Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Bluestar]

Having some heaviness while doing the meditation part, I remembered this.

During my teens I was experiencing a paralysis while falling asleep. My eyes were closed, yet I could not move my body and I could see the room I was in. Having also feelings of heaviness and fog. It terrified me. I would focus on moving the smallest part of my body to try and get out of the state I was in. It happened many times. No one could explain what I was going through. It has happened only on occasion since. Sometimes I hear voices talking, other times I hear drums banging very loudly. Sometimes I hear music. I have moved into lucid dreaming after this experience once or twice.

Telling a friend about this some 5 years ago, he lent me a book called Pan and the Nightmare by James Hillman. No longer do I have a copy to quote from. Here I believe I discovered what I was experiencing. They call it twilight. When one is in a half sleep and half awake state. Sort of between the worlds so to speak. Maybe the veil is thin while in this state, not sure. I only remember parts of the book. Will have to find another copy to reread it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REM_atonia#Physiology_of_REM_sleep

This causes REM atonia, a state in which the motor neurons are not stimulated and thus the body's muscles do not move.

This may be what some are feeling while doing the exercises and meditation. Fwiw hope it helps.

 

[Buddy]

My experience was something like JonnyRadar's. I went to bed around midnight, which is typical of me when I'm out of school, so I wasn't extra tired or anything. While I was relaxing in preparation to begin the meditation, I don't think I even got started. I fell totally asleep.

 

[gabriel]

HI ALL¡¡¡¡

yesterday was my 4 day on E.E. program and I have noticed some things

monday beginning BA-HA portion I feel cold and dizzy and some sensation of being tingling but after that to my surprise on the moment I began to heard
oh divine cosmic mind....I can not stop crying,this was a very very useful emotional release,after that one feels a less tons of weight .
after the prayer went to bed but can not sleep well

tuesday beginning the pipe-breath a lot of hot in my body, then zone out on some portions and the same on hearing the prayer.

wednes this day I was very angry against a sister without reason and inside of me feeling rare

thursday feeling dizzy and cold on BA-HA portion,zone out at some times and I fall asleep before prayer.

when doing fast BA-HA portion a feel some difficult,think that practicing more this E.E. ones becomes more adapted on lungs elasticity or capacity.

on tuesday and wednesday only did PIPE-B.one time and feel more energy all the day because I have many pounds extra and at 5 pm only want to rest.

 

[kujo]

Well, since I've been experiencing some of the same difficulties others have when completing the program in the evening, I started the breathing program from the beginning this morning, not too long after waking from my nights sleep. Success on making it through breathing and the meditation part! This seems to really make a difference. Something that helped me relax and retain focus is to relax my eye lids and facial muscles, and draw my attention between the eyes (or third eye). Sometimes I get the sensation of squinting to see off in the distance (though my eyes are closed), which is when I noticed tension in my around my face.

Also, feeling some hunger pangs I debated whether or not I should eat anything before breathing. During yoga stretches/breathing its advised not to eat approximately an hour before, so I figured it may apply here as well. I did have a few sips of a fruit puree drink that's loaded with spirulina, to hopes to help some of the hunger to subside- seemed to be effective. Anyone else have any experiences or advice about eating prior to the exercises? I know digestion itself uses a bit of energy from our bodies, curious if this seems to have an effect at all?

 

[Gertrudes]

I thought I would as well share my experiences so far,

I've started the program about 2 months ago before I registered in the forum. I wanted to give it a try since I had never meditated, but a part of me felt... very awkward (for lack of a better word) for doing it without participating here. The feeling was made clear in one of the last sessions where the C's mention the importance of giving all, a fair trade to what is being given to us. Doing the program on my own isolated me, and I felt it. And I probably felt unbalance.

Nevertheless, this is what I have noted: Extreme cold always, but I guess it is natural since I am still for a long time.
I tended to easily go to a dream like state (not sure if it is really zoning out) very easily during the Ba-Ha and the prayer portions. It seems it is no longer happening but ever so often and as other members have mentioned feeling, my mind does wonder a lot. I am not sure how to prevent it from happening, I guess it might just be a matter of time.

There were 2 times when I found myself to be particularly focused on my breathing when a strange thing happened. Very deep inside my chest, a sensation that bordered deep cold and deep heat, it is hard to distinguish which, emerged during Ba-Ha continuing to spread out. It remained until a while after the meditation had finished. It was a very strong sensation, accompanied by no emotional feelings that I am aware of. The second time it happened in my chest/heart area and in my solar plexus.

As a number of members have pointed out, I have also felt sensations, very mild in my case, in the forehead and throat. Mentally or emotionally I haven't noticed any changes in my daily life. During the meditation though, I have periods of what seems to be a very, very, deep feeling of disgust, as if I was about to throw up. It is really deep, and it is only felt mildly as if it had layers an layers of something before it can reach the surfface.

And finally, joining the voices of so many members, THANK YOU for this program.

 

[endgame]

I am actually experiencing the opposite, in the beginning the EE program made me calm and more focused, but now my head has turned into a war zone, I am confused, depressed lately, I feel an enormous hatred towards this program, ( predator).

For me too. My mind has been in constant struggle, and depression seems to be going hand-in-hand with the the struggling. Although instead of feeling enormous hatred towards the program, a lot of it seems to be directed at myself or others, which I am working on. I realize that I am projecting, but as of late, a lot of deep seated emotions have been coming to the surface. Anger, sadness, frustration. Although at times clarity and understanding, but very short-lived.

I can relate to this. This last days I've been feeling confused, empty and almost depressed with doubtful thoughts like 'why am I doing this' and 'it's not going to work' etc. Having dealt with depression almost half my life it's fairly easy to recognize this and observe myself. Funny how the predator thinks he is doing something to preserve himself when he actually contributes to his own self-destruction. Reminds me of something Don Juan said: "The best of us always comes out when we are against the wall, when we feel the sword dangling overhead. …I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

 

[Alada]

:)
As the breathing progresses, as your old programs and worn out veils wash off your back in the floodgates of the wave, you will understand, you will know; that all levels are veils to One. Thinking of One in terms of levels is a waste of energy in my opinion.

Jacksun, could you clarify this, please?

Please forgive my non considering. Think in these terms - separation is an illusion, time is an illusion, distance is an illusion, so there is no going to or coming from. Levels are discrete constructs relative to perception - they do not exist. There is only One, All. Divine Cosmic Mind. Here and Now in me and in you, if the term 'in' can be used at all. :D

Isn't what you’ve written there assuming the Creator’s perspective? I don’t think its a waste of energy to think in terms of levels, isn't that what we’re here to learn? You can say “it's all just illusion”, sure, but that doesn't give you much by the way pf practical understanding you can use here in 3D ville eh?

For us as we are, the levels and separations exist, we exist under certain definite laws or conditions. If we can learn and understand the laws we are under, how they affect us, then one by one we can work to slowly remove ourselves from their influence. But to imagine the one can do this simply by stating it to be so is nonsense imo. The wolves will come to eat you while you’re busy imagining you are God this way I think.

 

[Gertrudes]

I third that. I don't know if it's the diet or the breathing or what, but I've had days lately where I eat 5-6 meals, 3 major plus 2-3 minor. I'm not gaining any weight, so I have no idea where it's all going!

I fourth that.

I guess I 'fifth' that. Sometimes I get hungry after only the meditation.
However, this comes and goes. Haven't been experienced this for about a week or so now.
Would be interesting to hear what the C's would say about it, if it's really important enough to ask that is.

I will "sixth" that. I have been loosing a lot of weight! As some of us have mentioned I also feel a rise in hunger and I am eating a lot more....very peculiar.

I guess I can understand the sense of hunger after the meditation from the point of view of the physicall effort involved. An hour of breathing is likely to require from some, if not most of us an effort from unused muscles. It is a type and intensity of the breathing we are not accustomed to, and that, I think, will have its toll in the amount of energy expended. Not sure if this is the reason, and I wonder which other causes might be involved though...

What puzzles me is that some of us are eating more and we can't see where it goes!

 

[Beau]

What puzzles me is that some of us are eating more and we can't see where it goes!

Perhaps one of the effects of the breathing program is an increase in metabolism? That would explain why we can't see where it goes.

 

[Oxajil]

What puzzles me is that some of us are eating more and we can't see where it goes!

Perhaps one of the effects of the breathing program is an increase in metabolism? That would explain why we can't see where it goes.

Hmm, there is this?

_http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n22_v150/ai_18947098/

How the brain knows when eating must stop - vagus nerve responds differently to each nutrient to decode what and how much has been eaten - Brief Article

At some point during a meal, the brain instructs the hand to put down the fork: The diner has had enough. The brain sends this message before all the food has left the stomach and entered the bloodstream. In probing what signals satiety, psychologists have identified a novel method by which the brain evaluates the contents of the gut.

The vagus nerve, which carries two-way communication between the gut and the brain, transmits distinctly different patterns of electric signals in response to carbohydrates and to protein in the gut, finds Gary J. Schwartz of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore. These signals largely reflect gut wall contractions-mechanical motions that mix and grind up food, he reported at last week's Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C.

There's another component of the vagus nerve's reaction to protein. Schwartz suspects that hormonelike peptides produced by the gut in response to food are responsible for amplifying the signals triggered by the motions of the stomach and small intestine.

Most scientists had assumed that nerves sample gut contents through receptors that, like taste buds on the tongue, directly discriminate specific classes of chemicals being eaten, Schwartz notes. His data from anesthetized rats now indicate that this gut-level "tasting" may rely instead on indirect cues from nonspecific features of the digestive system, such as gut wall motility. Because other stimuli can also elicit both these motions and peptide production, the brain apparently decodes what's eaten-and how much-from the distinctive pattern of the vagus nerve's response to each nutrient, together with other information the brain receives from the gut.

Most nutrient absorption occurs in the stomach and duodenum-the upper segment of the small intestine. As Schwartz and his team infused glucose, a sugar, or peptone, a protein, directly into the duodenum, they recorded both gut wall movements and the corresponding signals to the brain.

In terms of the intensity and timing of contractions, and the corresponding intensity and duration of the vagus nerve's electric firing, "2 calories of the protein produced about a 30 to 40 percent larger [and longer] response than did 2 calories of glucose," Schwartz found.

He suspects that part of the effect may be mediated by the mast cells of the immune system. Present throughout the gut, these cells "are almost the perfect, ubiquitous transducer," he explains. "They can change a mechanical, thermal, or chemical stimulus into a neural signal." Moreover, he notes, vagus nerve fibers winding throughout the fingerlike villi lining the duodenum "are in a perfect position to taste what's happening to those mast cells."

"These are wonderfully coherent, novel, and interesting results," says Gerard P. Smith of Cornell Medical Center in White Plains, N.Y. While "we knew the gut talks to the brain over these [vagus nerve] fibers, what no one before has shown us is how the fibers respond to nutrients by changing their neural firing."

Adds Jaak Panksepp of Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, this information may prove "very important in learning what terminates a meal." However, he notes that over a day or so, the body adjusts its calorie consumption based on past meals and current needs. Therefore, Schwartz's new findings, he says, may have small consequences for how animals adjust their 24-hour caloric intake.

 

[Gertrudes]

What puzzles me is that some of us are eating more and we can't see where it goes!

Perhaps one of the effects of the breathing program is an increase in metabolism? That would explain why we can't see where it goes.

Yes, that makes sense.
I find the connection worth looking into. I think I will do some thinking/research on the subject.

 

[Gertrudes]

Hmm, there is this?

_http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n22_v150/ai_18947098/

How the brain knows when eating must stop - vagus nerve responds differently to each nutrient to decode what and how much has been eaten - Brief Article

At some point during a meal, the brain instructs the hand to put down the fork: The diner has had enough. The brain sends this message before all the food has left the stomach and entered the bloodstream. In probing what signals satiety, psychologists have identified a novel method by which the brain evaluates the contents of the gut.

The vagus nerve, which carries two-way communication between the gut and the brain, transmits distinctly different patterns of electric signals in response to carbohydrates and to protein in the gut, finds Gary J. Schwartz of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore. These signals largely reflect gut wall contractions-mechanical motions that mix and grind up food, he reported at last week's Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C.

There's another component of the vagus nerve's reaction to protein. Schwartz suspects that hormonelike peptides produced by the gut in response to food are responsible for amplifying the signals triggered by the motions of the stomach and small intestine.

Most scientists had assumed that nerves sample gut contents through receptors that, like taste buds on the tongue, directly discriminate specific classes of chemicals being eaten, Schwartz notes. His data from anesthetized rats now indicate that this gut-level "tasting" may rely instead on indirect cues from nonspecific features of the digestive system, such as gut wall motility. Because other stimuli can also elicit both these motions and peptide production, the brain apparently decodes what's eaten-and how much-from the distinctive pattern of the vagus nerve's response to each nutrient, together with other information the brain receives from the gut.

Most nutrient absorption occurs in the stomach and duodenum-the upper segment of the small intestine. As Schwartz and his team infused glucose, a sugar, or peptone, a protein, directly into the duodenum, they recorded both gut wall movements and the corresponding signals to the brain.

In terms of the intensity and timing of contractions, and the corresponding intensity and duration of the vagus nerve's electric firing, "2 calories of the protein produced about a 30 to 40 percent larger [and longer] response than did 2 calories of glucose," Schwartz found.

He suspects that part of the effect may be mediated by the mast cells of the immune system. Present throughout the gut, these cells "are almost the perfect, ubiquitous transducer," he explains. "They can change a mechanical, thermal, or chemical stimulus into a neural signal." Moreover, he notes, vagus nerve fibers winding throughout the fingerlike villi lining the duodenum "are in a perfect position to taste what's happening to those mast cells."

"These are wonderfully coherent, novel, and interesting results," says Gerard P. Smith of Cornell Medical Center in White Plains, N.Y. While "we knew the gut talks to the brain over these [vagus nerve] fibers, what no one before has shown us is how the fibers respond to nutrients by changing their neural firing."

Adds Jaak Panksepp of Bowling Green (Ohio) State University, this information may prove "very important in learning what terminates a meal." However, he notes that over a day or so, the body adjusts its calorie consumption based on past meals and current needs. Therefore, Schwartz's new findings, he says, may have small consequences for how animals adjust their 24-hour caloric intake.

Thanks Oxajil. That helped. I hadn't thought of the role of the vagus nerve in this.

Suggested by what you have posted,

from: _http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-vagus-nerve.htm

"The vagus nerve helps to regulate the heart beat, control muscle movement, keep a person breathing, and to transmit a variety of chemicals through the body. It is also responsible for keeping the digestive tract in working order, contracting the muscles of the stomach and intestines to help process food, and sending back information about what is being digested and what the body is getting out of it."

 

[Gertrudes]

Apologies for the clumsiness here! I didn't need to re-post all of Oxajil's post... Still learning....

 

[LoveAndLight]

Hi everybody,

Ive been just doing the pipe breathing and meditation exercises, also I started spinning. I have been having a hard time with the pipe breathing still, so I will keep practicing it until I fully learn it. When I do the pipe breathing, it seems like I cant fill my lungs with enough air, anybody else have this problem(maybe its because my body is weak from what I have)?

For the effects Ive had a few. Ive been more angry and sad then before. Ive been having or remembering many more dreams. I also zoned outed a couple times.

Ill keep pushing.

 

[knowledge_of_self]

Hi everyone:

I just wanted to share something…
First, I must admit that I have not done the FULL EE program. I have been practicing the pipe breathing part for the past 2 weeks, before bed and also at some points during the day when I’m at home. I do the pipe breathing while repeating divine cosmic mind in my head. Though most of the time I get distracted and forget to read the poem in my head.

I have ordered the EE DVD, and have told myself that when it arrives I will do the FULL program.

Second, I must admit that I have not read the full 83 pages of this thread, but I have read some of it.

Keeping the above in mind, I would like to share that during the past 3 days I have been pretty much walking on egg shells emotionally speaking. I’m VERY sensitive and start to cry at the slightest thing.

Today, I woke up (from a strange dream) and I was sitting here reading the forum when all of a sudden I began to cry. And continued to cry for about 2 hours… I just couldn’t stop. The tears kept coming and coming. My eyes hurt so much right now, and as I’m writing this… I still feel like I can cry some more. Weird thing is, I don’t know WHY I’m crying. I just feel this extreme sadness… and that’s why I’ve been so sensitive past couple of days too.

Like for example, on Thursday night, while I was at school… I saw a lady that I had not seen for a long time, we were in the same class last term. I saw her, I said hello, and she pretended or at least looked as if she didn’t recognize me for a moment. She finally recognized me after a few minutes and said, “Ooooh, you’re Nina right?” and VERY LOUDLY so that all of the class heard she said, “WOW, you’ve gained A LOT of weight!” I kind of laughed it off and didn’t let her know that it fazed me, but when I came home I cried for several hours, while Nima tried to comfort me. Now, I know this may not seem related, but it sort of is… I mean I’m not usually THIS sensitive. I don’t cry because someone said something stupid… but crying is almost second nature to me the past few days.

Anyway, since I read here, or recall reading that some people have felt extreme sadness and cried, I thought maybe it has to do with the pipe breathing or something. I just wanted to share…
And I do know that I should do the full program, but part of me is kind of scared. I’m scared that if I’m crying this much right now, what am I going to be like when I start the full program? :(

Anyway, thanks for reading I just wanted to share my current experience.