Jim…I love it!!! 
Still laughing
May all your Nows be Here
Hello Alvin,
many of my experiences parallel those of other people here.
I might have some concrete things for you. My first experience with mantra yoga produced profound changes immediately, but many of them were of the type that you are not so interested in hearing right now. Apart from being easier to get along with and more compassionate, and less disturbed by disturbances, I’ll mention another that has not been mentioned yet exactly — a profound increase in clarity of mind.
Down to the ‘concrete’ stuff. I’ve always been a ‘strong’ meditator. I gained a lot, but made a number of mistakes too — I may have considerably over-meditated for example for quite a number of years. (Self-pacing not in order.) If I had the benefit of a site such as this, that would not have happened. I moved into a sort of premature peak in my meditation experience a number of years ago.
There was one time when I felt myself moving into an extremely deep inner silence. I felt as if I did not need to breath at all, the slowing down of breath was so profound. I decided to time, for the record, my ability to hold my breath. I took a number of deep breaths, then meditated with held breath. I held my breath four four minutes without much effort. The important thing is ‘without much effort’. I was not straining. I was calm all the way through, and there was no gasping at the end.
Now, if I remember correctly, this would have beaten a ‘world record’ in around 1900 for staying underwater. (Of course many Yogis have done better than this well before 1900, but they weren’t recorded in ‘world records’.)
This was some sort of peak/transition. Because of the plot of Wilder, in which Wilder finds the ability to run extremely fast, it’s not hard to guess that Yogani has experienced some other externally convincing events. Maybe you should direct the question at him?
Go on, tell us Yogani. We’ve been good with our lessons all season, and we know that peak experiences are not the goal of Yoga. But tell us a personal story if you can. 
This sounds interesting. So you did that in between your meditation (like once you are deep) or did it by holding breath at the beginning of a session? Were you able to repeat this?
I did it by meditating with a held breath.
For a few days I was like this and could repeat it. Then the phenomenon faded away.
My breath is still very shallow during meditation, but never anything like it was for that brief period.
That doesn’t happen to me. Instead, if I don’t have any evidence for something I believe in, I’ll have headache. That’s called blind faith. Direct experience is of course a kind of evidence, so I’m not saying that yours is blind faith. Only that if you don’t have convincing objective evidence, you are more likely to attract only those who tends to have blind faith. (As I have said before, I’m not aware of any famous scientists practising meditation and yoga.) And I have to say I do have some personal experience. But we can always talk about more “concrete” evidences. They can really do something more than your personal experience. Agree? You keep talking about your personal experience which is rather vague in nature. Not that anyone can deny that. And they’re certainly the most important thing you need. Just that we are not talking about the same thing: you are talking about the core of the journey, it’s yours and only yours; and I am talking about the footprints (if any) which are not important, but show us the path and anyone can see them.
This part is wrong. Many scriptures, the great yogis, are claiming it. Only that we have so many interpretations for them to save their false (or at least exaggerated) claims.
David, it’s interesting. And it’s concete too. Did you hold your breath by closing the epiglottis? Or did you just stop the movement of your lung? They may be different, since by closing the epiglottis you can be sure you were using that one single breath throughout.
Do you mean you are not able to do it gradually? Or you just don’t do it?
I also remember you said you notice your breath to determine how much rest you need after meditation. For me it’s diffficult since noticing it will automatically bring some conscious control to it.
What about the Kechari and/or energy stuffs which I asked in another thread, if you remember? And if you are less busy now?
A yoga teacher of mine (the one who can do Kechari stage 3 without any snipping-- I’ve confirmed that he didn’t cut with his teeth) said that practising Kechari will bring some peculiar and potentially dangerous results, like stopping of heart beat. But I can’t quite believe in that. Many of you here are practising kechari, but anyone experience a stopping of heart beat?
I haven’t had my heart stop beating that I’m aware of, just some breath stoppage when in deep meditation. I think my pulse probably slows. From what I understand absorbtion in samadhi is liable to bring on a “suspended animation” whereupon the heart will need not beat due to the open-ended flow of Prana sustaining the organism. Anyone?
I have never experienced any heartbeat irregularities. Doing kechari does seem to channel my breath in a different way as if it takes a more “internal” path but I have not experienced any breath or heart stoppage from kechari so far
Alvin,
I did hold the epiglottis closed.
What I meant was the effect of the extreme depth diminished over the days, and eventually I was no longer able to produce these results.
I have never (yet) had considerable sessation of heartbeat. I expect that if I cross further boundaries, my heartbeat will start to slow down too.
-D
David wrote:
As the ability to hold breath for very long is a sign of slow metabolism and deep rest, it seems to mean that you’re not having your meditation as deep as those days. How can that be? Is this because of your intensive meditation those days?
The ability to hold breath for 5 minutes or so is rather common for adepts in India. The book Hatha Yoga written by Theos Bernard (published in 1968)contains a description of the experiences of the author, who was a American scholar in the subject. The books is a rather objective and honest record as i see it. After a few years of training, the author can hold his breath for 5 minutes (though he usually hold it only for 3 mins).
By the way, that book is probably the first (1968!!) book in English to contain instructions on snipping/milking of the frenum.
You can hold your breath for five minutes just by practicing. I used to hold mine almost that much because we had a swimming test where we had to swim the length of the pool underwater, so i practiced holding my breath.
I think i was up to four minutes when it was enough for the test.
In you case, Ether, is this done by extending it gradually with at least some strain? Still, i’ve to say you’re rather talent on that to be able to hold it for 4 mins by training: I don’t think many people can be trained to hold that long.
Ether, that’s amazing. I think my record was 35 or maybe 40 meters. I think that I could do 25 today, but I have not tried for 15-20 years.
Alvin said:
As the ability to hold breath for very long is a sign of slow metabolism and deep rest, it seems to mean that you’re not having your meditation as deep as those days. How can that be? Is this because of your intensive meditation those days?
Yes, this kind of phenomenon is worth mentioning.
For a time after a positive transition into Inner Silence ( and/or/= the removal of a blockage ) some active ‘karmas’ become temporarily dormant and the mind/body often goes into a temporary state of extra-high consciousness. The karmas start to act again and there is a descent from that peak. The effect is like temporarily (in some aspects of yourself) going up ten steps and then down eight. You are left having gone up two, but have a nice preview of what is to come.
‘Up and down’ are indeed maybe not the best way of looking at it – Another way of looking at it is the window becomes temporarily extraordinarily clean, then begins to get clouded again. Like looking through a car windscreen which is being wiped by windscreen-wipers in a rainstorm, but in slow motion.
In short, it wasn’t that my meditation practice weakened, but rather that I was enjoying a very temporary advance.
Hey Near,
Tell us some interesting experiences that you have had
-Shanti.
Alvin wrote:
“In you case, Ether, is this done by extending it gradually with at least some strain? Still, i’ve to say you’re rather talent on that to be able to hold it for 4 mins by training: I don’t think many people can be trained to hold that long.”
Yes, I can’t recommend my method because it might be bad for you, but what I did was hyperventilate first, then lie down and watch the clock while relaxing as much as possible. I could increase the time by maybe 10 seconds every day. At the end my body would start that automatic convulsing, trying to breathe. So I would try to stand that as long as I could also. It really came in handy a couple times when I got caught under turbulent water while trying to body surf huge storm waves.
Lavazza, our pool was no longer than 40 meters. It’s just that you have to hold your breath for much longer lying still than when you’re swimming because energy uses up the breath. I didn’t mean I could swim for four minutes under water! You can usually do about half if you really swim with minimal energy.
David wrote:
The “up and down” fluctuations is understandable. It is common in other physical endeavors too. But when did you experience that? I don’t think it’s common to a temporary advance of, say, 2 years!
Ether wrote:
Amazing!! But even if you or anyone recommend it to me, I won’t try. I am worrying about any risk of damaging my brain. With appropriate preparation, I can hold for about 2 mins. But I didn’t do it for a year, and I didn’t aim for longer. By the way, you progress is considered to be VERY fast. Even 10 sec per week is rather good already.
The scriptures mentioned that when one can hold the breath for a few hours, something extraordinary could happen. Considering the fact that no one on earth can show this in public, I find the claims rather difficult to believe.
2.15 without hyperventaling at my first try here behind the computer after lunch. Not a nice experience, but curiosity got the better of me.
The world record in underwater swimming on one breath is 164 meters. The world record in underwater breath retention is a bit mor than 7 minutes.
Alvin wrote:
“The scriptures mentioned that when one can hold the breath for a few hours, something extraordinary could happen.”
Yes, you get to see God in person. Oh, did I mention you won’t come back?
just joking, I’m sure Babaji can do that, but it’s like all those other accounts of stuff that happens much later. Doesn’t mean anything from where we are at now.
Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement