Hi, I have been having energy flow from the crown of my head down towards my body. Initially I thought it was dandruff and then once I started feeling it in my forehead I assumed it was an insect. But, now I can feel it move like water droplets down my nose, cheeks, around my hips , sometimes moving down my spine like it’s a water pipe and I have gentle muscle spasms along with dreams that I can’t decipher yet but bad things happen to those I dream of. Can you please help in explaining these.
—Suresh Kumar, India
Suresh, are these sensations taking place only during meditation or also during activity? I will assume you are describing what you experience in meditation.
Most of those sensations seem more related to the physical body than to the astral body. I say that partly based on your descriptions and partly also on the fact of your relating them to the sensation of dandruff and to gentle muscle spasms.
I have often observed in myself and in the reports of others that when we sit to meditate and as we become increasingly internalized, that there is a process or period of time during which unusual sensations are felt. My own explanation for this is that as the intelligent and aware energy (“prana”) is drawn inward away from the skin, bones, senses, and organs it contacts sensations, feelings, emotions, and bodily energies that normally unnoticed during our active state; we are simply not aware of them (until we sit down, close our eyes and become very conscious of our body and mind).
A simple example will suffice: let’s say you’ve been dealing with a slightly sore throat. Maybe a cold is coming on or just going away. You’re fine all day with no or little coughing. Then, you come home and sit to meditate and suddenly have a coughing fit or are greatly distracted by your itching throat. Sensations, including aches and pains or emotions, that we are only slightly aware of when we are busy during the day can suddenly flare up into distractions when we go to meditate.
What my teacher, Swami Kriyananda, recommended long ago was to be patient with these initial sensations but continue to meditate and do your practices and after a few minutes the sensations will cease; or, after a period of days and weeks, they will cease to bother you. He was referring specifically to common issues around itching, swallowing, or yawning when meditating. I offer you the same suggestion: work with these things but don’t get stuck obsessing on them; simply continue your meditation and try to go deeper into your center, into the spine, with devotion and concentration so that with practice you can simply overcome, ignore, or transcend them (at which point they usually simply disappear). Sometimes a particular sensation has a simple solution: a glass of water; scratching an itch; etc. So if there’s something simple you can do to calm the sensation as you continue to meditate, by all means do that.
As to the dreams, it is common to assume we have an influence over the fate of others by virtue of our dreams but that is rarely the case. The fact that someone appears in your dream (in an undecipherable way) and then something “bad” happens to them does NOT mean there is any cause and effect relationship between the dream and the “bad” thing happening. I would not give that question or thought any more attention.
I hope these suggestions and these thoughts will be useful to you.
Blesssings and joy to you,
Nayaswami Hriman
Seattle WA USA
