Why do we feel as if disappear after meditation?

[Vipassualty]

Or I should say it felt like I disappeared, and only the one time in 1994, after a particularly strong "peak experience" at the end of many hours of meditation. I quickly opened my eyes as I was lifting my arm up to confirm whether I was invisible. Why did that happen and what is it called? The experience of lifting and drawing my arm in front of me and looking at it while not feeling the slightest discernible sensation remains the single oddest experience. Who can unpuzzle this? What have the yogis said?

[catmoon]

Deep meditation can lead to a disconnect from the body, where one loses track of it completely due to utter absorption in the meditation object. I think what happened was, you opened your eyes before the reconnect was established.

Whether or not this is sound practice, well, I really have no idea. Did you find it beneficial?

[Vipassualty]

Deep meditation can lead to a disconnect from the body, where one loses track of it completely due to utter absorption in the meditation object. I think what happened was, you opened your eyes before the reconnect was established.

Whether or not this is sound practice, well, I really have no idea. Did you find it beneficial?

Yes, when I opened my eyes I brought my meditation to a close. Although I had been diligently practicing samatha for over a week, at the time I was rather young and knew practically nothing of the Dhamma. On the following day I was very acutely aware of the loathsomeness of the body and I recognize now that this would have been the very time to begin vipassana meditation.

[Caz]

Deep meditation can lead to a disconnect from the body, where one loses track of it completely due to utter absorption in the meditation object. I think what happened was, you opened your eyes before the reconnect was established.

Whether or not this is sound practice, well, I really have no idea. Did you find it beneficial?

This can fairly often happen when one goes deep into meditative concentration, Because the mind and the body are not the same when the mind is absorbed in its object it loses the body awarness as you say. Some practitoners have been known to resemble a dead person in very concentrated states they completely stop breathing for extended periods can go for year without food or nourishment, The mind is very capable of sustaining the body during such a period.

[Nosta]

Could it be an out of body experience?

[Willy]

The first question I have for you, is what do you do when you meditate? i.e. count your breath?

If you are doing an extended concentration meditation it could be 2 things - a kind of body/mind disconnect - the same thing you get when you've been driving too long on the highway (like the entire day). Or it could be a vipassana experience. That's why the previous person asked you if it was beneficial? And I guess more important than the experience you had that day, is what was your experience for the rest of the week/month? Were you more grounded, stable and happy? Or were you kind of space out.

Sitting and focusing on one object, or your breath (Shamata meditation) is not for everyone, and can result in what's called the "white wall effect", and the result of this practice will be "reborn as a big fish".

Again, it could also be that when you calmed your mind, like mud settling in the water, you looked into the water and saw your reflection; the radiant space of mind - vipassana.

So you tell us!