how do you achieve altered consciousness for meditation/shamanism etc. becuase i have found myself not prone to do so when desired, any recomendations for bringing on an altered state of mind?
Sit, breathe, listen. There's nothing more. Begin with nothing, for every unique consciousness and reality is born from there.
a good method that I found is to sit down and start to write everything that comes to your mind down on paper, it's pretty much just random stream on conscienceness. It's great for reaching that altered state of realizing yourself, consciencely.
lay down, or just sit, take your time and relax every muscle of your body, slow down your thoughts till they're all gone, you can elude your self they're like a streem in an optical fiber, or poeple comming out and just walking away, water leaking off your head, any thing that would realy get you, it's very important that you are tottaly into that Illusion, now Immagin every thing's gone even the whole room, nothing but deep black, no sounds no lights nothing mooving ... Now start searching your subcontious, starting with the very obvious obsessions, moving into the hidden hocas bocas, analyse them into as much clear and understandable forms as you can get, it could take you a couple of hours for a session - don't do this on any intoxicants - in a couple of sessions you'll be ready for the rest of the course ... by the way they call this cognitive therapy
meditation isn't something you can just sit down and do. i mean, it is, but it's so helpful to know *how* to do it, how it has been done before. the method has been perfected through thousands of years of trial and error, you don't have to do all the guessing. it's more than sitting with your back straight and emptying your mind; you have to let the energies flow right, your body has to be in the right conditions, there is a certain process. so if you don't have the ability to just slip into different mind states (in me, it's like there is a switch and i can move in... but sometimes not out... at will), there are TONS of great books that will teach you step by step. and there are lots of chemicals that will force you into it . really, you just have to believe you're there before you attempt to "go", and you will be...
While learning and discovering altered states is very important, they are not the whole picture. A state may have a profound impact on you, but there is a difference between a state and a stage. The understanding must continue into the rest of life. Getting the true benefit from altered states means realizing that the state is merely offering you a boost, a supplement to what you must be aware of more and more consistently, and from within, not without. States are transient, what is perpetual, timeless, ever-present from 'normal' and altered states? See through both, and use both to discover.
Lay down in to your bed... Close your eyes... Then lose your physical senses like touch, smell, etc etc... Then just try to understadn everything what you see... With practise you start to see another world... Somebody says that is only your imagination some says you are dreaming some says it's world of spirits...
i would do something intensely active, so that you can rest and relax after. then i would sit in a comfortable position with my back straight, against a wall if need be but a straight spine is important .... and then i would try to feel my body from within, the inner energy field of the body... so to speak. i'd feel how my body felt from within from everywhere in my body, all at once. if that is hard i'd try to focus on different spots. also i'd watch my breathing. in and out, in and out, inand out, the constant cycle that symbolizes life. birth and death. cycles. watching the breathing from different locations, from the tip of the nose, to the throat, to the navel(where it's important to breathe), also paying attention to the gaps in between exhalations and inhalations.
i find marijuana helps but you have to be very relaxed first, i can do it through meditation as well, but its hard, try chakra meditation, i find it the best for spiritual insight
It's nice to become familiar with the psychedelic experience because what you learn about yourself then could be a major key to achieving altered states of consciousness through basic meditation. It's not really being familiar with what it's like to be on a specific psychedelic it's being familiar with the state of minds associated with them. Those state of minds aren't ever very far away if you don't want them to be.
Leave the drugs aside...save it for advance works. Breathing techniques. The Serpents Hiss is an excellent one, and there are many many ways in Witchcraft (proper) to jump the hedge and fly to the otherworld...but none that I will give out. Find a proper path, then seek for the altered states.
Hmmm. Throw away the challenge of achieving altered consciousness. Altered Consciousness only exists within thought as a goal, or a special state to which effort must be applied to 'achieve'. Any doing or striving, or effort to 'find' or 'achieve' is ultimately wasted. What is being sought out is already this, already always here, all effort and striving is arising in this already, so it's okay to stop trying to achieve. Rest in this non doing, non trying, and realisation arises.
this is not something you can choose if you're not meant to. if you are, you will be taught by those who already are. what you can do, if you're not, is learn how to look, without the filter of pre-conceived notions. this is the next best thing, that is available to all of us. but if we choose to be blinded by expectations, then that's what we are.
