This is part of my Meditation Journal with dozens of posts >
1998 Meditation Journal entry
The numbness is very strange… it is like the body is missing… absent… or is it only my perception of the body… some part of the mind that is blanking out the body? It starts in one place – hands or feet usually and then progresses to encompass the entire body… and there is no feeling of anything – but there is still mind. There is no feeling of self – of “me” – but, there is a mind… there is a watcher that is observing… I can still focus attention on something – whatever I choose… there are occasionally thoughts too.
Note – this was taken from my old meditation journal and happened sometime between 1998-1999.
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It’s interesting to read this as it seems like this is one of the first times the numbness happened.
I think the first time it happened in my feet. I figured blood circulation was cut off. I adjusted. It continued.
Later it also involved my hands. Sometimes it would creep over my entire body and I felt like no body existed.
At this point, it was a bit weird. There was some fear. What was happening?
Then, I remembered a professor in my graduate program told the class something about meditation. He said he reached a point where his body disappeared. He said it was too much for him. He couldn’t handle it and stopped meditation right away. He had a Ph.D. in Psychology. He knew what the mind was capable of psychologically. But this was all new to him.
I found the same thing. Our graduate programs didn’t prepare us for anything of the kind that happens during meditation.