Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Approaching Infinity]

Usually, my body is very cold, so when I start the meditation I pull 2 blankets over me. The pipe-breathing usually warms me up right away, so I sometimes have to remove one of the blankets. Last night, this was very pronounced. I was very cold during the beatha, even though I was covered. Then, after just a couple pipe-breaths, I heated right up. The difference this time was that my hands got extremely warm, but not the kind of warm that made me want to remove the blankets. They felt like two balls of heat/energy roughly the size of boxing gloves.

 

[MetaDjinn]

Hi Everybody,

I have been meaning to post here lately; I guess the time is now. The following is a summary of my last three meditations. The first of three was marked by the strangest sensation. I wasn't going to post it but I cant stop thinking about it. It is really silly and probably just my imagination but in the middle of the prayer, I was pretty deep into it and I was jarred/shocked by an intense felling of being hurled forward rapidly, twice in succession??? Like if your a passenger in a car and the driver stops short on the brakes. It felt like that inside of me while my body remained in my seated position - almost like a chess piece being moved two spaces. OK, enough of that and onto the important stuff.

The last week has been some ride. It's all coming up to the surface and I am about to pop, like an inflamed zit - bleh, here comes the puss... I am ready to start working through and feeling emotions. I go to my job and hold back tears all day while trying to remain anonymous and transparent, then drive home and pipe breathe and let some tears go but hey - you gotta keep it somewhat together while you're stopped at a red light. Get home - there's the kids and the neighbours' kids and the wife and the wife's friends and all that could be. I have nowhere to let it out. I gotta hide in an empty room and bury my face in a pillow. Hey, two more days to my second therapy session - "Well, doc I know we just started and all but... 'squeeeeeze'..." <<doc wipes puss from glasses>> Sorry 'bout that doc, but I did pay my $15 copay.

Yesterday I hard a particularly rough time: predator clawing at my brain. I did the program and it was intense! The parasthesia hasn't been subsiding for me; it has been increasing. Last night, it was so strong and it felt like the side of my neck was connected to my heart and my heart was connected to my stomach by an intensely vibrating band that was contracting and making my heart feel like it was going to burst. At first I was scared and then I wanted to push through it. I considered doing the round breathing part again to really get it going but then I realized that I don't know what that would do or why I would want to do it so I just stuck with the program as is. After, I got all welled up again and decide to just lay down early and get on with it. I really felt some heavy emotions and started sobbing for a while. I then felt really still and tired and I fell asleep. Man.... what a nap that was - sleep paralysis, OOBEs, lucid dreaming. When I was experiencing the sleep paralysis, I was dreaming that my wife was there and I'm moaning "he-he-he heeelp meeeee...". I wanted her to pull me out of it but she just said (in her cutest, dreamy quirkiness) "I dunno man, your heads like too heavy or sumthin' and I can't lift you up". Man, I'm laughing/crying right now: that's some dream message!!! So, yes my second of the three EEs was a doozy.

I just finished the third a little while ago. I wrote in my journal some and now I am posting this. I had no parasthesia and everything was kind of calm. During the round breathing, I had a thought about something and a wave of yuck started to break over me... my spine went loose and I started to lean over to my side and started crying and that @#^@&@ voice in my head says "I can't do this"... At that moment, without thought, my eyes opened wide and I shouted as I slammed my fist on my desk, "DO NOT BE DEFEATED"!!! I then shut my eyes and found my center and continued on with the breathing. Man, oh man, the next breath brought happiness over me and I felt mirth. The following breath brought peace and gratitude to my heart (thank you, Laura!!!) I smiled inside and out. The last breath stirred inhibition within me and I laughed aloud. The Prayer of the Soul followed and I just felt at ease and peaceful.

I've been really down and think I won't make it, but eventually I will do something by the end of the day that has been suggested to me by you all and it works! This program is very powerful and I am just blown away! Thank you all so much!

--Christopher

 

[Ollie]

What follows is a review on my experiences of the Breathing-Meditation for the past week.

Overall, on both Monday and Thursday, during the full Breathing-Meditation session, I zoned out completely after Laura read the first line of the meditation, coming to in the follow-up music. On the Thursday, the yawning and wet eyes were delayed until the Ba-Ha breathing.

Overall, for the ‘bedtime sessions’, I found that I am off/distracted at or before ‘clear my eyes’ and have to go back and repeat the Prayer to myself, until I can get through completely.

I did an additional session on Sunday evening, and something quite strange happened to me during Monday lunchtime. I was sitting at my desk eating my lunch out of two small glass Kilner jars, when I became aware of a close grid of horizontal bars going across the bottom of one of the jars. First of all I thought it was a reflection of a venetian blind, until I realized that I had a plain blind up at the window. On closer inspection the pattern was in both jars, and as I lifted my eyes, the pattern moved with them, now the bars were much bigger and wider. The food in the jars appeared to be in shadow. This whole phenomenon lasted for about 2-3 minutes.

I went for a walk to the Post Office to pick up a letter, and suddenly became aware that as I walked down the street that I had shifted in Hakalau, defocused distant vision with increased peripheral vision and an heightened awareness of movement on around me. Also, the sound in the street was incredibly amplified. The sensation lasted for about ten minutes, and stopped on walking into the Post Office. Normally I have to consciously initiate going into Hakalau. What was that all about?

As with other people I have experienced differences in food and water intake, although what to put this down to as the root cause is difficult, what with the Breathing-Meditation, sauna sessions, and anti-Candida diet.

 

[gotogo]

I went for a walk to the Post Office to pick up a letter, and suddenly became aware that as I walked down the street that I had shifted in Hakalau, defocused distant vision with increased peripheral vision and an heightened awareness of movement on around me. Also, the sound in the street was incredibly amplified. The sensation lasted for about ten minutes, and stopped on walking into the Post Office. Normally I have to consciously initiate going into Hakalau. What was that all about?

It sounds like 'the 3rd state of Consciousness' in the Forth Way term. Strangely enough the efforts of Self-Remembering results in 'the 3rd state of Consciousness' not in direct liner time consequences like you described. It suddenly comes 'unexpectedly' and goes...

 

[Gertrudes]

I was going to post this on the Prayer of the Souls translations thread, but on a second thought Eíriú-Eolas seems more appropriate, please let me know if not.

I would like to share something that happened to me today:
I have been using the prayer of the Soul as a mantra quite often. For no particular reason, I never tried saying it in my own language expect for last night, when I found the translation.
As I was walking on the street today, I decided to recite the prayer and tried the "new" translated version. When I was reciting it for the third time, and without a warning, I felt a familiar and deeply tied knot in my throat, something that for me always precedes crying, and my eyes where abruptly filled with tears. Honestly I was totally unprepared for that as since I have started the program, noticed no emotional changes. I stopped reciting it because I felt I would just burst into tears and deep crying in the middle of the street. As I write these words, I feel myself in a very strange mental and emotional state. My chest feels strange, my belly even more, my head feels swollen... I can't really describe it.

It completely boggles my mind the effect that saying the prayer in my own language had!! It feels like the words gained life and their meaning is coming from the very core of my being......

 

[Divide by Zero]

Oh, I forgot to mention a strange thing that happened during todays ba-ha session.
At the end of it the usual energy was felt through my body, especially in my hands as they formed into some kind of 'hooks' (in lack of a better word)- like you can see on crippled or old people. I could not straighten them out no matter what. Also my mouth shaped in a strange gaping form. I felt almost helpless. As the meditation began this gradually decreased.

I've had this happen in the beginning, but it doesn't happen anymore. I suppose the body gets used to the extra oxygen? It's strange that for some it comes later on... I suppose it will go away with practice.

 

[Buddy]

I went for a walk to the Post Office to pick up a letter, and suddenly became aware that as I walked down the street that I had shifted in Hakalau, defocused distant vision with increased peripheral vision and an heightened awareness of movement on around me. Also, the sound in the street was incredibly amplified. The sensation lasted for about ten minutes, and stopped on walking into the Post Office. Normally I have to consciously initiate going into Hakalau. What was that all about?

It sounds like 'the 3rd state of Consciousness' in the Forth Way term. Strangely enough the efforts of Self-Remembering results in 'the 3rd state of Consciousness' not in direct liner time consequences like you described. It suddenly comes 'unexpectedly' and goes...

Is there a reference for this '3rd state of consciousness' to get more detail? I was out on the back porch with our cats not too long ago, just watching one of them play, when I kind of opened my eyes wider than normal and seemed to experience 'increased peripheral vision and heightened awareness' as well. It was sort of like a quick wave of an energy spreading out from the center, like dropping a pebble into water - more of a sensation of that rather than a visual. At that time, a big bee of some kind flew right by my face, within an inch, I think, and I had no reflex reaction at all (which is unusual for me since my reflexes are rather quick most of the time). I just seemed to notice and accept it. Even though it was an unusual experience, it was nothing shocking or unsettling - just a thing, and it disappears on its own as well.

Is that similar to what is being described?

 

[Oxajil]

I just finished the third a little while ago. I wrote in my journal some and now I am posting this. I had no parasthesia and everything was kind of calm. During the round breathing, I had a thought about something and a wave of yuck started to break over me... my spine went loose and I started to lean over to my side and started crying and that @#^@&@ voice in my head says "I can't do this"... At that moment, without thought, my eyes opened wide and I shouted as I slammed my fist on my desk, "DO NOT BE DEFEATED"!!! I then shut my eyes and found my center and continued on with the breathing. Man, oh man, the next breath brought happiness over me and I felt mirth. The following breath brought peace and gratitude to my heart (thank you, Laura!!!) I smiled inside and out. The last breath stirred inhibition within me and I laughed aloud. The Prayer of the Soul followed and I just felt at ease and peaceful.

That sounds really powerful! I remember from reading the Wave that words can contain some kind of ''power''.

Some times when I'm listening to the Prayer and I'm doing the meditation, I kind of observe what's going on. And I sometimes observe that my soul (assuming I have one) or something else inside me, is kind of floating/dancing/swinging. And it's happy and we both love listening to Laura.
I've also been experiencing much more self-love the few past weeks/months.

So I was scrolling a bit through Bringers of the Dawn and as I was reading, I saw this and was reminded of this observation (of ''dancing''):

Listen to yourselves. Listen to the internal message that comes
through to you and begin to dance with it and make friends with it. You,
yourselves, are meant to discover reality from /inside /and to direct
your life in this way. This is really the gift that is given in the
free-will zone.

and then I went to search for more and found this one:

Focus on the dance of yourself. To what tune will
you dance and to what magic will you perform and to what heights will
you be willing to push consciousness to give it a new definition of
possibilities?

Just thought it was funny :). I remember others also telling they experience some kind of ''floating''. Just fwiw.
Will see what will happen in the long run. I'm just having fun with it and love doing it! Thank you all as well..

 

[gotogo]

Is there a reference for this '3rd state of consciousness' to get more detail?

Hello Buddy,

Here are some references collected from ISOTM (Note: italic is Ouspensky's emphasis but bold is mine):

I know that the bio-energetic breathing segment seems long, but it is intended that way. If you just push through and stay with it as best you can, you will see amazing results after a few sessions. It will get even better when the process is memorized both in your moving center and your mind. At that point, your body will take over the breathing, the mind will take over concentrating on the meaning of the words, and that will allow the heart to open and release its burden of pain, grief, karma, and so on. When that happens, believe me, you will know it! It may not even happen during the exercise/meditation- it may happen hours later, or days later. But when the lower emotional center connects with the higher emotional center, you will be amazed...

(emphasis is mine)

I associated with this "not in direct liner time consequences" nature of what I know of '3rd state of consciousness' also.

 

[Nicholas]

I just started reading "In Secret Tibet" by T. Illion where he talks about getting prepared for the trip to Tibet. He mentions his breathing rate of 3 times a minute as compared to the average of 15 times per minute. He gives this warning:

My slow rhythm of breathing is not the result of breathing exercises. One should never try to change the rhythm of breathing by conscious action. If one makes a conscious effort to breathe slowly because air costs nothing and one expects to gain something by slow breathing - no matter whether the advantage in view is spiritual or material - one sooner or later destroys oneself by the exercises. In most cases conscious breathing practised for the purpose of getting something leads to nervous breakdowns if not to something worse.

Breathing should be unconscious. If we change from within, then we treat everything outside ourselves in the same way as we wish to be treated by others, we cease to be in the state of virtual cramp which causes incomplete breathing. If we voluntarily draw a limit to our egotism and only take from life as much as we need to maintain life and not more, we cease to be in a state of cramp, psychically and physically.

In a relaxed body, deep and slow breathing sets in automatically and unconsciously. But if one tries to bring about slow breathing by conscious action without first changing the fundamental cause of wrong breathing, viz. egocentricism, one is on the road to utter destruction.

This warning seems to be necessary as hundreds of people both in Tibet and in the Occident have become nervous wrecks or lunatics by conscious breathing exercises.

Seems like good advice to follow. We need to be careful with this breathing exercise. Don't rush it or push it too hard.

 

[Buddy]

Hello Buddy,
Here are some references collected from ISOTM...

Fantastic! Thank you, GotoGo. I hope to own that book one day.

 

[gabriel]

Hi all,from sept 25 I had a lot of dizziness on the warriors breath.on the ba-ha portion feel to much energy and cold on top of my head and some
times sensations of opressing my chest and at the beginning of prayer can not stop crying, this time my emotional releasing was too much
because I was drowning on my chest but after that feel very relax and good.all this was made at the morning but at noon a feel sick my muscles
pain and my body was without energy,coffing and had headache this last till tuesday 30, now I am feeling better I hope tomorrow can do all the
E.E.B.P.


:) :) :)

 

[Alana]

It completely boggles my mind the effect that saying the prayer in my own language had!! It feels like the words gained life and their meaning is coming from the very core of my being......

I had the same experience, Gertrudes. One night before sleep, i was reciting the POTS in English as i always did to that point, when i realized that it sounded mechanical to me. I was trying to feel the meaning behind the words, like i could do back when i started, and couldn't. So i decided to recite it in Greek: not only i remembered all the words though it was the first time i was reciting it without reading it, but i felt that the words were coming from my heart, that in my mother tongue, i really truly meant what i was saying.

Some times when I'm listening to the Prayer and I'm doing the meditation, I kind of observe what's going on. And I sometimes observe that my soul (assuming I have one) or something else inside me, is kind of floating/dancing/swinging.

I have the same experience with the prayer as well. Lately (past two full sessions i did) during the pipe breathing and baha portion, i feel unable to focus and relax. My mind keeps wondering off while my body performs the breathing. I detect this early and try to bring my focus back inside my body but again and again it goes off. I have been feeling so frustrated in my inability to control my mind, that i believe that the tears i shed during breathing come from this frustration, and not some inner pain

And then comes the meditation. After Laura starts reciting the prayer, i suddenly feel fully relaxed, as i inhale and exhale slowly to each phrase. As it progresses, i feel that my body doesn't want to breath anymore, does not need it, it is sooo relaxed. And that's when i feel the floating. I feel all the parts of my body that are in contact with the floor being solid, while the rest of me feels like a wave of energy that flows continuously, like ocean waves that come and go to the shore, and i am fully aware of everything that goes on around me, inside of me. So weird, but wonderful at the same time.

I tenth ;) the being constantly hungry that others mentioned, throughout the day lately. I also find my self in the anger mode that some of you referred to a while ago. I feel so angry and irritated all the time, and my pillows received some good punches! I had this image that i was fighting on the ground with a huge white tiger the other day! A part of me really wants to get into a fight, argue, fist fight with somebody! This i was able to control so far, fortunately. But my irritated mood is obvious to those close to me. I just try to avoid social interactions when possible.

But i am on the ultra simple diet and started doing the nystatin regime 2 weeks ago, so perhaps my irritation is a result of die offs and detoxing as well, maybe my erratic mind too.

 

[Oxajil]

I have the same experience with the prayer as well. Lately (past two full sessions i did) during the pipe breathing and baha portion, i feel unable to focus and relax. My mind keeps wondering off while my body performs the breathing. I detect this early and try to bring my focus back inside my body but again and again it goes off. I have been feeling so frustrated in my inability to control my mind, that i believe that the tears i shed during breathing come from this frustration, and not some inner pain

Imo, no need to be angry at yourself for that. I remember how me being angry at myself for making the same mistake over and over again resulted in my body feeling very sick. I learned that I shouldn't be angry, of course, we should maybe be a bit for a second, to remind us that this is not what we ''want'', but we shouldn't continue feeling this anger. Feel instead maybe happy, that you know that you wondered off and that you choose to ''fight'' it in a gentle and natural way. See this braveness instead of you failing.
If you ''fail'' again, that's okay, just remember that this is all natural and that one day you will do this without wondering off or only a few moments.
Don't be trying to push yourself, be kind to yourself :).

I wonder off too and I don't mind it much really. I've observed that when I'm not paying attention, I have a bit trouble with the breathing, especially with the pipe breathing, so I tell myself that I'd like to concentrate on Laura's voice. If I listen to her counting, I don't experience much trouble at all. Maybe you could try that too. Remind yourself to listen to her voice carefully and to just relax. And if you wonder off in between (like I do), that's just okay. Stand up and continue with hope and faith. And if you are a little bit frustrated because of the wandering off, then you can maybe show that anger and show your strength by doing the warrior's breath, which is up next. Or show your tears during the meditation or breathing. However you choose to and however it feels natural.

--

Whether it's from your frustration or from something else, that doesn't really matter imo, it's good to let some emotion out :)

And then comes the meditation. After Laura starts reciting the prayer, i suddenly feel fully relaxed, as i inhale and exhale slowly to each phrase. As it progresses, i feel that my body doesn't want to breath anymore, does not need it, it is sooo relaxed. And that's when i feel the floating. I feel all the parts of my body that are in contact with the floor being solid, while the rest of me feels like a wave of energy that flows continuously, like ocean waves that come and go to the shore, and i am fully aware of everything that goes on around me, inside of me. So weird, but wonderful at the same time.

You describe it so perfectly! That's exactly what I experience and observe as well.

 

[Ben]

In Search of the Miraculous p126
In the first place I saw that self-remembering resulting from this method had nothing in common with "self-feeling," or "self analysis." It was a new and very interesting state with a strangely familiar flavor.

And secondly I realized that moments of self-remembering do occur in life, although rarely. Only the deliberate production of these moments created the sensation of novelty. Actually I had been familiar with them from early childhood. They came either in new and unexpected surroundings, in a new place, among new people while traveling, for instance, when suddenly one looks about one and says: How strange! I and in this place; or in very emotional moments, in moments of danger, in moments when it is necessary to keep one's head, when one hears one's own voice and sees and observes oneself from the outside.

This description reminded me of something from my childhood which I have not experienced as an adult, which was spontaneous and not a result of efforts such as self observation. Occasionally, and most frequently when looking into a mirror I recall, I would experience a strange and intense departure from my sense of self and see my image and my thoughts, and particularly my name as unusual and foreign to me. I would laugh out loud at the idea that this was me and how identified I was with it. It's completely different to self observation as I experience it now (which I'm still not sure is the correct way to go about it). Now that I think back to it I am considering the idea that it is connected in some way with the 'veil' which blocks our memory of previous lives, for some reason I like that idea.

Regarding Eiriu Eolas, I have found that the mental state I experience after the breathing exercises has been extremely helpful to the practice of self observation possibly because of the increased mental focus. However, although I have found the prayer of the soul to command my intention and focus I find that my thoughts wander quite often during the full bioenergetic breathing and I'm curious as to how important you guys think it is to maintain attention on the breathing throughout the whole process. My negative introject can get pretty strong sometimes, as can my tendency to anticipate results. I'm always concerned that these things are hindering my progress.