Headaches, meditation, and Gateway

[summersolstice]

After about 35 years away, I began meditating again several months ago using the Monroe Gateway series. I immediately noticed some physical side effects that were somewhat puzzling. I began getting facial twitches and I started having brief, fairly intense shooting pain in my head.

I figured the twitches were a result of the Hemi Sync sounds since my fingers, hands, arms and legs would, and still do, twitch during the early part of the meditation. The shooting pains would occur frequently throughout the day - like at least once every 30-60 minutes. They were always in the same place - laterally on the upper right side of my head in a narrow band running from back to front and nearly to the eyebrow. The pains lasted only 5-10 seconds and felt like "brain freeze" that you get from ice cream. The head pains and facial twitching lasted about 3-4 weeks and stopped as suddenly as they began. I almost forgot all about them until I read another post about someone having headaches and it jogged my memory.

Has anyone else experienced similar physical sensations? Does anyone have any ideas or theories? I thought that perhaps the sensations were caused by the sudden use of a part of my brain that hasn't received much exercise in the past 35 years, but what do I know?

[CFTraveler]

First of all, did you go to a doctor to find out what the cause of pain could be?

I do know that binaural beats should not be used by people that have certain types of epilepsy, so the muscle twitches have happened to me on occasion (usually with 'relaxation' bbs, not 'deep trance' frequencies), I just attributed it to the strobing nature of bbs and the resulting electrical action of the brain- so it never surprised me.  But I've never had pain from them, so I suggest you get that looked at- it could be an indication that something is physically 'not right', or it could just be nothing- 'using' muscles not usually stimulated, like you originally stated.- but I'd trust a doctor's opinion better than mine.

[summersolstice]

I haven't had the head pain for a couple of months or more, and the facial twitches stopped as well and I haven't really thought anything about them. I will certainly get it looked at if they return.

[zareste]

Interesting. I have noticed when psychics use mind tricks against me like possession and paralysis, I've gotten that brain freeze feeling and ringing in my ears. It has to be something in the mind that causes this.

If hemi-sync can have the same effect, perhaps it can give us some insight into how those psychic tricks work

[owl]

Thats interesting, when I started meditating and started what I call becoming aware a few years ago my right eye lid would twitch uncontrollably. At first I didn't think to much of it but then I started thinking it had something to do with the things I was doing with my mind. The twitching lasted for about a year and then went away so I'm still not sure if it was connected to my mind stuff.

Now I have a new thing thats been happening for quite awhile now. When I am laying in a relaxed position I will get these jolts. Sometimes it is just my arm flying up or one leg jerking. It's like a jolt of electricity and my arm or leg will just jump up. This happened today as I was trying to take a nap but this time it was my whole body.

I don't know if any of this is connected to meditating and the mind stuff but I thought it was interesting that you brought it up.

Also I have never had any pain involved with my experiences.

[summersolstice]

I too get the whole body jolts you describe, and always when I'm in a state of deep relaxation nearing sleep. But then I've always had them for as long as I can remember. I sometimes get the arm and leg jolts as well during meditation. They're not frequent but always unexpected.

[owl]

Maybe this jolting is a common thing that happens to a lot of people. I just haven't heard anybody talk about it though. CFTraveler would probably know if it is common for people who meditate and practice obe stuff and such. Do you remember if you had these twitches and jolts before you started meditating years back?

For me these things seemed to start after I started using my mind in different ways.

[CFTraveler]

My answer would be- the whole body twitch sounds a lot like the 'myoclonic jerk' which happens to pretty much everyone at one time or another, when they're going to sleep.
Twitches also happen to everyone, but when you're stressed they're supposed to happen more.  (Because the attention increases the stress, and the stress increases the twitches, a vicious circle).

So when you do meditation and projection practice, what you're doing is increasing awareness in general, and awareness of going to sleep (aka trance work) in particular- so that things that sometimes (or often) went unnoticed are now apparent, or obvious- and you pay attention to them.
So it seems like the 'hypnic jerks' happen more often (it's not more often, you're just awake when they happen), and the twitching becomes more annoying, and possibly more often.
So that's what I think.