Most people view spirituality and meditation as a good thing. Often, it is. But almost always, too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. Too much eating leads to obesity. Too much exercising leads to muscle/joint problems.
Likewise, too much meditating, or meditating in the wrong way, can lead to ill effects. That’s one of the messages in the “Spiritual Sickness” chapter in Scott Carney’s book, The Enlightenment Trap: Obsession, Madness and Death on Diamond Mountain.
I’d never heard of lung, the meditator’s disease, until I read this passage in that chapter.
In 2002, she recited mantras on a three-week meditation retreat, and something started to go wrong. At night she tossed and turned in her bed, and her mind kept spinning over the same anxious ideas. At breakfast she didn’t feel like herself. By lunchtime she had trouble breathing.
Then, as she hunched over a vegetarian meal, she began to gasp for air. A woman put her hand on Cayton’s shoulder and gave her a diagnosis that she had never read in any of her psychological literature. The lady gave her a concerned look and said that Amy Cayton had lung: the meditator’s disease.
I’m not convinced that this supposed disease is anything like it is supposed to be — a mishap with the chaotic movements of wind energy through the subtle body. After all, I don’t believe in subtle bodies, chakras, meridians, and all that.
However, this passage about what happened when Buddhist teachers from Tibet started teaching Western students in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s makes sense to me.
Even relatively simple practices went awry when Western students tried to grapple with esoteric ideas. A few star pupils reported to their teachers that sitting for long periods of time caused them to feel overwhelmed with angst. Students shook. They couldn’t sleep. It was only after seeing dozens of them have the same experience that the teachers realized something was wrong with their approach to meditation.
Westerners, it turned out, could be too driven and too focused on attaining a final spiritual state. They took to meditation as if it were a job with a goal at the end. One of the commentaries in Cayton’s book puts it succinctly:
“People who only meditate for stress reduction or who aren’t interested in attaining enlightenment probably don’t often get lung. We get lung because we are trying to do something, to attain something, instead of relaxing and letting it happen naturally.”
The chapter also talks about spiritual enthusiasts who overdose on India, viewing it as a mystical promised land. Since for 35 years I belonged to a religious organization (Radha Soami Satsang Beas) with headquarters in India that was led by a guru considered to be God in Human Form, I’m familiar with that attitude.
But I also remember what a friend who had been to India more often that I had (just twice, for me) said when I noted how exotic and mesmerizing street scenes of sacred cows, brightly decorated trucks, masses of humanity in exotic clothes, and such were when I visited. “Keep in mind that all that is just everyday life for the Indian people; most of them would view American cities as equally exotic, being unfamiliar, while for us they’re nothing special.”
I’ve known people who appeared to use a spiritual pilgrimage to India as a way to escape from their seemingly ordinary life in the United States. Heck, my first wife probably felt that way when I went to India in 1977 to spend two weeks with my guru, even though I didn’t have a permanent job at the time, and I went during the Christmas season, so I missed seeing my five year old daughter get her first bicycle.
Carney writes:
The field of psychology doesn’t have anything to say about the ultimate truth of any one experience or event, but it can say a lot about how one person’s actions affect a group. The pursuit of spiritual goals can be a useful excuse to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved trauma and limited professional development. But prioritizing transcendence over relationships becomes a way to be self-centered while appearing to be concerned for the benefit of other people.
So psychologists like Sagan apply a simple test to spiritual statements: Do the beliefs and practices take the person closer to a functional and helpful existence, or away from one?
For practitioners who hyperfocus on their inner life, the external world can fall away. They might limit their external stimuli so that all they see is their mind. Another way to radically transform the inner self is to travel to a completely foreign environment to kick-start a profound experience. As with the haji or a Christian pilgrimage, a journey can be spiritual in itself.
India is a popular destination for spiritual seekers. Occasionally they fall prey to India Syndrome.
When the trip sparks a radical transformation, the psychosis even has a name: India Syndrome. In 2000, the French psychiatrist Regis Airault wrote the definitive book on the phenomenon, Fous de l’Inde, which means “crazy about India.” It relates his experiences as the staff psychiatrist for the French consulate in Mumbai, where he treated scores of his countrymen whose spiritual journeys took tragic turns.
“There is a cultural fantasy at play,” he explains. [India syndrome] hits people from developed Western countries who are looking for a cultural space that is pure and exotic, where real values have been preserved. It’s as if we’re trying to go back in time.”
…India syndrome is not an officially recognized disease, but many doctors are convinced it’s real. Kalyan Sachdev, the medical director of Privat Hospital in New Delhi, says that his facility admits about a hundred delusional Westerners a year, many of whom had been practicing yoga around the clock.
“There’s the physical side of yoga and the psychic side, and sometimes people get it all out of order,” he says. “Peaceful people can get aggressive even if they haven’t taken any drugs.”
…Inevitably, when someone vanishes on a pilgrimage in a foreign land or reacts erratically after an intensive yoga or meditation routine, there are two basic explanations: It could be that certain individuals are predisposed to mental instability; it could also be that the technique made them mad.
Discover more from Church of the Churchless
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Using the Surat Shabd Yoga Technique we were given when we were initiated , and sticking to it, with out deviation, we never get “lung” from such a safe way of meditation. Getting “lung” sounds like some condition you’d get by either Pranayama deep breath breathing, or by doing hung sau Kriya Yoga as taught by Yoganandya. We , i.e. you and I, and all Charan Singh Initiates, at least , were taught to forget our breathing, and just to just breath normally, and specifically, to avoid doing pramayama deep breath exercises.
Further, for followers of the Great Master, Sawan Singh’s Teachings, stated over, and over, in his Book, “Spiritual Gems” is , and that every RSSB Initiate should revisit, often, and use as our Meditation Tool, is to achieve SOUND , which is the Spiritual Gift achieved by becoming proficient of hearing not only during meditation, but always, when awake . SOUND is the Shabd, or REAL Inner Master, which pulls the knotted mind/soul out of the physical body, to the Third Eye, and above, to the higher Spiritual realms leading to Sat Nam/Sach Khand.
There is no “lung” caught by using the Meditation technique RSSB Initiates were, and are, taught.
I would disagree. BabaJi has cleary stated that most (myself included), Rssb followers put little genuine effort into meditation. Less then 10% finish 1.5 hours daily INCLUDING “sleepitation”. So that is probabily why we are not in the position to catch “the lung”. However I have witnessed a few cases of overzealousness at the dera that most definitely seem to resemble “the lung”. I still think the strictly organized and family oriented (rather wordly) atmosphere at the dera helps to avoid that condition to some extend.
The condition, as I understand it, seems, at worst, to manifest in “crazy eyes”, this creepy staring face, a condition that seems prevalent in people who are heavily absorbed in esoteric (or even artistic) endeveours. Even though they lack progress and humilty, and are pretty much normal inside-out, they start to feel alienated from (or “above”) everyday life. Such tension is clearly crazy. My neighbor has gotten the crazy eyes. Since three years he has been practicising all kinds of meditative singing, for hours each day, and that without receiving any guidance. His voice has not improved one bit and he seems to get more and more frustrated and lost.
I think this is still rather positive, though, as these people, however misdirected, are blessed with a passion for spirituality, something only few may get in life. They can find their balance and peace sooner or later.
Here is the secret to successful meditation with out catching lung.
https://youtu.be/1GrhhT7rIXI
Very nice discussion by my Master Ishwar Puri.
To me he was Real Perfect Master.
I wonder sometimes he remained in USA for a such a long time but not many could see through real him.
I Love Him.
I will tell a little story I had with him while meeting him in Delhi for third time. I think it was October 2016. In that tour he was supposed to initiate a group I was part of.
I wasn’t given time to meet him as they were allowing first time visitors as there were too many people to meet him.
But luckily I was given sewa of attending at the door of the room where these private interviews were going on.
As he arrived , I called for first person scheduled to meet him.
Suddenly Situation changes.All the people got frozen in their own world. No one was coming to meet him sooner than 1 minutes or so it appeared to me.
A thought came in my mind why not to use this time and allow myself to meet my yet to be Master. I went inside the room and he was looking at his phone.he showed me his phone and asked me if I have decided which car I am gonna buy.
I was humbled. During that time I was deciding about which car I should buy.
So I became the first one to have metting with him on that tour and next day he initiated many of us on 9th October 2016.
With master is a bliss nothing can buy or replace.
American Charan Singh Initiates whose spiritual batteries need recharging, should revisit Charan’s 2 early visits to the U.S. and get their Batteries recharged.
https://youtu.be/GsIUt8HsIi0
Fascinating, the lung thing! Hadn’t ever heard of this. Thanks, Brian, for introducing the idea here.
Looked it up just now. Won’t crowd my post with links, a good many will be easily, effortlessly available to anyone taking the trouble to search.
Here’s my brief notes. Tentative, because basis no more than a less than a half hour’s “research”. Happy to correct myself, and update my understanding, should someone here have more extensive familiarity with this… thing.
1. Lung’s a feature of really hardcore, extended meditation. Not the two hours a day or so of RSSB mandate, that’s kid stuff. (Not suggesting that meditating more is necessarily better. That’s a separate discussion. Just, apparently lung might sometimes happen when you do meditation retreats, when you’re meditating upwards of 8 to 10 hours focused mediation each day.)
2. Lung can happen in two ways:
(a) It can be the result of imperfect technique, in which case it can be addressed by correcting one’s technique.
(b) It can happen even with correct form and technique, in which case it can be addressed by taking it as feedback, and incorporating rest, or mixing up techniques.
3. Nothing to be scared of. It’s akin to muscle strain when working out. Amateurish dilettante gymmers can escape without it, if their technique is sound, and intensity low. But performance gymmers know it as a necessary part of their regimen, not as something to be scared of, nor something to be ignored, but feedback that is to be carefully addressed by varying up the regime, mixing muscle groups, or sometimes simply resting.
4. As far as I could see, it’s associated with Vajrayanic practices, specifically with Vajrayanic retreats. Doesn’t seem to be a thing with pure-mindfulness techniques, or primarily-bhakti techniques.
5. What is it exactly? Nothing to do with our lungs, it’s a Tibetan word that’s pronounced looong, long oo. Nor the crazed-eyes thing, as far as I could make out, @snoopy. It’s more like a seasoned meditator who’s well into this sort of thing being unable to go tratak, or to visualize mandalas, or to fully get absorbed into complex ritualized mantras. (Again, distinct from the noob’s inability to focus, or the light meditator’s loss of focus. This is when someone that’s able to do these things regularly and easily, finds themselves suddenly unable to, when doing intense 8 to 10 hours a day retreats. Again, like the heavy gymmer’s muscle strain.)
6. It seems to me this is a thing with meditation systems that directly address the nervous system. The kundalini-based practices mainly.
7. I’ve done extensive retreats myself. Gone up to 12 hours a day, even, going even beyond the mandate. Haven’t myself encountered this.
8. Haven’t seen anything like this referred to in any of the three traditions I have first-hand and fairly extensive understanding of. Not even the Tantra-based one, that does address the nervous system directly. (Note to self: I’ll ask, when I next have the chance.)
9. Incidentally, there’s no such thing as too much exercise. I’ve never competed professionally, but back when I was in my late teens and early twenties, I was heavily into gymming. And I had friends who were even more, way more, hardcore than I was. You can actually work out many hours a day, with proper guidance and with properly mixing it up. (Do you need to do it that long? That’s up to you, depends on your goals. Most don’t need to. But some, given specific goals, might indeed need to, why not.). …My point is, the two seem analogous. And it’s as wrong to blanket-claim that meditating too much is harmful, as to claim that gymming too much is harmful. It’s a question of individual goals, and also of proper guidance and correct technique, as well as adequate rest, and diet, all of that.
10. Is it really a thing? Or is it woo? I haven’t encountered it at first hand myself, nor witnessed it at second hand: but it does seem reasonable, basis what I read just now. And no big deal, really, just something to be addressed correctly. (Although sure, there’s lots of woo in terms of chi and yin and yang and chakras and whatnot. But, I’m saying, leaving that nonsense aside, the core of it seems plausible enough, and no big deal really.)
———-
Again, Brian, thanks for bringing this up, this lung thing! Later when I’ve time, I intend to put in more reading on this than I’ve been able to now. And when I next have the chance, at my tantra based tradition, I’ll ask. Certainly this is an interesting thing, this lung business.
Scott Carney: – “The field of psychology doesn’t have anything to say about the ultimate truth of any one experience or event, but it can say a lot about how one person’s actions affect a group. The pursuit of spiritual goals can be a useful excuse to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved trauma and limited professional development. But prioritizing transcendence over relationships becomes a way to be self-centred while appearing to be concerned for the benefit of other people.”
Carney may be onto something real here. I reckon that it is inevitable that we humans go off in search for ‘something’, usually to answer existential questions like ‘Who am I’, ‘What’s it all about’, and generally, a search for meaning, for ‘Enlightenment’. And yes, it’s sad that some end up with practices that are harmful, either physically or more often, mentally.
So yes, it seems the norm for us to go off in search of that elusive something. Some are convinced that they have found it, buoyed up by certain experiences and/or sustained by an authority figure. There is a very strong impulse to search, and I wonder if it all stems from the separation we feel as we grow up. Maybe we long to recover that sense of oneness we lived with in our first few months of life.
Either way, it can be seen that the leading cause of our restlessness rests on the shoulders of the imagined self. That illusory mind-created phantom that dominates how we see, feel and generally experience life that is predominantly mind-projected. Maybe, just maybe, to have the illusions that sustain our searches drop away like an old coat, is the only enlightenment, the revelation of ‘just this’, the reality of this moment – before being obscured by the conditioned barrage of thought.
Please remember that I initiated Charan Singh and Mr. Puri in my last life. I’m back and I just want what’s mine. Signed , the great master. Although now it’s just the greatest
Read up some more about lung. (The subject fascinates me! And, like I said, I first heard of this here thanks to your article, Brian.)
Again, not crowding this comment with links. Lots are available, for anyone invested enough to do a quick google search. Some of the links are pretty much informative.
Not much to add beyond what I’d noted in my comment upthread. Just:
1. Yep, this is a Vajrayana thing. All my links are from Vajryanic sources. Which might be explained by the fact that word “lung” that I was basing my search on is Tibetan, sure. But still, none of the articles I referenced today — and some were pretty much detailed — mention comparisons with other traditions. …So yeah, I think we can (tentatively) take it that this is a Vajrayana thing.
2. Like I said, this seems to happen only with hardcore meditation. Like, not two hours a day, but when in the range of eight, ten, twelve hours a day.
3. Confirmation of their view that this is nothing to be at all scared of. The muscle strain analogy seems to be come up a lot. It’s just something that happens, and when it does it’s cool, as long as one deals with it basis an experienced instructor’s guidance — the same as when working out. (I’d said as much already, I’m repeating this now because a somewhat more extensive reading now seems to bear this out.)
3. There’s degrees of lung, apparently. Apparently the lung that happens sometimes in shorter retreats of up to a month’s duration, isn’t all that serious, and can be easily dealt with. However, longer retreats of more than a month apparently might result in more serious kinds of lung sometimes, so that apparently in these longer retreats they apparently are very careful about ensuring this doesn’t happen. (I’ve personally done retreats, but not those very long ones of three months or six months or more. At least not so far.)
4. I’d said in my comment that this has nothing to do with lungs, and that this is a Tibetan word that has nothing to do with the organs that we breathe with. Well, that’s true enough: but still, a correction (or at any rate, an interesting nuance, and I suppose a coincidence as well given how they spell this word in English transliteration): the Tibetan “lung” refers to wind, and might also refer to breath, or prana. So that, in a way this does circle back to our lungs, kinda sorta, even if that route back is probably based in no more than linguistic happenstance.
5. As far as I could make out this has nothing to do with impediments written about in Sufi texts, or for that matter the dark night of the soul in Christian mysticism, and similar in other traditions as well. As far as I could make out, this is a primarily physiological thing — or at least, if not quite that, but based firmly in the physiological.
———-
Which ends my investigations into “lung”. Again, Brian, thanks much for bringing this up here!
And I’m keeping this in my update-by-email list, something I rarely do, because should you end up posting anything more about this here, Brian, or anyone else, then I wouldn’t like to miss it.