Sensory Deprivation Meditation

[giacomo]

Sensory Deprivation - A Pragmatic Approach

In the photo is me, taken 22. March 2010 in my room. I wear a velour Tuareg Tagelmust, a white cotton balaclava and 3M Foldable Valved Respirator FFP1. I don't know what excatly is my religion. I use no drugs, or alcohol. I don't belong to any group. I don't go to Floating Tanks. I don't own a zentai-dress. Don't have much money, nor friends. I guess I am pretty lonely wolf.

I'd like to discuss about sensory deprivation, and it's possible benevolence to spiritual growth.

Has anyone experimented with such techniques?

I used to go to a nice female massagist, who has sensitive fingers, and can do wonders with Indian massage. It relieves muscle cramps in my neck and shoulders. But this is awfully expensive practise for me. 10 times treatment is over 300 euros. I love massage, and demand it be done professionally.

Meditation after an hour of Indian head massage, with warm oil, is such pleasure. One gets addicted to such luxuries. I used to have a barber, who could do excellent head massage, but then the vibes didn´t match, and I stopped going there.

So, I had a problem. I had to invent other ways, to achieve same result. I begun experimenting with different types of turbans. Of course, it is not the same as sensitive human hands. Only a good ersatz.

The secret of the turban, is that you have to wear it for long time. Sikhs wear it all day. One hour of massage is quite enough, but one hour with turban is almost nothing. So, after a while I had to invent other type of headgear for the night. I fell in love with the balaclava. It protects all head against the cold. I also begun to sleep with respirator, but I don´t recommend it to anyone. There is always a possibility of accidental suffocation. That is why I used masks that are made of paper. I had to do it because my medical condition, septal perforation, caused by a skiing accident years ago.

I used to have a sore throat because of this, so I bought a humidifier, and an extra heater to bedroom, but unfortunately the air temperature rose only to + 25 C/77 F. I was frustrated. One day I bought these paper respirators, and tried to sleep with such, and mirabile dictu, my throat was cured. I had visited the doctor several times, because of this, and my nose was about to be operated. But then, in one night, I was cured. I phoned the doctor, and cancelled the operation, and said that I manage by home treatment.

Sleeping with respirator was just manna from heaven. I have used them in work, also have practised scuba diving, so it was not uncomfortable. Similar purpose face masks are also used in winter sports. A respirator increases the humidity of breathing air, and temperature dramatically. The only setback is that the disposable respirators cost here 3 euro each. Better and more safer option would be to raise the room temperature to over + 30 C/86 F, and add the humidity. But then this would not anymore be human apartment, but frog´s castle, or sauna.

I wonder, when my friends complain me about insomnia. In my ice fishing jumpsuit, balaclava, woolen clothes and cashmere scarfs, I sleep like a log. In fact, at first night, the heat almost knocked me unconscious. I recommend gradual adjustment. You must know your limits. At first I was quite worried about getting a heatstroke (hyperthermia). I have once gone in heatstroke, while trekking all day in Sahara mountains, some years ago. My fingers turned swelling white, and were like thick sausauge. One should remember to drink much water in warm conditions.

This begins to sound a medical record, but it isn´t, because my intention has been to produce the state of sensory deprivation (meditation) with warmth. As a bonus, warmth has also therapeutic effects.

Usually sensory deprivation is associated with torture, but for me it is a spiritual practise, it is ascetism. I feel that I am not especially talented yogi. It takes a great effort to get into samadhi, and I can stay there for some hours most. I don't know, maybe others can't do even this, that could explain why they are so attached to their groups, and teachers, and gurus. Or denial of them, as is the case with some antiauthoritative, rebellious seekers.

I don't know if it´s so ok, that I am this technically oriented. For one relaxing meditation I need as much equipment as climbing to a mountain, or going to forest tenting. Some 2 years go, I could only achieve deep samadhi in forest. I could not possibly do it in city. So, I was always making trips to nature. Now I can go into samadhi at home. I think this is progress.

I suppose if I lived in India, in climate where it is + 30 C/86 F year round, I would not need all this fuss with technique, and apparel.

This is just few things. I do awfully lot of other types of tāpasá, most of which I have learnt in yoga. The greatest thing was darshan with my guru. It happened almost 20 years ago, and blew my mind into nirvana, and I haven't come down yet.

This world is big, human population of the world is 6,810,600,000, but so far I have met only few people, besides my guru, with whom I can discuss the practical matters of meditation. Most people seem to be stuck with the issues of faith and doubt. Or identifying with groups.

I would like to show way to spiritual experience, the Gnosis. Excuse me, if the way I do it, is lacking, or I commit mistakes. I am only human. But my desire to share enlightenment is earnest.

 

[MHz]

Is this the Borg thread to mankind that promotes water-boarding as an enlightening experience? The Ukraine in the 30's proved that once people are down to so many calories per day they become docile, even while being murdered to death by starvation alone.
BTW, the holes let light into your eyes. Sensory deprivation for sight can be best accomplished by rubbing your hands together briskly and the cupping them over your eyes.(with only the outside of the cup actually touching your face) What is blackness might soon produce 'shooting stars' if your vision is under stress. The warmth radiated via the palms of your hands 'relaxes your eye itself'. What starts out as blackness (eyes closed and cupped hands over them) will soon turn into a shade of very dark gray with a tinge of color), once that color has replaced what was black the same process repeats again only it is a darker shade of the same color. That is one eye exercise out of about 50 that is just for the eyes alone. The goal is to enhance our senses, with the above it is called perfect vision via the Bates version of vision care.

 

[giacomo]

Yes. There are some similarities with yogic techniques with those of torture. Of course, you must use common sense. In Finland we just had hit product called the acupressure mat, or spike mat. People were bying it so much, that it run out from shops.

I don't recommend starvation, or fasting for anyone. In fact, fasting for religious purposes is forbidden in my religion.

Holodomor (ukr. Голодомор) or forced collectivization was one episode in ukrainian history, but what has it to do with this?

 

[MHz]

Yes. There are some similarities with yogic techniques with those of torture. Of course, you must use common sense. In Finland we just had hit product called the acupressure mat, or spike mat. People were bying it so much, that it run out from shops.

I don't recommend starvation, or fasting for anyone. In fact, fasting for religious purposes is forbidden in my religion.

Holodomor (ukr. Голодомор) or forced collectivization was one episode in ukrainian history, but what has it to do with this?

Mine too, when it happens I do it for monitory reasons. lol
It seems that in both posts hinting that 'enlightenment' or 'relaxation' is tied to a certain expenditures of cash or it just doesn't work as well as it could. That would include the 'camping exercises'.
When you know your self-deprivation begins you already know it will have a 'favorable ending'. With that knowledge you are not being really deprived, at best you are limiting distractions from the physical realm, that does nothing to 'focus' your path from there, it can be a journey that you control or it can be one where you are along for the ride. Thats takes no more than a semi quiet place and your willingness to do 'nothing for 30mins or whatever', your inner voice will never be silent during the whole time.

Money spent, for aids to a peaceful mind is not something I promote, it would be just the opposite really.

 

[giacomo]

Thats takes no more than a semi quiet place and your willingness to do 'nothing for 30mins or whatever', your inner voice will never be silent during the whole time.

Money spent, for aids to a peaceful mind is not something I promote, it would be just the opposite really.

Could be that we are opposites. William Blake said: Opposition is true Friendship.

I don't understand what you say about "inner voice that will never be silent".

I have given realization to.. must be hundreds of people, and have come across cases when the "inner voice" can not be silenced. In my view, such imbalance is caused by possession. This person may have had a trauma, or has neurological condition, for example asperger. Whatever.

I would recommend a small-scale exorcism. But it can not happen against subjects will. Usually people think that exorcism is a big deal, a dramatic happening. It is not. I make small exorcism almost every time I begin meditation. First I do bandhans, around my chakras. Then I look around, and ask all unholy spirits to go away from the room. Usually I feel this in my spine, as bright sparks are being hammered from the sacrum bone. After that, total silence, sancta sanctorum - nothing to disturb the holy.

Seeing colours during meditation would be considered a failiour. Surely, such thing is not pure mysticism, pure jnana. When you see colours, light, etc. it means that your Agnya chakra is catching, and you should do something about it.

Rubbing your hands together briskly, I don't get that also. I usually let myself melt in samadhi. Kundalini is rising, I listen to Her, try to direct my attention more to Sahasrara. Soon I forget the body.

Such "abandoned" body needs to be kept warm. It is like unconscious person, or someone in coma. In ambulance they have aluminium blankets for this reason. I use the ice fishing jumpsuit, and ushanka, or turban.

Usually I begin sweating, when my attention is still on the sympathetic side. There is tension in the muscles, which cause heat. But once the meditation deepens, and I get over the edge, to the parasympathetic side, the body begins to lose warmth, it becomes very cool.

My teacher always said that you recognize medition from the cool vibrations. Anything warm, or hot is a negativity.

I don't know if I am such a great spender. I may live for weeks, and not spend one cent. This is for asceto-religious reasons. There is lot of Uncle Scrooge in me.

 

[giacomo]

I was just reading book "The Betrayal of the Self" by Arno Gruen, a Swiss-German psychologist and psychoanalyst. I have always liked his thoughts. Gruen describes the psychology of modern man, narcissism, the insanity of normality and fear of autonomy.

In this book Gruen complains, that sensory deprivation is presented too much as just a method that crushes someones psyche. He says that we must not look at the statistic, but we must look at those special, strong individuals who survive sensory deprivation, for example in prison isolation cells, or during polar expeditions.

Yeah. This is my message too. Look at the bright side. He takes the novel, Chess Story, written by Stefan Zweig, the diaries of admiral Byrde and the case of Evelyn Bone. Gruen comes to the conclusion that if person has rich inner life, strength of personality, integrity, creativity and intelligence, one may survive long times in sensory deprivation. But these are statistical exceptions. Creative people with rich inner life are rare. And the modern world, anyway, is made for the masses.

Grues writes, that modern people are dependent of outward stimulation. So dependent, that sensory deprivation automatically becomes synonymous with the disintegration of the psyche. He says that modern man needs a guide, or a teacher, who can show way back to the Self. And that most people are not even aware how they have become estranged of their own emotions.

He says that the inner emptiness in mass society produces rage, aggression and frustration in people.

I have noticed the same. Once I awoke to this, when I realized that almost all my friends enjoyed aggressive rock music, or heavy rock. I couldn't stand listening to it. I asked how can one listen to this, and they said that "sometimes one needs to vent out all the aggression." I said that I don't recognize such aggression in me.

So, I was thinking that by bringing the issue of sensory deprivation here in the Spirituality Discussion, I might just estrange myself from other people in this forum. Perhaps I cause stress or rejection. That isn't my purpose.

Whatever association sensory deprivation may bring, with torture or psychic disintegration, please do forget it, and try to think this with open mind. Think it just as a way to inner world, - inner self. We are discussing here about voluntary sensory deprivation, not the involuntary! I hope so, at least.

 

[MHz]

Could be that we are opposites. William Blake said: Opposition is true Friendship.

I'm afraid I have not read that book, my bluntness borders on being rude but I assure you I wasn't mocking you ... except for the money and the eye-hole parts. lol

I don't understand what you say about "inner voice that will never be silent".

The voice that is out thinking process, even if we tell that 'voice' to be quiet our brain is still using some combination of words to relay that message. As far as I know that voice can never be silenced. Say I was to lay down and close my eyes and then over the next 30 minutes I would try and tell the muscles of my body to relax starting at my toes and ending with my scalp muscles. All through that time the voice that is my mind is speaking. For myself if I do not do that with some sort of regularity it reverts back to the way the first time went. Mentally the 'conversation' would not be strictly about the messages to the body, tidbits from daily life would also be processed. Say most of the 'extra thinking' was about events that I am dealing with everyday but would also be considered to be a tad on the annoying side of things that is a hurdle to being as relaxed as I could be. Lets also say that when first starting out I can do the relaxation words for the muscles in my toes, feet, anckles, and calves before the distraction thought happens. over time (and sessions) I should be able to to thighs and stomach before the distraction happens. Once I can do the whole 30 minutes with having any 'extra thoughts' come in that is about as far as the exercise, I could try for 45 minutes or an hour but the extra benifits are next to nothing. If you can focus on something for 30 you can do it for a longer period already.
If an issue is bothering me I could 'pre-plan' to think about that specofically once the relaxation exercise is finished. I have heard that the solution you first thinl of is the one you will end up being most relaxed with, it might not be the path you prefer but over the long run it is the solution that you already know you can live with comfortably.

I have given realization to.. must be hundreds of people, and have come across cases when the "inner voice" can not be silenced. In my view, such imbalance is caused by possession. This person may have had a trauma, or has neurological condition, for example asperger. Whatever.

If that voice ever stops working the person just became a corpse. lol

I would recommend a small-scale exorcism. But it can not happen against subjects will. Usually people think that exorcism is a big deal, a dramatic happening. It is not. I make small exorcism almost every time I begin meditation. First I do bandhans, around my chakras. Then I look around, and ask all unholy spirits to go away from the room. Usually I feel this in my spine, as bright sparks are being hammered from the sacrum bone. After that, total silence, sancta sanctorum - nothing to disturb the holy.

So the 'voice' that is asking the unholy spirits to leave the room results in complete silence would mean it was an unholy voice. With no 'sound' how do you end the session? After you have asked is there not 'some words' that 'check for complete silence' therby breaking what would be called complete silence.

Seeing colours during meditation would be considered a failiour. Surely, such thing is not pure mysticism, pure jnana. When you see colours, light, etc. it means that your Agnya chakra is catching, and you should do something about it.

The 'shooting stars' get less each time the exercise is done, a person should see a marked decrease in just 10 sessions of 5 min each.

Rubbing your hands together briskly, I don't get that also. I usually let myself melt in samadhi. Kundalini is rising, I listen to Her, try to direct my attention more to Sahasrara. Soon I forget the body.

The web has lots of free material about the Bate's method and the mechanics behind it. If your vision is fine at 30 these methods might be enough to keep you from needing glasses when you are 50.
It warms up the palms and that heat is radiated through the eye-lids and the muscles of the eye relax a tad because of the extra warmth. Since these methods are part of a specific program that is geared ti vision care getting the eye relaxed is step one. In real life the blackness is made up of shades of 'black'. That is geared to help the eye see small changes in contrast which would help you night-vision. Getting sharper edges around letters and such is a different exercise. Overall the goal is to train you to be able to change the shape of your eye using it's muscles. Say a person wears glasses, that means their eye is not the correct shape to have clear vision. The 'length' is either too short or two long. That is the shape of a person's eye when it is relaxed. The exercises (like I said there are about 50 altogether) over 6 months will change the shape of the eye when it is in it's relaxed position which means you can see clearer without the need for glasses. At that time your vision focus from near to far is accomplished by the muscles making changes to the shape of your eye. The lens is used to 'fine tune' that scene.

Such "abandoned" body needs to be kept warm. It is like unconscious person, or someone in coma. In ambulance they have aluminium blankets for this reason. I use the ice fishing jumpsuit, and ushanka, or turban.

I use doors and a thermostat. lol If I was to sit on my couch dressed for ice-fishing I would be carted away to Ward 5.

Usually I begin sweating, when my attention is still on the sympathetic side. There is tension in the muscles, which cause heat. But once the meditation deepens, and I get over the edge, to the parasympathetic side, the body begins to lose warmth, it becomes very cool.

That used to be my method for when I wanted to catch a cold.

My teacher always said that you recognize medition from the cool vibrations. Anything warm, or hot is a negativity.

If a person is relaxed their heart is pumping slower and so the blood is circulating slower, that would make them cooler to the touch. How come people will pull their hand away from cool skin but not from warm skin?

I don't know if I am such a great spender. I may live for weeks, and not spend one cent. This is for asceto-religious reasons. There is lot of Uncle Scrooge in me.

Over the years you took trips to the forest and things that required laying out money in the quest for relaxation. If you don't get a chance to get into the forest very often it is worth the trip just for the new sights, sounds, and smells. I grew up in the forest but I would never go back there so I could try and 'escape the smells and sounds'.
I used to work with a person who had a really bad case of 'gag reflex'. I offered to take him out to the forest to where there was a beaver-dam where the water was black. That is a gag test site if there ever was one, would it have helped him to go out there and try to get used to it over a few days of being 'right there' several times a day, the more time the stronger the smell to bring on the gag. Once he was back home would his gag reflex being at the same level as before being around dead water? Know anybody who would pay you for doing that to/for them? lol I suggested it but he wanted no part of the cure lol

 

[giacomo]

I'm afraid I have not read that book, my bluntness borders on being rude but I assure you I wasn't mocking you ... except for the money and the eye-hole parts. lol

It's ok. If eye-holes bother me, I switch off the light, and close the window shades, then we have nice twilight.

If that voice ever stops working the person just became a corpse. lol

Yes, it is called the mystic death. A person who has undergone this, is a jivan mukti. From the spiritual point of view such state is desirable.

If a person is relaxed their heart is pumping slower and so the blood is circulating slower, that would make them cooler to the touch. How come people will pull their hand away from cool skin but not from warm skin?

This is soon becoming macabre! The temperature of the skin, and the body temperature are one thing. What a person feels in meditation, or in samadhi is another. Maybe electrocardiography could be used for some sort of measuring. In such system a mouse or a bird would be the most enlightened?

What I know of people who have hyperhidrosis, or other excessive body heat symptoms, I'd say it points more to the direction of raksashas than saints. Could be phaeochromocytoma or bhoots in hypothalamus. I have no special desire to touch such persons skin.

I use doors and a thermostat. lol If I was to sit on my couch dressed for ice-fishing I would be carted away to Ward 5.

I live like Pippi Longstocking in her Villa Villekulla, and may do pretty much what I like. In regard to lunatic asylums, and our attitudes towards the mentally ill, I think mankind has still lot to learn. I use doors and thermostat too, but there is not enough power, or scale in the heaters. Also, in my case, there is an element of travesty. I enjoy dressing in funny costumes, and being theatrical.

Lets also say that when first starting out I can do the relaxation words for the muscles in my toes, feet, anckles, and calves before the distraction thought happens. over time (and sessions) I should be able to to thighs and stomach before the distraction happens. Once I can do the whole 30 minutes with having any 'extra thoughts' come in that is about as far as the exercise, I could try for 45 minutes or an hour but the extra benifits are next to nothing. If you can focus on something for 30 you can do it for a longer period already.

Relaxation techniques are useful. Before I begun yoga, I did those, and sometimes still do, in combination with meditation. Now if I think, on my scalp.. in the fontanelle area, sits my guru, I see her feet there. It's not so physical anymore. This separates me from other seekers.

I believe, in Sahasrara, it's more about personal relationship, and recognition, than physical activity or body mechanisms. The top of Sahasrara touches eternity.

The exercises (like I said there are about 50 altogether) over 6 months will change the shape of the eye when it is in it's relaxed position which means you can see clearer without the need for glasses.

I don't care if anyones wears glasses or not. I wouldn't even care if I was blind. I just would like to receive my nirvikalpa samadhi in this life, and not take hundred lives more.

So the 'voice' that is asking the unholy spirits to leave the room results in complete silence would mean it was an unholy voice. With no 'sound' how do you end the session? After you have asked is there not 'some words' that 'check for complete silence' therby breaking what would be called complete silence.

Well, I am not claiming to be holy. I am a human being. I think it's not so complicted. I am what I am. I am the witnessing consciousness. Every now and then I might stretch an arm, say a mantra, write to internet forum, or speak to ghosts.

I enjoy meditation. I plunge into meditation, like I would dive to water; I don't see why should I think what is this, and what is that, and so on..

Sometimes silence is deep and heavy like lead, sometimes it thins out, and most of the time it is something in between. Silence, complete silence, meditation... It is there.

Over the years you took trips to the forest and things that required laying out money in the quest for relaxation. If you don't get a chance to get into the forest very often it is worth the trip just for the new sights, sounds, and smells. I grew up in the forest but I would never go back there so I could try and 'escape the smells and sounds'.

I didn't escape smells and sounds, I escaped the auras of negative people. Nature - the forest - is innocent.

Once he was back home would his gag reflex being at the same level as before being around dead water? Know anybody who would pay you for doing that to/for them? lol I suggested it but he wanted no part of the cure lol

I suppose it is possible to cure gag reflex. I cured my tree nut allergy, by eating few hazelnuts every day, and then increasing the number. In a month or two, I could eat as much hazelnuts (or any other nuts) as I wished, and there was no swelling in the throat and lips - I was cured.

But I come from yoga tradition where healing, or medical things are unimportant. This body is a temporary thing. The most important thing to is get your realization, and try to go to samadhi, in this lifetime.

Relaxation technique, or sensory deprivation is the first step. First part of the inititition. It is the porch. Then we go further... and further.. and further...

 

[ironsides]

Sensory Deprivation, isagainst human rights, it is torture. should be outlawed.

 

[giacomo]

Perhaps this subject is a tabu in Canada. I don't know how many of you have heard about CIA-funded operation ARTICHOKE, and Dr Ewen Cameron. This happened in 1950´s. They were trying to create a human vegetable, tabula rasa.

Cameron called it "depatterning". - Breaking up existing patterns of behavior, both for the normal and the schizophrenic, by means of electroshocks, usually combined with prolonged, drug-induced sleep. They aimed at erasing existing memories and rebuilding the psyche completely. These tests took place in the Allan Memorial Institute, in Montreal.

Nowadays these experiments are considered unethical, especially Naomi Klein has stated that it was an effort to design a scientifically based system of torture. I think there was also a naive medical hope to be able to correct madness - to cure schizophrenia.

Dr Cameron could induce almost total amnesia, and wipe out all the memory, but after a while, the schizophrenic behavior usually returned.

I think this is interesting, and I wonder if they were trying to create some sort of artificial (or forced) meditation? I would say, "depatterning", or "amnesia" is happening during meditation. In similar way, it is happening during relaxation or sleep. If person is denied of sleep, or is unable to sleep, eventually there may emerge psychotic symptoms.

So, both sensory deprivation and denial of sensory deprivation may be considered forms of torture.

For some reason, in West people have used this spiritual knowledge for destructive purposes. In India, they have known sensory deprivation in the form of meditation and yoga, and it has been used to attain spiritual salvation.

We westerners are unable to do this, because we associate these things with destructivity and madness. So, we are in cul-de-sac, and many people deny spirituality altogether and turn into agnosticism.

How to find way out?

I think, best way would be to face our own destructivity, our shadow, our collective karma, our history. Or is it too horrible to be looked at? Maybe we are like Dorian Gray, who could not look at his mirror image...

We would like to think that good and evil are separated, or they can be easily regocnized like black and white. I don't think like this. I think they are closely intertwined, they are the two sides of same coin. Sometimes you can not see the difference.

In this light, we can see that demons and angels are born from the same source... From the empty center of the soul. A medieval saint, Meister Eckhart called it "the abyss". Urgrund of the Soul. The Emptiness.

I say, that sensory deprivation is a cure. It has an anti-psychotic effect. It is the Panacea of the Ancients.

 

[pathros]

Hello, I wanted to share what I do and have done for some time; I use ear plugs, eye blindfold (sleep) and a cotton cap over my head and either lay prone on bed on set on couch numerous times during the day and night to get as much time meditating ( goal 4 hours) as possible. Last time I did this after 90 days I woke up in meditation and experienced three weeks of bliss afterwards. I thought I didn't need to meditate after that and quit meditating for 5 years but now I'm back at it again. I have seen a great light before in meditation too that I thought would kill me so I ran from this but found out later it was my third eye opening up. I have also used sheets and blankets over myself when it is cold.