[titanomachy]

I believe it, I personally experienced something like a psychotic episode while on a meditation retreat. Also a panic attack, a few hours before that. No prior history of panic attacks or psychosis.

I actually think that some of the benefits of meditation are adjacent to psychosis, in a way: as you get closer to the "insight" that is the intended result of Buddhist meditation, you are also flirting with losing your grip on reality.

In my case, it went fine. I resolved the experience and integrated it. But I could see how it might go the other way for some.

Professor Britton at Brown has made a career of studying these kinds of experiences, plenty of examples here:

https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/research/varieti...

[bowsamic]

Yes really the whole point of it is to let go of your grip on reality

[titanomachy]

Yeah, I'm not sure what the difference is between the people who come away from the experienced more "enlightened" vs just more insane.

It kind of feels like an all-or-nothing thing: once you start to "see through the illusion of self", you have to follow that through to its logical conclusion or you'll be stuck living with intense cognitive dissonance.

I don't generally like to talk about this stuff too much because it sounds absolutely nuts to people who haven't experienced it.

[bowsamic]

The difference is that insane people don’t focus on compassion towards all beings