The exploded view
You can see more of the inside of your head on an exploded view, but the head doesn’t work very well.
This is called “the exploded view” in anatomy. This is also roughly what intense meditation and obsessive observation of cognitive biases did to my head. You can see more of the inside of your head on an exploded view, but the head doesn’t work very well.
As per The Humpty-Dumpty/Entropy principle, it is easy to break stuff, but not easy to put it back together again.
Thank you. I'll always amplify this message.
A friend has been exploring Vedantic practice (a form of Hinduism) for a couple of years. I'll share his perspective – I don't mean it to be authoritative, but I think there's something in it:
1. Vipassana is dangerous, he says, because people take themselves far too seriously and think they matter more than they do. The more you focus on yourself, your desires and wishes and how things should be, the more you suffer.
2. He says re Vipassana's focus on staying with what is arising and letting it go, some people can't let it go and they have a psychotic break.
There are many types of meditation and he's never done that one. (My comment: I think this is probably helpful for the vast majority of people as a 5 or 30 minute meditation, but becomes risky when trying to force it for hours and days.)
3. Meditation is for training the mind to be single-pointed (able to focus), to build resilience and perhaps to heal some trauma. It's not for an experience you get while meditating. "If you want an experience, go on a rollercoaster."
4. If it's not working for you, you shouldn't do it, simple as that.