I've found that for the past couple of weeks (about half the time that I've been practicing NSR) my head has been pulling over to my left shoulder. Sometimes this happens as soon as I start meditating. Usually, though, it happens about five minutes in. It feels like an invisible hand is slowly guiding my head over. It's not unpleasant in any way, except that sometimes the stretch can cause a slight soreness that goes away soon, so I'm not complaining, just wondering if anyone else has had this experience.

I tried a little experiment where I intentionally moved my head a little to the right at the beginning of the meditation. Again, my head was pulled over to the left shoulder. This is actually kind of nice because my neck used to pop a lot, and now it doesn't pop nearly as often.

I find that if I try to resist the movement, my neck tenses up and causes feelings of anxiety, so I just let go and let it do whatever it wants. Has anyone else had this happen? I think it's kind of interesting.

mt,

Yes, this is very common. See, for example, http://www.network54.com/Forum/254541/thread/1174918884/. It usually goes away in a few days or weeks, when the stress that causes it finishes releasing.

Maharishi used to joke that a "cosmic chiropractor" was at work.

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA

I have had similar experiences in the early days of my practice, and as you say, they stopped after a while. But today, after nearly 9 months of twice a day meditation it happened again, a little differently. It started with an energy that I felt move up my back and then sort of burst inside my head. It was not frightening, in fact it was sort of pleasant, but quite dramatic. That happened 3 times, each with lessening intensity, then I felt "the cosmic chiropractor" go to work. The muscles in my upper back stiffened and I sat up straight with my head erect. I stayed like this for a short while, which felt somehow beneficial, and then everything slowly relaxed. When I finished coming out of my session I continued to feel a sort of buzzing energy around my neck and shoulders, which diminished over the next ten minutes or so. I guess this is obvious stress release.... can anything else be said?

Anon,

Sensations of energy flowing in the back, neck, head, and other parts of the body can be signs of very good advanced purification of the nervous system. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish between stress release and early signs of higher states of consciousness. With continued practice, our inner landscape becomes known with increasing clarity, until finally all such questions can be answered directly on the basis of one's own experience.

You are accepting whatever happens as good, which is just what you should do. That is the simplicity of our practice.

David Spector
Natural Stress Relief/USA