9. Mobile Body Awareness

Body awareness is normally centered in the eyes, but it does not have to stay there. Mobile body awareness (MBA) - the ability to focus body awareness on any specific part of the body —is simple and easily learned, and is an extremely important skill.

Combined with other techniques, it enables the dynamic manipulation of the energy body and its energy centers, or chakras, allowing specific parts of the energy body to be directly stimulated, and the flow of energy into and through it to be increased in a controlled way.

In the coming exercises, a deep level of relaxation or trance is not required. Light relaxation is quite adequate. Just close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and allow your mind to wind down and settle for a few moments. This is all that is required. I suggest that you do not use a bed for these early exercises, unless you really have to, but instead sit in a comfortable chair with your shoes off. Place a cushion under your feet, wear loose clothing, and do not cross your legs.

In these coming exercises, lightly scratch or rub specified body parts as needed, using a small stick or ruler if you have difficulty reaching some parts. This helps to highlight and target specific areas, so that body awareness can be focused more easily and accurately. This scratching is not necessary after you become used to the technique; you will be able to target specific areas with body awareness alone. Repeat the MBA exercises below without scratching and see how you get on without this aid.

Try to do this with eyes closed, so you are focusing with body awareness only. Use your eyes if you really need to, but do without using your eyes as soon as targeting can be done with body awareness alone.

To demonstrate shifting your center of body awareness and targeting specific areas on the body, lightly scratch the skin of your left knee with your fingernails, just hard enough to leave a slight tingling sensation after you stop scratching. Close your eyes and feel this tingling area with your body awareness. Become intensely aware of that area. Highlight it with body awareness. Feel for this tingling area with your body awareness alone, with your sense of touch and feel. Forget about the rest of your body for now.

Next, feel for more of the same knee and become more acutely aware of it as a whole joint. Feel its outline and shape and really get the feel of it with your body awareness. Your center of awareness is now focused entirely in your left knee.

Shift your point of body awareness to your right knee, scratching it first to highlight it. Feel its shape and outline with your awareness. Center your awareness entirely in your right knee.

Shift your point of body awareness to your right big toe. Scratch it on top of the large joint, where it joins your foot. Wiggle the toe a bit to help you get the feel of it, so you can zero in on it with your body awareness. Feel the whole toe. Feel the tingle on top of it, then feel its outline and shape with your body awareness. Center awareness entirely in your right big toe.

Shift your point of body awareness to several other parts of your body - anywhere you like - highlighting them first by a light scratching or rubbing. Feel these different areas as you target them with your (now mobile) point of body awareness.
 

Increasing Sensitivity
To improve your body awareness sensitivity, do the following MBA exercises as often as you can until you get the feel for this technique. They will progressively improve your sensitivity, which is extremely important for all the exercises and techniques given in this book.

When first learning to move awareness through the surface of your body, it helps if you trace the pathway along your skin with fingertips or a paintbrush, to highlight the path for your body awareness, making it easier to follow with your point of awareness alone. If this is not enough, lightly and slowly scratch or rub the pathway along your skin with your fingernails or a ruler. Follow the slightly tingling trail this leaves behind on your skin with your point of body awareness alone.

For tracing and learning wider energy pathways, I suggest you use a paintbrush of the appropriate width. You can do this yourself or have a partner do it for you while you follow the sensations caused by the touch of the moving brush with your point of body awareness. Or you can rub a pathway with your fingers, stroking them repeatedly along the chosen pathway.

To start with, I suggest tracing a pathway from the base of your left thumb, along the sensitive inside of your arm and on up to your left shoulder. Close your eyes and concentrate on the feel of the brush or fingers touching and moving along the surface of your skin. Ignore the hand doing the brushing. Repeatedly stroke this pathway, from thumb to shoulder and back to your thumb again, following this with your point of body awareness until you have a good feel for this path.

Repeat the above exercise with your right arm.

Next, trace and follow a path from your left big toe, up the outside of your shin, over your kneecap, and on up the outside of your thigh to your left hip joint, then back down to the big toe again.

Repeat the above exercise with your right leg. Practice this technique until you can trace a pathway to anywhere on your body with your point of body awareness alone, feeling your way along the surface of your skin without having to follow a manually highlighted pathway. Rub and scratch and highlight, as often and for as long as you need to in order to learn this technique.

If you are training with a partner, you can help each other by brushing each other's body to stimulate pathways, or with a stroking one-handed massage. Massage is a very good way of learning how to focus and move a point of body awareness. Have your partner give you a slow one-handed massage and follow the touch of his or her hand with your point of awareness. Have him or her trace pathways up your legs and arms, and up your back, following touch with your awareness.

Using only one hand for this makes it easier to follow with your awareness.
 

MBA Exercise
Focus your awareness in your right knee again until you can feel it well with your awareness. Shift your center of awareness slowly down the outside of your right shin, feeling your shin as your awareness slides down it.

Keep moving your awareness slowly until your center of awareness comes to your right foot. Move your awareness slowly out to your right big toe. Feel this toe with your awareness. Wiggle it a little and make sure you can really feel it and are targeting it well. Move your point of awareness to the toe next to it and feel its shape and outline with your awareness. Tense, move, wiggle, touch, or scratch each toe as needed, to highlight and target it.

Next, move your awareness across to your left foot and feel that foot with your awareness. Flex and tense your left foot slightly to get the feel of it as a whole. Next, center awareness in your left big toe. Feel your awareness sliding back toward your ankle, then slowly on up over your left shin until it comes to rest in your left knee.

Keep it moving, sliding up your thigh and slowly on up the left side of your body until you can feel your left shoulder. Move your awareness down the outside of your left arm, moving slowly past your elbow to your left hand. Feel your whole left hand with your awareness. Move and center your awareness in your left thumb. Feel its shape and outline with your awareness. Wiggle it a little if you need to highlight it. Feel all your other fingers, one at a time, with your awareness.

You have just moved your center of body awareness all around your body, targeting and focusing your awareness in many parts of it. You have also been stimulating your energy body in the process, without knowing it was happening, as your center of awareness moved through your energy body. You may have felt some peculiar tingling or fuzzy sensations as you moved your point of awareness around your body. These sensations are caused by energy movement within your energy body, and are normal for this type of body awareness exercise.

To effectively manipulate your energy body, it is necessary to be able to focus your point of awareness at a single point on your body, then to manipulate that point of awareness. This manipulation is done with active body awareness, with something I have called tactile imaging. Tactile imaging is very easy to learn and use.

You have already learned the skills required for this and will soon get the hang of it. It just takes a little practice.

Back to Contents