Seeing a Black Figure in Meditation

Dear Oveyaa,

During meditation people may have a variety of visual experiences. Some people do not have any. For others, visual experience may be there for some time and then no longer.  In order to put visual experience during meditation in context, it is important to understand the goal of meditation.

Meditation practice should take us to an experience of higher consciousness. In higher consciousness, we access pure joy, pure love, absolute stillness, peace and calmness beyond any worldly experience. These are all aspects of the Divine and indeed we may experience the presence of Christ or Krishna or Buddha or another divine incarnation. When we touch into this higher consciousness, called superconsciousness, there is always associated with it a sense of uplifted, positive, harmonious and deep experience. Superconscious experience is transformative. Being in this uplifted state may be associated with visual experience but it is not necessary to access this state. What is required is that we calm the restless mind and deeply concentrate on higher realities.

It is important to understand that there is a level of consciousness called the subconscious. The subconscious is the reservoir of all of our past experience, our old emotional reactions, our habits. In meditation, when we sink into this state, we find our mind wandering sometimes to past experiences, but we also can wander into emotional reactions such as worry and fear. Sometimes the mental wandering can seem vague, dreamlike or random but it is not associated with the uplifted state that is superconsciousness. In meditation, it is important to use a meditation technique or the mind most often will wander in subconsciousness. We do not receive much benefit from time spent in this mental wandering.

You will have to assess for yourself whether this black colored figure is associated with an uplifted state for you. If not, it is probably a product of your subconscious. I suggest not giving it further energy but returning to meditation techniques. If it comes with an uplifted superconscious quality then I would offer this experience up to the Divine at the point between the eyebrows and ask about its meaning in meditation.

As you are practicing meditation, you might appreciate exploring the meditation techniques offered through Ananda. These ancient, simple and effective techniques are suitable for everyone regardless of where they are in their spiritual journey. This little mini-course is a great way to start and if you find it helpful, the ananda.org website has a large resource of tools to deepen you meditation practice. https://www.ananda.org/meditation/meditation-mini-course/

Many Blessings,
Nayaswami Mukti