Hello everyone,

Background:
I am new here. I have been reading a lot, but this is my first post. I have been meditating (formally) for ~8 months now. I obviously started like most people, first fighting through the subconscience thoughts, but pushing past them. I think I have mastered stage 7 from here and I have reached the 8th stage:
http://dharmatreasure.com/wp-content/uploads/LightOnMeditationHandout.pdf

I am experiencing something that I can not explain, nor have I found a good explaination for in my travels. It didn't start until after I was meditating for about 6 months and I'm very certain it has coorilation to my practice. About my daily activities, normally when reading / researching on the topic of buddhiam or meditation, I get a spontaneous tingle up my spine that "engulfs" my entire mind & body. It almost feels like being encased in crystal, almost like pure physical joy. Like all my neurons fire in a way starting from the spine and spread out, down the arms, down the legs, up around the head. 

I can also get to a state similar to this after having meditated for a long time and truely let go... it starts out with a quick "push" into this state and I quickly fall out of it, but after a while longer (and this has only happend a few times) I can enter this state and sustain this crystalize feeling.

Thougths? Thanks in advance.
MyysticOwl

Really, interesting... I've just been trying to figure out what it is... Pīti? (Joy, Rapture) Jhana?

I practice just basic samatha/vipassana meditation. Focus on the breath, do it long enough, the physical stimuli fades to the background. At this point I start to dissolve the ego and merge with the breath.

I meditate to sooth the mind, I never meant to find such deep physical states. I understand these when meditating, just weird to be sitting somewhere and out of the blue feel "pulled" into your own head. When they happen spontaneously (vs meditation), I close my eyes there are multiple white lights floating. Once the feeling is gone, so are the lights. I thought it might be a nimitta, but they happen in Seconds, from the sounds the nimittas take a long time to develop and are a reflection of the mind inturrpetting the breath.

Mostly, I'm trying to map terms that are used out there with the internal experience.

It reminds me of something I have had all my life. Even before I started meditating. Tingling starting in the back downthe spine then moves outwards and ends in head with huge smile and some laughter. Body also shakes a little there is a need to stretch everything out. When I walk and try to experience everything in a way I also start smiling, cant help it just happens. But then there is no physical bodily experience.

What is intersting is that it's always caused by reading about Buddhism / Meditation / Knowledge like some deep already knowning. It's like the subconscience is sending me a sign to pay attention. Just didn't know if that happened to anyone else. Thanks for the posts!

When reading some more on the site, I found a link to the wikipedia site for Piti... I think the small ones are Going down rapture and when I can get it to be solid it's Fulfilling rapture.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%ABti
Fivefold classification
As the meditator experiences tranquillity (samatha), one of five kinds of joy (piti) will arise. These are:

• Weak rapture only causes piloerection.
• Short rapture evocates some thunder "from time to time".
• Going down rapture explodes inside the body, like waves.
• Exalting rapture "makes the body jump to the sky".
• Fulfilling rapture seems to be a huge flood of a mountain stream.