Does anyone have anything to say about the bumble bee sound reported by some meditators?

I have my own ideas, but these are pretty meager. Someone--anyone--please tell me what you know or what you suppose. I'll take either.

MR

It seems to be something that comes with some really profound stillness. I caught a glimpse of what that was like earlier on in the year when I was meditating twice a day and I got my breaths to be about 40 seconds apiece. I was just doing stillness meditation and the embryonic breathing that Yang Jwing Ming teaches, with a slight focus on longevity in breath. For the week before it, it felt like I could feel qi extending beyond my body, and after a while it seemed to grow until it almost felt 'fat' somehow...like my body wearing a catcher's mitt or something or the way your hand feels with a hockey glove on...except with feeling in the glove itself. The really profound stillness happened once very faintly, then again a second time more strongly in another session later that week, but I dont know if I kept searching for the feeling or if events of my life intruded upon my regimen...but I've never gotten back there since. for the last 6-8 months easily, I have simply not had the regimen and cant get that still or get my breaths that long.

Hi MR,

Are you asking becuase you are experiencing this or out of curiousity?

Matt

It woke me up one night after a lot of qigong right before bedtime, and it was not just the sound but the whole bumble bee -- the size of a cat -- that somehow got under my blanket and was buzzing into my lower dantien. I didn't see it, I just woke up with exactly this idea of the sensation and the sound: a giant, humongous bumble bee. I panicked and rolled the blanket over it and threw it across the room. Nothing like that ever happened before or after.

Four years later, I found a description of a whole bunch of spirits in the Maya tradition who will start out establishing their relationship with you in exactly this manner. You are supposed to meet them in stillness even if they rock your bed so that you feel as though you're going to fall out. If you panic, they will immediately leave. If you don't... well, I don't know what happens if you don't, 'cause I did.

Why?

Becuase of fear. Eat or transform your fear (but not the fear that makes you get out of the way of physical danger). Realize it has no power over you except that which you allow it

Best,

Matt

Thank you, Matthew, that's good advice, but my "why" was actually addressed to the author of the original bumble bee question, as in, "why do you want to know?"

Why I panicked I know very well. Because that entity trespassed uninvited and I'm opposed to trespassers regardless of whether they encroach on physical or spiritual territory. And also because that entity was not part of the tradition I am trained in. And in this tradition, I am taught to avoid any and all spiritual encounters that I don't initiate, ask for, or hope for. I thought the spirit world knew and respected my position on this issue. To have the most well-meaning of spirits visit in this manner is like an authoritarian telling you, "there, I know better than you do what it is you really need, let me decide what to do for you without asking your opinion, I know what I'm doing..." I don't accept being approached like that by anybody except for those whom I explicitly ask to teach, heal, or morally or energetically guide me. So why would I make an exception for a giant bumble bee I hadn't even been introduced to? I panicked because I should have, it was a legitimate response to discovering a breach in my intent, which indeed it was (I was under tremendous stress at the time...) And a breach in a cultivator's intent is a legitimate emergency.

Tao, that is funny I thought you were asking why about your experience, lol!

I understand what you are saying and your response is pretty normal. Would you do the same thing if it happened some night in the future?

If so, you might consider that perhaps you are limitting your spiritual development. These are serious opportunities but most people let their fear overcome them. Just be still, and if you are afraid, feel that fear and ask yourself what it feels like and realize it has no power over you! then some amazing things may occur, don't be afraid of yourself

Best,

Matt

It's true, I am limiting my spiritual development, but not out of fear -- out of discipline. I consciously avoid cavalry attacks on the spiritual world that are not backed up by sufficient resources -- of time, focus, dedication, guidance, understanding, and so on. I'm a spiritual strategist, an explorer with a clear idea of what it is I want to explore, and what for... not a tourist in the land of the mysterious who will gape at anything she might bump into and take snapshots here and there so as to impress friends and relatives back home. To me, spiritual growth of a cultivator (regardless of her biological age) is not unlike a child's natural growth in the ordinary world: you want to grow up gradually, and (most importantly) harmoniously, you don't want to get ahead of yourself. (As John Lennon put it, "Children,/ Don't do / What I have done: / I couldn't walk --/ and I tried to run.../") So I just observe the same basic rules for spiritual growth as I did for natural spontaneous growth. Don't sign up for calculus till you are comfortable with arithmetics. Don't eat candy for dinner. Don't talk to strangers, and especially don't get in stranger's cars just because you've been invited. Don't drop out of school and run away with the traveling circus. Stuff like that...

In some religions they say that the bumble bee sound is connected to the Etheric level, the level between duality and non-duality. The etheric level is not to be confused with the etheric body or the body-double. It is between the mental level, the mind, and the soul consciousness trancending time, space and energy.

According to this I would consider myself happy if I hear the buzzing bees

I take it as a compliment to turn away unwanted visitors.



<nod>Some good ol' common gung sense.

i'm really glad you wrote this.


it's a perspective that i don't consider often enough. so thank you.

I had the bumble bee sound a few times when I was meditating. I even swatted at in once and then laughed when I realized what I just did. This was around the same time I was having a bunch of perception problems during meditation like feeling huge or squished, feeling like I was floating or bent over. I had a bunch of strange things happen. The strangeness lasted for only a few months and I just chalked it up to cleansing the mind.

Taomeow,

Your posting is extremely interesting and helpful to me. Thank you very much, and thanks as well to everyone else who has posted. All of this is valuable. I am gratful.

I may be way off, of course, but I think I may have something in the direction of a real answer as to what this bee sound business is about, what it is, why so many meditators hear it.

I totally get the concern you relate about intrusion.

I'm at a stage where I'm just about ready to say, heck with it, and encourage that intrusion with all my being.

I may or may not be able to articulate my reasoning in this matter, if anyone wants to hear it. It would be some pretty difficult writing, though.

Meanwhile, I'm still listening to anyone who will contribute. Anyone... ? Anyone at all... ?

MR

.................

Bumble Bees



Pray, meditate, seek about it... ask for sinseer help of the Tao. Not any specific entity, the Tao.... the nameness one, all will be made clear, have some patience w/ yourself... look for clues in what is natural... get out and take a walk, practice some chi gung, do something new in your life, eat some food you've never tasted before, do some volunteer work, break a sweat, read a book then sing a long breathy song ....

Spectrum

I used to practice a technique to induce astral projection/OOBE years ago. On my more successful attempts I would hear a strange buzzing, followed by an INTENSE vibrating feeling like my body was shaking apart. The key was to try and hold a balance between concentration and total relaxation which was difficult at first. My guess is that the buzzing is being caused by elevating the vibration of your consciousness to your etheric/astral body. I was deliberatly aiming for this, but I can definitely see how one could slip into such a state during meditation. Any type of fear would instantly "shock" me back into normal waking consciousness. Fear is the mind-killer!

P.S. I have honeybees and honeycomb tattooed on my shoulder. The bee symbolizes the soul, and the honey symbolizes wisdom/knowledge. I also think I read that one of the taoist monasteries has an initiation where you get stung by a honeybee.

Oolong Rabbit,

You refer to "an INTENSE vibrating feeling". That is very interesting.

Buzzing. Vibration.

I'd bet many people here have had occasions when a flash of searing heat shot up their spines.

Heat... is of course vibration.

Joeblast says, "It seems to be something that comes with some really profound stillness." That seems to be a consensus. When the "waters of the mind" become still, here comes this buzzing.

Has it occurred to anyone that in those classical Hindu paintings of a yogi sitting in the lotus position, the yogi is usually depicted with the thousand-petaled lotus painted on his the crown of his head.

What would be attracted to a flower, especially one with a thousand(actually 997 or something)petals?

There are here dots to be connected. It is our inheritance as human beings to grasp these things.

mr

A couple of points on this. I have some posts discussing the strange tingling sensation on the crown of my head. Experiencing that helps me understand the symbollism of the thousand petalled lotus. Also Sifu Max discusses the crown/skull physically opening and drops of amber liquid forming on the top of the head (cerebro-spinal fluid). He said if you taste it, it is sweet, and I think he may have even compared it to honey. I have never experienced this so I cannot say, but obviously another point of interest..

Different centers i.e. chakras have different sounds.
Thunder
Bees
Trumpet
Bell

I haven't heard them in a long time so don't remember them all.

The Shamanic Way of the Bee by Simon Buxton


is a fantastic book about initiation into the Way of the Bee Spirit.

After I read it and went to work with Simon, the day before seeing him - and it was winter here in London - I heard a noisy and insistent tapping at my window. It was a MASSIVE bee.


Made me laugh.

Maybe put that damn vibrator away for starters!!!

On a serious note, when i practise my bones vibrate at such a high frequency i hear it like hitting a crystal glass untill all of a sudden i go into void and i leave my body. The bliss i feel is unbelievable and there is no sense of time. To me we are connection to the primoridal chi (Wun Yuen Hei) as all energy is vibration and when u can connect to that things manifest.

WYG

cat,

Yes! I mean no, I have not read that book, but I heard an in-depth interview with the author.

I wonder, are you familiar with the story C.G. Jung writes, about a patient of his who was having a recurring dream about a scarab? She was a pretty hard-nosed nominalist-materialist, skeptical about the plausibility of synchronicities having any real significance. Then they heard a tapping at the window. Jung got up to see what it was. It was massive beetle, striking the glass with one foot. Jung brought the insect to her attention and said something to the effect of, "Your scarab, ma'am."

Why am I posting here; why did I find this BBS? I think it's because we are all being used by... what? The universe, or something.

Ten years ago I would have scoffed at such an idea. Not today. There is order in the universe. It's kind of like a wind. I want to learn how to angle my sail, so to speak--let it take me wherever it blows me.

Sorry if I'm getting too mythopoetic, but I'm really beginning to believe this.

mr

hi there, I'm one of the fellows that is currently "blessed" with the hearing of the buzz sound.
The first time it happened when I tried some qigong meditation, and it never left me.
It is all the way back into my ears. It gets really loud if I focus throu a meditation that uses this sound as a centerpoint. It's not only one sound, it's a million sounds inside it.
I didn't think it was something... I expected lots of other practicioners should experience this sound.
Bottom line is it's interesting, but I didn't find a way to put it inside my body. Most of the time I hear it at the back of my head. And I didn't have the patience to explore a meditation with that sound as a centerpoint.
There are some that experience very simmilar. But is no high level. Is just some sensitivity, that's all.
Someone else told me it could be related with a kidney problem, which maybe true, because water is my weakest element in my charts.
If anywho knows a way this sound can be "used", please let me know.

Some yoga schools have a exercise where they buzz like a bee with there fingers in there ears!

I don't do inner sound meditation, but I'll talk about it anyhow

I'm told that you just listen to it As you concentrate you notice it's more than one sound. As you can already hear the different sound "components" then you pick the highest pitched one to listen to, once it splits into it's components listen to the highest pitched one, repeat, repeat, repeat. The only warning I have read (Ken Cohen's) is not to listen to it in your left ear, use your right ear first and the sound eventually moves around in your head till it gets to the crown. Perhaps that warning is because he picks the highest pitched sound, not sure, the way I was taught was “just listen”

I find it lots of fun. So much fun that it doesn't feel like a "practice" and I tend to do it just to amuse myself I’m not sure what value/purpose it serves so I prefer to spend my actual meditation time doing other things. I learnt it as a meditation to go with the 5 Tibetans from Christopher S. Kilham book.

Great Book

I've had a loud ringing in my ears and in the very top of my head since I was a very young child. It's not tinitus. It's not a buzzing either. I also can see very tiny bright multicolored lights whenever I wish to pay attention. They are also always around, floating in the air. Mostly I don't pay attention to either thing.

When I was a child, I called the lights angels, and the ringing sound seemed to come from them. I would lay in bed for hours each night watching them and listening.

Here's a link I found:

http://www.kundalini-gateway.org/threads/th_sound.html

I do notice that sometimes the tone seems like "om".

Niether of these lights, nor the sounds seem to have a function that I can discern. Until it's been mentioned here, I never had cause to speak or even think about these phenomena.

It seems the concensus on the Kundalini link I gave is that it's a symptom of chakras activating, or kundalini rising.

Little1,

You write, "I'm one of the fellows that is currently "blessed" with the hearing of the buzz sound.
The first time it happened when I tried some qigong meditation, and it never left me.
It is all the way back into my ears. It gets really loud if I focus throu a meditation that uses this sound as a centerpoint. It's not only one sound, it's a million sounds inside it."

Tao Bum! writes, "As you can already hear the different sound "components" then you pick the highest pitched one to listen to, once it splits into it's components listen to the highest pitched one, repeat, repeat, repeat. The only warning I have read (Ken Cohen's) is not to listen to it in your left ear, use your right ear first and the sound eventually moves around in your head till it gets to the crown. Perhaps that warning is because he picks the highest pitched sound, not sure, the way I was taught was "just listen"


I think I know the sound to which you refer. If it's what I think, it's the sound many meditators hear 24 hour a day. I started hearing this sound, full of overtones and undertones, when I started meditating, years ago. As I understand it, it's called the "hu." It's another sound which I would very much like to understand. And don't anyone bother me with that tinitus stuff. I've looked into it; it's not that.

I hear it right now; but that's not the bee sound.

For example, once when I was deep in meditation, getting just about totally free from thought, I got this sound like one huge bumble bee on steroids, and it sounded for all the world like the thing flew straight into my ear, impacting with my eardrum with a"POP!"

Naturally I was very curious about such a happening. I still have only theories, and dammit, I that doesn't cut it.

thanx guys, interesting views...
i suddently feel like in the middle of an alcoholic anonimus meeting...

what are the first 5 steps? the first one was denial...

Finally, the cat is out of the bag, lol! Usually no one knows what the hell I am talking about with the sound. I have felt alone on this on this site for a long time but have met other people who know this to so I my thoughts on this are below:

I have found the most clearly articulated information on this topic in the context of Hindu or Yogic stuff, but it is there in other traditions but in very cryptic or difficult ways to understand what is being talked about unless you already know it and then recognize that it is what is being eluded to. For example, "In the beginning was the Word", read the Taoist writing "The 100 character tablet", look into the esoteric meaning of "Music of the Spheres", the list goes on and on.

Here is a site that mentions it and provides what is a general theme about it:

http://www.indiayogi.com/kundalini/nada.asp

I recall that I read somewhere before about a bumble bee buzzing sound that is different than the constant sound (which can also be described as a bumble bee sound) and it is a common experience on the spiritual path as well before "hearing" the constant one or Ohm, etc. Even then there are lesser sounds that can be heard in a celestial concert and then there is the deepening of this sound into the Bliss.

Some people will experiences these depths differently and experience the inner light instead or both. There are sometimes sounds of thunder, wooshing, and other things that might be part of ones journey.

On sorta a non-traditional spiritual note, a friend of mine was telling me she heard the radio on at night before going to bed even when there was no radio on, had heard this for years. One night I found that "channel" if you will, and was absolutely amazed. So the next time I saw her I asked her if she heard the constant sound. She said no, didn't know what I was talking about, I said plug your ears and put your attention inward and listen for a high pitched, ehhhhhhhh. In a matter of seconds she found it. After that she was able to hear it and tell when there were periods of greater intensity and activity that matched my experiences.

It opened up to me while meditating, doing greater kan and li. I had this overwhelming feeling that if I continued, there would be no going back. I went forward and wham, this sound and heightened awareness and sensitivity opened. I was like o my god, I am not in kansas anymore, lol. But it wasn't really a laughing matter at the time as I wasn't sure if I was going to die or something (and that wasn't the last time I thought I was going to never come back to this world). For a period after that I couldn't bear loud stuff and could hear the TV screaming a frequency. I have heard it ever since.

Best,

Matt

Thanks for the link Matt. I had not heard ( ) much about this practice either.

Cheers

So any word on an actual function or purpose?

As I said I've had this forever. If it's a sign of kundalini awakening or something, I'm rather disappointed in this whole enlightenment business! lol

I mean gee, imagine this conversation:

New Age Hippie: "Dude there is this enlightened master who can teach you this method of practice that will bring you to the highest level of being!"

Me: "Really? What's it all about?"

Hippie: "Well his lineage goes all the way back to the ancient monks of 惛 憨 mountain!"

Me: "Whoa! You speak Chinese?"

Hippie: "Yeah man! I learned it from the master!"

Me: "Chinese?"

Hippie: "No! The practice."

Me: "Oh yeah, so what's it all about?"

Hippie: "Well you sit in this difficult high level yogic posture for three hours a day for ten years, fast several days a week, swear off of sex, and take these REALLY AWESOME herbs!"

Me: "Dude. No sex? That sounds hard."

Hippie: "It is really hard. But afterword you're totally enlightened!"

Me: (scratches head) "What exactly does that mean?"

Hippie: "Well, for one thing, my ears won't stop ringing!"

Me: "What?"

Hippie: "My ears won't stop ringing!"

Me: "Your ears?"

Hippie: "Dude, listen to what I'm saying! My ears won't stop ringing. It means I'm enlightened!"

Me: " Really? You're not serious are you?"

Hippie: "Dead serious man. I'm totally wise now."

Me: "That's cool... well..."

Hippie: "There's a new seminar next week. It's only like $800! You're chakras will totally be blown AWAY!"

Me: "I'm kinda busy next week..."

Hippie: "Bummer man! The next Seminar won't be until next year."

Me: (long pause) "That's okay. I'll be busy then too."

Im not shure of the true "function" of the sounds we hear, but I dont think we should not hang on too much to them. I think the sounds are expressions of vibrational shifts. If you leave your body into the astral worlds you can hear thunder sometimes. Other times its just like a pop. It can be like a heavy storm or just a single note of a flute. There are different sounds to different vibrational levels, and different "worlds".

Sometimes when I tune in to my pillar of light I hear a loud electrical whining, really high pich. I hear that pitch othertimes as well when I have vibrational shifts. When I let that sound just go through me and adjust me the sound fades away. I think I good practice is to let the sound adjust us when we here them. Just let the sound raise the frequency of the cells and your consciousess and adapt to it. Then see what happens.

I dont think the sounds really have anything to do with enlightenment though. At least no more than anything else we experience.

like whoaa, dudes, this is totally radical

and duuhh... the ringing doesnt stop... it must be god on the phone lollz

Matthew, great stuff there man

Keep the info coming, dudes, we may get something out of this, eventually