Techniques That Cause Damage ??

[Loreena]

I have been reading a lot of topics on the forum and it seems that many of us have tried various methods and techniques in our overall spiritual and actualization path. 

Some have used different types of music for meditation, some might have tried some kind of substances to experience intense meditation and so on. 

These days the internet is full of techniques that are sold to you to make you feel better in your body and mind, and some are legit and some are not, whereas others have had unpleasant and damaging side effects. 

For example, some like Holosync music during meditation. However I tried it and experienced extreme side effects. 

And there can be many examples of similar things. 

A lot of people complain about Kundalini yoga and its dangers. 

So it will be so nice if anyone can share their own experiences of different things that they tried anywhere from a kind of meditation to a healing technique, a holistic method, a specific diet or exercise method that actually caused them more harm than good. 

It kinda raises awareness about whatever is there in the market so we can approach it with caution and not end up suffering permanent damage.

So go ahead and post any of your negative experiences with anything.

Edited July 24, 2017 by Loreena

[Joseph Maynor]

Meditating by stilling the mind.  I did this for like a year and is bad because it is a kind of self-interference.

[Arman]

Didn't follow instructions/advice on using spinal-breathing pranayama when I was around 18. It is like kriya-yoga and was used with mantra meditation alongside a few other prescribed yoga practices for working with kundalini energy etc. You were supposed to start slow and simple and only take on further progression practices once the previous ones had proved to be comfortable and balanced over several months, and warned to scale back and reduce or remove practices if you are experiencing any negative symptoms. Being naive,I didn't listen to any of that and even took on practices that were described for only people who have practiced comfortably for years. I overdid it and became very ungrounded because I was getting interesting experiences of bliss and general intense physiological stuff. It was not a spiritual pursuit for me but more wanting to get high and it was a way of escaping. Sometimes practices can create joy and all kinds of phenomena that is exciting to the ego but it is frenetic and ungrounded as opposed to integrated. 

Eventually over time it kind of exhausted and burnt out my nervous system and any practices would be overstimulating and overwhelming. Any pranayama would leave me severely uncomfortable for days, and even meditating for short term made me uncomfortable, ungrounded and emotionally volatile and anxious for a few days. Even ten minutes would make the next day or two quite uncomfortable. It took almost 2 years before I could meditate for any length of time again without negative symptoms and maybe another 2 years before I could feel grounded in general. There were also shorter periods of more severely uncomfortable experiences. Scary times, frankly, but worth the lessons, and also gives me an appreciation of being able to just sit in silence. 

Edited July 24, 2017 by Arman

[Arman]

Oh, and an analogue ayahuasca experience that went severely 'wrong' due to once again being young and stupid. Was not prepared for it and had naive confidence due to using a lot of other psychedelics. It was meant to last around 3 hours, but lasted much, much longer. It was extreme and quite traumatic emotionally, energetically and physiologically. I think I had a severe reaction to the SSRI. I had what I would consider moderate brain-damage that took a few years to recover from. That first year and particularly the first few months were really awful. Memory, focus, concentration were all messed up. The first week or two I would wake up from sleeping randomly LOADED on DMT. Like I would wake up within a DMT experience (they say we might produce DMT in our sleep and my experience seems to anecdotally verify that) and it would last a few minutes and reside. It was really really strange and scary. It is an experience I'm likely still paying for to this day. 

Jeeze, I have forgotten about these things. Surprised I can still walk and talk! It's a testament to the body and brains capability to heal itself though, as I consider myself fairly healthy and grounded now.