Loss of sense of size of my body

[paradox]

I have been practicing meditation for a few months and one of my first few times meditating I started to feel the strangest and most interesting sensation I'd ever felt. I experienced an overwhelming sensation that my body was becoming very large and very small and everything in between in a fluctuating type pattern. I felt as though I were looking into an abyss as well. the sensation lasted a while and was very pleasurable to me.

I'm not quite sure but i think this may be what some might call an out of body experience of sorts as I was loosing my grasp on the reality of the size of my body.

then just the other day it happened during my regular meditation I grabbed hold of the feeling and rode it for quite some time.

has anyone else experienced this?

Is there any way that I can make this experience something more than a spontaneous occurrence? can i induce this state regularly though practice and how?

[Michael David]

Originally Posted by paradox

I have been practicing meditation for a few months and one of my first few times meditating I started to feel the strangest and most interesting sensation I'd ever felt. I experienced an overwhelming sensation that my body was becoming very large and very small and everything in between in a fluctuating type pattern. I felt as though I were looking into an abyss as well. the sensation lasted a while and was very pleasurable to me.

I'm not quite sure but i think this may be what some might call an out of body experience of sorts as I was loosing my grasp on the reality of the size of my body.

then just the other day it happened during my regular meditation I grabbed hold of the feeling and rode it for quite some time.

has anyone else experienced this?

Is there any way that I can make this experience something more than a spontaneous occurrence? can i induce this state regularly though practice and how?

Hi paradox

Welcome to the forum. The expansion of the sense of size, or looking into an abyss as well as a number of other interesting and pleasurable experiences do arise during meditation. I have enjoyed these experiences also. However, most of the instructions for meditation suggest that these experiences are not the goal of meditation. They seem although enjoyable to be detours. Although they do give some feedback that we are at least on the path.

To answer your question. You might try during meditation or while sitting at your desk the following:

Imagine you are in a helicopter hovering over your home. Look down from the helicopter and "see" the roof of your home and then looking through the roof see yourself sitting there. You would have a bird's eye view and see the top of your head and the tops of your shoulders etc. Take at least a few breaths at each stage of this meditation. It may help to recall how things on the ground appeared to you when you looked down from an airplane or a tall building. Allow the sense of being in the helicopter to continue rising until you can see the entire street that you live on with yourself still sitting in the middle of that view. Continue to go up higher in the helicopter and looking down see the entire city view, then the state then the country then the earth then the solar system.

You can go the other way (small) by looking up at the helicopter as it goes up. When a plane is flying overhead imagine how you would look from the perspective of people looking out of the windows of the plane. And picture how tiny the people in the plane would look from your view looking up.

With practice you may be able to just imagine/think/feel the sense of large or small.

I would be curious to know what your experience of this is.

Michael