Ah, I just like to throw out that caveat in case I sound any more presumptuous than I already do. :)
They are certainly more profound questions, and I honestly don't have a good answer. I would be interested in your (and others') experiences, if you'd care to share, either way.
The best I can offer is a sense of my own experience: early on, the images were very vibrant, even menacing at times. But as years go on, the imagery begins to become more stable and comprehensible, even welcome (I associate this with lower level or "daimonic" activity). And I suppose one can come to take it for granted. I can also imagine scenarios in which people take these images overly seriously, and this is where, I suggest, people can run into delusions (I think of the dreams sent by Zeus, in that some are true and others false).
But then as time goes on, there is another sensation that is not so much visual as it is tactile (at least for me; it feels almost like a cross between sunlight and cool water at the same time). This does not necessarily present any images per se, but feels like a quiet and quieting awareness unto itself...the Divine Light, or at least something of a different (higher, in terms of Iamblichus's scale?) order. And yet I can imagine scenarios in which, despite the tranquility conferred in this state, the initiate is concerned (as I was) by the very lack of imagery. But perhaps that's the very point of such a state—the images are not necessary.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2022-06-17 03:57 am (UTC)They are certainly more profound questions, and I honestly don't have a good answer. I would be interested in your (and others') experiences, if you'd care to share, either way.
The best I can offer is a sense of my own experience: early on, the images were very vibrant, even menacing at times. But as years go on, the imagery begins to become more stable and comprehensible, even welcome (I associate this with lower level or "daimonic" activity). And I suppose one can come to take it for granted. I can also imagine scenarios in which people take these images overly seriously, and this is where, I suggest, people can run into delusions (I think of the dreams sent by Zeus, in that some are true and others false).
But then as time goes on, there is another sensation that is not so much visual as it is tactile (at least for me; it feels almost like a cross between sunlight and cool water at the same time). This does not necessarily present any images per se, but feels like a quiet and quieting awareness unto itself...the Divine Light, or at least something of a different (higher, in terms of Iamblichus's scale?) order. And yet I can imagine scenarios in which, despite the tranquility conferred in this state, the initiate is concerned (as I was) by the very lack of imagery. But perhaps that's the very point of such a state—the images are not necessary.
At least that's what I have so far...