Some strange nightly heart trouble ..??

[Korpo]

Hello.

Since this is the part of the forum I am most familiar with, I want to share a spot of trouble I had last night, so maybe you can help me explain it. I found it rather odd.

I was in bed, sleeping, in the middle of the night. I awoke and immediately found me in a strange situation - my heart was racing like wild. It was going really fast. My thoughts began to race, I was beginning to panic, as the thought struck me "Act now or this could become a heart attack", because I remembered something I read about energy work, that concentrating on the spot that was in agitation would only increase agitation. I was assuming I had too much energy in my heart, sending it pounding ever faster.

So before panic could take over and I lose control, I switched consciousness somewhere else, and finally in my feet. The beats began to slow down significantly. I closely monitored them, let them slow down, my panic began to subside, and somewhere I most have drifted off to sleep again.

Now, from my point of view, several things could have happened:

1) I had somehow fallen asleep with a focus on my chest region, or something similar with a relation to inducing too much energy into the chest region. Usually this could happen to me when I was doing sitting work and drifted off, but I didn't do energy work, I just went to sleep. Furthermore I had no physical problem or pain in the aftermath, it just went back to normal.

2) This is somehow related to the heart center, as referred to in RB's books, when he tells about OBE exit phenomena. I even thought about that afterward at that time, but I do not remember any other indication of a vibrational state or something. Just the rapid pounding.

3) It could have been a dream, but it felt vivid and real, I felt wide awake and clear, nothing suggested a dream to me. I even thought about whether I was dreaming this...

While I felt at panic, I felt no pain or other problems. My reaction was rather cool and calculated, and I overcame the panic quickly in order to do what I thought necessary to save my life.

I have as of yet not projected (except two inner projections with astral noise etc. in autumn 2005). I am currently neither trying to project nor doing any MAP practise, just daily Qigong, T'ai Chi and meditation. The only difference is a PM-discussion with Nnonnth that reinvigorated my interest in such matters during the last weeks.

My father died of a heart attack, so I am a bit worried. But he died because of malfunction - a blood vessel was blocked and the heart failed. This here seems to me - if it was physical at all - to be a completely different experience - overexcitement, not malfunction. I have no chest pains or reason to believe I am currently heart-sick, even though I am not the healthiest or healthiest-living person.

The fact that I was able to react so coolly gives me some sense of comfort about this. Especially since it was a controllable situation. I just want to know whether this is something I should worry about, or what it is? Does anyone of you have the slightest idea?

Thanks,
Oliver

[faerylight]

Sounds heart center/chakra related. The fact that it woke you up from sleep sounds like maybe you were having a spontaneous OBE happen or trying to happen. I have been woken up from a sound sleep with serious heart pounding before from Spontaneous OBE activity.

Could be someone or something connecting with your heart center too though and not OBE related. I've had machine gun heart sensations when not on the verge of an OBE before, so, hard to say really, since you didn't have the vibrations that go along with the OBE.

[Korpo]

Thanks, faerylight!

The thing that confuses me is that I don't do circulation exercises or chakra work. So I would not expect to have such occurences. But it is clear that I don't know what happened, so I cannot exclude this possibility, as the energy systems are not separate at all.

Can you describe your sensations in more detail so I can compare with mine? How did you feel? What were your emotions? How did you react?

Thanks,
Oliver

[Nnonnth]

I think you caught yourself about to exit. Best NN

[Korpo]

So vibrations are not necessary? Or was it maybe a reentry?

Bye,
Oliver

[CFTraveler]

Vibrations and heart chakra strobe (which is the rapid-fire pounding feeling) are both exit sensations. They do not always happen together but sometimes do, and when they do, the sensations are powerful. You do not need vibrations to exit, but they are handy signposts for when it's time to try to exit. Heart chakra sensations are also, but you have to try to exit when they are happening, (I like the Rope method when I'm having them, as they seem to complement each other) but if they bother you deep breaths can help stabilize them a bit but do it at the same time as the exit technique. I have had heart chakra strobes so strong that I could see an energy column coming out of my chest and I exited that way. It was one of the most spectacular exits I have had.

If you are not sure it's not cardiac related, get a stress test and check for heart palpitations with your doctor of choice. It never hurts to be safe, and you'll sleep better.

[Tempestinateapot]

faerylight said:
Sounds heart center/chakra related. The fact that it woke you up from sleep sounds like maybe you were having a spontaneous OBE happen or trying to happen. I have been woken up from a sound sleep with serious heart pounding before from Spontaneous OBE activity. Same here. Whether I do energy work that day or not, I wake up an average of once a night with heart chakra exit sensations. Mine feels like a whirrring or like a frisbee spinning very fast in my heart area. Half asleep, I usually grab my wrist to check my pulse to make sure it's not my actual physical heart. Old habits from nursing days die hard. :D Sometimes I can get "out" this way, but more often, when I make an attempt, I just end up clicking out and missing the exit.

I think that even if you haven't been doing regular energy work, just the awareness of your energy body and thinking about the dream connection, obe'ing, maybe affirmations, etc. can wake you up and cause this awareness. 'Cause I sure never had it happen until I discovered energy work. Lots of weird stuff since then, I'm not surprised by anything now.

[Beekeeper]

Tempestinateapot said,


I think that even if you haven't been doing regular energy work, just the awareness of your energy body and thinking about the dream connection, obe'ing, maybe affirmations, etc. can wake you up and cause this awareness. 'Cause I sure never had it happen until I discovered energy work. Lots of weird stuff since then, I'm not surprised by anything now.

I agree with Patty, as usual, but I do remember such experiences as a child. Do you remember ever being so focused on your heart beat that it seemed to go wild? Or was this just me? I seemed to do this quite often, without intention, so that sometimes I would get out of bed and complain about it to my parents. I remember my siblings doing the same. Now I think it was chakra activity.

I had your experience a couple of years ago, Korpo. I knew what it was but still it unnerved me. I too wake up with chakras doing their thing. Qigong is energy work so it stimulates the energy body like NEW.

[Korpo]

Thanks, all of you!

Makes my sleep a bit sounder.

I usually check for the pulse if I have a pounding sensation and not all the time the pulse is doing what I feel. So sometimes it's the heart, and sometimes it is what I call my "Chi pulse". :)

Did not think of this at this time, I rather did go for stabilising it quickly.

With Qigong there can be changes to heartbeat and blood pressure as well, so I monitor it from time to time during practise by feeling my pulse, but since this came out of the blue during sleep...

I will keep an eye open for it, and for physical heart trouble as well, but I wanted your opinions instead of judging it out of hand.

Thanks,
Oliver

[faerylight]

The thing that confuses me is that I don't do circulation exercises or chakra work. So I would not expect to have such occurences. But it is clear that I don't know what happened, so I cannot exclude this possibility, as the energy systems are not separate at all.

Neither did I! LOL, I have been having spontaneous OBE's with strong sensations for long time now. I only started to do energy work, and very little of it, a year ago. So yes, some folks have them without doing any energy work at all. At least they become aware of the strong sensations that can accompany some OBE's. I wonder if folks OBE a lot more than we think, most of the time sleeping through the event. ;)


Can you describe your sensations in more detail so I can compare with mine? How did you feel? What were your emotions? How did you react?

Well, when they first started happening, they scared the ♥♥♥♥ out of me, lol. I didn't know what was going on. Sometimes I would wake up with my heart wanting to jump out of my chest. Sometimes I would get extremely dizzy, like I was spinning out of control and then feel something slamming into my body, my body would actually shudder from that sensation. One night last year, I had actually thought we had an earthquake. I mean, I got up out of bed and turned the news on to see what the heck happened! LOL I think that was the re-entry part. :lol:

Now, since I understand what it is, I simply say "Oh! Looks like it's time to OBE!" :) The heart pounding doesn't bother me one bit anymore, I actually like it, lol. Means my heart center is working. :)

The body vibrations, on the other hand, still give me the willies. Some part of me is scared to separate. The sounds are very loud and the sensations are very strong, reminds me of a current running through my body from my toes to my head - like in those old mad scientist movies where they play with two metal rods with lighting in between them going from the bottom to the top. The sounds and sensations are very similar for me.

CFTraveler is the one to talk to about OBE's though, she is very well informed and very experienced in this department. ;)

[dahrma]

Hi Korpo,

I've also woken up with a racing heart beat and it can be a very scary feeling, untill you figure out what to do/what's causing it.

I think you did the right thing by refocusing your attention elsewhere. Especialy, if it's not a sensaton that you're familiar with, in your OBE experiences. Even if it was an exiting sensation, I don't think anything productive could have come out of it, given that you were already alerted by the sensaton and experiencing some panic and fear. So you did the right thing by calming your heartrate down and relaxing. It could of been so many things, it's just hard to tell.

I'm glad you've been able to get great feedback from the real experienced people here in this forum.

take care~

[Dialgo]

@Korpo. I've woken up before with a similar sensation on a few occasions. Im a long distance runner, and generally I have a resting heart rate of around 48-50...so when I woke up in the middle of the night with it feeling like it was racing way faster than normal like maybe 120 or more bpms I kinda freaked out. The same thing does happen to me sometimes durring meditation, but my it feels more superior to the heart near the top of my chest....which im just guessing is a chakra on overload :P .

[Korpo]

Thanks to all of you, I feel much less bothered by it and will monitor it closely if it happens again, as I have now some things to compare it against.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Oliver

[stargazer]

I totally vibe with Beekeeper saying "I wake up with chakras doing their own thing"
It's like they have their own agenda sometimes.. and sleep seems an excellent time for them to expand and fill?

Your work with qigong is probably providing excellent conditioning to your chakras, Korpo...

I'd speculate that sometimes it's not even an intention or unintentional OBE so much as chakras doing.. whatever it is they're doing when they're kicking full power. :D (i.e. to me, there's more to chakras than OBE though revving at full power seems an easy launch pad to an OBE) There's nothing so surprising and sometimes terrifying about waking up with 3-4 of the major chakras kicking fully... this happened to me after a kundalini reiki energy attunement... I felt like I was immersed in a huge red dense buzzing hot cloud of electrical wires and they were humming, buzzing, vibrating, and pulsating... and I could hear my heart chakra pounding loudly BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! like a huge bass drum. What amazing things we can do with our energy centers ... I thought I was dying, so I stopped the sensations as it was just too dynamic for me to handle while half-asleep and confused.

I think it's a good sign, but keep an eye on your heart health in the meantime, Korpo. What you are experiencing sounds normal, and quite encouraging, actually. I liked Patty's suggestion of cross checking wrist pulse.

[Korpo]

Yes, thank you, stargazer.

I'd never have thought Qigong would trigger the Chakras, simply because the Chinese don't seem to mention it much (or worry?). But then I don't have always sticked with Qigong, and started out with NEW and projection training RB style...

Actually I'm not very worried now, and usually I'm quite a worrier and hypochondriac, but somehow I have the feeling I don't need to bother. Nevertheless I will keep a close eye on it. You never know... ;)