Hi Pam, There's a poster named Vaj who doesn't post here anymore - if he was around he would told you a lot about how TM has caused all kinds of psychological issues and such. Not sure what your background is.
I believe he had a valid point, any spiritual practice can trigger a set of metaphysical processes which induce mystical experiences. The ancient wisdom of India identified two major paths - the path of yoga, the path of perfection where one conditions the body, mind, senses so it's prepared to accept this mystical descension. And then there is the path of tantra, the path of love, surrender, trust, faith. The path of yoga shouldn't cause too many issues unless there are some premature mystical experiences that have been triggered because a yogi should have perfected his/her body, mind, senses by then. Based on my experiences the majority of the problems can be caused by the path of tantra since one who is the path of the tantra hasn't perfected his/her body, mind, senses to sustain the intense transformation that happens once the mystical experiences are initiated. However if the person on the path of tantra or love is true to the core values of love, faith, surrender, trust he/she can integrate the mystical energy without too many issues. I can briefly detail my experiences because I belong to the latter path. I didn't really perform any spiritual practices and I had two distinct phases - a mystical ascension and then a mystical descension. The ascension phase is when the body, mind and senses are somehow prepared to receive the mystical energy - starting in 2002 I went through intense periods where I encountered de-realization, de-personalization ranging from several days to several weeks and a severe panic attack at the peak. Luckily I didn't know anything about the labels assigned by psychiatry till after 4 years in 2006 when I ended up with a severe which caused me to end up in an emergency. The physician informed me that I was just hyperventilating and prescribed me Xanax which I duly threw it away. The main strengths of mine were I was extremely introverted though I was in a cult I never fantasized on the Guru, nor asked for any spiritual advice nor ever did I ever share my experiences with anyone till 2009, except briefly with ex and others - which I later regretted. I continued to do what I usually do - work, taking care of the family, except for a period of 1 week in 2006 when I had to take off from work. Starting 2009 is what I describe as mystical descension - Unity - where, as in, in my case I felt the existence was pouring into me - hence the term - "descension" - this caused much more upheaval that anything - I have had 3 rounds of these and I believe I'm done - I'm very centered,integrated and balanced. But I cannot completely rule it out clearly but at this stage I know exactly what I need to do. So in a nutshell either perfect your body,mind, senses as in Yoga or have total faith, surrender in the existence without fantasizing on any Guru, religion, therapist, psychiatry, drugs as in case of tantra. Hope this helps. Ravi. On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 6:50 PM, pamtaylor108 <pamtaylor...@yahoo.com> wrote: > ** > > > I want to address this thing some of us are doing, this communication with > spirit sources. I realize there's arguments for gains, and for the blissful > feelings one gets from the contact, but hear me out. > We have so little knowledge of the tolls taken on the person in direct > contact with the spirit, god or goddess, that it ends up being a gamble as > to whether or not it's safe. Other than the fact that contacting spirits > makes us feel blissful, we don't know the mechanics taking place in the > brain--no matter if the exchange is labeled channeling, or conversation, or > anything else; and no matter if the spirit claims divinity--we don't know > the amount of harm. All we know is that it could be harmful, according to > certain great masters. > So, it's possible the receiver could sustain longterm psychological > damage. We don't know. The receiver doesn't know. Even a saint wouldn't > know. > We need to ask ourselves why the least amount of uncertainty or risk > shouldn't be sufficient to inspire us not to do it. > I also want to point out that folks claiming to know for sure that contact > with spirit sources are not harmful, have no sound foundation on which to > lay that claim. None. Whereas my basis for objection is the known > possibility of damage to the wellbeing of people communicating with these > spirits, gods or goddesses. > That's it. That's all I wanted to say. Now, anyone wanting to shoot down > this note, be my guest. > Well, one last thing. As we move together toward enlightenment, let's > remember the old adage, "not all sources of joy are worthy of trust." > > >
