He became an instructor of mysticism/meditation for 6 years, how can you say that he is suffering from psychiatric orders. An instructor for 6 years? Absolutely not that reason. He tried it, tested it and experience it. What more you can say.
Very well I read carefully what you shared from this person. And I will take the time to demonstrate to you how everything I have been saying directly applies to him.
First of all, I did not say he has a mental illness. If you had been reading carefully the many times I posted it it, I said repeatedly that SOME people have bad experiences, and that may be caused due to having psychiatric disorders, OR
they may not be really ready for it. Considering what this individual posts as his negative experiences, I can tell you he was NOT a candidate for it. He was either doing things either incorrectly and approaching it with the wrong intentions and wrong understandings, or it was not the correct practice for him.
First where he is correct. Yoga is tied to spiritual practice. I agree that those who use it for a "California beautiful" physical exercise are really missing its deeper intents. Though while they do their poses and whatnot, they do derive positive benefits
most of the time for their minds and bodies, even though they are not directly focused upon creating these mystical states. It happens naturally, just like those who are runners, long-distance bikers, many who play golf regularly, and other physical activities which create these nondual flow states.
Where you are incorrect in your interpretation of "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit", is that there is NOT a divorce between spirituality and physicality. That is a bad interpretation of what is meant in that verse, and it does not match the reality of our mind, body, and spirit
interconnectivity. The Bible clearly teaches that what the mind thinks, for instance, directly affects the spirit and affects the body. I could give countless verses that indicate this, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" "Set your mind on things above", etc. So a true yoga practice is about engaging body, mind, and spirit. That's all it is.
Now to where this person falls off the edge. I cannot spend the time dissecting everything wrong within his article, such as citing someone from Rev Sung Myong Moon's Unification Church, or citing Christian apologists as sources of authority, but I will take his most obvious points one by one to demonstrate and educate you about this. If you know this person personally, as you called him your friend, please invite him to enter this discussion and I'll be happy to go into more detail in the errors contained in his article:
From Personal Experience
For this author more persuasive than any authority is the author’s personal experience in mantra yoga, hatha yoga, and kundalini yoga.
I wish to point out something to you which you disallow in us, citing our personal experience. Please note your friend says "More persuasive than any authority is the author’s personal experience". When I cite my personal experience, you demand it be completely subjected to your interpretation of scripture. But the author is correct, his personal experience does in fact have weight.
Where he falls off the edge is because he thinks his individual experience he had, will be the same for everyone else in the world! This is clearly a false analogy. Like Sojourner said, just because he had a bad experience, doesn't mean it's wrong for everyone else. I have positive experiences with meditation, but I do not make his mistake and assume my positive experience will be everyone else's. I'm wiser than that.
However, these states of consciousness while initially anesthetic became with constant yoga practice progressively more oppressive resulting in a disassociation from the external world. Sensory input was accentuated and produced an overreaction to external stimuli resulting in anxiety. On intensive asana-meditation courses the author experienced several blackouts during mantra meditation sessions which lasted up to an hour and a half. No consciousness of elapsed time and no memory of what had transpired during the blackout existed after such an experience.
Wow. Yes, he was clearly doing it wrong. This should not happen, and when it does, it means you're either doing it wrong, or you were not a good candidate for the practice. Blackouts? Increased anxiety? I've already talked about "sinking mind", where you essentially "blank out", as being a problem in your meditation and an indication you are doing something wrong! But what about this "increased anxiety"? Let's look at that specifically.
A simple Google search will bring you to this article, which supports everything I have said about the potential problems of meditation for certain individuals (again, certain individuals does not translate into everybody on earth). Please read this article from Mental Health Daily:
http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/03/14/when-meditation-worsens-depression-or-anxiety/
There is certainly a lot of good that can come about from consistent meditation assuming you are a person that responds well to the practice. That said, when dealing with severe forms of depression and/or anxiety, it is important to proceed with caution. In many cases certain types of meditation can amplify depression by increasing slow
brain waves in certain regions. In other cases certain types of meditation can cause a
relaxation-induced anxiety or may heighten your awareness to an uncomfortable extent.
Before you proceed with black and white thinking that meditation is either good for a person or bad for a person, it is important to consider each person’s individual experience. Factors such as the type of meditation, frequency and duration of the sessions, whether the person is using proper technique, etc. – can all influence outcomes resulting from the practice.
This is where me speaking with your friend would bring out more details of his practice, what was he hoping to find, what was he looking for, what was he doing, what is his personal history, and so forth. I know I read another one of these, "I had a bad experience, therefore the practice is demonic" sorts of black and white thinking fear-projecting articles, and that individual was big into "experience seeking", as we call it, building a wooden pyramid to enhance the cosmic energies in his New Age thrill seeking escapist practice. When he encountered the face of Fear, opening its mouth to swallow him whole, as he put it, he ran off into religious fanaticism, saying much of what your friend is here in the rest of his article.
Meditation and yoga in many instances cause anxiety disorder. This author’s experience is that the techniques result in feelings of unreality, feelings of personality disintegration, and depression. It is the author’s belief that many of the so-called “advanced states of consciousness” are no more than the result of extreme sensitization, a state in which our nerves react in an exaggerated way to stress induced by the yoga/meditation techniques, producing an overshadowing sensory unreality similar to those induced by consciousness altering drugs.
Yes, it can for certain individuals, and therefore you shouldn't do those techniques if that's what's happening, or seek out the guidance of a professional who understands individuals and will guide them into a correct practice for them, or tell them they are not a good candidate. This is the problem with your New Age world you like to say I'm a part of it. They dabble in stuff over the surfaces, not understanding the depth, or the wisdom of engaging in something in the first place. There's always a danger when novices get their hands on what was previously only taught to those who were ready for it. They become like those religious novice/hacks who read a Bible and think they know what God is!
Your friend taught this for six years, not understanding so many things about it, and not having positive benefit? Something is deeply wrong here. There are many terrible teachers out there, and I tend to think based on all he says in his article he was certainly never really qualified, much the way you aren't as a Bible teacher.
As far as his belief that the "advanced states of consciousness" are "overshadowing sensory" reality, this is just speculative nonsense. His entire reasoning process is suspect, considering he starts with his bad experience, and doesn't bother to weigh anything in the balance against it in his pronouncements of it's "all wrong". I can tell you as someone who in fact does have these "advanced states", of the subtle, causal, and the nondual, they are anything but what he imagines they are. And my experience does in fact count. I just weigh it with reason in looking at his and others experience, both positive and negative. He does not such a reasonable thing, and like you does not listen to others, having his mind made up in his own opinions held as facts, apparently.
I'm going to leave it there for now, and may come back to dissect the rest of this "ace in hole" citation you were saving for us. Again, it only underscores everything I have openly spoke about earlier.
