Could You Describe Your Most Profound Experience? Has It Changed You In Any Way?

[Debbie B]

Seeing my 1st Hummingbird in the morning and a puppy dying on a pavement with people paying no attention, the same day.  Feeling such joy at beauty, following it around the garden quietly, a truly amazing iridescent creature.  The puppy was pitiful, not a single person cared, it really upset me, he died in my arms.  Rabies I thought, don't know for sure.

I was in Cuba, perhaps people had seen so much hardship, a puppy simply did not register.  I have also been told that Hispanic Catholics don't believe animals have souls?  I have no idea about this, I should have asked.  It was not a negative experience, per se.

 

[ajasatya]

my ex-girlfriend was having a bipolar freak out, taking off her clothes, breaking public things, hitting people and throwing stones.

it was happening periodically, but that time i couldn't handle it. i started to cry the deepest crying ever. i felt the biggest pain of my life, even though my body went through a huge amount of surgeries and painful recoveries.

at the moment i was crying, the voice appeared in my thought: "i give up completely. i give up on life. just take this all away". then a subtle lucidity ht me like a lightning. i started to feel detached from all that, from me and from reality. since then i've been feeling life in a completely different way.

[Toby]

For me it is more about depth. Sitting in meditation or with a master. Or binding my shoelaces. Nothing compares when it hits you that this is it.

[Liam Johnson]

One of the most profound things happened to me during a meditation session, contemplating all of my senses: sight, sound, feeling, imagination, thoughts, emotions, everything. Having considered imagination, thoughts and emotions as being illusory, I wondered "what if it's all illusory?" All I remember is feeling ecstatic and terrified at the intimidating prospect of what the truth of existence would be.

[Nathalie]

@Debbie B  I also had profound experiences.. and still have, but I don't think that this is the point.

The point is, YOU're open and present enough to be accessed in certain situations by profound experiences.

You are responsible, not the situations. You waked up, maybe just for a while and it's amazing, right?

Don't stick with any experiences, there are so many differents..

[Shin]

The most profound experience I had is when I had a Samadhi experience with a dog.

My ego was like "OH MY GOD, THAT'S WHAT LEO WAS TALKING ABOUT,  THIS IS WHAT I SEARCHED FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE, AND I DIDN'T EVEN A FUCKING CLUE !!!"

And of course, it disappear a split second after that

[Leo Gura]

Ooo! Good thread topic. Let's hear 'em.

[Martin123]

@Debbie B Tears of joy for the nature of reality doing SDS meditation.
FLOW... kinda permanent thing I got there
BARKING
SNIFFING
... although those aren't too powerful now are they.
I'm pretty sure I will be getting some real soon.

[Guest username]

This one was before I found actualized.org:

I was thinking about infinity and mindfucked myself by independently realizing the notion of absolute infinity (never suspected it would have relevance to spiritual work). It happened in tandem with me contemplating the nature between the relationship between the physical and conceptual world, realizing that concepts aren't inherently less real than physical objects coupled with grasping that absolute infinity was entirely beyond my grasp sent me into a pseudo-psychotic episode. 

Prior to that, I was a hermit who had too much anxiety to leave my dorm. I had been searching for Absolute Truth through mathematics, science, and philosophy. That day, I ran off of campus to a nearby museum and walk around the whole place backwards, gathering strange looks from people as I realized all the majesty and grandeur I saw in the world was a fucking joke compared to the true depth of reality, which was beyond my grasp. I used to be obsessed with the transhumanist movement and the notion of man one day conquering reality through science. That day I realized it was all futile. Reality is too great for mankind to do anything other than to stand in awe of its depth.

This  is what ultimately drove me to learn about enlightenment.

When contemplating free will and identity: 

This was the day I realized the notion of free will didn't really even make sense because identity was an arbitrary construct. I thought who could possibly do the willing. Oh shit! Before then , I used to dream about total omnipotence and control being the best possible life. It was then that I realized the idea of true control was absurd, and my whole drive to control everything in life was delusion and neurotic.

Being is all  there is.

 

Some non-dual (?) experiences:

I have been experiencing altered states on consciousness in my dreams. I', not sure if I've ever experienced non-duality since I have never experienced bliss from my consciousness work, but I have had some strange experiences where I felt that my body and mind were just objects and phenomena like any other, no more special than anything else in the environment.

For instance, I had a dream where I was Slenderman (don't ask me why) and I was staring at an oak tree, and that oak tree was also me while I was Slenderman. This all took place in a classroom which started to crumble. Both Slenderman and the oak tree also vanished, and I was this mind that got physically sucked into a deep, pitch black void.  I had a brief moment which seemed like eternity of monkey mind going on a complete void until I surrender and accepting my eternity as empty. I then woke up (physically, not spiritually).

I don't know why this stuff never happens when I'm awake.

 

How it has changed me:  My intuition tells me this goes way deeper and despite not feeling bliss, I need to keep going. I have massively reduced the suffering in my life.  However,  I also have the lingering feeling that this is bullshit I need to be out chasing pleasure.

 

Edited December 18, 2016 by ElenaO
Author request.

[Progress]

The True Teacher teaches not how to do, but how to enjoy the doing. If I can teach you how to walk, you will walk when absolutely nessecary, if I teach you to find absolute joy from the walk, you will walk every chance you get.

[SBB4746]

A massive blissful experience (I did have a quite few) after weeks of feeling like I was going insane. Went from chronic aniexty to incredibly relaxed with a heightened sense of awareness. It sure feels good to feel sane for once, it amazes me how lost I was before. 

[Martin123]

@Debbie B Pussy's the real deal.

[Bebop]

I've had quite a few interesting experiences over the last few months but the one that stands out the most was when I accidentally ate a brownie with thc in it and found out my true nature as awareness haha. I woke up one morning and I was getting ready for work and I was listening to a song, can't remember the name but part of the lyrics stood out for me "you already know who you are,but you've just forgotten" or something to that extent. I didn't think much of it but when I went upstairs I noticed someone had made some brownies so I ate a reasonable amount (couldn't help myself haha) then I went back downstairs and the song was still playing and it hit me hard that there was a deeper meaning to the lyrics. Then I glanced at the clock and noticed I was running late to work so I hurried out, as I was driving I noticed that I was feeling a little weird and couldn't focus properly but I figured I was just still a little tired.

Finally made it to work and as I tried to focus I couldn't function properly, everything just started going blurry and I felt really dizzy. Told the supervisor that I wasn't feeling well and he sent my to the ER. As I was sitting there waiting for the nurse, I was wondering what the hell was going on. Then I remembered the song from before and I started asking "Who am I?".  It was as if a part of me stepped back from behind my eyes and it was clear what was really going on. At that moment it became apparent that there was nothing behind the walls I was looking at and I was just experiencing existence through the perspective of a human being. 

The nurse finally comes in and is asking me questions and I realized that I was just talking to myself, there was no person in that body, only another character playing her part. I tried to explain that to her and she looked at me like I was crazy haha, was kinda hoping she knew what I was talking about but I guess most people still don't know about these ideas. Felt a little depressed because I was all alone sitting in a hospital room with no one that could understand what I was going through, I thought I had finally lost my mind. Then a wave of bliss hit me, it just surrounded me with love that I've never felt before. I broke down and started crying out of pure joy, I had no idea such powerful feelings of love were possible.

At the time I became very derealized after the experience though, I felt trapped in an illusion thinking it was all real. It took hundreds of hours of contemplation to finally get a grasp of reality again. Looking back it was a huge part of my growth though, it helped me get through some rough times and taught me not to take life seriously 

[CreativeInertia]

I once experienced a high concentration state, in which I felt absolute love, appreciation and fascination. I felt energetic, in the moment. When I looked at people I felt like they are the most beautiful, unique and interesting things I have ever seen.

It was truly a profound experience