There is a reason that it is normally recommended that serious/deep meditation practice be done with a teacher. It's isn't so people can scam newbies out of mon

There is a reason that it is normally recommended that serious/deep meditation practice be done with a teacher. It's isn't so people can scam newbies out of money. When you really practice meditation consistently over a long period of time, you experience a lot of different states of mind. Some of these can make you feel "god like" as if you were enlightened. Teachers bring you down to Earth and remind you that it's just your mind being present while not meditating that makes you feel that way. You can experience strange visions like flashing lights and things. Some people interpret these as a mystical experience or something but it's probably just some random crap your brain is doing in a deep, meditative state. The most common effect, though, is a stripping down of all the lies we tell ourselves. This can be very, very traumatic. The realization that you are mostly making things up as you go and that you might not even have free will can be very heavy and hard to take. You might question who you are and how you have lived until this point. The real issue, though, is the "I'm enlightened" crowd. They are insufferable and need to brought back down to reality before they go to a dinner party and annoy everyone.