--- In [email protected], "jim_flanegin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> > wrote: > <snip> The effect of imprinting, and decades of having been > > told what is possible and what is not, is a tough > > nut to crack. One of the reasons that I still like > > Carlos Castaneda is that he is one of the only writers > > in spiritual tradition I have ever encountered who > > captured how powerfully witnessing or performing > > actual siddhis affects one. It rocks your world. > > Your whole *body* goes into shock, and your mind > > starts working overtime to try to *dismiss* what you > > just saw or experienced. You try to find any way > > you can imagine to make the experience GO AWAY. > > > > Why? Because holding to the beliefs that were taught > > to you is *safe*, comforting. Suddenly finding your- > > self in "new territory," where the *only* thing you > > can trust is your own experience, is decidedly *not* > > safe. It's scary. > snip> > > Hi, I just want to add that this is not everyone's experience. My > world was certainly not rocked by the results I experienced during > the sidhis. I recall the Carlos Casteneda books, and he didn't have > a long habit of spiritual practice in his life. Or perhaps it is > just what we consider possible or normal, or not. In any case, I > just took the sidhis expriences as the next thing to come along, > and I am sure there are many others that felt/feel the same way.
I guess what I'm saying is that as powerful experiences go, the TM siddhis weren't. At least for me. I am open to the possibility that they could have been for others. Different strokes for different folks, predilection, and all that. "Doing program" in a room with siddhas, at its finest, was a 3 on a scale that, for me, goes to 11. There really wasn't much to get freaked about. I agree with you that some of the freaked-outedness in Carlos' books was because of him, and his predilection to be a control freak. But some of the experiences one can have in the desert *are* enough to shake your world a bit. Many of the people I was with in the desert with were former TM siddhas; some of them had known Maharishi and worked closely with him. Like me they felt the "body reaction" that followed some of the things we witnessed. Like me, they had never felt anything even in the same ballpark during their time in the TM movement. Different scene entirely. You just haven't lived until you've been in the desert watching the mountain in front of you disappear, and then have to go to work in a conservative oil company the next day. It's a real hoot. :-) I am *not* saying that the phenomena I experienced were in any sense "better" than those one can have with the TM siddhis. But more powerful? My scale of 1 to 11 is logarithmic, like the Richter scale.
