Henri

It`s a hard topic and one I have to treat in a very careful way. When you talk about abandoned by your mother and emotional instability with difficulty forming relationships, it could be your having a kind of reactive attachment disorder. You can check it out yourself on the internet, there are many different levels to it. All I can say is that when you do, you might need some extra work, knowledge and experience on your way of self development. But let me know.

@bazera Be sure you make a distinction between emotions and feelings. Lots of people don`t know the difference. Emotions are from the head and come up with the thinking process. Feelings are from the heart and are independent of the thoughts

One can experience if someone is enlightened. Sit next to the person and your mind will become empty, questions disappear and a unconditioned joy will fill you. These are the signs of a true guru. An enlightened one does not need any words he can communicate in silence, communicate with the soul.

Be sure you make a distinction between emotions and feelings. Lots of people don`t know the difference. Emotions are from the head and come up with the thinking process. Feelings are from the heart and are independent of the thoughts. By going inwards you`ll become a bit of a loner in the beginning, thinking and contemplating on your experiences. There`s nothing wrong with that and will definitely change a bit further up the road.

It`s not about searching, it`s about finding!

No matter what path, dive deep and you`ll experience truth!

Are you aware of, or diagnosed as having an attachment disorder?

Only to experience once samadhi and so much knowledge will follow. The knowledge is not packed in the mind but lays everywhere just to pick up when needed. One experience of divine love and you will know everything about love, it`s opposite, the ways, all the different aspects and so on. There are three ways of knowledge, believing, hearing or reading and the highest one; experiencing. Experience is the ultimate goal.

Thanks for all the replies. A healthy living is the best guarantee to lower the blood-pressure, without needing chemical stuff.

Try a course called `The sudarshan Kriya` developed by The Art of Living known as `Kunst von Leben` in Germany. You can check out their website, they are present everywhere around Germany. It`s a great and powerful breathing-technique cleaning your system.

To start the practice of being total honest requires first to step back a little out of society. The video ` thirty ways society fucks you in the ass` is a good reminder. Being honest requires knowledge and that requires first to skip all the bullshit everyone is surrounded by. And never forget that honesty does not mean you have to give your opinion all the time! Best way is to be silent. The yoga-sutras by Patanjali is famous for demanding a rigid attitude towards honesty, with no room for fooling around. Even to kill a person and by doing so saving a thousand people is considered to be wrong and dishonest.

It`s the Self or Big Mind that knew the happening already. It`s like a flash entering your mind from the Self.

In your case I would definitely study the work of Clare Graves, called Spiral Dynamics. My opinion is that you have to watch out not to take too much cognition to youngsters who walk behind the mainstream cultural level. They need other approaches. I even guess most people will not even come voluntary. Working on the individual subject and the collective subject, the culture, is hard. To do a good job you need a lot of knowledge, especially about all kinds of developmental issues. Check the work of Ken Wilber, a good suggestion.

There is already such kind of drugs, easily available and very cheap; your breath.

Oh mate, yearning for the good life, are you?! Join the club, haha.... What can I say, follow your dreams. But for sure I am not gonna tell you what to do, it`s all up to you! I have traveled the world for twelve years, Australia is great. But I`m telling you; there are even greater places! Haha... Good luck my friend!

There are not two options, but countless ones. When you would have traveled to, lets say, New Zealand at 20 you would have been fallen in love with another woman. No doubt. First you have to relax my friend! Don`t make mistakes you gonna regret a little bit later on the road. Save some money and take your girl for a travel of, say 6 months. A lot of other options will arise. And never forget, it`s rare to find a soulmate at 20! Also rare to find a life-job at 20! And stupid to make a lot of debts. Keep the freedom!

The easiest and most comfortable way to learn meditation is to start to learn some breathing techniques first (pranayamas). Lots of people give up meditation very soon because their mind is just too busy and too shattered, to reach a profound experience. Just with a few breathing exercises it will be much more easier to meditate because it quiets the mind in an easy way. You can find pranayamas on the internet.

For more than twenty years cardiologist Pim van Lommel has studied near-death experiences (NDEs) in patients who survived a cardiac arrest. In 2001, he and his fellow researchers published a study on Near Death Experiences in the renowned medical journal The Lancet. He, then, wrote the Dutch bestseller Endless Consciousness in 2007; over 100.000 copies were sold in the first year. The NDE is an authentic experience which cannot be attributed to imagination, psychosis or oxygen deprivation. After such an profound experience, patient’s personalities underwent a permanent change. In Van Lommel’s opinion, the current views on the relationship between the brain and consciousness held by most physicians, philosophers and psychologists is too narrow for a proper understanding of the NDE phenomenon. The author provides examples and ways that our consciousness does not always coincide with brain functions; that consciousness can even be experienced separate from the body. (copy) The copy above is just an example of a different view from a person who started from the same point you`re starting from. To have the proper answers to your questions you have to start to study non-duality philosophy and also go follow the path of developing yourself, gain experiences. When having a scientific mind I would suggest you start with the integral stuff by Ken Wilber, especially his work Marriage of Sense and Soul. The topic is to massive to quote just a few lines or beliefs or experiences. To gain the answers here you need to be able to think in a integral way in stead of the old fashioned reduced way. One answer from me will give rise to ten or more questions from you... Jai Guru Dev

There`s no biological reason but there can be a biological reaction to meditative experiences. Mind over matter so to speak. So your question is a wrong question.

Don`t reinvent the wheel again mate, that`s why one needs a teacher (guru). The dutch are champs of developing the weed, practically and theoretically. Anyway, losing the subject here. Tell me of a profound master who tells you it is not dangerous to smoke pod on the path. The ones I know are fake or bush-people with tribal mentality. It`s so useless to talk about this stuff compared to the goals you really want to achieve. Move on mate! Jai Guru Dev

Yeah well, I`m not belonging to the political correctness people and I`m dutch speaking. Dutch and cannabis may ring a bell? Though the knowledge about it came from my Guru and I didn`t even mention the dangers for your pranamaya kosha and your chakra`s. There`s one rare exception developing yourself and use cannabis and that`s in Bengal and Orissa in India where there is a Kali cult the Jnani way. They do lots of weird stuff the dark way. Anyway that`s not for the sensitive ones.

@ttm A lot of problems can come out of a damaged nervous-system by taking cannabis. Well known are symptoms like `visual snow` and hearing all kind of noises inside your own head. These symptoms can remain the rest of your life and are a terrible burden for any self-developing track.

Go where your passion and your interests take you. A good start is History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. If you are mainly interested in personal development you probably better take off with eastern philosophy. I studied Schopenhauer about the human will for some time, a great and enormous writing, to find out years later by a Hindu legend that the will is just a thought! Mindblowing, I`m telling you... A basic start for eastern philosophy would be Nagarjuna, Shankaracharya and Lao Tzu, being Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist. Learn some basic stuff and follow your passion and inner guide.

For the western mind it is likely better to learn and do some pranayamas before starting your meditation.

Enthusiasm is the word. After all this means ` love for God`.