In today’s book talk I am going to discuss about my recent audio book “Mysterious experiences : A peek beyond the confines of the Mind”.
Swami Vivekananda once mentioned some mysterious experience he used to have in his younger days, I.e, before he became a Sanyasi. Whenever he closed his eyes before he slept, he could see a bright light in front of him. But swamiji never felt that that was something unusual. He thought everyone else experiences the same way!
Only much later, he learnt that that was something unusual and probably a result of meditative practices that he followed.
Many among us might have had different mysterious experiences for which they have no explanation. Some may start getting worried, some may be confused and others may just ignore it.
And there are some Gurus who write books on those experiences, often mystifying them further, and giving their own mystic interpretations. Of course, those books sell like hot cakes and increase the Guru’s popularity ;-)
I too had several strange experiences right from my early childhood days that sometimes puzzled me. But I rarely discussed them with anyone nor I ever attempted to write a book on them. I felt that that would give a wrong message.
If you study books on Yoga, especially the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, you come across mention about several such experiences, one may go through during the process of Yoga practice.
Buddha gives an excellent detail of such experiences one may go through when one follows the meditative path. Buddha also gives logical explanation to some of such experiences.
When I read the Buddhist Tripitakas that detail Buddha’s discourses, I felt that many of my questions about my own experiences had answers in them.
I normally discourage illogical way of thinking. Such thinking often leads to wrong conclusions and can even be an impediment in one’s progress. Besides, they can also be used by fake Gurus to fool gullible people.
That is the reason I never talked about my own experiences till recently, even though some of these experiences were from my early childhood days.
But then, I thought why not I write about them as I experienced them and also try to analyze them logically to the extent possible. This would serve many purposes -
Firstly, many people who had similar experiences and remained confused can find comfort that such things are not ‘abnormal’.Secondly, instead of jumping to false conclusions that can take them completely off the track, they can try to analyze them to the extent possible and can still retain their rational approach.Thirdly, and most importantly, they can safeguard themselves from false Gurus who try to make much of such claimed experiences and mislead innocent people.
So, here you have – a book that details many of my personal mysterious experiences, followed by some analysis of each case. While listening to this book bear in mind that
The experience one goes through may be real in the sense it is the honest portrayal of what one went through, but the actual event that happened may not exactly correspond to what the person thought as happened.
Let me explain – when you move in darkness, you may experience that you have seen a ghost. But what actually you saw was a mere shadow of some object.
In other words – just because you have had an experience is not proof enough that such a thing has really happened. Many people having similar experience at the same time does not endorse your conclusions either.
For example, when you see a magician saw his assistant into two pieces, you really experience the gory incident. It is not just you, but every one of the spectators along with you, have the same experience. That does not make the event true. It was after all, an illusion created by the magician. While the experience is true, the fact that it corresponds to an event you thought it does, is false.
Only way out is to analyze as impartially as possible and try to understand such experiences. That is what exactly I have done in this book. But I should admit that not all mysterious experiences can be fully analyzed since each one of us have our own limitations to reasoning and some experiences may turn out to be beyond reasoning.
Sample
“....As I kept staring at the flame, I saw the flame getting bigger and bigger, brighter and brighter. Gradually, I could see darkness around the flame and the other members of the family who were sitting close to me and around the lamp, moving farther and farther away from the flame and dissolving in to the darkness. I could still hear the song they were singing, as if from a great distance.
Then I saw a dark tunnel in front of me. The already grown bright flame seemed to be moving into the tunnel. Soon the flame started moving into the tunnel faster and faster at a mind blowing speed and I felt as if it is dragging me along. I could not see anyone around me, nor I could hear the sound of the song others were singing. There was deafening silence. Probably it lasted for a few seconds – that is what I thought.
All of a sudden, I felt that someone abruptly dropped me from a great height and I was startled. Slowly, I could see the flame returning to its normal shape, the darkness around it disappearing. Gradually I started hearing faint sounds of others singing. And by and by, I started seeing them too sitting around me....”
Where can I find this book?
You can find this audio book in almost every online store that sells audio books, such as audible, amazon, iTunes, Kobo, scribd and so on. You can even borrow this book from many libraries such as Bibliothika, Hibooks among others.
Below are links to some of the stores that sell this audio book.
amazon apple google barnes N noble scribd
By the way, this book is also available both in e-book as well as print formats. See https://books2read.com/MysteriousExperiences for a preview/purchase of this book in these formats. Some stores like amazon may even show the audio version as well. along with other formats.
I hope you enjoy reading/listening to this book.
Bye then, till we meet again, week after next, with another of my books.
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