The Vivacity Vortex

[not]

I spend a lot of time in absolute darkness. When I calm my mind I begin to see an energy vortex spinning about a foot in front of my head. I like to study it. Sometimes I see energy leave my body and be sucked into this vortex. Other times I watch energy come to me from the vortex. Has anyone else ever witnessed this? If I turn my head or shake it, this vortex always stays about a foot in front of my forehead.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

What happens if you go inside it?

I experience something similar, except it's a large tunnel/hallway that I can move through. On the left and right are a series of circular windows, and sometimes there's something going on inside them that I can partake in if I enter. It's strange though. There's no gravity, no sense of motion force, no body.

 

[Pyropyro]

It sounds like Closed-eye hallucination:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-eye_hallucination

BTW, I think I occasionally "see" Level 2'a. However, it seems that yours and THD are at Level 3 or higher.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Related link at the end of Pyropyro's wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_retreat

This appears to be not's route. Mine is either through the darkness/isolation route or through some sort of visual hypnosis (staring into foliage during a rainfall, or at waves on water, etc) to the point of hallucination. Once I realize I'm in such a state, I can conjure up the hallway.

 

[not]

My bedroom is a dark retreat. I have removed all things that cause light. My windows are completely covered. I have a layer of duvetyne over the windows behind very thick curtains. I prefer absolute darkness when I sleep. I started this when I used to work the night shift and had to sleep during the day. I find it painful to sleep with the light creeping into the room. I'd sleep in a coffin if I weren't claustrophobic.

I never read anything to find this Dark Retreat, I got there intuitively.

As far as going into the vortex, I have to leave my body to do it since otherwise it is always a foot in front of me. Take a step forward and it moves a step forward.

I did one time take this to the extreme. I thought maybe it was a wormhole that I could use to teleport. I don't know if it worked. But one time a few years ago I was able to move from one dark retreat to another in my house. I'm sure I just trance walked to the second location... But I entered the bathroom in the basement, and left the bathroom on the top floor of the house.

I find that for me, the absence of stimulus is regenerative. The second best thing is the sound of running water because it seems to drown out everything, cancel things out. So in my old house the bathrooms had no windows so going into the bathroom and closing the door was a pretty effective Dark Retreat. Then I'd lay on the floor with the shower running... (Damn water bills)

Do you have to leave your body to find this tunnel with the windows?

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

I thought maybe it was a wormhole that I could use to teleport.

Astral travel ftw.

Do you have to leave your body to find this tunnel with the windows?

I just let it swallow me, and once inside, just sort of float about.

Tangent flashback: Most of the time it doesn't last very long, though I've found that with a healthy dose of THC (indica, ideally strong hash/kief) in the dark it can last for perhaps 15-20 minutes. It's easier to induce naturally outside with rain/wind than it is in the dark, but the dark lasts longer. I often get stuck just before the point where I'd go in, normal colors disappear and everything is black and white, with my whole visual field wavy and flashy, and then some time later *poof* I'm in.

 

[not]

I don't use drugs because I want to be able to have control. (This is not a value judgement, but simple a factual statement.)

I never stepped into the Dark Retreat with the purpose of 'exploring.' The original intent was to take a break from stimulus. I easily get overwhelmed by sensory information. When I'm in a room with a lot of people I feel as if all of their individual thoughts and feelings are penetrating me. I'd have conflicting thoughts and feelings and emotions, and I didn't understand it. Later in life I realized that I was 'feeling' other people's emotions, and receiving thoughts from other people. Only in a controlled environment do I feel confident that my thoughts are my own. Or at the very least, the noise is filtered down to the one voice. Whether or not that voice is mine or an external voice, is yet to be determined.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

With practice, drugs can be controlled and even increase one's control (not that I'm advocating; the choice is yours).

It seems like you're inhibitory and I'm excitatory, which would explain how I'm able to get there naturally outside in a thunderstorm but inside with THC.

I'm willing to bet the voice is yours because mine isn't mine.

 

[not]

It seems like you're inhibitory and I'm excitatory, which would explain how I'm able to get there naturally outside in a thunderstorm but inside with THC.

Inhibitory Gnosis hits the nail on the head. See, this is why I love coming here. I learn something new all the time, yet I discovered Inhibitory Gnosis through my intuition.

Maybe my fear of drugs is not warranted, but then again... I can tell you that someone in my life took LCD and it broke him. He became schizophrenic after he used it only one time. Before he used he was studying at Stanford. After he used he had to be locked away. Once he stabbed another relative with a knife because he thought our relative worked for the KGB. - His dreams became real to him. My fear of LCD is based on this experience that I take quite seriously.

As far as THC, I've experimented in college. It never really enhanced my cognitive experience. It made things foggy for me. And it would elevate my heart-rate to the point I thought I'd have an attack of some kind, whether a heart attack or a panic attack.

I don't even drink alcohol these days. I find that a vegetarian diet to be enough for me to induce Inhibitory Gnosis. - I can experience it out in nature too. It is pretty trippy but it is also sensory overload for me. I possibly use the Dark Retreat because it is convenient. I have access to it every single night before I go to bed. Takes more effort to be in nature under your own terms. (There's always some dip shit interfering.)

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Same here. The process of discovery!

I don't trust most modern drugs of a chemical nature, which is rooted in the purity of the substance and human error more than it is in the drugs themselves. And I get the same increased heart rate and eyes that can't stop moving if smoking a sativa strain.

As for others interfering, you can always tie them up and throw them in a lake and let their gurgles enhance the natural ambience...

 

[not]

Tell me more about the tunnels and windows.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Tell me more about the tunnels and windows.

Okay. When it finally transitions from taking up my visual field, it's like a shadow extending forward, but I'm in it. It looks like it's moving, but doesn't feel like it. Then the windows start to appear, as tiny dots of light that increase, sort of like flying through space except they become larger as they move into my periphery and don't streak. This is usually when I realize "where I am." I can only focus on the one that's closest, but if I do and keep moving forward, then there's usually some stuff swirling and flashing inside. Sometimes it coalesces into something tangible like an image, but never all there, and if I can lock on to it, then sometimes the imagery gets really sharp and becomes a landscape/fractal/light. I've only gotten this far twice. Most of the time something outside snaps me out of it long before I get there. It's always... slow. Time is distorted.