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Anonymous
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can meditation hurt you?
#3123561 - 09/11/04 07:47 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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someone told me this today. has anyone else heard of this? sounds like a myth.
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frogger25
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3123584 - 09/11/04 07:53 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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i have read that kundalini yoga can be harmful if done incorrectly. but that is not exactly meditation, it is in combination with yoga.
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Divided_Sky
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3123611 - 09/11/04 08:00 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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There are certain advanced meditations that are kept secret because they are so powerful. My aunt says that sometimes chakra meditations can make her feel 'off balance'. But for almost any normal breath, mantra, or lamrim there are only benefits.
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Asante
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3123701 - 09/11/04 08:26 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Definately. If you meditate you discover the Inner Realms. You are building and demolishing structures within you. You are effecting inner change, even if you merely draw conclusions in the meditative state. Inner change can be for good or bad.
Perhaps a hinderful trait of inhibition keeps you from rabid drug abuse, or "rediculous" temperance in Alcohol keeps you from violence or rape. If you topple these seemingly innocent and seeminly obnoxious traits the really bad stuff they cap can rise to the surface, in which case bad meditative practice can damage your psychological personality structure.
I have literally heard someone say: "and after that (as a teen) I decided I will never trust anyone ever again and thats been the best choice in my life!" Here a person as a kid capped a side of his developing personality which made him into a social bonsai version of what the could have been.
I advocate taking a completely passive meditative practice where you lie down in darkness (bed) with your eyes closed, just listening to the ebbing of your thought processes. If you consistantly do this 20min to 1 hour at a time several times a week far away from your sleeping schedule you will learn a great deal about yourself and you will see your caps and why they are there, and not blindly pull some off because a book says so or because you think the trait sucks.
If you meditate well it has the same degree of risk as intensive tripping, which is quuite significant.
-------------------- Omnicyclion.org higher knowledge starts here
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Muppet
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3123712 - 09/11/04 08:29 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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I can see some possible mental trauma if someone attempts something that they're truely not prepared for...but I don't know of any sort of physical ailments that can come from improper meditation techniques .......... Thus Spake Muppet
-------------------- Ravings of a Madman
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spudamore
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3123713 - 09/11/04 08:29 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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kundalini is not just done in yoga you can do it in meditations but yoga is a way of channeling the energies safer. when i do kundalini meditations i wake up with burning feet because don't ground myself properly. any form of ascension meditations are pretty dangerous especailly if using substances. can lose your mind or do physical damage aswell.
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gettinjiggywithit
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3123721 - 09/11/04 08:31 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ya
I heard a good one a bit back. I read that trance meditation began with the Hindu religion. It was a way for their gods to come in and possess them and they wanted this. Something about the brain patterns in trance states that make it easy for one to be suggestably influenced by spirits- like being under hypnotic suggestion.
According to this article, if you practice TM, you can be under the mind control of Hindu gods.
If this were true , it could be harmful if you had jerky hindu gods or evil spirits move in on ya!
I don't beleive in any of it, but appearantly, someone out there does and you asked if we were aware of any stuff about why it could be harmful.
I really did read this and I think it's really funny.
I read some wild stuff about people pushing kundalini too. They say they are left with a feeling of burning and have nerve damage. YIKES!
Best just to practice smiles and hugs and universal lovey stuff!
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
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Muppet
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: Asante]
#3123723 - 09/11/04 08:31 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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allthough I must admit Wiccan_Seeker makes a damn good point
..........
Thus Spake Muppet
-------------------- Ravings of a Madman
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MAGnum
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: spudamore]
#3123762 - 09/11/04 08:44 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Anything you do can be dangerous.
Do not allow yourself to get sucked into a differant world, stay in this one. Your own world (if you have ever have had nightmares or bad trips) can be very scary. Getting too sucked into it can lead to insane, displaced states of mind.
-------------------- Agent 727 7
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3123773 - 09/11/04 08:48 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yes, so can a healthy diet and exercise. You might choke on a carrot stick or pull a muscle.
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Divided_Sky
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: MAGnum]
#3124858 - 09/12/04 01:34 AM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
MAGnum said: Anything you do can be dangerous.
Do not allow yourself to get sucked into a differant world, stay in this one. Your own world (if you have ever have had nightmares or bad trips) can be very scary. Getting too sucked into it can lead to insane, displaced states of mind.
I sometimes feel that is where meditation and drugs have taken me. I think this is why many Buddhists practice more guided and conceptual meditations because if you have no focus at all you can slowly get lost in the expanses of your mind.
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Zoso_UK
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: Divided_Sky]
#3125094 - 09/12/04 03:14 AM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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indeed, the mind is like a microcosm of the universe - endless expanses with infinite possibilities. this post has been really interesting, i never even thought that meditation could have negative effects. isn't the idea of meditation to not escape in to your mind but to almost sit above it and watch it?
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Grizz
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3125120 - 09/12/04 03:42 AM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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Physically - I would not believe so.
Mentally - certainly.
I have mixed feelings about what we learn from meditations though. Example - it is quite easy to discover something about oneself - or others - or humanity in general in a meditation that we are not prepared to deal with. In plain speak - this can really mess with your head.
That said however - would we - or the universe - whichever way you decide to look at it - discover something (or be sent something) that we cannot deal with? Is that just an ego thing - a human outlook - which we put upon something and stick our head in the sand and say 'oh hell I cant deal with this - it's too much'. I would like to think that we don't give our higher selves as much credit as we should at times.
I've always found the biggest battles to be ego vs self. I used to have to stop and think about things and say 'hang on - thats your ego talking - not your higher self'.
Anyways - I think I've sort of wandered of topic here - but it's all insight I guess.
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Simisu
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: Grizz]
#3125198 - 09/12/04 05:00 AM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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just last night i thought about this! i was meditating (while pretty stoned... which i haven't been for a while) and i got this dizzy feeling in my head but then i realized it's exectly the opsit... i was finelly still! but then it was like i wasn't breathing and i was afraid to let go of my breathing becouse i wasn't sure it'll just go on on it's own!
i also think that we're going near some kind of change in the brain... we're learning to use a new part of the brain which will deal with free will and all the information which is stored in our brain... it'll open the dream world to the real world so we can use information on more parts of the day! we will utelize information in a more responsible way becouse we understand what's going on and we feel ever more safe to kinda let our survivel instinct down and use the rest of our brain!
so it may feel weird and far off but as it's been said we have to give our higher selves some credit and let evolustion take it's course and use it! it's something totaly new to humans and i think we still don't know how to use it.... meditation and drugs help that part get started but i think more and more people use that part of the brain more and more without drugs and meditation...
i hope i'm making sense to someone maybe i'll open a post with this hypothesis and try to explain it better?
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Gomp
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3125324 - 09/12/04 07:29 AM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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AHAH, you could go crazy :P
-------------------- -------------------- Disclaimer!?
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gnrm23
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3125541 - 09/12/04 09:56 AM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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depends on who you ask ... some christians (& others, ok...) might suggest that by opening up & emptying "self" out (even for a little while) can allow malign entities to sorta "take over"... i tend to doubt it, but there are certainly (a very few) folks who react poorly to the kenosis experiment/experience & do act as if possessed... i dunno... i mean, the whole dualistic mindset that the west has inherited often seems to set a person up to be the battleground between to forces of good and evil, if ya know what i mean...
anyways (imho) most formal (& informal) meditative practices/techniques are NOT harmful, and are usually quite beneficial...
(and as someone mentioned, some of the advanced methods can be stressful indeed for the practitioner, but these are usually discussed beforehand with the student's teacher/guru/spiritual guide...
-------------------- old enough to know better not old enough to care
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Swami
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3126726 - 09/12/04 06:25 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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One of the fouders of Esalen died while meditating when an ancient boulder broke loose from a hillside, rolled down and crushed him.
-------------------- The proof is in the pudding.
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Grav
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: Asante]
#3127144 - 09/12/04 08:32 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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awesome post, Wiccan. you've inspired me.
i heard if someone inexperienced attempts too controlled breaths it can make them go crazy.
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Moonshoe
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: Grav]
#3127221 - 09/12/04 08:51 PM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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yeah id say meditation can have some negative effects, but for me personally i think i get ALOT more problems when i dont meditate, such as decreased control of my emotions and behaviours, and an overall feeling of 'less energy' or 'decreased personal power'
i think in order to really 'go nuts' from meditation you would have to have a pretty unusual set of circumstances.
I think before attempting any 'ascencion' type practices to really 'elevate your state' you need to be well grounded. You need to be in decent health, have a relatively clear mind, etc. Its definetly good to start with basic mantra or breathing techniques before trying chakra opening, or kundalini stuff.
-------------------- Everything I post is fiction.
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redgreenvines
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Re: can meditation hurt you? [Re: ]
#3128295 - 09/13/04 01:42 AM (19 years, 6 months ago) |
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can the practice of anything be harmful? yes. does everyone know how to meditate who says they do? no. does the word meditate even mean the same thing in general? no. do we have good scientific terms for describing meditation process or effect? no. can you learn it from books? maybe. ...see just thinking about meditation can hurt, but done according to certain obvious methods, and following instruction humbly, it has a good effect and can be an indispensible part of the life path. I call them obvious methods, since you can learn them from practitioners that are obviously doing it and obviously benefitting - and you can see their lineage especially if they are still part of something like Tich Nat Hanh or something like that.
Edited by redgreenvines (09/13/04 01:50 AM)
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