Meditation Gone Bad

[khlawng]

Hi All,

My apologies if this topic has been covered before but I did like to know if you guys have heard of any cases of people whose meditation took the wrong turn and wrong path resulting in bad experiences and even mental injury?

Personally, I know of a case of a meditator who couldn't completely get out of her meditative state resulting in mental weakness and drop in confidence to the extend of becoming afraid of loud noises and darkness. It must be noted that the meditator was using non-buddhists technic as a basis to meditate. My only knowledge was that she saw something while meditating and followed it and couldn't completely get out of the meditative state (Sorry for being sketchy and unclear about this). It took months of therapy and finally meeting a good teacher to cure her.

Thank you.

[Individual]

Did you try slapping her, shaking her really hard, or pouring cold water on her?

Making fun of her would have probably worked also.

One can't meditate the wrong way and getting lost in meditation is never a bad thing.

And actually, if you're "getting lost," it's not worthy of being called meditation; it's dreaming.

[tiltbillings]

Did you try slapping her, shaking her really hard, or pouring cold water on her?

Making fun of her would have probably worked also.

One can't meditate the wrong way and getting lost in meditation is never a bad thing.

And actually, if you're "getting lost," it's not worthy of being called meditation; it's dreaming.

All the above is why one should really have an experienced teacher.

[Individual]

Did you try slapping her, shaking her really hard, or pouring cold water on her?

Making fun of her would have probably worked also.

One can't meditate the wrong way and getting lost in meditation is never a bad thing.

And actually, if you're "getting lost," it's not worthy of being called meditation; it's dreaming.

All the above is why one should really have an experienced teacher.

"When the student is ready..."

[Modus.Ponens]

If a person has disturbing thoughts and has aversion to them, then, when they appear in meditation, you get more disturbed than you would usualy be. If a person has a depression or OCD, it could get worse.

[tiltbillings]

Did you try slapping her, shaking her really hard, or pouring cold water on her?

Making fun of her would have probably worked also.

One can't meditate the wrong way and getting lost in meditation is never a bad thing.

And actually, if you're "getting lost," it's not worthy of being called meditation; it's dreaming.

All the above is why one should really have an experienced teacher.

"When the student is ready..."

Sure, and in the meantime assaulting someone by slapping or making fun or shaking her or such is probably not the best thing to do.

[Individual]

Yeah, I guess I was exaggerating.

[KonstantKarma]

If their head starts spinning around and they look like Linda Blair you've got problems.

[KonstantKarma]

Okay, I guess in reality there can be bad things that happen during meditation, although I did a lot of meditational experimentation with no teacher and never had anything really adverse happen.

This is just what I sort of envisioned after the slapping/cold water reply.

[Urmyteacher]

Sutta discusses monks meditating and results of the meditation. Some monks meditate to long and do indeed weaken the mind due to fatigue. It is like over tuning a musical instrument and the string snaps. It is wise to investigate meditation through the direction of the highest teacher in Buddhism. That being the Buddha. The path outlined in scripture. Hash it out as best you can with admirable friends involved in the holy life. Meditate sitting, stand in, walking, and lieing down. Look at the various types of meditation shyster in scripture. In addition to meditation make use of vuirtuos lifestyle changes discussed in scripture....