derek Cameron:
I've read several accounts of head tingling in forums discussing kundalini. It's one of the common symptoms of "Kundalini syndrome," a phenomenon well-known enough on the Internet to have its own Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini_syndrome

I always get so conflicted when reading about kundalini phenomena. I have dealt with all the items in the "Motor symptoms" category from the wikipedia article for a number of years. My observations, and they have been many and long, have always lead me to the conclussion that this is all caused by the body compensating for muscular tension. Almost like when a dog shakes itself to relieve stress.

Then there are articles like this which have all kinds of explanations involving energies etc. and I really don't know how to reconcile my own experiences with what I read.

Perhaps it is different things entirely, I really don't know.

Also, in my experience, the reason that meditation triggers this effect is that the mind gets better and better at staying present for the subtle shifts in the body and mind that initiate the "holding" of the tension in the body/muscles, and when present for this "event" instead of falling into the regular holding pattern you get the body movements and all the other stuff.

I'll add my usual disclaimer that I have not solved all these issues in myself so take everything i write with a big grain of salt, but I have spent years studying this very closely in myself.

Simon
Derek, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 8:01 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 8:01 AM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
Simon E:

I always get so conflicted when reading about kundalini phenomena. I have dealt with all the items in the "Motor symptoms" category from the wikipedia article for a number of years. My observations, and they have been many and long, have always lead me to the conclussion that this is all caused by the body compensating for muscular tension. Almost like when a dog shakes itself to relieve stress.
I take "kundalini" to be just a convenient label for something not yet well understood in any other terms.

I read up on "kundalini" at one point, and the field of study is in a sorry state. Many of the books by "experts" are based on a survey with a sample size of 1 (i.e., the author himself or herself). Though some adopt scientific-sounding terminology, there's no real scientific literature to speak of. There's only a few dozen papers with keyword "kundalini" in Pub Med, and none of them is relevant to this discussion. Yet the phenomena have been widely enough reported anecdotally to warrant that Wikipedia article.

Perhaps in five hundred years time we'll have a better understanding. Until then, I agree that your hypothesis of muscles decompressing after releasing habitual tension makes plenty of sense. Similarly, the tingling sensation must ultimately be caused by electrical activity in the nervous system. Why this happens, I do not know.
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 11:52 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 11:50 AM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
@John
Thanks for posting! I'm glad I'm not alone on this. And, the possibility of my crown chakra opening definitely occurred to me. But, I have no idea precisely what that means or entails, so for my sanity I'm going to suspend judgment. Mysteries are more fun anyway

@Simon
Perhaps the ordinary process of shaking off tensions is really a physio-energetic process related to 'prana' or 'chi' or 'orgone' or whatever word you wanna use. Then, I would think that kundalini is something different entirely. The only relation I see is that they're both physio-energetic, and that your body probably wants to shake off a lot of blocks before the kundalini process.

@Derek
I suspect that 'kundalini' has just become a spiritual buzzword that people throw around to describe any physio-energetic process. Though, I wouldn't accept that as proof that there may not be a real kundalini that a few people get into. Swami Muktananda, Swami Lakshmanjoo, and Crowley all refer to it as a secret, ultimate thing. That there is so much misinformation and confusion on the subject makes it seem more likely, to me, that there may be something to it.

Gonna spend some time studying kundalini from Laskhmanjoo, Muktananda, Gopi Krishna, Lilian Silburn, Arthur Avalon, and Crowley. If I have any revelations I'll let you guys know. Or, if anyone has any recommended kundalini books lemme know
Derek, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 12:28 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 12:28 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
 It's been a while since I read up on this, but here's some suggestions:

Kundalini Rising: Exploring the Energy of Awakening. This is a collection of papers, so it gives some indication of the range of speculation and the lack of consensus on the subject.

Yvonne Keller. Farther Shores: Exploring How Near-Death, Kundalini and Mystical Experiences Can Transform Ordinary Lives. Contains some material on symptoms, which may be relevant to this discussion.

Tara Springett. Enlightenment Through the Path of Kundalini: A Tibetan-Buddhist Guide for Safe Awakening and Overcoming Difficult Symptoms. A newer offering, emphasizing psychological causes for symptoms.
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Jeff Grove, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 2:17 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 2:14 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 310 Join Date: 8/24/09 Recent Posts
Droll Dedekind:
For the past few months I've been feeling a tingling sensation on or in my head. The tingling is slightly to mildly pleasant, covers a diameter of about 2-5 inches, anywhere from the surface of my skull to maybe 2 inches in, and has happened about everywhere on my head by now. On active days it happens maybe 5 times, and it usually happens at least once a day. The tingling comes on suddenly and lasts about 1-5 seconds. It feels somewhat like chills and somewhat like a tiny packet of bliss pops and radially diffuses a short distance. I haven't noticed a correlation between the times of the tingling and anything else. It seems random.

For a couple months before it started I was doing regular Reichian/Bioenergetic work. After sessions I started to feel energy flowing through my face and (seemingly) eardrums. My orgasms also became less genital-localized and more full-bodied. A few times I felt orgasmic waves reach my face and head. Although, since I've done less bodywork that has stopped.

Meditation-wise my practice has been much less hardcore the past few months. I've mostly stopped formal sits. Most of my practice is daily life stuff, several 10-15 minute 'microhits', experimenting with Direct Path stuff, metta, surrender, etc. I've been through several cycles and baseline shifts that have left 'the Field' a lot more clear, direct, and simple. Path-wise I may be in anagami territory but I really don't know. There have been a lot of shifts.

I have a couple theories about the feeling.

1) This feeling is normal. I just previously had an 'energetic block' preventing the flow to my head.
2) This feeling is abnormal. Most people have an 'energetic block' preventing the flow to the head. I just slightly unblocked mine.
3) This feeling is abnormal. I'm feeling it as a result of my meditation and bodywork. 'Prana'? 'Kundalini'? 'Shakti'? New side effect of A&P?

I've put off making this thread because I figured it was temporary and harmless. But, now that it's happening with a little regularity I'm curious if this is a normal people thing or a normal meditation thing. If anyone's ever experienced something like this, especially regularly, please let me know.

Hi Droll,

At a guess this sensation is qi opening up one of the areas. If you could be more specific about the location I might be able to provide more details.
Bliss should be a normal pereception once emptiness is discovered, tensions disolves and emotional energy released. The body work you have invested in will start paying returns. Some of the sensations around the head may include the feeling you are wearing a cap all the time (not the skull crashing type just a light blissful energy surrounding the head area) . Look at all the old paintings across different cultures and there is always a halo around the head. This is how it actually feels and is seen in those dedicated to these types of practices

As to the full body orgasms this is also normal. When it first started occuring to me I would move the energy up the central channel rubbing against the side of the channel moving the orgasmic energy to different locations. An example would be to experience the orgasm around the heart center or throat or just multiple full body orgasms that seem to last half an hour.

Nothing to fear much to discover

cheers
Jeff
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Simon Ekstrand, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 3:05 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 3:05 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 245 Join Date: 9/23/11 Recent Posts
Droll Dedekind:
@Simon
Perhaps the ordinary process of shaking off tensions is really a physio-energetic process related to 'prana' or 'chi' or 'orgone' or whatever word you wanna use. Then, I would think that kundalini is something different entirely. The only relation I see is that they're both physio-energetic, and that your body probably wants to shake off a lot of blocks before the kundalini process.


Yepp, it's really hard to tell with these things.

I'd also like to recommend Jack Kornfields book A path with heart. It has a chapter entitled: The spiritual roller coaster, kundalini and other side effects. The chapter gives his take on most of the stuff discussed in this thread, for example he discusses what he calls raptures - "In this context, rapture is a broad term used to cover the many kinds of chills, movements, lights, floating, vibrations, delight, and more that open with deep concentration as well as the enormous pleasure they can bring to meditation."

Which seems to encompass what you describe well enough.

Simon
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 5:38 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 5:36 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
@Jeff
Thanks for posting. I haven't catalogued the areas I've felt the tingling, but I think it's probably covered most of the scalp. And, I knew from Reich that the full-bodied orgasm was normal for unarmored people. He called it orgastic potency.

Growing my own halo... seems like a perfect time for 'premature immaculation'

@Simon
Thanks for pointing out that chapter, Simon. I have the book but haven't read it cover to cover yet. I'll check it out.


I read through Muktananda's kundalini book. He describes the goal here
In the center of the sahasrara, there is a triangle, which one sees in meditation, and in the center of this triangle resides supreme Shiva, who is also called the supreme Guru. This is the goal of the Kundalini's journey. When the Kundalini reaches the sahasrara, She plays, and as She does so, She makes the knowledge arise in you that everything is the play of God. This is called pure knowledge, or shuddha vidya, in Shaivism; the Shiva Sutras say that when this pure knowledge arises in you, you attain Godhood. As the Kundalini rises to the sahasrara, you begin to see a divine effulgence. There are one thousand knots in the sahasrara, which shine with the brilliance of a thousand suns, but instead of being scorching like the sun, their light is cooling. This light is so powerful that when it reveals itself to you, you don't have the strength to stand it. When I saw that brilliance within myself, I fell down, because I could not bear its intensity. In the center of that effulgence lies a tiny and fascinatingly beautiful light, the Blue Pearl, and when your meditation deepens you begin to see it, sparkling and scintillating. Sometimes it comes out of the eyes and stands in front of you. It moves with the speed of lightning, and it is so subtle that when it passes through the eye, the eye doesn't feel its movement.

The vision of the Blue Pearl is the most significant of all the experiences I have described. Everyone should see this Blue Pearl at least once. The scriptures describe this Blue Pearl as the divine light of Consciousness, which dwells within everyone. It is the actual form of the Self, our innermost reality, the form of God which lives within us. The Blue Pearl is subtler than the subtlest. It is the size of a sesame seed. Yet even though it is so tiny, it is very big, for this whole world of movable and immovable things is contained within it.The seed of a banyan tree is so small that if you take it in your fingers and crush it, it is gone. However if you sow that seed, then a big banyan tree springs forth from it, and in the banyan tree are infinite other seeds. In the same way, within the Blue Pearl are millions and millions of universes. The Blue Pearl contains the entire cosmos.
...
But your meditation is not completed just by seeing the Blue Pearl. It has to become steady. If you have intense longing for God, deep love for your Guru, deep faith in Kundalini, there will come a time when you will be able to make the Blue Pearl stand still in front of you. Within it, you will see the deity you love. If you love Ram, you will see Ram. If you love Krishna, you will see Krishna. If you love Jesus, you will see Jesus. In our tradition, a lot of emphasis is placed on the personal form of God, and this experience is known as the realization of God with form.
...
The vision of the Blue Being is not the end of your journey. Finally, as you meditate and meditate, one day the Blue Pearl will explode, and its light will fill the universe, and you will experience your all-pervasiveness.This experience is the culmination of sadhana, the ultimate realization. In this state, you lose the awareness of your own body and merge with the body of God. It was when he became absorbed in the intoxication of this state of divinity that the great Sufi saint Mansur Mastana said, ana'l-Haqq, "I am God." It was after experiencing this that the great Shankaracharya proclaimed with firm conviction, "I am Shiva.
...
This is the knowledge that arises as Kundalini merges in the sahasrara. This is the state of Parabhakti, supreme devotion, in which there is no devotee, no God, and no world, but only oneness. Just as a river, after flowing for a long time, merges in the ocean and becomes the ocean, when Kundalini has finished Her work and stabilized in the sahasrara, you become completely immersed in God. All your impurities and coverings are destroyed, and you take complete rest in the Self. The veil which made you see duality drops away, and you experience the world as a blissful play of Kundalini, a sport of God's energy. You see the universe as supremely blissful light, undifferentiated from yourself, and you remain unshakable in this awareness. This is the state of liberation, the state of perfection.

Hmm, so maybe a cosmic bliss out is possible. Anyone see any Blue Pearls lately?
: ladyfrog :, modified 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 6:16 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/24/14 6:15 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 38 Join Date: 8/6/13 Recent Posts
Hi Droll,

I did a lot of looking around outside the buddhist tradition when my energetic / kundalini process began a few years ago as there wasn't anything "concrete" enough to satisfy my need  to understand what was going on within the insight meditation practice I have.

It was comforting to see how my experiences lined up in general ways described by different traditions - but none of the very specific meanings have held up for me personally, although i can't say i really jumped into any practices that were energy focused (just some qi gong to help smooth things out which seems to work for me)

I do find a connection between this process and my general spiritual growth, but its not very literal usually, and i certainly don't "get it".  Sometimes when i have a particular insight that is a real drop, it seems to get very active as a response.

Like John M its seemed to increase my ability to let go in the face of not understanding, to be at peace with something being a very vivid personal experience that I don't have any conceptual framework for…  the advice that I got from one teacher that has kind of stuck with me to generally see it as good, but to stop trying to find meaning in it.  I also have seen the sensations in general go from wild and frightening to friendly and harmonious over time.

I had lots of activity in the crown for about 2 years which seems to have opened up, prior to that was the third eye area for about a year.

I did experience the full body orgasm thing a couple times, was just meditating, no funny business.  I found it very freaky (as it seemed to just take over and repeat like a rolling wave from head to toe), but if one was less of a scaredy cat i can see it would be pleasant.

Nonetheless a part of me is still waiting to learn the point of it, so let me know what you figure out emoticon
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Dada Kind, modified 9 Years ago at 9/28/14 7:52 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/28/14 7:43 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
Hey ladyfrog

Knowing that others have shared in my weird experiences is reassuring, thanks for posting. That full-bodied orgasm thing I referred to happened during actual orgasm -- the hot sexual energy would explode throughout my whole body instead of just my genital/pelvic region. The full-bodied orgasm thing you're talking about sounds similar to what Reich called the orgasm reflex
He wrote that the massage aimed to retrieve the repressed memory of the childhood situation that had caused the repression; if the session worked, he would see waves of pleasure move through their bodies, which he called the "orgasm reflex".
I got this effect when I was rhythmically breathing after freeing up my hips and pelvis I started to get waves of pleasure that ran rhythmically up my body in synch with my hips lightly thrusting seemingly of their own accord.

Also, as a general update to this thread. Yesterday I started to get a light electric bliss feeling in my left cheek. Today it's spread slightly to my right cheek although it's still mainly happening in the left. I also started to get waves of the same feeling moving on the right of my scalp. This movement differs from the previous tingling in that the previous tingling was like a spherical wave of bliss and this new feeling is like a regular wave of electricity. At the completion of the past few cycles I've been experiencing an instantaneous feeling as if my heart had been energetically ripped out of my chest, combined with a wave of terror. It's hard to tell which happens first and if one causes the other.

By 'completion of the past few cycles' I'm referring to this pattern I've been going through for the past few weeks: couple days of A&P with bliss and luminosity seems very close to completely encompassing the Field, I wonder why I had any problems, 4th must be just around the corner etc., then feelings of falling through the floor, my chest and diaphragm knotted with dread and anxiety, sudden energetic shifts in my midsection cause me to react with instantaneous fear and clutching, I start to feeling raw and irritated as the frequences get more and more complex and erratic, I get mired in psychological speculation, looking for an answer for the feeling, I struggle for awhile until I really just want it to stop, so I start to throw every technique I have at it, until I realize I've got to stop fighting and just watch for it for it to pass,  I get to low eq then usually by that night everything is more synched up and effortless, I continue to feel energetic shifts around my head and what seems to be the centerpoint, pressure in head, intense third eye headaches, then there will be a sudden synch, as if the energy made a sudden final click into some configuration, then I get the heart-ripped-out feeling with the flash of terror, then the Field seems more direct, my head feels less knotted, and I rest easy. Each cycle has taken from 4-8 days with the bulk of the time in the DN.

Throughout this whole process, btw, I would relax before bed and regularly get intense kriyas as jerking, twitching, laughing for no reason, energy moving throughout my body, etc. Curiously enough the kriyas were cyclical once I relaxed enough and didn't interfere. I would start to shake and jerk increasingly fast, it would reach a culmination, taper off, then stop, I would feel that dissolution feeling like I'm melting into my bed, I would enjoy that as it faded into feeling normal over about 30 seconds, then it would start again. The whole cycle takes about 2 minutes, and this happens like 10-20 times before I finally stop it and go to sleep. I don't know how long I could let it go on. This has happened pretty much exactly like this every night for about 2 weeks. The parallels with the PoS are interesting, but I don't think I'm completing whole cycles in 2 minutes, obviously. Perhaps I'm experiencing the completion of sub-energetic-cycles. Maybe.

Kenneth mentioned that 3rd and 4th are completions of some energetic circuit with the third eye, crown, and eventually the heart. I wish I had more data on this. My working hypothesis is that I'm in anagami territory, but I'm not sure. I'm experiencing a decreasing sense of effort and an increased sense of simplicity, directness, happening-on-ownness. I remember that not long ago it seemed like I was constantly exerting an effort all the time as if to sustain my continued existence. This general trend is unmistakeable.

For about the millionth time I've had the epiphany that staying with direct experience is a sufficient and necessary condition for progress. Somehow this point is forgotten a lot of the time. Wondering where I am amounts to nothing. But, if anyone has any thoughts on my anagami hypothesis feel free to diagnose
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Psi, modified 9 Years ago at 9/28/14 8:21 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 9/28/14 8:21 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 1099 Join Date: 11/22/13 Recent Posts
This technique has helped a little bit in the past.  

When in a seated posture, spine erect, and you feel that energy will not flow past your crown, tilt your head/neck back as if you were looking straight up at the sky.  I know it sounds counterintuitive to free the energy, as the spine is not straight anymore, but maybe it stretches some nerve sheathings or something, unbinding the flow.

Anyway I don't think it can hurt, and you might have to do it every so often.

Peace
Jon Reid, modified 5 Years ago at 7/15/18 6:49 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 7/15/18 5:14 AM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 2 Join Date: 7/15/18 Recent Posts
Hey Dada,

i know this thread is pretty old now but was reading through it and a lot resonates with my experiences. I've been searching for people with similar symptoms.I wanted to know how the energy in your crown is developing.

i started experiencing crown symptoms in January after an experience that occurred while out of body. I experienced what Muktananda referred to as the blue pearl (you briefly allude to it able but don't elaborate. This peaked my curiosity). For me I was meditating then slipped out of body. In front of me was a glowing blue ball. As it came closer it began to vibrate loudly. As I relaxed it entered between my 3rd eye and crown.

Ever since that experience I have had many types energy around my crown and face. It started with a sense of energy coming down into my crown which made a large part of the top of my head and brain go cold then a pressure. Now I experience head tingles, itching, a feeling of dripping water down the sides of my head and temples. Occasionally I have experienced a piercing energy down from crown through my soft pallete. This coincided with the worst break out of spots in my life, on my forehead. I'm nearly forty now and haven't had acne since I was a teenager. I think my skin has become ultra sensitive. 

i have been doing Robert Bruce style energy work for a number of years which I partly attribute to this and doing it now seems to stimulate the already active energy in my head. I too quivered whether it was kundalini heating up. I know historically it begins for people in the root but not always. Philip St Romain in his book relates how most of his kundalini were in his head. Jana Dixon also points out the idea of many chakras might be incorrect. They might all just be one.

anyway, I just wanted to know where you are at in your progress because it sounds like by the end of this thread it starting morphing somewhat.
David Michael Wilburn, modified 4 Years ago at 9/24/19 4:30 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 9/24/19 4:30 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 2 Join Date: 9/22/19 Recent Posts
Hi Jon,
First post, I found this site by searching water dripping down head and face and your experiences are very similar to mine.
I have had a tingling on the left side of my head since awakening about 2 years ago, was always there for about a year and then only when I thought about it or starting to meditate. The beginning of July another sensation on the very top of my head, similar but different. It feels like a slow fizz leak and then the water drips started. It was down my face, temples basically every where but the back of my head, now it is mostly down the temples around either side of ears. While meditating the tingling on the left seems to merge with the center and expands about 6 inches across the top of my head. I also have sinus pressure in my forehead all the time especially above the nose between the eyes.

What is stranger is I can direct the "water drops" to go in any direction except the back of head, it starts then goes to the sides like there is a blockage.

I went to the doctor and he gave me antibiotics for a sinus infection which did nothing, just got out of a follow up and am scheduling a CT stand and a referral to an ENT.
While searching for these symptoms when they started I was worried I had a spontaneous CF leak. Freaked me out, maybe but I doubt it. I told that to my doctor and it was a pretty funny reaction.

Sorry for the long post, you know you can't tell everybody these symptoms.
Thanks for listening.

Dave
Z , modified 4 Years ago at 9/30/19 11:45 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 9/24/19 4:49 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 201 Join Date: 3/16/18 Recent Posts
Hi David, welcome to DhO. 

If you do some digging around here you're bound to find many reports from other people who have experienced what you've been going through. Energetic phenomena is common at different stages on the path and many practitioners also report a more long-term, ongoing restructuring/re-wiring of the subtle energy body after initial Awakening. Some traditions have particular guidance for dealing with this while others, like the Theravada tradition, don't really say much about it. 

In my own experience, movement-based practices like Hatha Yoga, Qi-Gong and Standing Meditation have been helpful for working in a skillful way with the changes happening in the energy body. For some people the changes can take place over months and years, so it's important to be patient and kind with all of it. It's good to check out anything particularlu strange with a doctor, as it can resolve some anxiety around the weird sensations by ruling out a medical cause. There's also always a chance that it's something organic that regular ol' medicine can assist with. 
David Michael Wilburn, modified 4 Years ago at 9/25/19 5:02 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 9/25/19 5:02 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 2 Join Date: 9/22/19 Recent Posts
Hi Zachary, thank you for the warm welcome and information.

When this all started I had no idea what Kundalin was nor did I want to, ha. It took me awhile to just get to that point. Still not sure if it's K, had all the experiences except for the spine stuff. It has changed my life forever. You and everyone else are light years ahead of me as far as knowledge. Fooled around with meditation when I was a kid, 18 or so and did have a minor experience that I never forgot. Now 40 years later, oh boy. Much that I'm finding here is all different practices. I just lay down and "I breathe in I breathe out then just the traditional Om and I'm pretty well in the zone. Nothing like the zone the first few months but getting there I think, need to get my body back in shape. Seems that may have much to do with it, have to be I shape physically to handel it. I'll stop now, it's good for me to do this, thank you, and all members and administrators for this site.

Dave
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 4 Years ago at 9/25/19 7:03 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 9/25/19 7:01 PM

RE: Head tingling

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Hi and welcome! I’m glad you found this forum, because it sounds like the right place for you. I hope you will like it here and find ways to fulfill your potential.

I second what Zachary said. I’m one of those who are in the midst of a longterm energetic rewiring, which I find fascinating.