Hi Joy

Nice to have seen you in the chat room the other day together with turey.  Sorry that you were in a hurry and had to sign off prematurely.

On the question of "seeing the light" and other good stuff.

Obviously I can not speak for Jim or JHB but I have seen the internal light you speak of, as well as listened to the internal sounds and tasted the internal nectar and felt the all pervading "word", often and consistantly.  Still do, and yes whatever it is, does prompt feelings of great love, joy and an awareness of oneness.

I'm really not sure how you can ascribe all this to absolute proof of God (or whatever).

I still remain agnostic on what all this is but increasingly I'm inclined to the view that such phenomenon is due to changes in the brain.  Specifically meditation (as well as other practices) cause a decrease in the chemical activity in the parietal lobe which is largely responsible for orientation.  A decrease of activity in this area will lead to feelings of oneness and "other worldness". Furthermore studies have shown that meditation leads to an increase in the activity of the amygdala.  This, studies show, prompts the deep feelings of love and "gratefulness" that meditators often experience.  Also, meditation leads to an increase in Theta wave activity which causes people to experience internal dreamlike journeys.  Sounds familiar?

So yes, meditation is definitely very powerful and can often lead to seemingly positive feelings.  However I wonder, given the very significant effects meditation can have, if it is appropriate and safe for meditation techniques to be taught and shown in an uncontrolled environment such as that provided by Prem Rawat where absolute no follow up is given.  More so where in the premie environment, Prem Rawat is in some undefined and nebulous manner presented as the "giver" of that experience or at the very least it is due to his "grace" (which again is not defined).  This, I firmly believe, can lead to some very delusionary thought processes.

Far better, in my opinion, if someone wants to practice meditation is to practice meditation in an environment where false attributions such as "seeing god", "realising truth" and so forth are not attached to the practice.  And then only once it is certain that people who take up such a practice do not suffer from a predisposed mental instability where proper medical treatment is more appropriate.  I have known and known of several people who had existing mental conditions which were excaberated by Prem Rawat's form of meditation (which by the way are not unique to him).

But really, the main thing I feel, is that practising "Knowledge" in the way Prem Rawat "teaches" sets people up on a false illusionary path where there is the contant striving to achieve something that is inherently false.  I chased that dream for close on 30 years, only to realise, actually discover, that I did not need to strive for some dream, the reality of what I am, my day to day life, with all its up and downs, all of its happinesses and sadnesses was just perfect.  And the last thing I needed, absolutely the very last thing I needed, is some guru to tell me that I was an arsehole or some other unsavoury put me down.

T