Anonymous asked: ”The following exercise/activity has been occurring regularly for several weeks, perhaps even a few months. I get the urge/feeling to lie down and nothing happens for a few seconds. Then a specific pattern of breathing begins, where it seems to speed up and sometimes the breath is held, beyond what is comfortable. > I experience Mula Bandha (i.e. contraction of the sphincter) consistent with the breathing, at the end of the breath out. There is also a formation of the Surya Mudra hand symbol during the session, which lasts at least until the end of the session. In more recent sessions, I have felt some strong tingling or tickling activity at the site of the third eye and also at the base of the sternum. At some points there is spontaneous spine wriggling, the spine feels as if it is getting stretched straight. Mostly the process is enjoyable and relaxing and energizing and I can feel occasional thrilling rushes of energy. This can easily last from 30 to 60 minutes. Any ideas about what is happening and do you have any suggestions about what to do?”

What you describe is possibly the beginning of nervous system changes being done to your spinal column in a more profound way. As one's awareness gets higher, due to regular practice of some form of meditation, then this is because one's nervous system is being changed in the interval that one has 'withdrawn energy' away from being the thinker. The brain changes, then later it gets reflected in the lower body as the cells are remade. As one's awareness continues to grow - little by little, eventually it reaches a high enough level to start to trigger larger nervous system changes.

The need to lie down and the feeling of movement in the sphincter area is an indication to me, that the spine is being worked on. You might soon start to feel it like a butterfly moving more actively there, the first time this really got strong for me, it was quite profound. What I started doing at this time was what I now call - 'moving as awareness' meditation. Basically I stand and enter into meditative state, and then let go of my body, allowing it to move to whatever position it wants to move to. This is allowing awareness to move you without thought, so it could be called 'spontaneous movement', because you are not voluntarily moving your body with thought/decision to do so. So in standing, just keep checking that you are not 'holding your body', and work to relax any held tension.

Probably you will go quick down to lying like before, but there might occur other poses of spine on the way down. Don't force it, just allow yourself to melt and move all by yourself. The breathing often goes into apnea - no breath, while it works in the chest and in the brain and takes on these patterns, it means there is stronger working energy inside your body working in the nervous system. When work is done in lungs and heart and in throat areas of body, then breathing stops.

Often I’ve noticed breathing patterns, but I think it's better not to pay attention to it, as this takes you out of meditative state. If you can keep your focus simply on the vibration like feeling in the groin, lower abdomen or in your legs, without trying to make it be in any way - then this can help you stay meditative and the kundalini transformation process will be more effective.

When there is tingling then this is an area of the body opening and making new nerve connections. With the strong gyration in groin and tingling in 3rd eye, then you see there are connections being made along the spine itself. It's like a strengthening or enhancement of the existing nervous system in the spine. The spontaneous spine wriggles and stretch is your system energizing the muscle cells, charging them to move and open the tissues involved and strengthen the nervous system. See it like a maze of nervous system paths being created in the brain and then in the body, in millions of directions. Every second you free 'essential' energy by being totally quiet; you unleash this force in your brain. Often after a stretch, you will feel what I call 'shimmering shivers', or rushes of energy traveling the length of the spine. This indeed feels good, whereas sometimes you will feel strong tension, like a strong physical therapy or 'pain' in the muscles. I usually hold these tension positions, until I feel tingling or a release.

If one doesn't resist such 'strong tension', and just becomes the observer of this feeling and doesn't resist, then more opens. In this way you also become very good at learning to discern when you are quiet and when you are not, intensifying the process further. Sometimes you will feel like you are freezing cold as spinal changes progress. Also you might start to enter into a phase where it feels like a criss-cross pattern, like laces in a shoe being done all along the spine. This happened for me over 8 hours with me sitting in one position, I think it was sitting with legs out to front straight, bent over, being slowly lowered, like one notch at a time through the vertebrae. At the time I thought I had to sit until 'the internal work' finished, so often I would go into these long sessions -- going too extreme I can see now, which isn't necessary. It will pick up where you left off next time. One hour to 1 1/2 hour long sessions are the most effective, and taking breaks in between.

Anonymous replied:
Thank you for your detailed explanations. Your description of the 'moving as awareness' meditation sounds very similar to experiences that I have had, that I thought of as spontaneous taichi or qigong (although I don't know taichi or qigong). Looking back on events that have happened, I do remember a butterfly or fluttering feeling, during Nauli Kriya exercises. I can deduce that a lot of internal work has been going on for years, helped by the Yoga practices, although I was not aware of the extent of the progress until recent years.


You’re welcome. I agree with you that this work has been 'going on for years', and it is later that we realize that fact, when spontaneous movements start. I'm pretty sure that every micro-second that we are truly quiet in mind, these internal nervous system changes are happening in that interval. So the more you practice and the more effective your practice (you really can succeed in quiet mind), then the more these changes happen. It surprised me when the spontaneous movements started and the 'pick up' in intensity with physical changes; because it was something hardly any masters were talking about. Looking in the histories of various adepts, I don't see much talk about 'this aspect'.

As i see it we are growing as a species over time, and what many are encountering these days is relatively new territory, and the history seems to support that notion. So then I don't think you will find a name for this phenomena. The way I see it is we've mostly learned from years of meditation about quiet mind, so the difference in state between active and quiet mind. This is actually a kind of growing phase, where the nervous system changes. After enough changes happen then it starts to affect body movement, the kundalini changes in the body are basically preparing for moving the body or reacting to stimuli without the mind.

So you see, spontaneous movement is not like voluntary movement of the body - this is what we are moving away from. A totally quiet mind, full awareness, must also have the same capability in the body. As the mind changes little by little in quiet mind states, then the body is also changing. The whole kundalini process is working towards a new kind of body that doesn't need the old way the brain works with 'reflected thought'. To move voluntarily, we think, make a decision; the muscles get the signal, the body moves. To move spontaneously (without thought), then one just needs to move.

This is an evolutionary advantage for survival, in that one can quickly and more efficiently react and adapt to stimuli one encounters. There is no name for it, but we can coin our own if we are so inclined. I don't really like spontaneous because it implies that it is happening all by itself. The reality is we are moving ourselves in 'spontaneous movements’; it's just that we aren't quite yet comfortable with knowing ourselves at that. We are in between, in a metamorphosis, mostly familiar with the way to move voluntarily. So those spontaneous movements seem like someone else is doing it. As one proceeds, as the body changes, one will start to identify more with the source and see this truth directly: "I am doing it."