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June 22, 2008

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I had an experience with this first hand one year when I was at the Dera. A couple of friends of my walked through the guest house gate all aflush and by a darshan experience thay had.which is known as a darshan high. For those who do not know darshan is when a disciple sees the guru and is mesmerized and exhilirated by the experience. After all, from their point of view they just saw God. They said the guru had been walking all alone outside the gate and had greeted them warmly.

I was kind of surprised by this because I had heard that the guru had left that morning for Delhi. I talked to the office management and was told “Oh, there is this guy who looks and dresses like the master, even has the same car, who is often seen around here. That must be who they saw”. Naturally this caused me to question my own darshan experiences and I think Brian is right when he says most spiritual experiences, whether Christian, Satsangi, Buddhist, fairy worshippers, etc. are self induced and are a product of our imaginations.

It is very hard to know what a genuine spiritual experience because it is practially impossible to distinguish an influence from without your own psyche from one that is self generated. Fortunately I have had some experiences that I maintain were not self generated, in a manner that is analogous to Brian’s walk by the river. Of course, it may all be delusion and I cannot prove that it isn’t, nor can anyone prove that it is. For my part I am just glad I had them and it keeps me prodding.

The up here or down there thing is confusing form a satsangi point of view, because the "eye center" is emphasized to the exclusion of being "centered in the body." Yet, satsangis are urged to "still the mind" during meditation, a stillness which often results, I find, from being very centered within the body first, as Brian points out. Any thoughts?

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