On May 19, 2012, at 6:04 PM, Xenophaneros Anartaxius wrote:
I was being a bit facetious, but after a few days, no reports from the dead.
Suspension of breath in TM seems to be a feature of the early years of
meditation, or just a lot of fatigue. Meditation is fine, but no suspension
of breath, and as far as I can tell, transcending is a myth of the past, it
no longer seems real; what it has been replaced with is much more
interesting, and no big deal. In fact I cannot think in terms of transcending
and transcendence at all unless I really force the issue.
I believe you have some kind of medical training, or are familiar with a
number of medical issues. What are your thoughts on anesthesia and
consciousness? Based on what I have read, and experienced, I would think this
medical technology can bring us very close to the experience of death, or
perhaps the non-experience of death, to put it another way, that the
consciousness in the brain is sufficiently disrupted as to simulate the
experience of death with a high degree of fidelity.
There are researchers looking into meditative implications of anesthesia, but
it’s very speculative and theoretical. Anesthesia, it should be pointed out,
reduces the functions of many brain areas needed for conscious awareness.
Generally you need to main four basic parameters for any state to be truly
worthwhile: to generate valid insights, to experience them clearly in context,
to remember them, and to gain positive benefits which carry over into daily
life.
People have been experimenting with ether for decades now and often people
experiencing ether dreams will have profound insights which they can write
down, but afterwords end up having little meaning in real life. Some surgical
patients, about 1 out of 900, experience “awareness of awareness” but this
contains no wisdom or insight component, merely the all-pervading, unborn
awareness, that’s all.
There is one popular Hindu master, Pilot Baba, who will stop his breath for
several days at a time while in samadhi, but I don’t believe he’s been studied
with any real scrutiny.
The more traditional experiential reports OTOH have been experienced for
centuries and are quite replicable.
