Energy work: Effort vs Development

[jamboh]

I've been working with NEW on and off for years, but only recently with a vengeance! I have been making good progress, or so I think, and have noticed that gradually, as my energy body has developed, the sensations that I have been feeling have been getting progressively weaker and weaker. Now I know that robert says this is to be expected and is a sign of your energy body reconfiguring itself to handle larger throughputs of energy, but especially recently the sensations have reduced almost to the point of being imperceptible. This is all with using my usual level of mental effort to work the energy.

However If I increase the mental effort I can start to feel the sensations again, and in fact i can start to feel even stronger sensations in the chakras than before. So I am wondering if it is ok to continue with energy work using this greater effort? i don't really see much choice because if i don't use more effort then it is very hard for me to tell when i am activating chakras etc or not. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I want to try and do more of my energy work in trance where the sensations are more easily felt, but it is not always possible and I find it convenient to be able to do energy work whenever and wherever..

[CFTraveler]

Hmm, I see this development as a sign that maybe it's time to get into it a little deeper, and add things that others have developed for us (yay masters), but not necessarily 'more effort'.
For example, Bardon, in IIH teaches the use of elements in energy work, and other things can be added to a routine- for example, color meditation as part of the process, pranayama also as part of the process,
Another thing you can do, is go into a deep trance and then do your energy work- no tonly will it give you more sensations, but they can become more 'holistic'; you may also see your energy as you feel it.
For a bit also, I added Regardie's middle pillar exercise to my routine- and it was a wonderful experience.
In short, you can consider NEW as a method to do other things with, which will deepen the experience.
Cheers.

[darron]

i use the middle pillar daily, it is said by some that one could only do the middle pillar and advance really far spiritually. never really heard much about color meditation, but when i do energy work along with "feeling" the sensations i visualize the color of the energy ball and chakra.

[jamboh]

i have almost felt an inclination in me pointing towards using a deep trance for energy work, so i think you may be right cftraveler.. that is probably the direction to follow. However finding the uninterrupted time alone to practice is difficult recently (new baby in the house!).

[psionickx]

you can consider NEW as a method to do other things with, which will deepen the experience

i have almost felt an inclination in me pointing towards using a deep trance for energy work, so i think you may be right cftraveler

Pointing out the obvious (appologies!).I'm only going to add here the fact that NEW gives a highly concrete base in applied energetics to work and add on from.
If i'm asked to focus aware , on lets say ,for examples sake ; lower nape , navel and the inner knees - i can not only do that but work the locales at once distinctly or together and simultaneously too (hopefully the illustration answers the "effort" part of the post)
On a more intimate note still , lately and as of now i dont do anyones* energetic formulations ,rituals or outlined meditations.I have my own self-made routine that is tailor made and tweaked to perfection.
The whole point of contention is to let the psyche evolve in the direction she leans towards ......... but then again that much C had already expounded.

[Originalstar]

You'll always go through the proccess of having meridians and energy centers expand and contract as more or less energy moves through them, it will change the amount of sensation. Its just to be expected. You can try energy work while in different very positive states for an extra boost. IE: Extreme Confidence or feelings of Joy, even orgasm or spiritual states of bliss, ectera.
Try adding in a feeling of being strong and grounded and notice how the energy changes, then go for a feeling of fluidity. Good luck.

[sandrofabres]

Some of you mentioned the middle pillar exercise. I did Kabbalistic meditation daily during one year, some years ago, and we always begin with the Kabbalistic cross and after it the middle pillar exercise, before engage the meditation itself. One thing that I perceived was that ALL TIMES I had the very real impression to be standing maybe 6 or 7ft away from my original position and facing another direction, at 90 degrees, even before finish the middle pillar exercise.
Sometimes I thought: “What the hell?! What an I doing here? I was sitting preparing to meditate, why am I standing now?”. I never saw nothing, it was a kinesthetic information, but when I began to analyze I was able to localized me again sitting on the chair, feeling it below my body. I thought: “ ok, it was a mistake”, and continued the exercise….and bang, I was standing again!
As this always happened before begin the meditation, some days after I was accustomed with it and learned to ignore it. I contacted my supervisor about this, and she said me to not seek this, but it was not a problem. WT occultists don’t give much attention to astral, maybe because its elusive properties, maybe because the “fox has difficulty to reach the grappes”.
Today I know a little better I know that the middle pillar is one way to accelerates the vibrations of etheric body and even W.E. Buttler recommend it to a preliminary step to astral projection. In fact all men that talk about energy techniques seem to be speaking about the same, Robert Bruce with the NEW, Waldo Vieira with his Vibrational State, and Western Tradition authors with Middle Pillar. But what really surprise me when I think about that time is that the Middle pillar exercise worked EVERY TIME and in less than 5 minutes. I never tried one single astral projection in that time because it was not the objective. In fact, kabbalistic meditation seem to have mental projection as goal, and the description that I knew some years after put them astral ejection as the first step to mental projection.
So, I would like to know if someone here that still uses or used the middle pillar exercise had similar sensations or if someone use it like regular routine to astral projection.

[CFTraveler]

I no longer use it routinely, but for some time I did, and I stopped using it because I began to have "interesting" projections from it. They were not negative (in fact, they could be said to be positive) but at the time I felt that they were too powerful, and I felt that I wasn't ready for the responsibility. If this sounds vague it is, I can pm you with more details, if you like.

[sandrofabres]

duplicated.

[sandrofabres]

Yes, I would like to know. Although this and several other techniques are available in books today, in a kind of democratization of knowledge, I think that each technique in fact put you in contact with the egregor that created it. So, when you begin to train it, you are knocking at a specific. I am not sure about this, but all times when I choose apply some technique found in books I made contact with very specific beings, and in one occasion, when I taught a group technique that we used in my esoteric school, to a couple of friends, to help them in psychic self defense, when they tried use it alone they were warned telepathically to not used it when I was not present. However, my intention to teach them was exactly they can evoke protection by themselves, not depending from another person to do it. It seems that all this (when came from a occult school) have spiritual contacts behind, it seems they are not techniques alone, working mechanically. I always take this in consideration when I decide try a technique found in a book, but I suspect that the most of people don’t even suspect of it.