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yogani
USA
5242 Posts |
 Posted - Dec 20 2005 : 12:19:26 PM
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Hi All:
This is from my email:
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Q:
Thanks for all the information you have been giving out. To say that it has changed my life would be an understatement.
I have a question for you. I hope you can refer me to where in your book I can find answer to this.
In your lessons you have talked about blockages manifesting themselves in different physical forms. In some other lessons you have talked about seeing lights in your eyes during early steps towards enlightenment.
Where do you draw the line, and decide to see if this is actually a physical ailment, or is caused by yoga practices?
Here is my scenario - I started practices I learned in your lessons, seriously about a year ago. I have been increasing duration. I have also had a mild neck ache problem. For the past few months it has been severe. At first I wrote it off as energy blockages, and adjusted, but the problem did not go away. I finally went to a doctor, and with his help, discovered that the problem was due to an external cause. Addressing that has provided some relief.
I also started seeing some flashes in my eyes. This normally would be encouraging, but I saw a doctor. The doctor told me that this is a condition known as posterior vitreous detachment, and the flashes are a bad thing. He told me to not try to make the flashes appear. I did some internet research, and discovered that the symptoms match. Had I not consulted the doctor, I could have harmed my eyes tremendously.
I don't want to run to the doctor every time I see something. However, I also do not want to attribute physical symptoms to yoga practices only. So, I am trying to figure out some simple ways to determine when it is appropriate to go to the doctor, and when to take it as an effect (good or bad) of yoga practices.
Thanks.
A:
The simplest way to avoid spiritual symptoms being confused with medical symptoms is to be diligent in applying self-pacing. This means not overdoing in practices, and making adjustments as necessary. Then we will always have reasonable control over results from practices, and if something is happening that is medical, we will have a much better chance of spotting it.
So, do not overdo with sambhavi, yoni mudra, chin pump or other practices that can strain the eyes or neck. The goal is not to see flashing lights. The goal is to gradually cultivate inner silence and ecstatic conductivity. Gradually. If we are doing that, we will not have extreme symptoms. Then if we do have symptoms, we will know better to go see a health care professional.
Of course, I am idealizing things a bit, because there will be times when spiritual symptoms will be strong even with light to moderate practices, so there will be times when the line between spiritual and medical symptoms will be blurred. In those times, we are best to go for safety first with self-pacing and medical advice as we deem necessary, as you have wisely done. The other side of this is the fact that practices like chin pump and sambhavi can aid in clearing up symptoms if these are related to spiritual energy blockages. So, there can be some trial and error in practices during these times. When there are symptoms that seem to be energy related, we can test lightly with practices, and if there is no relief, we back off. I am thinking of chin pump here, and numerous cases we have seen where blockages of energy in the neck have been relieved. But in your case, this apparently was not so, which points to the need for always keeping the medical aspect in mind, and always treading carefully with our practices.
Then again, it is also possible for medical professionals to diagnose spiritual symptoms as medical. It happens all the time in the psychology field with visions, kundalini experiences, etc. So, we always have to use our common sense before being led off into drug treatments and other things that may or may not be treating real illnesses.
As time goes on, the medical profession will gain better understandings of these matters, as will we as practitioners. The AYP forums are a good place to network on these things, so I am going to put this one in there (anonymously) for the group to consider. It is a fascinating subject -- one that I am sure will receive increasing attention in both the medical and yoga communities as we see more and more individuals exhibiting the signs of human spiritual transformation. Society is going to have adapt to the reality of spiritual awakening rising everywhere. There is lots of evidence of it in the neurobiology, yes?
The good news is that we are forging ahead and plowing new ground in the field of applied yoga science. If nothing were happening, we would have much more to worry about. 
Btw, the business of flashing lights is also covered in lesson #194, assuming a spiritual symptom in that case. But the warning is always there to be prudent and not ignore symptoms that could be medical.
Wishing you the best on your chosen path. Enjoy!
The guru is in you.
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Alvin Chan
Hong Kong
407 Posts |
Posted - Dec 25 2005 : 11:14:35 PM
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A very interesting topic. I have also been wondering about this. there are some occasions which I have sudden (and quite severe) pain in certain part of my body, e.g. my hands, legs, for no obvious reasons. I am not doing physical exercises, and the small area which feel pain are not the joints or anywhere which would normal receive pressure. The pain usually fades alway within 15 seconds.
Not sure if it's the same kind of pain in "energy blocks" cases. What I can be sure is that a medical doctor will ignore it for sure (after asking me a few questions). Although the pain is quite severe, it fades away quickily and completely everytime. So I do not take it too seriously. |
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nearoanoke
USA
525 Posts |
Posted - Dec 26 2005 : 10:28:02 AM
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The neck ache could be a medical symptom but I doubt the flashes are medical. Anyway medical science always tries to find some explanation and that's its job. One thing we could ask is how come these flashes/symptoms started coming only after we are doing practices and not before?
And also I feel there's no need to separate symptoms to be exclusively either spiritual or medical. If we get hurt physically because of practices we can always take medical help along with self-pacing on spiritual side.
I think this is part of a broader aspect of confusion about whether spiritual path is real or not. Things happen in our life which appear to be coincidences while in reality they are not. This is not only with symptoms being medical but in general with lot of things in our life that change our destiny. For example I might loose my job and find a job in a new place where i come to meet a group of colleagues doing meditation from whom i learn new things. This might just appear as coincidence but it is part of my spiritual progress, something which i duly deserve at that point. There will always be a material explanation for such a thing. Similarly even spiritual symptoms might have medical explanations but that doesnt take away anything from the spiritual side. But as we progress we will certainly reach a stage where truth directly appears before us. Then there wont be any other explanations.
Genes are a result of karma RATHER THAN A CAUSE OF IT - Yogani |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Dec 26 2005 : 11:24:54 PM
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I don't claim to have my mind wrapped around the issue by any means, but here are three very pragmatic rules of thumb I follow, fwiw.
1. if your doctor seems mystified, it's spiritual. Don't pursue the issue medically.
Don't take a zillion tests. Don't seek other opinions. Your doctor's puzzlement tells you what you need to know. There's a thankfully clear divide between things western medicine explains and things yoga explains. Anything yoga can't help you understand is western scientific book knowledge. And anything western scientific book knowledge can't help you understand is yoga. So don't waste too much time going down either path in pursuit of an answer if you're not getting concrete answers, because each gets fuzzy when presented with issues from the other side.
2. Don't accept drugs to treat symptoms a doctor can't explain.
Yogani (and pretty much the entire ayurvedic community) warns against "treating" spiritual symptoms with drugs. I take this seriously. So while I'm always loathe to medicate except where absolutely necessary (my grandma was badly harmed by a very longshot side effect from a supposedly harmless drug), I'm even more hesitant on anything that could be a spiritual issue. That said, if I suspect I'm having an awesome purification but my doctor is sure it's a stroke, you bet your a$$ I'm getting on blood thinner and whatever else is prescribed me. If your doctor has a strong handle on the situation, go that route fer sure!
An illustration of both #1 and #2:
I had a rash shortly after kundalini awakened (standard symptom....indicates pitta overload). I went to a dermatologist. He had no idea what it was (I should have stopped right there). He ordered a biopsy, and found no infection or anything else identifiable. He chalked it up as "allergy" (one of many medical terms translating to "we have no freaking idea"). He gave me some cortisone cream. I didn't use it. I changed my diet and my practices to fix the problem. Treat yoga problems with yoga, treat medical problems with medicine. And be glad that, per #1 above, the line's fairly clear, with little overlap.
3. Be safe: when in doubt favor your doctor's explanation.
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Edited by - Jim and His Karma on Dec 26 2005 11:27:31 PM |
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Guy_51
USA
170 Posts |
Posted - Jan 24 2006 : 09:55:48 AM
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| The flashes could be a symptom of migrain headache,which by the way don't always come with headaches. ie. pounding in the head. Guy |
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Jan 24 2006 : 10:24:47 AM
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That's right about the migraine. A handful of times in my entire life, I get 'painless migraine'.
But the flashes of painless migraine have a particular character. They tend to be confined to a region in the visual field, though the region can move a bit. They actually are temporary blindness in part of the visual field, and the flashes come from this blind part of the field.
If the poster had posterior vitreous detachment, I'd wonder if he was doing yoni mudra and pressing too hard on his eyes. |
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Spiritual or Medical Symptoms?
