When meditating, is anyone doing it like popular culture portrays it? I think it is with hands on you knees with an okay symbol but I could be wrong. How do you position your hands? I am more of an overlapping dude with the thumps touching. Any okay symbol people get enlightened? Curious that all.

Palms facing upward, taking in chi / qi.

Thanks Jim,

Does it pull on your back at all? It makes it harder for me to keep posture.

If I am sitting, I rest the backs of my hands on my legs or my lap whatever is most comfortable. (Otherwise, I don't notice any problem if I am doing quigong standing up).

The posture is also a gesture of submission, it helps you let go of egotistical egocentric tendencies (bowing the head helps too).
(Physical expression affects attitude just like smiling helps to trigger piti in the jhanas.)

The two factors work together, you get the chi energy and you let go of self - it can feel like floating free from the weight of the physical world, free from the weight of having to defend your ego, like choosing the spiritual instead of the material.
(I'm not trying to be logical, or convincing, I'm trying to communicate a feeling using words.)

Thanks Jim, I am going to give it a try. For some reason I thought of it as only resting on the knees but I can see how there a few other options.

I think it should be done by feel, not by how it looks. My goal when I position my hands is for them to be in such a way that I can completely relax them to a state of extreme slackness, but they are somehow propped up by other fingers or whatever. My left hand is in my right hand, my thumbs are lightly touching. No beautiful circle or anything -- it's just about stability. All fingers are stable, nothing is waggling free out in the wind.

With legs crossed, back of hands resting on inside of bent knees. 

I'm curious why you don't try and see for yourself. Look up Mudras, thats the word for different hand signals. Does it matter? dunno, always fun to be curious. Rights, rituals etc.... ~D

p.s. https://www.learnreligions.com/mudra-photo-gallery-4051990

When you close your eyes to meditate, what are you referencing to determine the position of your hands? 

Robert L.: Are you me from an alternate dimension? Jk

Usually a visual prior to closing my eyes tells me where they are.

I posted because I use to meditate, way back, in a strained position because nobody gave me guidance and pop-culture was the only info. How many people do you estimate are trying to meditate with butterfly and okay hands? What about lotus? Not this guy.

The visual prior to closing your eyes tells you nothing about the moment after you close your eyes. It is a thought, a memory. It is not the present experience of your hands. 

Robert, if you pay sufficient attention to all of your experience, you will see that nothing is the truly situation of anything. You (and me and everyone else) experience everything sometime after it actually occurs.

So, your point is?

I get your point Robert L., but should we be starting path seekers off with something that is hard to comprehend? I think starting with some basics on how to let the body and self drop away through minimizing (not eliminating) the deterrence factor that they are prone to, pain, is primary. Posture, and more specially hand posture, can shape a person's path (oddly enough) because of the coded tension to hold an okay symbol or two for example. Some may only give one try to meditation in their life time. Shouldn't all hand gestures, their pros and cons, be presented to them? Same with seating positions and pillow stacking advice =) I wouldn't be here if I had do a lotus posture. I think Buddhist numbers would be down to a few hundred sore individuals.

Thanks Chris. I'm assuming the Robert you are referring to is me.  
I was attempting to point out that hand position doesn't really matter, as position is a construct as is the hand that is being remembered. Maybe we are meaning the same thing, I'm not sure. My point was pointless.
Robert Lydon, you're correct, hand positions and mudras are an interesting topic. I would occasionally use the thumb and forefinger hand postion while I first began practicing vipassana, trying to see if I could sense both contact points at the same time ala MCTB. Mostly, I just sit in a comfortable chair with my hands in my lap or on my knees, I don't think about it very much. I'm all about comfort and not developing nerve compression syndrome. ;)

The excaggerated OK hands you see in commercial pictures of people meditating is nothing I would personally recommend. Even if you believe in mudras, that's not how they are done, so you won't miss out on anything by not using them. 

Different teachers teach different hand positions. For instance, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche teaches that your left hand should partly rest in your right hand while the tips of your thumbs rest at the root of the ring fingers, as a sign to spirits to leave you alone while you meditate. Personally, I vary the positions of my hands. Often I just rest them on my knees, palms cupping around them, as I find that stabilizing and I like the sense of the hands dissolving into the knees which works as a little sign post for me. Occasionally I turn my palms upward as a matk of surrender and openness. Sometimes I lock my hands together. Sometimes I feel like doing a relaxed mudra to add a sense of focus. When I recline, I vary the positions according to what feels like the best energy flow and other flows, like blood circulation. I think it's okay to experiment and see what works for you, what gives a sense of stability and balance between relaxation and alertness.