fractal enchantment said:
"Many many extreme psychedelic visions but never thought SWIM had left the room.."
I tend to think that alot of people hold some sort of weirdo standard on this site concerning what a "breakthroug" is. Just becasue you have a "breakthrough"(which is a subjective statement anyway) does not mean you loose all awareness of the body necessarily. Lots of time I have broken through and still been somewhat aware of my body, felt some nausea or other perceptions..Ive broken through and been dry heaving at the same time before. Usually my body buzzes and goes numb and I dissociate from it but most of the time if the phone rang or something I would hear it to some degree and open my eyes. If people say that every time they have a large does they cant do that then they are exagerating I think.
I agree that sometimes too much emphasis is put on chasing the elusive “breakthrough”. As I learned recently through my participation in another thread, some people are very sensitive about their definition of a breakthrough! :roll:
What’s most important is what we get out of the experience, not how we label it.
As I’ve said before, there is no standard definition of the term “breakthrough”. I tend to define it as being out of body and fully immersed in another realm. In such states, there is no sense of my Earthly environment, including hearing. Upon return from such a breakthrough, I can actually sense my hearing “turn on” – the volume turns up from zero to normal.
In other experiences, I’m out of my body, yet aware of it – I can hear “it” breathing and hear other sounds in the environment. (One time, I could hear my breathing, and it sounded like I was “struggling”, so I chose to return to my body in order to better take control.) In some experiences I am aware of my body position, etc.
In still other experiences, I am fully aware of my body, (but not necessarily in control of it) yet visually and mentally/emotionally I am as far away as in a very deep breakthrough.
Even when I’m fully in my body and in control of it, I can still have a very intense visual experience.
So which experiences are breakthroughs? Where do I draw the line? It’s arbitrary, isn’t it?