I seriously doubt if the mispelling is due to yoga. But I also think there’s something strange (and probably bad) happening to some yogis.
I agree with your first point. But it’s not beautiful. And usually not ugly. It’s just strange.
For the mispelling, I’ve also noticed long ago that victor mispelled a lot. But I think he simply doesn’t care much about the spellings. Is that right, victor?
Seems pretty simple to me. People choose their activities based on style/flavor/peer groups. “Right brain” oriented people…creative, non-verbal, free-spirited…are attracted to yoga in the first place, cuz that’s something their peer group is into. Analytical, rigorously rational “left brain” oriented people are less attracted, 'cuz it’s not something their peer group is into. And the former are naturally sloppier spellers than the latter. (They’re also rather muddled thinkers…which reinforces the non-practice of yoga by the other group, which is turned off by the flakey, touchy/feely way in which yoga is currently “sold”).
Yoga will reach critical mass when the that mold breaks and yoga (I mean the whole practice, not just asana) is practiced not by the flaky few but by the mainstream. For one thing, that’s when actual scientists will be compelled to really start looking at it - and they’ll solve lots of scientific mysteries (e.g. why we shiver/laugh/cry).
Critical mass was almost reached once via TM. Not quite, though.
Hi again,
Talking of different behaviour. I have noticed among others at higher levels of altered states of consciousness that when in conversation there are normally large gaps in conversation.When I practiced TM I expereinced this in myself.Before replying one thinks through in their minds the reply.So when one speaks there is a large gap as the altered state rehearses the reply before actually speaking.Sometimes one is not sure if the other person is even part of the conversation.I saw this when talking to my guru while in India.Sometimes I wasn’t sure if she was ignoring me,asleep or what.heheheheheheheheheh
I’m sure others have come across this also.
L&L
Dave
Hello All
Words, though wonderful design, are very limiting. They are already imperfect. Someone who stills thought begins to communicate on a whole level. Words cannot always convey expressions that come from beneath thought. I think we have to adjust to new ways of expressing when words need to be used to convey deeper messages and sometimes words may fall by the wayside. It could be startling or confusing to others who are busy in thoughts and words. It may be easier for someone with an analytical mind to continue to use words, they may become sharper and clearer as the mind becomes a tool for Self. Maybe others who are not analytically designed find fewer words are there to give as expressions of Self. I don’t know, I’m just pondering.
In interesting exploration, Alan
On the subject of “intelligence drop with yoga”:
Title: The Idiot Song
From: The Album, Monty Python Live at Drury Lane
Transcribed By: Tak Ariga
How sweet to be an Idiot,
As harmless as a cloud,
Too small to hide the sun
Almost poking fun,
At the warm but insecure untidy crowd.
How sweet to be an idiot,
And dip my brain in joy,
Children laughing at my back,
With no fear of attack,
As much retaliation as a toy.
How sweet to be an idiot, how sweet.
....
But I still love you, still love you,
Oooh how sweet to be an idiot,
How sweet. how sweet. How sweet.Well, to be honest I do misspell alot but it is generally due more to typos than to bad spelling. I learned to type many years after learning Yoga so perhaps I was handicapped from the start! I did poorly in high school and never went to academic college so never learned to touch type etc.
But seriously it would be interesting to explore this subject as it is possible that with an increase in “bliss conciousness” that a certain critical facility may be lost or just undervalued. Its all about balance I believe and while spelling errors are insignificant (thats why we have spellcheck) memory lapses are not, and I for one would not like to end up as a bliss ninny who is not taken seriously due to fuzzyheadedness
To be honest I have noticed a definite “spaciness” in some meditation groups and it does not tend to attract me to that. I have seen no such tendencies here however so it makes me wonder if that is more about a “cult” type situation rather than Yoga and meditation itself
Great topic, Comdyne!
About spelling errors, I think David was mostly right when he said that a lot of relaxation can cause it. Also not having the time to type slowly can cause it. I’ve noticed that when I want to convey and point and have very little time I can forget tons of words in my typing.
That was a prime example of this effect. I typed that sentence out quickly and instead of typing “a” before the word point I typed “and”.
Yoga certainly doesn’t make you stupid, though. It just makes the everyday subconscious tasks into conscious ones. 
At least that’s what I’ve noticed. But it should smooth out after getting used to it.
Dave said something about his guru becoming silent. He said it had to do with thinking about what to say before saying it…I will relay my experience, but it doesn’t have to do with deeply thinking about what to say…Between ideas I go into a split second samadhi sometimes. It’s especially true after meditation, when I’m still feeling blissful and quiet. If someone tries talking to me it’s normally a pretty much one sided conversation. I will reply to their questions and make a comment, but nothing more comes out of my mind. I’m pretty much blank.
It doesn’t help that I have a lot of one-pointedness of mind, so that when I’m in a conversation with someone and for a second not paying attention to what they’re saying, I can start focusing on the appearance of their face and get lost in it. Then I won’t even hear what they’re saying. So it’s kind of challenging for me to keep up long conversations. By the way, I don’t have ADD or anything. I just attribute it to my state of mental absorption. I started becoming very focused on everything after getting deeper into yoga…so I definitely attribute this type of state of mind to that.
Zo diz iz 3Nl8nm3nT.
H@iL D@ Pr0ph3t yA’lL.
That happens to me too Scott.
Scott… is this good though? Last year… I could be working on a program, talking to a client and reading an email … all at the same time and I was on top of all of it… or could have 5 sessions going for 5 different clients… and was never lost. But these days… I can focus on one thing only… my mind just blanks out on the others… like if i am reading an email and talking to a client… I have to stop reading… else I will miss out on stuff the client says. I thought it was a getting old thing 
… but if this is happening to you… it cant be age… it must be yoga. I know I had a lot of nervous energy till last year… and now I am calm… So with calmness/yoga does your efficiency decrease?
Hi Shanti,
I hope not and I don’t think so in general. It’s a known fact that average humans only use a fraction of their brain power under normal conditions. And I have heard that yoga will make more of our brain power available to us. In my own case, since I started with AYP, if I have seen any change in mental capacity it would be that it’s increased, with better focus and organisation, rather than the other way.
I understand that as energy and visions etc. may come up in yoga, they can pull the attention away from everyday life. And after meditation, as Scott mentions, one can still feel absorbed in the inner silence. But if this continues out into normal daily life and one feels less efficient mentally, I think it’s a case of not being grounded well enough, rather than of less mental power or organisation. So, there could maybe be a need for more grounding and/or self-pacing.
Hi Weaver,
No, I don’t think my mental power has reduced in the least bit… I am more focused…however focused on one thing at a time… don’t seem to be as good at multitasking as I used to be… that’s all… Not that I am worried… I am enjoying being myself the way I am now… and not going back to what I used to be… But since Scott brought up the topic… I realized… it may not have been a age thing after all…
Good to hear Shanti! Mental power is always nice.
Hey guys,
I think it’s good. Yes a little bit, but not as a rule. It takes some getting used to. I used to have trouble driving my car because of my one pointedness of mind, but I stuck with it (because I had no other choice) and now it’s as easy as before. Multitasking is probably out of the question as you progress in yoga…but you can still handle the same workload. It just scatters the energies…meaning you will have to constantly be putting your mind here and putting it over there, so it’s a bit more stressful than just relaxing into whatever you’re doing. But stress is a part of life, it’s what we do with it that’s either good or bad…so in my opinion “it’s all good”. 
Weaver,
That can certainly be the case with someone who isn’t experiencing a drastic one pointedness of mind like what I’m referring to. Then if they feel like they can’t handle certain tasks mentally, they should probably go for a walk, eat something, etc. We all know the drill.
What I’m referring to is different, though. It’s mental absorption which occurs all day. An intense focusing on whatever you put your attention on. It isn’t a direct result of yoga practices or energy fluctuations in the body…although those two do bring it about. But if I were to stop practicing AYP and go for long walks everyday eating steak all day…basically completely grounding myself…I would still have this state of mind. There’s no way to ground it, besides doing our everyday activities when outside of practices. That’s why it’s recommended we do something physical, mental, social, etc…once we’re doing doing yoga.
Shweta,
Word, homie.
Yoga has certainly improved my concentration and mental agility immensely.
I have to agree though, that it has disposed me considerably against multi-tasking. I just don’t want to multi-task, I want to focus on one thing, and then move onto the next.
My vote: the whole spelling thing has to do with the fact that we are on an internet forum. It’s so conversational in energy that it encourages people to type faster and more casually.
Hi David,
I remember you said this before. While I found many people went through this yogic stuffs have some wisdom (at least the kind of wisdom that I don’t have) and it’s quite reasonable that the wisdom is somehow related to yoga; I don’t see many people with intelligence (IQ) as in its usual sense.
The difference between the two is familiar to us: we can find many young children with high IQ but with no wisdom at all. Wisdom is a bigger thing, yet it will grow with our age while IQ will not (usually not, at least).
By mental agility, David, you seems to refer to the latter. Your sense of humor and analytical mind seems to confirm that you have high intelligence. I are really curious to know if you were like that since you were young. If you were less intelligent, since intelligence seldom increases with age, we can make some remarkable postulates about the effects of yoga when one wishes to develop in that direction.
Alvin
I have found my brain to totally logg out more and more often. I do not have access to memory, logical thinking or capability to process information. It is sometimes terrifying, because I do not know how I will be able to function in this world and especially at work, but somehow it works.
Reading a newspaper is futile. I do not comprehend what I read. I forget the beginning of the sentence before I come to the end, and is not able to get the message at all. The only thing that works is reading spiritual books. I have strongly felt it is time to give away most of my old books. They do not serve me anylonger, but I know many others will benefit from them, so I am giving them away now.
I watched a theater play the other week. I saw that the actors were emotional and felt unease - much anger in the play. But I could not tell anyone afterwards what the plot was or what the message was. I did not even understand the jokes in it. The audience laughed, I asked my partner to tell me later what the point was.
Those days when I feel I have absolutely no brain, I humbly ask in the mornings for a day with no need of cognitive efforts. So far, my prayers have been responded to. For example, I found myself caught in being a chauffeur a whole day instead of doing what I was supposed to do.
I find a bigger and bigger conflict in working as a teacher. I feel I have to stand and inform the students about false things. Pretending to take the world seriously, educating them into a more and more firm identity, supporting their forming of attitudes and opinions instead of teaching them the pointlessness in having attitudes and opinions, that it is only mind-enforcing.
I think I have been so stuck in an identity of being “smart”, “fast”, “clever” and “intelligent”, so life wants me to experience the opposite, to make it clear to me that my intellectual brain will not be of any help for me anylonger. Not the way it used to. It is hopefully a phase.
Oh, and I can recognize myself in Katrines post. I do not even find words like “arm chair” sometimes, I stumble and stutter when talking. I have never stuttered before…
I am beginning to get really useless as a man-machine. 
EMC,
What you write worries me. I sincerely hope that Yoga in the long term will not make our brain less powerful or make us less useful intellectually in this society, where indeed intellectualism is highly valued and promoted. I do think that our society needs more heart, compassion and spiritual values, but it can only come as the individuals develop and value it more.
EMC, what you write I still think are symptoms of purification and not a developing permanent state. Being a teacher myself I can relate to what you say. It’s very important for our children to have examples who can teach them (between the lines of the regular subjects) about the basic principles of life. There are many teachable moments in all the interactions that happen all the time. I hope you will continue being a teacher. I have found more meaning and creativity in my job since starting with Yoga, and the students can sense that as well.
About the identity part, I think that it’s important for children to develop their identities in a constructive way in order to function successfully in society, even if these identities may be synthetic in the universal sense. Later, as adults, they can choose through the path of Yoga to shed them again, but it’s their choice.
All the best!
Weaver,
I agree with you that EMC’s experiences are more purification than actual long term effects of yoga. Her energies have recently been stirred up, and they have to get back into the patterns that they are used to going in. Yoga doesn’t disable us in any way…for instance, making us unable to understand things like a newspaper or the point of a play. Taking those things to be the actual desired effect of yoga practices can be dangerous. Our minds are powerful, and we are capable of making ourselves dumb simply by believing we’re becoming dumber.
EMC,
About not being able to read normal (unspiritual) books anymore…I found the same thing happen to myself. A lot of people with awakened kundalinis experience the same effect. It’s mostly because all that you care about is spirituality. If you don’t care about something, obviously you’re not going to pay attention to it. But yoga is about self mastery. If you’re incapable of reading a fiction novel, for instance, then how much self mastery do you have? Not much it seems.
Hopefully you’ll be able to get back into balance soon enough. Then you can read all the romance novels and newspapers you want.
I agree that these symptoms are in part due to purification. I believe that everything will catch up and be put in proper perspective. We may not continue to function the same as before. Look at all of the changing we are inviting upon ourselves. Go figure 