Can meditation actually help me?

Maria Parker77 said:Look, what we’re constantly dealing with—this whole mess we're in—is just our consciousness, pure spirit trapped inside this fake material world. So, if you ask me, our actual goals should just be finding a way to make this whole existence a little less uncomfortable.

haha...

just think about what you actually wrote there for a second. the goal of consciousness is just to make things more comfortable?

Paul Jones7 said:haha...

just think about what you actually wrote there for a second. the goal of consciousness is just to make things more comfortable?

Then what's the point? 😁

David Vaughn75 said:The skeptics call it Mayavada stuff—just materialists or power-hungry types—but honestly? If you try that route without ending up in hell, your odds are basically one in a million. ☕
To stay on a strictly impersonal track, you’d need an insane amount of knowledge, and let's face it, we're living in the Kali Yuga—that kind of wisdom just isn't lying around anymore. That’s why the personal path, the path of serving a divine Person, is much more practical and, frankly, easier.

Everyone—including you—keeps harping on about "enlightenment," but that's missing the whole point. The real goal here is getting to know a divine Person. If you want to actually earn the favor of God, you have to understand who He is and how to show Him devotion. 😉

But I don't really get this part either—if someone actually achieved (I don't know) some kind of powers, why would they necessarily end up in hell? It makes it sound like a person has to be totally miserable and pathetic just to make it to heaven, which seems backwards. Honestly, I feel like being miserable and pathetic is the fastest way to hell.

Regarding the bhakti you mentioned, I also think bhakti is the easiest route, but I don't experience God as a "person" in the way one of us is a person. To me, God is fundamentally the source of our very existence. I see bhakti more as having total trust and being completely free from fear.

And as for kundalini, they say it’s the feminine principle, and we all know women don't mess around when it comes to that stuff.😁

Maria Parker77 said:Look, you can have all sorts of wild experiences, but I’m telling you, Kundalini is definitely a force for good. 🙂

If you're looking for a way in, I’d highly recommend checking out the guided meditations from Kelly Howell Awakening Kundalini. I haven't been at this forever, but I've probably blasted through those sessions at least 500 times by now. That's really all I've got for you. 😁

It’s usually the people who haven't been through much that claim this. They think a little spinal jumping and some ecstatic kundalini visions are all it takes.

Back then, things were different. People dealt with a whole set of traditional boundaries and social hurdles that just didn't exist anymore.

I’d suggest checking out some books by Gopa Krisne, or maybe Goel if you're interested. 😁

Of course, I won't pretend to be objective about an experience like that. It’s hard to say where the line is drawn between a genuine spiritual breakthrough and what some might call a mental health crisis—though, if you look at it from a certain perspective, you could make that argument about spirituality itself.

David Vaughn75 said:The skeptics call it Mayavada stuff—just materialists or power-hungry types—but honestly? If you try that route without ending up in hell, your odds are basically one in a million. ☕
To stay on a strictly impersonal track, you’d need an insane amount of knowledge, and let's face it, we're living in the Kali Yuga—that kind of wisdom just isn't lying around anymore. That’s why the personal path, the path of serving a divine Person, is much more practical and, frankly, easier.

Everyone—including you—keeps harping on about "enlightenment," but that's missing the whole point. The real goal here is getting to know a divine Person. If you want to actually earn the favor of God, you have to understand who He is and how to show Him devotion. 😉

Krcanin’s apologetic nonsense is just plain senseless. Kundalini—or tantra, if you prefer—isn't tied to any one specific doctrine or set of spiritual goals. You can find it everywhere: among the Mayavadins, the dualists, the Shaivas, the Vaishnavas, the Smarthas, and the Shaktas. At the end of the day, yoga is its own distinct philosophical system, most closely resembling a simplified, theistic version of Samkhya.

This whole debate over personal versus impersonal is just religious circular reasoning. It’s the same old trick where someone invents a mythological framework out of thin air and then uses it to "prove" their own point without ever actually validating the premise. You see this kind of thing in certain Pure Land Buddhist sects too. They rely entirely on their own internal logic and specific authorities to make it work. There isn't any objective evidence from observing different traditions or practices—no historical, philosophical, or logical basis for it whatsoever. It's ultimately an empty argument.

It’s the same old story with the whole idea of the Kali Yuga. It’s basically just Puranic mythological fantasy—which people love to mislabel as "Vedic" even though it isn't actually found in the Vedas. To me, it's just pseudohistorical nonsense that completely falls apart when you look at actual, concrete material data.

These religious arguments are honestly a joke. You’ve got people like Krcanin and Muslims going back and forth, claiming they have all the answers. One person says Jesus is the ultimate truth. No, they say Muhammad brought the final truth. No, it's Jesus and that's that. No, it's Muhammad and nothing else. It's neither Jesus nor Muhammad. Lalalalala. Honestly, it's just Jesus. I swear, I'm about to lose my mind with you non-believers. 😈

People are constantly bickering over whose unbelievable, baseless fairy tale is more 🤣

bluemason3 said:Stop posting about vibrations and different levels of reality.

I mean, how can you actually be sure what isn't there? 🙂

When people talk about vibration, they're really just talking about frequency... I guess.

Paul Jones7 said:I'm not so sure that everyone—you know, those people deep into spirituality, meditation, or just general self-improvement...—actually wants anything to do with kundalini if they can avoid it. And I don't even mean that from the perspective of potential mental health issues, though that's a factor; it's more like... you just might not necessarily want to mess around with that kind of energy if you don't have to.

@sekhem: speaking of problems, they tend to happen because of a mismatch—like, the ego or the lower self's personality clashing with a higher vibration once things start opening up. It's like something that can't sustain itself just snaps. So, in that sense, "preparing" really just means doing the inner work to clear out whatever isn't aligned with the purity and higher frequency of a greater reality. That’s what happened to you, I think. That vibration of fear from what you went through? It doesn't belong there. Fear isn't the right vibration, nor is it the state you were aiming for. You basically need to work on yourself to find that alignment again.

Stop posting about vibrations and levels of reality.

Vibrations are just oscillations in the movement of physical matter. Spirituality doesn't have "vibrations." It doesn't have "energy," either. Those are just vague buzzwords that make no sense physically, even if people love stealing them to sound deep.

Tyler Williams80 said:I can see that messing around with kundalini is no joke—honestly, the idea of diving deep into all that meditation stuff scares me a little bit 😁 Even though this whole "self-discovery" thing sounds right up my alley, I’m pretty convinced my chakras or whatever energy pathways are in play just aren't clean enough yet—not that I’d say I’m 100% sold on the existence of God or chakras, per se. For the first few months, I think I'll just stick to something basic, maybe just sitting quietly with my eyes closed, to give my thoughts more room to wander and see where the road leads. Thanks for all the input. That part about triggering mental health issues really hit a nerve—definitely doesn't sound like a fun time—though I do deal with low ego issues, which I don't really view as some huge "curse." I also have episodes of OCPa attacks, which I honestly feel have shaped me into the person I am today. It makes me wonder, though—could mental health struggles actually be our way of perceiving energy that we just aren't prepared for? Or is it just hardwired into us? I'm not talking about medical stuff like genetics here, but come on, aren't we supposed to be the masters of our own bodies?

Energy is just work—either kinetic or potential—performed by a physical body. There’s no such thing as some abstract "spiritual energy." People love to misinterpret physics to justify that idea, but it's just bad science.

Maybe all this talk about "receiving spiritual energies" is just a way to rationalize mental health struggles, making them feel more special or profound. Honestly, it’s much more fashionable to pose as a mystic than to admit you're just losing it.

David Vaughn75 said:Listen, kundalini yoga and meditation are two totally different beasts. You don't need to freak out thinking you're gonna accidentally trigger your kundalini by mistake—you actually have to know exactly what you're doing and follow professional guidance to make that happen.

Well, it depends on who you ask. Take Ramakrishna, for instance. He used to argue that any spiritual practice—even Japa—eventually leads to the rising of kundalini. In his view, it’s just an inherent part of any spiritual journey, including bhakti yoga. The difference is that tantra or hatha approaches it head-on and forces the issue, which can be risky. Bhakti, on the other hand, tends to be more spontaneous and natural, so you don't run into those same side effects.

I’m not presenting this as absolute truth. I’m just sharing a claim made by probably the most famous and respected guru of the last few centuries.

Let’s be honest: everyone has their own version of the truth. At the end of the day, these are all just religious constructs—nothing more than subjective interpretations and systems people build to suit their own whims. 😁

Maria Parker77 said:Then what's the point? 😁

I suppose you could look at consciousness as something conditional—almost like an extension of intellect. But intelligence alone can't really tap into its full potential through just "enjoyment," since true enjoyment actually requires very little intellect, or rather, a minimal amount of conscious thought

your logic seems pretty sound there, which leads me to think that if consciousness has a goal, it has to move toward whatever allows it to finally reach its full capacity.

Paul Jones7 said:I mean, how can you actually be sure what isn't there? 🙂

When people talk about vibration, they're really just talking about frequency... I guess.

I can't say with 100% certainty.

But how can you claim that for everything when we're dealing with the unproven? To suggest the origin of existence is some cosmic version of Severin Štikla is just nonsense. Since anything is technically possible, the likelihood of those claims being true is infinitesimal unless they're built on a serious hypothesis. Otherwise, we're just talking about mental models that might help someone function socially, but they have nothing to do with objective reality.

The only frequencies, vibrations, or energy we actually understand are physical ones. Dragging those terms into spiritual realms is just an arbitrary mental projection with zero basis in reality. It’s like how people used to project their daily experiences onto spirits and mystical beings everywhere; now, they're just taking scientific terms out of context and throwing them around meaninglessly.

Frequency, vibration—these are all just oscillations of material phenomena. Something moves up and down around a central axis, and we call it vibrating. If it moves faster, it has a higher frequency; if slower, a lower one. What on earth does that have to do with spirituality? And why, for heaven's sake, would faster vibration make something "more spiritual" (unless we're talking about a vibrator, if you're a woman)?

It's just tossing out catchy phrases that sound good but lack any actual substance.

We aren't really here to talk about cosmic pop stars or whatever

The whole thing about vibrations—which is really just a term, I suppose, not particularly important in its own right—is actually just a way of describing what so many people go through personally. People tend to be pretty selective about who they share those experiences with, and how much they reveal (even when it comes to close friends, which I’ve certainly learned the hard way). It's mostly because they realize that with most folks, trying to explain it just doesn't make any sense.

Absolutely... and honestly, pretty much any religious idea is packed with testimonies of personal experiences. Little kids sometimes see Baba Ram Dass too... that isn't exactly proof of anything. It just shows that an experience happened, not what it actually means. It’s all about how someone interprets it—whether it was triggered by something real or if it's just a mental construct, and whether the description they use actually matches reality.

It’s even more unsettling when you consider how a mere mental construct might actually have the power to manufacture a completely tangible experience—if that’s just how the 🙂 system functions—and then you end up living out exactly what you convinced yourself was going to happen

Oh, there’s definitely an element of placebo and suggestion at play here. 🙂

So, I guess what I’m wondering is—does it ever actually trip you up, the idea that maybe this whole thing is a bit more real than what you're convinced it is? 🙂

I can't even begin to tell you how much I hate seeing this kind of nonsense pop up on my feed—it’s like every single day there’s some new flavor of absolute madness being pushed by people who clearly haven't spent five minutes looking at the actual reality of things. It’s exhausting, honestly. You sit down, hoping for a little bit of sanity, and instead, you get hit with this wave of complete and utter delusion. I mean, seriously? Is anyone actually buying this stuff anymore? It reminds me of this one time back when I was working that dead-end gig in Chicago—you know, the one where the manager thought he could solve every single logistical nightmare just by shouting louder? That was exactly the vibe here. Just loud, empty noise masquerading as "insight." It’s all just theater, man. Pure, unadulterated theater designed to make people feel like they’ve stumbled onto some grand secret when, in reality, they’re just being played like a cheap fiddle. I'm so over it. Everything feels increasingly hollow, like we're all just circling the drain while everyone pretends everything is perfectly fine. It’s enough to make you want to just unplug the whole damn machine and walk away. kaže:
I honestly don't get the logic here—like, if someone actually managed to tap into some kind of real power or spiritual breakthrough, why on earth would they automatically end up in Hell? It’s such a weird contradiction. It feels like the whole system is rigged to say you have to be totally broken, miserable, and pathetic just to catch a glimpse of Heaven. But honestly? If you ask me, living a life of pure misery and self-pity is probably the fastest, most surefire way to land straight in the fire.

Look, regarding that whole bhakti thing you mentioned—I’m totally with you. I honestly think bhakti is the easiest path out of all of them, but here’s my take: I don't really view God as some "person" sitting up there like one of us mortals. To me, God is more like the fundamental essence, the actual source of everything within every single one of us. I see bhakti as this deep, unshakable sense of trust—it's about finally letting go and just being free from all that constant, nagging fear.

People say Kundalini is this purely feminine principle—and honestly? I believe it. Because let’s be real, when it comes to women, there is absolutely zero room for playing around. They don't mess around.

Look, let’s get one thing straight—hell isn't about whether you were a saint or a sinner, or if you died with a fat bank account or nothing to your name. That whole "good vs. evil" or "rich vs. poor" narrative? It’s total nonsense. People love to project their own earthly drama onto the afterlife, thinking there’s some cosmic scorecard based on how much they donated to charity or how many zeros were in their checking account at Chase, but that's just not how it works. It doesn't care about your status or your moral high ground. It’s something else entirely.
Look, if you’re the kind of person who thinks you can just go rogue—just coast through life relying solely on your own ego without ever needing anyone else—then honestly? You're heading straight to hell. I mean it. There's this massive delusion that you can just sit in some lonely corner of the world, try to reach "enlightenment" or whatever, without actually interacting with other souls. It’s impossible. If you try to find truth while cutting yourself off from everyone else, you’re just going to end up with some twisted, warped version of reality. And once you start operating on that fake, misguided understanding? That's when things get ugly. Wrong perception leads directly to shitty actions, plain and simple. You can't skip the human element and expect to come out clean on the other side.

So, I’ve got this one little story that pretty much sums up how the whole world works—you know, that messy, chaotic reality we’re all stuck in. Picture this: God decides to set up this weird little social experiment in a single room. He gathers a bunch of angels and demons together, but here’s the kicker—He ties their hands behind their backs. And what does He tie to their hands? A single spoon, about six feet long. Just a massive, ridiculous utensil. In the dead center of the room, there’s a huge pile of food. It looks incredible, right? Everything you could ever want. Now, watch how it plays out. The demons—bless their chaotic little hearts—start doing these insane, frantic acrobatics, twisting and turning, trying every desperate trick in the book just to get a tiny bit of food from the end of that long spoon into their own mouths. It’s pure madness, total self-destruction just to grab a bite. But the angels? They aren't even breaking a sweat. They just use the spoon to feed one another. Simple, elegant, and actually gets the job done. It’s kind of a cynical way to look at things, I guess—seeing everyone scrambling and tearing themselves apart while others just... cooperate—but man, sometimes it feels like that’s exactly what we’re watching on the news every single night. 😉

Look, you’re out here calling me a personalist like it’s some big revelation—but honestly? You clearly haven't got a clue what you're talking about. 😁
Look, if you actually lived by the principles of Advaita, there's no way on earth you'd be clinging to that nationalist, socialist nonsense. It just doesn't compute. ☕

bluemason3 said:It’s usually the people who haven't been through much that claim this. They think a little spinal jumping and some ecstatic kundalini visions are all it takes.

Back then, things were different. People dealt with a whole set of traditional boundaries and social hurdles that just didn't exist anymore.

I’d suggest checking out some books by Gopa Krisne, or maybe Goel if you're interested. 😁

Of course, I won't pretend to be objective about an experience like that. It’s hard to say where the line is drawn between a genuine spiritual breakthrough and what some might call a mental health crisis—though, if you look at it from a certain perspective, you could make that argument about spirituality itself.

Krcanin’s apologetic nonsense is just plain senseless. Kundalini—or tantra, if you prefer—isn't tied to any one specific doctrine or set of spiritual goals. You can find it everywhere: among the Mayavadins, the dualists, the Shaivas, the Vaishnavas, the Smarthas, and the Shaktas. At the end of the day, yoga is its own distinct philosophical system, most closely resembling a simplified, theistic version of Samkhya.

This whole debate over personal versus impersonal is just religious circular reasoning. It’s the same old trick where someone invents a mythological framework out of thin air and then uses it to "prove" their own point without ever actually validating the premise. You see this kind of thing in certain Pure Land Buddhist sects too. They rely entirely on their own internal logic and specific authorities to make it work. There isn't any objective evidence from observing different traditions or practices—no historical, philosophical, or logical basis for it whatsoever. It's ultimately an empty argument.

It’s the same old story with the whole idea of the Kali Yuga. It’s basically just Puranic mythological fantasy—which people love to mislabel as "Vedic" even though it isn't actually found in the Vedas. To me, it's just pseudohistorical nonsense that completely falls apart when you look at actual, concrete material data.

These religious arguments are honestly a joke. You’ve got people like Krcanin and Muslims going back and forth, claiming they have all the answers. One person says Jesus is the ultimate truth. No, they say Muhammad brought the final truth. No, it's Jesus and that's that. No, it's Muhammad and nothing else. It's neither Jesus nor Muhammad. Lalalalala. Honestly, it's just Jesus. I swear, I'm about to lose my mind with you non-believers. 😈

People are constantly bickering over whose unbelievable, baseless fairy tale is more 🤣

Yeah, we definitely caught on that you're an atheist.🙄

Look, this isn't the place where we sit around explaining to each other why every single religion is wrong just because they lack scientific proof. If you want to start a thread like that, fine, then we can debate *why* people believe in anything, or you can just go hit your head against a wall if you're just here to troll.😁 ☕

mistygull16 said:So, what's even the point of Kundalini Shakti then? If there's a higher chance of everything going sideways than actually being positive, what are we even looking for if the centers *are* actually cleared?

I’ve read some accounts where people describe feeling warmth or tingling and then it just... fades away. It’s all a bit confusing, honestly.

I’ve experienced things beyond just that endless wave of heat. One time, I laid down on my back, tried to settle my body to sleep, and was hit by these incredibly intense, beautiful vibrations radiating from my heart until they took over my whole body. It felt like the rhythmic pulse of ocean waves hitting the shore—just this steady, cosmic energy flowing through me. For a moment, I felt completely one with the universe, and my mind was nothing but positive thoughts. I ruined it myself, though. My phone vibrated on the nightstand because the battery was dying, and the whole sensation snapped instantly. Suddenly, I was hit with agonizing pain in my right foot and left shoulder that lasted over an hour and a half. That was it. Two months later, I was back to my normal life.

I know it's the chakra, because even when I'm on heavy meds for bipolar disorder, listening to the music that triggered it makes me feel that heightened clearing of the energy centers. You get these subtle aches in different spots as the flow increases. Vitality spikes. I don't listen to that music anymore; I'm not interested in forcing the process. I'd rather let things happen naturally. The bipolar issues didn't show up until after the chakra activation. When I mentioned these symptoms to my psychiatrist, he wouldn't connect them to the chakra; he just blamed the music I was playing.

Everyone experiences a chakra awakening differently, but there are certain baseline symptoms most people run into.

No one can convince me this isn't real. It’s not some psychological trick, suggestion, or a placebo effect. It’s an incredibly potent, living force that takes control once it grabs hold of you. Most people would be paralyzed by fear if they ever encountered it—which happens more often than you'd think. If they felt the kind of pain I did, most would probably pass out instantly; they wouldn't last a second. I didn't feel a flicker of fear. Instead, I just let go and let it do whatever it wanted with me. The psyche stands no chance against chakra, and that's why it usually snaps when someone isn't prepared for the process.

Paul Jones7 said:I suppose you could look at consciousness as something conditional—almost like an extension of intellect. But intelligence alone can't really tap into its full potential through just "enjoyment," since true enjoyment actually requires very little intellect, or rather, a minimal amount of conscious thought

your logic seems pretty sound there, which leads me to think that if consciousness has a goal, it has to move toward whatever allows it to finally reach its full capacity.

I'm talking about a level of enjoyment that is actually the byproduct of peak intelligence here. I'm not just talking about basic physical gratification, either.

You claim that pleasure demands the least amount of intellect or consciousness... so what exactly does maximum consciousness demand then? Pain and suffering?

Tyler Williams80 said:I can see that messing around with kundalini is no joke—honestly, the idea of diving deep into all that meditation stuff scares me a little bit 😁 Even though this whole "self-discovery" thing sounds right up my alley, I’m pretty convinced my chakras or whatever energy pathways are in play just aren't clean enough yet—not that I’d say I’m 100% sold on the existence of God or chakras, per se. For the first few months, I think I'll just stick to something basic, maybe just sitting quietly with my eyes closed, to give my thoughts more room to wander and see where the road leads. Thanks for all the input. That part about triggering mental health issues really hit a nerve—definitely doesn't sound like a fun time—though I do deal with low ego issues, which I don't really view as some huge "curse." I also have episodes of OCPa attacks, which I honestly feel have shaped me into the person I am today. It makes me wonder, though—could mental health struggles actually be our way of perceiving energy that we just aren't prepared for? Or is it just hardwired into us? I'm not talking about medical stuff like genetics here, but come on, aren't we supposed to be the masters of our own bodies?

There are plenty of different types of meditation that won't trigger your chakra. Just pick one that fits. Do your research online and don't dive into anything unless you're fully prepared for the risk. Spirituality can offer answers, sure, but you still need to stay grounded in the physical world. We were born into this material reality for a reason, after all.

mistygull16 said:But I don't really get this part either—if someone actually achieved (I don't know) some kind of powers, why would they necessarily end up in hell? It makes it sound like a person has to be totally miserable and pathetic just to make it to heaven, which seems backwards. Honestly, I feel like being miserable and pathetic is the fastest way to hell.

Regarding the bhakti you mentioned, I also think bhakti is the easiest route, but I don't experience God as a "person" in the way one of us is a person. To me, God is fundamentally the source of our very existence. I see bhakti more as having total trust and being completely free from fear.

And as for kundalini, they say it’s the feminine principle, and we all know women don't mess around when it comes to that stuff.😁

I didn't explain the purpose of awakening the chakra earlier. That force can significantly impact physical health if you manage to wake it safely. It affects your genes—there's even documentation from last century in China about a man who practiced Qigong and maintained a strict diet of medicinal herbs and lived to be about 280. His teacher supposedly reached 500. In the West, we might call it life force, but it's essentially what the Indians refer to as Kundalini. If you live in harmony with that energy, life becomes high quality and potentially much longer than average.

Maria Parker77 said:I'm talking about a level of enjoyment that is actually the byproduct of peak intelligence here. I'm not just talking about basic physical gratification, either.

You claim that pleasure demands the least amount of intellect or consciousness... so what exactly does maximum consciousness demand then? Pain and suffering?

Well, I think consciousness is actually what helps you move away from the pain and suffering part—because once you truly understand what it is, where it comes from, and why it happens, you start making active, conscious choices. And honestly, there isn't much reason to choose things like pain or suffering if you have that perspective.

Nobody is suggesting that enjoyment won't be a side effect or a companion to being conscious. But—and this is a big "but"—it shouldn't be the goal itself. If someone is constantly hunting for pleasure in every single action or situation, they're basically just a slave to that biological mechanism. And I don't think a conscious mind can really afford to be a slave to anything. I mean, free will only really works if your choices aren't dictated by whether or not the outcome feels good.