A Structured Approach to Meditation

[Magpie]

What is your approach to meditation? A way to structure it would be:

1. Objective (detachment from thoughts and feelings, working with a certain energy like vajrayana meditation deities, set-up for astral projection etc)

2. Method physical (position, breathing rhythm, incenses, music, mantras etc) and mental (way of subduing the mind, way of evoking certain emotional states etc)

3. Risks and how to mitigate them (what can go wrong, what are the warning signs and how to rectify)

For me the objective is to detach myself from the mundane life and feel the energies of the body. Get as close to a dream-like state as I can without losing control. No special methods, beyond laying down flat and some relaxing breathing at the beginning. Mental method - the usual way of seeing thoughts and feelings as external and 'physical' and no effort towards identification with them. I don't really know what can go 'wrong', so curious what your thoughts are. In various materials I come across there is barely any mention of the potential downsides of practice. As I get close to sleep, some dream images, sensations (sudden jerks, sometimes small involuntary movements), sounds appear, but I don't see how that or even actual apparitions and hallucinations could be particularly harmful. As long as such practice doesn't mess with night sleep.

 

[Ziran]

I don't really know what can go 'wrong', so curious what your thoughts are

For mental detachment the risk is "meditation sickness" -

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Risk factors:

1. solo practioneer
2. history of trauma
3. history of drug use
4. pre-disposition to psychosis

For physical detachment the risk is "Chi-deviation"

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Post automatically merged: Dec 1, 2024

laying down flat

There is an energetic benefit with the head elevated and the spine vertical. To make it comfortable, try sitting on a cushion with the back flat against a wall. The tail-bone fixed to the earth, the soft spot at the very top of the spine in-line directly above it. The spine lifts, picking up the head. The head is tipping slightly forward. Jaw relaxed. Tune it by moving the head slightly. Up down. Left right. Very gently. Pay attention to a gentle soft tingling or humming in-between above the eyebrows. That's what you want. Breathe. Follow the breath with your mind's eye. All the way down, all the way back. Repeat. Just breathe. All the way down. All the way back.

You'll get it.

As I get close to sleep, some dream images, sensations (sudden jerks, sometimes small involuntary movements), sounds appear, but I don't see how that or even actual apparitions and hallucinations could be particularly harmful. As long as such practice doesn't mess with night sleep.

It's perfectly natural. Nothing to worry with. Some become restless instead of relaxed during mediation. It's not a problem. Everyone's different. If this happens, you're not doing it wrong. However, I recommend a walking meditation if the restlessness becomes distracting.

 

[Magpie]

For mental detachment the risk is "meditation sickness" -

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Risk factors:

1. solo practioneer
2. history of trauma
3. history of drug use
4. pre-disposition to psychosis

For physical detachment the risk is "Chi-deviation"

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Post automatically merged: Dec 1, 2024

There is an energetic benefit with the head elevated and the spine vertical. To make it comfortable, try sitting on a cushion with the back flat against a wall. The tail-bone fixed to the earth, the soft spot at the very top of the spine in-line directly above it. The spine lifts, picking up the head. The head is tipping slightly forward. Jaw relaxed. Tune it by moving the head slightly. Up down. Left right. Very gently. Pay attention to a gentle soft tingling or humming in-between above the eyebrows. That's what you want. Breathe. Follow the breath with your mind's eye. All the way down, all the way back. Repeat. Just breathe. All the way down. All the way back.

You'll get it.



It's perfectly natural. Nothing to worry with. Some become restless instead of relaxed during mediation. It's not a problem. Everyone's different. If this happens, you're not doing it wrong. However, I recommend a walking meditation if the restlessness becomes distracting.

Excellent, that is very informative. I will have a read of that pdf. Could you explain the benefit of having the head elevated? I saw conflicting opinions on that question. How does practicing with someone else reduce the risk?

It is a little difficult to assess pre-disposition to psychosis. Can you suggest some warning signs, that if noticed, one should stop meditating?

 

[HoldAll]

I've already described my approach here and here. I started out more or less freestyle Zen-ish but now take my guidance from Culadasa's book which was a lot of help.

For me, at least at this stage, it's empty mind or nothing. This stubborn insistence had come as a result of a gradually increasing suspicion that I have lived my life so far mostly according to my own and/or other people's scripts, to faux heroic narratives from books or movies, forced myself to feel and think in a certain way because it was expected of me, play-acted live parts that were mostly alien to me because I had stupidly shoehorned myself into them, and other things I'm beginning to realize only now.

At present, the main villains I've come to identify in myself are words and discursive thinking. I've always been an obsessive brooder and journaller, and there was always this unease because what I thought and wrote was so different from what I actually did - it seemed like resolutions never led to any corrective actions, theories were never implemented, and how I described myself and my emotions felt uncomfortably contrived.

The Indian guru Sri Ramana Maharshi advocated self-inquiry along the lines of "Who am I?" (he also wrote a book by this title). Well, my own central spiritual question is "What's really there?", which in some ways amounts to the same thing. However, this form of self-inquiry is not part of my meditation practice, it's more the secret unspoken rationale behind it. Example: meditation is always depicted as the supreme method for relaxation and well-being. Advertisers try to sell you everything from yoghurt to cat-food by showing you some attractive person sitting cross-legged on a pillow with eyes closed, radiating an aura of enviable blissed-out calm. However, meditation doesn't calm me down, so sue me, it just doesn't at this point in time. "What's really there?" The same old same old, that's there, and that is fine. It's what's really there that counts, and if nothing's there at all, that's ok, too.

Another one: I also try to keep my mind empty when taking a walk. Initially, the (probably NewAge-inspired) expectation was that thanks to my new-found mindfulness, everything would become miraculously crystal-clear and amazingly beautiful but what actually happened is that I was stunned to realize how boringly ordinary everything was - and that's how the world was for me, once I dispensed with the running commentary in my head and my unconscious method acting. You could call it 'sincerity' or "To thine own self be true" but the void I'm experiencing when meditating is a little bit more than that, and I absolutely refuse to philosophically analyze it or draw any rational inferences from it that can be put in words. Maybe it will make me calmer after all over time, maybe it will improve my concentration but for now, I have no expectations (ok, I'm trying not to have any ).

This is why I'm currently loathe to employ any mantras, music, incense, visualizations and what not because I feel it would add something artificial to this all-important "What's really there?" that doesn't belong there; right now, I'd see it more as a hindrance than an aid to my meditation practice. Perhaps I'll change my opinion some day but for now, mental austerity is what suits me best.

 

[Asteriskos]

One of the most common for me is "discursive" meditation. I use this a lot for "turning things over in my mind", or gaining insight into something.
For example if there are three "items, concepts / ideas" that I want to grasp / grapple with, I'll focus on one till satisfied, progress to another, et al.

I practice other forms too if I feel the need, for example "breath" meditation, for it's numerous benefits!

 

[Amadeus]

1) Detachment from thoughts and feelings, yes. This is important, clear the mind.

2) Position. Usually sitting somewhere, chair, bed.
Practices that I'm doing involve the reading of a mantra or something that gets repeated over and over again.
Might be using incense once in a while but not so often.

3) Risks and problems. There are lots of them, There are many downsides and weird side effects that I've seen over the years. I can give you this based on the personal experiences with mantras, short and long prayers.

Spamming a lot of mantras puts a lot of pressure on the "energy channel", I guess call it the third eye, that's where I feel everything.
The solo practioner has to pay attention to what goes on. There is a high risk of picking up a practice that does not suit you so well at all.
A risk is that you overdo it, the number of mantras read, hours spent doing the practices. The mind might be ready but the system is not. The system needs training. Without a teacher many people do something wrong. Then again for others the DIY approach works better. Not all teachers are good and the DIY can get you somewhere faster. It's always good to consult and discuss before attempting something more serious.

The mind is not used to repeating something for so long, you are forcing it do so something that it's not used to. This comes along with a lot of energy.
When the senses start opening and you get into a bigger contact, feel more, there's a lot of energy, it comes in multiplied, more more and more.
This is not just about the repeating practices but all practices, something that you attempt to do for extended periods of time.

It makes you connect with "something". Almost like a sending packets from a personal PC to a server, packet exchange. Alters your thinking, mindset, your actions. I feel it like this, exchange between servers. A person is like a computer that connects, the mantra is a server. People who are not into spiritual practices are offline computers. Spiritual practitioners have first the old technology and then optical fiber connections.
Example, when you work a lot with the Arabic ones, dhikr etc. You tune into some kind of a collective consciousness and suddenly start to admire everything that has to do with the Arab world, language, culture. It's quite weird I have to say. I switched back to other practices and all this disappeared right away.
Maybe before you were never interested in that but you fully connect with "something" and it alters your mind so much.

The openness from excessive work can make you too sensitive. You turn into a radar that feels way too much. The open access, vulnerability.
This is especially bad when you go to places where something bad took place or places like cemeteries where the energy will just pour in through that open channel. You end up having to self exorcise something out of yourself, that's how bad it can go.

There is a risk that you call something into you with the practices and if you can't get rid of them anymore then you are a mental hospital material. Other people think you should seek for mental help but yet it came from the practices and can be removed.
This happened to somebody my spiritual friend IRL knows. Did some practices, ended up calling something into himself with the mantras. The problem became so much that he had to go on a race against time, until he found a good exorcist who got rid of it, several of them failed.
I had issues where I had to self exorcise something out, a couple of times, fortunately it has not occurred again, much better approach now and more experience.

Doing something wrong can make you have horrible pains in your head, irritated angry states, rollercoaster between sadness and happiness, anger and joy.
Weird mood swings, feeling of being split apart, this happens when you work too much with mantras & practices from different paths. This is the main reason why I mostly prefer to do one at a time now. Those pains in your head or in the third eye are not like the ordinary ones, they are nasty. Imagine your whole third eye, forehead, not having the pleasant effects but a feeling of sulphur, coal, or some tires burning in there. The nastiest sensations that last for not days but weeks at a time, until the system cools down. It's like the smell of something burning accompanied by weirdest and worst effects. There can be a very thin line between the good and bad effects. Almost like in a gym where you do your exercises, maybe one day you want to push it a bit harder and then you hurt yourself, having to stay away from the gym for some weeks or a month.

I've heard about people who do the special breathing exercises together with the mantras and they end up with weird issues too. Can't really comment on this. It comes up when you search for hesychast exercises, when they inhale while saying part of the mantra and read the rest while exhaling. Something about getting messed up.

These same scenarios that I described here, I heard the same stuff from others. All kinds of weird problems. Many of them only apply to those who are trying to seek out more extreme experiences, very long mantra based practices where they are read for entire days, weeks, months straight.

 

[Faria]

I see meditation as the mental equivalent of weightlifting. I am not a power lifter. I'm more like the guy who only shows up at Planet Fitness on pizza day.

I sit still and exert my will toward nothing other than that. No mental dialogues, no imagined scenes, no concerns about what needs doing, just sit and do that only. The deeper into that I go, the more anything and everything will happen to derail the meditation. That is like the force of gravity pulling on the weights.

The discipline behind meditation is like learning to read. Anyone can do it, and it takes a bit of work to get to a point where you can do it with confidence, but once you get there you settle into a routine. I do not think the objective of meditation is to enter a state of mind so much as to exercise the state of mind that you already have, to make it more capable and resilient.

 

[Magpie]

I've already described my approach here and here. I started out more or less freestyle Zen-ish but now take my guidance from Culadasa's book which was a lot of help.

For me, at least at this stage, it's empty mind or nothing. This stubborn insistence had come as a result of a gradually increasing suspicion that I have lived my life so far mostly according to my own and/or other people's scripts, to faux heroic narratives from books or movies, forced myself to feel and think in a certain way because it was expected of me, play-acted live parts that were mostly alien to me because I had stupidly shoehorned myself into them, and other things I'm beginning to realize only now.

At present, the main villains I've come to identify in myself are words and discursive thinking. I've always been an obsessive brooder and journaller, and there was always this unease because what I thought and wrote was so different from what I actually did - it seemed like resolutions never led to any corrective actions, theories were never implemented, and how I described myself and my emotions felt uncomfortably contrived.

The Indian guru Sri Ramana Maharshi advocated self-inquiry along the lines of "Who am I?" (he also wrote a book by this title). Well, my own central spiritual question is "What's really there?", which in some ways amounts to the same thing. However, this form of self-inquiry is not part of my meditation practice, it's more the secret unspoken rationale behind it. Example: meditation is always depicted as the supreme method for relaxation and well-being. Advertisers try to sell you everything from yoghurt to cat-food by showing you some attractive person sitting cross-legged on a pillow with eyes closed, radiating an aura of enviable blissed-out calm. However, meditation doesn't calm me down, so sue me, it just doesn't at this point in time. "What's really there?" The same old same old, that's there, and that is fine. It's what's really there that counts, and if nothing's there at all, that's ok, too.

Another one: I also try to keep my mind empty when taking a walk. Initially, the (probably NewAge-inspired) expectation was that thanks to my new-found mindfulness, everything would become miraculously crystal-clear and amazingly beautiful but what actually happened is that I was stunned to realize how boringly ordinary everything was - and that's how the world was for me, once I dispensed with the running commentary in my head and my unconscious method acting. You could call it 'sincerity' or "To thine own self be true" but the void I'm experiencing when meditating is a little bit more than that, and I absolutely refuse to philosophically analyze it or draw any rational inferences from it that can be put in words. Maybe it will make me calmer after all over time, maybe it will improve my concentration but for now, I have no expectations (ok, I'm trying not to have any ).

This is why I'm currently loathe to employ any mantras, music, incense, visualizations and what not because I feel it would add something artificial to this all-important "What's really there?" that doesn't belong there; right now, I'd see it more as a hindrance than an aid to my meditation practice. Perhaps I'll change my opinion some day but for now, mental austerity is what suits me best.

I find that there is not much there at all. Just an empty horizon. Feels like being on a boat on open sea. Things come up only as I submerge. Other than that, this emptiness and lack of any muscle effort allows for concentration on energies. Haha, all those images of mediating people try to evoke Buddha himself I suppose, hence the serenity. I think that a proper meditation for an average person would be a fairly negative experience, as it would tear off all the protective intoxication and BS they indulge non stop. I can relate to that remark on brooding and planning.

One of the most common for me is "discursive" meditation. I use this a lot for "turning things over in my mind", or gaining insight into something.
For example if there are three "items, concepts / ideas" that I want to grasp / grapple with, I'll focus on one till satisfied, progress to another, et al.

I practice other forms too if I feel the need, for example "breath" meditation, for it's numerous benefits!

Sounds interesting, could you give an example of both the meditation on ideas and the one where breath is the focus?

1) Detachment from thoughts and feelings, yes. This is important, clear the mind.

2) Position. Usually sitting somewhere, chair, bed.
Practices that I'm doing involve the reading of a mantra or something that gets repeated over and over again.
Might be using incense once in a while but not so often.

3) Risks and problems. There are lots of them, There are many downsides and weird side effects that I've seen over the years. I can give you this based on the personal experiences with mantras, short and long prayers.

Spamming a lot of mantras puts a lot of pressure on the "energy channel", I guess call it the third eye, that's where I feel everything.
The solo practioner has to pay attention to what goes on. There is a high risk of picking up a practice that does not suit you so well at all.
A risk is that you overdo it, the number of mantras read, hours spent doing the practices. The mind might be ready but the system is not. The system needs training. Without a teacher many people do something wrong. Then again for others the DIY approach works better. Not all teachers are good and the DIY can get you somewhere faster. It's always good to consult and discuss before attempting something more serious.

The mind is not used to repeating something for so long, you are forcing it do so something that it's not used to. This comes along with a lot of energy.
When the senses start opening and you get into a bigger contact, feel more, there's a lot of energy, it comes in multiplied, more more and more.
This is not just about the repeating practices but all practices, something that you attempt to do for extended periods of time.

It makes you connect with "something". Almost like a sending packets from a personal PC to a server, packet exchange. Alters your thinking, mindset, your actions. I feel it like this, exchange between servers. A person is like a computer that connects, the mantra is a server. People who are not into spiritual practices are offline computers. Spiritual practitioners have first the old technology and then optical fiber connections.
Example, when you work a lot with the Arabic ones, dhikr etc. You tune into some kind of a collective consciousness and suddenly start to admire everything that has to do with the Arab world, language, culture. It's quite weird I have to say. I switched back to other practices and all this disappeared right away.
Maybe before you were never interested in that but you fully connect with "something" and it alters your mind so much.

The openness from excessive work can make you too sensitive. You turn into a radar that feels way too much. The open access, vulnerability.
This is especially bad when you go to places where something bad took place or places like cemeteries where the energy will just pour in through that open channel. You end up having to self exorcise something out of yourself, that's how bad it can go.

There is a risk that you call something into you with the practices and if you can't get rid of them anymore then you are a mental hospital material. Other people think you should seek for mental help but yet it came from the practices and can be removed.
This happened to somebody my spiritual friend IRL knows. Did some practices, ended up calling something into himself with the mantras. The problem became so much that he had to go on a race against time, until he found a good exorcist who got rid of it, several of them failed.
I had issues where I had to self exorcise something out, a couple of times, fortunately it has not occurred again, much better approach now and more experience.

Doing something wrong can make you have horrible pains in your head, irritated angry states, rollercoaster between sadness and happiness, anger and joy.
Weird mood swings, feeling of being split apart, this happens when you work too much with mantras & practices from different paths. This is the main reason why I mostly prefer to do one at a time now. Those pains in your head or in the third eye are not like the ordinary ones, they are nasty. Imagine your whole third eye, forehead, not having the pleasant effects but a feeling of sulphur, coal, or some tires burning in there. The nastiest sensations that last for not days but weeks at a time, until the system cools down. It's like the smell of something burning accompanied by weirdest and worst effects. There can be a very thin line between the good and bad effects. Almost like in a gym where you do your exercises, maybe one day you want to push it a bit harder and then you hurt yourself, having to stay away from the gym for some weeks or a month.

I've heard about people who do the special breathing exercises together with the mantras and they end up with weird issues too. Can't really comment on this. It comes up when you search for hesychast exercises, when they inhale while saying part of the mantra and read the rest while exhaling. Something about getting messed up.

These same scenarios that I described here, I heard the same stuff from others. All kinds of weird problems. Many of them only apply to those who are trying to seek out more extreme experiences, very long mantra based practices where they are read for entire days, weeks, months straight.

I like that comparison to servers. It does certainly feel so. There is energy in certain points and it seems to go both ways. This matches with what was written about the 7 spheres (or chakras, angels etc). I just wonder what the point of that is. I haven't figured that out. Hence the post. I feel like I am going into something without a plan. I end up having this feeling (now what?...) It would be cool if the energy that feels so tangible during meditation could be used in some beneficial way. Like give a cognitive boost (sort of psychic coffee shot) or to charge some object and leave that energy for later haha.
Did you ever end up pulling some malicious entity in because of meditation induced sensitivity? Can it be that projecting energy through the open channels can block incoming one? Point me to some resources on exorcisms that you used please. I don't think I need it, but will be good to have in the library. I already have headaches - might as well share them with dumb demons heh. I don't do long sessions and I don't want extreme experiences just for the sake of them. I wonder what those entities are - are they personifications of principles or energies (like pagan deities) and urges/emotions/instincts (like demons) or are they independent intelligences? But that is off topic probably. Another reason for those issues can be awakening kundalini powers or causing other sorts of short circuits on the energetical system.

 

[Asteriskos]

Sounds interesting, could you give an example of both the meditation on ideas and the one where breath is the focus?

@Magpie,

Grounding and Centering is a good idea before any kind of Meditation or Magical Practice, at least for Me!

Well, you can meditate on Any Topic! Meditation doesn't have to be All about the "void" or "no thought", though of course those aspects have their place too. "Anything" can be the object of "discursive" meditation, if it can be "thought of" it can be "thought about" (meditated upon).
This is usually preceded by some short period of deep breathing to relax and quiet the mind.

Here's a Concept for you: "What is My definition of Magic/k?". Wrestle with that one for a while.
Here's an Object: Look at a physical object: an Apple, See it, Smell it, Taste it, Rotate it Visually, Own it!

Breath meditation is Simple. One concentrates upon some aspect of the breath, for example the "point between" inhaling and exhaling. Or, a certain rhythm such as inhaling / exhaling to certain counts such as: 2/4, 4/4 or whatever, etc. The 4/4 breath is pretty commonly suggested for "new" people because it's simple and works well. After a while these become effortless and automatic and require no conscious counts at all.
I find this relaxing and restorative, Calms/Stills the Mind and allows my Higher Self to Communicate with Me, it's Sorcerous Persona!
This is more like what is thought of as "meditation" by many people who may not practice any form of meditation.

Hope that helps!

Post automatically merged: Dec 5, 2024

"a certain rhythm such as inhaling / exhaling to certain counts such as: 2/4, 4/4 or whatever, etc."

This should be Corrected to Inhaling / Exhaling / Holding the breath. Inhale for 4 counts, hold for 2/4 counts, exhale for 4 counts, hold out for 2/4 counts, etc, etc. This becomes easy with Practice!

 

[Amadeus]

like that comparison to servers. It does certainly feel so. There is energy in certain points and it seems to go both ways. This matches with what was written about the 7 spheres (or chakras, angels etc). I just wonder what the point of that is. I haven't figured that out. Hence the post. I feel like I am going into something without a plan. I end up having this feeling (now what?...) It would be cool if the energy that feels so tangible during meditation could be used in some beneficial way. Like give a cognitive boost (sort of psychic coffee shot) or to charge some object and leave that energy for later haha.
Did you ever end up pulling some malicious entity in because of meditation induced sensitivity? Can it be that projecting energy through the open channels can block incoming one? Point me to some resources on exorcisms that you used please. I don't think I need it, but will be good to have in the library. I already have headaches - might as well share them with dumb demons heh. I don't do long sessions and I don't want extreme experiences just for the sake of them. I wonder what those entities are - are they personifications of principles or energies (like pagan deities) and urges/emotions/instincts (like demons) or are they independent intelligences? But that is off topic probably. Another reason for those issues can be awakening kundalini powers or causing other sorts of short circuits on the energetical system.

The energy can be used in beneficial ways, you can direct it with your will to achieve something, powerful tangible results. It is a bit hard to explain and I have been trying to understand it for a long time. Sometimes I feel like it all makes sense and then it does not. You mentioned coffee like effects, I would compare them more with hard drugs. You can charge water with the mantras, hold a bottle in your hand and keep chanting the mantra over and over again, this is one possible option. Objects of all kinds, metal amulets, rings.

The practices made me very sensitive very early on and then even more, until it became too much. The malicious entities came and had an open access to me. I don't know what the best wording here is but I think I managed to break some veils with the excessive energy work. Felt like all of the blockades dissolved & disappeared. No matter what practice I picked up immediately made me feel a lot of energy. Imagine walking into a church and within a minute you feel high as the desert sky, effects lasting for days. Lighting a candle in a church, feeling how a hot knife cuts through your mind, rays of light, a feeling of power and high combined, this lasts for up to a week at time.

Sure, about getting rid of the issues. Through cemeteries and grimoires, a few bad cases. For the self exorcism I used hesychasm. It brings in a lot of light and burns them out. Physically it feels like something is melting over and inside your third eye and how the entity gets burnt until it leaves. Hesychasm, gospels, if you are into muslim stuff then "la ilaha illallah" is a good clearer. I suppose the Hindus and Buddhists can find relief in the "Om mani padme hum" mantra. It's probably based on what you are most connected to and the power names.

The problems got solved after I figured out what went wrong with the practices, changed the approach. I'm still sensitive but without the bad open access and side effects.

Headaches - one reason people get them is the excessive work, mind is ready but the spiritual engine is not. You might want to do a lot of some practices but the machine breaks down. There's another reason. When you work with multiple practices, "multiple servers", you have too many open connections. Work with just one system and you will feel much better. When I prioritized several practices at 50-50% I felt too much pain all over.

Post automatically merged: Dec 6, 2024

I should have added this. Does anybody else think about the meditations and mantra work this way? I mentioned a few lines earlier but this is a longer description.
A while ago me and some friends were discussing how to describe the effects. This is the result.

So we have the people (personal computers), mantras, deities, servers. The personal computer has a processor (third eye), some short term ram (when we spam something, mantras, we load ourselves with a program) this goes into the RAM.
The processing unit, and some more processing units for both the data and energy. A receiver, some network card.

The more you connect with a particular server, the better and stronger the connection to it gets. This also makes the overall connections to everything stronger. This whole PC set gets upgraded over and over again. Suddenly there is a powerful WIFI connection available. Ther'es a scanner looking for connections.

Doing several practices at once is like double, triple, quad processing. Creating virtual machines within the main system. Too many virtual machines leads to exhaustion of the system. There's simply too much. Training and leveling up gives upgrades so you can do more, expanding the ram and adding more power to the CPU. Some people cannot do any double+ processing at all, they have to stick to a single.

Then there's something about open ports, too many open connections. When it's coming from everywhere, packets coming in.

Another thing is the firewall description. When you have done excessive work for a while, maybe over the limits, and have become very open, there's no more firewall anymore, everything passes through. The thing has simply dissolved, well something has. Everything floods in through the open door, gate.

Then there's the GPU, those who unlock something graphical. Visions, images, ability to see the spirits, see beyond the veil. Of course for a better communication a microphone and speakers, headphones, they must be there as well right? Everything must be manually added (unlocked) unless you by default came with the features already in there. I suppose everybody has a bonus in something and the rest comes over time.

Occasionally the practices lead to BSOD, when you do too much and the system crashes. Then the chakras heat up too much, overheating, cooking the system. The cables end up burning and you feel certain points inside your mind on fire, giving you an error, headaches, odd side effects. They burn for a while. Then either by doing some other practices or by slowing down, they cool down.

When something goes horribly wrong, malicious spirit comes in, you run through the exorcist.exe or format-c. Exorcist.exe clears the bad stuff out, full wipe, deleting the problematic virus. Depending on the situation you might have to cool the system down for a while, switch it off (taking a longer break).