116) Grounding the Energy

It has been a very emotional and stressful few months here for me, with many ongoing family issues, personal issues, and work/school related issues. Suffice to say, I have been so focused on taking care of others, that I neglected ME!

A few months ago I noticed I was having a ‘buzzing’ in my right ear intermittently, almost a ‘blowing’ sound that, although quite annoying , did not distress me too much. As the weeks passed, it became louder and more frequent.

Then late last August I had a distressful experience where the ‘blowing’ sound became intensely loud, and I was suddenly overcome with vertigo and dizziness – along with nausea – that I couldn’t even stand. Everything was spinning out of control, and I was totally incapacitated!

This episode luckily happened while at work in a medical center and I was treated immediately, which consisted of rest and anti-vertigo medication. There was nothing visually out of order in my ear.

I was happy because the ‘blowing’ noise abated, but it was short-lived. A few days later it returned, and after another few days, another vertigo/dizzy episode occurred. Long story short, after seeing a doctor and tests, I was diagnosed with Meniere’s syndrome and told there wasn’t much to do except ‘live with it’ and make some lifestyle dietary changes (low salt, diuretics, etc) to keep it from happening too frequently.

Despite my best efforts, the episodes continued on an infrequent basis, and I saw another doctor for a second opinion. He also confirmed the same diagnosis and treatment. This did not sit well with me. I just ‘felt’ this was not right and I needed to do more research to see what it could be.

In speaking with a friend who is well versed in energy through years of Qigong teaching, I was intrigued by his questioning as to whether the vertigo episodes happened while busy throughout the day, or more when quietly sitting/resting. For me, it would always be while I was quiet, and sometimes even waking me at 3am while sleeping! (My usual OOBE time!)

He explained that this vertigo while ‘quiet’ is commonly due to insufficient ‘grounding’ of energy, and living too much ‘in the mind’, as I have been with the OOBEs, graduate school work, and meditative practices. He gave me grounding exercises to try, such as visualizations of ‘roots’ growing down from my balanced feet and my extended arms with hands facing down. Immediately I could feel the ‘tingling’ of my palms as the energy passed through, and would do this a few times during the day or night whenever I felt even the slightest vertigo.

Over the course of only one week, my ‘blowing’ noise in my ear abated, and the vertigo stopped! The tingling in my palms actually became less as more energy became grounded.

I was concerned that this ‘grounding’ may inhibit my OOBEs, which is quite possible as I have not had one that is even close to what I used to do for over a month! I was concerned, but also knew that I never wanted to experience those dizzy spells again!!

I have since learned to ‘balance’ my life a bit better now, giving some time to physical outlets for this grounding energy, as well as lighten my ‘mental’ activities by not aggressively pursuing OOBEs for a short while. I know when I am ready, they shall return. (Hopefully soon!) I finish grad school in May and my ‘mental’ work with that will be significantly less as well.

I asked my friend to give a little background as to what happened to me, and to share any insight he has on this unbalanced energy phenomena. I am sure there are many people out there who are experiencing physical manifestations of disease and illness that could be ‘cured’ by seeking a better ‘balance’ within their lives. Here’s what he said:


Sometimes we need to look at the body holistically, not just treating ear symptoms by treating the ear, but by picturing the entire body as a balanced system which has gone out of kilter. This is much the view taken in Chinese medicine, where western medicine focuses heavily upon localizing a particular organ and feeding it a fix, I believe! Neither system is always right, or wrong IMO; these are both extreme viewpoints. The answer is often to be found in the region between these extremes.

Question: How did you learn that dizziness when 'quiet' usually meant energy disturbance, and dizziness when 'busy' is inner ear imbalance?

Because this was my own post Kundalinin experience....and, it makes sense....when BUSY, we usually `ground' our focus in physicality. For example, if we are practicing tap dancing, we focus strongly on our feet; the attention is on "MY feet", the word MY implying attention IN the body.....and, remember, where the attention goes, the chi flows, so tap dancing will really sink the chi.

It is through learning the ability to consciously direct the chi in this way, that we allow many hours of intellectual/spiritual/OBE/especially Hemisynch/meditative type pursuits to be balanced with good physical presence. Without the grounding, poor health will eventually result, and also an inability to utilize learned spiritual knowledge in everyday physical life.

If we are sitting quietly, our attention is probably more of the form "I think...", "I feel.." - here the attention is on `I'.......in the MIND, NOT in the body. Hence, the energy rises to the head.

It is SIMPLY a matter of living a balanced life, i.e. balancing mental/spiritual activities with `body based' physical activities, like exercise.

(1) A person who spends nearly all of their time thinking and very little of their time `doing' is neglecting their body, to its detriment. Their energy distribution will be such that most of their energy is in their head.

(2) Similarly, a person who spends nearly all of their time `doing' and very little of their time thinking, is neglecting their mind, to its detriment. Their energy distribution will be such that most of their energy is in their body.

We are a mind and a body - it's a duality, like everything in life. Both need to work in harmony. Any deviation from this state eventually results in problems.

For a comfortable existence, we need to avoid extremes and inhabit the area in between.

If we become unbalanced, we need to take corrective action. If the problem is case (1) above, we can remedy it by increasing our body based activity, or by using `energetic' methods of grounding, to redistribute some of the energy down into the body.

For case (2), poor health will seldom result, just mental/spiritual/emotional depravity! This is addressed by increasing `thinking' and `feeling' activity.

Both (1) and (2) are admirably served by practicing authentic qigong, yoga or a physical exercise program!

Question: Are there any other 'signs' of energy imbalance that may be confused with erroneous physical complaints?

There are! Imbalances of energy.....this `energy' appears to be closely linked with the endocrine system, so it actually affects body chemistry, if one wishes to think purely in physical terms. For example, bottled up emotions can cause physical symptoms.

For example, prolonged depression will adversely affect lung/large intestine energy. This may result in, say, breathing problems, which a person would typically attempt to rectify with prescription drugs which `open out the alveoli'. Whilst this provides temporary relief, the underlying problem is still accumulating.

In turn, the drugs used may then cause other problems, perhaps affecting liver function, because of the extra burden of detoxification! Frustration and anger at lack of a `cure' may then occur. In turn, unexpressed anger will also adversely affect liver function. Sometimes the only cure is to look within.