openagnostic
3rd January 2008, 09:31 AM
My experience.
In Feb 2007 I was listening to Yahoo Radio on my headphones while typing on the computer. A variety of random songs played, many I had never heard before.
By about 9 p.m. I noticed that I was hearing songs in a way I never had, I seemed to be entering deeply into the mind of the writer and understanding what was being emotionally conveyed. So I kept listening. I felt the sorrows and joys of others as they spoke to me in song. I felt the tragic beauty in the fleeting passions, lost hopes and brevity of life as experienced by others. There was a mixing of sadness and joy. Pleasurable shivers rose in waves up my spine from its base.
I could get up and go to the toilet and get a drink of water without losing the effect when I returned to the headphones and Yahoo Radio.
The shivers of pleasure rose in waves up my spine and began to intensify and surge down my legs and up my arms. The base of my head at the rear where the spine joins the skull was also gripped by waves of exquisite sensation with each new song.
I became concerned as the effects intensified and extended in duration. I felt my pulse to see if I had an elevated heart rate, associated with panic attacks. My pulse was normal and steady and my body felt very, very relaxed. I had the sensation of settling or falling within my body as the experience continued. I was intensely present, sharply aware and my cognition totally functioning and nimble.
The waves of sensation became a powerful rush of sensation that entered my head. I was thinking “Oh, Oh, Oh. Awesome! Go with it!†Very strong sensations of energy flowed outwards along my limbs. By now it was after midnight, in the early hours of the morning. My body felt almost weightless. I felt immensely powerful.
It went on and on, powerful waves of surging energy and intensifying. Then suddenly I felt like I burst forth from the top of my head in a massive torrent of energy and my awareness emerged into a vast yet intimate space where I felt connected to all things in the cosmos. I felt enormous feelings of joy, love, compassion and empathy for humankind and all living things. I felt kinship with all. I was overcome with immense gratitude for the privilege of being alive, and for my life with its joys as well as its sorrows and the total improbability of just being. I did not see anything. I think I just closed my eyes at this point, or vision ceased. I had no need or desire to see anything. I am not sure how long I experienced this state, as I lost all sense of time. I thanked God for life, though I did not feel I was experiencing or meeting anything resembling my previous concepts or ideas about God. I almost felt I was God or was of one substance with Him/Her/It, but I felt like the dancing One with four arms. I was dancing. I was Lord of the Cosmic Dance. I was identical with the cosmic, playful tumult and buzz of eternal intelligent energy.
By three a.m. I was feeling physically tired and sleepy. I was no longer in the great space but still in a blissful state. I went to bed and drifted off buzzing with energy and feeling physically weightless. I felt carefree, new, fresh, blissful, happy, full of laughter, totally present and focussed.
The next day I awoke still buzzing with energy. I still felt new, peaceful, untroubled and joyful. I thought to myself, “That was, and still is, a most therapeutic experience! I wonder if such experiences can be triggered in other people for their benefit? I had no idea my brain could do that!†I remembered the readings of my youth about the rising of the Kundalini and thought, “The experience appears to be an authentic one.â€Â
I attended work at Bunnings Timber department.
During the day a customer who I had never seen before suddenly said, “I feel so peaceful around you. Thank you for speaking with me.†I was inwardly amused, as I had said nothing at all different to any other day at work. I did, however, feel a heightened awareness of other people and a general sense of benevolence. I guess it was evident in my demeanour.
This calm and joyful mood has lasted for months and months. Often, when I listen to music or speak with people, I have waves of pleasure up my spine and into my head and though my limbs. Sometimes I feel as though there is something resting lightly on my head or something invisible emanating from the crown of my head. It feels most pleasant. I have noticed that when I enter highly energetic states in public, it appears to affect other people nearby. I try to keep a low profile at such times and avoid eye contact.
Since my experience I am better able to cope with life in the face of things that would normally cause me great anxiety or precipitate anger. At times I have felt in love, with everyone. During blissful states sunlight seems to penetrate my head and cause an explosion of bliss. Immediately after these states, I walk around in wonder and awe at the material and energetic miracle of this world and its great beauty. I feel radiated heat from walls and other objects from a distance. I can also feel cold objects drawing heat from me at a distance. I feel intensely in the moment and bathed in pleasure. After the bliss subsides I enter a mind state of sharp focus and deep tranquillity. I function very well in both states. The colour blue and aqua in its various shades appears to often glow.
Why can’t we see the existential miracle in each other and wonder at it all, without recourse to the supernatural? The natural is supernatural. I mean, can we rationally explain the ultimate origin of energy/matter? It is a mystery, since logic must fail to explain how something can arise from nothing, ad infinitum. Here rationality must fail us. Yet what rationality has revealed to us so far; the amazing evolutionary chain of Life is awesome enough. Reason and empirical enquiry reveal atoms, subatomic particles, and quantum flux and still further down, to where? We just need to open our eyes and minds to the utter mystery of what is and all around us.
Having said all that, I am open to spiritual and metaphysical enquiry.
Ok. Now some background about me, I am a male, 56 years of age. I have a Degree in Indian and Chinese History with a second major in Urban and Social Geography.
From the age of thirteen I was reading Lobsang Rampa (You Forever), and attempting to astral travel. I can only think of one remembered experience of success, during sleep, where I soared above the moonlit park next to our house and enjoyed seeing the park and trees from the sky. It was vivid but unlike a dream.
I joined the Self Realisation Fellowship after reading Autobiography of a Yogi. I also read Buddhism. I meditated and sought to be wise and compassionate.
At 18 years of age I became a Fundamentalist Pentecostal Christian and this lasted for 20 years or so. During this time I closed my mind to alternatives. I then became an agnostic until 2002 when I began to study and practice Hasidism. I remained agnostic but open.
In 2007 I opened my mind to other metaphysical systems and worldviews while retaining an agnostic but open mind.
I have attempted, not always successfully, to live a life, in practice, of meaning, wisdom, truth, compassion, and love, and also have some fun along the way, often with hilariously disastrous results. (Sigh). I am still trying. I am certainly no saint.
I learned some measure of mind calming, attention focus and emotion control methods over eight years (1994 – 2003) as a covert physical surveillance field operative.
I am currently reading Astral Dynamics. I am following the suggested practical steps to OBE’s very closely indeed. I am grateful for Mr Bruce’s honesty, humility and kindness.
I would dearly love to be convinced that astral travel is anything other than a wonderful internal mind-trip. Is there evidence to demonstrate that OBE’s are really out of the body?
Can anyone out there help me?
In Feb 2007 I was listening to Yahoo Radio on my headphones while typing on the computer. A variety of random songs played, many I had never heard before.
By about 9 p.m. I noticed that I was hearing songs in a way I never had, I seemed to be entering deeply into the mind of the writer and understanding what was being emotionally conveyed. So I kept listening. I felt the sorrows and joys of others as they spoke to me in song. I felt the tragic beauty in the fleeting passions, lost hopes and brevity of life as experienced by others. There was a mixing of sadness and joy. Pleasurable shivers rose in waves up my spine from its base.
I could get up and go to the toilet and get a drink of water without losing the effect when I returned to the headphones and Yahoo Radio.
The shivers of pleasure rose in waves up my spine and began to intensify and surge down my legs and up my arms. The base of my head at the rear where the spine joins the skull was also gripped by waves of exquisite sensation with each new song.
I became concerned as the effects intensified and extended in duration. I felt my pulse to see if I had an elevated heart rate, associated with panic attacks. My pulse was normal and steady and my body felt very, very relaxed. I had the sensation of settling or falling within my body as the experience continued. I was intensely present, sharply aware and my cognition totally functioning and nimble.
The waves of sensation became a powerful rush of sensation that entered my head. I was thinking “Oh, Oh, Oh. Awesome! Go with it!†Very strong sensations of energy flowed outwards along my limbs. By now it was after midnight, in the early hours of the morning. My body felt almost weightless. I felt immensely powerful.
It went on and on, powerful waves of surging energy and intensifying. Then suddenly I felt like I burst forth from the top of my head in a massive torrent of energy and my awareness emerged into a vast yet intimate space where I felt connected to all things in the cosmos. I felt enormous feelings of joy, love, compassion and empathy for humankind and all living things. I felt kinship with all. I was overcome with immense gratitude for the privilege of being alive, and for my life with its joys as well as its sorrows and the total improbability of just being. I did not see anything. I think I just closed my eyes at this point, or vision ceased. I had no need or desire to see anything. I am not sure how long I experienced this state, as I lost all sense of time. I thanked God for life, though I did not feel I was experiencing or meeting anything resembling my previous concepts or ideas about God. I almost felt I was God or was of one substance with Him/Her/It, but I felt like the dancing One with four arms. I was dancing. I was Lord of the Cosmic Dance. I was identical with the cosmic, playful tumult and buzz of eternal intelligent energy.
By three a.m. I was feeling physically tired and sleepy. I was no longer in the great space but still in a blissful state. I went to bed and drifted off buzzing with energy and feeling physically weightless. I felt carefree, new, fresh, blissful, happy, full of laughter, totally present and focussed.
The next day I awoke still buzzing with energy. I still felt new, peaceful, untroubled and joyful. I thought to myself, “That was, and still is, a most therapeutic experience! I wonder if such experiences can be triggered in other people for their benefit? I had no idea my brain could do that!†I remembered the readings of my youth about the rising of the Kundalini and thought, “The experience appears to be an authentic one.â€Â
I attended work at Bunnings Timber department.
During the day a customer who I had never seen before suddenly said, “I feel so peaceful around you. Thank you for speaking with me.†I was inwardly amused, as I had said nothing at all different to any other day at work. I did, however, feel a heightened awareness of other people and a general sense of benevolence. I guess it was evident in my demeanour.
This calm and joyful mood has lasted for months and months. Often, when I listen to music or speak with people, I have waves of pleasure up my spine and into my head and though my limbs. Sometimes I feel as though there is something resting lightly on my head or something invisible emanating from the crown of my head. It feels most pleasant. I have noticed that when I enter highly energetic states in public, it appears to affect other people nearby. I try to keep a low profile at such times and avoid eye contact.
Since my experience I am better able to cope with life in the face of things that would normally cause me great anxiety or precipitate anger. At times I have felt in love, with everyone. During blissful states sunlight seems to penetrate my head and cause an explosion of bliss. Immediately after these states, I walk around in wonder and awe at the material and energetic miracle of this world and its great beauty. I feel radiated heat from walls and other objects from a distance. I can also feel cold objects drawing heat from me at a distance. I feel intensely in the moment and bathed in pleasure. After the bliss subsides I enter a mind state of sharp focus and deep tranquillity. I function very well in both states. The colour blue and aqua in its various shades appears to often glow.
Why can’t we see the existential miracle in each other and wonder at it all, without recourse to the supernatural? The natural is supernatural. I mean, can we rationally explain the ultimate origin of energy/matter? It is a mystery, since logic must fail to explain how something can arise from nothing, ad infinitum. Here rationality must fail us. Yet what rationality has revealed to us so far; the amazing evolutionary chain of Life is awesome enough. Reason and empirical enquiry reveal atoms, subatomic particles, and quantum flux and still further down, to where? We just need to open our eyes and minds to the utter mystery of what is and all around us.
Having said all that, I am open to spiritual and metaphysical enquiry.
Ok. Now some background about me, I am a male, 56 years of age. I have a Degree in Indian and Chinese History with a second major in Urban and Social Geography.
From the age of thirteen I was reading Lobsang Rampa (You Forever), and attempting to astral travel. I can only think of one remembered experience of success, during sleep, where I soared above the moonlit park next to our house and enjoyed seeing the park and trees from the sky. It was vivid but unlike a dream.
I joined the Self Realisation Fellowship after reading Autobiography of a Yogi. I also read Buddhism. I meditated and sought to be wise and compassionate.
At 18 years of age I became a Fundamentalist Pentecostal Christian and this lasted for 20 years or so. During this time I closed my mind to alternatives. I then became an agnostic until 2002 when I began to study and practice Hasidism. I remained agnostic but open.
In 2007 I opened my mind to other metaphysical systems and worldviews while retaining an agnostic but open mind.
I have attempted, not always successfully, to live a life, in practice, of meaning, wisdom, truth, compassion, and love, and also have some fun along the way, often with hilariously disastrous results. (Sigh). I am still trying. I am certainly no saint.
I learned some measure of mind calming, attention focus and emotion control methods over eight years (1994 – 2003) as a covert physical surveillance field operative.
I am currently reading Astral Dynamics. I am following the suggested practical steps to OBE’s very closely indeed. I am grateful for Mr Bruce’s honesty, humility and kindness.
I would dearly love to be convinced that astral travel is anything other than a wonderful internal mind-trip. Is there evidence to demonstrate that OBE’s are really out of the body?
Can anyone out there help me?