[taryal]

I did not meditate for most of my life until I started about a year ago. I began by doing simple 5 minutes morning meditation and gradually increased the time. As I spent more time, months later, I started experiencing some really strange effects while meditating. The following are some of them:

• One day I was doing NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) meditation. After ~ 15 minutes, my entire physical body started shaking. My heart beat was also really rapid and felt like my entire body was boiling. It was quite scary which is why I couldn’t continue and stopped the mediation session. My body gradually relaxed and went back to normal state. I continue to experience this once a while when I am meditating.
• I hear some kind of ringing sound in my ears. It is not like a bell ringing but it is something that I don’t remember hearing before I started seriously meditating. I googled it and people suspect it could be a condition called “Tinnitus”. But since it started only after I began consistently meditating and on top of that, I sometimes also hear a clearly audible beating sound in my left ear (perhaps heart beat or the blood pumping) which collectively make me think it isn’t that simple. Honestly, my ears have started hurting because of this.
• Nowadays when I start meditating, light keeps flashing in my eyes. Sometimes it makes me think there is someone/some being near me but I hope I’m wrong.

These effects are quite trippy and make me anxious when I try to meditate. I am still trying to understand them. Since there are many meditators here, I would appreciate if someone could share their experience.

[Lal]

Yes. Such effects have been observed by others. 

• The physical body can manifest some effects when the mind undergoes significant changes.
• However, those effects “wear away” on their own. One should not pay much attention to them.
• See “Can Buddhist Meditation be Dangerous?“

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taryal

[Christian]

You should look for meditation teacher, what you experience are actually signs of wrong meditation and practicing that way may cause permanent damage in the body/neurology

[taryal]

Would you mind elaborating why they are wrong? Most of these symptoms occur to me within a few minutes, sometimes even seconds after I begin meditating. My body used to mildly shake many years ago when I went to bed and closed my eyes even when I wasn’t trying to meditate. Having formally meditated seems to have simply intensified what I was already experiencing.

[Christian]

For example if you I drink water to fulfill thirst if you drink too much you may even die from water poisoning, if you drink too small amount you will hurt body too – while most people naturally can drink water without side effects when it comes to meditation is not the case, you doing random things with your mind which governs your body and life function, messing up with with it and randomly “toying” with meditation will hurt you long term. Proper meditation has little or no side effect and only positive results.

[Lal]

I think what Christian is trying to say is the following: 

• In Buddha Dhamma, there are two main types of meditation: Samatha (calming the mind by staying away from immoral deeds and focusing on living a moral life) and Vipassana (contemplate Dhamma concepts like Tilakkhana and Paticca Samuppada and how they help explain the Four Noble Truths). 
• What types of  “meditation” are you doing? For example, you mentioned “NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) meditation.” What is that?
• In the Western world, “meditation” usually means “breath meditation.” That is not a Buddhist meditation. See “Vipassanā – Buddhist Meditation.”

[Christian]

Yes, what I’m talking is anariya meditations which untrained are pretty much dangerous, a lot of them are beneficial but most of them are waste of time and health

[Author]

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