Possible Physical Side-Effects of Meditation I am assuming when one spends time doing so as often these groups do encourage volumes of time....so they can do their astro-projection, the danger is that these groups teach that these are “healthy” symptoms of the body ridding itslf of toxins from bad relationships or memories of their past when in fact it is the body resisting the rituals they are putting themselves thru that God never intented the body to do.....:
uncontrollable fatigue, sleeping during the day
insomnia and hypersomnia
withdrawal-like symptoms when stopping or missing meditation
sleep paralysis (often understood as one form of “witnessing sleep”)
night-time hallucinations (hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, often understood as “visions”)
possibly narcolepsy (See Persinger’s research, referenced here)
eating disorders, including anorexia, binge eating, morbid obesity
stomach and bowel complaints
chronic neck and back pain (especially among “Yogic Flyers”)
chronic headaches
difficulty with the menstrual cycle
involuntary body movements (twitching, spasms, head shaking, etc. in, and out, of meditation)
serious health effects, including death, when TMers turn to Maharishi Ayurveda and ignore traditional medical treatment.
Possible Emotional Side-Effects:
anxiety or fear
obsessive ideas
pathological guilt
dissociation (trancing out, spacing out, staring into space, forgetting what one is doing, losing a space of time, feeling as if one is not real, inability to remember events or periods in one’s life, feeling separate from one’s body or mind)
pseudo-identity (possessing both cult and non-cult personalities, similar to multiple personality disorder)
unusual difficulty remembering names or words, frequently forgetting in mid-sentence what one is saying, being aware that others are speaking but not understanding what they are saying
suicidal ideation, gestures, or successful attempts
“nervous breakdowns” (lay term for depression or other mental illness that results in inability to function normally — or hospitalization)
identity confusion: rapid changes in core beliefs such as spirituality, sexuality, personal interests; inability to settle on a career; unstable interpersonal relations
psychosis (most likely an already-present tendency to this disease is triggered by excessive meditation)
depression
unusual avoidance of difficult people, situations, memories — frequently resorting to meditation or sleep to deal with them
derivative narcissism
delusional thinking
auditory and visual hallucinations
divorce, frequently multiple (frequently attributed to rapid spiritual growth and “outgrowing” one’s partner)
Possible Cognitive Side-Effects:
significant difficulty with memory and/or concentration
incessant jumping from one thought or action to another, constant activity without accomplishing a goal, distractibility
Possible Social Side-Effects:
significantly decreased job or educational performance
difficulty obtaining or maintaining a job, jumping from job to job
relocating frequently, to the detriment of the individual
Possible Spiritual Side-Effects:
conflict with birth religion (Judaism/Christianity/Islam: puja, use of graven images, mantras are names of Hindu gods, yagyas to Hindu deities; Buddhism: conflict with tenets such as anatta or no-self)
spiritual confusion
replacing birth religion with TM/Hinduism or other spiritual practices
Special note to these:
unusual avoidance of difficult people, situations, memories — frequently resorting to meditation or sleep to deal with them
derivative narcissism
delusional thinking
auditory and visual hallucinations
divorce, frequently multiple (frequently attributed to rapid spiritual growth and “outgrowing” one’s partner)
Possible Cognitive Side-Effects:
significant difficulty with memory and/or concentration
incessant jumping from one thought or action to another, constant activity without accomplishing a goal, distractibility
Possible Social Side-Effects:
significantly decreased job or educational performance
difficulty obtaining or maintaining a job, jumping from job to job
relocating frequently, to the detriment of the individual
Possible Spiritual Side-Effects:
conflict with birth religion (Judaism/Christianity/Islam: puja, use of graven images, mantras are names of Hindu gods, yagyas to Hindu deities; Buddhism: conflict with tenets such as anatta or no-self)
spiritual confusion
replacing birth religion with TM/Hinduism or other spiritual practices
Special note to these:
unusual avoidance of difficult people, situations, memories — frequently resorting to meditation or sleep to deal with them
derivative narcissism
delusional thinking
auditory and visual hallucinations
divorce, frequently multiple (frequently attributed to rapid spiritual growth and “outgrowing” one’s partner)
Possible Cognitive Side-Effects:
significant difficulty with memory and/or concentration
incessant jumping from one thought or action to another, constant activity without accomplishing a goal, distractibility
Possible Social Side-Effects:
significantly decreased job or educational performance
difficulty obtaining or maintaining a job, jumping from job to job
relocating frequently, to the detriment of the individual
Possible Spiritual Side-Effects:
conflict with birth religion (Judaism/Christianity/Islam: puja, use of graven images, mantras are names of Hindu gods, yagyas to Hindu deities; Buddhism: conflict with tenets such as anatta or no-self)
spiritual confusion
replacing birth religion with TM/Hinduism or other spiritual practices
What I see here, in this particular post, is something that appears to be a comment from another source. I'm not sure about that, and this could very well be your own writing. If it is, then that's fine. But, if it's from another source, people usually like to evaluate the source material in general and see where they're "coming from" when looking at a quote.
I usually include the source material, or a link, and/or a reference to a paper, or a book or an author or a name or teacher that it came from.
If it's simply your own work, then it's good to know that, too... in that this is what you've come up with, in this list of items. That way people can know that you, caww, have listed these out from your own experience and/or some studies that you've done and this is not from another source. And there's nothing wrong with that either -- just so people know that this is your list of items and not someone else's.
Heck! I say a lot of stuff that's just from me and no one else. And people can see it's my own material. But, I quote a lot, too, and then I give the links and/or names or whatever (like that) for it.
I would just like know which it is, that you're listing here.
And.., having said that, I'll be back on this post, with some comments specifically to these items, a bit later, as I finish off some other posts.