Thread: Try This !!! Activate the Amygdala Nuclei in the Medial Temporal Lobes of Your Brain

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

It's actually a relief to know the same people that reject my ideas are incapable of taking 5 seconds to perform a simple experiment or peruse a website because it's not presented in a scholarly enough fashion.

Actually I've tried tickling my amygdala. I found I experienced a funny tingling, weightless sensation similar to that I experience when WILDing. All I can conclude from this, though, is that by thinking about it I can make myself all tingly if I want to. There is absolutely no way to correlate this with the activation of the amygdala.

But guys, I really am not trying to derail this thread or anything, I honestly think it's great that you guys are enjoying the feelings you get from this technique.

Originally Posted by Pensive Patrick

Actually I've tried tickling my amygdala. I found I experienced a funny tingling, weightless sensation similar to that I experience when WILDing. All I can conclude from this, though, is that by thinking about it I can make myself all tingly if I want to. There is absolutely no way to correlate this with the activation of the amygdala.

But guys, I really am not trying to derail this thread or anything, I honestly think it's great that you guys are enjoying the feelings you get from this technique.

I experience the tingling too. Like you I can consciously make my body tingle just by thinking about it. The tingling wasn't mentioned in the book or website material that I read so the tingling was a by product that I wasnt expecting and therefore a genuine reaction to the tickling of my amygdala.

Whats with the trolls on this forum? This is the inner sanctum of DVs, where we get to discuss meditation, ways to meditate and beneficial effects of meditation. Because of the nature of meditation, these discussions include the brain and the imagination which has been used as a tool to meditate for thousands of years.

To suggest that the imagination is nothing but a placebo effect is like saying the imagination doesn't exist. But we humans have an imagination, it therefore exists, and has some sort of existance in our brain. In otherwords, the effects of the imagination is physical. Its been my understanding that science tells us there is a good reason why sleep paralysis happens before we dream, else our body would act out our imaginary world.

Its one thing to be skeptical about using visualization meditation over the amygdala, its another to come here and try to trash this thread and completely disrespect the discussions of this forum.

I find that to be a little patronizing though. It's like saying "Aww you guys are playing neuroscientist! How cute!" But like I said earlier, I also don't care. However, I cannot even answer your claim with the slight possibility that you're could be right, because I know this effect is causing a physiological change other than just imagining you'll feel good and then feeling good. But that's just me, I've been doing this trick for a couple days now and I've tried plenty of placebos before. I've never gotten anywhere with positive thinking. This is quite obviously different.

And it also appears that you don't know much about the amygdala by assuming it's only associated with negative thoughts because it's responsible for conditioning the mind to pain and triggering anxiety. The amygdala communicates with multiple parts of the brain, this is a trick to use the amygdala to activate the frontal lobes to greater capacity where its relation to anxiety and fight/flight is a result of its communication with the reptilian complex.

EDIT: The more I read about the frontal lobe popping, the more similarities I find between it and a DMT trip. Especially the part where it was described like a pleasure train driving through your brain.

Originally Posted by Omnis Dei

I find that to be a little patronizing though. It's like saying "Aww you guys are playing neuroscientist! How cute!" But like I said earlier, I also don't care. .

My apologies.

Twenty years ago Dr. James Austin, a neurologist, had a mystical experience. As a result, he did not join a religious order, nor, for that matter, did he begin one. What he did begin was a new field of scientific exploration called neurotheology.

In a nutshell, neurotheology is the study of what goes on in the human brain when one is having a peak spiritual experience. While scientists, yogis and philosophers have speculated on the biological aspects of spirituality for centuries, it is only since the advent of sophisticated brain imaging techniques that we have been able to actually see “pictures” of the brain and thus explore the physical aspects of transcendence.

In 2001, a slender volume called Why God Won’t Go Away inspired a cover article in Newsweek magazine and introduced neurotheology to the wider public. When one of the book’s authors, radiologist Dr. Andrew Newberg, hooked up a long-time Buddhist meditator to a SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) scanner, he discovered that a portion of his frontal lobes lit up like a Christmas tree when he was in deep meditation. This led Newberg to surmise that this area of the brain may be partially responsible for feelings of spiritual transcendence. When he tested his theory on a group of Franciscan nuns at prayer, the nuns’ scans showed similar results to those of the Buddhist meditator, adding weight to his argument.

The theory that the frontal lobes might have something to do with spirituality has been entertained at least since the nineteen-fifties, when a researcher by the name of TDA Lingo established a brain and behavior research laboratory high in the in the Colorado Rockies. Lingo came home after fighting in WWII plagued by one question: “Why must I kill my brother in war?” He attended several universities and dropped out shortly before completing his doctorate at the University of Chicago in order to pursue his studies independently. To fund his endeavour, he bought a guitar and started doing the rounds of his local clubs, eventually landing a job as host of a nationally broadcast NBC television variety show. On the last night his show was aired, he looked into the camera and asked if anyone had a mountain for sale. Someone did, and the “Dormant Brain Research and Development Center” was born on 250 acres of pristine wilderness west of Denver, Colorado, on what he would soon rename Laughing Coyote Mountain.

That was in 1957. Lingo remained on the mountain and conducted regular summer “Brain in Nature” courses for thirty-five years. There was no electricity on Laughing Coyote Mountain. Participants slept under the stars. Lingo typed their lessons on a manual typewriter and hand-cranked copies on an aging mimeograph machine. Keeping things simple was a vital part of his modus operandi.

Unconventionality was a hallmark of Lingo’s entire career, a trait that probably has something to do with why his research has been largely ignored by the scientific community to this day. What can’t be ignored is the increasing evidence that TDA Lingo may have been well ahead of his time.

Lingo focussed much of his attention on the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure (the word comes from the Greek word for almond) deep within the brain whose principle function has long been associated with triggering the “fight or flight” response to danger. For whatever reasons, scientists in Lingo’s era largely overlooked another proven function of the amygdala – to trigger ecstasy. In laboratory tests with rats in the 1950’s, researchers discovered a phenomenon they called “kindling.” Given the choice between food and excitation of regions of the amygdala and nearby structures of the brain, the rats chose excitation over food to the point of starvation. While that in itself did not prove that they were experiencing “rodent nirvana,” as Lingo colourfully put it, it did suggest that whatever they were feeling, it was good.

Lingo’s contention was that the amygdala could be consciously controlled and used to “click on” the pleasure response in the frontal lobes. Eventually, the practitioner would, as Lingo put it, “pop their frontal lobes” and experience nirvana, samadhi, or what he simply called self-transcendence. Moreover, argued Lingo, the practice was as easy as flicking on a light switch and could be done by anyone, anywhere.

That’s a big claim to make for a couple of very small organs, but recent independent research has begun to corroborate his findings. The “father” of neurotheology, James Austin, saw a critical role for the amygdala in his own experience of transcendence. Neuropsychologist Dr. Rhawn Joseph goes further and says, "These tissues, which become highly activated when we dream, when we pray or when we take drugs such as LSD, enable us to experience those realms of reality normally filtered from consciousness, including the reality of God, the spirit, the soul, and life after death."

When psychologist Sara Lazar “photographed” kundalini yoga practitioner Hari Mandir Kaur Khalsa’s brain with an fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine, she discovered that when Khalsa entered a deep state of meditation (as evidenced by the slowing of her breathing to four breaths per minute), her amygdala became active. This pairing of deep tranquillity with an excited amygdala seemed like a contradiction to the researcher who equated amygdaloid activity with emotional distress, but it was exactly as TDA Lingo would have predicted to be the result of “clicking forward,” as he put it.

[Please go to Scientific American Frontiers . Worried Sick. Watch Online | PBS and click on "Play Video" under the 4th show listed "Just Relax". The amygdala clicking segment is about 1/2 the way through the clip. The clip also features film of monks sitting in a 40 degree unheated hut, covered in freezing dripping wet sheets, which they they dry out with their own body heat, which they consciously raise with brain focus meditation.- N.S.]

On the down side of the amygdaloid experience, Joseph LeDoux argues in The Emotional Brain that the amygdala has “hijacked” our human brain and led to many, if not most, of the mass neuroses and psychoses of modern life. That observation too corresponds with Lingo’s hypothesis: What LeDoux describes is what Lingo called being “clicked backwards.”

While what goes on in the amygdala is actually far more complex than Lingo describes it, his hypothesis, that the organ is instrumental in producing both negative and positive emotions and, more importantly, can be consciously manipulated, is scientifically sound.

Centuries before Western science “proved” that meditation could alter brain wave patterns, practitioners verified it through direct personal experience. Many experienced meditators who have stumbled across Lingo’s work have found “amygdala clicking” to be a powerful adjunct to their regular practice and at least one professional yoga instructor has made it a regular part of his teaching, with reportedly very positive results. The bottom line is, it’s free and it’s easy, so why not give it a try?

First, a little brain biology is required. The “triune brain” is a model used to understand basic brain structure and function. In this model, the brain is viewed as consisting of three separate but interconnected parts. The oldest part is the brain stem or reptilian brain, so-called because it processes our most basic survival instincts. A common neurologists’ joke defines these as the “four F’s of reptile brain behaviour – “feeding, fighting, fleeing and reproduction.” The reptile brain is entirely “me” centered.

Next on the evolutionary scale is the limbic system or mammal brain. More advanced on the evolutionary scale than the brain stem, the limbic system is capable of emotions and enables us to function within social hierarchies. Unlike the reptile brain, the mammal brain is capable of considering the needs of others.

The largest portion of the brain, the primate brain, encases both the reptile and mammalian brains and enables us to perform sophisticated mental tasks like speech and maths. The whole front portion of the primate brain is the frontal lobes. Place your hand across your forehead and you’re grasping your frontal lobes.

For many years, the frontal lobes were thought to be largely dormant – for their mass they seemed to perform few important functions. Gradually, brain scientists came to discover that the frontal lobes are far more important than previously thought. Their contributions to our mental makeup include creativity, imagination, foresight, and the ability to empathize with others. The Tibetan Buddhist meditator in Newberg’s study demonstrated unusually high activity in the left frontal lobe while practicing a technique that involved concentration on loving compassion. In contrast, psychopaths, who by definition lack the capacity to feel empathy or compassion, have been shown to display very low levels of frontal lobe activity in brain scans. The frontal lobes, basically, seem to be the part of the brain that enables us to think outside the box of our selfish bodily needs and desires.

Lingo subscribed to the “dormant brain” theory, reasoning that not only our more noble emotions had their “home” in the frontal lobes, but that, once activated, they would prove to be where so-called paranormal powers such as intuition and telepathy could be accessed as well. Interestingly, recent studies have suggested that intuition is a testable and demonstrable phenomenon and is traceable to, yes, the frontal lobes.

Gautama Buddha argued that happiness is our natural state, but we have lost our way. The Noble Eightfold Path was designed to remove the obstacles to happiness. TDA Lingo argued that the amygdala has been socially conditioned to remain on high alert, thus blinding us to our natural potential for unlimited creative joy. Amygdala clicking was his recipe for giving us back our birthright – frontal lobes bliss.

This is how it’s done:

To locate your amygdalae (that’s the plural – there are two of them, one in each hemisphere), place your thumbs against your ears and middle fingers on the outside corners of your eyes. About 25mm inside your head from where your forefingers naturally come to rest on your temples is where your amygdalae reside.

There is an easy way to observe the amygdalae at work. There is a direct connection between the amygdala and the olfactory nerves, or sense of smell. Find something foul smelling – vinegar or rotten eggs do the trick for most people. Take a whiff. When you instinctively draw back from the source of the smell, your amygdalae are largely responsible for your feeling of repugnance. Now try the same thing with, say, a fragrant rose. What happens? A feeling of pleasure washes over you. Spring is in the air! The amygdalae have done their job once again, orchestrating the neurochemical pleasure response.

Picture your amygdalae sitting there inside your brain, hyperactively warning you to “fight or flee.” Neurons like bolts of lightning are firing madly backwards, down to your brain stem, screaming, “Go! Go! Go!” For Lingo, the trick was to get that energy flowing forward, to the “rose garden” of the frontal lobes. He and his Brain Lab students and colleagues experimented with a variety of methods to reach that goal. In the end, one of the most powerful tools he discovered was simple visualization.

Visualize a feather softly tickling the anterior (forward) part of the amygdala, first on one side, then the other. If you prefer, use a pair of feathers and do both sides at the same time. That’s all there is to it. Just remember, gentleness (you’re using a feather, not a cattle prod!) and directing energy forward, into the frontal lobes, are the keys to success.

Don’t let the almost ridiculous simplicity of the technique put you off. It really is amazingly powerful! Neil Slade, Lingo’s long-time associate, has been teaching it in classrooms, on radio, and via the internet for years. In his book, The Frontal Lobes Supercharge, he writes, “It’s the fastest way that you can start clicking forward that we’ve found. It works from the very first minute you try, and is failsafe.” He goes on to advise: “Keep tickling until you get the desired results and long lasting positive emotional feedback. The effects are progressive and cumulative.”

The results may be subtle at first. If you’re stuck in traffic (a great place to try it), you might find yourself relaxing and actually listening to a song on the radio instead of just hearing it in the background. A wave of contentment might pass over you as you realize with a flash that as long as you’re stuck in this traffic jam, you have absolutely no responsibilities. Suddenly you’re on a mini-holiday in the middle of the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Isn’t the harbour beautiful this morning!

Or the results may be more pronounced. People have reported spontaneous kundalini awakenings and other deeply transformational experiences as a result of “clicking.”

Whatever the effect, whether subtle or deeply profound, it is guaranteed to be positive. According to Lingo and an increasing number of contemporary researchers, the pleasure response is an in-built evolutionary reward for accessing our most advanced neurological potential.

TDA Lingo referred to the reptile brain as EGGS – Ego, Greed, Grasp and Suck, while the frontal lobes housed our most advanced and selfless potential. He felt that humanity is at an evolutionary crossroads. We have the choice between remaining stuck in self-destructive egotistical behaviour or evolving into a more loving, cooperative, highly evolved species he dubbed “Homo Novus” or New Humanity. It is hard to argue with his ideals – and, increasingly, it’s hard to argue with his science as well.

But Lingo remains an enigma. But maybe we don’t need to be polite. “Crazy wisdom” has a long and venerable tradition in most religions. Back in the fifteenth century, another iconoclastic character, an alchemist who called himself Paracelsus, managed to offend virtually all the medical establishment of his time, but is remembered today as one of the fathers of modern medicine. His real name was Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Because of his outlandish behaviour, Paracelsus gave the English language a new word – bombastic. Like Paracelsus, TDA Lingo used an assumed name (his birth name was Paul Lezchuk) and also like Paracelsus, his behaviour could sometimes be described as “bombastic.” Perhaps, in time, he will also share the recognition for his achievements Paracelsus belatedly received. In the meantime, for the open-minded, an appreciation for what he had to offer may be only a “click” away.

Thanks for that post. Technique definitely works.

Didn't work for me, I dunno....

Keep trying, did you follow my tips?

Are they on page 2? I didn't read page two, I only really read the OP and a few of the first posts? But I tried exactly what the OP says. I felt a little bit warm and nice, but that always happens when I close my eyes if I'm feeling pretty good already. It's like meditative afterglow. But that happens to me if I just sit there breathing with my eyes closed.

Feeling warm and nice is a good sign. Keep practicing!!!

It is most definitely a post meditative feeling, but without having to meditate.

Concentration does not seem to come along with this new skill automatically, though. Along with accessing more commend over your frontal lobes, I believe it's also necessary to train your focus. So this activity cannot replace proper meditation. So far, I haven't seen the website mention this necessity but I've experienced my awareness beginning to overcrowd my concentration in the last few days.

The two should be mutually beneficial.

The descriptions of this frontal lobe "popping" sounds like something I've been able to do for a good while (at least 4 or 5 years). To quote myself from the Adrenaline Rush at Will? thread,

Originally Posted by snoop

I've experienced two phenomena similar to the descriptions everyone has posted in this thread, although it sounds like some are describing one and others describing the other.

To induce an adrenaline rush, having played football, it helps most to envision myself quite honestly just doing awesome while playing, or really any daydream scenario in which I do something that requires physical action and awesomeness. The feeling is literally identical to adrenaline, and I've never questioned whether it was or wasn't. My hands get cold and clammy, I get a bit shaky, my heart beats a lot faster, and I breathe faster. I also get the specific adrenaline feeling, idk how to really describe it, but it's highly distinctive and it's one in the same.

The second feeling begins in the base of my neck. It sounds more like what people have been describing is Qi. It's like I think of certain things that are enjoyable (nothing in specific, it just happens) or kind of just focus on this feeling in my spine, though mostly in my neck, and it's as if a surge of tingly (not painful, more like almost euphoric) electrical energy jolts down my spine. The feeling spreads, mostly over my head, and is very tingly but it makes me feel very awake and aware. Usually the "jolt" is strong enough that I contort my body in some way, usually just my neck. Kind of what a tic would look like I guess. I've learned to do it without contorting so much, just a very limited movement in my neck when it occurs. The tingly feeling usually lasts 4 or 5 seconds.

The two might both be a result of adrenaline, but the latter does not have the distinctive feeling of adrenaline at all. I feel like the first is legitimately inducing an adrenaline rush, and the second is... something entirely different. I spoke to my friends about it once and they said every once in a while it happens to them (they said nothing of inducing it), and they referred to it as a "brain tickle".

Thinking about it, having read what frontal lobe popping is by a google search, that seems to be what I'm experiencing. I had a suspicion that it may be the same thing the OP and OD were experiencing, but I didn't have solid descriptions to go off of until now.

However, I still find it very hard to believe that the feeling is caused by the mechanism being put forth. I really don't see why it's so hard to accept that you might not actually be activating the amygdala and stimulating the frontal lobe. Perhaps it could be, or perhaps you're merely stimulating the frontal lobe alone. I'm just very very confused as to how you're arriving at such a conclusion. Being a person who has never heard of this and has achieved the effect by thinking of the base of my neck (as in near the c1 and c2 vertebrae as you can see here), what reason is there to believe the amygdala is responsible? Before, all you knew was you tried what this guy said and he said to think of the amygdala. Given my case, why can't it be the brain stem (as I never thought of the amygdala or thought of the inside of my brain)? Or why is it not simply tactile sensation? It could be a lot of things, but asserting it's this one very specific thing makes little sense without brain scans to back it up.

It's not hard to accept that it may not be the amygdala. It's hard to accept that it's not a physiological occurrence. I don't believe that this is being caused by wishful thinking, whatever's taking place.

But anyways, what you're describing doesn't appear to fully coincide with the experiment. And furthermore, there are brainscans. If I posted one, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to someone who isn't a neuroscientist. But the information is that amygdala activity increases during meditation. The religious or transcendental experience itself is caused by the amygdala overloading the frontal lobes. This has been confirmed by EEGs for some time.

And lastly, multiple experiments have been done on the issue. TD Lingo did not start with tickling the amygdala, see a positive response and use confirmation bias for the rest. The amygdala tickling exercise emerged from strenuous and diverse exercises and ended up proving to be the easiest and most effective.

Question, in an interview Neil Slade explains

"Purely self-centered gratification that does not involve CICIL (cooperation-imagination-creativity-intuition-logic) frontal lobe behaviors inevitably leads to short-circuiting of the pleasure responses in the brain and amygdala... Clicking the amygdala is similar to the ignition switch in your car, you have to turn it on to get things going. But if you don't leave your driveway, you won't get anywhere... the trick in proper and continuing amygdala positive response is to keep growing, rather than rerunning the same program. Nature rewards new life sustaining thought and behavior with amygdala pleasure response."

Could you explain to me what he means by growth and by involving CICIL? Do I need to apply my increased frontal lobe activity toward a purpose? I don't really understand.

Im going thorugh the 'Frontal Lobes Supercharge' book again for some more specific text on the processes of tickling the amygdala to paraphrase and post here. Clicking the amygdala forward is not meant to be a goal in itself, it is not just a novelty. The goal is to achieve a fronal lobes 'Big Bang', as Neil Slade puts it, which on average takes three to five years of regular amygdala clicking.

I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't simply build up a tolerance and then lose the ability. Perhaps the change is simply more noticeable at first but once it becomes habitual you only notice when you haven't clicked for a while, rather than when you have clicked.

I want to ensure to myself that I am progressing forward, I suppose.

Just read through the whole thread and I find it interesting the whole range of responses.

I believe that it is possible in some way to stimulate areas of the brain, for one thing I've had some... mixed results in doing just this, and the anecdotal evidence from members such as Robot_Butler and Nina (whose thread http://www.dreamviews.com/f79/quickl...ons-ld-107643/ should be required reading for everyone who has posted in this thread). The brain may not be mapped in the corticol homunculus but perhaps there is specific self-image for the brain?

That being said the amygdala are primarily involved in fear/pain responses, communicating stimuli travelling from the brainstem (and CNS) to other areas of the brain. I could only think that 'activation' would lead to a higher incidence of nightmares.

Lucid dreamers like to try to attach lucid dreaming to something physical in the brain. That's natural, psychologists try to do it all the time, it's how neuroscience came about.
But there's a term in debating for when you make the logical error of trying to attach a concept that is wholly abstract to a concrete object: 'reification'.
If there is an organ of the brain responsible for lucid dreaming and spiritual phenomena then where does it lie? The amygdala? The dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex? The pineal gland?
What if lucid dreaming really is a purely psychological function, a construct of brain chemistry and neurons in the forebrain? It's good to be curious, to seek answers and apply science where possible.

But Neil Slade really is dealing in pseudo science, it's really no closer to any falsifiable evidence than physiognomy or phrenology.

The resultant increases in intelligence, creativity, and positive emotions were demonstrated and measured by a variety of objective and subjective means, standardized tests and analysis methods. Lingo reports that this included 10 to 40 point increases on the Stanford-Binet I.Q. test, and 500% to 1400% increases on the Getzels-Jackson Creativity Index.

Sorry, but this is bullshit of the highest degree, a 10-40 point increase in IQ? Why isn't the entire psychological establishment aware of this miracle? And increases of 500-1400%? That's in the realm of fantasy, no psychological study ever has yielded results so disproportionately significant, a study over 30 years with 300 participants? Most studies of that nature find it difficult to get significant results at all. It really smacks of poorly carried out research, did he even use a stats test?
More importantly what was your source for that little gem?

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

That being said the amygdala are primarily involved in fear/pain responses, communicating stimuli travelling from the brainstem (and CNS) to other areas of the brain. I could only think that 'activation' would lead to a higher incidence of nightmares.

And also pleasure responses too. Smell some dog faeces and we instinctively want to recoil from it. Smell roses and we feel pleasing emotions. This is the amygdala in action in essence switching back and forth to provide either pleasing or painful emotions. It is postulated the amygdalas' main purpose is to provide a fight/flight safety mechanism through the olfactory nerves which are directly linked to the amygdala's.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

If there is an organ of the brain responsible for lucid dreaming and spiritual phenomena then where does it lie? The amygdala? The dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex? The pineal gland?
What if lucid dreaming really is a purely psychological function, a construct of brain chemistry and neurons in the forebrain? It's good to be curious, to seek answers and apply science where possible.

Good question. Omnis Dei experienced a profound result from 'clicking' his amygdalas just by thought alone. It would be wonderful if we could do this with perhaps another part of the brain to induce lucidity.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

Sorry, but this is bullshit of the highest degree, a 10-40 point increase in IQ? Why isn't the entire psychological establishment aware of this miracle? And increases of 500-1400%? That's in the realm of fantasy, no psychological study ever has yielded results so disproportionately significant, a study over 30 years with 300 participants? Most studies of that nature find it difficult to get significant results at all. Did he even use a stats test?
More importantly what was your source for that little gem?

How is a 500-1400% increase possible on any scale? Google searching 'Getzel-Jackson Creativity Index' only yields results related to Neil Slade. Yeah...

Interesting. The psychological establishment I think is aware that the auditing process of Dianetics has a profound result on increasing IQ's. I don't know if any serious studies have been done on this & haven't anything to back this up but I have no doubt for one moment that amygdala 'clicking' will result in better brain/mind function and an increased result in IQ gain.

I'm finding this a bit difficult as I can't recall what the feeling of being tickled by a feather is. Also how long do you have to apply the visualisation before the "click" happens?

Also has anyone tried this exercise with a WBTB? If its true that this causes the amygdala to send a mass of electrical impulses to the forebrain this could possibly be an excellent technique for fostering increased awareness in dreams.

Sorry for the double post but I decided to abandon the feather and instead visualise my index finger wiggling against it. I'm feeling quite strange, I can't say if its good strange or bad strange but I doubt that such an abstract visualization can elict this kind of feeling through placebo especially as its nothing like what I predicted.

Originally Posted by RationalMystic

Sorry for the double post but I decided to abandon the feather and instead visualise my index finger wiggling against it. I'm feeling quite strange, I can't say if its good strange or bad strange but I doubt that such an abstract visualization can elict this kind of feeling through placebo especially as its nothing like what I predicted.

If I remember correctly what matters is getting the tickling sensation. Imagining the feather alone doesn't seem to work. Adding the sensation of tickling does. Keep us updated on what you experience. If the imagined sensation of tickling is strong then the rsults are immediate. You may have to aquire a feather to feel the sensation.

I had to stop my attempt before but I'm going to try again. Thanks for answering my questions. One last highly pedantic query: do you have to visualise tickling on both the right and left amygdala?

Edit: never mind the question, I read up a bit more on this and it says that its not really necessary to visualise the tickling on both amygdalas.

Ok I tried this again a while back and while I don't think I've quite succeeded in "clicking" yet (I'm awful at tactile visualisation and visualisation in general...), that strange feeling came back again onky stronger this time. I think I can finally articulate the sensation better. It felt kind of like how a crush feels with a warmth that seemed to emenate in my torso and the stomach. It was a feeling that was somehow sexual without being actually sexual. I think I also felt that tension Omnis Dei was eluding to, as if I was dipping my head in a deep well. I think I have to calm my thoughts a bit before my next attempt as my mental vocalising is distracting me from the visualisation. Since I don't actually have a feather with me what I'm doing is lightly brushing my index finger against my cheek untill I get a strong tickle sensation. Then I assign that tickle feeling to the imaginary feather I'm brushing my amygdala with. I think this is a decent improvisation.