Hjortron wrote:Greetings Rising Spirit, I find it very fascinating and exciting to meet someone who's actually familiar with both the NDE and DMT realm at the very same time!
Honestly, my near, near-death experience was really more like skirting close to the state, without crossing too far into the other side. And I suspect it was no more than 4 or 5 minutes time, as the clock measures these things? Outside of the time-space-continuum, it seemed far greater an expanse of sequence and I seemed to hesitate much longer, locked in some cosmic conundrum. I still vividly recall considering going into the Light, before I understood the need of returning to my physical paradigm. But it did forevermore change my perception of life, death and the nature of self awareness. It was that first "Who am I?" moment. Who and what am I? What is conscious-awareness, after all?
As I said, I've gone deeper and further on psychedelics than from the experience of drowning and separating from my material shell. The 2nd time I did Ecstasy, in 1986, out of only 2 experiences with that molecule, I had a nearly identical experience. Only then, I was unable to recognize just with material body was my own vehicle, in a room with four people seated within it. I knew directly that I was something other than an organism, I was formless awareness and it didn't seem to matter which shell I inhabited, as I was the very same Self within all four beings. I experienced only the faintest of imaginary films separating one mind from the other, one material form from the other. And I never did X again, as the after-effects are so damaging. Pity, as it opens the heart so magnificently.
This was the initial dawning of my idea of the Omniself or the Uni-self. Admittedly, this is a concept I think of through reason. It makes sense ot myself because it adheres to the fabric of my experience. It is essentially symmetrical with my vision of the interrelatedness and unity. So, rationally speaking, I feel that the Omniself is Atman. But I don't believe that Atman is the ultimate level of being, as there are really no ultimates, no limit to that which inexplicably divides itself into being and non-being, exploding duality out of naught. I believe that that mysterious quintessence will forever remain unformed and insubstantial, for it is not a thing. but we are likewise, not exactly things either. We are still that. Tat Tvan Asi. The Void cannot be encapsulated by any proper descriptions, whereas the Atman is self-evident through the experience of the individual awaking to being Atman (and this too, is likely but a dream).
Shankaracharya wrote:Atman does not equally shine clearly in everything, although it is all-pervading. Atman is only awakened in the intelligence of focused mind, that state of Buddhi; just a reflection is seen clearly in a clean mirror.
Here we see a direct reference to the need for sadhana. The assertion of an individual will and cultivation of a channeled intent, to effectively pierce the illusory membrane of our compression of self, and see the Clear Light of the Void, refracted blindingly upon everything, inside and outside of one's meditative reception.
IME, Atman has it's material exteriors and it's spiritual interiors. As per our personal observations, perceiving from the outside looking in, we all begin our internal search as wholly separate entities, observing the core essence of our existence from our defined, subjective vantage points. Infinite diversity, complexity and originality of self expression. And seemingly, our innate conscious-awareness pulses within a vortex of complete individuality. This is what is referred to as Jivatman in Yogic thought. It could just as easily be termed Poly-self or Multi-self, as it exists within a dichotomous polarity.
From the inside looking out, I have come to believe there exists but a singularity of awareness, which appears to be eternally curious. I know, I know... curiosity is an anthropomorphic projection upon something so vast it cannot be encapsulated with words and this is but an impression decoded upon returning from the inter-phase. But I relate to that same curiosity. What's really happening? What is this reality I believe I perceive? Who and what am I? Etc...
So, maybe it is, and maybe it is not actually curious. We sure as hell are! It simply exists as far as we sense it with our intuition and feel it's vibration within all the myriad phenomena. On some profound level or another, it seems like it is creatively self-perpetuating and a rather self-sustaining fulcrum of conscious-awareness. It surely watches through our eyes, thinks through our brains and feels through our hearts. Ye, in and of itself,it remains free of limitation. It's paradoxical, for sure. But when we go deep enough to discover it's presence, we conversely discover our own illusion. for the divided and the indivisible cannot co-exist in one awareness.
I think that is the that central axis of conscious being which interconnects with all bodies and souls. It's as if we are all holographic projections upon it's insubstantial screen. Call it the hub of Being, the Grid, the matrix or the Field of the Oversoul... but these are all labels and are all mere quantifications about the inter-phase within the Unified Field. to go through the barrier of duality is to completely silence all thought to a still point. This stasis of thought encourages the bloom of our attention, and a fusion within the effulgence of Divine Mind.
Mellen-Thomas Benedict traveled much further into the beyond state. But I think it rather amazing that both routes lead to some extraordinary levels of awareness. Both are Spirit inducing shifts in cognition and seem to naturally traveling into what might be termed, Cosmic Consciousness. Permanent changes in perspective arise from such journeys.
Rising Spirit wrote:Hjortron wrote:Little value comes from viewing the process through logical analysis.
Actually, I disagree. I think that it is possible to analyze the subject from a logical and scientific perspective, as long as everyone is in agreement about the fact that logic and science is not the same as the explanatory framework of materialism.
I believe you've every valid reason to disagree with the whole idea of freezing the left-brained vantage point. Logic is not abandoned permanently, just stopped for a deep, sustained pause. I guess what I really meant, was that right at the apex of the peak, the full bloom of internal expansion, one's reasoning capacity and the subject-object dynamics of analysis, are not only of little value to merging and thus, transcending the boundaries of our minds, they perpetual the separation.
IMO, they are direct impediments to the immersion, the unfoldment of the experience, as these modes of perception maintain the membrane of the human ego, which insistently seeks to re-establish it's observations. Once the eclipsing with Hyperspacial reality is thoroughly dissipated, then and only then is quantification and categorization useful. As a post-breakthrough reassessment of the journey, contemplative modes and much deep thought, only act to crystallize the epiphany into conceptual terms. And yes, this is not only valuable, it is essential. Just as long as one recognizes the vast differentiation between thinking about the merging or the full eclipsing and maintain the same awareness are not at all the same experience.
There is no self to which I cling, for I am one with everything.