Re "When I inadvertently went off Prozac abruptly a few years ago, and had 12 hours of non-stop, viciously and horrifically violent suicidal ideation . . .":
Can one be in CC (or in an expanded, higher state of awareness) if he also needs Prozac? Yes, I know it's not uncommon for spiritual aspirants to undergo a "dark night of the soul" as a purifying stage of growth but whatever happened to the bliss we were promised? ---In [email protected], <LEnglish5@...> wrote : Like as not, a lot of people ARE in CC (whether via the practice of TM, or "just because") but don't see it as a big deal because, as MMY points out, it is "merely normal." Of course, the sine qua non of CC is that one has PC even during deep sleep, so perhaps that is lacking in many people... I have the opposite issue: "witnessing sleep" has been around almost continuously (except during a few life-threatening illnesses over the decades) within a few weeks that I first learned TM. It's the waking state integration that appears to be lacking, although... When I inadvertently went off prozac abruptly a few years ago, and had 12 hours of non-stop, viciously and horrifically violent suicidal ideation, I still had permanent presence of pure sense-of-self that was untouched by the rather Grade-Z horror movie continuously running through my mind, and I never felt an urge to act on any of that stuff. ...I'd prefer to think that I'm not really in CC rather than CC being THIS useless as a "higher" state of consciousness. L ---In [email protected], <noozguru@...> wrote : "PC" becomes a screen on which all activity including mental is played. If I want just pure consciousness, these days I just look at it. The bigger question is after all these years of sadhana why doesn't everyone have that experience? On 12/26/2014 01:47 AM, aryavazhi wrote: ---In [email protected] mailto:[email protected], <LEnglish5@...> mailto:LEnglish5@... wrote : Um, ok... The most detailed research on pure consciousness showed that the subject didn't press a button signalling that they had had a PC episode until *after* their physiology reverted to normal. They didn't notice PC. They noticed the transition *out of* PC. Yes. Just to let you know: it did serve me well for many years - so I do know it well. But it is very different from the more fully aware state without any thought, except for the basic awareness of the state itself. Thought is so subtle, that you are aware of what is going on, but you cannot actively think. And it is more related to the chakras and kundalini. But whatever. L ---In [email protected] mailto:[email protected], <[email protected]> mailto:[email protected] wrote : ---In [email protected] mailto:[email protected], <LEnglish5@...> mailto:LEnglish5@... wrote : "But as you said, of course, transcendence has nothing to do with either having a thought, or having no thought. It is not a physiological signature, as some keep telling here, a physiological signature, can only relate to a particular experience, and any experience is by the mind." Actually, sensory experiences happen because raw sensory data comes into the brain via the thalamus and is routed to the cortext via connections called thalamo-cortical feedback loops. Internal thinking is perceived when processed data from the cortex is fed back to the thalamus and merged into the incoming raw sensory data. This is called thinking. The process of transcending is when the activity of the thalamus becomes less and so the funneling of raw sensory data and/or the merging of processed data becomes less. This happens whenever one allows the mind to wander but is facilitated by what we call "Transcendental Meditation." Which is not the same as you describe below, it maybe less, but is not zero. When the thalamus no longer allows ANY data to come in from the outside and no longer allows ANY processed data to be merged with the (now non-existent) raw data stream, and yet the part of the thalamus that promotes the connectivity between distant parts of the cortex remains functioning normally, one has no internal experience, no external experience--that is, nt thoughts--and yet the brain is still alert. This is samadhi. In TM what you experience of TC is not fully alert. When you are fully aware, you already have a thought. It's not samadhi. Real samadhi is when the kundalini rises to the top chakra. And it certainly has a physiological signature: I just described it. There is a physiological signature, but it has nothing to do with samadhi, it is only your imagination L
