Meditation and Imagination | Overactive Imaginations
Do you have an overactive imagination? Do you use your imagination to escape pain? Is the difference between fantasy and reality sometimes difficult to determine?
On this podcast episode, Sharon brings up that she has been meditating regularly for over a year, and is concerned that it may be hypnotic. Radio counselor Roy Masters spells out how to know if you are hypnotized by meditation. Though she may not be hypnotized by meditation, Sharon is addicted to creating elaborate stories in her mind. Roy discusses how getting lost in your imagination through preplanning, and fantasy is really the misuse of a God-given talent.
A second caller, June, is wondering if what she is envisioning during meditation is a product of her overactive imagination. At one point in the free guided meditation, Roy says, “You can almost see an outline of your hand, through your mind’s eye.” When meditating, June says that here hand doesn’t look like her own. Roy explains how becoming objective and aware lead you to see things differently.
(Clip from episodes: K3537 and K4485)
This podcast is brought to you by the Foundation of Human Understanding: http://www.fhu.com
Quotes regarding imagination from Roy Masters’ books :
“The meditation is the science of starting a similar stimulation from the other side of the psyche. It is a science of diminishing response to temptation, persons or things. By eliminating the response to outer stimulation, we starve the roots of unfounded fears and dissolve the faulty imagination, opening up a whole new world of understanding. Then, and only then, do we begin to see reality.”
- How Your Mind Can Keep You Well
“Your imaginative mind is a computer. You are not supposed to live inside your computer; otherwise, you lose control over the input. Lost in your imagination, your computer is overshadowed by other forces suggesting exciting lies and ideas to you. You are no longer creating in a godly sense, but in a prideful and tragic sense.”
- Adam and Eve Sindrome
“Since childhood, your mind has been lost in your imagination, just as Alice lost herself in Wonderland. You have probably confused fixation and fascination with true concentration and meditation. You have been so involved with fascinating things that you could not be aware enough to realize the vital difference between fascination and concentration.”
- How to Conquer Negative Emotions
“Seek, therefore, the true ground of being. To find it, you must be willing to give up pride, emotion, and fantasy. Imagination is the world where pride lives away from reality, where you are the only reality. That is a very dangerous place to be. When you are lost in your mind, words take on a false life and false meaning; they lie, they excite. Here you are like God, in control of everything. It seems as though you are making people serve you. But you are merely giving power to devils to excite you with lies, with words, with the knowledge of good and evil.”
- Adam and Eve Sindrome
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If you suffer deeply from the effects of stress, fear and pain, we recommend Roy Masters’ special meditation and advice pack: Overcoming Stress Fear and Pain.
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