Involuntary Body Movements: Part II

This can be considered a follow-up post to this one. The previous post was on my experiences of involuntary movements during the start of my meditation journey 3 years back. It was quite intriguing to me, since it was clear to me that I was not causing the involuntary movements (by definition!). I could stop these movements at will, but it was as if a gentle hand would again begin the movements in precise directions and curves!
Fast-forward 3 years later,  I am a busy graduate student moving towards the end of my Phd, wishing for more time to do research every day - But at the same time balancing my life with meditation and physical activity........

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I just finished a busy quarter where I set more goals than I could manage. However, I am getting better in planning and organizing my work to achieve my goals more effectively. No sooner did my quarter end,
I took off for a conference to Spain. I had a wonderful time there after which I spent a wonderful 4 days in Germany (specifically Frankfurt and Tuebingen). I consider this post-conference time a retreat time.
I meditated everyday for about 3-4 hours spread out through the day coupled with lots of rest and good food. Invariably, I would get up at around 3 in the morning most of these days. I was alternating Mantra based meditation (which activates my third-eye chakra) with Mindfulness of Breath meditation. I experienced quite a bit of:
a) Involuntary neck rotations: This seemed like a warm-up for what was to come!
b) Involuntary movements from the torso and above - Mostly circular rotations with center at the base of my spine.
c) Sinusoidal movements of my upper torso - Akin to a Snake standing up and waving about when it encouters something in its path.
d) Backward and Forward bends of my torso - This is amazing to witness. I am accustomed to rotations of the torso. But yesterday night, I felt an involuntary movement of the body where the torso started moving in downward spiral but then there was no rebound - That is I was just going down - This is the position I was finally in at the end of this movement: Yoga Mudra.

Although in the beginning, my focus was on the mantra and breath, as soon as these movements began, I could only observe what was happening - I was a witness to this cleansing process - To this rise of energy in my being. The sensations were usually pleasant. Even now as I type, I feel pressure at the center of my forehead and if I close my eyes, my body gently sways.
Where is all of this leading to? I don't know. However, what amazes me is the physiology of how this happens . In spiritual terms, these involuntary movements are associated with the awakening of Kundalini Energy.
However, what is the source of this energy? How does it act? What are some necessary conditions for this to happen? These are open questions for the scientific community, although the scientific community has a long way to go towards investigating these fundamental questions.
What I do understand from the 'spiritual perspective' is that the Kundalini Energy is inherent in everyone and starts to become awakened when the person has invested sufficient time in personal growth. What is the purpose of this awakening? In spiritual parlance, the awakening symbolizes the move towards a greater evolution of the human consciousness, towards inner peace and world peace, towards joy and greater fulfillment in life and beyond.

Music and meditation

Introduction
I have experimented with a few different meditations so far: Breath-based mindfulness (Ana-pana-sati), mantra based (chanting a mantra in the mind), visualization based meditation (imagining balls or columns of light). With regard to meditation and music, I have tried meditating to slow devotional music with different degrees of success (in terms of calming the mind).

A personal experience
A couple of days back, there was a meditation group hosted by a bunch of UW undergrads with a good attendance. At one point, one of the people


present in the room started playing the clarinet. We had our eyes closed and just a few seconds before the music began, I started getting a pleasant sensation at the middle of the forehead (corresponding to the eye-brow or ajna chakra). The pleasant sensation stayed on throughout the time he was playing clarinet. I didn't want to come out of the meditation after the music stopped, just being absorbed in that sensation seemed good enough at that moment. Towards the end, the guy was surprised when I mentioned this to him and let me know that he had played the clarinet to the ``Bhupali Raag'' and that it was supposed to help stimulate the eye-brow point. I am not sure if this particular Raag is assoicated with this, but my meditative experience with the music was crisp and clear.

I have dabbled with the Native American Flute in the past and it has always given me a soothing feeling during the meditation. Perhaps I should start playing the flute more regularly.

Experimentation and experiencing spiritual phenomena

As a graduate student, I think I have more flexibility in terms of what I can do with my time as compared to people who have a regular job. At any given time, I can either do research, go for a run, do a meditation, read a spiritual book, or simply experiment with stuff.
I have spent a lot of my time reading spiritual books, trying out meditations, trying to see if the methods described in the book actually work. For example, I read an exercise for viewing the aura on the internet and I tried it out in the library:

Auras
While doing a homework in the Odegaard undergraduate library at Udub, I noticed that infront of me was a small placard with something written on it that I don't remember right now. I then thought of testing out this aura stuff on the placard. I read that every colour gives off its complementary aura.
For example, green reflects a pink aura, pink gives green. Similarly, [blue, orange], [Violet,yellow] are auric pairs. The placard in the library was pink, so I expected to see a green colour. I unfocussed(yep your read it right) my eyes around the edge of the placard, and ka-boom, there was the greenish blur around the edges.. If I tried to focus my eyes, the green would vanish.. That's how you see the aura, you unfocus your eyes around the edge of an object.

What about human auras? I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom of my apartment, partly closed the door so that it was darkish inside but with some light streaming in from the bedroom.
I stood gazing at the edges of my head, unfocussing my eyes to see if I detected anything or any colour. A minute later, I was able to see a thin white band around my head. As soon as I focussed my eyes on the white band, it went out of visibility. So 'being unfocussed' was the trick!
I haven't been able to see aura around people though.. As far as my aura, I can only see the whitish etheric laryer around my body in the mirror.

Energies
I began noticing energies first in my hands while meditating. It was like something was buzzing in my hands.. I think energy is a decent term for this buzzing. It was like wow..what is this buzzing that is happening in my hand. Initially, it only happened when I meditated. Now a days, it happens, every now and then, especially if I am totally into a devotional track.
I also started noticing a sprinkling/tingling/crawling sensation on the top of my head when I meditated. Some say this is a sign of the crown chakra being active. It's like there is some sort of a download that's happening at a portal near my head!
During a Reiki session, I had some pretty cool experiences like a sense of floating, feeling spacey, feeling a lot of heat in certain areas of the body, etc. The Reiki philosophy talks about the Reiki healer being a conduit for the cosmic energy to flow through to those parts of the body that require healing. So experiencing these energies personally, made the Reiki philosophy seem pretty credible.


Lights
I also see flashes of lights every now and then (my eye sight is normal!). I also see blobs of pink colour that stay for a few seconds (I think they could be my guides), though very infrequently.

Synchronicities
Synchronicities refer to meaningful coincidences.. That is coincidences that carry more meaning to you than anyone else. For example, I was walking down to the Safeway store one morning to buy some grocery. Going on in my mind, was whether I should lie about something to someone.. I was in two minds, since I always try to say to the truth unless it is very uncomfortable. Entering Safeway, I heard a song that went,'Just tell the truth...'. Now this could just have been a coincidence, but it had a lot of meaning to me at that moment, and hence it's a synchronicity. Synchronicity is an indication of your being guided or your being in touch with your higher self.

Why am I writing about these experiences? One main reason is that you might have stumbled on this blog (through google for example) and might have had a few of these experiences without knowing if it was your imagination or if it was for real. You might also feel a need to know (I definitely did) if others are having these seemingly unusual experiences that you are having and if these experiences have meaning.
I mean it's one thing to say that you have a pranic or etheric body and another thing to even experience the energies or vibrations associated with that etheric body. So yeah experimentation is a great way (or maybe the only way) to validate the spiritual material you have read.

Feeling 'cool' during meditation

No, I am not talking about meditation being cool.. Well, it is if you ask me.
I am talking about the body, and more specifically in my case, the chest feeling 'cool' during meditation. This happened to me today. I sat down today for meditation for 20 minutes as usual. I felt very peaceful during the start of the meditation with my body feeling light too. Towards the end of my meditation, I felt small waves of coolness radiate from my chest... How do I describe this?
Have you had a cool mint.. How did your mouth or throat feel after sometime.. Pretty 'cool' right?
Now, the same 'cool' feeling in your heart or your chest.. That's what I felt.
Now, as to it's interpretation: Here's one. Boy, that feeling is still perceptible as I type this, 20 minutes after my meditation.
Supposedly, this minty feeling is an indication of heart chakra opening. Let's see.

I have been meditating every day for the past couple of months and the major benefit I have had from meditation is a feeling of centeredness and peace. What more is needed in life? Maybe joy? Well, all in due time.