Here’s something puzzling me: in terms of abstract description, enlightenment sounds a lot like dissociation. Yet I’m under the impression that those who experience the former tend to find it Very Good, while those who experience the latter tend to find it Very Bad.
Yeah, it’s certainly very easy to confuse defusion and dissociation. Dissociation is something like trying not to let something in at all (a sensory experience or an emotion or a memory), whereas defusion is something like letting it in fully but then—not sure how to describe this part—feeling whatever you feel about it, and feeling calm one meta level up about whatever that is?
I’ve experienced both this stuff and mild dissociative states on occasion, and yeah, they’re indeed different in the way that you describe. And I don’t have a model which would explain the difference.
My best guess that the pattern of defusion is different, and that in dissociation you’re somehow defused from your normal sense of self while still remaining fused with the conceptual structures that say that having a sense of self is important.
Here’s something puzzling me: in terms of abstract description, enlightenment sounds a lot like dissociation. Yet I’m under the impression that those who experience the former tend to find it Very Good, while those who experience the latter tend to find it Very Bad.
Yeah, it’s certainly very easy to confuse defusion and dissociation. Dissociation is something like trying not to let something in at all (a sensory experience or an emotion or a memory), whereas defusion is something like letting it in fully but then—not sure how to describe this part—feeling whatever you feel about it, and feeling calm one meta level up about whatever that is?
That puzzles me too!
I’ve experienced both this stuff and mild dissociative states on occasion, and yeah, they’re indeed different in the way that you describe. And I don’t have a model which would explain the difference.
My best guess that the pattern of defusion is different, and that in dissociation you’re somehow defused from your normal sense of self while still remaining fused with the conceptual structures that say that having a sense of self is important.
Or something. :)