Can meditation be dangerous?

Somebody asked me whether meditation was dangerous.

We can initially laugh at that question, but I must admit that even I had the same doubts before. It does not take a long time to decipher in the question a profound lesson to be learned. Behind this question, we find superstitious thinking, and like all superstitious thinking, it is the result of a certain type of intuition. We fear whatever it is that’s lurking in the shadows.

I’m constantly surprised that the human being, the human body and the human psyche, has not changed at all in so many thousand years of history, or even million years of biologic evolution. At the root, we are the same as the cave-men that roamed what now is France and who left those beautiful and profound paintings in a cave.

This intuition comes from our unconscious mind trying to find danger, warning signs, in that which we do not perceive directly with the senses, but indirectly (through the same senses, both outward and inward). This intuition allowed us to thrive and survive from external dangers until these days. However, in our “safe” and “comfortable” lives nowadays, this intuition is turned inwards, and we fear that which is within us, and we project this fear outward in the form of ghosts, demons and the like. In short, superstition.

This was the full question I got:

If I empty my mind (through meditation), wouldn’t that be an opportunity for somebody to enter my mind and control it, or for an entity (a demon) to possess me?

I do not know what people mean by “emptying the mind.” (I will deal with this later).

But as far as meditation, whether it can allow your mind to be controlled or possessed, the answer to that question is an absolute no, though it may appear as yes at some point (but this is so to the ego).

Before you freak out, let me explain:

From the perspective of the ego, the answer is yes because, to the ego, everything that is non-ego, external to the ego, is initially presented to it as a treat, a danger. Like I said earlier, we fear what’s inwards but project it outwards, resulting in superstition.

Besides, that which is feared (aka., to be controlled) is already happening: in our society, most people’s minds are already being controlled and possessed by external forces and entities that communicate with their inner unconscious motivations, that profit off their fears, that manipulate history to their gain, and that engineer “humans” that are convenient to the powers-that-be. This is achieved in the most subtle way. In such a way that most people don’t even realize it (nobody who’s possessed knows he or she is being possessed as it is happening; the whole thing is totally unconscious to the individual, and that’s why it works so well).

Let’s not go that far, and let’s think for a moment about the events of March, 2020 as a pandemic shook the whole world. We got a glimpse of “raw” human behavior and how easily it is for us to lose all our “civilized culture.” A society that we used to think was rational only needed a trigger (a snap of the fingers) to go beyond the extremes of hysteria, of pure madness. How much stupidity!

Let’s also look at our daily lives: aren’t most people controlled by devices, media, advertisements, addictions and other mechanisms designed to manipulate us and keep us under hypnosis (if there’s a method to control minds, it’s called hypnosis). What about the occasional bursts of anger that, sometimes, the people that we say we love the most unjustly receive. And one says: “sorry, I lost myself for a moment.” Is it not as if another entity, another “self” that is not “oneself” possessed the individual but just for a brief moment?

And of course, we also see a society that is constantly moving, hustling for the sake of hustling, for reasons that are absolutely irrational: for perpetual economical growth, for higher success, for more pleasures and luxuries, etc., all while sacrificing that which is more dear to us: family, countrymen, the soil, air and water, and even our souls.

So, without meditation, most people are already being controlled on the daily and possessed once in a while. The reason for this is because, actually, the mind is empty! All there’s to the mind is the tiny island of the ego that is turn asunder by the ocean waters of everything that is! And for that reason, it suffers.

The reason I meditate:

The reason I follow the yogic path which includes the practice of meditation is, to the contrary, to fill up my mind! To make it heavy, full, robust… moral. To make of it a fort against all the different mechanisms of mind control that pervade our society (these are so effective because they talk seductively to the unconscious drives of most people).

To reiterate on the real answer to the initial question — whether we could be controlled if we “emptied our mind” in meditation. The answer is no.

But, before it gets too confusing, I want to say that I do not know what it is that people refer to as “emptying the mind.” It can mean too many things to different people.

Is it possible to empty the mind?

In my worldview, there’s no such a thing as “emptying the mind.” This is just a form of speech that, I believe, refers to being unconscious, as in a deep dreamless sleep, a comma, being so intoxicated or knocked out that one does not perceive anything, or as when one dies. If that’s what you want to achieve, taking a nap (while being lucky not having any dreams) would suffice and would be a less painful option.

The mind, properly speaking, is both consciousness and unconsciousness. Therefore, if there’s no consciousness, there’s no mind to empty. How can one empty that which does not exist? Technically, the mind, through meditation and having achieved the highest samadhi, simply dissolves into its fundamental constituents, but it is not emptied. In my view, as long as there’s a mind, there’s always something to be conscious of; in other words, the flux of mind-contents cannot be stopped with any of the ordinary means. If it is stopped by the extraordinary means of meditation, it simply dissolves but it is not emptied.

That’s why, in my view, I say that the goal of meditation is to make the mind full, to expand our consciousness as wide as we can to be able to perceive as much of the external and the internal phenomena that moves, right as it is, and not as we wish it to be.

This is why I say that the mind cannot be controlled while in meditation, even though it may seem like it to the ego:

As we expand consciousness, once we realize everything within ourselves, our desires of the flesh, our emotions, our fears, our thoughts, our impetus, our memories, our dreams, our works of the imagination, the unfathomableness of God, etc., or better said, the more we are able to perceive our human nature, the more we have to become moral beings that are responsible for that which we perceive.

Initially, this process, rather than achieving a fleeting state of mind, it is a heavy burden, a difficult task. It is, then, understood why to the ego it may appear as scary and dangerous: because we are afraid of our own nature, of our unconscious, of the repressed and undesirable, of all the ways we were programmed to compensate for the lack of love, of our ability to suffer, to suffer fully (we humans don’t know how to suffer well, not yet).

So, even though some people may experience hallucinations (visual or auditory) in the forms of shadows, ghosts, demons, etc., or angels, “beings of light” or whatever it is, or they experience heightened dream activity, or perhaps ideas or entire songs or solutions to problems that come in a flash, etc.; all of this, is nothing but parts of your self, which is actually the only one self, which is also God.

Rather than being controlled, you’re the one who is taking control of your own human nature, you are integrating those aspects of the fragmented self, making them conscious, so that these do not control your life unconsciously, as it is the case with most people.

In this way, apart from superstition when it comes to meditation, we must also be aware of an attitude of reckless naïveté. Meditation is not to “clear the mind and be chill.” If that’s what you want, just take a nap (and hope you have no dreams). A stupefying drug will also do. Anything that, instead of widening your consciousness, weakens and reduces it would do. You don’t need to meditate for that.

It is only with time and exercise in the art of being human, in the art of loving, that one learns to “carry the cross” and move through life as smoothly as the “brilliant swift-footed Achilles.” The more we act in accordance to our human nature, the more we prove that we also know.

To conclude:

Without meditation, you’re already being controlled and manipulated, sometimes possessed, because the mind is empty, vacuous, a lonely island where the ego is king. You’re afraid of meditation while that which you fear (being controlled) is already happening (without you knowing it, which is the only way to control somebody).

With meditation, you’re taking real control of your life and your human nature, becoming responsible for it, becoming moral (not acting in accordance to your human nature is immoral), all this, because you’re filling up your mind. You may be afraid of this process but will later realize that what you fear actually liberates you from the bonds of “karma.”

If what you are doing is recollecting the pieces into a unified whole, integrating different aspects of ourselves, wouldn’t that be like filling up your mind?

I hope you enjoyed this post; I also did writing it.

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