- Forum
- Sanghas
- Dharma Forum Refugees Camp
- Dharma Refugees Forum Topics
- Meditation Practice
- hallucinations
hallucinations
12 years 11 months ago #9251
by Ona Kiser
hallucinations was created by Ona Kiser
A student recently asked me about a strange experience she had, in which she was relaxing in a room and suddenly a photo on the shelf nearby "came to life" - the person in the photo seemed 3 dimensional, and smiled and blinked. Even when she rubbed her eyes and shook her head, the effect remained for a few moments. She was slightly freaked out, but not frightened.
Based on my gut evaluation of her stage of development, so to speak, I recall having a brief period around the same time (I'd put it in the late middle or early late stages of 3rd path territory, if that's useful) where I had the same thing happen. For a couple of weeks I would occasionally see things like a horse and rider in the wood grain of a cabinet, or see the stereo speaker as a little gnome, or see dancing figures in the branches of trees or piles of snow.
This was not during trance states, but just in "just sitting" with open eyes meditation, or while resting or waking up from a nap, or when sitting on the porch watching the birds - so there was always relaxation involved, but not heavy altered states. The imagery would persist for a minute or two even if I tried to shake it off. It was never scary or threatening, but rather curious. I never "believed" it - it wasn't like losing touch with reality. It seemed more like a way of experiencing clearly how much of our "reality" is affected by the mind. What hits the senses goes through a lot of interpreting.
I never heard anyone else describe it. I figured it was maybe because I did a lot of trance and vision work, that I was prone to such things. Though it never happened again since then. Since someone else now reports the same thing, I wonder if it's characteristic or familiar to others?
Based on my gut evaluation of her stage of development, so to speak, I recall having a brief period around the same time (I'd put it in the late middle or early late stages of 3rd path territory, if that's useful) where I had the same thing happen. For a couple of weeks I would occasionally see things like a horse and rider in the wood grain of a cabinet, or see the stereo speaker as a little gnome, or see dancing figures in the branches of trees or piles of snow.
This was not during trance states, but just in "just sitting" with open eyes meditation, or while resting or waking up from a nap, or when sitting on the porch watching the birds - so there was always relaxation involved, but not heavy altered states. The imagery would persist for a minute or two even if I tried to shake it off. It was never scary or threatening, but rather curious. I never "believed" it - it wasn't like losing touch with reality. It seemed more like a way of experiencing clearly how much of our "reality" is affected by the mind. What hits the senses goes through a lot of interpreting.
I never heard anyone else describe it. I figured it was maybe because I did a lot of trance and vision work, that I was prone to such things. Though it never happened again since then. Since someone else now reports the same thing, I wonder if it's characteristic or familiar to others?
12 years 11 months ago #9254
by Kacchapa
Replied by Kacchapa on topic Re: hallucinations
My 1st zen teacher said that these were just common biproducts of a stage of intense practice called makyo in Japanese and just to let them come and go. My impression was a lot seems to get called makyo by some zen teachers, including A&P type experiences.