Meditation is a big part of my life. No two sessions of my meditation practice are ever the same. It’s an adventure of the mind. I’ve had plenty of spiritual experiences during meditation and I’d like to share some here. Some of the students of my meditation classes have also shared similar stories with me.
I usually have the same endpoint in mind when I sit down to meditate — an entry into a place of equanimity and bliss. But it isn’t always the case that I arrive there, and when I do it isn’t because I tried. It just happens.
Many times, interesting and weird things happen along the way. The journey through my own mind is an exhilarating experience. It’s fun and bizarre at times. It takes me to states of consciousness that normally feel out of reach in waking life, and it leads me to realizations I needed to have. These spiritual experiences during meditation keep me coming back for more.
I’m really not sure why anyone would resist such a spiritual experience during meditation, but I get it — sometimes the mind can be a scary thing, too. There are pieces of us buried deep that seem to surface when we give ourselves space to meditate. But we LIVE in our minds — nothing we experience is outside the mind, so why would you avoid looking right at it? Maybe it’s scary, but doesn’t it seem like that requires some attention — to figure out why?
I question this existence a lot. Meditation helps me get answers. It helps me understand life. More questions arise, which leads to more questions, and it is seemingly neverending. But it’s better than living in the matrix. Meditation cures the boredom and gives me something to look forward to other than Taco Bell.
Let me explain four kinds of spiritual experiences during meditation that might happen to you.
Touches and Sensations
Before I had ever experienced it for myself, my friend told me about this sensation she’d been having in meditation. She said that she felt someone touching her head. It was a gentle pat — like a loving gesture from some otherworldly entity.
I assumed at the time she told me that it was a kind spirit or a guardian angel.
Since then, I’ve felt the same kind of experience. Sometimes pokes and sometimes pats. I can’t say I know exactly what it is, but it’s definitely real.
Spinning
When I meditate, I often come to a point in the process when I feel myself spinning around. It’s very gentle, although sometimes it speeds up. Spinning meditation is a wonderful feeling. It feels like my whole self — mental, physical, and spiritual — is going around and around, and it can be clockwise or counterclockwise. In some way, it is healing.
I believe that this sensation is a result of my personal energy field becoming “in tune” with that of my environment. I synchronize myself and get out of my ego a little, and it just happens. I have to be very calm for it to be activated.
I feel that it’s a manifestation of my chakra (life force energy center) field that is always spinning but we normally can’t feel it.
Expansiveness
Often, especially when teaching meditation, I feel like either the room is growing or I am. When it’s the room I occupy, the space around me seems to expand and shift. There is an endless area around me. The walls and ceiling feel like they’re miles away. You can’t convince me that it’s not real.
Sometimes, I’m the one expanding, and my body feels like it’s getting bigger and bigger until my head is in space and my butt is on the ground. It’s a wild feeling. It gives me a sense that all things are connected and my “small self” is just one piece of a whole.
Tunnels
A common feeling in meditation is when a tunnel or portal seems to open up and you go barrelling through it. I feel like it happens to me at light speed. Other people have told me that they have ended up at a new destination at the end of the tunnel, but for me, it doesn’t seem to take me anywhere in particular. It just feels cleansing.
If you have any of these sensations in meditation, and even if you don’t, you’re on the right track just by taking up the practice. So, keep going, and know that your meditation time is for anything that it needs to be. There’s no right or wrong. Just the act of meditating is so valuable to your overall health.
Hi, I’m Emily. In addition to writing, I also teach meditation, read tarot, create podcasts, and practice spiritual coaching. I have a master’s in philosophy which often helps when I write about life. For more about me, have a look at my about page. If my writing helps you, you’re always welcome to buy me a coffee.
This article was originally posted on Medium.
