I Saw a Shadow Figure at Work and Again Later While Meditating

Odd experiences in meditation

I get a lot of people writing and asking virtually unusual and odd experiences they've had in meditation, sometimes merely once, but often on a consistent basis. Sometimes they're worried, but sometimes I think they're hoping that these weird experiences in meditation are signs that they're aware, or close to it, or that they have meditation superpowers.

These hopes and fears are quite understandable. I hate to disappoint, but these kinds of unusual experiences are ordinarily pretty mutual. About weird experiences in meditation are not of any great significance. Sometimes they are good signs, though, so I've tried to clarify that where possible.

Below I've categorized into some of the things people have described. I've put them into 6 groups, and I'll discuss each type separately.

• See also: "Unusual" meditation experiences, sensory deprivation, and synesthesia.

The six groups are:

1. Swirling lights and dreamlike images
2. Helpful signs
3. Distorted body sensations
4. Tingling and energy
5. Involuntary twitching and spontaneous movements
6. Sensations of pressure

I'll say upfront, though, that I can never be 100% confident I've categorized these odd experiences correctly. After all I'k having to translate other people's experiences, often from descriptions that are unclear.

1. Swirling Lights and Dreamlike Images

People get actually excited about the swirling lights! And sometimes they get freaked out by seeing faces or other images appearing in the mind's heart. Here are some real-life descriptions.

• During my sit I saw a vivid white/yellow circle shape flash of light in between my eyebrows (closed centre meditation). The light came rushing at me and filled my vision and then vanished. While very interesting, information technology actually freaked me out a flake.
• I've had noises then loud in 1 ear they made me jump, lights, weird visual things, feelings of floating or expanding or shrinking – simply every now and then.
• While i meditate in complete darkness i observe swirling of lights. The longer or deeper the meditation the color changes. I noticed it would go from a red, to orange, upward to indigo.
• When I feel I'm getting deep I tin can run into bright purple colors swirling nearly. I've tried for a long time to find out if there is a significant to this.
• I have had a recurrent experience during meditation. These involve existence completely absorbed by an intense xanthous vibrating low-cal, qualitatively ecstatic or electrical.
• i meditate in the dark. when i open my eyes and i look at my hands i can see similar smoke coming out at the tip of my fingers.it look like when you go out of a really hot bath and you got steam on your skin
• I have experienced a similar meditation twice where I am going deep…seeing stars/universes… colors…and then silence…and stillness (void?) and then I am aware of a medallion that looks like it is made of rock with low and high relief with a confront on it.

I'm going to include with the above other dream-similar experiences, such equally hearing voices, having images of faces appearing, and so on.

These experiences are nothing to worry well-nigh. You're not going crazy if you lot run into swirling lights. They're too nil to get excited about either. No, you lot're not on the verge of enlightenment. In fact they're not fifty-fifty helpful, as I'll explain in a moment.

The swirling lights are quite common, particularly in people who are relatively new to meditation, and sometimes when people do more meditation than usual. They tend to arise when people are starting to go a bit calmer and they are thinking less.

The nearest thing to an official term for these phenomena — that I know of at least — would be an "unhelpful sign." Nimittas are unusual experiences that happen in meditation. The Pali give-and-take "nimitta" can exist translated every bit a "sign" or "hint."

• These unusual experiences (nimittas) can be helpful, in that they are signs that there is something nosotros should pay attention to in order to go more absorbed in our meditation practise.
• But they can be unhelpful, in that they disturb or distract us, and in that case they are signs or hints that at that place's something unbalanced about what we're doing on our meditation practice.

With swirling lights, dream-like images, and imagined sound that ascend in meditation, we're in the territory of unhelpful nimittas, or unhelpful signs.

This distinction between helpful and unhelpful nimittas comes from a first century meditation text called the "Path of Liberation," or Vimuttimagga. Although the author, Upatissa, doesn't apply the terms "helpful" and "unhelpful," that'southward clearly what he means. Describing unhelpful nimittas, Upatissa says that a meditator,

…sees diverse forms such equally fume, mist, dust, sand of gold, or he experiences something similar to the pricking of a needle or to an pismire's bite. If his listen does not get clear regarding these different images, he will be confused.

Because some nimittas are helpful and some are unhelpful, it'southward important to recognize the difference. Swirling lights aren't helpful because they aren't still or calming. They're fascinating, yeah, but they're dreamlike.

What I think is going on is that there's a kind of dreamy state of heed combined with mild sensory impecuniousness. People in sensory deprivation tanks tend to have very similar experiences to these. Then what's probably happening here is that the listen is becoming quiet, just it'southward not used to being quiet, and it creates these odd sensations. They're mild hallucinations, in other words — although don't be alarmed past that give-and-take. We all hallucinate every night, when we're dreaming, and most of us hallucinate during the day as well, when we're having conversations with other people in our heads. The good affair is that we don't believe these hallucinations are existent.

The word nimitta ways "sign" or even "hint." In the case of these unhelpful nimittas, they're a hint that we're making some progress — the mind is thinking less and calmer than usual — merely they're likewise a hint that nosotros need to ground ourselves in the bodily sensory experience arising from the body.

So if these odd sensations ascend, only note them, only exist aware that they're not helpful and they're not something you should become captivated in.

Instead, see if you can notice the actually sensations of the trunk and the breathing more clearly and vividly. Perhaps you can showtime with the sensations of contact that the body is making with the floor and with your seat. Detect brilliant sensations, such as the air in the nostrils. Notice physical sensations such equally the movement of the diaphragm and the rib cage.

These are the kinds of things you demand to do that your mind is a) filled with sensory experience rather than deprived of it, and b) kept absorbed in vivid sensory feel that prevents yous slipping into a dream-similar land..

If you permit your listen get absorbed in these swirling lights it'll terminate you going deeper into meditation.

ii. Helpful Signs (Symbols and Synesthesia)

At that place's another kind of nimitta (sign) — helpful nimittas that will actually assistance you become more absorbed in your meditation exercise. Here are some descriptions that students have shared with me.

• The breath became a shiny reflective surface, a common cold metal greyness colour.
• Sometimes information technology happens that there is a moment during a sit, when the blazon of feel changes in a fashion that tin be hard to describe (simply I'll try anyway). It'southward as if one sinks a fraction deeper into the seat, and is surrounded by a chimera. There is no want to finish the sit down.
• Today, and I accept noticed on previous occasions, when the allotted time for meditation has expired, I sometimes get "stuck", in a prissy mode. I feel the urge to move, but information technology passes simply similar an urge to itch. Eventually, I "determine" that it is time to move on. Simply information technology has a different quality to it than the urge that comes from a timer.
• Becoming enlightened of the continuity of the jiff created an infinity symbol for me to flow forth, never ending. … I feel like my whole body is breathing.
• Information technology'due south as if I've wandered into a bright function of my mind. There'southward a shift of my awareness and suddenly there's a sense of inner calorie-free, which is soft and white. I'm complimentary to move my awareness in and out of this area of lite, but when I'm in information technology I feel very calm.
• I reach a certain point where it feels like I'm acutely aware of my body while being outside of information technology, similar I'm watching it from physically far abroad.
• After about 10 minutes or so I flowed into self metta and when the gong rang I felt/saw golden low-cal in and around me.
• [I saw] some teal and royal round coloring that I think has to practise with retinal pressure. It responds to my movements, more often than not breathing and pulse, generally every bit shrinking concentric blobs alternate between the 2 colors … it lets me know that I've constitute a good relaxed alertness residual and that my focus is refined enough to discover it.

Some of these might sound similar to the unhelpful nimittas above. In fact it can be difficult to know what's going on in someone else'south experience, and it's possible that I've mis-categorized some of these.

But I retrieve these are all what we call helpful nimittas.

As I explained above, the word nimitta means "sign" or "hint" and these experiences are all signs that we're getting deeper into meditation. In fact, it's pretty much guaranteed that if someone uses the term nimitta without the qualifications "helpful" or "unhelpful" (or something similar) they're talking about the helpful kind.

Usually meditators talk most nimittas in relation to jhana, which is a Pali word meaning "meditative absorption." The Sanskrit equivalent is dhyana. Jhana is an experience of "menstruation" in meditation. Information technology'southward an experience (or serial of experiences) where our meditation shifts gear, and nosotros're able to be effortlessly mindful. Distractions fall away, and nosotros're left experiencing calm and joy.

In contrast to unhelpful nimittas, which you shouldn't get defenseless up in, it's a good thought to pay attention to these sensations considering they'll take you deeper into meditation. They're "signs" in the same way that a glimmer of light in a nighttime cave is a sign showing you where the leave is. If you move toward the blink of light information technology takes you lot closer to the exit, which in the case of meditation is jhana.  (The Buddha actually described jhana every bit the "escape from a bars infinite.") And as you move closer to the leave, the "hint" becomes stronger.What nosotros have hither is a positive-feedback loop, which is why this kind of nimitta is helpful.

In some of these cases it'due south not hard to see that the nimitta is connected with the object of the meditation, or some other positive quality that's emerging in the meditation. For case a feeling of honey is perceived as a aureate light, or stillness is perceived equally a sinking into the seat or as an disability to move. The continuous flow of the animate is perceived as a visual or tactile infinity symbol. The smooth contact with the breath is experienced as having a shiny, metallic quality.

   Jhana is an feel of "menses" in meditation. It's an experience (or series of experiences) where our meditation shifts gear, and we're able to be effortlessly mindful. Distractions autumn away, and we're left experiencing calm and joy.

These experiences seem to be to be like to synesthesia. Synesthesia is a country where sensory information in one form is perceived in another. A mutual type is where people sense words of numbers as having colors attached to them. Estimates of the incidence of synesthesia vary from 1 in 23 to 1 in 2,000 (thanks, Wikipedia).

I think many of usa take weak synesthetic tendencies, but that the synesthetic signals, being weak, are drowned out by other, stronger experiences (thoughts, feelings, etc.). Information technology'due south only when we're all the same, and the mind is at-home, that these experiences sally. Meditation, in other words, can unleash our hidden synesthetic potential.

Synesthetic nimittas are useful because they are a form of feedback. Paying more attending to a subtle synesthetic signal that arises in our experience every bit the mind is calming encourages the mind to become even calmer, and so the synesthetic betoken becomes stronger. Information technology's like walking toward the glimmer of light in the cavern, and seeing it get brighter; seeing the lite get brighter makes it easier to move toward the source.

Sometimes helpful nimittas tin can have the grade of visual symbols. Unlike the swirling lights they're relatively stable and very, very articulate. They can seem more vivid than your experience of the outside world. I've sometimes experienced nimittas every bit images of h2o – very articulate and lucid. For example I might find I'm seeing stones nether the shallow water of a pond.

So pay attending to helpful, synesthetic nimittas, and larn to distinguish them from unhelpful, dream-like nimittas.

One concluding thing: People who are prone to having unhelpful nimittas are often prone to experiencing helpful nimittas likewise. Often when people are starting out meditation they oasis't yet learned how to pay attention to the trunk's rich pallete of sensations. But they do manage to calm the listen. A slightly dream-like state arises as some kind of unhelpful nimitta.

Once their meditation is a bit more established and they're able to exist more mindful of the body, then helpful nimittas showtime happening.

The same people seem to accept both. It's quite possible that some people don't feel either kind.

3. Distorted Body Sensations

Another kind of unusual experience is when the body seems to have changed in some manner. Here are some examples my meditation students accept shared with me over the years:

• 26 infinitesimal sit. Feeling of farthermost spaciousness in the kickoff and like my hands were infinitely pocket-sized.
• Notable sensations: being very small and yet infinite, as if pulled 35 degrees upwardly to the right 4 feet away.
• I had that foreign sensation of body distortion again. This time, it felt as if my legs were huge and the rest of my body very small. I got a very funny prototype of what I looked similar co-ordinate to my distorted perception. And then the sensation faded afterward a few minutes and I moved on to Metta Bhavana [lovingkindness meditation].
• I don't know how long I sat, but information technology was very peaceful and I felt myself expand a petty beyond my normal sense of where my body boundaries are. At a sure point my hands and lips felt like they were growing very fat, which was interesting to observe (for case the thought really crossed my mind, unconvincingly, that possibly my lips actually were swelling upward).
• I have had the "swelling awareness" in my hands before during meditation and I ever find it fascinating. It feels very real, like my body is expanding beyond itself and sometimes I experience tempted to open up my eyes and double check.
• A few years ago when I was first learning to meditate I had an a experience doing mindfulness of animate where I felt my legs begin to cook. It totally freaked me out causing me to open my optics and stop the meditation. When I did that, the feeling immediately stopped and I've never had anything similar that since.

These are as well nimittas. Are they helpful or unhelpful? It'southward hard to say. I'd suggest that generally they're not helpful.

I think they ascend a fleck differently from either the dream-like kind of unhelpful nimitta or the synesthetic kind of helpful nimitta I've described above.

By and large these changes in body perception involve a loss of the normal boundaries of the body.  At present, some parts of the body, like the easily and lips, have vastly more than nerve endings than other body parts. In fact if your sense of how big various trunk parts are was proportional to the amount of sensory information being received in the brain from each function you'd feel similar your torso was like this:

Cortical homunculus by stormthor on deviantART.

Which is pretty much how the body tin experience sometimes in meditation. I don't think this is a coincidence.

Given that they take so many nerve endings, why don't we feel that the hands and lips are huge all the time? I call back it's because there's a "correction filter" in the brain that "scales" body parts and makes the internal feeling of the torso correspond more closely to the external visual advent that nosotros run into. In meditation it seems that these filters are dropped, and nosotros experience the trunk more as it is. And so the lips and hands feel big, for example.

Another (peradventure related) machinery is that there is a part of the brain (the parietal lobes) that go on track of the spatial orientation of the trunk and of parts of the torso relative to each other. It'south been observed by neuroscientists that in some forms of meditation the parietal lobes become less agile, and so our perception of the body changes.

The nimittas that these changes are associated with don't pb directly to jhana, even so, simply to what are called in the scriptures the "formless spheres" (ayatanas). You've probably heard them called the "formless jhanas" or "higher jhanas" merely that'south not a term the Buddha used, and they're distinct experiences from the jhanas proper.

At the point these distorted actual sensations emerge, you lot tin can choose to ignore them and head instead for the jhanas by focusing more intently on the breathing, or you can stick with them and see what happens. (Information technology can accept yous into some really weird experiences that mess with your sense of self — in a good fashion!)

So this kind of nimitta seems to exist different from either that I've described above. They're signs, all right, but they're signs that you're heading to a different set of experiences than the kind of absorption that's chosen jhana. They're signs that y'all're headed toward formless experiences. And then whether they're helpful or not depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Some kinds of physical experiences are not helpful.  For example I had a friend in Glasgow, Scotland, who had an interesting distorted body-perception feel that was definitely unhelpful. He meditated on a kneeling bench, and, equally you might know, those benches slope down toward the front. He'd been sitting for a while and felt increasingly uncomfortable. In fact he realized that he was sitting on his meditation demote backwards, with it sloping to the rear. This acquired him to lean astern, and he had to put an enormous amount of try into keeping his back straight. He tried to suffer the discomfort, but eventually it became too much to acquit, and so he stood up — but to detect that his demote had been the right way around all forth! The whole experience of the bench beingness backwards and of being thrown out of alignment was zilch more than an unhelpful nimitta.

A like feeling is that yous're leaning to one side. Generally, if you're having the experience of your torso being out of alignment, even when it'south definitely non, this is probably an unhelpful nimitta. Just carry on!

I terminal distorted body sensation I'll talk over is when you feel the body is floating. This is something I used to induce as a child. I'd lie in bed, let myself relax, and just lie there, existence aware of my body under the sheets. As I relaxed more than and more, I'd start to experience that the whole bed was floating higher and higher toward the ceiling. At some point I'd have the feeling that the bed was starting to tip over and I'd panic and come abck to my normal perceptions. I hadn't been asleep, just clearly there's something dream-like almost this, and so we're back in the territory of those dreamy, unhelpful signs.

I've never had this happen to me in meditation, but I know information technology has happened to some folks. And so, sorry, but you're non developing psychic powers. You're but having a dream-like feel.

4. Tingling and Energy

Feelings of tingling, warmth, and energy are quite mutual in meditation. Sometimes people will describe this as an "electric feeling" or similar "currents of electricity." But this phenomenon can take diverse forms, as yous can see from some of the descriptions that I've collected from my students over the years.

• After the counting was done and Bodhi's vocalisation was telling me to observe how I felt, I noticed that my heed was at-home, there were lights around me and my body felt energized then all-in-all it was a positive feel.
• Mayhap it was my particular state of mind tonight, just I dissolved easily into simply being aware of my animate. Easily and anxiety felt quite warm.
• Sometimes I've felt a tingling in the spine during meditation, and I'thousand curious what that's virtually.
• During the counting of the in-breaths I was getting real rushes of energy to the point where it was a little uncomfortable. At i point ( not certain which stage ) I had the strange sensation of my mind being stuck/jammed.
• I felt an uncontrollable wave of extremely stiff energy. It felt almost proficient , but in a sense likewise powerful – pure pleasance.. I tried to just feel it as is only then felt myself getting physically aroused which freaked me out because I was in public with a large group. I then tried to control it and constitute it very difficult to do so.
• During the meditation, I feel tingling in my hands and feet. Is this normal?
• Certainly I've felt a tingling sensation that by and large starts in my lower spine and spreads over my whole body

We call this energy piti (Pali) or priti (Sanskrit). Information technology's ane of the characteristic signs that we're near or are having an experience of jhana. So piti is a skillful thing!

This kind of energy arises when we're becoming more sensitized to the sensations of the body because the listen is becoming calmer. Also, because the body is relaxing, in that location's a release of tension. The effect can exist of tingling, or of rushing energy. Sometimes the piti manifests as warmth. It tin can be very pleasant.

But it can too be a bit much. If the piti does get also intense, so focus more on the feel of joy, which will almost certainly be present also.

Piti is, in a way, another nimitta (or the helpful kind), but a very specific i. It's not traditionally described as a nimitta, simply it's an feel that gives us a "hint" that jhana is near, and so information technology performs the same function.

five. Involuntary Twitching and Spontaneous Body Movements

A lot of people written report involuntary jerks, switches, and movements during meditation. Sometimes it's the head jerking. Sometimes it'south the artillery and hands. Sometimes it's the back.

Commencement, nosotros accept to distinguish this from the jerking that happens when we are falling asleep in meditation. When you start to fall asleep – and yous might non even realize this is happening, because sleep can sneak upwards on us — the body starts to relax. And then some part of your brain realizes that you're starting to autumn, and jerks you awake. This can involve just the head. Sometimes I've heard this chosen "the noddies." 1 of my students used to telephone call this "having the woody woodpeckers." Sometimes it's the whole upper torso. Xc-nine point nine percent of the time this is what is going on when people experience involuntary jerks in meditation.

Apparently it'southward normal to autumn asleep in meditation. You're sitting with your center closed. Y'all're in a depression stimulation environment. And you lot're probably tireder than you realize, since many of us are sleep-deprived, even if we're in denial about information technology.

There are other kinds of jerks and twitches, though. Here are some examples:

• I was breathing, only only a teeny speckle of attention to each breath. And then my leg muscles started jerking which I felt disappointed about. Then I simply got into a rhythm of moving and said 'ok, ok, information technology's ok'.
• Yesterday's meditation was short. I had the "twitchies" and just tried to notice them and be kind to them.
• My muscles started twitching. I tried to ignore information technology, just then realized I was pushing the experience away. I tried to just stay aware, but on an impulse was out of the chair earlier I even knew it.
• Tried to follow the wave of relaxation on the out breath. Lots of twitching by different muscles. Past the finish of the mean solar day, I felt more than peace in my body.
• Lots of twitching as my body settled in to the longer sit. Then came the memories of unskillful behavior (from yesterday). Back to breath. I kept returning to thoughts, judgments, stories. Finally, I became enlightened of the message….. Ain my behavior and make amends.
• Adequately repose listen during the sit. Some twitching of my body in the beginning…think that was tension releasing.

Related to this is when the body spontaneously relaxes, which happens a lot. Y'all'll just be sitting in that location and all of a sudden your shoulders will drop, for example. It'south spontaneous considering y'all didn't determine to do this. In fact yous probably didn't fifty-fifty notice that the shoulders were tense. As far a spontaneous relaxation goes, pretty much everyone is going to welcome it, and it's hard to imagine it being of business concern. But the movements people are describing higher up as just equally spontaneous!

Involuntary movements are things I've experienced myself. Many years agone I developed a twitch in my back that would kick in whenever I got to a certain level of relaxation, which didn't take long to happen in meditation. This twitch would throw my entire upper dorsum and head astern. More recently I realized that what my back was trying to do was realign a vertebra that was out of identify and causing me hurting. I was on retreat and starting to experience a lot of back pain. Then ane night in meditation my back started to spontaneously twist, hold, and release. I knew enough to let information technology do this, and after a few minutes the movements spontaneously stopped. And when they did, the hurting was gone. Somehow my body had figured out how to do chiropractic adjustments on itself.

So this may be a part of some movements. The body wants to adjust itself. Maybe it wants to straighten upwardly, for case. Or maybe, as someone suggested in their comment on spontaneous twitching, it's the body releasing tension.

One person above described how she experienced remorse about previous deportment simply after a tour of twitching. I imagine that the part of her encephalon that was trying to bring those memories to mind was in some kind of tussle with a role of the encephalon that wanted very much not to think well-nigh these things. Net result: physical twitching.

Spontaneous actual movements can be expressive of other emotions also. I've known people who accept experienced physical movements, like the arms flying in the air, associated with joy or devotion.

Going back to piti, which is described in a higher place. Not all piti is sensed as tingling or energy. One kind of piti that's traditionally described as "momentary piti" may well exist a kind of twitching more along the lines of an "energy release" than an actual feel of energy.

So there'south probably not just one crusade backside spontaneous jerking and twitching in meditation. Information technology can outcome from the trunk adjusting itself, from suppressed emotion, from upward-welling positive emotion, and maybe for other reasons as well.

If you have spontaneous twitches or body movements I'd suggest but accepting them. Let them happen. There's nigh certainly naught to worry nearly. The brain is very complex, and most of the movements your body makes are non under witting command. Adjacent fourth dimension you're walking, for instance, detect that you aren't consciously giving commands to the dozens of muscles involved in that action. They're interim spontaneously, and in a very complex way. And no one thinks anything of it.

6. Sensations of Force per unit area

Having sensations of pressure in meditation is non a type of experience I've had myself, but it seems to be quite common. Certainly lots of people accept written to me describing feeling pressure. Hither are some examples:

• Another strange awareness I had during today's meditation was pressure level on the eye balls, just similar fingers pressing. It was near the starting time of the meditation and only lasted 30 seconds or and then. Some other new sensation. In the end I found myself feeling pretty relaxed.
• I have developed a feeling of force per unit area in my caput–sometimes in my brow or scalp, sometimes more in my face. At times it is quite strong and unpleasant.
• I take noticed that I get quite hot, develop damp skin, and recently accept felt a pressure in the top of my head, as though something is trying to burst out. It is not painful, merely unusual, and not a serious distraction.
• I have physical sensation in my body, ascension pressure in stomach, sometimes shaking, correct at present I always notice that and let that sensations to pass.
• i too was feeling ii points of pressure (i cant think of another word to describe it) on my chest
• I feel pressure, not pleasurable or painful, just pressure level, on the middle of my forehead. I this normal, or is it something I should be worried nigh?

I suspect that these are nimittas, and that the but trouble with them is freaking out almost them. If you experience these, please relax and be enlightened that the awareness of pressure is just a awareness similar whatever other. Information technology's not going to hurt you. I'm told that relaxing the muscles in the head helps, and that the sense of force per unit area tin accept a stabilizing outcome on your attention, as with any other nimitta.

If you lot plant this article useful or interesting, be sure to check out our web log, where we regularly share practical information on how to get more out of your meditation practice.

Bodhipaksa has been meditating since 1982 and educational activity since around 1989. He is a Buddhist practitioner and teacher, a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, and a published author. He launched the Wildmind website on November eleven, 2000. Bodhipaksa has published many guided meditation CDs, guided meditation MP3s, and books. He teaches in various meditation centers around the world. He is supported by donations from members of the Wildmind customs. If you're interested in condign a supporter and in getting access to more of Bodhipaksa's teachings, please click here to learn more about his meditation initiative.

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Source: https://www.wildmind.org/odd-experiences-in-meditation

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