Sometime in 2018, I started following a raw vegan diet and meditating seriously. A few weeks into meditation, I started feeling a pleasant tingling sensation between my eyebrows. The tingling would be most intense during meditation, but would arbitrarily persist throughout the day.
During this period, when in the hazy zone between sleep and wakefulness, I had what could be labeled as two vital epiphanies. Deep inside, I was aware that this knowledge that had dawned on me had something to do with the sensation I experienced between my eyebrows.
I started researching my “symptoms.” I learnt that Hinduism/Buddhism recognized 7 primary chakras, which are energy centers corresponding with different organs of the human body.
The ajna chakra or the “third-eye” chakra lies between the eyebrows; it corresponds with the pineal gland, the activation of which is associated with intuition and wisdom. It is said to be the gateway between humans and divinity.
It is said that as children, we are born with an open “third eye.” However, years of calcification causes its blockage, thereby reducing our intuitive abilities. However, the ajna chakra can be reopened through spiritual practices like yoga; meditation et al. Non-spiritual practices like extraordinary absorption in one’s work can cause the third eye to reopen. I have heard of legendary chess players and mathematicians who claimed that new moves and solutions to mathematical problems, respectively, dawned on them in their sleep. Initially, I had assumed that sleep bridges the gap between the conscious and the subconscious making such insights possible.
However, after learning about chakras, I considered the possibility of the ajna chakra being activated by exemplary focus, further allowing intuition to guide stalwarts in their respective fields. Coming back to my own experiences, the prickling sensation stopped as soon as l became too busy to meditate. I had interpreted the tingling as the ajna chakra trying to open.
Whether or not the chakra actually opens following tingling or throbbing is a topic for speculation. Incidentally, the tingling sensation has reappeared after I resumed meditation.
However, this time I didn’t fixate on the sensation or try to understand it. Like spiritual guru Deepak Chopra suggests, I let the sensation pass
and got on with my work just as I would with a mild shoulder or
elbow ache.