By George A. Boyd © 2003
Whenever you practice meditation, remember that you
are inducing an altered state of consciousness. Remaining in an altered
state of consciousness may be disorienting and distracting. After you
complete the meditation process, always bring your attention back to the
grounded state of awareness.
The grounded state of awareness is marked by
- Integrated functioning (meditation may separate
out one aspect of functioning from others, for example, having a client
focus on his feelings. Arthur Deikman called this phenomena deautomatization.)
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- Relational contact with the other people in the
room
- Sensory orientation to the objects in the environment
- The sense of being fully embodied
- Present time awareness of the current moment of
life, with ready recall of experience
- The ability to autonomously direct behavior
- Attention is focused in the medulla center
An altered state of consciousness induced by psychotherapeutic
focusing, induction of a hypnotic trance, or entering a state of meditation
moves the attention away from its ground state in the medulla oblongata
area, the place where the skull meets the neck. Always bring your attention
back to the medulla focus.
If you do a lot of work in altered states of consciousness,
especially if you focus your attention in the Superconscious field of
the mind, you may experience the Kundalini Shakti awakening in you. This
may bring about a blissful, ecstatic state of awareness (Samadhi) in which
you may temporarily feel at one with the Cosmos.
Awakening of the Kundalini may also dredge up material
from the unconscious that may resemble a psychotic break. Before you call
the Psychiatric Emergency Team to haul your self off to the hospital,
try this.
- Notice where you attention is focused.
- Bring your attention back to the ground state of
awareness. Guide yourself back using the map of the Great Continuum
of Consciousness, focusing on the Self, the Will, and so on down through
the Metaconscious, Subconscious, and Conscious mind.
- Visualize that energy of the Kundalini Shakti is
traveling down your spine and grounding itself in the center of the
earth. Repeat this until you feel that your heightened energy levels
have come back down.
- If you are breathing quickly or hyperventilating,
consciously slow down your breath into a relaxed rhythm.
- Focus on objects in the room and settle into the
sense you are fully in your body. Reassure yourself that you are OK
in a soothing voice, explaining to the frightened part of yourself that
you have just experienced an altered state of consciousness, but you
are back now.
If the symptoms subside, avoid further altered states
of consciousness work until you are certain that you have re-stabilized
into your usual personality functioning for several weeks, and you have
no more recurrences of the material arising from your unconscious.
Reference
1 - Deikman, Arthur J. "Deautomatization and the Mystic
Experience." In Tart, Charles T., Altered States of Consciousness.
New York: Jon Wiley and Sons, 1969. Pages 23 to 43.
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