Many observers see geometric visual hallucinations after taking hallucinogens such as LSD, cannabis, mescaline or psilocybin; on viewing bright flickering lights; on waking up or falling asleep; in "near-death" experiences; and in many other syndromes. Mediation can also lead to seeing geometric patterns. In this post we will discuss why this happens.
When I was seven years old, I watched Ernest scared stupid. At the time, it was the most horrific terrifying thing I had ever seen. I had nightmares for months after and all sorts of other fears that stemmed from this. To my seven-year-old brain that mostly lived in imagination, this movie was as real as anything in this world. I have very vivid memories of what the troll in the movie looked like and he was utterly terrifying.
About 30 years later, I decided to face my fear of that movie and so I watched it. My adult brain couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of my seven-year-old self. The troll looked like he got his mask from some cheap Halloween store, and it wasn't even secured to the actor's head. Seeing it at as in adult, it's hard to imagine how I could've ever been fooled into thinking that the troll was real even though at the age of seven it looked real.
Humans have the gift/curse of imagination. When we are a child, our entire world is shaped and molded by our imagination. We have imaginary friends; we fight dragons and live in castles. Somewhere along the way we are told to "grow up" and stop living in our head, to join the "real world". The joke is the "real world" is just another form of our imagination. Our collective consciousness that Carl Jung referred to would be easier described as our collective imagination. Our "ego" / persona / identity is all part of our imagination. We all live in a collective dream made by our collective imaginations.
Visual Aid Here
If you refer to the above visual aid you can see that in photo (A) that there is a blank piece of paper, think of this as reality/true self.
Our world doesn't make sense to our minds because the world is chaotic and messy, our minds use forms to make sense of this messy world in an attempt to understand it. In photo (B) we can see a tiny representation of different forms our mind projects from our imagination. A tree isn't actually a tree, that's just what our collective imagination tells us it is. A real "tree" is nameless and formless. This is why people experience visuals during meditation/near death/psychedelic usage often times in geometric patterns. Our brains think geometrically, they're pretty cool like that.
In photo (C) we can see that we also use our imagination to apply all of our beliefs which include, but not limited to, ideas, identity, character, religious affiliation, gender, numbers etc. These beliefs that we have about ourselves and "others" hides reality behind them.
Photo (D) shows how we all see reality. Reality didn't go anywhere, it is still there, we can still see it and experience it. All of our form labels and all of our belief's hide reality from our perception. Some refer to this as "muddying the waters", some refer to it as a "mirror", it's also what's commonly known as the "ego".
As people begin their spiritual journey a.k.a. start getting rid of identities/beliefs, they start to wipe away some of the mess as you can see in photo (E). As some of the identities and beliefs get wiped away you start to get glimpses of reality. These glimpses are referred to synchronicities. Most of us get to this point and develop a spiritual "ego" in which we believe that "we are spiritual and no one else is and it's our duty to save mankind from themselves". This is when we become "seers", "healers", "gurus", "prophets", "enlightened", "mediums", and so on. Most of us grab on to this new identity, in whatever form it takes and stop there, not realizing that we are missing out on so much more!
What psychedelics do is ripe away all of our beliefs, labels, forms, and identities. Think of it as ripping the band aid away as fast as possible. It's commonly referred to as "ego death", the "ego" can't die because there is no "ego", it's just how you imagine the world and everything in it. If you are someone who is very attached to your "ego" or identity, psychedelics could possibly be terrifying, there's nothing to be afraid of. If you aren't very attached to your "ego" or identity, psychedelics can be very freeing and liberating, they can help you to see what labels are still hiding reality. They help remove the labels.
Sudden "enlightenment" simply happens when someone decides to see reality instead of what their imagination wants them to see. It's not a special gift from God, no one is more special than anyone else, if a human can do something, then any "other" human can too.
The spiritual journey consists of slowly wiping away the beliefs hiding reality. Most of us go slowly because we have a strange belief that if we get rid of our identity that we won't exist anymore. We still exist, we're right there in photo (A), we just think that we are photo (D). The ultimate goal is wipe away every thought and belief from the mind so we can truly experience reality in it's purest form such as photo (F). When we wipe away every thought/word/symbol/belief/idea and there is nothing left but reality that is what is referred to as "enlightenment" or "Christ consciousness" or "Buddha nature".
Very few individuals throughout human history have experienced "enlightenment" or reality. The vast majority live out our entire lives in our imagination. Most of us are too scared to let go of who we think we are in fear of vanishing from existence or ending up in completes darkness and isolation for eternity (if we come from religious upbringing).
The deeper we go into our mind/"ego"/imagination the further from reality we are. There's nothing wrong with that, each and every one of us gets to make the decision ourselves what we want and what realm we want to live in. Do we want to live in the collective imaginary dream world where nothing matters and everything is made up (hell), or do we want to live in reality where everything is infinitely more beautiful than you could possibly imagine (heaven)? The collective imaginary dream world is misery and suffering. Reality is flawless. I Love You All So Much and Peace Be With You!