Are the states of consciousness reached during deep meditation the same as “dissociative trance states?”
“Dissociation” is a common method used by traumatized children, prisoners of war, and schizophrenics to avoid stressful environments by “going away in their mind.” Dissociation is the ability to enter trance states, but these trance states are associated with pathologies characterized by the fragmentation and deterioration of the “self.” For example, “multiple dissociative disorder” is a psychological term for “multiple personality disorder.” This is a disorder in which the conscious mind “hears the voices” of dissociated parts of the self. Dissociation can result in a person appearing severely withdrawn and unresponsive. A person can “get lost” in trance, preferring being spaced out to reality.
Some sects use meditation to work with their minds in an effort to reach “samadhi”. Are the states of consciousness reached by such meditators the same as “dissociative trance states?” And do meditators sometimes experience pathological mental or emotional issues as a result of meditation?
For me, it is. I don’t know if I’m doing it right.
Of course, with meditation, you don’t have the negative side effects of drugs.
The sense of stillness, detachment, and wonder I’ve felt during meditation was all very familiar to me due to my experience with dissociative drugs. The difference is, drugs also cause side effects like hallucination, lethargy, sometimes even paranoia or psychosis. I’m certain there are some similarities, but whether those similarities match up to “true and proper” meditative states, I can’t say.
You’d have to do a study of spiritual masters from various schools and look for patterns in biofeedback data. The problem would be a) sorting the genuine masters from the charlatans, b) getting the masters to do drugs for testing purposes., and possibly c) determining whether a spiritual master reacts normally to drugs–it could be they’re immune in some ways.
I induced hallucinations or “out of body” experiences several times before I realized I was lucid dreaming. It may be something similar in transcendental meditation–maybe it’s just a state similar to light sleep.
I can definitely see how people could drive themselves insane through meditation. Not your run-of-the-mill deep breathing and stretching, but I mean trying to induce hallucinations in yourself or chanting for hours on end. Prisoners held in solitary confinement are just involuntary meditation practitioners, and obviously many of them don’t do it right.
ANGEL MEDITATION DEEP TRANCE / STRESS RELIEVE
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