My 4 Hour Uninterrupted Meditation Results (Solitary Confinement Experiment Part 1)

[ardacigin]

Today I've done a 4 hours long uninterrupted mindfulness practice using TMI methods in preparation for long SDS sits and retreats.

I've also recently watched a documentary about solitary confinement so I wanted to lock myself in a room for 4 hours and see how much suffering would arise sitting alone. This was only an introduction to more intense and deeper practice sessions. 

The challenge was also meditating while lying down, cross-legged and walking around the room. I could maintain mindfulness relatively well if my body is absolutely still. SDS sits are still hard but my body got used to them.

Things gets problematic when I start to move around. So I was rotating between these 3 postures every time I've experienced a challenge unique to that posture.

For instance,

Whenever I tensed up and experienced challenging emotions, I've layed down, relaxed and continued meditating. 

Whenever laying down made me sleepy, I've started my brief walking meditation. (10-15 mins)  

Whenever walking meditation disabled my introspective awareness, I've gone back to sitting posture.

I can do 2 hours long SDS sits but I've never maintained 'high' degree of no-mind, stable attention and most importantly extrospective and introspective awareness uninterrupted for 4 hours. 

I can tell that this is challenging but at the end of the 4 hours, I could have meditated for another hour. I've already passed the 'hellish' boredom and impatience phase in my nervous system. But this is mostly because this was not a strict SDS sit. I've allowed for movement between those 3 postures whenever I felt like giving up.

The biggest challenge I've added was to meditate in a hot environment. Since I do breath practice with TMI, the air temperature matters. If the air is hot, it requires more skill to follow the breath sensations. Especially the out-breath. 

Fortunately, I've realized that breath clarity is relative and expecting the breath to be super clear and vivid in hot environments is a mistake. It will be more subtle than usual but you should still keep in contact with it. 

After the stabilization, I've immediately expanded my extrospective awareness to external sounds (traffic cars, street noise etc.)

I've been practicing this for a while. So whenever I do that, I get into a state of no-mind if I can combine the breath stabilization with sound awareness at the same time.

Since the breath is very subtle, I did find it challenging but after a while awareness just rested at sounds and my mind was free from thoughts for a long period of time. Just to clarify, this is a relative state of no-mind. I'm not experiencing profound states of 'cessation' and whatnot. There were still thoughts I am not aware of below the threshold of awareness.

Throughout those 4 hours, I've experienced a VERY salient psychedelic experience for a few seconds which is common on LSD. I think this was 3 hours in.

My bed has black dots with its design. These black dots have started to flash back and forth (as it occurs with colors on LSD). This was very noticeable and not subtle.

In fact, if someone experienced those few seconds without the context, they would probably think I've taken LSD. The whole experience must have taken somewhere around 15 seconds. 

After the flashy black dots, I've seen other more subtle patterns. These were not too intense or were not close to psychedelic visuals. I've maintained the technique and equanimity as these were occurring. 

Sleepiness and dullness was a BIG challenge since I was not particularly alert starting this long session. I wanted to meditate while I was sluggish and not particularly concentrated. This made things 10 times harder.

Thanks to walking meditation, I've managed to stay alert and aware. These 3 postures allowed me to cancel out each postures negative effects. That was an amazing experiment. 

If I had more skill to maintain this degree of mindfulness for 20 more hours, I could have started to get some sense into how advanced yogis survive 10 years of solitary confinement.

In my mind, everything has to do with acing spirituality for one day. I'm not talking about surviving a 18-24 hour uninterrupted mindfulness session. But to thrive doing so. To get through it with minimal suffering. Only then can you take on longer retreats and solitary confinement like circumstances with skill and confidence.

If you can do 1 day, you can also do consecutive days. That will take some skill as well but the issue is that an average meditator can't even manage a full day of hardcore spirituality without getting hellishly bored or experiencing the meditation as torture. I'm currently working on this myself and plan to do a 6-hour uninterrupted session the next time. Maybe adding some SDS sits into it.

The focus must be this:  That 1 day has to be really uninterrupted as to mindfulness application (moving, laying down, sitting etc.) and very high quality. You need to maintain deep states of no-mind basically for whole day. 

This attempt also gave me hope that it is possible to thrive in solitary confinement. My experience was not 'thrive' per se because I've still experienced a lot of micro sufferings those 4 hours. I've only minimally suffered thanks to my practice.

I've maintained a relatively deep state of no-mind for 4 hours, experienced one salient psychedelic state and survived the whole ordeal without giving up or feeling like this was torture. It was still hard but I've enjoyed it for the most part.

I feel more confident now to do longer uninterrupted practices and understand the mind of these advanced yogis taking years-long retreats. I felt like this was a big step in that direction.

Hope this report inspired some of you. Feel free to ask me your questions.

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by ardacigin

[Jonac]

Who documentary you talking about? 

[ardacigin]

5 minutes ago, Jonac said:

Who documentary you talking about? 

 

[Consilience]

Super interesting and inspiring to see how much effort you're putting in. Seriously, thank you for sharing. Still benefiting greatly from discovering TMI awhile back upon some of your OG posts. 

It's interesting... In terms of pure insight, psychedelics seem to be unmatched. But in terms of actual sober embodiment and cultivating super advanced levels of equanimity, permanent mindfulness, and high levels of concentration/no-mind, meditation on this scale is unmatched. I hope my mind can settle into this level one day, capable of doing 4 uninterrupted hours of meditation without feeling completely stir-fry. For now, my daily 1 hour sessions continue to improve. I'd say I'm settling into stage 6 on the TMI scale and it feels really good. 

[ardacigin]

3 hours ago, Consilience said:

Super interesting and inspiring to see how much effort you're putting in. Seriously, thank you for sharing. Still benefiting greatly from discovering TMI awhile back upon some of your OG posts. 

It's interesting... In terms of pure insight, psychedelics seem to be unmatched. But in terms of actual sober embodiment and cultivating super advanced levels of equanimity, permanent mindfulness, and high levels of concentration/no-mind, meditation on this scale is unmatched. I hope my mind can settle into this level one day, capable of doing 4 uninterrupted hours of meditation without feeling completely stir-fry. For now, my daily 1 hour sessions continue to improve. I'd say I'm settling into stage 6 on the TMI scale and it feels really good. 

Congrats on your progress on TMI. Definitely keep going.

I've gained so much spiritual strength yesterday that I'm still feeling the effects today. 4 hours of uninterrupted practice was INSANE and it was way more effective than 1 hour sits. I can't even imagine how a 4 hour long SDS would do if 4 hours with movement was this effective. 

I've experienced temporary insights earlier but I've never seriously experienced a psychedelic visual completely sober to this degree. That was 3 hours into it and looking back on it, I had to maintain mindfulness and do all this work for 3 hours to experience something like this. Psychedelic experience is definitely nothing a beginner can consistenly experience but it can be done if you do at least 3 hour+ sessions.

I'm convinced that if you practice with diligence uninterruptedly and with a good technique, it can happen in a retreat-like circumstance.

Doing these 4 hour sessions was fantastic. I doesn't burn you out like an SDS sit, because you have the comfort of changing movements and positions when 'hell' comes. But the length of a session is so long that you MUST maintain awareness to a high degree to combat boredom and impatience. Otherwise, you'll get sick of it and quit.

I recommend this to people who struggle doing retreats or find it too expensive or doesn't have the time for it. The uninterrupted practice is an absolute recommendation for anyone who can manage such intensities. Everyone should try it at least a few times once they are skilled in the use of their techniques.

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by ardacigin

[ewerson18]

This is very good, I barely can meditation 1 hour, but I'm on my way. I also want to meditate like yogis, many hours a day, and who knows, many days.

 

What position do you do? And what is TMI and SDS? Do you think we can access our higher self throgh this?

[ardacigin]

18 hours ago, ewerson18 said:

This is very good, I barely can meditation 1 hour, but I'm on my way. I also want to meditate like yogis, many hours a day, and who knows, many days.

 

What position do you do? And what is TMI and SDS? Do you think we can access our higher self throgh this?

TMI - The Mind Illuminated (This is a meditation book by Culadasa. I use his techniques)

SDS - Strong Determination Sits: Not physically moving in meditation for long hours.

I rotate these 3 postures when I'm not doing SDS for long sessions like 4 hours:

Sitting, Lying down, walking.

I do normal cross-legged posture with a pillow for back support. I keep the body straight.

[MuddyBoots]

@ardacigin Thanks for sharing, fascinating to read even though I'm not able to try it. How does it fit in with your regular everyday practice, is that hardcore too or or more easy-going?  Have you thought about writing a journal to share in an ongoing way? 

I was also wondering about the acronyms, thanks for explaining that too! 

[ardacigin]

11 minutes ago, MuddyBoots said:

@ardacigin Thanks for sharing, fascinating to read even though I'm not able to try it. How does it fit in with your regular everyday practice, is that hardcore too or or more easy-going?  Have you thought about writing a journal to share in an ongoing way? 

I was also wondering about the acronyms, thanks for explaining that too! 

So I have 2 options any given day. This is my current practice method.

1- Hardcore Spirituality Training: This is that 3-4 hour Solitary confinement training. I'll rotate between those 3 postures and maintain jhanas and high mindfulness for 4 hours. If physical pliancy occurs due to jhanas, I can always do some long SDS (like 90 - 120 mins) in those 4 hours. But I no longer force myself too much if there is too much pain. Otherwise, I can't access joyful states of mind. I also would do some insight practice like self-enquiry at the end of these sessions. But my main focus is surviving these 4-5 hours with high level of mindfulness and joy.

2- Daily Maintenance and Mindfulness in Daily Life: If I feel a lot of ego backlash, I meditate and get to the 1st jhana. This is most often a 30-60 mins sit. I do the access concentration, cultivate joy and maybe do some self-inquiry at the end. I put more emphasis on the daily cultivation of joy and mindfulness more than the formal sit.

For instance, today I have used my 2nd strategy. I didn't have a lot of ego backlash but my friend was coming to my house and I only had an hour of free time so I did the daily maintenance. I got to the first jhana. Cultivated stable attention and peripheral awareness. 

That is what I do currently and It is a really powerful training method.

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by ardacigin

[MuddyBoots]

yes it does sound powerful, the intensity of it is working well for you 

[ardacigin]

On 10/5/2019 at 6:32 PM, ewerson18 said:

This is very good, I barely can meditation 1 hour, but I'm on my way. I also want to meditate like yogis, many hours a day, and who knows, many days.

I know it seems so far away and super-human but keep it up. Systematic training is THE key to fast but stable growth. Find a technique that works, stick to it and profit.