Middle Pillar Practice

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chowderpope
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Middle Pillar Practice

Post by chowderpope »

I finally got around to working with the middle pillar practice as taught by Israel Regardie in his short book The Art of True Healing.

I have been practicing it a few times now and have gotten some remarkable results. I am getting very noticeable physical sensations such as vibration. The vibration has been happening in my hands, arms and face. I believe this is mostly due to rhythmic breathing, and not necessarily the intonations or visualizations of the ritual. The longer I breathe rhythmically, the more intense and widespread these vibrations become. Regardie said this is your body resonating sympathetically with your breathing, and that makes sense to me.

This last time I performed the ritual, I could feel a sensation crawling down my body as I worked through the intonation. I feel that I have worked out an effective way of doing the Middle Pillar based on Regardie's teaching. I may write a short, easy how-to to explain the exercise to everyday people.

Is anyone experienced with this ritual? If so do my findings align with yours? Just curious what others have to say about this interesting meditation.
Awake from sleep! Remember you're the son of a Great King, see to whom you're enslaved!

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Rin
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Re: Middle Pillar Practice

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I don't know if I would say I'm "experienced" with it, but I practiced it for a few months and it yielded extremely powerful results. Enough that, as always when the subject comes up, I would recommend being careful with this practice, especially if you don't have any pre-existing experience with "energy work" type practices. Slow and steady and all that.

I wouldn't underestimate the effect the visualization and the vibration of God-Names at various centers has, but the sensations will generally occur in correspondence with the rhythmic breathing because the breath is one of the main drivers of the circulation of energy through the body.

You could consider each of these factors as a kind of ingredient or step in a formula, it's the combination of these factors which creates the ritual in it's totality - rhythmic breathing calms the mind to tune into the flow of energy and increases the intake of energy, visualization draws further energy into the body and directs it in a specific manner and vibration activates the energy at certain locations and sets the "tone" for the energy, further rhythmic breathing will continue the circulation of the energy, etc etc.
"The path of the Sage is called
'The Path of Illumination'
he who gives himself to this path
is like a block of wood
that gives itself to the chisel-
cut by cut it is honed to perfection"

- DDJ, Verse 27

"It's still magic even if you know how it's done." - Terry Pratchett

kt_weil
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Re: Middle Pillar Practice

Post by kt_weil »

Would you please explain signs of progress while working on the MP ?
also what does it mean when they say feeling the energy ? How the energy feeling look like ?

Sometimes while working on the MP I feel the need to cry and I feel sad for no apparent reason ! Please explain why if you know .

Thank you

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Rin
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Re: Middle Pillar Practice

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kt_weil wrote:Would you please explain signs of progress while working on the MP ?
also what does it mean when they say feeling the energy ? How the energy feeling look like ?
It's hard to explain the exact sensation of vital energy, just as it's hard to explain the sensation of water. Qi feels like Qi, and water feels like water, you know? :p

That said, generally it starts out with sensations of heat and pressure in the body - although the heat is often not a direct sensation of the energy and just an effect of increased blood flow or nervous system stimulation.

There are often magnetic-type "strobing" sensations, vibrating "buzzing" feelings (sometimes accompanied by physical vibration or spontaneous movement), etc etc. Ultimately none of these are the sensation of the energy itself, just the effects it has on the body and then your mind's attempt to convey a non-physical phenomenon through relating it to physical experiences.

Signs of progress would be - increasing ability to sense the energy within your body and without it, increasing ability to distinguish between different types of energy, moving away from the "physical symptoms" and towards direct perception of the energy, increased vitality and health, increased ability to enter altered states of consciousness, psychic experiences or abilities, etc.

For more detailed information on this (as well as advice on practical applications for the energy cultivated by the Middle Pillar) check out Israel Regardie's work on the subject.
Sometimes while working on the MP I feel the need to cry and I feel sad for no apparent reason ! Please explain why if you know .

Thank you
It's likely that you're experiencing emotional release. This is extremely common in "energy work" practices, although it gets relatively little attention when they're being discussed.

Without going deep into either metaphysics or psychology, the tldr version is that when you have intense or painful emotional experiences, you frequently repress them to some degree to prevent feeling the full brunt of the emotions. This is done by (subconsciously) creating tension in the layer of the energy body which is responsible for emotions, preventing the energy from flowing smoothly. Eventually these areas of tension manifest as blockages - like areas of a plumbing system where something has become trapped, causing the pipes to rust, other, smaller particles to build up and the flow of water to stagnate.

When you practice meditation, especially meditations which work directly with vital energy like the Middle Pillar, you basically pump up the pressure in the channels and centers through which this energy flows. And, just as would happen if you pumped up the water pressure sufficiently in the above example of the plumbing system, this has the effect of knocking loose any blockages or stagnations which have developed. Repressed emotions and the stagnant energy which accompanies them are knocked loose and flow through your system freely for a while, until they're fully experienced, at which point the energy is "metabolized," (for lack of a better word).

This is a perfectly natural process, and one which everyone practicing these arts goes through. If the emotions aren't too intense and don't interfere with your day to day functioning, then just ride it out - don't obsess over the emotions, but don't try to ignore them either, just accept them, experience them as part of your reality, and let them flow through you (mindfulness techniques can be of enormous benefit here).

With time, you'll work the tensions and blockages out of your system and your emotions will fluctuate less with your practice (as a quick tip, physical exercise speeds up the "flushing" of these stagnant energies greatly - try adding a physical workout of some kind after your practice and you'll find that the speed at which you process these emotional releases increases dramatically).

If the symptoms keep increasing over time, or become severe enough to cause problems in your day to day life, the best thing you can do is consult a practitioner of a traditional healing modality like Ayurveda or Chinese Medicine. Any practitioner worth the name should be able to guide you through the process and prescribe herbs and other treatments to make it more tolerable.

Good luck.
"The path of the Sage is called
'The Path of Illumination'
he who gives himself to this path
is like a block of wood
that gives itself to the chisel-
cut by cut it is honed to perfection"

- DDJ, Verse 27

"It's still magic even if you know how it's done." - Terry Pratchett

kt_weil
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Re: Middle Pillar Practice

Post by kt_weil »

Rin this is Impressive and I do appreciate your advice and giving me time to write this reply.
my respect and appreciation. Have a good day.

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Rin
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Re: Middle Pillar Practice

Post by Rin »

No problem :) I'm glad you found it helpful.
"The path of the Sage is called
'The Path of Illumination'
he who gives himself to this path
is like a block of wood
that gives itself to the chisel-
cut by cut it is honed to perfection"

- DDJ, Verse 27

"It's still magic even if you know how it's done." - Terry Pratchett

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Gate
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Re: Middle Pillar Practice

Post by Gate »

chowderpope wrote: I may write a short, easy how-to to explain the exercise to everyday people.
Please do! I know nothing about it and I'd love to understand. Rin's responses have intrigued me.

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chowderpope
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Re: Middle Pillar Practice

Post by chowderpope »

Since I got into the MP practice, I realized a lot of correlations with the ancient Chinese traditions of Qigong as Rin has referred to in his previous post. I believe that the MP was designed after some Qigong ritual.

MP is a way to quickly circulate vital energy throughout the center channel of your body. There are other avenues in your body through which this energy flows, however, if you can circulate it effectively in the center channel, it will disperse properly to the other channels.

As a prerequisite to practicing MP, Regardie suggests going through regressive therapy to deal with any old negative emotional blockages that may be burdening you. I have found on youtube a powerful guided meditation to help with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiPDV9L5qpQ


There are many other emotion clearing meditations on youtube as well. This is a good way to clean house before you start moving energy around.

I would also recommend learning about and practicing Qigong if you are interested in healing yourself through energy work. This is China's ancient healing magick.

Peace!
Awake from sleep! Remember you're the son of a Great King, see to whom you're enslaved!

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