The Dark Side Of Meditation Summary

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

You cannot be following Actualized.org and not meditating, it is a must.

Weird stuff will arise while you meditate and it’s not all butterflies. The side effects or meditations are (may last for a whole month):

·         Hyper annoyance and crankiness

·         Expect hyper judgmentalism

·         Mood swings (can last for weeks)

·         Feelings of loneliness, disgust, anger and frustration (for mild to strong forms)

·         Crying

·         Insomnia (manic episodes with tons of energy)

·         Depression (serious spells) and meaninglessness (you’ll self-improvement is meaningless)

·         Interference (you will think that your work and career are meaningless and you’ll want to quit your career. It will come and pass.

·         Interference with your relationship (you will think you chose the wrong person)

·         Rush judgments (like quit my job and go to meditate on a cave or liquidate all your assets)

·         Suicidal thoughts

·         Freak-out moments

·         Ego backlash: As you are meditating you are dissolving your ego but when the ego gets dissolved too much too fast, it usually come back stronger

o   Go back to old bad habits

·         Hyper hornyness

·         Expect old repressed memories

·         Family issues

·         Crazy monkey mind (waves of insanity and madness)

·         Self-doubt: You will doubt your technique

·         Expect nightmares and dreams

·         Expect spiritual arrogance (“look how unconscious people are”)

This is common stuff you will have to expect. These are weirder side effects

·         Shaking, tingling and pain in your body

·         See lights and auras

·         Vivid sexual fantasies (homosexual fantasies) and will tend to seduce you

·         Behave like an animal

·         Paranormal phenomena (reliving the past or seeing the future) or out-of-body experience

·         Might see/hear spirits (angel or demons)

·         Samadhi states (negative or positive): Stop existing as an individual object and merge with reality

·         Kundalini awakening (energy shooting out your spine and going to your head)

·         Total blackout or the void

·         Ego death

·         Your reality will be shattered

·         Dark night of the soul: When you start to see that everything you knew about reality is false and completely delusional (reality has no purpose nor meaning)

·         Depersonalization: You start to think that you don’t exist as a person (you want to treat it as temporary phases that you need to work trough

What to do with all these stuff?

·         Relax, all these stuff is normal.

·         Not get distracted with these stuff too.

·         KEEP MEDITATING; IF YOU STOP, THE EGO WILL WIN. Remember that all the negative stuff is a sign of growth.

·         Remind yourself that everything you are feeling is a phase, it will pass.

·         REMEMBER TO TRUST YOUR HIGHER SELF!

·         It is supposed to be a process of self-love (be kind and gentle on yourself)

·         Your job is to sit and be mindful

·         If you really need, just take a break for a short time (you should always come back)

·         Read spiritual books

 

You are not necessarily encounter with all of these stuff, so don’t go hunt for it. The trick with these things is to not get triggered by them and make a rush move as a reaction against the negative emotional energy. What meditation do is surfacesing stuff from the subconscious mind but if you don’t expect that, you can get into trouble. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THESE THINGS ARE TEMPORARY. MEDITATION MAKES YOU MORE SPIRITUAL ONLY IN THE LONG RUN, NOT IN THE SHORT RUN.

Meditation and growth is a battle; you have to burn through old beliefs and thought patterns. You need to purge all the shit that is in your mind! When you are meditating you are forcing your mind clean itself but in an unconscious way and the only signs you are gonna experience are these emotional reactions. You need to be conscious enough that this is what is happening in the big picture. See all the emotion turmoil as purging all the toxic thoughts and emotions. Once the purification complete itself, you will end up being all clean and happy (10-15 years from now). This purification comes in waves so expect several stages of neurotic behavior.

When you are experiencing something negative, realize that it is a consequence of your growth and purification.

[Tancrede Pouyat]

I feel relieved that all the negativity in my life really only comes from meditation. I can see how much I've really grown now. I was also kinda doubtful about my meditation technique, it was not bringing pain at the moment of meditation but during life outside of it.

The weirder shit scares the hell out of me, though.

I used to be suicidal too, but it's never come back. Yet.

I know some people got enlightened without having any mystical experiences. I hope I will keep on raising my consciousness without having to deal with the really weird shit, only the simple mundane stuff I'm used to.

[AlwaysBeNice]

'Once the purification complete itself, you will end up being all clean and happy (10-15 years from now). This purification comes in waves so expect several stages of neurotic behavior.'

Only if you chose to go along with the ideas arising, you always have free will.

[Xpansion]

I have to say that after watching the video I feel so much more clear about what has been happening to me. I have meditated twice daily for over 5 or 6 years now.  I have also attended some silent retreats. I have felt so lost and have visited many forums asking people why I don't feel happy and where I'm going wrong. But nobody has ever explained it to me as clearly as Leo did in this video. Now I know it's ok and that everything is as it should be. 

[Rashid]

its funny cause when i watched the video i meditated through the whole thing, and when i was about to go to sleep I couldn't go to sleep.. and i realized its cause i had to much energy  that insomnia is real.

[ChimpBrain]

I really needed this one today . I've been feeling as though I'm backsliding for the last 3-4 weeks and it's good to know this isn't out of the ordinary . It's just a 1% at a time slow  creep type thing, but after a few weeks of creep you're a long way from where you were. 

[and]

You should probably check out my "recent" post post: "Experience, Proper Perception, And The Proper State Of Mind"

... most of those supposed "sideaffects" are merely the result of action during a laborious trust of assumption.

[Extreme Z7]

@Juan Cruz Giusto The video was already quite clear enough and this summary is a good reminder to reinforce what was taught. Thanks.

[Juan Cruz Giusto]

@Extreme Z7 my pleasure ? 

[SaynotoKlaus]

 This video confirms the idea that whatever you do in life, you'll be miserable. Kind of disappointing to realize, but at least i won't be deluded by false expectations when it comes to meditation.

[Saarah]

14 minutes ago, SaynotoKlaus said:

 This video confirms the idea that whatever you do in life, you'll be miserable. Kind of disappointing to realize, but at least i won't be deluded by false expectations when it comes to meditation.

This kind of miserable is different though, regular misery is like average levels of rainfall every day, all year round, but this is like making it through phases of storms every so often to reach beautiful skies on the other side till one day the sky is all that's left  

This weeks video was some good weather forecasting 

[AlwaysBeNice]

Putting yourself in the victim mode creates more havoc than any release of old emotions can bring, it can be done with ease in my experience

[MaxBlank]

Yes, all of that can happen, which is evidence that it does have effect.

On the other hand, all of that is temporary. The positive effects (for me) are worth those hurdles.

I am generally more content in any situation.

I enjoy LIVING more.

The same lousy people in my life have much less sway over my state (and some are not even as bad as I once believed). It is with great pleasure that I can leave work at the office, go home and spend time with the family, retire for 30 minutes or an hour of meditation, then have energy for the rest of my evenings, until night, when I can actually sleep without worry.

I used to come home and eat and die in front of the TV- miserable!

Before the days of consistent meditation, the monkey mind loved to chatter on and on  for hours at night! I dreaded going to bed.

I now realize that those rough spots were a blessing. My disassociation caused by meditation happened because I was thoroughly resigned from my own reality for a long  time. It was good to find how I was defeating myself.  It took sitting in observance of my own streams of thought to realize things like that.

My advice: don't give up. It is possible that a supportive community and a qualified teacher/leader my help with the rough times, if needed.

@Juan Cruz Giusto Great topic for discussion, thanks.