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If you're interested in someone who both loves Yoga & meditation, and tends toward a rational bent, you should also check out Gopi Krishna. http://en.wikipedia
by duncancarroll 12y ago
If you're interested in someone who both loves Yoga & meditation, and tends toward a rational bent, you should also check out Gopi Krishna.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopi_Krishna_(yogi) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopi_Krishna_(yogi)
He was a pretty normal guy living a pretty normal life in the 1900's, and in his 30's through meditation he had a textbook enlightenment experience which resulted in a metamorphosis of sorts that he ultimately came to believe was biological / physiological in nature and could be repeated in others. He's one of the first if not the first person to suggest that what we think of as enlightenment is actually a biological event that the human body can perform given the right triggers, rather than simply a different state of mind or frame of thought. This is a revolutionary idea if you think about it; talk about "hacking the brain". The great thing about him is he's very relatable and not aloof, he kept his job as a government clerk and aside from selling a small handful of books, was clearly not interested in making money off his ideas.
He tried for years to raise interest in the scientific community to study the phenomenon, but of course grant money is hard to come by, and doubly hard if you're doing anything remotely unconventional, so his research foundation never took off and he passed away in I think it was 1981.
A lot of people don't know about him, but they've started putting his books on Kindle so you can go check them out. All of them are extraordinary reads, although I'd start with his prose, and then move to his poetry if you're interested in that.
http://www.amazon.com/Gopi-Krishna/e/B00IPU7XD4/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1411864845&sr=8-2 http://www.amazon.com/Gopi-Krishna/e/B00IPU7XD4/ref=sr_ntt_s...
- dominotw 12y agoMaybe this is a wrong context to ask this question. Can someone tell me what exactly is a mystical experience and how it differs from normal human experience. When does one consider himself enlightened?
- moab 12y agoI would strongly recommend the following book which speaks on this topic at length: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Expe...
- duncancarroll 12y agoThat's a legitimate question! Part of the whole problem in this field of study is that there's no widespread agreement on even such basic things; everyone has their own idea and no sound research has been carried out to establish what it is we are even talking about. I could talk at length on the subject but I couldn't do it any better than Gopi already has; you should check out "The Real Nature of Mystical Experience" http://www.amazon.com/Real-Nature-Mystical-Experience-ebook/dp/B00LFLIPDW/ http://www.amazon.com/Real-Nature-Mystical-Experience-ebook/...
- alphaandomega 12y agoA mystical experience happens through unity, an everyday human experience through duality. Duality is when you unconsciously make a distinction between you and your thoughts and perceptions. "I think therefore I am" is the subject observing his thoughts, this is duality. When you silence your mind, you just are and then there is no opportunity for you to define yourself, to make distinction between what you are and what you're not. "I am all that is" is the subject realizing there is no separation between him and his perceptions, this is unity. Yoga is one systematic way of cultivating this silence that is required to access those mystical states of mind. As for enlightenment, I could not say because I'm not ;).
- duncancarroll 12y agoOops, I got the Amazon link wrong; this is the right one: http://www.amazon.com/Gopi-Krishna/e/B00IPT2UYC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1 http://www.amazon.com/Gopi-Krishna/e/B00IPT2UYC/ref=ntt_athr...