Novice asking for help with meditation/energy problem

[barkriver]

As a means of relaxation & destressing, I've been doing meditation every few days for about six years. I don't know anything about astral projection, energy, chakra's etc. Anyway a few weeks ago while meditating, I was filled with enormous amount of energy. It felt like fire was coming out of the palms of my hands, then I had an serious out of body experience where I flew around the world. Don't ask me to explain it, because I can't. (FYI Im in good health, good physical shape, eat healthy and im not on any type of medication.)
Needless to say it scared the hell out of me. I've done some research and ordered the book Astral Dynamics. It seems Robert Bruce is the authority on the issue.
The problem is now I can't meditate anymore because its no longer calming, it just extremely energetic. When I try my palms and soles of my feet sweat due to an energy feeling. It's not painful, just not relaxing anymore.

Questions:
Any ideas on what is going on?
How do I get control of it?

Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated

[CFTraveler]

Questions:
Any ideas on what is going on?

I think that you should look into grounding- there are many 'grounding related' topics in here and the meditation subforum. As to why this happened it could have been a side effect of your meditative work- you see, the 'conventional wisdom' of the OBE community is that everyone projects, but mostly unaware. So if your meditative practices have opened up your awreness to the point that you were aware for the takeoff, this could have generated enough 'gee whiz-holy moly' energy to make you get all excited every time you meditate. So my advice is to ground to dump excess energy, and to just know that you've done it before and will do it again, and probably won't be as impressed by it. Us humans are remarkably adaptable to almost anything, and this is no different.

How do I get control of it?

It depends. I'd cultivate it, because that will give you control of the situation. But that's what I'd do (and did, lol.)

Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated.

Any time. Well, almost.

[Korpo]

Could you exactly and in detail describe your meditative practice? There might be a clue in there.

As CF said, a grounding component might be missing, allowing the energy to surge and get agitated instead of releasing those qualities. Energy practices which work the upward current predominantly can have this effect, doing the downward current predominantly can reduce this effect. Etc.

It really depends on what you do, actually. Please describe your "meditation" more closely to us.

Take good care,
Oliver

[barkriver]

The Grounding trick worked like a charm. After meditating yesterday morning, I was filled with energy which made my body feel like it was tingling/vibrating in an adrenalin rush type way. It lasted over 11 hours till I tried grounding. That fixed it really quick and I was finally able to relax. Energy is great, but too much is not good either.
Thank you so much for that tip.

My meditation technique is:
Laying down on floor, telling myself to relax, Projectable Body Loosening (Bounce Loosening), Imagining a warm wave of relaxation flowing up & down body a couple of times, Breathing in calmness & breathing out tension, Starting at top of my head I concentrate on relaxing each muscle group -one at a time- to my feet-then back up to head, Use visualization to enter elevator and sink deeper into trance like relaxed state. Once there all the days stresses & worries melt away. I can actually feel the negative energy leaving me and calmness settling in.
Then I slowly come back up, in which I feel happy, refreshed and full of positive energy.

Afterward I'll just sit / lay there quieting my mind, concentrate on my breathing and think on nothing.

This has worked for years. The problem is a year ago, the feeling of energy being drawn from my feet into my torso appeared. It grew slowly over time, progressed to drawing in energy from hands, and head. Then it all really hit hard three weeks ago.
I’m starting to get the distinct impression, when I was taught how to meditate, I was taught just enough to get myself into trouble. Because only relaxation was discussed, nothing about energy and definitely not OBE.

Thanks again for all the help yall are providing. Learning about this while being a bit scary is all fascinating. It is now my new focus in life.

[Korpo]

Hello, barkriver.

Glad CF's tip did help you.

When did the phenomenon come up - during the energy work phase or the quiet phase? If during the energy work phase I would do some small changes that might help.

Also, if focussing on the breath does not ground you enough, you might want to keep the whole body loosely in your mind. Feeling the body has grounding properties, too. You could feel the breath and the energy inherent in it spread into your whole body and back out. This way you can be mindful of the breath and rooted in the body.

Take good care,
Oliver

[barkriver]

The phenomenon came up during the middle of my energy work phase.
What im thinking about doing, is to continue my research into energy work. That way I can learn how to consciously control it. (At the moment it just happens by itself.)
Once that is done I will be able to simply meditate and relax in one session, then do energy work by itself in another session.
Any thoughts?

[Korpo]

There are other practices that do energy work before the meditation, so that's generally okay.

You might want to do the body scan in a way you only scan downward and finish below your feet. The scanning actually moves energy. Moving up might contribute to the phenomena you're experiencing. So starting at the top of your head and finishing below your feet might help. At the end of the session again drop any excess energy below your feet, too.

Take good care,
Oliver

[barkriver]

What an outstanding day!
For the first time in almost a month, I was able to meditate without energy interference today. It is wonderful, just absolutely wonderful. It took me a couple of days of trial & error to get yalls recommendations implemented, but they all worked and made a world of difference.


Thank you so much for yalls help. Meditation has always been my little mini-holiday. It was sorely missed these pass few weeks. But now the world is all good again.

Thank you once again.

[Korpo]

Glad to hear that.

Sit long and prosper.

Oliver