Hi Andrew
Sorry to hear your having a rough time of it at the moment.
First things first, I think that you should stop the Ba-Ha/round breathing section of the E-E program. At least for a few weeks to see if things quieten down.
Negative images, nightmares and out of body experiences have all been reported by people doing E-E (even if they had a history of such things before) and (as far as I know) have all quietened down when they stopped doing the round breathing.
I've had to adopt this approach myself, and can say that it is definitely working for me.
From what I have read (and looking back over your first experience) you seem to be dealing with the situation remarkably well, and in a very positive manor! I'm not sure you can see that from where you are, but I really am impressed with how well you have adapted to this in such a short period of time! :)
Progress in the work is a spiral path, and sometimes it feels like we are going backwards...when in fact we are just going forwards, but I perspective hasn't changed to accommodate the new situation (that and we may have been tricked into the wrong perspective).
Now, with that in mind perhaps you can step back and look at what you have written as if it was written by someone else? What emotions is this person experiencing? What are they thinking and feeling? What data or patterns in these events can be gathered? It is surprising what can be seen/learnt when we do this (usually after sharing the experience to help get some emotional relief, which is a good thing).
Pai said:
During the POTS I was still unable to either concentrate on breathing or 'zone out' naturally and started to get quite horrible images in my mind, mutilated bodies, frightening faces etc. It's worth noting that this has also probably happened once or twice before during POTS.At this point I was un-phased although a little irritated but I tried just to observe the images coming forth without judgement whilst still trying my best to focus on the words, particularly 'help me grow in knowledge of all creation' which seemed pertinent considering the images that were presenting themselves.
As I said before, the images can be brought up by doing the Ba-Ha portion of the program, so its best to stop that for now.
Despite the emotional content of the images (fear, shock and disgusts I would think) they can be a normal part of the E-E program, and are nothing to worry about as they will pass....it is just things being processed, in this case by being given a visual/emotional form (like in a dream) and brought to awareness.....this processing is can occur subconsciously or through dreams too....but if it is to much to handle dropping the Ba-Ha portion will see this occurrences reduce/stop. Reducing the number of times you do the full program will also slow/stop these occurrences.....for me it came out more as physical symptoms (severe fatigue and emotional instability) rather than emotion/visual images.
Being a little irritated by this is understandable, but should be considered in context...the E-E program is about healing and reintegration of the self....irritation is a form of rejection, so may have caused a slight stalemate between what you wanted to achieve (healing/integration) and what happened.....this may also be why you didn't zone out. Something to consider in future sessions.
Do you do the POTS every night before sleep?
Pai said:
It was only after POTS finished that I knew something was definitely up. I put down my ipod and turned out the light. For about 30 seconds I felt a growing sense of anxiety and the presence of the negative energy which I described in the first post of this thread. Describing it again, I will say that it is extremely cold, energetic, and aggressive.
With the context above as a guide I can draw to conclusions from this.
The stirred up emotions and conflict with integrating them was the probable cause......what you then felt however could have been something coming to feed on these stirred up emotions (using the gap created by the conflict with self acceptance), or it could simply have been all you. The energy being the emotions, and the conflict with acceptance creating the appearance of separateness. Of something 'not you'. Perhaps it is even a mix of the two? Or perhaps something is trying to convince you it is external to stop you integrating??
What do you notice if you work with the hypothesis that these feelings/emotions where yours alone??
Pai said:
I then felt a huge surge in the power of this energy which pretty much made me jump out of the bed. It was very much as if something had entered me, possibly from behind. My immediate overwhelming feeling was to do something physically aggressive to whatever was in the vicinity and I had a flashing thought of either jumping out of the window or causing some harm to my mother who was visiting at the time and was asleep in the spare room (my wife and son were at her parents and we were to meet at the Airport the next day). The energy I was experiencing was simply horrible and very overpowering.
Again I can draw two conclusion from this. Either this was something external influencing you.....or the your stirred up emotional energy (which had to go somewhere as it was not accepted by yourself and was being identified as 'not you') discharged through you the only way it could (like lightning hitting the nearest available lightning rod), through the activation of programs.
What do can you observe about yourself if you consider the latter to be the correct hypothesis? Could
this be a better way for the emotional energy to earth itself?
Pai said:
Fortunately I managed to get myself under some form control and lay back down. As with the initial episode I described, I began pipe breathing, reciting POTS and as someone suggested in this thread, thinking and focusing on the group here. This seemed to help somewhat but I was still surrounded by this energy which has the effect of causing severe body tremors and shaking. The surge which made me jump was definitely the peak of the experience and after a few minutes of lying down I started trying to observe what was happening. As well as the above strategies, I attempted to focus on my heart and slowing it down as I felt that the tremors may be due purely to panic. After getting my breathing under control, and feeling that my heart was at a reasonably slow pace, the tremors didn't really abate. I remember thinking my legs looked like moving water in that they seemed to be undulating and rippling.
Thankfully, the presence of the energy only seemed to last for about 15 minutes or so and afterward I was able to lie down and sleep quite soundly till the following morning.
It may be worth mentioning that many of my positive experiences (especially the intense or energetic ones where I can feel a huge flow of energy through myself) tend to last about 15 minutes, the only way to stop them is to get up and walk about osit. They can also start suddenly, with a surge/jolt.
fwiw I think you did the right thing.
Pai said:
So, a few days on in Spain. This time it was a dream. It was a long and convoluted one but I'll just pick out the relevant points. It all took place at the top of the road where I grew up in West London and involved my ex girlfriend. In real life, this is someone I lived with for about a year in my mid twenties and it was a horrendous experience/relationship. She seemed 'normal' when we first got together but it later transpired that she was a very disturbed individual and was extremely possessive/jealous, threatening, full of rage, suicidal and also physically violent with me. She had been severely emotionally abused as a child and knowing what I know now, she basically had severe Personality Disorder.
On to the dream: I met her at the park at the top of my road where I grew up and my four year old son was present with us. She was beautiful and happy with none of her real life traits and had established a kind of outdoor commune looking after young children. The atmosphere was very pleasant and felt 'creative'. After many inexplicable events which I wont go into she led us into some kind of dark underground cavern where I realised that she had set a trap for us and I knew I had to get myself and my son out of there for fear of our lives. After being chased by 'something' for some time we were eventually cornered again at the top of my old road by what I can only describe as a gang of about 12 possessed teenage youths who were threatening to kill us. I was extremely frightened.
The culmination of the dream involved (and I hate to even write this) my son being raped by these individuals and I was helpless to stop them. Whilst this was going on, a bus arrived and I was convinced that if I could get inside and get in the driving seat I could get us out of this horrific situation. I managed to get into the bus and was elated for a brief moment before realising that this was another trap and the bus then proceeded to crush me to death, closing in to kill me. At the moment when I would have died and the bus was completely crushing me, I woke up.
Wow, what a horrible dream! :(
Ok, so the first part of the dream (on the surface in the camp for children). You are there with your own child (this could be symbolic of your own inner child/you in the past). This may be more important to consider as the dream starts and ends with a setting from your past.
The person you are with is known to be unstable and wounded......so she may or may not represent a threat, or be symbolic of emotional trauma.
The cave (where you realise its a trap)....the basement or generally going 'down' in a dream usually indicates the subconscious or buried aspects of the self.....this is the place where parts of yourself are buried.
What emotions did you feel in this place???? Did those emotions find the nearest 'lightning rod' again?? i.e. programs (in this case 'run for your life').
If it was anxiety, look back at what you wrote about doing the POTS above.....when did you feel the anxiety then?? Was it the same emotions?? Hostile? Cold?
I recognise this being chased by 'something' from myself very well....I've come to understand that I 'run' in dreams when I am avoiding my emotions....it is a program that stops me having to experience the pain of them first hand. A useful psychological defence if you are a child and unable to understand these things at the time.
The emotions that come through at the end (again the violent images strike me as similar to those from when you did the POTS), your (inner) child being violated (ignoring the specific act, the emotions are the important part to extract here).....and the overwhelming sense of powerlessness that goes along with all acts of violation.
And in trying to escape these emotions, you are finally cornered completely by them.....and are destroyed by the crushing weight of them......or at least this is what you perceive to happen.
If you take this and match it to what I saw in your experiences above, I can see an exact parallel.
That is....the unconscious uncovering of burred emotions. The sense that they are 'not you'/a trap! (you could not know this at the time). The fight against 'them'. The crushing from fighting so hard against yourself to bottle them back up (because they are 'not you'/a trap).......it feels like an attack on yourself, because it is an attack on (part) of yourself by (part of) yourself.
I've done this enough times to myself to know that I can make myself extremely ill and even pass out from fighting myself...
That is not to say that there are no spirits or outside elements involved (or inside elements like the predators mind)....but more than likely they keep you scared of this buried part of yourself (your emotions) simply to feed of the never ending internal struggle with self. Free meal to them (they act as other 'lightning rods' to this trapped emotional energy). Perhaps the crushing bus is how your emotions perceive things?
This would be an excellent method of trapping people into turning themselves into a continual source of food....to convince them that there own emotions where the enemy (so they could be fed upon by others).
This is how I perceive these things, but I may just be projecting my own issues here. fwiw