The White Light

One of the meditations I've been doing (as recommended in the book I mention below) is concentrating on a white light on your forehead while relaxed and in a meditative state.  This has a pretty dramatic effect - one I didn't expect!  Normally, as I've practiced my meditation, I get a warm, comfortable feeling then a calmness eventually sets in and I'm free to not think about anything.  I'd prepared myself to wait it out until some long-awaited gradual transformation occurred.  Concentrating on a bright white spot of light on my forehead had immediate and drastic effects. Just imagining a bright white spot on my forehead immediately brought a sensation of pressure on that spot - almost like someone was resting their finger there.  Also, I suddenly got a much deeper level of relaxation, I was still as alert as before, but I felt as if my personal self (the self that I am when alert and relaxed) was being pushed way down, away from my conscious waking self.  As I said, I was still alert and could still hear the sounds around me, but they were muted and a growing silence took over as I sank lower.  I'm using the word sank, because it felt like I was going downward a bit as well. I tried using different size light spots, but the biggest effect was with a small bright white spot.  Larger spots seemed to dilute the effect.  Not sure if this means anything, but it's definitely interesting!