Is what you referred to in your blog post on "kundalini awakening, Reiki energy healers", is this related to the "kriya's" Shinzen Young talks about in this YouTube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
...for about a week, my body spontaneously and involuntarily reacted to sounds and music... I've been formally meditating with music about two hours straight each evening.
...if you haven't had kriyas happening before...put on some headphones and listen to all kinds of music in random order, see how your body reacts all by its own. If it does, try standing up ...
How my body reacts is simply unbelievable...cello concerts by Bach results in peaceful swaying movements and delightful facial expressions...Autechre or Aphex Twin...like I'm being electrocuted, my body shakes and twitches chaotically, arms and legs move violently in all directions...
...high pitched female voices (Bat For Lashes) give me goosebumps...gasping for air...not synched with a lump in the throat or tingling in belly or chest...listening to dance music... makes me dance...my body mimicked the rhythms of the music..my legs also got a will of their own.
I...can't detect any "will" of my own anywhere causing these movements...Sometimes... stop a movement that could hurt me, but that's it. The rest is not me. No-self (anatta) anyone?
It doesn't seem to matter much what kind of meditation I do... Noting randomly... focusing on the breath or just being aware without technique ... the body mimicks the music...trying to predict the movements impedes them... Focusing on the music or the breath does the opposite.
G.
Some of what Shinzen Young says re kriyas is good (i don't believe this is where where we got "werewolves"), especially: it's not unusual, we even have a special word for it, for many folk it happens/for some it doesn't, try both "suppressing and going with them", and it is often "cleansing". Excellent point on if folk don't hear about it, they get scared; if they hear about it, they get "cravings" if/when it doesn't happen and try to make it happen.
When he goes into a Burmese vipassana explanation of kriyas focused on sitting meditation is where it becomes less useful, IME, particularly when he talks about "sanskaras" as they are being released, "rising up...hitting a vulnerable area in the semiconscious...causing the body to move spontaneously". Kundalini experiences and kriyas are more than that.
Without a physical practice of some sort like yoga, martial arts, sufi whirling, dancing, deep massage (Rolfing), etc. many/most sanskaras will not be released, or revealed, IME. i have found all of these pleasurable, deeply meditative and "opening".
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| Sufi whirling |
A "danger" in doing just sitting meditation is that one can develop an "intellectual" practice which is prone to generating pride, even arrogance, as the "messy" body is out of the picture, and a way has been found to control the mind, more or less, during meditation. Fully "embodying" your practice and understandings requires engagement of the physical body in whatever ways you find most compelling and pleasurable. If it isn't pleasurable, you won't do it for long, so find something that you enjoy.
As far as kriyas, the wikipedia article is not very useful. It does list six different approaches (with links) that are used in many yoga approaches for "cleansing" techniques, including neti, nauli, trataka, kapalabhati, dhauti and basti, as specified in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika in the 15th century . my first two yoga teachers' training courses, which were both focused on kundalini and energy practices as well as physical postures (asanas), put much emphasis on these.
i have done all of them except the hrid dautis of swallowing a cloth strip and using a stick to clean the esophagus; they are "hard core" and few schools teach these any more; they have the potential to be hazardous, so i don't recommend them w/o an experienced teacher. However, neti and nauli are daily practices; neti is probably the best known kriya - well worth checking out if you have nasal or sinus congestion. Some doctors recommend it and there are kits at many pharmacies.
As to what happens to you when you listen to music, that's not kriyas, that is your brain on music. The classic book in this field, "This Is Your Brain on Music", is a great read and NYTimes Bestseller; the graphic below is in it. One quote is particularly useful: "The thrills, chills, and tears we experience from music are the result of having our expectations artfully manipulated by a skilled composer and the musicians who interpret that music."
As far as the emotions you feel when you hear music, the music activates the same frontal brain regions as do emotions elicited by other stimuli, the prefrontal cortex as well as the nucleus accumbens and amygdala in the diagram. This same prefrontal region is responsible for positive vs negative perceptions of music. Left frontal EEG signals correlate with happiness and joy, and right frontal EEGs with fear and sadness. The activity overall in the prefrontal region increases as musical stimuli become more intense.
As far as your feeling "chills", this very pleasurable experience is produced by music in the amygdala, hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex shown in the diagram. These same areas, which are linked to reward/motivation, and emotion/arousal, are also activated in other pleasures such as food, sex and drugs.
Additionally, when really unpleasant melodies are played, our old friend, the posterior cingulate cortex, which is a core center for "selfing", is activated, indicating conflict or emotional pain which obviously have heavy selfing involvement. An area of the right hemisphere is activated by music focused on social rejection.
These strong correlations between emotion and music/tonality is borne out by the feeling that the tones in music feel like the tones in human speech which indicate emotional content. The vowels in the phonemes of a song are elongated for a dramatic effect, and musical tones appear as if they are simply exaggerations of the normal verbal tonality.
As far as your movements when you are listening to music, that occurs in the cerebellum, sensory and motor cortices as shown in the diagram. That's why they call it "dance music".
Stillness and good listening
These strong correlations between emotion and music/tonality is borne out by the feeling that the tones in music feel like the tones in human speech which indicate emotional content. The vowels in the phonemes of a song are elongated for a dramatic effect, and musical tones appear as if they are simply exaggerations of the normal verbal tonality.
As far as your movements when you are listening to music, that occurs in the cerebellum, sensory and motor cortices as shown in the diagram. That's why they call it "dance music".
Stillness and good listening
Thank you for this info Gary. However I have been listening to music all my life, experiencing emotional reactions to it, feeling the urge to move or dance and finding all that quite normal, but that particular period last summer was something quite different. The body movements in reaction to the sounds were very much involuntarily. For about a week I could hardly stop them from happening. This was awkward while at work and even more so while attending a funeral at the time. I found myself at the computer or during conversations suddenly moving as if some puppeteer pulled my strings. Luckily I could arrange a Skype session with Kenneth Folk who taught me how to balance this 'energy' or however one would name it.
ReplyDeleteThis peak period was preceded by some months where I would get more subtle spontaneous movements during formal meditation, usually some rocking back and forth or sideways. After the peak period with the extreme reactions to sound/music, this all stopped quite quickly and so far hasn't come back. My responses to music have normalized again and even the more subtle spontaneous movements have disappeared from formal sitting meditation ever since.
David:
ReplyDeleteAm not trying to be Dr. Buzzkill, but music has incredible power in the sensory and motor/movement cortices and in the emotional centers which control some powerful neurochemicals. As your practice proceeds, your normal level of "inhibition" may well be decreased, so responses may be amplified, now and in the future.
It is great that Kenneth was able to balance out whatever these energies were so that your responses to music are "normal" again. Kenneth is a good friend, and even though our approaches are very different, he is reaching and "helping" many folk on their spiritual journeys.
For what it's worth, i still rock back and forth when i chant daily and often when i meditate. It is nothing special; it is just as it is.
i would encourage you, as a practice, to let go of experiences. i found becoming attached to experiences utimately generated suffering as do any attachments, as the Buddha said. Experiences are only memories, and as posted earlier, our memories are spectacularly unreliable, particularly of prior emotional states, like 9/11.
The best w/your spiritual endeavors. If i can be of any assistance, don't hesitate to contact me.
stillness
gary
"i would encourage you, as a practice, to let go of experiences. i found becoming attached to experiences utimately generated suffering as do any attachments"
ReplyDeleteOf course. Thanks!
David, exactly what you describe is happening to me now, but in addition to Kriyas during meditation and other kundalini related phenomena. I’ve found this post by searching “kundalini response to music” because the kundalini energy within me loves music!
ReplyDeleteHi MarieJ. Yes, it can be a fascinating dance when one isn't there...less is definitely more, as i mention above. Great that the Dance brought you to this post.
Deletestillness
gary