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Technology of Enlightenment
Personal Growth Seminar
Citation:   Dances with Monkeys. "Technology of Enlightenment: An Experience with Personal Growth Seminar (exp93441)". Erowid.org. Nov 21, 2019. erowid.org/exp/93441

 
As I pulled up the driveway to the isolated residence, I knew I wasn’t going to be the same after the weekend. I had signed up for a 5 day personal growth seminar.

The teacher's specialty is in unwinding unconscious perceptual patterns. For the 5 days, he sat nondescriptly in front of the room with a blanket pulled over his legs to keep him warm.

Watching us sit there, you would not know the limits that our unconscious minds were stretched to. In this workshop, our basic perceptual filters were essentially shredded. I had, for the first time in my life, a perspective free from beliefs and structured thoughts.
I had, for the first time in my life, a perspective free from beliefs and structured thoughts.
As my false personality was shredded by his work, I found that without my beliefs and thoughts I didn’t feel any of the usual obligations or moods that stress me out. I sat there able and willing to do anything really but didn’t have a reason to do anything at all.

If I had to describe it to someone, I would say that I live with a fog around me all the time. The fog is filled with the things I think I know. Everything I witness, I see through them. Without the fog of my thoughts and beliefs my senses reached an acuity that made the simplest activities pleasurable. Holding an orange was delightful as its color and texture massaged my hands and eyes.

The most enlightening part of the course was on the last day. The teacher started asking us questions while we were in an awakened state. All of our answers were the same. In the awakened state, the differences that divide us disappeared. Our answers were not only the same, but revealed a deep inner knowing that I believe exists in everyone.

There are vast areas of the human spirit that lie beneath the superficial programmed personality and I have seen some of them.

The thing is I don’t know how he did it. He just sat there and spoke. He talked about “Nothing” and being and then all of a sudden we were transported into this awakened state.

He leads workshops like that one all the time and all over the country. He knows how to have your thoughts melt and disappear. He has helped me overcome plenty of problems myself.

The only thing I can think of calling this is the Technology of Enlightenment. Some incomprehensible phenomena that I cannot explain. I have degrees in psychology and physics and I was completely at a loss for what he did.

I cannot experiment with drugs anymore because of my job, but this one course was as deep a trip as I’ve ever taken. My spirit was cracked wide open.

I do not believe that altered realities are limited to chemical substances.

Exp Year: 2011ExpID: 93441
Gender: Not Specified 
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Nov 21, 2019Views: 655
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Endogenous (86) : Therapeutic Intent or Outcome (49), General (1), Large Group (10+) (19)

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