This is a E-mail from W.A.S.T.E by Thom :OOOO
HI ALL.
I DON'T KNOW IF YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS BUT I HAVE A PROJECT CALLED
ATOMS FOR PEACE.
A KIND OF CONTINUATION OF THE ERASER ..
BUT NO LONGER A SOLO PROJECT BECAUSE IT NOW INVOLVES THE BAND I GOT
TOGETHER TO PLAY THE ERASER LIVE....
3 Experiments for people who are interested in gaining insight and self-awareness understanding
1) See how long you can go without looking at your reflection in the mirror or in any reflective surface, also. even pictures. Try for a week at least. Purposely avoid looking at yourself. Don't make any attempt to enhance your natural features (women as this is impossible anyways without a mirror to do make-up with) Do this until you forget what you look like. Until you gain an understanding of Self from within. Then cut off all your hair (The last part is optional!)
2) Go for a period of time without talking. 10 days is recommended. This could be a problem when it comes to having a job where you need to communicate with people. So you just have to find a time in which you don't need to talk.
I found both of these experiments highly beneficial and will do them again someday hopefully, when the time is right, as i'm sure i will get something different out of it. Depending on the level you are seeking understanding, you will gain the right insight for you at that time. I did these experimentations randomly. The first one i did in highschool...which led me to want to do the next experiment with not talking for 10 days, which i did later on in my early twenties. I worked at a warehouse at the time packaging clothing into boxes to ship to stores (really really shitty job) but i was not required to talk, just listened to music all day, so for that it was not bad work. This experiment blew my mind. Most people were really understanding about it, too! I wrote on a piece of paper that i wouldn't be talking for the next ten days and showed it to people when they tried talking to me. I didn't want to offend anybody so this is a recommendation too, if you try this. Just because your not talking doesn't mean stop communicating. Find other ways to be understood. Just not with words spoken.
By the end of this experiment I almost never wanted to talk again, there is clarity there that is unexplainable until you try it, or if you have tried it!!! but i did talk again, obviously, it's difficult to stay mute your entire life when you know how to speak...but in hearing my own voice was a whole new revelation on top of everything else i learned going through the silence. i could share a lot more about my own personal experience doing this because i learned a lot, but lets just say it cannot compare to what you can gain in understanding if you do this yourself.
last but not least...
3) Fast for 10-13 days (or longer). Don't eat anything! Find a good cleanse that can help you to still provide energy through this time period. I found the "lemonade diet" to be perfect. Also it detoxes your body which you should do every year or so... This experiment is not so much an experiment as it is a test
of willpower and in that testing and trying of your physical body, draws you closer to spiritual understanding. It makes sense to me now why so many spiritual people through out the past would go for periods without food. It gives a lot of clarity and insight. Heightens understanding in many many many ways. I like to do this one at least once a year.
mmm...i have done a number of different experiments on myself...but these three are the most fundamentaly important. the others have just been messing around with "image" and how different looks affect so drastically how people percieve and judge you, even if you are the same person inside. but those ones are too complicated to get into now.
thought i would share it here, in case anybody is interested in trying it. or if anyone has done these types of things themselves. OR if anybody has any recommendations of self exploration and experimentation!
Oh and one more thing...i found out during my "silence time" that this is a practice that people go away on retreats for! a budhist practice. Although going away to do this might be needed because people may not be able to do this in their day to day lives. i really recommend that it is done IN your day to day life. Not done by going away on a retreat. Any spiritual practices like meditation, etc...are great during these times as these things are not merely experimentation but highly connected to spirituality and the developing of a deeper understanding of yourself and others.
I don't recommend that you do all three experiments at once, but...it would be interesting to try it!
Share your own experiments on "self" with me. If your into this! haha. It's kinda strange i know, but it's stuff that interests me. so maybe i'm not alone in that?
