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Moments of great clarity

D

deke3

Junior Acolyte
Joined
Aug 17, 2005
Messages
29
This topic has probably been discussed elsewhere.

Ever had a moment of absolute clarity or lucidity in which EVERYTHING suddenly made sense- only to be lost in the same nanosecond that the understanding is reached?

A few years ago I was sitting on my front doorstep having a smoke and looking at a tree across the street. In a blinding flash I suddenly "understood" completely that I was looking backwards in time at the tree as all objects in the universe existed in a spatial relationship to me based upon proximity. It was as though my mind suddenly encompassed the whole universe. I suddenly realized that "the world" was nothing more than an infinitely thin sheet of time, and that any distance consisted in an infinite number of these sheets sandwiched together. The realization was so "thick" I could actually "taste" it. Then- poof!- gone. :lol:

I don't know if this was some sort of hypnotic state, a hallucination, or a minor stroke :D but I have never before experienced such a moment of absolute clarity and certainty.

I often wonder (somewhat jealously) if geniuses, eg. Einstein or Mozart, lived within this sort of world of understanding on a constant basis.
 
I have a friend who described a state like that while he was driving. One of the details he claimed to remember was knowing the way the woman in the car next to him had her foot positioned on the gas pedal. Of course, there's no way to verify that - he might have had an impression of her foot position that was completely wrong! As a new convert to Buddhism, he wondered if enlightenment might be like a perpetual version of that state. I have no comment there, not being Buddhist.

However, I would really like to have an experience like that, perhaps tonight while I do some reading. I'm writing a paper on John Macquarrie's take on the Trinity. :tongue:
 
The other obvious question is, if these revelations are gone nanoseconds later then why do you remember them?

Are you a fan of Douglas Adams? Are you interested in frogs and/or dolphins?

Jane.
 
As I've just mentioned on another thread, minutes ago, there is also the possibility of a neurological irregularity.

In fact, we have whole threads about this very subject languishing somewhere, full of fascinating experiences of mind-expansion and lateral vision. 8)

As an example, a letter in the FT some years ago described a chap's sensation of seeing the road he was driving on and the countryside around him briefly seem to roll up into a ball, so that he was travelling along the inner surface of a sphere.

This only happened once and did not frighten him, and the incident was explained a year later when he was disgnosed with very minor TLE (temporal lobe epilepsy).
 
I had this happen once in high school, during a debate tournament. Things were looking grim for me and my partner--the opposing team had just discredited the source of most of our evidence, and it was time for my make-or-break rebuttal. I only had a few minutes to prepare my response and I just sat there without a clue for 90 seconds.

My partner kept pressing me to use our evidence that said their evidence sucked, but I couldn't see how that would do any good, as this evidence came from the source that they had already discredited. Then, it struck me with crystalline clarity--I knew exactly what to say to win the debate. I grabbed my flowchart, scribbling like mad, and got up to speak just when the judge called "time."

I was halfway done presenting my beautiful, divinely inspired rebuttal, when I looked up to see how much time I had left. I realized by the slack-jawed and slightly frightened expressions on the faces of my audience members that noone was getting any of it. I might as well have been speaking monkey. At that point I completely forgot everything I was saying and lost my whole train of thought.

When, after the debate, my partner asked me to explain what the hell I was talking about, I couldn't remember anything except for the "aha!" moment. Even the little notes on my flow sheet made no sense at all.

What's the point of enlightenment if you can't use it to impress your friends?
 
I remember a few years ago having just such a moment of clarity. A picture came into my mind, fully formed, of a machine. I could see exactly how this machine was made, and it was just the sort of thing which lots of people would want to own. Really exciting, a proper "Eureka" moment.

Sadly, I can't tell you what this machine was, or what it did, because moments after my revelation, I woke up. Bugger.
 
It happened to me when I was about 10 or 11 yrs old.I was sitting in a classroom on a fine summers day and suddenly had this great feeling of elation and that I knew the answer to everything.Then just as quickly it was gone.It's a hell of a long time since I was 10 but the memory has stayed with me.
 
The common thread here is that we've all had these moments when we're relaxed - half asleep, driving, enjoying a smoke etc. Maybe some switch gets flipped in our heads when, just for a moment, we're not thinking abour anything at all. Maybe we're all usually worrying about something and so, when we stop fretting for just a second or two, the brain interprets this as a state of (relative) bliss!

A word of warning - I did come up with the above idea while staring into space, so it may be somewhat of a circular argument.
 
No, that does sound like an interesting theory. Albert Einstein concieved the theory of relativity while daydreaming in a tram; James Watson scribbled on a newspaper in a train, then rode his bicycle to reach the conviction that DNA has the form of a double helix.
 
Some good reading is around Maslow's term "Peak experiences", relating to his ubiquitous "hierarchy of needs", especially related to those lucky individuals, the self-actualisers

A nice introductory site can be found HERE
 
The Einstein and Watson examples are precisely what I was thinking of when I started this thread- seem like moments of spontaneous clarity.

I'm also very partial to the notion of some sort of neurological "glitch" which merely produces the sensation of "absolute clarity".

Such a glitch is probably not physiologically akin to what happens to the brains of people with schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder- such people suffer chemical imbalances. I am talking about some sort of isolated neural misfiring. However, from the experiential viewpoint both chemical imbalance and random neural misfiring may cause feelings of "absolute clarity" or "logic".
 
I believe Donovan put it best when he sang "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is".

More seriously, Colin Wilson wrote very eloquently about his own 'moment of clarity' in one of his books, but I can't for the life of me remember which one. I believe he became slightly obsessed by the idea that the 'peak experience' would be our normal state of consciousness if only we could learn how to unlock our full mental potential.
 
I get this now and then. It's wonderful. I can't remember any specifics, but I remember once I had a flash of insight about religion. Like you I can never hang on to it though.

I also feel similarly brief sensations such as a split second of complete elation and a feeling of everything being right and perfect; or a feeling of complete unreality, that what I'm seeing/experiencing is not there at all. I find it a bit similar to de ja vu. I've heard that some of these things are quite common and tend to diminsh with age, which seems a pity.

I have had the occasional esp type encounter which also feels similar, just minor things like being aware I'm going to run into someone coming around a corner, and I must say as unlikely as it sounds, when I get this particular "flash" into my brain feeling, (as opposed to conscious thought) it's usually accurate. Of course that could be because I remember the occasions when it has proved accurate, but forget those were it hasn't.

Along with all of these weirdo traits, I also feel a strong physical presence over my left shoulder sometimes, which I posted about at some stage on IHTM, and received a reply that perhaps I should be checked out for temporal lobe epilepsy. Considering I have all of the above and more happening inside my head it sounds quite likely. But I really don't want to know, cos that would take all the magic out of life for me. I want to believe!
 
These moments of clarity sound to me a bit like the "peak experiences" that Maslow said happened to people who had achieved self-actualization.
"Feelings of limitless horizons opening up to the vision, the feeling of being simultaneously more powerful and also more helpless than one ever was before, the feeling of ecstacy and wonder and awe, the loss of placement in time and space with, finally, the conviction that something extremely important and valuable had happened, so that the subject was to some extent transformed and strengthened even in his daily life by such experiences."
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IIRC, the more self-actualized a person's life became, the more often they would experience these peak moments.
 
I have these moments of clarity all the time but I'm not sure if they are as powerful as many described in this and other threads; not so powerful to be called "peak."

It "happens" often. For example when I first wake up in the morning or from a nap and while listening to music (good music, that is) I'm in a state of clarity. I can usually stay with it for quite some time; I just have to resist the temptation to become self-absorbed again. (Which is easier said than done). I'm happy to call it "gnosis".
 
lol, this brings back memories. I remember I had been smoking a "Philly Blunt" (which is a Philly cigar that has had the tobacco plucked out and a mixture of different weed crammed in its place), please note this was a long time ago, I have long since kicked the habit. I had a couple of friends over and they eventually bailed out on me because it was a ll too much for them. So there I am stoned beyond recognition, with a big fat crossbred weed-filled cigar all for myself, oh what fun. It took me an hour to finish the thing, and finish it I did. I decided to lay down after but I was too high to sleep, I never thought there was such a thing. As I lay there my mind was going absolutely nuts! My brain was all over the place. Then some lyrics from a hip-hop group, the Wu-Tang Clan came to my mind. They are known to rap a lot about the "5% Nation" which is an offshoot from the black sect "Nation of Islam". They speak a lot of stuff that to the average joe makes absolutely no sense, linking mathematics with science and the universe. for example:

"Orotorical, niggaz is metaphorical
My editorial breaks down your monuments historical
Geologist studyin land, usin the earth's crust
Measurements, eight elements, atomic weight plus density
Hi-Techs, science, thrustal gravity
Revolve around my oro, I'm the soul that keeps spinnin, what
Supernova, black quasar, my mental radar picks up
Frequencies beyond the earth's equator
Forver glow, electro, magnetic force field
Thoughts build, we bomb for real, Royal Fam still exists
Golden fist, your caught up in the devil's mist
Fire war, royal sire laws, reveal this
Protons, electrons, atoms cause explosions
My center of atraction, I'm the nucleus, you're frozen
My square be complete, architectual, visual
The sound spectrum strikes the mental then the physical
My perimeter damns your diameter
Bar codes are scanned from America to Canada
What, from America to Canada"

I remember this was the exact verse i was thinking of when it hit me. Suddenly, for some strange reason, I understood everything they said. I was amazed and happy at the same time. I then started to ponder upon creation and the universe as a whole, how everything possesses atoms, etc,etc (i aint no scientist so I could be wrong in my "enlightened theories") and I mentally traced everything back to the big bang theory. Lol, laying there i must have looked like Neo from the Matrix as everything was downloaded. I remember it got to a point the intense brainwave stopped and my eyes snapped open and said to myself, "wow" I understand everything. And I understand where these 5%ers come from, they smoke too much damn weed..." and on that note i giggled myself to sleep.

A friend of mine told me how they convinced a quiet and conservative friend of theirs to smoke a spliff with them. He said that the individual was totally zonged out, like he was asleep. Then he started to grunt and moan, jolting his head from side to side. They asked if he was okay, he replied, "I dont know whats happening, its like Im beginning to understand everything, its too much.." of course everyone began to giggle at him but then he jumped up groaning and moaning "stop, stop.." he started to hold his head and growl in pain. He then ran outside screaming, dropped on his knees holding his head in his hands screaming "ITS TOO MUCH, EVERYTHING IS BEING DOWNLOADED, AAAARRRGGGHHH, MY BRAIN IS GONNA EXPLODE!!!!" By now everyone was in hysterics while some others began to get paraniod.
"AAAARRGGGHH I UNDERSTAAAAANNND!!!!" then he collapsed in a heap, sobbing to himself. when they walked him back into the house, trying to convince the neighbours he is fine, he sat down sobbing explaining that it was as if something began downloading encyclopedias into his head, but it was too much.

I cry myself with laughter everytime i hear that story.

so, there you go. Weed and drugs are a major factor!
 
I have occasionally had that sort of "a-ha!" experience along the nature of understanding the universe, or God, or how it all fits together, etc.

As others have stated, it doesn't last too long. Possibly because, as the one spliff-smoking friend of a member pointed out, "it's all too much". I'm not sure the average human brain or soul/spirit can actually handle more than brief periods of extreme enlightenment...

However, I've had the same thing, or similar, happen to me when I'm writing. I'm a poet, and when writing is going well it truly is a kind of coming together, a moment of enlightenment. Writing poetry is sometimes described as the ability to recognize the similarity between disparate ideas, and join those ideas together. It's really hard for me to explain, and may be hard for non-artists to understand, though I imagine other types of artists (musicians, particularly) probably get the same thing. It's just that "a-ha" moment, when exactly the right comparison, language, phrase comes to mind, and it does come -- feels like a train smacking into your brain, and you can feel it before it arrives, like train tracks singing.
 
Dreams

I have had experiences (as has my dad) where very complex or puzzling 'logical' problems (to do with work/logistics now, and to do with homework as a child) have been solved when we were half asleep and dreaming. You have to jump up and note them down or you forget. having done some research into learning, i'd have to say it has to do with relaxation and the total removal of the 'reticular highjack' effect (fight or flight) which inhibits calm clear thinking when we assume something is going to go wrong (basically why you always get extra clumsy when you have to do something fast with someone watching you!). In the semi-dreaming state, this is gone, allowing more depth of thought.
 
Yeah, I've had these flashes, too. Maybe twice in my lifetime. It's really frustrating just after the event, because you didn't have time to understand it or write it down. You have total knowledge and then 'poof!' it's gone.

My theory is this: I've read a lot of Near Death Experience (NDE) stories and one of the common threads running through them is the moment when the person concerned is given total understanding of the universe. It's normally accompanied by a thought that goes "So that's what it's all about. It's so obvious and simple". The person is then told that they will be made to forget everything when their spirit returns to earth. Without fail, this happens. All the knowledge gets erased from their memory.

I think that when we have these flashes of knowledge we are actually experiencing the knowledge of the afterlife (for a nanosecond, or whatever) and then we're 'back in the room'. I don't know how this happens, but maybe it's a Matrix-like glitch in the time/space continuum (to coin a corny phrase).
 
IbnRobert said:
A friend of mine told me how they convinced a quiet and conservative friend of theirs to smoke a spliff with them. He said that the individual was totally zonged out, like he was asleep. Then he started to grunt and moan, jolting his head from side to side. They asked if he was okay, he replied, "I dont know whats happening, its like Im beginning to understand everything, its too much.." of course everyone began to giggle at him but then he jumped up groaning and moaning "stop, stop.." he started to hold his head and growl in pain. He then ran outside screaming, dropped on his knees holding his head in his hands screaming "ITS TOO MUCH, EVERYTHING IS BEING DOWNLOADED, AAAARRRGGGHHH, MY BRAIN IS GONNA EXPLODE!!!!" By now everyone was in hysterics while some others began to get paraniod.
"AAAARRGGGHH I UNDERSTAAAAANNND!!!!" then he collapsed in a heap, sobbing to himself. when they walked him back into the house, trying to convince the neighbours he is fine, he sat down sobbing explaining that it was as if something began downloading encyclopedias into his head, but it was too much.
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I had a similar feeling after taking Liberty Cap (Psilocybin) mushrooms. I felt as if i were having a million thoughts a second going through my brain, and belive me it was totaly exhausting me very soon. I belive this is diferent though, from the "cosmic consciousness" type experiences being reported here. Maybe our normal conciousness blocks out the vast majority of our brains thoughs from being litterally "thought about" as it is not needed. IE: we do not need to be told to breathe in and out, we do not need to be aware of every neuron in our head firing many thousands of times per second. I think the magic mushrooms took the block from this process, in the same way the weed did for your freind. As i said though it is a bit different from the Eureka! moment of understanding everything.
 
Mescalin had the same effects on me, empires of insane clarity dashed on the rocks every 10 seconds or so.
 
I've had similar experiences when on acid in my teens. Some trips would just be *wondrous* where you'd be wandering around going "wow..." at everything you saw, but some trips would be *chatty*. I remember once during one of these, at its peak, my friend and I realised "the answer behind the universe". I remember very clearly that we both exclaimed "ohhhhhhh.... it all makes sense!", and even the night sky (at which we were looking) became crystal clear.

Sadly the peak only lasted seconds, and the only thing we could remember about it once we came down was that the universe makes a noise. It goes, "wsssssssp".

And there you go.

In these less narcotic times, my eureka moments are limited to your normal 3am "ohhh, *that's* the name of that actor/where I left the keys/the missing lyric to the song" type of thing.

That said, lying on your back looking at the stars (as opposed to sitting on your sofa, watching TV) makes you more prosaic. If ever you were to engineer a eureka moment, surely this would be the best place to do it?
 
I get like this when I'm writing (I write fantasy/horror stories and fanfic as a hobby). I don't always know how the story will turn out, or what's going on with my characters, but I will suddenly have a moment of perfect clarity where not only do I finally realise what's going on (and bear in mind that as I write fantasy/horror this could be anything from the wolves amassing to the ghost creeping up to the attic) but I also know the most absolutley perfct form of words to express it. It's a wonderful feeling. It's like I suddenly get an insight into another world where everything is known.

One the other hand, my friend spent a large part of Thursday night saying 'I see everything with perfect clarity!!!'. She was smoking her very first joint...
 
graylien said:
Colin Wilson wrote very eloquently about his own 'moment of clarity' in one of his books, but I can't for the life of me remember which one. I believe he became slightly obsessed by the idea that the 'peak experience' would be our normal state of consciousness if only we could learn how to unlock our full mental potential.
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I'm pretty sure that's 'The Occult'. He also waxes about future people being able to see more colours if I remember correctly, but I could be wrong.

I like the idea of being able to have clarity permanently. We spend far too much time wondering where we put our keys instead.
 
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