Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 4/28/17 12:57 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/28/17 12:57 PM

Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
Dear DhO,

Today I was just sitting in front of my computer at home and started to notice some vibrations, which I have been noticing more and more of recently.
I started focussing on them for a fair while, I think I eventually went into some sort of jhana, but I don't really know enough about them to say which.
Eventually I found myself trying to alternate focus between my hands, which had just been left on the computer for the previous 20 minutes or so, and what was looking feeling them, life from "here" to "there". 
Quite quickly I found that I could do this faster and faster, and eventually things got really intense. I found I could consciously put more effort into it and make things faster and more intense, and that it needed effort to maintain. I thought it would be a good chance to explore this to the max and in the end I put as much effort as I could, which made my hand and body start shaking quite a lot, and I basically just blew my own head off.

Afterwards, there was still a fair degree of clarity around me (I have been sitting quite a lot recently) and I could see things with a lot of detail, but a bit less, and I was just a bit spaced out. I have also found that I am not quite so able to maintain my previous composure when challenged, although not at all problematically. I've got a weeny bit of a headache now too. emoticon

My question is, since I was able to control this phenomenon, should I have maxed it out? Can these sorts of things damage progress?
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 4/29/17 2:43 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/29/17 2:43 PM

RE: Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
Thanks Paveł!
So, it's basically all right then? I'm not going to give myself epilepsy or something like that?
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 6 Years ago at 4/30/17 2:52 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/30/17 2:52 AM

RE: Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 4/30/17 4:10 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/30/17 4:10 AM

RE: Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
Thanks Daniel!

OK, so two similar intense experiences have happened in the past month*, is it possible to go over the A&P three times before going through the stages that follow first? Some people I spoke to suggested I might have crossed the A&P already and then later suggested I might be at early Equanimity, and reading the descriptions of it did sound like it. 

Seems like this quote from your book might apply to me then: "It is very easy to confuse this stage with descriptions of stage 11. Equanimity, especially as the stage before it, 10. Re-observation, has some distinct similarities to stage 3. The Three Characteristics."


*The first two of these were followed by a sort of hollowing of dense space around me, the first coupled with an kind of sadness, but more pleasant, like when listening to sad music. The second was followed by a kind of dirty clarity, like when a tornado has blasted through taking everything with it, leaving just minimal debris, then thoughts of "dang, the only thing I can do is just sit here and nothing else", but a bit more emphatic.
Christian, modified 6 Years ago at 5/7/17 1:08 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 5/7/17 1:08 PM

RE: Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 10 Join Date: 9/14/16 Recent Posts
Pushing this thread since I would be interested in an answer to the questions junglist asked above as well.
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Daniel M Ingram, modified 6 Years ago at 5/8/17 1:37 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 5/8/17 1:37 AM

RE: Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 3268 Join Date: 4/20/09 Recent Posts
It is possible to cross the A&P multiple times, though the shorter the time period, the less likely.

Vibrations with rapture and powerful focus and clarity: almost always the A&P. Still, a few find the A&P disconcerting and it can be dramatic and scary for a few.

Vibrations with edginess, irritation, complexity, like a cloud of flies or bees, with restlessness: can often be Dark Night territory. Some find Re-observation and Desire for Deliverance very vibratory.

Vibrations that are basically neutral or slightly pleasant due to their openness and ease: often Equanimity, particularly if open, flowing, and progress to something wide, volumetric, and inclusive.

Thoughts?

Daniel
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 5/9/17 10:08 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 5/9/17 10:08 AM

RE: Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
Daniel M. Ingram:
It is possible to cross the A&P multiple times, though the shorter the time period, the less likely.

Vibrations with rapture and powerful focus and clarity: almost always the A&P. Still, a few find the A&P disconcerting and it can be dramatic and scary for a few.

Vibrations with edginess, irritation, complexity, like a cloud of flies or bees, with restlessness: can often be Dark Night territory. Some find Re-observation and Desire for Deliverance very vibratory.

Vibrations that are basically neutral or slightly pleasant due to their openness and ease: often Equanimity, particularly if open, flowing, and progress to something wide, volumetric, and inclusive.

Thoughts?

Daniel

Thanks Daniel!

Hmm, dunno mate. I can relate to a few of these things, the cloud of bees is sounds very accurate for the second time something like this happened, maybe locusts from the way they kind of cleared the field, as it were. It sort of came from the front and flew through me, and felt like it left nothing except space with small bits of debris from the ruins here and there. There was some emphatic "@!?*, there's nothing I can do except just sit here and that useless." although I felt it had a slight undertone of artificiality to it, perhaps because I've read things like that.
The third time that I described at the beginning of this thread just seemed like a bit of a seated epileptic fit, although I don't have epilepsy to confirm this comparison. It was pretty much just my body, I didn't feel anything particularly volumetric.

Other than that I occasionally get some wriggling at the bottom of my spine, which I wonder if do something funky at some point. The vibrations I often get are just fine neutral ones in my fingers and hands.

Today I also had some flashing, mostly in the centre of my visual field, and as I tried to notice the dark in between the flashes, the flashing doubled in frequency. There was also some strobing and my eyelids flickered open and closed and I ended up sitting bolt upright with some energy surges around my body that eventually faded.

Although there have been some wildish phenomena, there hasn't been anything that has really blown me away in relation to meditation. Perhaps there was some stuff many years ago unrelated to meditation, but I couldn't say. 

Well, those are my thoughts! I don't know whether I'm close to anything or just at the very beginning, but things are changing every day and life appears to be easier to handle because of it.
junglist, modified 6 Years ago at 5/10/17 1:22 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 5/10/17 1:22 PM

RE: Massive vibrations - helpful or not?

Posts: 232 Join Date: 1/25/17 Recent Posts
Thanks Paveł, this is really interesting.
It's especially interesting to compare with my experience, which sounds almost similar, but instead of a feedback loop, I feel like it was more of a kind of sympathetic resonance, like I oscillated my attention or something together with the vibrations. I think it did get to a saturation ceiling, maybe indeed for the reasons you say. Fortunately for me I felt I always had control, in contrast to a poor real epileptic.

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