for a few years when I meditated energy would raise up my spine and circle around my head.it pulsed up and down around my head for a while. I liked it. is that normel?should I expect it or was it something unrelated?
—jeff wells, us
Dear Jeff,
It is quite “normal” for a regular meditator to feel energy rising up in the spine. As you have experienced, it is enjoyable, and an indication that your inner journey is bearing fruit.
In meditation we focus our concentration inwardly and become aware of our energy body, or astral body.
The usual movement of vital energy (prana) is that after entering the body through the 6th chakra, at the medulla oblongata, it flows downward through the spine and chakras and out through the nerves and senses into the material world. In our “normal” state of consciousness, we are most aware of the physical body and our sense perceptions.
When we meditate and concentrate on the breath, the spine, the spiritual eye, this vital energy become redirected from the physical to the inner, astral body, and begins to move in an upward direction towards the head – actually towards the positive pole of the 6th chakra, the Spiritual Eye.
When this happens, we become aware of energy moving in the spine and have perception of that energy also in the head.
Yogananda said we should enter each meditation with “joyful expectation,” so by all means you can expect to have these and other inward experiences. You might want to more consciously create a focus for that flow of energy by raising your eyes, with relaxation, gently upwards and concentrating at the spiritual eye during your practices.
And you might also want to explore more deeply the science of Kriya Yoga if you have not already done so. You will find information about Kriya on the Ananda Sangha websites, and also the European site has a complete booklet on Kriya available at https://www.ananda.it/en/kriya-yoga/index.html.
In divine friendship,
Nayaswami Shivani
