Jim, my experience this morning tells me this could well be true. I’m unusually tired and sluggish. Yet when I do the group at 8.45 pm, it’s a short way to bed from there… so maybe there was the issue of not enough activity after the session.
Everybody seems to have gone the ‘deep’ way. The group sharing the tip of the experience allows us to observe the phenomenon of concurrent experiences in group. Richard, “Crashed out” is a very apt description of the aftermath for me as well. That’s another repetetive theme in this session, isn’t it? 
A paradox with this one was that though I went in deep immediately and lost track of time, when I came out I felt it was a long time, though it was much shorter than usual. Usually, it’s supposed to be the other way round.
Hi All:
The intent in the above lesson was to discourage folks from relying on group meditations as a primary source of practice, which some of us might tend to do. Much more important is to have our home routine well-established and be self-sufficient in that. Then whatever else comes along in the way of group meditations, etc., we can regard as a bonus.
When preparing the lesson, I was not thinking of worldwide long-distance meditations, or their potential power for wide-scale purification and opening. In this case (or any powerful group meditation situation), it is incumbent on all of us to keep self-pacing in mind, as needed, whether the group meditation happens to be during our regular routine of practice, or in addition to it. It can be done either way. Each should weigh the results and make adjustments accordingly, as I see many of you are doing already.
Smart self-pacers, you are. 
The world meditations are a wonderful new program, with very promising long term potential. Thank you, Shanti!
Gee, how many thousands can join in, and what will be the long term effect on world consciousness? Let’s find out…
The guru is in you.
Hi All:
There is a paradox about the experiences issue.
It is THE experience what motivates us to do spiritual practices and they generate NEW experiences. Then comes the next step - organizing and integrating them into our psyche. Therefore the correct approach would be to not ignore what has happened, what was presented to our consciousness, but to integrate it in our understanding of ourselves, other human beings, god and the world we live in.
Simply ignoring experiences will not lead us to where we are heading.
The ancient teachings prohibited discussing experiences because the ancient people were in quite a different situation, they were in a position to "watch the grass grow… ". Imagine the rural life in India or Tibet… Someone sharing a vivid archetypal experience would influence for an indefinite time the internal life of the naïve immature student.
We are in quite a different position. We are sensorialy and informationaly overloaded. In our culture we have been subjected to multitude of stimuli which activated every possible inborn behavioral program(archetype) in our brains - from fear and violence trough the passions of sex, revenge, self-proof, and victory over “the others”, to the gentle romantic love and the god-like realizations and experiences.
We have been exposed to this and much more. We know what is attractive to us, and that this attraction is changeable, sometimes quite unreachable and we want permanence and peace, right?
When we speak of experiences, there is another phenomenon to consider - the human nature. It happens that humans can go trough a process of strong attraction to an object and then after some of time lose their interest to it altogether. This is called transcending. Of all objects the most difficult to understand and transcend is our own Ego. And Ego is, in fact, a way, a mental habit to interpret our experiences.
One of the main things a human guru in India would do is to give you a technique, which will lead you to big, great, amazing experiences and when you run back all smiles and proud - s/he will bring you down from the peaks your ego has put you on.
Therefore only a minority of people from the West would submit them selves to a training by a traditional guru, esp. the educated and socially active people, the pressure on the Ego is too much, especially for the beginners.
Instead we have forums. Let’s use them properly for self understanding and growth, by helping others with compassion, not for a fame or money, while adapting the eternal principles of spiritual growth for our time and situation.
Until we transcend it 
‘Dare to know’
Elldibor said:
It is THE experience what motivates us to do spiritual practices and they generate NEW experiences. Then comes the next step - organizing and integrating them into our psyche. Therefore the correct approach would be to not ignore what has happened, what was presented to our consciousness, but to integrate it in our understanding of ourselves, other human beings, god and the world we live in.
Simply ignoring experiences will not lead us to where we are heading.
Yes, there is truth in that, Elldibor. There is indeed a lot of paradox in the whole thing. In the teaching dance, a notion like ‘ignore experiences’ may be put forward, but a more accurate and nuanced admonition may be ‘don’t attach too much weight, or the wrong kind of weight, to experiences’.
Paradoxes exist when there are approximations and ambiguities. And approximations and ambiguities are pretty much inevitable in spiritual teaching, because if spiritual teaching were done in such a way that there are no approximations or ambiguities, the teachings would be so intellectually difficult that it would be inaccessible to most people, and the remaining ones might be confusing the intellectual grasp of the teachings with spiritual progress.
So, instead, the approximations go out, and the ambiguities are resolved in practice, not in theory.
Hi Near, try using an egg timer. You don’t need to bang down its alarm head to make it stop…it has a short ring usually.
This time it felt like a normal session, except for the distraction of my daughter playing the flute.
When I started the healing samyama it was like I shifted into a different mode, went very deep and had to rest for about 45 minutes afterwards (normally would rest for a couple of minutes).
Still feel it deeply.
Thanks everyone, thanks Sarah and thanks to the inner silence.
This my second group meditation felt more “usual” than the first time, but overall, still extra energy and intensity. A big exception was when I said Sarah’s name and disappeared into the most intense inner space. Lot’s of love and joy.
Thank you all,
A
Well I don’t think I managed to do Samyama at the same time as everyone else I crashed after about the first five minutes of med, one of those quick ones where you just fall forward and then come out of it and then I went back in again lost consciousness completely and came too half an hour later, I did the samyama anyway so lets hope it didnt matter. When I went into med the healing intent was there so I may have connected that way 
Richard
I just managed to get in on that time by default this time… I was real late. But couldn’t sleep most of the night afterward. Though this didn’t occur the last time I did this at the group meditation. This time the intent wasn’t there, because I was dead beat, and had forgotten about the group till after I finished.
Missed out Sarah, but glad to see her post.
Sadhak, if you want to understand what Sarah has said, you may want to read this thread which is related to this one:
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1337
Thanks David, I found it almost immediately after posting, so read the rest, came back and changed the post, and then found yours. have you been joining the group?
Victor,
This is just my opinion which is probably way off, but when I read a few words from a person I get an idea in my heart of what their soul is like. It’s an incomplete picture, but I think feeling out who that person is creates a deep connection to them.
I hardly believe this myself, but it seems to be the case for me.
Why do I not feel this peace and fulfillment during my every day meditation?
Thank you all for sharing so much love during the group meditation.
Hi! I joined the group today! 
It was a quite clear difference in depth and length! THANK YOU for the ride! I will have to make this a Sunday habit!
Hi, Yes the Sunday group med does feel very different it has a feel all of its own difficult to describe…please do make it a Sunday habit the more that join in the better
It has definitely become a highlight of my week
Richard
Thanks all of you! I’m working on big emotional stuff. The whole meditation was like pouring balm into a wound. My spine just cracked open today - to the left and right sides of my back, all the way. I’m still vibrating from the root.
Thanks everyone. at the end of Samyama I experienced waves of love and peace it was awesome.
I always love this Sunday group med its somehow different but this was really special thanks again
Thanks to everyone for the group meditation and the healing samyama, very appreciated! Didn’t seem to do much for my hangover though!
all the best,
A
Thanks all for the healing this Sunday. It was a very calm and peaceful meditation and the healing was really gentle with no energy overloads… Thank You.
I remember I read one of Doc’s posts with great envy where he described sitting outdoors meditating, having all those wild animals rounding up around him… Yesterday I sat outdoors joining the group meditation… very beautiful, by a lake. I was hoping of course for some extraordinary happening. However, I am obliged to report a most modest effect. My energies seem unable to attract more than animals of very small size so far. Lots of ants joined me! And several spiders! and a few bugs of totally unidentifiable types, probably from the most obscure corners of mother Earth…
But to lighten up the report, I was caught by the wind in the most beautiful way! I have earlier experienced that music - soundwaves - can flow right through all of my cells as if I was transparent. Now I got that same experience with the wind blowing straight through my energy field, becoming one with me. That was truly great!
(Both ants and spiders are very powerful medicine animals now when I think about it! )
Thank you for a lovely Sunday!