Help needed- is enlightenment dangerous?

[ButterflyWoman]

Originally Posted by geniegal

What has been happening for me is I go through say periods of a week of discomfort which are followed by a big epiphany that is v empowering. Then I coast for a bit then the process repeats.

Very common pattern. It was my pattern, too, for a long time. One word of advice: when you're in pain, embrace it. Don't struggle against it or resist it, that just makes it worse. Own it, and it will transform much more easily and be much more bearable.

My own awakening was.... well, the awakening of awareness only came some years after a period of sometimes excruciating emotional and mental pain and physical stress (so much stress that my hair started to fall out and my menstrual cycle went completely off the rails). It's always unique, of course, but there are some cycles and patterns that are recognisable. Hence the "spiritual emergency" syndrome I mentioned.

[taylor]

I will only say this:

Don't "push" or "fight" or "resist" anything. This is a big way energies get stuck.

[VinceG]

Originally Posted by taylor

Nietzsche's pretty low, one of the many very sharp sub 200 philosophers. (Chomsky, Lacan, Baudrillard, Marx, etc.)

Nietzsche uses advanced concepts but holds fundamental negative (increasing narcissism, alienation) assumptions. Like how Marx (135) used concepts of Hegel (470) but instead of a dialectical of spirit as Hegel wrote about, he turned it around to an entirely materialistic reinterpretation. From the outside they sounds similar, like maybe they're talking about similar things, but they're coming from totally different perspectives.

Cool! I don't suppose you have any similar insight on UG?

[Wave]

Originally Posted by Omerta

It kills me! I don't want to die. And please don't say this freakin thing : "It is the ego that is afraid".Yes, so what? I'm dying, I'm in the middle of 2 consciousness and it sucks!!!!I wanted to know if this could be dangerous if one is not experienced. Seems like I've made a fast-track enlightenment, my head is red like a tomato and it burns. I meditated 6-7 times only and bam I'm in this matrix kind of thing, I don't have to meditate anymore, the energy is sucking my brain like a devil. The purpose of this was for my anxiety, I didn't expect that , I'm afraid.Help me. Can we kill enlightenment? Please help, I don't want to live this way and I don't want enlightenment anymore. I can't drive my car anymore because of the intense pressure.

Who is afraid? What is the "I" that is afraid and doesn't want to die? It is dead most of the time because that "I" is not real and only exist as a mental construction. So when the "I" is not created in the mind it doesn't exist, and it is, one could say, dead.

What is happening is that the mindmade sense of self is being dissolved and it is fighting for it's survival, the results being a lot of resistance. What you should do is to be aware of what is arising and let it be as it is. Do not resist resistance, just be mindful of whatever sensation there is without judging or resisting it. And investigate: What is the "I" that can't drive it's car, that was having anxiety, that is afraid, that is meditating, etc.

Be mindful of what the sensations arising without judgment or resistance towards em, allow what is there to be there.

Hugs

[taylor]

Originally Posted by VinceG

Cool! I don't suppose you have any similar insight on UG?

Don't know anything about him.

[taylor]

Originally Posted by BillyTheAdult

yeah i believed that for a while, and I really love Hawkins and all, but I have come to believe that this is bs. What you even die of? I mean a perfectly healthy person isn't gone to suddenly drop dead just because that have some kind of epiphany.

I remember reading about how Bill Thetford (ACIM co-editor) told his friends with excitement that he finally "forgave his last relationship." Then he went out for a walk and dropped dead of a heart attack. Just food for thought.

[DoandBe]

Thank you BWoman for posting about the 'spiritual emergency'....I suspect this has what has been happening since my early 20's, but has been misdiagnosed as mania. Im now in my early 40s. I have been diagnosed with Bi-Polar.

I say this b/c when I go through a manic period, I only experience the hyper-spiritual aspects of a manic....not the other ones associated with it. I definitely stop sleeping....the first time for six days. Its almost like a switch gets turned on.....and then Im UP.

I have been in the hospital 5 times...always extremely 'Awake', content, happy, and growing in Awareness....until my family takes me there. Then they give me antipsychotics to bring me down.

I do agree that I physically need sleep. I think I get so excited by the realizations though that I CANT sleep...and thats what sends me down the rabbit hole to the hospital.

All of my experiences there have been good....and I always enjoy the people I meet....but Im wondering if its possible to stay 'Awake' and be out of the hospital for me.

I am a teacher w/an M. Ed. degree. I teach kids with dyslexia. I dont want to risk what I view to be what Ive been called to do.....but I sure would like to stay/be able to pursue what my state of mind is when I get switched to ON mode.

I looked into getting a Spiritual Emergency therapist....although I dont know if there will be one in my area....Hopefully this will work out.

I feel completely 'shut down', but Ive known Ive had to do it to maintain so that I can teach.

[RonSouther]

Originally Posted by ButterflyWoman

Very common pattern. It was my pattern, too, for a long time. One word of advice: when you're in pain, embrace it. Don't struggle against it or resist it, that just makes it worse. Own it, and it will transform much more easily and be much more bearable.

My own awakening was.... well, the awakening of awareness only came some years after a period of sometimes excruciating emotional and mental pain and physical stress (so much stress that my hair started to fall out and my menstrual cycle went completely off the rails). It's always unique, of course, but there are some cycles and patterns that are recognisable. Hence the "spiritual emergency" syndrome I mentioned.

Have you read Grof's book on spiritual emergencies? I really enjoyed it! Online Store - Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (New Consciousness Readers)

And my friend Sean Blackwell lived through his....I'm working on posting his article about it here.... Bipolar 1 Disorder with Sean Blackwell - Profound-Self-Help.com 2 more pages to publish...his youtube videos really speak to spiritual emergency

[ButterflyWoman]

Originally Posted by RonSouther

Have you read Grof's book on spiritual emergencies?

Yes, but only recently. When it was all happening, there were no such resources and I had no idea what was actually happening to me (other than a vague sense of knowing it was some kind of "healing").

[geniegal]

Thanks for the heads up re ide that I need to embrace the pain, that's what my intuition was telling me

Interesting that on the site you ref butterfly woman I ended up on a page called spiritual EMERGENCE. Do you need the emergency to have the emergence?

[wstein]

Originally Posted by geniegal

Do you need the emergency to have the emergence?

Not answering for BW.

In general the emergency is not required but few seem to avoid it. For most people, emergence (and other spiritual transitions) cause such pervasive disruptions in the daily routine of life that an emergency is declared anyway.

[ButterflyWoman]

Originally Posted by geniegal

Interesting that on the site you ref butterfly woman I ended up on a page called spiritual EMERGENCE. Do you need the emergency to have the emergence?

No, it doesn't always become an emergency. It's not unlike childbirth, really. It's always unique (though it does follow generally known patterns), and most of the time it happens entirely spontaneously and without any complications. It can still be harrowing to experience (or not), but it usually goes at its own pace and happens as it happens, no problem.

Occasionally, it does turn into an emergency rather than just an emergence, due to any number of factors. In my case, my ego-self was so fragmented and haphazardly put together that it just couldn't withstand any kind of pressure and it disintegrated, bit by bit, and all the years of pent up crap I had stored away (pain, anger, resentment, bitterness, humiliation, you name it) started to be released (because the "inner walls" were no long able to hold it all back). I ended up in the looney bin, quite literally (only for a few days; it wasn't that bad).

The thing is, I don't think NOW that this was all necessary. It was what I pretty much expected would have to happen. I was terrified of being in the psych ward, and put a lot of energy and focus on that, so guess what manifested? I couldn't imagine healing that wasn't painful, lengthy, and involving a lot of self-examination and soul searching and so on (this was all subconscious, by the way; I was really clueless as far as normal awareness). But on some level, I think I probably wanted to understand myself, why I did the things I did, who I was, all that, so, well, that's what I got, certainly.

It doesn't have to be that way. Some people apparently have spontaneous, painless, effortless awakenings (same with childbirth, by the way). It's not that common, but it does happen.

It's all very individualised, from what I've seen.

[DoandBe]

Originally Posted by RonSouther

And my friend Sean Blackwell lived through his....I'm working on posting his article about it here.... Bipolar 1 Disorder with Sean Blackwell - Profound-Self-Help.com 2 more pages to publish...his youtube videos really speak to spiritual emergency

I got a chance to look at his stuff....sounds exactly like what has happened to me on numerous occasions....

I also found a book that I might get - Kundalini-Psychosis or Transcendence..

...lol

[ButterflyWoman]

During my brief sojourn in the looney bin, I got a diagnosis of Bipolar I. I'm sure I had all the symptoms, but they told me that it's not something that ever goes away, that I was going to have to manage it for the rest of my life, and so on.

And yet, I don't have Bipolar Disorder at all. Not now, anyway. I've even been to a psychiatrist (for my immigration paperwork; I felt no need to visit one) and she felt I was fine. Certainly, I know the symptoms of Bipolar very, very well, and I have none of them, and have had none for more than a dozen years.

Either it was a miraculous healing (which is quite possible; I did have other episodes of what looked like Bipolar Disorder when I was younger) or I never had it in the first place and it was just the spiritual emergence (which I told them, but they had apparently never read the DSM-IV and thought I might have some sort of religious delusions or something ).

[RonSouther]

Originally Posted by ButterflyWoman

During my brief sojourn in the looney bin, I got a diagnosis of Bipolar I. I'm sure I had all the symptoms, but they told me that it's not something that ever goes away, that I was going to have to manage it for the rest of my life, and so on.
).

I just posted this reply....fits well with what you're saying...to me everyone is bipolar...the mind IS two poles. The strong minds are the ones that society wants to medicate instead of help develop.

Bipolar Mind

[inconditus]

"dangerous" is a subjective term since, really, everything is dangerous depending on what perspective you are using.

When you take a shower there is a chance that you will slip and break your neck, when you eat there is a chance you will choke. My niece (granted she has health problems) was playing in the yard, fell, and broke her femur.

Does this mean that we should fear these things and stop doing them? Hopefully not.

More seriously. I would answer that enlightenment in it's pure form is not dangerous. The road surely is, you are learning so many new things that is it easy to become overwhelmed and crack-that which you are experiencing right now. I was on what I called the "fast track" last year. I was overwhelmed but never afraid. After a while I got used to it looked around and realized that it wasn't really enlightenment I was experiencing but rather a higher frequency.

Enlightenment is in the heart and in the mind. If you are simply feeling too much but do not have the knowledge to control it then I would say meditate for balance. You should equal out.

Or ride the wave and see where it takes you. Let go of the fear. There is no death.

[RonSouther]

Enlightment is dangerous to the vested interests in society. It means you can't be exploited anymore.

[RonSouther]

Originally Posted by Wombels

Enlightenment, triggered would be a better expression, your brain got triggered into functioning, enjoy it instead, so you can become a master of your own destiny

Wombels, I enjoyed your entire post and this statement is awesome! :-)

[Wombels]

Originally Posted by RonSouther

Wombels, I enjoyed your entire post and this statement is awesome! :-)

There's nothing wrong with you Thank you!

[RonSouther]

Originally Posted by Wombels

There's nothing wrong with you Thank you!

Yeah?? We just have to get our brains working! :-)

[Omerta]

Originally Posted by bodi

What?! Are you kidding?

To anyone who responded seriously to this:

What?! Are you kidding?

Either lay off the drugs or get on some new ones...

wow the humanity of this world blows me away sometimes. What the hell is wrong with you I coudn't be more serious than that. I don't do drugs and never did.

[bodi]

then you have a serious psychological problem, which you should seek help for.

[bodi]

well, or you could just be being dramatic.