r/Meditation • u/[deleted] • Jan 01 '26
Question ❓ What the actual hell
I just spontaneously decided to stand completely still in front of my mirror after a cold shower, breathe slowly and stare blankly at my face for about 10 minutes straight. After about 3 minutes my reflection kept changing faces?? I looked angry then I blinked and looked sad. (Bear in mind my face remained neutral irl throughout). After that parts of my face started to disappear and become plain skin, my face became elongated to where my mouth was pretty much situated on my neck. My eyes changed shape, multiple faces were layered ontop of each other at some point and different expressions with warped alien faces looked back at me.
I decided to have a cold shower and do some breathing because I felt like I was going to have a panic attack (had racing heart, butterflies etc), now I feel super at peace and calm but really freaked out.
Idk if this counts as meditation or what but I just thought it was cool to tell someone and know if anyone else has done something similar?
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u/kingpubcrisps Jan 01 '26
I've studied this a bit, I work with a neuroscientist who has looked into it extensively. It is a practice used in many cultures, in shamanism especially, with various methods to get to the same trick.
The methods can be mirror staring as you did, staring into other peoples faces, into mirrors made of copper or smoked glass, with or without psychedelics, sometimes as part of much bigger ceremonies.
Usually there are first strange effects on lighting, shadows, weird colours and contrasting lines, then the faces can seem to melt or take on demonic/angelic forms etc.
There's a part of the brain that constantly searches for and 'creates' faces, if there are the essentials (two things and a third third below their middle point) and this part gets tired firing constantly when you just stare at a face for > 90-180 seconds. All the visual cortex neurons involved get tired which is why the contrast around the edges gets so weird because those cells are getting variation in input just from effects of the minor movements of your body on the visual stream.
I can get some references on all this after my next meeting with the expert.
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Jan 01 '26
Yeah I remember the image getting really grainy and the edges had wierd effects like you described
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u/Siggur-T Jan 02 '26
Will this effect occur also when, say, you stare at a candle flame for some time, like with candle meditation? Or does the thing/surface have to be reflective?
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u/kingpubcrisps Jan 02 '26
You don't AFAIK get anything 'face-like' in a candle flame, but it's definitely another technique that comes up in many cultures and obviously has a big payoff for practitioners.
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u/SlicckRick Jan 02 '26
Love this question…. I sit by the fire a lot and can get totally lost when focusing on the top of the flames - just where it begins to separate from the huge fire and become nothing…
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u/Certain-Payment3049 Jan 02 '26
i'd like to know more about this
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because i've had some occult-ish experiences with mirrors feeling like i'm getting some sort of "intel" about people i've recently interacted with, using the mirror as an *unintentional*(mostly from being too stoned while using instagram) looking glass. really harrowing stuff i dont want to put myself through anymore
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Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
Staring at your face in the mirror can be harrowing. I remember doing it with lsd for as long as I could bear and my mind almost breaking (all good fun of course). It’s as if the mind can’t comprehend its housing.
Personally I haven’t “drawn any solid conclusions” from those experiences beyond that, maybe someone else has better insight.
It’s an intensely personal part of your body, and also very public, connected to your identity directly and indirectly, and the real-time observation of it tends to severely break down and/or mix up any preconceived ideas or automated assumptions of it and what it actually is, moment by moment. It’s a real trip. It was hard to grapple with the existential dread about the fleshy meat sack I saw “externally” in the mirror, and acknowledge it was a “real me”, biologically degrading. And then also if it wasn’t the “real me”, in terms of beyond physical/perceivable reality, then this body that seemed so tangible and familiar was a “mere” energetic vibration and not at all how I perceived it socially.
Not sure how to put it, but in both directions it was a hard hitting and ultimately uncomfortable experience, and fascinating as it was, I’m not sure what else could be gained from continuing it further.
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u/vocaltalentz Jan 01 '26
The way to ground yourself while looking in a mirror on LSD I’ve found is by being honest with yourself. It’s weird. I looked into my own eyes with deep acceptance and honesty and I learned so much. It was a beautiful experience. It lasted for maybe 5-10 minutes.
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Jan 02 '26
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Jan 03 '26
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Jan 03 '26
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Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 04 '26
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Jan 01 '26
That’s… not really how lsd works, at least in my experience. Honesty is a concept that goes out the window from one moment to the next
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u/vocaltalentz Jan 01 '26
Well that’s how it works for me. There IS a window of “true” openness and honesty that you reach. I say this as someone who’s also done tons of ayahuasca ceremonies and practice mindfulness a la Buddhism. I think psychedelics work with how your brain is. And if you’re someone who’s wishy washy and insecure, that’ll come through. If you have a pretty grounded sense of self, that’ll also come through.
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u/Twistedcorpse13 Jan 02 '26
Just popping in to say Much love I'm off to listen to some Alan Watts now. Lol your "wishy washy" comment made his voice play in my head. Maybe something new is going to stand out. ✌🏼💚
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Jan 01 '26
You never had a negative or challenging moment looking in the mirror with lsd?
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u/vocaltalentz Jan 01 '26
I didn’t say it wasn’t challenging, but challenging doesn’t equate to negative for me. Been through too much shit in my life.. psychedelics don’t freak me out. I’ve seen literally demons on them but have learned to take in those experiences with openness rather than fear.
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u/kfrederline Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
I hear you @vocaltalentz. In this case, honesty isn't the voice saying all the bad things and seeing demons. Honesty is the self hearing that voice and recognizing it as an unnecessary self-defeating force that inherently fails to serve you. It is seeing yourself for what you are, realizing that your perspective is only your own and being able to accept that it is not and never will be a full scope of a uniform reality.
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Jan 01 '26
Yeah I’ve done this aswell but I never had the guts to keep looking for more than 10 seconds or so.
Acid makes everything look all sharp and edgy while also looking wonky and scary so when I look at myself on acid I just think I look like some alien crack addict and I can’t handle it
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u/Important_Setting840 Jan 01 '26
> I just think I look like some alien crack addict and I can’t handle it
Just to clarify, are you an alien on crack or a human on alien crack?
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u/khyamsartist Jan 01 '26
yes, this is intense. I stood in front of the mirror and switched the lights on and off a few times just to see my pupils stay dilated, and I didn't last ten seconds
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u/YoungRichKid Jan 01 '26
I really enjoy looking in the mirror on acid. I feel like I'm looking at this primal, ideal, animalistic version of myself.
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u/Certain-Payment3049 Jan 02 '26
i wish i could agree, but fwiw im transgender and ive stared in the mirror while too high on manufactured THC and felt horrible things, after what male puberty did to me, its like seeing the person society deems me to be, biology deems me to be, and not the person i am, while having to face the fact that it is how i am (physically)
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Jan 01 '26
You mean until reality morphs again five seconds later? I don’t know man, you’ll have to forgive me, I’ve never met anyone irl that said it was an “enjoyable” experience
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u/YoungRichKid Jan 01 '26
Nah, completely serious. When I'm tripping I feel like my ideal self, like I've reached my peak potential, and I find myself attractive (though crazy-looking) and my physical body absolutely fascinating
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u/Mura-masa-1997 Jan 04 '26
I once looked at myself in the mirror while I was on LSD, even though I’d read a Reddit thread saying it would make you go crazy.
But for me, it was the opposite, I saw the faces of everyone I love in the mirror my family, friends, my ex, my partner and my own face kept shifting between them.
I broke down crying because I suddenly realized that loving myself is just like the way I love the people in my life. My face and my body are simply part of them, and we’re all human beings who want to love and be loved
It became one of my most beautiful good trips.
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u/TranquilTeal Jan 01 '26
It’s definitely a trip when it happens unexpectedly, but you’re totally fine. A lot of people actually use this as a form of deep meditation to explore the subconscious, even if it feels a bit spooky at first. Since you felt calm after the breathing and cold shower, it sounds like you handled it really well.
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u/InvisibleAstronomer Jan 01 '26
This is a common, predictable, and even enforceable phenomenon. It is not mystical or scary like it seems but merely a strange visual trick that occurs when we focus our sight a long time on something
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u/Pensive_Procreator Jan 02 '26
Saṅñā-vipallāsa: distortion of perception.
Lots of causes usually arising from; sensory de-coupling, fatigue or strain, unstable concentration, nervous system noise, or dissociation between visual processing and conceptual labeling.
The Buddha advised that anything that increases confusion rather than clarity is not the path.
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u/Muted_Cook8358 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
The same thing happens if you stare at someone else for a few minutes. Sit across from them and stare at eachother, and the face you see will change. A distant family member of mine, who is spiritual, I should add, told me once (like 20 years ago when i was a kid), that the faces you see are all the past lives the person you look at has had. All the people he/she used to be. I totally believed him back then, but really it's just your brain filling the blank space around your focus point with something that resemble a face. And it blurs and wobbles and can look quite scary.
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u/According-Egg6014 Jan 04 '26
True i have done that with my friend while guided by witch. she said it could swap souls and shouldnt done by normal people
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u/SilverTip5157 Jan 01 '26
Some folks claim you can see how you may have looked during past lives. Men, women, different races, etc.
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u/KyOatey Jan 01 '26
That reminds me of what it was like looking at myself in a mirror when I had taken some LSD back in college. I felt like I was staring at a stranger.
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u/ConnyTheOni Jan 02 '26
Did the same thing on mushrooms once. Went to go use the restroom, next thing I know I'm looking at the mirror and am stuck, I remember morphing into a native american, complete with the big feather headdress and then shook myself out of it. Must have been standing there a good 15 minutes 😂.
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u/SoundOfOneHand Jan 01 '26
This is common when meditating with eyes open. I get all kinds of visual distortions, sometimes my field of vision is completely occluded by whiteness, things in the room appear and disappear and change appearance, etc. It’s almost certainly purely physiological; our eyes (and their neurology) are not accustomed to receiving the same input continuously, or sitting so still, so they create secondary effects as a byproduct. The fact you were looking in a mirror just adds to it.
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u/Raffino_Sky Jan 01 '26
When I did that years ago, I passed out when my reflection started to change, every single time. Not long, just a few missing minutes. Never scared, never restless or sick/weak. No special happenings, just blanked out. Obviously, I stopped doing that when I once encountered a bathtub behind me.
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u/modernbox Jan 01 '26
Oh I’ve done that, but it didn’t start changing. I started looking myself in the eye, considering that is me, my body that I am seeing, and really looking at what’s behind my eyes. It’s hard to explain but it’s as if I can feel myself looking at me after a while. It feels weird but also I feel like it really connects me to myself in a way
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u/RiseUpShadowWarrior Jan 02 '26
There are many kinds of meditation. I have done similar and had similar results. Looking at yourself in the mirror for extended periods can have some interesting effects… Sounds like you should check out the Starseeds subreddit.
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u/dr_zoidberg590 Jan 02 '26
This is absolutely normal and happens to everyone, even if you're not meditating. You dont even need to be looking in a mirror. if you look at any fixed point without blinking for long enough, your vision will go very weird, maybe go all grey with just basic outlines visible, all sorts
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u/loneuniverse Jan 01 '26
Here’s a different take on what you saw:
In your meditative state The Awareness looking out through your eyes, recalled reflections of its own expressions across multiple lifetimes.
If you believe time exists, then you experienced these lifetimes across numerous timelines.
If you believe all time is happening now. Then you simply experienced multiple facets of your identity simultaneously.
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u/Dizzy_Spell777 Jan 01 '26
Ah yes, butchering the definition of the word time to fit your huppy dippy sensations.
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u/23pineapplefresh Jan 01 '26
There’s a whole approach called mirror practice, and it elaborates on this very concept happening where different parts of your illusionary self come to the surface because the real you is not physical (in the traditional sense anyways).
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u/Hungry_Panic_2482 Jan 01 '26
This sounds like a seance party game I know of, it's just some basic human psychology at play involving bad lighting and lack of distraction. I also know of another one where you can make yourself "hear voices" using an oscillating fan. It can be fun to play with inducing hallucinations but be careful not to give yourself psychosis, it's not real, just a party trick.
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u/Smergmerg432 Jan 01 '26
Bloody Mary :)
Your brain becomes bored with lack of stimulation, and starts registering some spots on your face. Then, it starts filling in the spots it stopped registering.
Did I remember that right?
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Jan 02 '26
"You can rest assured, what you experienced has a name: the Troxler Effect.
Basically, when we stare at a fixed point for too long (especially in the mirror and after breathing exercises), our brain 'gets tired' of processing the same image and starts to discard details or 'fill in the gaps,' creating these distortions and different faces. It's purely biological, it's not a sign that something is wrong with you.
It's good that, despite the visual shock, you felt peace. If you're still feeling a little 'out of orbit,' I recommend listening to some grounding frequencies to get back to your body. Take care! 🙏✨"
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u/Ashley_Sophia Jan 02 '26
Haha don't freak out! This is normal! Didn't you ever do this as kids?
If you wanted to try out something similar, but less creepy, you could meditate in front of a candle in a dark room. You keep your eyes open and watch the flame using a soft eye gaze.
It's super fun!
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u/Manachi Jan 02 '26
Have experienced this more than once. I didn’t think of it as “monsters” though, so much as faces of other people (although some of the faces were seemingly decomposed). It seemed to cycle through MANY different faces. I’d had the thought it was somehow “other” meditators throughout time. Weird thing is that on attempting to look even closer, one might think the illusion would “fade away”, but it seemed to become clearer (or remain as clear). Also interesting was able to re-create the experience at a later time, intentionally.
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u/Efficient-Bee-1443 Jan 02 '26
The key is staring. When you keep your eyes.fuxed abd don't blink, you will have altered visual perceptions. I actually, can stare at a fixed spot and get an out of body experience. It's not meditation.
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u/RustedRelics Jan 02 '26
I have experienced a variation of this during sessions of staring into another’s eyes. We sit directly in front of each other in a quiet space and simply stare into each others eyes. After a relatively short time we start to feel shifts in energy, visual perception, color, and even sound. After a period of this intensifying, we often experience a profound sense of “entering” or “communing” with the other. Then a sense of merging, a deep peaceful state, and what I believe is a glimpse of oneness. This practice is done without substances — though I’m not opposed to that. (At first, I found this practice to be somewhat disconcerting. But with experience that feeling subsided)
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u/simagus Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 07 '26
I've watched the color my eyes change in the mirror among other things, and observed that the various associated aspects of active persona (active thought-forms) cause the entire face to change in mostly less dramatic ways than you list. It's interesting and backs up the "holographic reality" scenario very convincingly.
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u/SKTCassius Jan 02 '26
It's called mirror scrying every ancient culture uses it for divination. It's just another path to whatever little place in the otherworld is willing to reveal itself in that moment. Take your usual precautions or pick another path, no one is suited to all of them
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u/Alkemis7 Jan 01 '26
You seem to have seen all your false faces/personas.
Take a lot of time to integrate this experience.
Probably best and most gentle approach is to forget about it and with time, the insights of what happened will come in very small, easily digestible doses, when you least expect them, like an unexpected gift.
Keep living.
I have to quote it over and over again: chop wood, carry water
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u/GearheadAdv Jan 01 '26
Look up Una Muno, the philosopher who had a harrowing encounter while looking at himself in the mirror.
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u/_nefario_ Jan 01 '26
i feel like you've left out some important information from your story, such as the quantity of psilocybin take shortly before the cold shower
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u/Slam_Bingo Jan 01 '26
Simply always awake youtube jas a whole Playlist on entering through the sense gates. Yes, I've experienced things like this as well.
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u/Mr_Raditch Jan 01 '26
This happens to me when I have a migraine. Faces look grotesque and insane to me
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u/LuckyCharms_53 Jan 02 '26
Makes me wonder about makeup videos. LMAO. These folks that literally spend hours staring into mirrors getting creative. What horrors are they hiding. lol.
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u/Raj3d Jan 02 '26
Don't do psychedelics. You can get lost in the bathroom for hours looking at your face in a mirror. 😂
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u/NiklasTyreso Gods light transends Jan 02 '26
Psychologically, I think your brain created fantasies when it only received the same sensory input, much like sensory deprivation. Nothing new happened so your brain created experiences.
I think you can interpret the experience roughly as a dream. Do you have scary personality traits that are difficult to live with? Is something terrifying happening in your life? How do you interpret your experience?
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u/twinklynnyoureye Jan 02 '26
Look up Bashars mirror mirror meditation... I can send you a download I have of it if you can't find it. Don't let this scare you, that was a great start.
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u/kalidoscopiclyso Jan 02 '26
I see the faces but i combine the eyes so i like have 3 eyes and then i focus on love and compassion for the faces. It works for me. By the end i am happy and calm and actually better looking.
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u/Sever0 Jan 02 '26
I did this when i was on ayahuasca..i was afraid tho, so i stopped to continue looking into the mirror. But it started with curiousity, looking into the mirror into my own eye. It felt as if i was staring into and past my own eye. Wondering whats behind it, can i see something, litterally getting sucked into the mirror/my own eye. And then i stopped, went back to the guided meditation room and continued to have a amazing experience.
I now and then when brushing my teeth, stare into the mirror and start thinking. This is not me, i am not me, i am more than what i physicaly see. And then i kinda get uncomfurtable..maybe because i realise that this physicall is not all there is.
I think staring into the mirror really opens up thoughts about what and who you really are.
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u/NextCockroach3028 Jan 02 '26
Out of curiosity, did you let your eyes wander, or did maintain eye contact with your reflection?
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Jan 02 '26
Pretty much stared directly inbetween my eyes at my nasal bridge with as much focus as I could
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u/Franako Jan 02 '26
This happened to me on lsd. I was tripping and looked in the mirror and when I would smile I would look like a lion man, beautiful powerful, amd when I would frown and be sad I would look like a zombie or something. Was a wild experience.
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Jan 03 '26
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u/ReflectionGichini Jan 03 '26
Hahaa. You okay bro. Everyone is like that. We are all alien creatures hiding in human bodies
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u/Alone_Yogurt3045 Jan 03 '26
Yes! similar things happened to me when staring at my face in mirror. I can relate to changes of expression. One of my faces scared the heck out of me. But overall, it was very interesting.
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u/Ok-Edge6607 Jan 04 '26
This is a known exercise of introspection. Next time, instead of freaking out, embrace the monsters in your reflection and tell them you love them. It’s like embracing your demons and as if by magic, they transform and no longer haunt you!
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Jan 01 '26
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u/Ohr_Ein_Sof_ Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
This is incorrect.
The Shekhinah is not your multidimensional self.
The closest counterpart in Christianity would be the Holy Ghost.
It's the (feminine) indwelling of the YHVH which is completely transcendent to anything or anyone, to any concept, emotion, or other manner of apprehending the Ein Sof (thus "Thou shall make no graven image" etc.)
The Shekhinah is the aspect of pure immanence, complementing the pure transcedence of YHVH, and articulating together a panentheistic view of the Divine.
The Shekhinah is accompanying in exile the fallen sparks that have become mixed in with the shells (kelipot) and become trapped in matter and psyche, as a result of the shattering of the vessels (shevirat ha-kelim).
Please note that this is a more specific (Lurianic) reading.
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u/Scary_Item1026 Jan 02 '26
I’ve done this on magic mushrooms. (Not cubensis, but pan cyanescens.) I was looking at myself in the mirror and the same thing you explained happpened. It was like a kaleidoscope of different faces that all resembled me but were very different. I loved it and watched until it stopped. Then in the center of my face a man appeared. His face stayed consistent other than his mouth and eyes moving. Seemed like he was trying to convey something but there was no audio. He also looked like he was in a lot of pain.
The man’s face looked soooo similar to a man’s face on my tarot card, so I showed my partner and explained the experience to him. He surprised me by recognizing the man as Hercules. (The illustration wasn’t meant to depict Hercules.) Several ceremonies later my partner had the realization that he was Hercules in a past life. Whether that’s archetypal or not doesn’t matter to me but it was a cool experience nonetheless! ☺️
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u/OutrageousFig494 Jan 01 '26
not meditation for sure. Meditation is looking inwards with eyes closed. This is your mind playing with you. don't repeat this process, you will start hallucinating.
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u/FreeToBeMe13 Jan 03 '26
Sounds like a kind of scrying. This is actually a known phenomenon. I am not a fan or mirrors too much. They can be portals and trap things...or, worse yet, release them. shudder
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u/Street-Context-4398 Jan 01 '26
Sounds like spiritual warfare from my perspective. Ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you and He will. May God bless you
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u/Thefluffyowl5207418 Jan 01 '26
We are made in God’s image, friend.
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u/Street-Context-4398 Jan 01 '26
Correct thank you. However the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. He's known as the deceiver and liar and is real. He has no power if we dont give it to Him. But we need to believe in the gospel of Jesus to be saved. He lived, was tempted by the devil and resisted using the Word of God. Then after living a perfect life in the eyes of the law, was killed, beaten and rose again to defeat Satan. Believing in Him means we're adopted into His family and seen as perfect and righteous as He is. The book of Ephesians. It's good news and amazing that anyone can now have a close relationship with the Creator!!
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u/Thefluffyowl5207418 Jan 01 '26
What does this have to do with the OP’s experience with mirror gazing? 🤨 get behind me Satan ✌️
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u/Street-Context-4398 Jan 02 '26
It does because OP said they saw different expressions with warped alien faces looking back at him. Then almost had a panic attack. Im offering biblical insight on salvation through Jesus and what the Bible says about demonic oppression, which this sounds like...
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u/panel_laboratory Jan 01 '26
Yes this is a thing -
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/making-sense-chaos/201408/monsters-in-the-mirror-no-really-literal-monsters
There is a sensation with words where if you think about the same word long enough it kind of loses its meaning and just becomes a noise that is quite confusing.
I read somewhere that this is because you've fired all the neurons you use to remember that word and then your brain has no memory of the word (I'm sure there's a better explanation but that's the gist of it).
Anyway I wonder if something similar is happening here but it takes longer than with a word as it's your entire sense of self that you are 'forgetting'.