Shello's Guide to Creating Altered States of Consciousness and Slowing Down Thought

in #meditation6 years ago

In this short guide, I'll talk about things that can raise your success rate in meditation, whether you're on a quest for self-discovery, astral projection, dreamwalking, or on an adventure that might require this. If you can do this enough times, I promise that interesting things will begin to happen. What happens, now that's up to you.

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☆。ThisismyWørld。☆ | We❤️It

I meditated for half an hour this evening, but upon completing this short session, I realized that many of the techniques and thoughts behind them come mainly from my own experience, and not from what I've read online. The reason for this being that I've searched and have read many vague tutorials and mindsets in the past that didn't get me anywhere closer to my goal.

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Makise Kurisu—Stein's Gate | Ayakashi Ghost Guild

The Setup

1- Laying down. Sitting up straight makes it difficult for me to relax. (Many texts advise against confusing a meditative and sleeping environment as to create a distinction between the two.)
2- Ear plugs to prevent sleep paralysis auditory hallucinations. (Sounds in waking reality become louder and distorted during sleep paralysis)
3- Pillows under legs for proper elevation. The correct location is behind the knees. (Relaxing position.)
4- Arms to the side with palms up.

What to do about your eyes?

People like to take different approaches to covering your vision when meditation or lucid dreaming. My eyes are trained to not strain while they're closed. When aiming for a trance, it becomes natural to want to/ try to force yourself to see things. Even with your eyes closed, you can still hurt them by focusing on stimuli that isn't there. Visuals/visions do appear on their own. Your best bet, is to pretend that eyes don't exist.

Name of the game

It appears that the goal (mine at least), is to slow your brain's activity enough to place yourself into an altered state/ hypnosis, accessing other areas of your subconscious that you don't normally have access to.

dreams.metroeve_slow-motion-dreams-meaning.jpgDream Dictionary

How slow are we talking?

When awake, our thoughts are perpetually switching between 4 places.

  • The Past (Remembering, can cause depression with over focus)
  • Right now (Actions in the present moment. It's said that all of our power exists here)
  • The Future (Imagination and visualization of events yet to take place, can cause anxiety with over focus)
  • Potential (Imagination and visualization of realities that could exist, can cause delusions with over focus)

Each place, uses a different part of our brain... to access and process their information. To slow your brain's overall activity, stay in the "right now". Everytime you catch yourself wandering, bring it back into mental focus by observing your breath.

The goal again

is to "slow your brain's activity overall." Common misconceptions when starting this activity is to NOT THINK AT ALL—this is untrue. Using one part of your brain is still significantly less than using small parts of your entire brain and swapping back and forth continuously.

Body Numbing and Sensation of Touch

Remove focus from your body, and place it on your forehead where your third eye should be—on the actual skin surface. Remember, your eyes don't exist. Placing the physical attention on your third eye removes attention from your limbs and other areas of your body. No body.

Breathing

The moment you start trying to distinguish between what is mind, body, and who's breathing, that's already too much thinking. The main objective is to observe the breath. Not your breath, not your eyes. There is no you, and no body. This, I feel is why many find meditation difficult. The ego gets in the way.

stages-of-spiritual-awakening.jpgDreamcatcher Reality

External Thoughts

Not a conspiracy, external thoughts coming from "nowhere" are normal. They come and go naturally, try not to cause friction by holding addtional thoughts. Believe it or not, it's a choice to focus on a thought and entertain it further. If this happens, return your focus to your breath and observe.

Just because other thoughts are entering your awareness, it doesn't mean you're messing up! I used to frustrate myself to no end when I thought this was the case. If you begin to "see" images and scenes on your mental screen, observe but don't interact with them. Placing any judgement—adding thoughts like "Oh where is this?" or "I like this color" is enough to break your focus. Everything that appears is just there, anything more is a distraction.

Remember!


1- Eyes don't exist
2- The only physical reference is the "third eye"
3- The only time reference is right now
4- The only goal is to observe the breath

Some of My Other Meditation/ Dream Posts:




Thank you @bollutech for this art!


See you in a dream~

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hey shello, can I ask for little help here, Would you mind sharing my webtoon in your facebook, I know your facebook is loaded with friends that speak english. This is turtle BTW....

Here is the link of my shit:

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/absolute-access/list?title_no=195381

P.S. its for a contest so I would really appreciate if the one shared is not from my steemit account but that website. Thanks dear, muah.

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My original facebook is now reactivated, so I shared it there! Gonna read it too—I love manga

'Ello Shello!

I really like this guide. It's simple but informative. I've read more than my share of internet guides to meditation. They are far too in depth and often involve a background of deep spiritual practices of different cultures. It can get muddy when your trying to put it into practice (because clearing your mind and letting go weren't enough of a challenge).

I'm going to give this an honest try tonight. Great post and Namaste!

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Hello there Puddinpaws my love!~

Getting started in mediation can be really difficult when we are overloaded with too many techniques and philosophies on how to get started. Clearing my mind is something I'm still trying to get the hang of! If you make any progress, I'd love to know about it. Thank you for coming to visit me!~

Namaste,
Ya gurl Shello

Very nice @shello! I think there's a lot to be learned by the reality that there is not some fixed correct way to meditate. A lot of people are self-taught, often the result of prolonged high stress intersecting with an inner voice that says "I HAVE to find time to just sit down and chill out."

Bright Blessings!

Thank you for the blessings @whitelightxpress!

You can learn everything a book or subject has to offer, but you'll only fully understand with practice and experience. Self-teaching is something I advocate for. More time spent on fundamentals I believe leads to a greater level of mastery overall.

The love is real~ <3

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