Extreme pressure in "third eye" region

[Stillwater]

I will preface this with a sort of disclaimor, as I have done in the past with matters relating to chakras.

I am agnostic with respect to the metaphysical concept of the chakra system; chakras "are" something... I have felt them all very powerfully, but I feel I don't have enough information, and probably never will, to make an accurate theory as to what they truly are and what their place in the grand scheme of things are. Maybe there are merely sensitive nerve ganglia, or perhaps they truly are the energy vortexs contemporary metaphysicians talk about... I can't say I can make up my mind about that matter without it merely being a belief though.

With that out of the way, the crux:

For the last couple years of projection practice, simarly to what was happening when I first began about a decade back, I seem to get this extremely accute pressure in the third eye region, more-or-less spontaneously. To describe what the sensation is like... I suppose you could imagine taking a chopstick, and pressing the tip of it directly into the middle of your forehead, with a fairly large amount of pressure behind it. The sensation comes to a point in a very small region, with very great intensity. At its height, it is a kind of searing pain that is challenging to endure, especially without moving during a projection attempt... in fact it can be one of the most intense pains I have ever felt... it almost feels like a test, sometimes... often I can get by, but other times I must put a tiny amount of tension in my cheek muscles, which instantly relieves it, but brings me a bit further away from a projection state.

I was curious to see if any other projectors have experienced this situation...

[Fourthdimension]

I dont know if this is the same pressure you mention but when i get vibrations they are accompanied by a ringing in my ears and as the vibrations make their way up my body the ringing invreases in pitch and volume along with a pressure in my 3rd eye and crown charka and this keeps going till it reaches its peak and leads to me phasing

[Pauli2]

Well, I haven't managed to OBE consciously at, so maybe this isn't
of much help.

But over many years sometimes I have had headache or ache in the
back of my lower neck. Anyway, at one session when I tried to ask
some questions I actually got an answer in my mind.

I asked if it was possible for me at all to develop an ability to OBE
and I got a fuzzy answer that yes, it was possible but it would hurt,
and would I accept the pain.

I answered yes, of course. An the next month, at all sessions, and also
during daytime I got a severe head ache.

The pain during sessions was at the back of my head, at the opposite side
of where you have the middle of your eye brows (third eye chakra?).

The pain was so severe, that I eventually asked if it could be reduced,
and it was worst during sessions. I have had much worse physical pain
at other times in life, but this head ache was so prolonged that I couldn't
stand it. The worst pain was located to an area at the back of my skull,
the size of a thumbprint. I also got pain in the sides of my neck, which
sometimes got worse if I had been in a cold room.

Today things are better as several months has passed, but so far still
no OBE. Perhaps I'm too unskilled at this..?

The pain at the back of my skull was at the surface of my head, and
to some part it felt like a pressure or painful muscle contractration.

If had had similar pressures at the crown of my head, slightly to the left
side of my skull, over an elongated stretch, but that pressure hasn't
really hurt, and has only been felt for shorter times during sessions
(10-20 minutes only).

[rezaf]

On Chinese qigong forums I have seen many people who have this problem and usually it's because they haven't been taught correctly and that they practice things that their bodies are not ready for. This is why in qigong there is a lot of emphasis on opening up the meridians and circulating the energy before starting more serious stuff so that it doesn't get stuck somewhere. You need to move the energy down.

[Stillwater]

I have read the concepts of many other energy theories, but I am unversed in the ideas of qigong- what do you mean when you say "opening up the meridians"?

The Hindu Prana yoga practitioners speak about the importance of grounding energy in the base chakra as a resevoir; is this a similar concept?

[rezaf]

There are many different exercises and sets for this in qigong but yes the concept is to move the energy from the lower dantian all over your body and then bringing it back to lower dantian. After a few years of this your meridians will get open and you will sense the energy flowing in them all the time. Actually this circulation happens this way for everyone but for normal people the meridians are not that open and it's fine because there is less amount of energy moving in them. However people who practice advanced stuff in martial arts or meditation need to move more energy and if they haven't opened up the whole system it wouldn't be easy for their bodies to ground the energy.

[Stillwater]

Yeah... I have experienced some pretty dramatic sensations like that... all 7 major centers pulsating and strobing away like mad... until I begin to focus on them individually, and then the sensations take seat in one of them at a time, as I go down the line.

I don't believe in the chakras as such per se, as I have noted, but I do find the sensations inescapable regardless, and I find that using and centering the sensations in various centers has been a useful meditation tool over the years.

[rezaf]

I am not familiar with the indian energy systems but in the meridian circulation we move the energy all over the body in the regular and extraordinary meridians but I guess the most important part of the circulation is the ren and du meridians which make a circle around the spine, the head, face, the front part of the chest and the abdomen. There is also another set which focuses on the three dantians and the area between them(7 in total) individually. I believe these 7 regions are similar to the chakras and after finishing this set it is important to do the ren-du circulation to ground the energy.

[Fourthdimension]

rezaf have you got any links regarding exercises and information on this system. I would be vgreatly interested thanks

[rezaf]

There is very little information about the serious type of qigong on the internet in English(even in Chinese) and you need to find a good instructor. Usually good instructors of internal martial arts like taijiquan, xinyi and bagua know qigong very well and can teach you their system. The meridian circulation that I talked about is called the large heavenly circle and the ren-du circulation is called the small heavenly circle. Usually it is said that you should first open the small one and then the large one but the way I was taught was a little bit different. We did lots of preparatory exercises before practicing the circulation and it was all mixed with our martial arts training. Also you need to learn the position of the acupuncture points as well as the path of all the meridians.

[Stillwater]

Nin shi zhong guo ren, rezaf? 

I think I met such a dude once... back when I took martial arts classes in university, they used to have sessions where people whom I can only describe as living artifacts with various unlikely talents would be placed in front of us. This one venerable-looking chinese elder came to speak about Shaolin techniques... he told us he could stop a person's thoughts for 20 seconds, and accepted volunteers. Enterprising thing I am, I took, and after he flicked me on the temple, about a second later I came to, with everyone around me in a new position, lol. I am not sure if it was an energetic technique or a pressure-point based one, but it was effective regardless.

[Fourthdimension]

thank you rezaf. so there is no where to learn the theories? how about books wrote on the subject would you consider the majority good or bad and is there any books you would recomend on the topic?

[Stillwater]

A lot of them are super hands on, and thus only get passed in a master-to-pupil passage... another factor is that many of the masters consider the ideas potentially dangerous, and so not releasing the concepts allows the masters to control who has access.

You would also be surprised how much knowledge there is in places like deep-rural china that don't feel the need to communicate their knowledge in a western publishing fashion... again, partly because they are not so interested in mass propogation, and partly because they care who knows it.

[Contenteo]

I agree strongly with your last statement Still.

I was curious to see if any other projectors have experienced this situation...

I haven't had that happen to me... ...yet.

I have only been at this for about 20 months now though, non-stop, but regardless, only 20 months.

Cheers,
Contenteo

[rezaf]

thank you rezaf. so there is no where to learn the theories? how about books wrote on the subject would you consider the majority good or bad and is there any books you would recomend on the topic?

I haven't really seen many good books but maybe it's because I haven't looked for it. However there are some good books about the TCM theory, Zhouyi etc which are all related to qigong but the ones I know are in Chinese. As Stillwater said Chinese people are extremely secretive about these arts and many would rather die with their knowledge than teach it to strangers but searching for internal martial arts masters might be a good realistic start as a great deal of daoist meditations has been passed on in martial arts circles. Even if you find a good teacher, often you need to become an official disciple and learn from them for a few years until they trust you. 
Anyway here is the link of an interesting qigong course in English: http://www.docin.com/p-225980441.html

Nin shi zhong guo ren, rezaf? 

No but I live in China.

[Stookie_]

I had problems with "third eye" pressure and headaches related to meditation on and off for 3-4 years. It was when I started doing energy work and "balancing" that I fixed it (I would basically cycle the energy and bring it down into my sub-naval storage center/dan tien). The way I interpret it is I've had an overactive brow and crown chakra (and I still do, though I keep myself balanced).

[Stillwater]

Same... my brow buzzes like a 30 year-old fridge... probably not balanced.

It couldn't hurt to try some of the energy exercises again before projection sessions.

[Lionheart]

 I have had the same buzzing 3rd eye problem and fixed it by taking my physical hand afterwards to my 3rd eye region and focusing on physically removing it with my fingers. For some reason this works great, I do the same thing with pain quite a bit as well.

[Xanth]

I was curious to see if any other projectors have experienced this situation...

Almost on a constant basis.  And when it's not there, all I need to do is focus for a second to begin feeling it.
For example... simply reading your initial post was enough to trigger the sensation.

[Lionheart]

For example... simply reading your initial post was enough to trigger the sensation.

So true, lol. I felt it too! 

[Stookie_]

My problem is it would do it during meditation whether I focused on it or not. And it wasn't just a slight buzzing, it would be a pressure that felt like my head could explode any moment. Very uncomfortable. After I started doing energy work I never had to deal with it again.

[Stillwater]

must... not... post.... gross... "Scanners" clip....

My problem is it would do it during meditation whether I focused on it or not. And it wasn't just a slight buzzing, it would be a pressure that felt like my head could explode any moment.

[Colin1710]

I'm currently working on my third eye , and am learning how to increase and decrease the pressure in the brow area at will using breathing and it works for me anyway apparently just a tangible slight vibration or denseness is needed to fully reveal the third eye yet upon awakening its common to have heavy vibrations there , I highly recommend this audio CD for anyone who wants to master usage of third eye

Portal to Inner Worlds

http://www.clairvision.org/books/mpiw/meditation-portal-to-inner-worlds.html (that's just one link I found it on but but I'm sure you ll find it anywhere else if you look)

Two talks give you all the practical information you need to get started. Two guided meditations feature Samuel Sagan's extraordinary music, designed to engage clear and tangible sensations in the third eye and enable you to experience high states of consciousness.

Samuel also has lots of book one of which is "awakening third eye"

His guided meditations and practical talks are very informative and progressive I speak very highly about it for anyone who is ready to maximise its usage get it,

One other note I want to add is this , I seem to be revealing and learning to use my  my third eye to my satisfaction , although I haven't needed to roll my eyes up and inwards like other books and teachers suggest infact only awareness in the brow area was necessary for me , the physical eyes as far as I'm concerned should just be relaxed