Tactile Imaging - I can only feel my hands and feet - why?

[Seeker of Matter]

I posted this problem over at AP but I realize now that perhaps this place is more appropriate ;)

Well to sum it up I can't seem to feel my body very well when doing tactile imaging. The only parts that I can really feel are my hands and feet. It is when I try to trace a path, lets say, from the thumb to the shoulder that it gets tricky. I have major problems just feeling my arm. I concentrate on one single point on my for about 2-5 minute and still i feel nothing. I also try to focus on places like my stomach and chest but I can hardly feel anything.

I find this very troubling as this is supposed to be the basic easy exercises and already there I seem to fail.

Any reason why I can't feel much except my hands and feet?

EDIT: Oh I might actually have lied!! There is one place I felt besides my hands and feet and that is my neck!! When I focused on my neck (right there where the spine meets the skull) very strong sensations seemed to spark around in my head - quite amazing actually!!!

[Rydel]

You should scratch the area you want to feel thoroughly before you try to concentrate on it, if you are having trouble feeling it.

Also, make sure you're not cutting circulation off to these areas in anyway (very tight clothing, etc.) as this may cause problems in being able to feel particular areas as well.

[Seeker of Matter]

hmm, perhaps I should scratch myself some more.... You might be right. I will try a more intensive scratching then :)

[violetsky]

Dear Seeker of Matter,

You are doing well. Please do not get discouraged. The more you practice the easier it will get. Getting started is usually not easy, unless you are learning directly from Robert at one of his workshops.

If you look at a skeletal drawing of the hands and feet you will notice the hands and feet have many, many joints. In Astral Dynamics (soft cover) p. 132, Fig. 6 you will notice that each joint has vortices associated with them. When you brush and push energy through smaller joints it is 'generally speaking' easier to activate them. What you may wish to do is work on brushing the feet then the ankle joint then the knee and hip joints in that order. Once you 'feel' the joints you may find it easier to pass energy along a line from one joint vortex to another. The hip joint being large could take the most work to get going. The more practice you have the easier it gets. You might also wish instead of brushing the whole length of a pathway from joint to joint, to imagine a high energy ball and bounce this up and down the leg.

There are a few ways to approach this, so please let me know how this works out for you.

Very Best Wishes,
violetsky

[Seeker of Matter]

Wow thank you for that nice reply! I will try to focus on my joints then, see if I can feel "more" by doing that and imaging the bouncing ball.

I think the problem might also by caused by my concentration (which seems to be poor). My thoughts are always scatered around not really focusing on one thing. Which also explains why I take so long time writing a simply reply. This must have taken about 15 minuts already lol.... I just opened my messeng and found out that I can rename my contacts, then I started doing that. Then I read through some of the news sites I have intergrated into my browser. Then I heard some music comming our local town, I thought that it must the carneval making that noise. Then I wondered if there might be anyone I know there and finaly I decided to open this window again and find my post half done..... This I thing is why can't seem to go very far with the energy work. I have a hard time concentrating :/

Perhaps I should try and find a solution for that instead?

[star]

Try doing your energy excersises while listing to music or watching tv, or reading a book, it helps for longer energy sessions for me :P

[Seeker of Matter]

I just wanted to report that NOW I am actually experiencing success with NEW!!!

I just did some of the early exercises described in NEW and to my surprise I was able to feel what I was doing!

I think I have homed in on my problem with not feeling anything. It was because that one of the very first exercises - the one where you do circular movements to your thumb joint – didn’t work for me. My problem was simple... I could not think in circular movements. When ever I pictured a circular movement (like drawing O's with a pencil) I would not be able to do a whole circle. Apparently I have a problem with drawing circles with my mind. BUT then I read on and the next exercise was for me to do a "back-and-fourth" movement. That I could do. I could clearly picture a dynamic continuing pulsating "back-and-fourth" movement and therefore I felt the funny tingling in my thumb joint :D

I also find that when I want to feel some part of my body. I think of a 3D computer visualization of the limb - my leg for example. The parts of my leg that I want to feel I just "light up" and soon after the feeling will come!! If that doesn't work I picture my "awareness hands" pulsating like jackhammers up through the limb I have trouble feeling - that really helps!

After I did the exercises I feel much clearer in the head.... and I haven't even begun working with the head areas yet.

I think the hardest part for me is that I am alone with this project - I only have myself to motivate me and I am not a good motivator ;) What then worked for me was that I just stopped thinking and began doing instead - I put all my trust in what I was going to read and it got me going! Hurray!

I guess tomorrow (or later today actually....) I will have major problems in getting on with this again but I will try to force myself through once more. If it is just half as good as it has been this time, it will still be worth it!

[Dan36oy]

Congratulations on your success. The energy sensations and overall sense of well being were enough to keep me motivated. You could always teach a friend or two and create a support network.



The only parts that I can really feel are my hands and feet

Due to the high amount of energy centers in the hands and feet, sensitivity in these areas is a lot higher and the sensations are more pronounced than what you may find in other areas of your body.

[Seeker of Matter]

A support group would certainly get me to achieve more than I would by my self. But right now I am in a phase where I try to be my only motivator... in all aspects. I am tired of having to do things due to the pressure of others.

You might call it will exercise because that is what I think it is. To do something without any exterior motivation is actually extremely hard. Especially if it is not something like eating and sleeping which the body will indulge a natural desire for.

To do something only motivated by your own will is actually insanely hard. That is why I use energy work. I have no direct NEED to exercise energy work, anyway I do it..... but it is hard to discipline yourself..... especially when you have always been used to others doing that for you.

I think I am done with letting others motivate me.... what would happen if they disappeared then? I wouldn't get anything done.


And to go on topic again, I am speculating. When you visualise drawing energy up through your feet, should that be any different from just feeling your awareness going up through your feet? Because I must admit I have a little trouble in imaging what energy looks like and then draw it up through my body. I have never seen energy..... and I can't understand why Robert (in astral dynamics) suddenly says that I should IMAGINE drawing energy up through my feet when he had stressed that one would only rely on the feeling of it. I have no idea of what it feels like drawing energy up through my body. I know what it means moving your awareness through your body though but that is not what he asks me to do so I am wondering if I am doing it wrong.

Besides from that I am beginning to remember my dreams more and more. Weird as they are but I am remembering them. I have yet to realize I am dreaming though but hopefully that will come some day I have not read beyond the physical relaxation part yet so I have no idea on how to dream lucid....YET

I have also started peeking at "mastering astral projection" (I must be serious about this huh ;) ) and damn I got scared at Mr. Bruce's picture. He looks really evil lol :twisted:
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/3048/scan2bb.jpg

But I think that I will finish reading Astral Dynamics before I read the other book.

[Hegemony]

Actually he has quite a friendly looking face, I think it's just the lighting that makes it appear rather sinister in that picture :-p

[nparker]

Yes, Hegemony, lighting conditions linked to hair-free head, eyelids hemiclosed, neutral expression face... all that added to our inner worries :shock: , wow..! :wink:

I remember an old oriental saying:

Lo mismo puede haber un santo en una prisión que un demonio en un monasterio (in spanish, if anyone of you can do a suitable translation, I'll be gratefully indebted)

Previously quoted assertion is compatible with relativity of our values.

Now, I want to be fair with Robert and invite ask yourselves as follows: Let's assume you were blind men and only can judge the real value of an individual from the quality of its intellectual work. Taking into account the BIG contribution of Robert to human knowledge about human being and its non-physical capabilities... you should feel worry about your condition of blind men..?

If you, Astraldynamics forum members, value an individual from the viewpoint of its non-eternal shell... I strongly, and regarding forum netiquette rules, want to invite to meditate deeply about the need of revisite your value system.

Remember, we are only bodies (marionettes) driven by points of conciousness, our physical appearance is only transient and give me permission for to do the ethical assumption related to the fact that we do not want to fall again in ancient failure of phrenology doctrine ( http://pages.britishlibrary.net/phrenology/overview.htm ). By the way, in close agree to phrenology doctrine, ancient greek philosopher Socrates should have been an evil being. Remember as complement of this, the old greek saying: Mens sana in corpore sano. Certainly, Socrates doesn't matches with such an ideal. He was a noble mind in insane body. All rule has its exception.

Apologies, but I cannot find a suitable Socrates sculpture image in order to do suitable documentation of this history fact.

Natalia Parker

[Seeker of Matter]

I have been reading "Astral Dynamics" for another week now (now around page 400) and it is a great book! I must say that. The only thing I could have wished for is more abstract drawings to show what these astral “entrance structures” and “tubes” looks like. I have never astral projected before and I have a great deal of trouble really imagining what it looks like.

Apart from that, I find I might grow wrinkles in the forehead too fast when reading about that mind split theory and the different inputs that in the end form “memory”. That is actually a thought I myself have had, not related to astral projection though. What if you some day would see an UFO and it would land right in front of you and aliens would go out and give you all the great secrets of life and then in line with “Men In Black” flash this light and you would forget everything. Is that not the everyday story of the projected double? And it must be even more frustrated now when I am gaining this knowledge and thus (Robert uses that word a lot in his book :) ) making my double aware of this because it knows what I know, that everything it experiences is going to be forgotten due to “bad memory download”. It will meet aliens and know the secret of life every night but every effort will be in vain…. Well at least until I learn how to hold that delicate balance between being awake and asleep where the “transfer” is best.
It is a very interesting theory.


Perhaps I should start a separate thread about this? Naa, I am tired. Perhaps tomorrow ;)

I do not judge Mr. Bruce by the way he looks on that picture, I just said that he LOOKS evil, not that he is and I merely mend to bring a bit of harmless humour and it is not my opinion that people should be judged be the way they look. Though I appreciate your concern.

He actually looks a lot like my father and he is definitely not evil though I make fun of it and he also laughs at it.

Well good night :)

[tyciol]

The hands and feet have more energy ports than other locations according to Bruce's NEW. I'd imagine that would make them more sensitive and easy to use. Try focusing on the other 'sweet spots' such as the lips, tongue and genitals, you may have more luck than the leg.

Moving from the primary focus points to the others may help instead of just jumping to these points of difficulty.