Altered States: Quantum Change

[Deb]

I'm almost done reading a book entitled Quantum Change, When epiphanies and sudden insights transform ordinary lives, Miller & Baca (one of my used book finds, signed by both authors ).  It's been a very interesting and easy read. I thought I'd share one person's experience. Several of the experiences recorded were just out of the blue, like this one.

He had this mystical experience in 1980 that changed his life, and didn't tell anyone about it for 15 years. I'll try to make this as brief as possible and still convey the essence of it.

He was on the road in Oregon after doing concerts and workshops, driving home finally, which was quite a distance. He was hot and tired and in looking at the landscape, all dry dirt and rocks, he thought "This is just really ugly, boring terrain." All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a wave of spiritual electricity washed over him. His body, the car and the landscape started to turn into smaller and smaller dots of light and started disappearing—even himself. He felt like he was in a transporter like on Startrek. The experience was awesome, terrifying and peaceful at the same time.

He managed to pull off the highway. And then the moment: the annihilation of the self. It was not a thought but an actual, physical experience: of being one with god and everything and everyone. He dissolved into the experience, there was no separation. Basically, he FELT the unity, that we are all one, everything is all one.

He disappeared into that space and experienced unconditional love and unity with everything and everyone—all that is. He couldn't describe the ecstasy and peace of that experience, and the loneliness that he has lived with since coming back from that experience. But also joy, because he now feels like he knows what the truth is. "Reality is mainly space, filled with thought and with love."

He experienced no ego, no sense of self. And at the moment he suddenly knew some spiritual truths, some very clear messages came through. Such as: there is absolutely no death, no hell, no judgment from a god, no such thing as time (although we have an illusion of it). There is no such thing as space. "There is a sense in which god is grateful for our search and yet the search isn't really needed. The eye with which we look for god is the same eye with which god is looking for us."

Coming back into ordinary reality was one of the most difficult experiences of his life. He had been at peace, had no fear, was totally a part of all that is. As he watched himself, his car, the landscape reassemble, he felt a wave of sadness. Coming back, he was left with a sense of painful yearning, lonely walking around in the world knowing that we are really all one and yet not being able to access that on demand. He says, "It has to do, I think, with putting ourselves in places where we can be found, where we can rediscover that unity."

He closes with "There are messages, I think, that are trying to get through to us to help enlighten this realty." It sounds to me like one of those near death experiences, but without having to die. And perhaps the meditation experience we're all hoping for.

Don Eaton - this is him. http://www.newthoughtcsl.org/community/people/don-eaton

James Taylor, The Secret of Life

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[John Sorensen]

Thanks for sharing Deb  It's quite common in the West to have depression and even suicide following this kind of illumination. It is unfortunate that we in our mainline scientific view have thrown out a lot of the context and meaning of these types of experiences.

So when people have them, they have no one to turn to for guidance, no framework to fit them in to.
In contrast you have cultures going back hundreds, if not thousands of years that have enlightenment traditions, including a context for positive and negative experiences.


A few years back I had a sort of experience with my higher self where after several months of feeling suicidal I basically said "Give me something meaningful do do here in this life or I am not staying here any longer".
I truly wanted to die as life at the time was empty, hopeless, pointless.
Those feelings are still very real and it would not take me much to go back to that state.
What felt worse was a feeling of being trapped, of having glimpsed higher realities, places of love and free of judgement and so many human petty concerns, feeling and experiencing the connectedness and love and pure joy of all that is, of spirit, but then having to live this frail human life and having nobody to turn to for help, no way to process my experiences and no context that it is very common to experience these sorts of things as the last of the old paradigms within me died.


I felt stranded and alone for a long time. Like a person stranded at sea. A beautiful sea but no sign of anything other than the sea, no way to know how to integrate my experiences in a world that seemingly did not care for such things, and outright denied such spiritual experiences, and even labels some people as "mentally ill" with the inferior methodology of Western thinking that has thrown out enlightenment teachings in the mainstream in favor of hardcore science.


Most of the western meditation teachers don't bother to teach people about this stage, and it's downright irresponsible. Better to leave someone where they are, than often them a "reality" pill, then leave them stranded once they go through the psychological earthquakes that comes with illuminations etc.
It's not a pleasant or happy process at all.


The hardest thing is having nobody to turn to who understands at all.


I intend to write down all of my experiences, and also give a large framework for these experiences, I don't know if anybody will read such a thing, but any who do will least know that they are not alone, and that there is a purpose to such hellish experiences, this kind of waking death.

Some of the fallout from these kinds of experiences gets handled from Psyche specialists to medicine people to genuine spiritualists and new age quacks. Whatever the background or methodology, often these people are not of any real help if they have not been through the same authentic experiences themselves. They often don't know what the fuck they are talking about, and can only go on hearsay or written descriptions for other people.
It is like the blind leading the blind in a dark cave where nobody knows the exits.

[BethAnne]

They often don't know what the fuck they are talking about, and can only go on hearsay or written descriptions for other people.

This is probably where religion has gone astray.  Uneducated men trying to codify an experience that they have heard about that goes beyond verbal description
which then gets translated removing even the original sense of wonder that then becomes a rule or a "sin".
Or they most certainly put you on drugs now a days.

[John Sorensen]

It's interesting that the mass religions all had founders who had profound inner transformative experiences, that were later turned into dogma and rituals, and often forbid the very activities that led to the founder having some sort of personal enlightenment.


One of my old friends was/is a Jehovah's Witness, who knew I had been meditating for years, knew of the various benefits, but when I asked him why he would not try meditation, his answer was basically because of the devil/satan. That that type of influence might get him.


And this was a guy who was very smart and very intellectual and well read, and I really could not believe his answer, which was not simply in those words, but involved several long conversations on my many topics, eventually leading to that conclusion / reasoning.


As a long term meditator, so far I have not become an instrument of the devil, but if I was, well.... that would be pretty rock and roll wouldn't it? I would probably have to come up with a whole new look, something Ozzy Osborne or KISS inspired no doubt.

[BethAnne]

[LenKop]

It's amazing how belief systems work, and how deep they run.

The smartest people can be so hypnotized that they won't even question many of their beliefs.


Be vigilant. Many times I've caught myself at the edge of this kind of madness, and many times fell over, just to have to claw my way out of it and realise my own loss of personal power. I'm still finding my way, but at least it's on my own terms.

LK

[John Sorensen]

It's amazing how belief systems work, and how deep they run.

The smartest people can be so hypnotized that they won't even question many of their beliefs.


Be vigilant. Many times I've caught myself at the edge of this kind of madness, and many times fell over, just to have to claw my way out of it and realise my own loss of personal power. I'm still finding my way, but at least it's on my own terms.

LK

Sounds like me on a weekly basis. I get high highs and low lows most days, and it is easy to get caught up in it and lose perspective.

[Deb]

so far I have not become an instrument of the devil, but if I was, well.... that would be pretty rock and roll wouldn't it? I would probably have to come up with a whole new look, something Ozzy Osborne or KISS inspired no doubt.

That made me laugh, yes, out loud.
My guess is Marilyn Manson.

[LenKop]

The thread gives a nice perspective on self discipline.

How important it is to maintain control over oneself, while still letting go.

The only way to control oneself is to let go....or is it the only way to let go is by controlling oneself....now I'm confusing myself. I love the Zen sayings in this regard. They confuse and educate at the same time....lol

LK