Entering the Imaginarium

"Don't believe everything you read. Especially The Mirror." 

    -- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

After some time experimenting with the previous discoveries I began to focus my efforts on the aspect I had developed which gave the impression of darkening my environment. I thought that it may have presented an avenue for greater exploration and so my practice then proceeded to sit in concentration in my dimly lit meditation area. This area was actually enclosed with no windows so the only light was either by the array of dim-able spot bulbs set into the ceiling or by candle-light. To create a steady source of light I set the dimmer switch to roughly 20-30% of maximum brightness which provided suitably low levels of darkness for experimentation but still enough to see everything in the room and even read by comfortably.

I focused on creating the perception of darkness within the environment around me. Since I had been practicing this from my previous efforts I was able to progress quite rapidly. I had the intention of trying to see how dark I could perceive my environment to get - perhaps I could take it all the way?

I practiced over and over and seemed to be making progress but was hitting an upper limit on how far I could go, so I experimented with slightly dimmer (very light adjustments each time) surroundings in order to see if it would be beneficial. I would be sitting on my cushion on the floor and looking forward towards a nicely decorated bajot table stationed on a grey-blue, dappled carpet covering the floor.

Breakthrough

As I was practicing this there was sudden, noticeable, very distinct change in my perception. Suddenly what seemed to have happened that a kind of "layer" had appeared, seeming to be lying on top of the carpet. This layer looked sort of like a tighter cross-cross pattern of light on the bottom of a bright ocean sea-bed. It was characterised by having the quality of swaying horizontally in a periodic manner of roughly six seconds or so in length. It would sway gently to the left, pause for a moment in situ, then sway towards the right, remain for a moment, then back again in a gentle, non-frightening and very stable pattern. I remained still, observing this effect and trying to contain my bewilderment at what I was perceiving. With my gaze still fixed on this strange appearance I moved my head a bit from side to side to see if it would vanish. It remained. I craned my head forwards more to see if it would still remain - and so it did. I was transfixed by this very stable ethereal layer that seemed to have appeared over the carpet that contained an independent, irregular structure.

The next thing I did then was, very carefully, move from my seated, cross-legged position onto all-fours and moved shuffled forward slowly so I could get a closer look at this strange layer. Throughout this movement it did not flicker or vanish or warp but remained steadily swaying in a fixed period.

 

It had the chameleon-like appearance over the carpet similar to how a flatfish looks as it slowly comes to rest upon the sandy ocean floor - itself having the quality of seeming sand-like.

I looked down into the layer and saw what looked like like writing in an unintelligible jumble of hieroglyphic scripts. They would remain for a while before slowly transforming into other forms of letters that were meaningless to me. After staring at these for some time and trying to work out some rhyme or reason to them I gave up the task of comprehension and moved away back to a seated position. The strange ethereal layer was still present but I willed it away and so it disappeared from my perceptions. I spent the rest of the evening trying to search the Buddhist literature for any mention of these in the various states of mind to no avail. The only similar reference I can find is by another who practiced Kasina meditation that, in my view, certainly puts far too much stock in what he sees. (not that I would be innocent of this - as yet to be told)

The next day I sat down again and attempted the same feat. It worked - easier this time than before. The strange ethereal layer exhibiting the same characteristics appeared and I then moved closer and sat over it, staring into it for closer examination. I had thought for a moment that I recognised something within the shifting patterns as a form, a rough outline of a person. My attention attended to this observation and I wondered if this form was a person. I then got the distinct sense that I was looking at another person within this strange tapestry whereupon the image resolved into a bigger, more detailed character. I was awestruck. What was happening? As an agnostic the idea occurred to me that I may have been, in fact, been observing someone in some strange sense by the manner of this medium. Was this a Buddhist vision? This is where things started to go sideways very quickly.

As a seemingly rational person I wanted to try to gather evidence to support or deny my hypothesis. So I simply spoke out loud "can you hear me" and waited for a reaction. The figure then turned to me and looked directly at me. I interpreted this very incorrectly as a confirmation that the figure could hear me. I then asked what it wanted to show me. What followed then was a rather strange fully-awake dream like tour where I observed this figure walk through forests and meet with people who seemed to be dancing around. Then after a time the figure traveled into a city, in a slow, evolving dreamscape being played out in the dappled-colour-noise (note: again gradients) of my carpet. The scene didn't "flow" continuously but rather evolved in a series of shifting reinterpretations of the strange ethereal layer which developed in turn over a period of five to ten seconds each. 

 

The level of detail presented was really something, as I observed the figure's journey through the city it was complete with a tour through the narrow streets straddled with houses, various other people passing by. The figure even seemed to stop to greet one of them and have a conversation before continuing on to lead the vision to a kind of harbor wharf that had two docked boats and the rest of the berths clear. He spoke to one of the people there two and seemed then to draw his attention to me, whereupon I observed the second figure looking at me and then laughing. I wondered what was going on before the first figure then waved at me and the vision dissipated.

What I had saw had awed and shocked me to the core. What had I gotten myself into here? What was this strange window that I could seemingly open at will into what seemed to be a vision of these other places? This is where the danger zone really starts. This is a path to madness - but I wasn't there yet.

I will stop here for now and in the next post I will describe how I found out that I wasn't just a passive observer watching this play out. In later posts following after, I will also describe yet more strange prophantasia abilities that came to me subsequently. Then I will have a discussion on safety measures for anyone who finds themselves in a similar predicament that will (hopefully) provide well-needed guard rails to help prevent strange notions taking root.