Fruit of the Contemplative Life
Fruit of the contemplative life: => Case Histories with religious experiences => : Nik Pritchard February 18, 2012, 04:09:21 AM
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Thank-you Nik, for posting your case history for us to read through. My childhood was also near nature. I was raised on the edge of Tucson, Arizona, USA, where the desert came right up to our back door. So, I spent a lot of time playing in the desert. And, as an adult I spend as much time as I can in the wilderness. As a contemplative the wilderness has been a major vehicle for my solitude and inspiration.
I am not sure why you chose to start a new thread for the second chapter of your case history, so I moved it into the same thread as your first chapter. If you have any more chapters coming then feel free to just add them as replies to your first chapter. I also have a section planned for contemplative blogs, so if you have any daily reflections that would fit there better there, then just let me know and I will activate the section. Same goes with anyone else.
Your childhood ‘flying dreams’ are typical of a mystic. I too had ‘flying dreams’ and many other lucid dreaming content as a child, which surely marked me as a future mystics. So it is not surprising that you, Michael and Jill also had such childhood dreams.
Your section “NY and the Light” is typical for the future mystic taking up the contemplative life. We often find the charisms easily and quickly. You found the charism of light. Sadly, since most priests of most religions have no religious experience, then we have no guidance through these charismatic experiences, so they can often be quite frightening for us to experience. This is the purpose for this forum, and these case histories, so that others who have these experiences can find out that they are not alone, nor are they going crazy.
You Michael and I devoured books in our quest for understanding the charisms. We go to metaphysical bookstores in search of information. Sadly we find books by Gopi Krishna, and otehrs, who might have had a few charismatic experiences, but never figured it out. We can only use Gopi Krishna books as evidence that the Indic religions are equally corrupt as the Abrahamic religions.
It is good that you found the stilling of the mind. Sadly, the Asian religions have made the experience so fantastic, that no mere mortal could deign to have such an experience, and too often when we report the experience to a Buddhist monk, he too often dismisses us, and our experience. This only serves as further proof of the corruption of the Indic religions.
Those who experience the stilling of the mind in meditation, first find it in brief gaps, but as we take up a daily practice of meditation then we find those gaps in the cognitive process become more frequent, then those gaps become longer. We find those cognitive gaps blissful, so we keep looking for them, and finding them. Then, when we become really skilled we begin to find the still mind throughout the day, and we begin to lengthen those cognitive gaps until we can take with us a still mind throughout the day. But, be careful not to tell any Buddhist priest you have done that, because you will be marginalized, because you are doing what they have failed at.
The stilling the mind is the second jhana. When we become skilled at stilling the mind, then it becomes the doorway to charismatic phenomena, such as light and sound. Your experience of hearing internal sounds during meditation, such as: the sound of thunder, high pitched whistling sounds, bell/chime sounds, flute like sounds, and a trumpet like sound; as well as seeing flashes of bright white light while meditating are classic charisms that have been described by every mystic, but priests do not have these experience, so they are confused when someone comes to them and reports such experiences.
Your ‘silent seeing phase’ is a classic description of equanimity. Equanimity is the third jhana. So, you made it to the third jhana. The charisms are typical for the third jhana, so it is not surprising that you had those charisms.
Your experience of a “tremendous voltage” shoot up your spine that was so powerful that it felt like your head was going to explode is classic kundalini rising, and is typically of the 4th jhana.
Sadly, when we discussed and shared religious experiences with others, it too often only leads to ridicule by the laity and the priesthood.
Exhaustion and chronic fatigue are common for contemplatives who are becoming mystics. I believe it is part of an overall hypersensitivity that is required for the charisms to arise.
Yes, there are many myths at play in religions. Most religions believe in fantastic powers for genuine mystics, so that if someone claims to have had charismatic experiences, then they must have fantastic powers, but when we mystics fail to demonstrate those fantastic powers, then we are dismissed as insane. This reaction of the priesthood of the religions only serves as further proof that they have no idea what the charisms are about.
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Thank-you Nik for adding to your case history, while the forum software has a word limit for posts, there is no reason why one cannot simply cut the case history in pieces and post them as “replies” to the original post.
I to, often enter into Samadhi when driving. I have never had anyone become fearful of my entering “space camp” as you call it, when I am driving, but then most of the people I interact with are completely clueless of the charisms. Anyway, when I am in saamdhi, I find I am hyper aware of the driving conditions and traffic. In fact on several occasions I have had a close brush with an accident, and it was the Samadhi that allowed me to react precisely to avoid the accident. One time I had a car full of passengers when I was driving through an intersection a driver took a left turn right in front of me. I braked, downshifted and switched lanes to avoid the collision and did not cause a collision to avoid the accident. We just slid right through without a scrape.
I recall my passengers all remarked, “How did you avoid that accident?”
I just smiled.
Your story of sleeping with your nurse-girlfriend who would wake you from sleep when you were meditating, reminded me of a similar girlfriend that I had. She kept waking me up doing CPR on me because she had thought I had died in my sleep. Needless to say I did not get much rest with her around, so we parted.
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Thank you Jeff - for the feedback, it is appreciated as always. I am still naggingly curious to see more of your ‘mystic model’ which incorporates and aligns the Jhana stages with crisis points. I feel this is a very important area, experiential especially.
Understanding the Unwholesome States
The Darkness of the Dark Night
http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/unwholesome.htm
Videos:
Existential Crisis
The Existential Crisis is the first Spiritual Crisis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xv2--42UnY
The Spiritual Crisis, is the second stage of internal crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSaZ1FDHJKc
Dark Night of the Soul, the third stage of the Spiritual Crisis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTGW_tbYgqc
Descent into hell. The fourth Stage of the Spiritual Crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu2XvbG_fAI
Meditation induced psychosis. The fifth stage of the Spiritual Crisis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-YRDFwAX1U
You have mentioned these in brief in the videos above. These crisis phases are the other side of the coin which is much ignored unfortunately in so many spiritual circles. Anyone who is familiar with St. John of the Cross and the Dark Night of the Soul, will be able to detect that the mystics journey is not all about light, bliss and transcendental ecstatic states.
The fullest overall picture we can have - is a mystic model of consciousnesses that is congruent.
And yes please do activate the blogging part of the site.
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Hello Nik, the way to tell, whether you are dealing with an authentic enlightened spiritual master is if he or she acknowledges the significance of the spiritual crisis. As you mentioned, St John of the Cross is one who wrote about the spiritual crisis, or what he called the "aridities" of the "Dark Night of the Soul."
I have activated the blogging section. I hope the members find it useful.