Energy-Like Somatic Experiences (ELSEs)
This is a summary of one of the more common—and also more perplexing—meditation-related challenges. For additional details on how meditation practitioners and teachers describe, interpret, and manage ELSEs, please see this VCE study publication in Religions.
What are energy-like somatic experiences (ELSEs)?
In the VCE study, we defined energy-like somatic experiences (ELSEs) as “a type of sensation moving throughout the body or throughout a body area described with language of vibration, energy, current, or other related metaphors.”
How common are ELSEs?
Although the VCE study is not designed to assess the frequency or likelihood of any meditator having a particular challenge, among the 68 practitioners who were interviewed, 62% reported having ELSEs. As such, it was the most frequently reported experience in the somatic domain and was the fourth most frequently reported meditation-related challenge overall among VCE study participants.
How are ELSEs described?
Many of the commonly reported meditation-related challenges (such as positive or negative emotions or sleep changes) are familiar human experiences. By contrast, ELSEs were typically reported as novel, unusual, and hard to describe. Consequently, practitioners used metaphors to make sense of their experience or drew upon the language and frameworks found within contemplative practice traditions. The following metaphors were used to describe ELSEs.
Energetic
Typical language included references “energy,” “energetic”
Example: “waves of energy in the body…would pass through my legs, my back, through my shoulders, out my arms”
Electrical
Typical language included “charge,” “current,” “circuit,” “voltage,” “electricity”
Example: “bolts of electricity going up and down my spine”
Vibratory
Typical language included “vibrate,” “vibration”
Example: “standing next to a 747 as it’s firing up its engines on the end of the runway. It felt like that much vibration energy.”
Hydraulic/Pneumatic
Typical language included“vortex,” “flow,” “build-up,” “channel,” “fizzing,” “effervescence”
Example: “I can open up my hips and the energy flows through—it doesn’t get stuck. And I have a tendency to stick and to reverse the flow, because there is a natural flow. And I have this unconscious ability to sort of reverse the flow.”
Blockages
Typical language included “blockage,” “knot”
Example: “could feel [the energy] beating against any blockage until it would either burst through or I would scream mercy”
Kinematic
Typical language included “bursting,” “hitting,” “tearing”
Example: “going up my spine there were these energetic bursts”
Combustive
Typical language included “burning,” “fire,” “exploding”
Example: “almost a feeling like something is going to explode or wants to explode”
Mechanistic
Typical language was related to machines and mechanical systems
Example: “like a machine with gears—it felt like, all of a sudden, all the gears started to grind”
Agentive
Typical language attributes volition, initiative, or control to ELSEs
Example: “it just sort of does what it wants to do”
How are ELSEs interpreted?
Meditation practitioners looked to a variety of interpretive frameworks to make sense of their ELSEs, both for explanations of their cause and significance, and in order to understand how to work with them. The meditator’s practice tradition was usually the first place they sought frameworks.
Meditation practitioners in the Theravada tradition of S.N. Goenka and practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism were often given explanations for their ELSEs that put these experiences in the context of subtle body “energies” or subtle “sensations.” In these traditions, meditation can lead to perceiving these sensations and in some traditions learning to intentionally direct them.
Practitioners of other Theravada traditions and of Zen were rarely given frameworks from within their traditions.
Outside of Buddhist traditions, a number of frameworks were used. The framework practitioners most commonly applied to their experience was “kundalini” or “kundalini awakening,” which are found throughout South Asian yogic and tantric traditions.
Frameworks associated with traditional Tibetan or Chinese medicine were also not uncommon, and in many cases were given upon consultation with practitioners of these medical traditions. Psychological or neuroscientific frameworks were also sometimes adopted. A number of practitioners found the metaphors or frameworks available did not fully capture or account for their experiences of ELSEs, although in most cases having some framework was important for coming to terms with their experiences.
What kinds of impacts can ELSEs have?
ELSEs were associated with a wide range of impacts and trajectories, from completely positive to entirely negative, from inconsequential to impairing. The time course for ELSEs could be transient, recurring or enduring, with the latter typically being associated with the most challenging impacts. One of the most common impacts of ELSEs is that they are associated additional challenging experiences, including physical pain or discomfort; feelings of pressure or tension in particular parts of the body, sensations of heat, involuntary body movements, and insomnia.
Some degree of impairment was not uncommon among practitioners reporting challenging ELSEs. The types of impairment caused by ELSEs or by co-occurring phenomenology could be physiological, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral. Impairments occurred in many areas of life, causing challenges with day-to-day tasks (such as difficulty driving), or problems maintaining relationships or employment. Some with enduring ELSEs had their lives severely disrupted for many years.
What factors can lead to or exacerbate ELSEs?
VCE study participants identified a number of influencing factors they associated with the occurrence and trajectories of ELSEs. They most frequently attributed the emergence of ELSEs to the type of meditation practice they engaged in, particular approaches to their meditation practice, or to the amount (e.g., hours, days, etc.) or intensity (e.g., effortfulness) of meditation practice. Many practitioners who identified a meditation practice approach as a factor specified that it was an effortful, intense, or striving style of practice that led to the ELSE.
Some influencing factors were identified as having aggravated, if not directly caused, ELSEs, making them more intense or more difficult to manage. These include reduced sleep or appetite, having a trauma history, having life stressors (such as work-related stress, grief, or relationship problems), having an inappropriate diet (especially vegetarian), and a lack of prior training or preparation related to the “subtle body.” For instance, one practitioner described herself as not having developed the “wiring” required to safely manage the emergence of “energy”.
What remedies are used to work with ELSEs?
Interpersonal understanding
Often the first important step in coming to terms with ELSEs involved a meditation practitioner finding another person who could provide support, expertise, or simply empathy.
Interpretive framework
Being given an interpretive framework alone could, in some instances, serve as a kind of remedy through alleviating confusion and associated distress.
Normalizing and accepting
Some meditators believed that, like other meditative experiences, ELSEs are a “normal part of the process that’s not good or bad.” Some were instructed to adopt an attitude to “just observe” the experience.
Practice-related remedies
These included changing one’s object of concentration, stopping practices that appear to exacerbate ELSEs, or adopting new practices. Some meditators also reduced the amount of effort or intensity, adopted a gentler approach, or even temporarily or permanently stopped meditation altogether.
Acupuncture and body work
Those for whom ELSEs endured beyond their meditation session sought out various ways of navigating, managing, or mitigating their effects. Some of these techniques come from systems that work specifically with the body or with subtle body energies, such as acupuncture, qigong, taiji, yoga, or Tibetan energy-related exercises.
Trauma-related modalities
Some practitioners mentioned seeking out Somatic Experiencing, an embodied psychotherapeutic approach to resolving nervous system dysregulation. According to the Somatic Experiencing, model ELSEs are uncompleted sympathetic fight-or-flight action tendencies that were thwarted, resulting in a freeze response instead.
Dietary changes
A vegetarian diet, sugar, and caffeine were sometimes identified as exacerbating ELSEs and associated challenges, and a common antidote was for practitioners to introduce meat into their diet. Other remedies mentioned included eating root vegetables, drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, and boiling flax into tea.
Medicines and medications
Practitioners also employed a range of medicines, both herbal medicines from healers practicing traditional Tibetan or Chinese forms of medicine, as well as modern pharmaceuticals such as sleeping pills (for ELSE-caused insomnia), or antianxiety or antipsychotic medications when deemed necessary.
Grounding activities
These included a range of dietary, physical, and even attentional interventions. For example: establishing a physical connection with the earth, vigorous exercise, sequences of postural yoga oriented towards “cooling” the heat associated with ELSEs, bioenergetics therapy, bathing, or being in large bodies of salt water.