I have reason to believe that I have been cycling through Dark Night/Reobservation/equanimity for a while now, mainly equanimity. Last night I had a particularly deep meditation - a mixture of concentration, bare awareness/ noting and self inquiry practice. Today I was at my university computer lab and I start having waking dreams and then I passed out. The same thing happened again 20 minutes later and I ended up going to the ER ( and freaking out my classmates). They ran some tests and couldn't find anything conclusive. There is a small issue with my heart, a bundle branch block, which might have contributed to it. I will be seeing a heart specialist in the next few days for a few other tests. Now I am home. I still feel a bit weird, like I need to be on guard and make sure I don't slip into some kind of waking dream state again. Also my head tingles and feels some pressure, similar to feeling I get sometime in meditation.

While my first instinct is that this was a medical issue, I am also curious as to whether this have something to do with meditation and the Progress of Insight? Stream entry is described by Daniel as a momentary blip of unconsciousness. Can it cause fainting? Has anybody else here fainted due to meditation?

Hi Jason,

Whilst I haven’t yet fainted due to meditation, there’s something in your post that sounds similar to my recent experience (link). In brief, over the last few months I’ve noticed ‘pulses’ and ‘shifts’ in my body, rather like the weightless feeling one gets when going fast over a bridge in a car. Occasionally these ‘moments’ are strong enough that I feel I may faint but this hasn’t yet happened. In the post I’ve provided a link to, Dream Walker notes that “shifting from 2nd 3rd and 4th vipassana jhanas was just like you describe for me”, which made good sense.

The other thing is that reflecting on not-self/dharma does cause a noticeable shift in consciousness, into a wider and more inclusive experience, that can feel a little dreamlike (at first) but mainly because of the initial shift into a more alive and clear space. Wonder if any of this helps?

Best wishes,

Nick

Yes, thanks Nick.

The meditation I had the night before I fainted was exactly like you describe...I was imagining I was hollow and was looking for the self in the sensations of my face, tring to dissolve all sensations of self, which eventually caused a shift into a wider more inclusive space...but only for like 30 seconds when my timer went off.

I wonder how I will ever know if the fainting was stream entry or not. Are there clearly recognizable signs the days after?

Reread MCTB Fruition
If you are noticing nothing different on the cushion and off then I would wonder too. After a fruition there follows a bliss wave that is quite noticeable. Also your baseline "state" will have shifted in an uncomprehensible but noticeable way especially during the honeymoon phase that faded slowly over a month or so for me. Read the next chapter on review as well for some of the on cushion effects. The descriptions of the waking dreamlike state could have aspects of EQ to them as I tend to get into a dreamlike state before I shift/let go to lock into EQ. The shift from one jhana to the next at first are quite noticeable and not very smooth; over time this changes but if your concentration is high it is more subtle but definitely noticeable. It sounds to me you shifted to EQ and had a near miss to fruition. Just a wild guess though. If you are this close though it will repeat most likely. The problem now is that you are going to be all excited and get in your own way of letting it happen. A little time will help in this. Make a strong resolution to experience fruition while meditating and keep on keeping on. See what happens next. I have had many temporary one time events happen to me...this could also be in that category.
Good luck,
~D