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NayaSurya
25 March 2010, 01:17 PM
Hello, I have a question about meditation and heart rate.

I have SVT -Super Vent. Tachycardia and also MVP-Mitrial valve prolapse. One condition is a rapid heart rate, the second is that a valve is not closing completely.

The problem is, that when I meditate...every single time infact...my heart rate shoots through the roof and I get very ill. My ears ring...heart hurts so badly I have to stop.

Even laying down for an hour prior to trying, I still have this happen.

Can anyone here share a similar problem, and if so, how to get around this?

NayaSurya
29 March 2010, 11:14 AM
Lastnight I tried again. Same pounding in my throat and from my tailbone to the back of my head. I managed to make it about 30 minutes.

Perhaps this is common and not related to my heart condition?

Could I share the image I have seen my whole life while trying to meditate? Maybe another has seen it also?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/neoluna/animSUN.gif

I have see this sun, blacked out with the rays around it, since I was 13. As a child I drew it all over everything. As an adult, I am finding it's more of a sign to pause.

amra
29 March 2010, 12:09 PM
I can't see the image but a black sun is a very powerful image it occcurs in western alchemy and has also been recorded by some psychologists and psychiatrists in their patients, describe me the image.

NayaSurya
29 March 2010, 12:58 PM
The sun is completely eclipsed with a ring of light around it.

One time after fasting almost a month on nothing but juice, vitamins and water. I saw the image very closely. The colors around the darkness were not just white...but purples, reds...oranges. So beautiful. They dance around the edge flowing out in spirals from the perfect, dark center.

As a child it was not so completely blacked out. When I first draw the image, it was more light. But as I grew older the shape became completely centered...and completely eclipsed.

Einherjar
03 April 2010, 04:11 AM
I really don't know what to tell you about the heart rate as I'm not an expert, but I have noticed that personally when I go into a trance I find my heart seems to beat faster. I'm not sure if it actually does or if I'm just more aware of it though.

Eastern Mind
03 April 2010, 08:20 AM
Vannakkam all:

NayaSurya: You mentioned elsewhere that you have a heart condition, no?

Perhaps there is something medically going on then.

In my experience heart rate slows in sadhana, meditation, etc. Diaphragmatic breathing just does this. I am not sure, as I've never been aware of it within the confines of a proper mystic Hindu temple. At the height of puja it might increase. I'll try to observe that sometimes, although the energy is often so strong that it is the only thing I feel. I wouldn't be capable of remembering such things as heart rate.

Aum Namasivaya

NayaSurya
03 April 2010, 09:07 AM
Thank you for the advice, I do think you are right, since no one else seems to have these problems.

When I last tried, my hands and arms went completely numb...I felt like I was out of my body. But i did notice my HR did slow. Unfortunately the pounding feeling is still there.

It's pounding mostly in the back of my head and especially in my throat. During prayer this hardly ever happens, it's only during meditation later at night that this occurs. When I attempt to loosen thought and shut off the mind.

My husband said I stopped breathing, and was only having a gurgling sound, so I have decided that I should not try this again. Last thing I want to do is prematurely leave this body and leave my poor husband with a motherless family. I'll keep the mind on for now. I don't see I have any choice. If someday someone else has similar heart condition comes into the forum, perhaps they will see this question and offer more advice.

sambya
03 April 2010, 11:11 AM
wel nayasurya , eastern mind is right on the issue . heart rate indeed slows down in meditations . its there is scriptures and can also be felt personally . atleast i have felt it on more than one occasions .

actually meditation is gradual withdrawal of senses into your inner self . as you calm down and concentration deepens your sensory activities decrease . this lowers your heart rate . the cullimination of this , is in a samadhi when a heart even stops !

however its not necessary that divine feelings always lowers down the heart rate . for those who have the deepest raga-bhakti towards god intense feeling of seperation(viraha) can cause such symptoms as shivering , increase in heart rate , tears , faltering of voice etc . but sadly such symtoms are almost never manifests in ordinary humans . people experiencing this are most often avatars or nitya-mukta rishis .

NayaSurya
03 April 2010, 12:23 PM
There are always tears...I just thought this was my sensitivity to a closeness with God. Sometimes I laugh during chanting, I will see something wonderful and it makes my heart so happy.

Actually the reason my husband asked in the forum about Kundalini was because we both have experienced the shiver from spine to head since we were children.. I read Gurudeva's words about this and he said we should not allow the shivering because it is a reward and in prayer...there can be no reward?

So I have worked hard to stop them and if I feel them...I immediately stop and restart to keep the good feeling of the shiver away. I was telling a friend on here recently that I noticed after estatic chant that every hair stood on end and I had not even realized this until my husband walked by and saw.

I believe this was a result of keeping that wonderful shiver from happening...it was still happening but I was no longer allowing recognition.

My husband thought I was traveling too far away when I pray which could be causing the heart rate to increase.

Most times when I pray I suddenly feel my spirit go out from my head and I spin up into the other world and I lay flat on my face in front of Siva...and I pull out a piece of my heart and place it at His feet.

Sometimes, my piece of heart turns into things...butterflies...and sometimes flowers bloom. Then Siva takes a finger and pours a golden pot full of beautiful gold sparkles which sits by His side down upon my body and sometimes...when I have given so much...He pours not only gold, but places a red heart right on top to pour down.

Perhaps giving my heart is foolish...but it's all I have to give. Every time I pray and start to estatic chant, this happens. Once my body below is filled I send this wonderful energy out to my home it washes over every person and every inanimate thing until the entire house is full....and then he pours it down one more time as I spin back into the stream and down to my body.

It's not a far journey...not up in the sky...but perhaps it is a great distance and I am unaware. At this point my heart rate is through the roof...and tears and sometimes such happiness that I do laugh.

One time, I was very sick...and I pray anyway and for a split second I was granted a side view of myself giving that piece of my heart to Siva. What I saw was a small alabaster white soul, gold bands on my bicep, on wrists, short black waves of hair and a gold thing I do not understand on my head. It shocked me, very much not like me here in this lifetime. My hands were upturned flattly before me.

I know this may seem like a silly illusion to everyone, and I am hesitant to share because of embarassment. But I am working very hard to humiliate myself before all of you...painfully. This destroys the ego even further...so laugh away. It's good for my progress:P

To not mention this would also to be deceiving anyone who reads my posts, another thing I can not do.

Funny thing you mention Samadhi, I was given this word a year ago during meditation. It was said over and over again. I knew the word...but did not understand why this word was being given to me.

These things have to be sometimes for normal lowly jiva because I have them and am servant only...in the truest sense I am servant, nothing special. Just a silly girl who loves Siva...who lives only to serve Him and knowing that by serving everyone and everything in this world I do.



I almost wasn't even born here. My Mother began to bleed and passed what looked like part of a baby from her when she was 35 weeks pregnant. She was told by the doctor I was misscarried and was given an appointment to clear her uterus and medication to start the process.

She was in Fort Campbell Kentucky military base and was on her way to Ashland Kentucky. She believed I was not dead so asked to do this proceedure in Ashland with her regular doctor. When she got to Ashland she decided to wait...she believed I was alive, even though I was not moving. A month later I was born. Divine creature would not almost be aborted by doctors...I would have come in this world a lot easier.

In disclaimer here, I am a normal person with a normal life, albeit very blessed...
I don't see things like ghosts or fantasy things in my home. I don't leave teeth under my pillow for toothfairy.

But God, I can not deny Him...I did for years. Hid my relationship. I feel it hurts me to do so...so I give you the truth and keep my promise to never hide it again.


Aum Namah Sivaya
Priya Tamah Sivaya<3

sambya
03 April 2010, 01:22 PM
well, tears and shivers not that uncommon . infact its pretty common for me and many of my spiritual minded friends . most people with a nominal amount of love for god feels this . this is a very natural phenomenon . you are lucky that you feel this , because it might be showing your innate love for god .

however the viraha(seperation) that i'm telling you is something far more serious . it's like tears , shivers, faltering of speech , looking dazed , becoming uncosncious all in one time . this might happen at the slightest provocation of thoughts .
for example chaitanya mahaparabhu fell unconsicous with prema when he heard that the earth(soil) from the village he was standing in , is used for making mridangams ! he isntantly thought about mridangamas, kirtan and this led to thoughts about krishna and in a flash he was unconscious with ecstasy in front of thousands of people . this is viraha -- the rarest and highest bhava .

samadhi is the last stage of realization. end of yoga..

atanu
05 April 2010, 09:46 AM
Hello, I have a question about meditation and heart rate.

I have SVT -Super Vent. Tachycardia and also MVP-Mitrial valve prolapse. One condition is a rapid heart rate, the second is that a valve is not closing completely.

The problem is, that when I meditate...every single time infact...my heart rate shoots through the roof and I get very ill. My ears ring...heart hurts so badly I have to stop.

Even laying down for an hour prior to trying, I still have this happen.

Can anyone here share a similar problem, and if so, how to get around this?

Namaste Surya

This can happen independent of heart condition but a doctor will know. Kumbhaka (retention of breath) is not tolerated well if it is not attained smoothly. I do not know whether you do anuloma-viloma or not? In case, your condition is not due to heart problem, then a course of anuloma-viloma before meditation may help. Or some do only anuloma-viloma.

Om Namah Shivaya

rkpande
06 April 2010, 03:54 AM
dear Naya Surya,
You will find the following interesting, This has been quoted from "Hatha-yoga Its context, Theory and practice' by Mikel Bulley, Motilal Banarsidass publication (page 230):-

".....In addition to numerous studies of people who have practised in limited capacity for a relatively short period of time, there also exist some data collected from experienced practitioners. In 1957, for example, psychologists Bagchi and Wenger used eight channel EEG plus other instruments to record body parameters. Of particular interest here are their findings that, although the breathing rate of yogins slowed down during meditation, their heart rates, lower finger temperature, palmar conductance and blood pressure increased considerably, suggesting, as Michael Murphy has commented, that for these yogins meditation was an active rather than a passive process.
In a study of seven Indian Yogins, NN das and H gastaut found too, that during intense meditation the heart rates of their subjects accelerated, while breathing and general muscle tone relaxed. Brain wave activity was shown to increase in proportion to the heart rate, and then to slow down following samadhi.At some points the brain waves reached 40-50Hz, which is far in excess of the normal beta rate around 20Hz exhibited in an average waking person.


rk

rkpande
06 April 2010, 11:15 PM
dear nayasurya,

about 2 years back i also got worried when i noticed that my i heart rate used get considerably increased after my share of yoga, till i read this book (quoted in above post), i found in other materials on yoga practices latter that its normal for heart beats to increase.
As a matter of fact after my session of pranayam usually my breathing stops for about minute and a half when i just don't feel like breathing at all'. this also led me to worry that there is something wrong with my practice because during kumbhak with deliberate stoppage of breath i could not hold the breath for more than about 35 seconds. then i learnt about kevala kumbhak'
relax, you are quite in advanced stage of meditation.

rk

NayaSurya
07 April 2010, 05:52 PM
Thank you for your very useful information, it is good to know I am not the only one having this. I hesitated going to my physician with meditation concerns:P You have been very kind<3