A good number of people report experiencing a white light while meditating. It’s usually a strange phenomenon for them – where could the light be emanating from?
This white light varies from one individual to another. One mediator might see small sparkles that look like comet flashes while another might experience huge glowing balls unlike anything they’ve seen before. Your meditation experiences could be responsible for this white light. Some meditators are normally so startled by their meditation white light experience that they’re prompted to open their eyes fearing that something’s not right. However, experts agree that experiencing a flash of white light while meditating is completely natural. It just means that your mind and soul are completely rooted inside your body.
The Science Behind It
You’ve probably heard about the Third Eye. It’s one of seven chakras that exist within your body. After months (or years) of consistent meditation, your Third Eye gets activated. You start noticing flickers of white light during meditation. You might even see colors and shapes. There’s a variety of things you’ll start noticing once your Third Eye gets activated. Rather than focusing all your attention on the flash of white light while meditating, it’s advisable to concentrate on your meditation experiences just as you did when you started out.
To fully comprehend what happens during a meditation white light experience, you must first understand how various forms and scenes are created in your mind’s sight center. Normally, past experiences and impressions are stored in your memory. Whenever you recall a past experience or event, the mental impressions are reproduced and projected onto your mental screen. You’re therefore able to remember people, places or objects that you interacted with in the past. The memory centers within your brain are also responsible for visions and imaginations.
Our Incredible Brains
There are essentially two types of minds accepted by modern psychologists: the subconscious and conscious mind. These two are very different. The subconscious mind normally stores all your life experiences, your memories and beliefs. Your conscious mind, on the other hand, helps to create visions or scenes when you’re in a wakeful state. So the more you concentrate, the more you’re likely to see a white light during meditation. This meditation white light experience might be frightening at first, but you’ll get used to it after a while.
Some Buddhist meditation techniques require you to visualize a holy light. However, this is a totally different kettle of fish – it’s different from viewing an actual flash of white light while meditating. As Tokpa Korlo explains in his Mind Talk, the purpose of mindfulness meditation is to develop love and compassion for others. Being rooted in the present moment helps an individual to appreciate the beauty of now. As a result, he/she develops an overwhelming peace of mind and cultivates lovingkindness. So you don’t need to see a beautiful white light during meditation. The seemingly mild mental, physical and psychological developments that result from your daily meditation practice is really all that matters.
Next time a white light shows up in your meditation experiences, don’t be afraid. Just embrace it as a natural part of your practice. Also remember that nothing is exempted from change – it’s one of the key features of Buddhist meditation. Just as anything else, the white light that shows up while meditating is also subject to impermanence. It may show up during certain times and then disappear during others. The white light spectrum is usually regarded as the purest form of light. So when you view it, you might be experiencing a new, powerful energy that could allow you to connect better to your inner self.
If you yearn to meditate daily, get the Headspace Meditation App. It contains a variety of daily meditations that will guide and motivate you in your practice. It also has interesting Talks from numerous experts that will leave you inspired and engaged.
