Are you the universe?

[elfkin477]

@Machinaforce

Well I just heard it used a lot and wondered if they meant it literally or figuratively. Or if it is true.

When there’s any doubt, the best rule of thumb is to take things people say completely literally. That rarely leads you astray.

[Machinaforce]

@mandala

Buddhist and Hindu meditative practices both teach that superconscious states can be reached in extremely deep meditation. In such states dualities (matter/energy, sentient/insentient and any number of others, including time) disappear leaving the meditator experiencing himself as a timeless infinity. Maybe that’s what you heard. But such a sublimation of perception only arises in super-deep states of meditation.

It’s just the perception of infinity, and it’s not super conscious it’s more like meditation alters blood flow to the area of the brain that regulates our sense of where our body ends and begins (not sure what the term is). Not super conscious or mystical, just science. It’s a feeling of infinity but that’s all. People on psychedelics say the same thing.

I was thinking more like a scientific version. As far as I know the “no self” kind of makes sense, in that there isn’t a “soul” or essence to people or animals, it’s more like just a body and brain activity that we mistake for a unified whole. But even that doesn’t make sense. At that point it’s just one bit in a vast ocean, until death when everything breaks down.

[txjim]

My connection with the universe has been well documented

[Kent_Clark]

I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together

Goo goo g’joob

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

Know what to kiss, and when.

[Guinastasia]

You seriously need to get a hobby.

[Saintly_Loser]

The answer to your question (indeed, all your questions) can be found here.

[mandala]

@QuickSilver

Or if you drop acid.

Yes, some psychedelics can roughly mimic the effects of very deep dhyana, but the effects are fleeting. Sustained dhyana leads to samadhi which is a persistent superconscious state - difficult or impossible to break out of. As different from an acid trip as seeing a person swim and actually swimming.

[mandala]

@Machinaforce

It’s just the perception of infinity, and it’s not super conscious it’s more like meditation alters blood flow to the area of the brain that regulates our sense of where our body ends and begins (not sure what the term is). Not super conscious or mystical, just science. It’s a feeling of infinity but that’s all. People on psychedelics say the same thing.

I was thinking more like a scientific version. As far as I know the “no self” kind of makes sense, in that there isn’t a “soul” or essence to people or animals, it’s more like just a body and brain activity that we mistake for a unified whole. But even that doesn’t make sense. At that point it’s just one bit in a vast ocean, until death when everything breaks down.

OK, if you say so.

[Machinaforce]

@mandala

Yes, some psychedelics can roughly mimic the effects of very deep dhyana, but the effects are fleeting. Sustained dhyana leads to samadhi which is a persistent superconscious state - difficult or impossible to break out of. As different from an acid trip as seeing a person swim and actually swimming.

Reports seem to suggest otherwise. But there is nothing “Superconscious” about it. Like I said, it’s just brain chemistry not mystical or truthful. Meditation rewires the brain into such a state, and it can be stimulated with magnets in the lab as well. I’m sure the mystics of he past couldn’t have know that it was just the brain and not some true reality.

[QuickSilver]

@Machinaforce

Reports seem to suggest otherwise. But there is nothing “Superconscious” about it. Like I said, it’s just brain chemistry not mystical or truthful. Meditation rewires the brain into such a state, and it can be stimulated with magnets in the lab as well. I’m sure the mystics of he past couldn’t have know that it was just the brain and not some true reality.

Here’s something I never thought I’d hear myself say in response to one of your posts:

I agree. :eek:

[Darren_Garrison]

Maybe we could team up and be the world? (Dibs on the “wo wo wo” part.)

[Kent_Clark]

@Machinaforce

Meditation rewires the brain into such a state, and it can be stimulated with magnets in the lab as well.

Magnets to stimulate rewiring the brain? Does every person who’s ever had an MRI done on their head know this?

[Czarcasm]

@Machinaforce

Meditation rewires the brain into such a state, and it can be stimulated with magnets in the lab as well.

(bolding mine)Elaborate, please?

[Frodo]

Yes and so’s my wife

[elfkin477]

@Czarcasm

(bolding mine)Elaborate, please?

He probably means Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

[Velocity]

Machinaforce, let’s just settle this: are you a thing that measures many many trillions of miles wide? No? Then you are not the Universe.

[ioioio]

@Velocity

Machinaforce, let’s just settle this: are you a thing that measures many many trillions of miles wide? No? Then you are not the Universe.

Machinaforce did not ask if he is the Universe. He asked if I am the Universe. I am not.

Sorry, I thought I had made that clear.

[mandala]

Boy, have I been missing out on life! All I need is a lab magnet and some accurate trans-cranial stimulation and all my problems would be toast. I can envision a society where everyone wears a magnetic hat that constantly screws with the brain. A happy, happy society.

[DrFidelius]

@mandala

Boy, have I been missing out on life! All I need is a lab magnet and some accurate trans-cranial stimulation and all my problems would be toast. I can envision a society where everyone wears a magnetic hat that constantly screws with the brain. A happy, happy society.

Joy joy.