Extreme experiences in altered consciousness

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Okay, so I’d like for us to share any extreme experiences we’ve had during and altered state, as in meditating, dreaming (lucid or otherwise), spirit quests, etc.

The impetus for all this is that I’ve had three very powerful experiences the past three times I’ve meditated with the UU spiritual insight group. The first one was during the meeting about Boundaries. We imagined ourselves as spheres of light, orbiting around each other, but being seperate. Well, there was some sort of connection, apparently, because when we came back to reality, both my knee and the group leader’s (1) right knees were aching. Wierd, but not too much. We found out later that our friend from UU had strained her right knee earlier that week.

2nd time, next meeting, can’t remember the topic. We were supposed to imagine ourselves as being filled with light. I think now the topic may have been power. Anyways, I was a circle of light during this meditation. We then had to imagine a recent experience where we didn’t tap into our power for some reason. I thought of how I didn’t stand up against the Anti-Profanity policy of my workplace when my boss called the cops on a guy. When I thought about this, we were asked to imagine how it could have gone differently. As soon as I imagined that I had stood up for the guy, my circle of light went completely black and I couldn’t do anything to relight it. It shook me so bad that I exited the meditation early.

The last one happened tonight, and I think it has got me scared off from meditating for a while at least. The group leader asked me to be a tree. I was okay with that at first. I was standing there and everything was good. Then came the part about focusing on the trunk, and that’s where things started to go bad. She didn’t mention legs, and I started seeing myself just sticking out of the ground, sort of huddled. And then she asked us to imagine that our legs were our roots. I saw and felt my roots go into the ground and I didn’t like it. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get out of there. I wanted to be free. And when she had us imagine that each breath sucked in nutrients and water from the ground, and let out toxins to the earth, that’s what killed it for me. My roots were just getting bigger, stronger, more spread out and I tried hard, and thought I had to hold on to the toxins because I knew that would take out my roots and I could get up and be free. I had tears in my eyes because I knew that I had to be able to move, to go somewhere. I don’t know where, but I couldn’t be tied down to where I was. That was when I broke. I tried to stay seated and let ya’ll finish, but I couldn’t I had to get up. You guys don’t know how hard it was for me to keep from running out the door and getting away from that spot. I don’t know what it was, but I don’t think I can go through it again.

(1) a good friend of mine who was the one who wrangled me into UU.

2

Hello.

3

I frequently have vivid nightmares, and dreams, but nothing under an altered state (I’ve never been under anaesthetic or anything like that).

Bide a while, huk24, they’ll show up. :wink:

4

Um…what’s UU?

5

Unseen University, of course.

6

Unitarian Universalists…The “I’m OK, You’re OK” church. :slight_smile:

Meditation for me is a time of calmness and consideration. I’m utterly nonspiritual. I don’t believe in a scrap of religion or spirituality, so if I started getting all wigged out (and I wasn’t on an hallucinogen) during my quiet time, I’d probably assume there was something physically wrong with me.

I have been known to have some nasty dreams, however.

7

This is not at all what I was thinking this thread would be about.

8

There is no requirement to go back to the meditations. That being said, does your group talk about your experiences after the meditation? The discussion after can be as informative as the meditation itself and is very helpful for gaining control. Definitely discuss your problem with your group leader before going further.

There is nothing in a meditation that can harm you. Sometimes this needs to be emphasized before each session. There is nothing in the meditation that isn’t you. You are the roots being held in place, but you are also the ground holding you. You are the sky arching over the ground that is holding you. You are the sun (if there is one) floating in the sky arching over the ground that is holding you. You are the termite. . . you get the idea. Within the meditation, you are completely free.

Was this explained at the beginning of the meditation? Were you given permission to break away from any image that disturbed you? Are you allowed to speak during the meditation if you need to?

The first person to guide me through a meditation used the first session to have each of us construct a safe place. The absolute inviolability of the place was emphasized over and over. The fact that nothing could come within that place that wasn’t a part of us was stressed. It was the first rule. If a leopard jumps up and eats you, it means you are becoming one with the leopard and gaining its strength. It also means that part of you was already a leopard, or at least wanted to be.

The guide also had us ask everything we met if it had a message for us. That can make othewise uncomfortable situations understandable.

All our other meditations began by going to the safe place first. You may need a similar safety structure. Please let me know if you continue the meditations. And again, you definitely don’t have to.

9

I have had several nightmares that, while not actually having images just conveyed an unshakable, and undeniable sense of dread. Something like hopelessness, mixed with a horrible feeling of responsiblity. The felling can best be described as “I let it out, and now everything is going to suffer horibly because of it. And there is nothing that can possibly be done.” Whenever these happened I woke up, and had to turn on the lights.

I’ve also had some incredible feelings in other dreams. In one dream I knew that it was a dream, and that I could do whatever I wanted to. I started walking through walls, and turning forests into magnificent, white pillared halls. I jumped hundreds af yards into the sky, and landed safely. I actually gew wings (this hurt), and began to fly around the city.

I’ve also had expeiriences similar to the meditation ddescribed in the OP, where I imagined my physical reality changing. These usually happened not when meditating (something I’ve only done once or twice, and never seriously), but when I was just laying on my back listening to music woth the lights off and my eyes closed. In one of the most vivid of these, I just a floating mind, observing what was hapening, sort of a concius mote. Basicly what happened was a large swarm of black spider-like creatures that seemed to be made of shadow came into a land, and began to devour everything. One man (I guess sort of hero figure) became incased in a cucoon-like structure that was spun b the shadow things. Eventually he broke out, and saw his that world had been consumed by these things. He went to their evil fortress (yes this is actually what happened) and as it turns out, the shadow things, were all just the body of one huge, black, shadowy beast. The beast rose up into a human form, and an epic battle ensued. The hero figure won, and that’s when the song ended, and my trance-like state was broken.

10

Maybe not quite what the OP was asking for, but I had a very interesting morphine experience once. Now, I’ll give you a little background first: I’ve had lots of IV morphine, over the years, for kidney stone pain and post-op. Morphine, prior to this experience, has never been hallucinogenic for me. Well, about a year ago, I had a scope procedure to remove a stone, and later that night I was quite uncomfortable. Too uncomfortable for Tylenol; but Tylenol 3 or Percocet would have done the trick. Unfortunately, my doctor didn’t leave an order for those things, he left an order for 4mg or morphine. The nurse put the morphine in my IV, and just a few minutes later, my chest began to feel really warm, in a pleasant way. Then I began floating, off the hospital bed, towards the ceiling. I thought, uh-oh, it’s gonna hurt when I hit the ceiling. But when I got there, I just floated right through it, and thought, well, that’s okay then. I was floating over a field of wild flowers and wondering, if I were to pick one, could I carry it back to my hospital room with me when I came back. I was a little disappointed when the answer turned out to be “no”.