A Little Weirdness

[catmoon]

  I thought I'd ask if anyone else has shared this odd experience.


  If I meditate or do a puja in the evening, then when bedtime comes I get a sort of lightshow as my head hits the pillow. At first it was just bright colors and amorphous forms, and usually a different color or two each time. Now it's starting to take form and I see things that look like a cross between Op Art, psychedelia, and computer-generated 3D fractal geometry. It usually only lasts a few seconds, half a minute at the most.

Drugs are not involved.

[Optimus Prime]

First, you need to rule out physical/medical explanations.  For example:
-  Do you see the light show in 1 eye or both eyes? 
-  Does it go away if you cover 1 eye? 
-  Do you see it even if your eyes are closed? 
-  Is it all your vision or just a certain part of your vision? 
-  Is the light show in any pattern in your field of vision? 
-  Are there any associated signs or symptoms? e.g., headache, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea etc...

If it lasts only a few seconds, sounds like it might be from blood pressure changes from the body being vertical to it being horizontal.  If it's only in 1 eye, you need to rule out traction in the retina - causing flashes of light.  If it lasts a few minutes or a few hours, it might be some form of migraine.  This gives you a rough idea of possible causes.

In general, you might want to go see a doctor and optometrist/ophthalmologist.

[catmoon]

I don't think it's medical. What I saw was something like this video

Voxel Octree Raytracer - CUDA edit

but everything was made of gold, silver and crystal and the shapes were more complex and less repetitive. I only see such things briefly and with both eyes closed. You know those light patterns you see when you close you eyes? It's as if they were getting brighter, crisper and going 3D. They are acquiring structure, form, pattern.

Very trippy stuff.

[t]

Stop eating lily's biscuits... 

[heybai]

 

[Blue Garuda]

I don't think it's medical. What I saw was something like this video

Voxel Octree Raytracer - CUDA edit


but everything was made of gold, silver and crystal and the shapes were more complex and less repetitive. I only see such things briefly and with both eyes closed. You know those light patterns you see when you close you eyes? It's as if they were getting brighter, crisper and going 3D. They are acquiring structure, form, pattern.

Very trippy stuff.

OK. Let's see if any Vajrayana imagery may be behind it.

It may be a little bit of a stretch of the imagination, but have you seen a 'Field of Merit' ?

It is a collection of deity images which may be simple or contain dozens of different forms, which are usually very colourful in the way you describe, and protrayed in a way I find similar to your Youtube and description.

The objects may eventually crystalise into such a vision.

If so, it's great progress in visualisation and a wonderful image to have in mind before sleep, and to carry into sleep itself.

Field of Merit:
http://www.rigpawiki.org/images/4/47/Dudjom_tersar_refuge.jpg

Have you been doing  Medicine Buddha or similar Tantras?  Well, it may be that your mind has absorbed the image from such a practice.  It may be a Field of Merit or something similar but simpler like the Seven Sugatas:

http://www.tharpa.com/us/graphics/common/arts/art-7mb.jpg

The only other Tantra related images I can think of which may fit is that of a deity's mandala or that of the offering mandala.

My mind experiences the best images of Tantra, Mahamudra, Body Mandalas etc. when I am not 'trying' and my mind is relaxed and open to the journey. ;)

Sometimes I find that I see Buddhas everywhere, sitting on every cloud, lake and hilltop. 

[santamonicacj]

Very trippy stuff.

Yeah. Years ago I used to see things like that at Grateful Dead concerts...

[zerwe]

Me too!!!!

Shaun

[incognito]

Sounds very similar to one of the forms of Hypnagogia:

Among the more commonly reported, and more thoroughly researched, sensory features of hypnagogia are phosphenes which can manifest as seemingly random speckles, lines or geometrical patterns, including form constants, or as figurative (representational) images. They may be monochromatic or richly colored, still or moving, flat or three-dimensional (offering an impression of perspective). Imagery representing movement through tunnels of light is also reported. Individual images are typically fleeting and given to very rapid changes. They are said to differ from dreams proper in that hypnagogic imagery is usually static and lacking in narrative content, although others understand the state rather as a gradual transition from hypnagogia to fragmentary dreams, i.e. from simple "eigenlicht" to whole imagined scenes.

Read more here >>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

[catmoon]

It really does sound like hypnogogia. Interesting.

Though I have to admit I prefer Yeshe's ideas, they are so much more flattering.

[incognito]

Maybe it's just a side effect of ammonia vapors rising from the litterbox 

[Blue Garuda]

Maybe it's just a side effect of ammonia vapors rising from the litterbox 

Hypnourea!  Pisscatonia? LOL

[catmoon]

Geez, you guys are really having a great time with this one, aintcha?

[heybai]

Any more weirdness, Catmoon? 

[Blue Garuda]

Try this true account of mine:

(For the purposes of this post, I'll use 'everyday' to indicate the human existence and reality I normally experience.  I know it is far far more complex etc. but I'm seeking brevity not an exposition on the nature of tantric reality or emptiness. )

A while ago I spent several hours in the reality of the mandala of my Yidam, and really didn't feel like returning to this everyday reality.

When I did return to my everyday reality, it was far from 'real'.  Whilst I was in 'my' body I felt disconnected from the world around me, to the extent that I was nervous about crossing the road in case there was traffic I could not see, and unsure if I was really there to be hurt by it anyway.

Scary, but it really wasn't at all unpleasant at the time.  Now I use a more gradual transition, and also walk around my 'everyday world' as my Yidam, seeing all as that Yidam.

I could relate it to other experiences of detachment, but it was of a very different  nature from any drug I have tried in my youth.   Nor is it like the experience I had over 30 years ago when I felt a sinking while meditating and my flatmate on the floor below me came screaming up the staris as I had appeared to flaot down and rest halfway up his curtains.  That's Welsh mystics for ya. ;)

Like Cat's experience, there may be a physiological explanation, but we know that the mind is more than capable of warping reality once it has 'input' it can interpret.  The experience we see as weird may in fact be more 'real' than our everyday experiences.

You want weird, I got weird.   If it gets too much just shout :  'Beetlejuice'! LOL