Awesome Brittany asks: “I’ve never told anyone this because it’s kind of weird, but you seem like the perfect person to share it with. I was in the bookstore a couple of years ago and as I picked up The Law of Attraction my fingers began thumping the cover- like crazy style. I freaked out a little bit but I sat down with the book and started to read it. They kept right on tapping and thumping on the book but it wasn’t like they were pointing to anything in particular on the page. I was looking over my shoulder because I didn’t want anyone to think I was crazy so I just bought the book and headed home. I went home and meditated for the first time and it was amazing – like I was floating (but clearly I wasn’t).

Anyway, my fingers calmed down a bit while doing that but afterwards they started to spaz out again. After convincing myself that I wasn’t crazy and that this wasn’t the beginning of some sort of nerve disorder, I got on my laptop just to see if anything would come of it. My fingers were typing at an incredible speed (and I’m a super slow typer) but nothing made sense. It was just a bunch of random letters repeating themselves. My fingers kept doing the tapping thing for a few weeks and then sporadically every once in a while (and they never made any sense while typing), but it eventually stopped (probably because I didn’t ever consciously put LOA to use at the time, LOL)…

Anyway, fast forward to last week. I bought the book Ask and It Is Given. I took it home and began reading and they started tapping again. Sorry for the long question, but do you have any clue what is going on with me?!”

Awesome Brittany is talking about “involuntary” hand or body movements that come on during meditation or reading/focusing on something that raises your vibration. It’s much more common than you might think, and it’s nothing to be worried about. Quite the contrary, actually.

It’s not really “involuntary”

The reason I put the word involuntary in quotes is because nothing about this is happening without your permission. While you may not have made the conscious decision to tap your fingers or move your head or hands, etc., there is a willingness on your part and even a strong desire to have this experience (or what it will lead to). Before I explain that further, however, I want to make one other very important point. When people first begin to experience these kinds of physical movements, they tend to freak out a bit. But here’s the thing: You can stop the movement any time you like. It may come on by itself, but if you really want to, you can shut it down. What you’ll often find, though, is that you won’t want to. It may feel strange, but it also feels really good. But if the part of your brain that’s shouting “Neurological disorder!” becomes a bit too overbearing, show yourself that you can stop the movement just by wanting to.

We’re always receiving

If you’ve read my free e-book 7 Steps of Manifestation, you’ll understand that we, in our human form, are basically transceivers of energy. We perceive energy and translate it in various ways. We transmit energy as well, but this post will deal more with the receiving part. The world around us is really nothing more than energy. When you see a tree, you’re not really seeing a tree. Your eyes are perceiving a bunch of energy and your brain translates what has been perceived as a tree. When you hear a bird sing, your ears perceive sound waves and your brain translates them into song. Mess with the brain a bit and that same tree can turn into a smell. It’s not that the tree isn’t real, it is, or we couldn’t perceive it, it’s that it’s not as solid as we think it is.

So, we perceive energy with our five senses; sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. That much we generally all agree on. But what we tend to forget is that we also perceive energy in other ways. Our entire body perceives energy (in fact, our skin is loaded with tiny receptors), that isn’t translated into those five senses. Information is constantly streaming to and from our bodies, and much of it isn’t translatable in a physical sense, but our brains will try to make sense of all this information in a way that we can accept. The more open we are to experiencing energy in ways other than what our five sense can detect, the easier this process becomes. We can gain the ability to perceive much subtler vibrations, which may translate into “knowing”, “understanding”, or “clarity”. The less open (and by open, I mean willing to accept as valid) we are to perceiving non-physical energy, the more our brains are limited to translating the information we receive through the physical.

Basically, we’re always receiving information. How much of it we perceive and how much of that we understand is up to our willingness and ability to translate it into something we can accept.

What these movements actually are

So, when we access a higher level of vibration through meditation or some other means, we are literally accessing a higher energy frequency. And now, we have to try and translate it, only, since we’ve never done so, it may take us some time to learn the language, so to speak. If we’re new to this game of non-physical energy, or if something really needs to get our attention (more on that in a second), we may well begin to translate that energy into a much less subtle, more physical form. We translate the energy into electrical impulses to which our muscles can respond. And that creates movement.

While these movements often go away after a while, as we get used to the new frequency and learn to translate it into thoughts and ideas (which are more subtle and less obvious), those of us who are teachers (and who isn’t, these days?), will always strive to translate much of what we receive into spoken or written words, so that others can benefit from the information, as well. In that case, the movements don’t leave us, they become more refined. Nonsensical typing turns into actual words, head bobbing turns into speech, random arm movements can turn into dance, etc.

Twitch, the messenger

Involuntary movements can also be a way for the LOA (or really, our higher selves) to get our attention. For example, if there’s something we really want (like to understand how the Universe works), but we don’t yet fully trust our intuition, we may miss the subtle impulse we receive to go and buy a certain book. If, however, our fingers start tapping like crazy the second we touch that book, well, we’ll tend to pay more attention to that. It’s a sign that this book contains answers to some of our questions – it’s a manifestation that will lead us further down the path to what we want.

My experience

Although I’d had the odd twitching thumb or toe here and there over the years, the first time I experienced obvious “involuntary” movement was in a shamanic ceremony. I was lying down, and was very tired, but wanted to dance to the music that was playing. My arms rose up and began to weave back and forth in a beautiful, fluid twisting and turning dance. It was a little bit like the elegant dances that Indians perform. And it felt awesome. It was as if the music was moving me and I gladly let it happen, mesmerized by the feeling, and by the fact that even after an hour of raising my arms into the air from a lying down position, my arms didn’t feel the least bit tired. In fact, I wasn’t really aware of my muscles, and incidentally, had no soreness the next day.

Some time later (a few months, I think), I was in deep meditation one evening, and I “woke up” to find my right hand weaving back and forth in the air, making the infinity sign over and over again. Again, I let it happen, watching my hand as if it were separate from me and had taken on a mind of its own. It felt good and as I focused on it, the movements became bigger. I experimented a bit with this over the next few evenings and found that I could allow both hands and arms to dance either independently, or in perfect synchronicity. I also realized that if I deliberately revved up my vibration, my hand and arm movements got bigger, bolder and often faster. What’s more, when I focused on some resistant subject within me (a subject that triggered thoughts that didn’t feel good), my hands came to an abrupt stop, as though they’d actually hit an obstacle. When I returned to that subject the next night, after having cleared the resistance, my hand movements remained fluid.

It’s nothing to be afraid of

Translating energy with our physical bodies is nothing to be afraid of. Dancers do it all the time. In fact, we all do it all the time. When you walk down the street, you do so because your brain sends an electrical impulse to your muscles. The act is a physical manifestation of a non-physical impulse – the decision to walk. So, when your fingers start to tap, or your hand or foot starts to move a bit, you’re not necessarily spazzing out. Movement caused by accessing a higher vibration (as opposed to movement caused by resistance, which could then turn into a neurological disorder):

• Feels good. You might be a bit freaked out at first, but the movement itself feels good. You have this knowing that it’s ok
• Doesn’t hurt. If you’re experiencing pain, it’s a manifestation of resistance
• Is generally fluid and smooth or becomes fluid after a short while. If you’re jerking around awkwardly, it’s probably resistance
• Generally happens when you are accessing a higher vibration, NOT when you’re upset
• Progresses and evolves if you allow it to
• Can be stopped at will

Disclaimer: I’m no medical professional and none of the above is intended as medical advice. Duh.

Translating energy into physical movement can be a beautiful experience. Don’t push it, or try to control it, but allow it to happen. Your brain will find a way to let it all make sense to you, if you let it. There’s either a message there for you (pay attention!), or you’re simply accessing a frequency which is higher than what you’ve accessed before and your body is translating it in any way it can. Allow it to and the translation will evolve. Remember, we’re always receiving. Maybe it’s time to start really listening. 🙂