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Anthem
1608 Posts |
 Posted - Jun 09 2006 : 11:37:03 PM
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Now I know why I've heard the phrase "spiritual puberty" before, I find it a very accurate description of what goes on as the inner energies become more active and start finding their way up the spinal nerve. I also find that their can be can be awkward stages as well reminiscent of my teen-age years!
I was hoping I could get people to share what physical changes they have observed in themselves over their time of AYP practices.
Recently, I have been noticing many changes in the way my body operates. I have had a change in the way prana is moving in me, both in and outside of sitting practices. It seems to be much more focused in the spinal nerve than it used to be.
During sitting practices, as soon as I move into siddhasana, I am now getting ecstasy moving up the lower portion of my spinal nerve to about mid-back which settles down after a few minutes. The various mudras especially bastrika, seem to be stirring up the ecstasy more all the time now too. At the end of practices, during the resting phase I notice on occasion, especially if I put my attention on the spinal nerve, that the testicles roll back (sorry ladies perhaps hard to relate) and ecstasy goes up the spinal nerve from root chakra up my lower back.
Outside of practices the ecstasy seems to be there if I think about it. Just putting my awareness anywhere on my spinal nerve makes me feel ecstasy in the spinal nerve sort of simultaneously with the root area.
Also during tantric practices, I am finding nowadays that more often than not, orgasmic feelings come up instead of out. I find that this is much more satisfying than traditional ejaculatory orgasms though they still happen too but much more seldom than ever before.
Anyone else?
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cosmic_troll
USA
229 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 01:42:20 AM
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Hey Anthem,
Thanks for starting this interesting topic.
Since starting AYP, I've also noticed energy moving around in the body, mostly in the spine. Sometimes it feels blissful and makes me giddy, sometimes it just feels warm or minty fresh. Actually, it "feels" more like light than heat. Every once in a while, I get electricity in the spine when I sleep.
On my forehead, where the third eye is said to be, I get vibrations and pressure (of a light, pleasant kind). It comes and goes, but has now become a daily occurrence.
A couple times, I felt something take control of my body and I just watched as it did stuff. Mundane stuff like walking around, making PBJ sandwiches, eating said PBJ sandwiches, etc. But each action is very precise, perfect, and faster than usual. When this happens, I am filled with a bliss.
I noticed that whenever I feel the blissful energy, I express it a lot through laughter. Sometimes I'll be sitting at work and I'll just lose it, laughing like a madman. Fortunately, I work in a fun, casual environment where playing around is accepted, and I thank God this hasn't happened during a very heavy, serious moment. Have any of you also had trouble controlling your laughter?
Sometimes I also experience deeper, true emotions. Not the mental imitation of emotion, but deep bodily emotions. The deeper emotions are accompanied by energy in the spine. |
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Manipura
USA
870 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 04:47:36 AM
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Hi Andrew and C. Troll - I've had a few of the ecstatic symptoms that have been described elsewhere. They aren't as magnificent as some I've read, but I love the soft and sensual and sometimes erotic feel of them. But what I notice more these days is an inner expansion from root to crown; a hollowed-out, empty sensation which is still and calm, in contrast to the energy which is never still. The combination of the 2 is sublime. I sometimes can 'see' the hollowed-out tube that I become, and that shape - very distinct - appears as both empty and full. It sounds like I'm waxing poetic, but this is the closest I can come to describing my experience. :) Thanks for asking, Andrew.
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Richard
United Kingdom
857 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 06:42:04 AM
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Hi Meg Ive just started experiencing that hollowed out feeling I didn't quite know how to describe it you've done very well.
Have you noticed that at any quiet time during the day you can invoke that feeling and produce waves of pleasure 
RICHARD |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 09:59:49 AM
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Anthem Said:
During sitting practices, as soon as I move into siddhasana, I am now getting ecstasy moving up the lower portion of my spinal nerve to about mid-back
same here.. except.. it moves all the way up to my head to my third eye.
Outside of practices the ecstasy seems to be there if I think about it. Just putting my awareness anywhere on my spinal nerve makes me feel ecstasy in the spinal nerve sort of simultaneously with the root area.
Same here.. except I can feel ecstasy all over my body, at any time.. all I have to do is mulabandha and sambhavi.
Also during tantric practices, I am finding nowadays that more often than not, orgasmic feelings come up instead of out.
Never practiced any tantric stuff (haven't read up any of the lessons yet..).. just practice sidhasana, mulabandha and sambhavi.. and used to do hold back method.. but these days all the orgasmic feelings always move up.. it is intense but does not feel sexual any more.. and I can go on forever..ahem!!!(phew! that was hard for me to say.. but there I did it ).
Cosmic T said: On my forehead, where the third eye is said to be, I get vibrations and pressure (of a light, pleasant kind). It comes and goes, but has now become a daily occurrence.
Yes I feel this too.. and it is a daily occurance with me too.
In addition during spinal breathing.. to begin with I feel a very pleasant heat go up and down my spine.. like Cosmic described it.. minty.. but it soon becomes very hot.. and I can feel it flow into my heart and hands. Cools down during meditation.
Richard said "Have you noticed that at any quiet time during the day you can invoke that feeling and produce waves of pleasure "..
Richard and Meg, I don't feel the hollow you describe..hey I still don't see my spinal nerve.. but Richard I just love the feeling of waves of pleasure that I can invoke at any moment during the day. 
I guess.. all this ecstasy will some day becomes a 24/7 thing with us, without effort.. Oh! well I am in no hurry.
Thanks Anthem for starting this thread.. at least I will not be the one to get yelled at this time... 
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Edited by - Shanti on Jun 10 2006 11:12:08 AM |
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Manipura
USA
870 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 12:18:55 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by azaz932001
Hi Meg Ive just started experiencing that hollowed out feeling I didn't quite know how to describe it you've done very well.
Have you noticed that at any quiet time during the day you can invoke that feeling and produce waves of pleasure
RICHARD
Hi Richard! I can sink into the hollow space at will at most any time, altho it's less intense when I have external distractions. I've never experienced the waves of pleasure that you and others speak of. Every so often the 'emptiness' sneaks up on me and, without warning, I'm in Hollowland. 
Gosh, Shanti - I thought you were the one who was depressed b'c you didn't have the energy experiences that everyone else writes about! Sounds like you've got a lot going on, girlfriend! |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 10 2006 : 2:10:10 PM
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Yes Meg, and a lot of it happened when I stopped being depressed and stopped looking for the experiences that every one else talked about.. when I took Jim's advice and did my practice like brushing my teeth.. I still go to my mat with zero expectations... This is the only reason I am with Jim a 100% when he says drop it all and "i am" a lot...
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cosmic_troll
USA
229 Posts |
Posted - Jun 11 2006 : 09:06:25 AM
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Hey Meg, I can relate to the erotic feelings of the energy (especially at the root), but I find this hollowed-out feeling intriguing... I have yet to feel this.
I did have an interesting experience tonight, watching the Bangles perform live here in L.A.... I felt the music in my heart (especially the bass when it got heavy), and it caused the minty warm/cool energy to be felt in my spine. Then the thought "I'm motha-f**king Shiva" entered my mind, and I felt like a god for about 10 seconds.
Then I felt like a normal human being again, only a bit more ecstatic than usual.... |
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Jun 11 2006 : 10:58:20 AM
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cosmic_troll said:
Then the thought "I'm motha-f**king Shiva" entered my mind, and I felt like a god for about 10 seconds.
Good job you came down from that trip after just 10 seconds. If you didn't we might have another American god-king guru who thinks he's motha-f**king Shiva on our hands!
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alan
USA
235 Posts |
Posted - Jun 11 2006 : 11:02:10 AM
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Hi peoples
Please, not puberty again
When I was a lad all I could focus on 24/7 was being in a sexual union between the two halves of creation. You know, all I wanted to do was ****. Had I been raised in a family of yogis I would have learned to focus that mad bahkti inward. With that outward sex drive now diminished (sorta ran it into the ground) I'm now focusing inward. I have much of the experiences listed above, even if subtle, but am enjoying the slow ride. Bahkti rises within. It's like learning the art of romance from a top-notch woman.
Peace, alan |
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Manipura
USA
870 Posts |
Posted - Jun 11 2006 : 1:05:47 PM
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thanks for that, Alan! You could be the poster child for my theory, stated elsewhere, that all desires eventually lead us inward to God. :)
Troll - that sounds like a great time - 10 seconds in Shivaville! I've spent about double that in Shakti, sure that I was a goddess and more, only to crash back down on the terrestrial plane flat on my holy arse. Sigh. Long live puberty! :) |
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Jim and His Karma
2111 Posts |
Posted - Jun 11 2006 : 2:21:06 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Shanti
Yes Meg, and a lot of it happened when I stopped being depressed and stopped looking for the experiences that every one else talked about.. when I took Jim's advice and did my practice like brushing my teeth.. I still go to my mat with zero expectations... This is the only reason I am with Jim a 100% when he says drop it all and "i am" a lot...
Glad it helped. This low-expectation, no-big-deal approach helps me a lot, too. But don't cling to the image, either. As Meg pointed out in another thread, brushing your teeth is still DOING something. While the tooth brushing is super useful to get past overblown needs and expectations, once you're able to relax into things a bit and tone down the neediness and narration, that, too, is something to let go. Just let the mantra do its work on you. Give it all the room and licence it needs, sort of like you let a hair stylist cut away. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2006 : 08:14:17 AM
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Hey David, just curious... Why do you not share any of your experiences with us.. why is it only opinions? 
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2006 : 10:08:04 AM
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Great question Shanti. By the way, when you take away discussing one's owns experiences, what is left may be much more than just 'opinions'. For example, my guess is that maybe about 10% of your own posts discuss your experiences. I wouldn't classify the rest of your posts, for example, as 'just opinions'. The ones that don't discuss your experiences may be at least as valuable as the ones that do. But it's OK if you want to describe my posts that way. No-one gives me any respeck, which is fine.
So why don't I discuss my experiences?
In this post
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=1185
you expressed very well some of the pros and cons of discussing experiences. The following is a condensed summary:
CON:
Potentially distracting/misleading in numerous ways
May cause disappointment or resentment in others (or even braggartry on the part of the poster, though I don't think we have that here so far at least).
PRO:
They can help the people who are having the experiences to integrate them, (and help other people who are having similar experiences).
And there we have it: a very real set of cons, and a very real set of pros. So these can enter your decision whether to post something or not on a post-by-post basis.
But I've been doing many of the techniques of AYP for about 20 years myself. I'm not encountering experiences these days that I am having any difficulties interpreting and integrating. It's just a matter of having been at it for a long time. My guess is that the people discussing their energetic experiences here won't be doing it 20 or even 10 years from now. (This is not necessarily true, because the effects of practice are not necessarily smooth. But they certainly won't spend 20 years straight discussing their experiences.)
I would have been glad of a place like AYP forum to discuss my experiences at one time. But those things are redundant for me now, in a pleasant way.
Regards,
-D |
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Victor
USA
910 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2006 : 3:50:34 PM
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Well David has certainly expressed his experience in learning kechari in detail and all of those here learning this are certainly grateful.
I personally deeply appreciate hearing about peoples experiences as they pertain to the *practice*. Davids explanations on kechari are a good example. Ways of helping others to learn the techniques that are given here. As for energy experiences, feelings of trancendance etc. These seem to be highly individual and varied and often can be seen as exciting distractions, That is not to say that they are not important to share and profound for those expressing them, it just feels to me that as practice deepens that they tend to become more matter of fact and less elaborate. At least that has been my personal experience. I do very much prefer to learn what people have found themselves fromt their practice rather than a sophisticated scholarly analysis of someone elses writings but that too has its place, I just feel that forum is the best place for sharing of the first hand in order to enrich each others bhakti as well as understanding. |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 12 2006 : 4:33:36 PM
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Thanks David.
The ones that don't discuss your experiences may be at least as valuable as the ones that do. But it's OK if you want to describe my posts that way
I did not mean "your opinions" in a bad way.. I do respeck your opinions.. the forum would not be the same without your honest opinions about everything.. |
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Anthem
1608 Posts |
Posted - Jun 13 2006 : 12:08:39 AM
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I share a similar opinion to Victor on the subject. I think people will benefit from the sharing all the while cognizant of the fact that experiences, if dwelled upon, can be distracting from our true goal. I also think it is valuable for those interested in AYP to see how effectively it works and to observe the progress of its practitioners.
I personally find it interesting to observe how the seeds of bliss and ecstasy are maturing in our nervous system and how no two seem to be unfolding the same way despite the fact that we are all doing more or less similar practices.
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Jun 13 2006 : 1:11:56 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Shanti
I do respeck your opinions.. the forum would not be the same without your honest opinions about everything..
LOL! Yip, about everything! I know what you are saying, you naughty girl!
Well, dear Shanti, a little bit of disrespeck is OK and even good. ( But mind you, a little goes a long way, like hot chili powder!) LOL!
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Jun 13 2006 : 1:28:13 PM
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quote:
LOL! Yip, about everything! I know what you are saying, you naughty girl!
Why David, whatever are you talking about? 
quote:
Well, dear Shanti, a little bit of disrespeck is OK and even good. ( But mind you, a little goes a long way, like hot chili powder!) LOL!
You will always have a 100% of my respeck... even when I don't agree with you..
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Edited by - Shanti on Jun 13 2006 1:33:22 PM |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Jun 13 2006 : 8:52:52 PM
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Shanti wrote: "...it moves all the way up to my head to my third eye."
Same here
"I can feel ecstasy all over my body, at any time.. all I have to do is mulabandha and sambhavi."
Same here. I had to check the definitions of those yoga words, but yea, same here.
Also during tantric practices, I am finding nowadays that more often than not, orgasmic feelings come up instead of out.
Same here: Love the up instead.
In addition during spinal breathing.. to begin with I feel a very pleasant heat go up and down my spine.. like Cosmic described it.. minty.. but it soon becomes very hot.. and I can feel it flow into my heart and hands. Cools down during meditation..
I can feel some heat in those areas now as I read this, but it is not part of my daily meditation.
I don't feel the hollow you describe..hey I still don't see my spinal nerve.. but Richard I just love the feeling of waves of pleasure that I can invoke at any moment during the day..
Hollow, yes that is an apt description. Waves of pleasure, often.
Yea, thanks for this thread. This type experience is new to me, and since it is rare to nonexistant among the people I know off the web, it is a comfort to find people who are in a simialar phase here. Helps me keep it in a balanced perspective. Inspiring too.
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Edited by - bewell on Jun 13 2006 9:06:17 PM |
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Anthem
1608 Posts |
Posted - Jun 13 2006 : 9:26:06 PM
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Hi Shanti and Bewell,
I feel heat too particularly in certain areas and I associate that with friction or blockages that the energy is trying to move through. Ever since adding in hot and cool sensations to my spinal breathing a month or two back I have noticed they happen by themselves now, especially cool on the way up.
I have to say that adding the tantric components more aggressively to my other practices has lead to a big acceleration in the expansion of ecstasy for me. I look forward to reading Yogani's new book on the subject.
A
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Spiritual puberty
