A pin in an elephants butt...

[jasonwb]

Greetings forumlings.

How's it going? Nice looking place you have here!

I'll get straight to the point (and then ramble around it for far too long. okay?)

It relates to sensations I have experienced both in and out of meditation. I'd like to share them, and see if anybody has had the same or similar, or would like to give their take on things I hope this is right forum to bring them to.

They come in two flavours. One happens occasionally when I'm at the computer, chatting away with someone. The second is during meditation, or just lying down to sleep.

At the computer, its a feeling of distance and separation, as though I'm a good foot above myself. Can still type fine, though its a bit like something telling something else telling something else to make those fingers down there move to type the words. Its most odd. It sometimes happens during meditation also, though its not as odd, because there's nothing else going, like trying to move digits.

The second is of much more interest (and confuzzlement) to me. Its a sensation I've been trying to describe since it first happened 20ish years ago, with a fever, and having a day off school (woo!). Its a feeling ... bear with me here... like being an indescribably tiny me in something immeasurably huge. As soon as I feel that 'part' of the sensation it changes to me being the something massive now expanding against something not big enough to contain me. Though, its not me, me... its me... but its not ... me. Then, it goes back to the first one and back and forward and back and forward until I no longer want it to happen, and snap out of it.

Other ways i've tried to explain it are 'what its like to be the sensation of a pin sticking into an elephants butt.' Yup. Better, perhaps, is that it is a representation of some background forces going on around or about me at the moment. I've sat with it for various amounts of time, and am pretty sure 'expansion' is a key concept.

I've dwelt on explanations and thoughts such as:

'Oh, I am but a fragment of an infinite universe, which as revealed to me, is actually me! AND i'm expanding! Sweet!'

'I'm a tiny me in a daunting space pushing against my own boundries and limits!' *cue Austin Powers: "Help! Help! I'm in a nutshell!"*

Anyhoo. No doubt the answe will come to me when its all good and ready. Until then, please do share you thoughts and experiences, similar or otherwise.

Peas,
Jason.

[Apple Eye]

Wow! I love the way you described this!

I think the feelings you mentioned are quite common. I've experienced them and it's always such a cool thing!

Actually, the way you described the second sensation - "pin in an elephant's butt" is such a unique yet oddly appropriate way of explaining what these strange moments feel like.

[Mags]

<giggles> What a cool post, Jason!

Um, I'm not sure that I have the answers for you, but I can throw my thoughts and experiences into the mix... let's hope for chocolate cake

When I'm writing I often experience the sensation that source energy is writing through me. I wouldn't go so far as to say I feel like I'm outside myself, but I am aware that what is writing is way more powerful than me. Would you say that this kind of flow is what you're experiencing when you experience that out-of-body type sensation?

Now, when it comes to your "pin in an elephant's butt" situation... I also had an experience when I was sick with flu once as a child, which could be similar to what you're describing. It was a sense of being within kind of a "heavy" energy, then when I became aware of it, I was bigger than it and able to mould it... kind of like clay, but not gloopy, more sort of elastic/plastic/rubbery sort of feeling. I've experienced this since when I've been well, so I know it's not a sensation connected to having the flu, but I'm really not sure what it is. I get this sometimes when I'm meditating and visualising, and my hands start moving almost like I'm trying to shape what I'm imagining out of this stuff.