Underwater meditation?

Has anyone ever tried this?

I have been experimenting with it a little and I think there is potential. I will go into the fetal position for a while and just float in the water for a bit, first my ears pop, there is a crackling sound and then it starts to get light.

No, but diving and floatation-tanks do it too.

I'm afraid I would drown if I tried this Interesting thought though. Especially since we spend the first nine months of our development in amniotic fluid. Maybe there is something to this.

When I was a little kid I always enjoyed emptying my lungs and going underwater so that I could sink to the bottom of the pool without any effort. Once I reached the bottom I sat in lotus position (without even knowing that it was lotus position) and just enjoyed the feeling of basically having no feeling.
It really made me feel great.

I remember that I was always amazed as to how I could stay underwater for so long without having any air. And when I had air I couldn't even stay half of the time.

Its definitely worth trying to meditate underwater.
I wish I had access to a private pool so that I could do this again.

You might find this interesting (mammalian Dive Reflex ):

en.wikipedia.org...

I remember doing a lab experiment in one of my physiology courses in college. This must be a throwback to our aquatic ancestry.

Upon initiation of the reflex, three changes happen to the body, in this order:

1. Bradycardia is the first response to submersion. Immediately upon facial contact with cold water, the human heart rate slows down ten to twenty-five percent.[2] Seals experience changes that are even more dramatic, going from about 125 beats per minute to as low as 10 on an extended dive.[1][3] Slowing the heart rate lessens the need for bloodstream oxygen, leaving more to be used by other organs.
2. Next, peripheral vasoconstriction sets in. When under high pressure induced by deep diving, capillaries in the extremities start closing off, stopping blood circulation to those areas. Note that vasoconstriction usually applies to arterioles, but in this case is completely an effect of the capillaries. Toes and fingers close off first, then hands and feet, and ultimately arms and legs stop allowing blood circulation, leaving more blood for use by the heart and brain. Human musculature accounts for only 12% of the body's total oxygen storage, and the body's muscles tend to suffer cramping during this phase. Aquatic mammals have as much as 25 to 30% of their oxygen storage in muscle, and thus they can keep working long after capillary blood supply is stopped.
3. Finally is the blood shift that occurs only during very deep dives. When this happens, organ and circulatory walls allow plasma/water to pass freely throughout the thoracic cavity, so its pressure stays constant and the organs aren't crushed. In this stage, the lungs' alveoli fill up with blood plasma, which is reabsorbed when the animal leaves the pressurized environment. This stage of the diving reflex has been observed in humans (such as world champion freediver Martin Štěpánek) during extremely deep (over 90 metres) freedives.

reply to post by Aggie Man


Me Too!

Thats why I only do it for 2 minutes max. It gets pretty intense after a minute, but it also gets easier to hold your breathe. Thats when I usually break out of it, cause I am afraid I might go to far.

So you can go as long as the mind does not come into play? Ok, sounds like a good way to leave your body, if you are in deep meditation underwater you may just die to the body but become enlightened to the awareness of death.

I do it all the time when swimming, not in full meditation, I just enjoy the relaxing feeling laying or sitting at the bottom of the pool.

Your stimulus to breathe is primarily caused by CO2 build up. Lack of O2 is a secondary stimulus. Therefore, you can continually hold your breath longer by small exhales relieving the CO2 build up. It will take a lot longer to deplete your O2 reserve and have an even stronger urge to inhale.

Freedivers intentionally hyperventilate themselves prior to a dive. That is successive thrusting exhales followed by deep breaths and then a dive. In this way, they purge much of the CO2 and they can hold their breath longer!

(SCUBA class paid off!)

Deep breathing meditations should fit nicely into an underwater meditation. I am not a very good meditator, but I have a pool, so I will give it a try!

reply to post by 12.21.12


I have done it many times, and it does work.

Shutting out all other forms of input except the vibration of the surrounding water is soothing to say the least.

You would be surprised as well what you can "see" when you do this if you focus on a current event.

I did this once and focused on an ongoing investigation the details of which I will not speak further on.

What I do is build up on my energy. First I will go for 30 seconds come up for ten, go back for about 45 seconds, come back up for ten and so on. It gets builds as you go. The initial ear popping happens around the one minut mark, but it only happens once. After that it will start to get light, at that time it gets easier to hold your breath and it is sort of a euphoric state. I endure that for about thirty seconds, but so far have not gone past that point. I would be more comfortable with a spotter I guess.

I got a 3 1/2 pool so I can practice whenever I want.

I would like to warn the OP and readers for Shallow Water Blackout

en.wikipedia.org...

As a professional diver and free diver I have seen and experienced black outs under controlled circumstances. Most of the time you cannot feel the black out coming so I strongly reconment never to do these meditation experiments ALONE: make shure your buddy knows what to do when you loose consiousnes.
People drown every year in just a few feet of water!

reply to post by ahamarlin


Thanks, I agree. Proceed with caution.

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


There was one thing that struck me as odd during my expirimentation.

After finishing an excercise I saw an airplane flying directly above me. Then I went back in and was under for a minute and a half or 2 and resurfaced and saw the same model of plane, same flight path and everything, it was like Deja Vu.

It was probably a different plane. But I thought it was strange. Because I actually was interested learning about quantum jumping and I think that water might have something to do with it.

Very interesting. It kinda scares me about blacking out. If you've ever done NOS you know those blackouts come without notice. When your bodies decides it's gone to long without O2 it knocks you out and makes you breathe, but if you were under water you couldn't. You might either be alerted by the pain of water going up your nose or drown.

A better alternative might be to not hold your breathe, I don't think you're ever intended to push that limit, but lay in a shallow tank where you aren't submerged. This will give you the sensory deprivation without the risk of reaching enlightenment and not returning.

reply to post by 12.21.12


I can see how this might relate to a form of astral projection or remote viewing.

Maybe water is in a sense lubrication into the astral world?

Think about it for a moment, you are born from a fluid state from your mother's womb, so in essence this would almost be equal to re-entering the "womb" in a fashion as you are surrounded by liquid, just like when you were an infant.

Remember "Constantine" where he gets water involved in several areas?

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


Yes, that came to mind. In constantines vision though wasn't water portrayed as a gateway to hell?

I think maybe "hell" is a way to scare people.

I have heard stories though about imagining a familiar place when quantum jumping, you have to visualize where you want to go. Also in times of desperation or threat of death, stories where people would make the jump. Hence, thats where being fully submerged comes into play.

Actually the word I was looking for was isolated or trapped. No place else to go. Could this type of event trigger a quantum jump?

Also I think of this as a possible survival mechanism. If I was stranded in the water somewhere, I could store my energy and survive for several days by going into a fetal position.

reply to post by 12.21.12


The portrayal of water being a "gateway" to Hell was only what he used it for, in Constatine.

I saw that movie and loved it, but he never once examined or spoke of anything positive about the spiritual world which inclined me to see the direction of the movie was to only focus on the negatives.

Even Gabriel being androgynous and quasi-evil was semi-negative propaganda against the church.

I only mentioned the water being used as a metaphor because it was the only movie I could think of when I was posting.

You would be surprised what you might see if you try meditating in water.

It releases your other senses to examine the world around you in a different manner than usual.

We as humans focus on the five senses far too much (limiting to those only) and some never come to realize there are more than five out there and that what we are taught is often to control us into not exploring the rest of the knowledge out there available, if we only have an open mind, keeping in mind not to keep it too open, or your mind might fall out.