[gWhya5ct]

I was thinking back the other day, to when I was young (as you do ) . I have a few memories of being ill in bed with a tempreture and experiencing strange dreams. They are very hard to explain as they were more a feeling than a visual but were perceptions of things very large and also things very small all with a sort of fuzziness about them (I said it was hard to explain and I realise that really is a vague explanation). These came into my mind a couple of days ago after I had what I think is a void experience when I felt like my head space got bigger. Although the experiences were not the same I feel they had similarities. I also remember waking up in the middle of the night a few times during childhood illnesses and thinking spiders were running over my bed.

Although I guess this could be put down to my high tempreture causing hallucinations do you think that during such times we are more aware of the Astral and it wildlife?

Lou

[CedssypeEdids]

Hello, Lou.

Do you know the phrase "maintaining a grip on reality"? It has more truth in it than I originally thought. Originally people mean with it "staying sane", but I have another, additional interpretation of it, perhaps it is helpful:

We invest energy in our interpretation of reality. It actually takes energy to keep on experiencing reality just as we do right now. Some people think only heightened energy propels our consciousness out of this physical reality, but I saw the opposite to be true, too. I had a deep mind experience in a moment of mental exhaustion. I was not charged, I was exhausted. In this moment it was easier to let go of my usual grip on reality than to maintain it, which I did and do out of pure habit. In this moment I experienced myself separate from emotions, thoughts and ego, as pure awareness, an experience which most people would associate with a great achievement in meditation and energy work. But it just happened to me while being too exhausted to think in my usual way, but physically fully awake.

Many experiences are linked to physical exhaustion, too. Robert once wrote that sleep withdrawal can induce an OBE, but not necessarily one you will remember fondly. Sick people of all ages were reported to have experiences in states of exhaustion, and IIRC that even included visions or religious personal epiphanies. So sometimes in a weakened, strained or worn-out state an experience can hit us our awareness might even usually block out subconsciously. Simply because our belief system does not allow it.

So, given this long intro, I cannot say what happened to as a child. The problem with experiences induced by being weak is that often we are not in charge or very lucid. You be the judge of how much you would trust your perception from back then. I'd say it is absolutely possible you hit a similar state back then, but only you can look inside you and answer your question what it was.

So, a gut response, if you may: What was it?

Take good care,
Oliver

[bettingonosports]

I would add that I think this is the reason many 'old fashioned shamanic experiences' involved physical exertion combined with fasting and lack of sleep; things like 'sweat lodges' and other initiatory rites. To induce just this type of experience.

When I was an older child (maybe 11 or 12) I had dengue fever, and the experience was just as the Pink Floyd song, only happier with butterflies.... but the 'hands swelled up like two balloons' was uncannily similar. (Maybe Roger Waters had dengue as a child also... )

[gWhya5ct]

It was shamanic and magical theories that got me thinking about my illness memories. I know a couple of witches who fast before ritual so as to enter a trance state more readily.

My gut reaction?....I think illness can loosen your grip on this reality and make you more perceptive of an astral reality. Although it wasn't until I read Astral Dynamics that I conected the spiders but I do think in my semi-conscious state I was able to see them, that was until I freaked out about them and started to jump around in an hysterical dance trying to shoo them out and brought myself out of it . Not that I would want to make myself ill to help me perceive it though

Lou

[CedssypeEdids]

Yeah, that definitely not be recommendable.

Take good care,
Oliver