Meditation and Unusual Experiences!

/ Jan

When Unusual Experiences Happen: How Can We Talk About Them?

Have you ever had a strange experience that didn’t quite fit into the usual boxes of science or psychology? Maybe you saw lights with your eyes closed, felt time slow down or speed up, sensed something shift inside your body, or felt energy moving through you in a powerful way. These kinds of things happen more often than we talk about, and they can be wonderful, confusing, scary, or all of the above. I am happily not the only one presenting these phenomena here and at our Vedicvibes channel!

At the Emergent Phenomena Research Consortium (EPRC), a group of researchers is trying to understand these odd, beautiful, and sometimes overwhelming experiences. They’re building a system to help classify and study them, like creating a map for a land that doesn’t appear on ordinary charts.

Let’s walk through what they’ve found so far, in simple terms.

What Sort of Strange Experiences Are We Talking About?

The EPRC has grouped these experiences into categories. Here are some examples:

  • Senses: Seeing lights, hearing sounds, feeling tingles, or even smelling or tasting things with no clear source.
  • Perception: Feeling like your attention expands, bends, speeds up—or that the world looks sharper, weirder, or more dreamlike.
  • Sleep-like States: Experiences at the edge of waking and sleeping—like vivid dreams, lucid dreams, or visions just as you’re falling asleep.
  • Time: Moments when time seems to pause, loop, go backward, or even disappear.
  • Space: Feelings that the space around you changes—becoming bigger, deeper, or oddly shaped.
  • Dimensions: Sensing directions or realms beyond the ordinary three dimensions we know.
  • Existence and Identity: Feeling like “you” have changed—maybe expanding, dissolving, or shifting between worlds.
  • Emotions and Moods: Feeling sudden joy, peace, fear, or sadness for no clear reason.
  • Energy and Movement: Feeling energy move through your body or noticing spontaneous movements, shakes, or freezes.
  • Information: Receiving “downloads” of insight, inner guidance, or even hearing voices or seeing images that seem meaningful.
  • Spiritual or Magical Feelings: Sensing something bigger than yourself—whether you call it spirit, energy, or something unknown.

Do These Experiences Have Patterns?

Yes, often they do. For example:

  • Near-death experiences (NDEs) tend to include light, peace, a shift in time, and often a deep feeling of love or understanding.
  • Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) usually involve a sense of floating or leaving the body, and seeing yourself or the world from another angle.
  • Lucid dreams mix dreaming and awareness, sometimes allowing control or insight.
  • Coincidences (or “synchronicities”) can seem so meaningful that they feel like messages from the universe.

What’s the Goal?

This new classification system helps us:

  • Understand and talk about unusual experiences without immediately labeling them “crazy” or “imagined.”
  • Explore how meditation, psychedelics, trauma, or spontaneous events can trigger these states.
  • Help therapists and doctors better support people who have these experiences—especially when they’re confusing or distressing.

A Cautionary Note

The EPRC avoids jumping to conclusions about the ultimate meaning of these experiences. Instead, they look at the effects, on the body, the mind, and people’s lives. Some people may feel more peaceful and connected afterward; others may feel overwhelmed or disconnected. It’s not always easy to tell what’s helpful and what’s harmful without listening carefully to each person’s story.

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