Carol I'm sorry to hear that your friend's experience left him feeling cheated, "pale" and "flat". Unfortunately, that's often what happens when people have experiences they're simply unprepared for physically, mentally or emotionally.

I always felt that maybe he'd had that experience to show him what was possible, and that it was up to him to make it a part of his everyday life.

That sounds right on to me. You can lead a horse to water, but it's up to the horse to drink it. Or not.

Many people don't understand just how high the costs of having such experiences can prove to be. People can't just walk away from a profound spiritual or visionary experience the same way they can walk out of a movie theatre or turn off a TV. If it's real, you ARE going to be changed, and if you're not ready for your new threads, LOOK OUT!

People who have experiences like this but have not learned how to control or direct them often find they simply cannot "turn it off" or assimilate the information healthfully into their everyday lives. And imo it's these very people who, unfortunately, comprise the bulk of the nation's psychiatric patients.

I didn't understand until I'd been into this work for a while that spiritual energy is of an OPPOSITE nature than physical energy. As one drops, the other rises. That's why people starve themselves before and during vision quests, for example. That's why you have to be really dying (physically) to have a "near-death" experience. And that's why people often report having unprecedented spiritual experiences during their darkest moments, while they are undergoing severe emotional/personal trauma.

Now that I know this, I don't seek out such experiences very often any more. If they happen, great. If they don't, that's fine too. WHen they do happen, I know they usually knock me right off my feet into the "other worlds" for quite awhile, and I certainly can't afford to be in "that space" every day of my life. Not if I want to keep functioning effectively here at all!

(Like, I do need to eat too ... and it IS nice to be able to go to work so I can pay my bills ...)

Anyway, that's enough rambling on for now I think. Thanks for the great thread!

daylia