Are you experiencing pressure in your forehead, or any part of your head for that matter?

Is it accompanied by strange sensations such as vibration, buzzing, tingling? Perhaps you have dripping sensations or what feels like insects crawling under your scalp.

Does every single medical test such as CT scans and MRIs come back negative? Does the doctor try to treat you for anxiety? Is the neurologist baffled?

If all those medical tests are coming back negative, it’s probably safe to say that what you’re experiencing is outside the scope of western medical science. Furthermore, this experience is also outside the scope of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in my experience.

Welcome to the world of spiritual awakening, my friend!

Now hold on a sec. It’s not as weird or mystical as it sounds. I see it as a natural growth process, much like how one experiences puberty — and that was just as weird, or perhaps weirder!   But it’s not important that you accept or believe this.

I first experienced this as a dull ache in my forehead in Feburary of 2009, which developed following a long period of intense emotional & energetic work called Self Acceptance Training. A few months later in May,  the energy began to expand and move and take on a more active, dynamic and alive quality. I began to feel the vibrations and tingling and buzzing sensations.

Vibrations, tingling, buzzing, etc.  This all seems to be some kind of energetic happening, and not only that, but it has an electrical quality.

Are you still with me? What, you don’t believe in “energy,” except for those detached, abstract theories in physics class? Well physics will also tell you that everything is made of energy. In fact, E=MC² tells you that matter IS energy. And the biggest reason of all to start believing in energy as a force in your life is the fact that you’re experiencing it now right in the middle of your fucking head. Capiche?

But I digress (necessarily, for all you skeptics).

So what’s going on here? Is there really electricity in your head? Well your whole brain runs on electricity, so that’s definitely the case. But usually you don’t feel the electricity in your brain, so what gives? It feels as if these energetic sensations are happening on the same “level” as your experience of pain, pleasure, emotions, etc; that place which you might call your consciousness or field of awareness.

Is there such a level that’s distinguishable from the physical level? You certainly can’t substantiate an emotion or even a thought in physical space, but it definitely exists. I’m not saying this level is separate from your physical body, just that it has qualities, characteristics and existents that are qualitatively different from that of physical matter.

To put it another way, this energetic occurrence is happening on the level of consciousness, not physical matter (though they’re not separate). Don’t get too hung up on this distinction, because it’s not important. What’s important is to realize that if this dense substance was really inside your head, and your brain was being zapped with an external source of electrical current, you probably wouldn’t be reading this, or anything else ever again, now would you?

So what is this electrical activity that you’re experiencing on the level of your consciousness?  Some insight from A.H. Almaas can help us here:

The chakras work with the energy that is the raw material for emotional states… Prana is the energy connected with breathing and hence with vitality… Kundalini is the main energy that fuels the chakra system. It is connected with sexual energy, but it is sexual energy only when operating in the lower chakras. In the heart chakra it is experienced as love; in the head chakras it is experienced as light. Shakti is the same energy but in a different form, that of power. It is experienced as having more of an electrical quality than kundalini. (Essence, pg 39)

So we see here that Shakti is the same energy as Kundalini, albeit in a different form. That form is described as “power” and has a more electrical quality than Kundalini. Does that clear things up for you?

So Shakti is basically the main energy of the chakra system that appears in the form of power and electricity. The chakras are simply emotional/energetic centers, but that’s not important right now. All that’s important to recognize is that this vibrational, eletrical energy is probably shakti. What else can we learn about Shakti? A simple Google search found some juicy tidbits on this page about our good friend Sri Aurobindo:

In Sanskrit, the term for energy is shakti, the force or active power of the Divine and it signifies the feminine principle. In the Tantric tradition, and according to Sri Aurobindo, Shakti is the Divine Mother, the Consciousness-Force of God. As creator of the worlds, Shakti is manifested in all things, and is at the core of Sri Aurobindo’s teaching of Integral Yoga. The following from Sri Aurobindo’s, The Mother, describes three facets of the Divine Mother:

“The Mother is the divine Conscious-Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme . . .Transcendent, the original supreme Shakti, she stands above the worlds and links the creation to the ever unmanifest mystery of the Supreme. Universal, the cosmic Mahashakti, she creates all these beings and contains and enters, supports and conducts all these million processes and forces. Individual, she embodies the power of these two vaster ways of her existence, makes them living and near to us and mediates between the human personality and the divine Nature”

Whoa! What the fuck is that about? I don’t profess to understand everything or most of what’s being said there, but the last part is of particular interest to me. Shakti “mediates between the human personality and the divine Nature.” What this indicates to me is that the presence of the Shakti in my consciousness is an indication of some kind of process happening between my personality and the Divine (or God or Spirit or Being — whatever you want to call it is fine with me.

(At this point, I think it’s safe to say we’ve lost all the skeptics, so I’ll dispense with justifying everything to them. If you’re still here, congratulations; you get a gold star.

This process can also be called spiritual awakening. Welcome to the next stage of evolution, my friend!

“What Should I Do?”

What should you do? Well, first, start getting used to it. Don’t be afraid. You cannot get rid of it, but that’s OK because it can’t really hurt you and in fact, it will culminate in some pretty awesome stuff. But there are some important practices that you need to embrace. This is where the rubber meets the road.

If you first experienced these sensations in your head, then you’re having a Descending experience and you should bring the energy and presence down into your body. You can do this by feeling your arms and legs, pelvis and feet, at the same time that you’re feeling the pressure and vibrations in your head. You will then probably notice that the energy begins to be present in your body as well, as you begin to experience twitches throughout.

If you first experienced these sensations at the base of your spine, you’re having an Ascending experience, traditionally known as a Kundalini activation. You should then try to move the energy upwards by pointing your eyes upwards, sticking your tongue on the roof of your mouth, and other practices recommended here.

No matter which you’re experiencing, you’re bound to experience a lot of strange energetic and physical phenomena. Practices that help include receiving acupuncture treatment to help your nervous system adjust, yoga to help open any blocked spaces, walking barefoot in the grass to help ground your energy and any kind of physical activity in general.

I also recommend The End of Your World, by Adyashanti, which will help to explain what the hell is going on.

Godspeed, friend.

UPDATE: August 29, 2012 – I recently published some additional advice for one of my readers that wrote in regarding an intense energetic experience they’re having.