Meditating somewhere haunted

[Sloppy Zhang]

Now I've never done this myself before, but it's just something that popped into my head one day: has anybody tried meditating or cultivating or some kind of work in an area that is supposedly haunted?

 

The only places I've ever really meditated where calm places. You know, somewhere quiet where everything felt in balance so that I could help clear myself and balance my own self.

 

So what about meditation/cultivation/energy work/etc in a place that was not "balanced"? Whatever was the cause, a ghost, some kind of bad event that happened in the past, or anything else, for whatever reason has an imbalance of energy. Would meditating there allow you to detect where that imbalance of energy was? Would it reveal a "ghost"? And if you could pinpoint where the imbalance was, could you fix it?

 

Just some thoughts, I don't have any plans to go meditating somewhere haunted any time soon,but just wondering what you guys might think on the subject

[Spirit Ape]

Yes, and i ended up getting taken over by something that scared my friend that decided to bash me. The weird thing was i could understand him but couldnt control my body or express anything but he said my face and looks was not what i looked like NORMALLY and that really scared him that he wanted to just bash it out of me. After i was normal i had no marks on my body and he said he was king hitting me in the face!

 

Dont play around with spirits that are not happy chappies!!!

[Oolong Rabbit]

Now I've never done this myself before, but it's just something that popped into my head one day: has anybody tried meditating or cultivating or some kind of work in an area that is supposedly haunted?

 

The only places I've ever really meditated where calm places. You know, somewhere quiet where everything felt in balance so that I could help clear myself and balance my own self.

 

So what about meditation/cultivation/energy work/etc in a place that was not "balanced"? Whatever was the cause, a ghost, some kind of bad event that happened in the past, or anything else, for whatever reason has an imbalance of energy. Would meditating there allow you to detect where that imbalance of energy was? Would it reveal a "ghost"? And if you could pinpoint where the imbalance was, could you fix it?

 

Just some thoughts, I don't have any plans to go meditating somewhere haunted any time soon,but just wondering what you guys might think on the subject

 

Some taoists practice and meditate in graveyards to absorb the yin energy. I think in the Dragons of Wudang it shows them practicing taichi in a graveyard. To your questions about detecting and fxing the answer is yes. That is why almost every culture in the world has developed techniques of exorcism. I am not sure it would be advisable unless one was at a level that could handle such stimulus though. Personally, I would call on the buddhas for protection, and steadfastly refuse to give in to fear. In fact, I would try to ignore such a pressence altogether and continue meditate while reciting the Buddha's name. If it continued to to mess with me, only then would I attempt some type of exorcism as a last resort.

 

BTW, I am sure many folks have had encounters while meditating. When I feel "something" around my eardrums will start popping/clicking, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I tend to just ignore it andd it usually goes away.

[Aetherous]

I've been thinking of going to the local graveyard to practice in the middle of the night. It'd be peaceful and secluded.

 

I don't think spirits could do anything to me, if there are any spirits.

[Trunk]

Not recommended.

[Gerard]

I have done it and never will go back. Not because of spirits but mozzies swarming onto me like vampires.

Yes cemeteries attract heaps of Yin energy, even trees are nearly dead because of that but also attract one of the most Yin creatures we have on this plane: mosquitoes.

 

Better meditate near a waterfall or falling water.

 

 

Like this in Thai land:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visbeek/2768758394/

 

 

 

 

Theravadins love to meditate in places like that. Go and ask them.

 

 

 

Another option is under a tree, like Gautama Buddha did. Inside a cave is good too.

 

 

There are better options than graveyards.

[Walker]

BTW, I am sure many folks have had encounters while meditating. When I feel "something" around my eardrums will start popping/clicking, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I tend to just ignore it andd it usually goes away.

 

Ditto on this. When I first started doing qigong I was a waiter and was practicing one night at about 3am after work in a field in Chicago. My back felt prickly, the hairs on my neck stood right up, and I was convinced, out of the blue, that something sinister was rushing across the field to me. Back then I had nary a shred of belief in spirits so I didn't know what much to make of the sensation. If I recall, it went on its way, too.

 

More related to the original question... The New Haven Green was once a graveyard. Headstones were removed, but not the bodies. The place can be a hangout for flesh-and-blood people who may sometimes remind one of ghosts, but I am not qualified to say if it is haunted in any other sense. I did an hour of qigong there one evening and felt ill at ease and slightly physically sick the whole time. I chalked it up to manifestations of the nagging sense of "I'd rather be doing ANYTHING but this boring-ass qigong" that bothered me a lot at the time. Back then I was wonderfully adept at finding a million and one reasons to not practice or stop practicing, so on my more disciplined days I tried hard to ignore them. However, when I found out a week later that the field was an unmarked cemetary I must say I had a bit of an ah-hah moment. Now, around that time problems that six months later required an extensive and sudden introduction to the world of exorcism started to really rear their heads--I don't really know if there is any relationship between those problems and the cemetary because, being close to my days as an ardent non-believer, I wasn't much on the lookout for signs. The woman who succesfully exorcized me didn't attribute the problem to being in a graveyard, though.

[seadog]

Well I live next door to a cemetery,in fact the dead are my next door neighbours.

The grave yard (there really is nothing grave about the place)in fact is quite beautiful, with many wonderful stately and healthy trees.There are some wonderful old fashion roses growing next to some exquistely craved granite and marble head stones.

It is intresting to note how our society has changed over the years by the quality of craftsmenship in the stone work and the size of the headstones, which have progressively gotton smaller overtime.

The tone of messages on the stones also has changed overtime.

In the early settlement days often they would describe the means by which the individual died.I.E Fell from horse,drowning,died in child birth,etc.

As time passes the head stone reveal less information and become more generic, I.E At Rest in the hands of God,Beloved of mother of such and such etc.

At present the head stones are a quarter of the size they were fifty years ago and a one eighth the size they were a hundred years ago.

Also the graves are now laid out in close together and in a linear pattern, were as in the past they had an exquist randomness.

Up to the 1970 all the graves faced east now most of the graves face west,I believe this more for convience then for belief.

 

The only one who haunts the cemetery is a kindly soul who has taken it upon themself to clean the moss from the headstones.

The only thing which has struck me while meditating in the cemetery is the arrogance we have to bury ourselfs in such a fashion.

Truly what benifit is gleaned by locking a body in a box and burying it in the ground and sticking a large slab of rock on top to mark the occasion?

 

Often people ask "Doesn't it bother you living next door to a cemetery".

I can honestly answer they are the quietest neighbours I have ever had.

Except for that one full moon night a few years back.........

[Taomeow]

Yes cemeteries attract heaps of Yin energy, even trees are nearly dead because of that but also attract one of the most Yin creatures we have on this plane: mosquitoes.

 

 

Must be a poorly chosen location for the cemetery. Yin Feng Shui (the art of placement for the dead) is used among other things in order to make sure there's no above- or underground water running into the graves, no swampiness even after a rain, in fact this may be the single biggest consideration of yin feng shui: perfect drainage. Trees that grow on correctly chosen cemetery grounds are typically luxurious rather than "nearly dead," big and powerful -- if it's an old cemetery, they look eternal.

 

Mosquitoes, like all flying creatures, are way more yang than whatever doesn't fly. And their stinging contraption is as yang as the sword... weapons that pierce and draw blood aren't yin, not in a man's hand and not in a mosquito's mouth. Overly yin grounds like swamps breed them precisely because extreme yin causes yang to arise.

 

I know of a bunch of schools of thought that equate yin with "dead," and all of them misunderstand both yin and death. Yin is more about germination of new life than it is about death (that's why females who are more yin than males are the "breeding ground" for the species), and disembodied spirits, especially the restless ones that don't stay put wherever they belong, are more yang than any in-the-flesh living creature. The body, whether alive or dead, is yin compared to the spirit, whether in or out of body. Have you noticed how all religions that negate, belittle, "disown" the body also happen to negate, belittle, suppress the feminine?..

 

Cemeteries are yin compared to cities, and that's why they can be used to germinate the yang spirit in meditation, but one would have to know how to do it. Most of the living don't know how to act properly around the dead, and would be like strangers in a strange land who don't understand the local language and the local customs.

 

Often people ask "Doesn't it bother you living next door to a cemetery".

I can honestly answer they are the quietest neighbours I have ever had.

Except for that one full moon night a few years back.........

 

What happened that full moon night?

[Walker]

Most of the living don't know how to act properly around the dead, and would be like strangers in a strange land who don't understand the local language and the local customs.

 

What do you suggest as the proper way to act?

[r.w.smith]

This is usually done in the hope of gaining Supernatural Powers or Accquiring Spirit Helpers, if You believe in such Things. Silat Kebathinan is but one example. Maybe Vajrasatva can Comment if Hes viewing This Thread.

 

But In South East Asia its very Common for People to Fast & Meditate in The Cemeteries or Graves of Famous Kings,Warriors,Saints,Make Offerings Etc for Religious purposes.

[h.uriahr]

Your personal belief system and mental fortitude has alot to do with how little or how much you are affected by spirits. The saying goes that chi works no matter if you believe or not and while that is true, the effect may take longer for a disbeliever unless of course the person working the 'magic' is a real master then youre screwed but that's beyond the point here. It's best just to avoid a haunted place as far as meditational practice goes. Not for any reason other than it will probably distract you unless your goal is communication.

[Spectrum]

depends on why the curtains are thin

[minkus]

Edited October 6, 2008 by minkus

[Gerard]

I forgot to mention I live in an area known by the Aboriginal people to be the worst to build a city: Brisbane, Australia.

 

Yes, this whole place is awful. Bad chi.

[Bum Grasshopper]

 

The only thing which has struck me while meditating in the cemetery is the arrogance we have to bury ourselfs in such a fashion.

Truly what benifit is gleaned by locking a body in a box and burying it in the ground and sticking a large slab of rock on top to mark the occasion?

 

 

Agreed. Undertakers have historically raped the public, preying upon our beliefs, grief and traditions. It costs tens of thousands of dollars in my country die. Well, the undertaker can send me the bill after I die!

 

I will donate the the parts that still can be used to whoever needs them, and recycle the rest.

 

I should be paid!