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Comment by ghoastl | Hacker News Reader

My most intense mindfulness experience was on a two-week silent retreat, in the woods, isolated from all of humanity. At the beginning, I met only the creatures of the forest and heard only the whispers of the trees.

By the sixth day I was hallucinating gold and purple snakes slithering out of my belly onto the ground around me.

By the eighth day I had visions of a cloud island vista with animals the world had never seen. They were cautious but friendly, and rode with me until the end of my journey that day.

By the twelfth day, I could see nothing but heard the most beautiful music. Melodies and harmonies fluttered and floated across my audible plane, bringing an intense sense of peace and joy.

When I left that place, I was a changed spirit. I may have been alone in physical form, but the universe embraced my inner self and showed me the path to enlightenment.

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You're describing a psychosis.

I am describing my experience. If you make the choice to medicalize my words, that is your own interpretation. But you were not there, you do not know.

You yourself describe it as a hallucinatory state, though. Were you aware that you were hallucinating at the time, or is it only in retrospect that you're able to realize that?

In a country of deaf men, would hearing sounds count as hallucinations?

If a person was born who could hear radio waves, would it count as a hallucination, or would we be able to design an experiment to test whether they can actually hear radio waves?

Same question for hearing neutrinos or dark energy waves.

It's only a problem if they experience psychosis in their daily life when they don't want to. Any mental illness is only considered an illness when it causes impairment of function. other than that, probably equivalent to hallucinatory drugs.

Maybe everyone should experience a little psychosis.

Having had two psychotic breaks, I do not recommend the experience. The last one caused something like hardware-level damage that took years for my brain to recover from.

No doubt they are serious. After I made my comment I thought about editing it provide nuance.

My problem is more about language and giving names to things and society adherence to the mean. As children we experience many psychotic breaks as we adjust to the world. It could be that as we mature the frequency is reduced but that doesn't mean the episodes are inherently bad. They could be a normal part of a consciousness's maturation.

> As children we experience many psychotic breaks as we adjust to the world.

Neat, I didn’t know this. Where could I read about it? :)

Most of the google results I’m getting talk about childhood schizophrenia. (Which is a thing and quite serious.)

Sorry I'm winging it based on experience:) That just happens to be my observation and why I spoke up.

so what you mean to say is that you're just making things up as you go? neat.

True, but I don't see that as distinguishing me from anyone else.

Experiencing psychotic breaks in your childhood distinguishes you from other people though. It is not a common experience.

These may be original thoughts conceived by an individual. If one needs third party verification for ideas read no further.

I see great similarity in childhood tantrums and psychotic breaks. I believe a more warn/mature consciousness may have a negative reaction to large shifts changes in its perceptual comprehension. There can be a number of causes for that change which may affect duration.

As for childhood psychotic breaks. I believe they are common. The undeveloped consciousness is so malleable that it is just part of perceiving and comprehending the world. As we mature we experience fewer upheavals but we also gather neuroses.

I'm surprised to have my credentials questioned on an anonymous Internet forum.

Either we have different definitions of psychotic break or you're a pretty high outlier. I don't know anyone from my bipolar support group who had a psychotic break before puberty. Most of them haven't had one.

I had bipolar symptoms at age 5 and severe depression at 9, but didn't have a break until I was 26.

I grew up in a dynamic environment with plenty therapy and hospitalizations. There is definitely something on my mother's side. Suffice to say that I have a lifetime of experience. I think about the human side and the philosophical side. I'm only speaking from life experience and an effort to frame and understand the issues.

You seem to have suffered a psychosis, actually

Sounds like your upper chakras opened. Well done on making great progress. Sounds like an amazing experience.

It's no surprise these experiences are often misinterpreted as psychosis by people without an awareness of where deep meditative states can lead.

Mind disclosing the name of retreat and place where one can attend?

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