My complaints exactly. I didn't even bother starting the quiz because I was so
turned off by their sloppy use of phrases like "God" and "ultimate reality" and
"the Divine." If the questions were like the "intro," then in my opinion
they're "stacking the deck" of their study, and will "find" mainly what they've
enticed people to say with loaded language.
From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com>
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 9:24 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Have you had an experience of higher states of
consciousness? Please FORWARD!
I think I did this survey before or something very similar. I was a TB at
the time and revelled in the depth of my god head experiences. This time I
can't stop quibbling about the terms like "God" or "Ultimate reality", god is
nonsense ( or at least the idea that we can experience it using the stuff in
out heads, confuse it with some sort of god perhaps but it's all kiddology I
think)
But what would an experience of "ultimate reality" actually involve? Everything
I see is a virtual reality programme running in my head and spiritual
experiences are part of that illusion but why we think we need to invoke such
aggrandising terms is a mystery to me now. It wasn't then though, maybe because
the highs were fresh and exciting back in the day. So why would meditating feel
profound? If I read a book full of new and deeper explanations about physics it
can seem profound because I feel like I know something better than I did before
I formed the constructs of better understanding of something. So the machinery
for making me feel like something is profound is already there in my brain, so
is the feeling a reward for trying to pursue knowledge? What makes a meditative
experience, which is non-intellectual, a profound one when usually I have to
put on my mental climbing gear and scale someone else's abstract thoughts? Is
it simply because I think I see more and therefore know more?
We can't see ultimate reality but rather something that seems like what lies
beyond, or underpins our conscious experience but is more neural noise I'll
wager, some part of the brain that usually works in concert with the rest to
create the ego trick of experience suddenly has less to work with and expands
to fill the awareness and amazes with it's novelty so we ascribe qualities to
it that it doesn't have. Or something like that.
They also dismiss drug induced experiences from the study but they are rather
similar and should be compared and collated I think, it's all chemicals in both
types of experience after all. And are people who have taken drugs more likely
to have good meditative experiences.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <arlingtonlife@...> wrote :
Dear Friend of the TM Community,
I am writing to ask for your assistance. My colleagues and I at Johns Hopkins
School of Medicine are conducting a fascinating anonymous, internet-based
survey study to characterize experiences that some people have of Higher States
of Consciousness — something that someone from a different spiritual tradition
might all a personal encounter with The Divine. The study will permit a better
understanding about the phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects of
such encounters. Our hope is that, ultimately, we will receive thousands of
responses to the survey so that we can better understand such experiences and
how they may differ across faith traditions and occasioning events (e.g.
prayer, meditation, spontaneously-occurring, nature experiences,
drug-occasioned etc.).
Although the survey takes 30+ minutes to complete (depending on the time taken
on optional open-ended questions), we have received many spontaneous positive
comments from survey respondents who have said that answering the survey
questions prompted them to deepen their appreciation for these uplifting and
meaningful experiences.
REASONS TO TAKE THE SURVEY:
1. The survey is an opportunity to revisit an uplifting and personally
meaningful experience.
2. Because the survey questions prompt deep reflection on a seminal
transcendent experience, completing the survey may provide a fascinating topic
of discussion among people interested in meditation, spirituality or religion.
3. By telling their story, individuals will be making an important contribution
to science.
We would sincerely appreciate it if you would consider taking the survey and
letting others know about it.
The survey link is here:Survey -- Higher States of Consciousness
Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Contact information: rgriff@...
Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
IRB approved application NA_00054696
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