Hello, both of you!
About vegetarianism:
You know, I'd been eating meat until about 3-4 months ago. And then I stopped. Same with smoking some years ago. When I found a good enough reason to stop, I switched over. Maybe this works so well because I'm overdoing things. I found out I was enjoying neither so much for it to be worth damaging myself. I stopped smoking to stop damaging my health and I stopped smoking to stop damaging my karma. It already gnawed at my conscience, as I actually quite like animals. My surroundings are half vegs and half not, and I'm not being judgemental about it, since I have to live decades before I'm longer off than on.
But from a health standpoint you cannot constantly go on a heavy food diet, and my guess is you cannot take in a lot of meat without becoming overloaded in the long run. But it could be an excellent short-term measure, for example when your head is abuzz and you cannot sleep or calm down.
About hypnotherapy:
I'm entirely unsure about this. spiral became like his now because he requested it. This sound like he triggered some subconscious layer within himself to unleash what he experienced. Hypnotherapy could be a way to get into contact with that layer, and hypnosis is not entirely what can be considered an altered state. It is the only state we discern from normal (like sleep, dreaming, meditation, drug-induced ones, etc.) that is not associated with a different brainwave pattern from normal functioning. Hypnosis can be steered by the hypnotist in degree of depth, and can open a controlled communication with the subconscious.
On the other hand it is unlikely to find a skilled hypnotherapist with intimate knowledge about the kind of problem spiral is facing. And Painterhypnogirl is right, staying as grounded as possible is important. If hypnosis triggers any "episodes" without you feeling more in control afterwards it's clearly the wrong way. Start a diary and try to record how you feel and reread it again and again after some sessions if there is an upward trend, how you felt, how you feel now, and especially if you then are more in control than you are now. Warn your hypnotist early on that he is to be cautious. And stick to an approved, medical hypnotist of good standing (as with any other specialist doctor).
About upward/downward energy flows:
When energy flows downward it can be cooling and grounding, and when it flows upward it can trigger agitation, Bruce Frantzis, whose methods I currently try to practise with some diligence warns that before you work with upward flows to get really good at sinking Chi downward. Upward Chi flow produce heat and agitation, and can damage the nervous system. This does not say to avoid them - the body naturally sends energy up the spine (the Functional Channel vessel of acupuncture) and down the front of your body, for example.
The "problem" with energy work is that you multiply such flows. Some book I've read recently, I guess it was "The Roots of Chinese Qigong",states that normally energy circulates in a pattern more close to 24 hours on that circuit. When you do Microcosmic Orbit meditation like practised after Mantak Chia' (he is even in the bibliography of MAP) you can reach a circulation time of some minutes. Chi travels along the nerves. This can easily strain the nerves, and what usually saves beginners is that their energy systems are so clogged up or so healthy that everything works out fine. But sensitive individuals, people with a brittle nervous systems, or people that can easily mobilise a lot of Chi in one go by good concentration can get into trouble with the upward flows.
Spiritual work especially in the Kundalini tradition does often involve such upward flows. Voluntarily or involuntarily. They try to open mind and heart (Shen and Xin) for spiritual gain and forget about the body. Eastern Asian practices do much less so: Tibetan monks do 10,000 prostrations ritually before engaging in sitting practise (not every time!
Learning to properly sink Chi is a safety precaution, it grounds you, teaches you to sink unneeded energy below your body without the chance to trigger the states you may not want. Pushing energy upward beyond the crown may do exactly the opposite, I'm not aware. Chi Gung is body work, though there are variants that are not. Variants that prefer sinking Chi can help develop the body, calm the emotions, and build the fundament before any mental/spiritual work takes place.
From my personal tries I can say pulling energy up feels strong, energetic and like you are doing the right thing - until you get agitated, nervous and don't know how to change that. It was like that for me. I ceased all upward-directed practise and feel fine since.
The goal down the road is to balance the Earth Yang energy from the ground with the Heavenly Yin from above, in the lower Tantien behind your navel. Then you can profit from both energies, and receive balanced and pure energy that will only benefit you. But until you reach such a fragile equilibrium and can maintain it, a lot of work is to be done. Agitated Yang can excitedly bubble and shoot upward. Strong control and sinking skills is necessary to control that, I mean at least strong enough to balance it at a level you can handle.
Learning to establish part of your consciousness at or better below your feet is a good skill to ground you. I can trigger downward Chi flow to some extent because of this, it seems rather similar to activating an electro-magnetic pole to suck the Chi down. It's some small "split" of consciousness, as it does not use up much mental effort, and allows me to still work on blockages in my body, which need attention. For me it only took enough training to feel how downward moving Chi felt, how drawing it below me felt, to be able to do that with only part of my attention. And I'm not really that good - I was rather clumsy and unsensitive some months ago. It just try to refeel what the downward movement felt like and there it is again.
This is the great advantage of techniques that rely on "stuff felt" rather than visualisations - you can reproduce a feeling much easier than an image. I think it uses up less concentration. I'm doing it when writing this and already I feel a bit chilly.
But visualisations are a rather mental or crown/third eye activity, maybe that can actually prevent downward flows because of exciting those. But that is now pure speculation!
Read you later!
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It is altered state work and is usually measured in the alpha and theta ranges. If it's done in the beta range, it's not hypnotherapy, it's "talk" therapy.
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