Experiences in Meditation

Please remember: all experiences are only transitional stages on the way to meditation. This is not real meditation! You are neither the experience nor the one who undergoes it. You are the one who witnesses all experiences. Various experiences on the physical level 1. A headache, or pain in any part of the body. (This is a very typical experience. In meditation we receive cosmic energy, which clears out the ailing part of the body, and that causes pain. This pain is felt only while you are in meditation.) 2. The body becomes very light or very heavy. 3. The body feels very cold, or it may break into a sweat. 4. Hearing your own heartbeat clearly from within. 5. A sensation of hot gases coming out of the ears. 6. The body moves into various yogic positions or movements. 7. An experience of sudden laughter or weeping. 8. The body sways back and forth or from side to side, or a sensation of spinning is felt even though the physical body is still. (This happens because the astral body is trying to separate from the physical one.) 9. A feeling that something has left the body, and the fear this brings with it. (This fear is typical, and there is no need to be especially troubled by it. The best way to deal with fear is to face it head on the moment it arises. If you do that, the fear will rise to its peak and then subside.) 10. A feeling of drowsiness and sleepiness. (This is not sleep - the state of a mind free of thoughts produces such a feeling at first.) Experiences of hearing and smell 1. Hearing voices, words or messages. 2. Hearing sounds or musical tones. 3. Becoming aware of the various scents around you. 4. Hearing your own snoring very clearly. (This means you are aware that your relaxed body is asleep.) Experiences of various energies 1. A feeling that the body is becoming very small. 2. A feeling that the body is expanding greatly and becoming gigantic. 3. Loss of bodily awareness of the folded hands. 4. Loss of awareness of the time spent in meditation. 5. Flying like a bird or an aeroplane (astral travel). 6. A feeling that you are meditating in new places. 7. A feeling of pins and needles moving through the body, "creeping" upwards from the base of the spine (the awakening of kundalini). 8. A feeling of being healed of an illness. 9. Deep contentment, great peace and bliss light up the person. Visual or light experiences 1. Complete darkness, brilliant light or various colours are seen even with the eyes closed. 2. Seeing terrifying images (teachers give experiences in order to clear away complexes of fear). 3. Seeing snakes in astral visions. 4. Seeing and experiencing rapid movement down a dark tunnel that ends in bright light (the widely known "tunnel experience"). 5. Seeing friends and relatives who are alive or who have already died. 6. Seeing dead friends and relatives (comfort them; suggest that they seek help from enlightened souls and move on towards the higher worlds). 7. Seeing astral teachers and deities (ask them for knowledge; listen to their messages). 8. Seeing hills and forest (as part of astral travel). 9. Seeing books and a pen (a hint to try writing down what is dictated from above). 10. Following the jyoti, or light (this means following the spiritual teachers. Follow them wherever they take you). 11. Seeing all kinds of visions and scenes of events to come. 12. Visions of past lives, and the seeing and recognising of past mistakes. A meditator may meet with these experiences on the way to the meditative state. But for as long as these experiences are being perceived, the meditative state has not yet been reached! Meditation comes only when you go beyond each and every such experience!