So some time ago I had an experience in meditation. At that time I had decided it must have been A&P. But recently I've started reading about jhanas and what can happen in them, and I started to think that maybe it was a self induced altered state of consciousness, which as I understand may be a pitfall of jhana practice (based on Ian And's jhana thread and some other readings). I'm now revisiting the experience to try to figure out what it is. Sorry for the long post. The difference is important for me in order to tell where I'm in vipassana practice.
Then I was in a difficult time in my life and I was mainly looking to feel good, rather than understand the true nature of things. So I was doing a different kind of meditation. It involved getting to a highly concentrated state followed by recalling and immersing myself in feelings of love.
Here is what I did specifically. By breath watching with a mantra, I got to what I now think is 3rd Jhana. At this stage there was great quietness and stillness. Here I recalled feelings of love, that filled my whole awareness, whole body, got stronger and stronger and filled me with tremendous joy.
That itself isn't the experience I want to ask about. It is the 3 days that followed.
During this time, it was like my reality had changed. Everything and everybody looked and sounded different. There was a great sense of flawlessness. I was constantly blissful and joyful. I felt love for everything and everybody. I also became very intuitive.
There was also physiological effects. I was much more energetic than usual. I needed less sleep, ate more regularly, much better digestion etc. like a switch was turned on in my body.
The experience was really out of the ordinary, but these are most of the main points.
So going back to the original question. Was this A&P, or a self induced altered state of consciousnesss? Thanks for taking the time to read!
