10.18.2008

Meditation

This morning I had an interesting and unique(for me) experience while
meditating.

I felt disconnected from my body. Like I was floating in space. No,
not like that. It was like a floating sensation, but I felt completely
detached from my body. As if my consciousness itself were floating. It
happened very suddenly, about 15 minutes into the meditation.

I have been feeling kind of sick lately. Flu like symptoms (At first I
thought it was the laxative cherry soda I drank, but now I think it
may actually be something like the flu, such as 'the flu'), because of
this the contrast was very apparent, suddenly my aching muscles seemed
to fade away.
I did not feel as if my body was infinite, but as if the concept of
body, with a beginning and end did not apply.
The feeling was extremely pleasant. Euphoric.
Sometimes while meditating certain feelings may overcome my body, but
they tend to fade in and out, or feel as if they are fragile and could
end at any moment, but once this began it continued until I opened my
eyes, and felt comfortable in that it wouldn't end until I chose to
end it.
I'm not sure how long I was in this state, but eventually the thought
came into my consciousness that a significant amount of time had passed
and It was time to leave for school.

Despite realizing I needed to get going, It felt difficult to open my
eyes. Not just that I did not want to, but almost as if I were so deep
in my altered state I had not the ability. As if I were hypnotized.
And perhaps I was.

The thought of having to return to my body and the physical world felt
heavy and course. This reminded me of the near death experience
accounts I have read. Common to all the experiences I have read is an
extreme reluctance by the experiencer to return to their body.
I began to imagine the physical world as being just as refined as this
magic, bodiless world my altered consciousness had created, and doing
so allowed me to feel okay with returning to it.
When I finally willed myself to open my eyes, I immediately regained
the feeling of having a body, but the world now felt more special.
Less course.
It left me feeling pretty good the rest of the day. My flu like
symptoms have been much less, and a sense of wonder and magic has
remained.

I'm not sure why today's meditation was so unique. I have been
experimenting with visualizations rather than just focusing on
breathing and mindfulness. I am curious to try the visualization I
developed today again and see if anything similar happens. I will be
excited if it does. It was a wonderful state I and I would enjoy
being able to return to at my pleasure. If I do get the same results,
perhaps I will attempt to describe the visualization and perhaps
others might also be able to have similar results. (It is kind of
complicated to explain or I would just write it out now)

4 comments:

max said...

I don't know much about mediation, but I would really like to start/try. Do you have any recommendations?

Chris Almond said...

hey max. i think you would really enjoy it, and find it very beneficial to your life. i am no expert on meditating, but there are some pretty good websites with good descriptions. it is pretty simple really:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/mindandbody/ht/htmindful.htm

http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/mindandbody/a/harvardmind.htm

http://www.mindfulness.com/

I also very much recommend chanting using prayer beads. though you can do it with out prayer beads. choose a mantra, then say it over and over. either out loud or in your mind. i like to carry my prayer beads in my purse, and when i am waiting in long lines or stuck in traffic or something similar i use them. it is soothing and uplifting. there is a lot of info and suggestion onlines about mantras, but the only thing i would suggest is choosing a mantra in english (or i guess Portuguese). i have found that having a mantra that you don't have an emotional connection with the words are much less effective. one mantra i enjoy is 'may all beings be happy, may all creatures be free' or any variation of that. but of course a mantra is best though of as a personal thing, so perhaps something else may work better for you.
you can get prayer beads cheaply at any new agey type store. they aren't necessary, but i find they help me stay focused on the chant, and if i am doing a specific number of chants, then it helps one not have to count along the way.
http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/news/20060303/mantras-may-help-cut-stress

http://www.abc-of-meditation.com/meditation-techniques/choosemantra.asp

let me know how it goes. hope all is going well. i am really liking your beard.

carie said...

i wonder what would happen if you didn't have school and you had nothing to do for like a week. would you be able to wake up? Maybe you would have floated on over to us to say hi in our dreams.

Version #2 said...

Astral Projection!

I used to read about this a lot in an attempt to learn how to do it.

Richard Bach used to write about it a lot...have I ever asked if you liked Illusions?

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