Visual phenomena while meditating

[Dean Walker]

I've been meditating for 15 minutes every day since January 1st (Nothing major I know but this is the most consistent I've been with it).

Something that's becoming more noticeable are kind of psychedelic patterns I can watch the more relaxed I get.

The method I'm using to meditate is one I learned at a Buddhist class a couple of years ago wherein you simply concentrate on the breath and visualise a white cleansing light during the inhale and a black smoke during exhale. I do this during the whole session and when my mind wanders I return to the breath, but I've noticed the colours and patterns I'm seeing are one of the biggest distractions and I find myself that taken away by them I try and interpret what I'm seeing. 

I'm just trying to give a bit of background but I guess what I'm asking is are the visuals normal?

Edited January 15, 2020 by Dean Walker
Spelling errors

[TheSelf]

Maybe its releated your third eye pineal gland? 

I experience these too, mine is like purple color moving, and it gets brighter and close to white color and white flashes when my concentration stabilized, recently i saw flashes of people I've never meet, it wasn't in the mind's eye. I hear high pitch sound in the right ear, and vibrations, tinglings and pressure in the forhead, and top of the skull. Can you releate these too?

[seeking_brilliance]

quite common:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

 

Sights

Among the more commonly reported,and more thoroughly researched, sensory features of hypnagogia are phosphenes which can manifest as seemingly random speckles, lines or geometrical patterns, including form constants, or as figurative (representational) images. They may be monochromatic or richly colored, still or moving, flat or three-dimensional (offering an impression of perspective). Imagery representing movement through tunnels of light is also reported. Individual images are typically fleeting and given to very rapid changes. They are said to differ from dreams proper in that hypnagogic imagery is usually static and lacking in narrative content, although others understand the state rather as a gradual transition from hypnagogia to fragmentary dreams,  i.e., from simple Eigenlicht to whole imagined scenes. Descriptions of exceptionally vivid and elaborate hypnagogic visuals can be found in the work of Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys.

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by seeking_brilliance

[Dean Walker]

@m0hsen yeh I can relate to your explanation, one way I would describe what I see is pulses of light that grow and i feel like im thrusting through and constant changes in shape and colour. The tingling in the forehead and cranium I also experience but the high pitch sound and vibrations aren't something I've had during mediating but thats something I've experienced at the start of most of my DMT trips.

In fact I've had around 5-6 trips on DMT and after the first or second trip I remember ringing my brother and telling him something like 'when you've been involved in a bad crash that buzzing you get is similar to the come up on DMT'. 

@seeking_brilliance thank you that seems to be very similar to what I experience but this says this is during a transition state from wakefulness to sleep, is meditation considered a similar state? 

And is this something you experience?

[TheSelf]

So yeah that's the pineal gland man opening, I'd say you mediate on the point between the eyebrows and mentally chant OM, if you wanna develope your pineal gland finally fully open it.

[Dean Walker]

I've just found this blog going into great detail about the state:

http://laghash.blogspot.com/2016/03/hypnagogia-false-awakenings-sleep.html?m=1

"You experience some elements of sleep mixed with some aspects of wakefulness, explains neurologist, Dr Milena Pavlova. 
 

Insome ways, hypnagogia is a perfect state for introspection and expansive thought processes - you get the free flow of ideas and associations that occurs during REM sleep and dreaming, when the brain reviews and processes memories, thoughts and feelings - but you’re still sufficiently awake to be somewhat conscious of what is happening. For this reason, some artists have found hypnagogia to be a rich source of ideas and inspiration.

 

Early references to the phenomenon of hypnagogia are found in the writings of Aristotle, Iamblichus, Cardano, Simon Forman and Swedenborg. Romanticism brought a renewed interest in the subjective experience of the edges of sleep and other states of altered consciousness. In more recent centuries, many authors have referred to the state; Edgar Allan Poe, for example, wrote of the ‘fancies’ he experienced ‘only when I am on the brink of sleep, with the consciousness that I am so’."

Most of the info points towards this happening on the brink of sleep but is this something that happens to a lot of people during meditation?

[seeking_brilliance]

46 minutes ago, Dean Walker said:

I've just found this blog going into great detail about the state:

http://laghash.blogspot.com/2016/03/hypnagogia-false-awakenings-sleep.html?m=1

"You experience some elements of sleep mixed with some aspects of wakefulness, explains neurologist, Dr Milena Pavlova. 
 

Insome ways, hypnagogia is a perfect state for introspection and expansive thought processes - you get the free flow of ideas and associations that occurs during REM sleep and dreaming, when the brain reviews and processes memories, thoughts and feelings - but you’re still sufficiently awake to be somewhat conscious of what is happening. For this reason, some artists have found hypnagogia to be a rich source of ideas and inspiration.

 

Early references to the phenomenon of hypnagogia are found in the writings of Aristotle, Iamblichus, Cardano, Simon Forman and Swedenborg. Romanticism brought a renewed interest in the subjective experience of the edges of sleep and other states of altered consciousness. In more recent 

Most of the info points towards this happening on the brink of sleep but is this something that happens to a lot of people during meditation?

You might be letting yourself get too drowsy or relaxed, instead of keeping an attention. 

But if you do this as a separate practice and can learn to reach this state easily, you can learn to enter a dream from the waking state. (WILD) It's like stepping into another world.  But again, it's separate from meditation practice. 

[Dean Walker]

@seeking_brilliance yeh it could be. But when I come out of the meditation I feel both present and relaxed. 

I find the colours and shapes are almost in rhythm with my breathing as well? 

I'm going to continue this method of meditation until the end of January and then begin experimenting with different methods to see how this plays out. 

[seeking_brilliance]

@Dean Walker ok yes it could be possible you are staying centered and attentive and still activating your third eye. From all I've heard, you are supposed to ignore the light show when meditating and don't give it energy. 

[purerogue]

Interesting, to my knowledge breathing technique is not supposed to involve imagination as you have to find that which is in between breath in and out, seems counterproductive, just taking your attention away.  

Edited January 16, 2020 by purerogue

[Dean Walker]

@seeking_brilliance @seeking_brilliance I suppose that's a possibility but im not certain. Thank you I'll give it a go ignoring it and see how I feel during.

@purerogue maybe this is why I'm seeing so many visuals but this was something I was taught. I usually use the visualisation technique for the first couple of minutes and then just concentrate on the breath alone but if I completely lose attention on the breath I go back to the visualisation for a couple of breath's and it seems to help me focus on it again.

So I should be placing my attention on the moment of stillness in-between breath's? 

[wens16]

Hi, just wanted to add that you may be experiencing nimitta. If you look into Buddhist teachings, they speak of lights,  sometimes quite brilliant and sometimes dull. Usually, they say to ignore, focus on the object of meditation/ breathe. When the light become stable, you would be able to focus on it and enter the first jhana. I don't know about hypnagogia but sounds like nimitta is just another name of this. I learned of nimitta via Pa Auk tradition of Buddhist meditation but I believe Caldusa and many other teachers may also cover this topic. 

[purerogue]

9 hours ago, Dean Walker said:

@seeking_brilliance @seeking_brilliance I suppose that's a possibility but im not certain. Thank you I'll give it a go ignoring it and see how I feel during.

@purerogue maybe this is why I'm seeing so many visuals but this was something I was taught. I usually use the visualisation technique for the first couple of minutes and then just concentrate on the breath alone but if I completely lose attention on the breath I go back to the visualisation for a couple of breath's and it seems to help me focus on it again.

So I should be placing my attention on the moment of stillness in-between breath's? 

Idk for what purpose they asked to do it like that , you could say so, you can find many interesting methods in this website https://www.meditationiseasy.com/meditation-techniques/vigyan-bhairav-tantra-index-of-112-meditation-techniques/

First 4 are about breath and there are some further too.