nytek Holy Knight of the Priestess of Izabael



Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Library of Congress Posts: 1,912

Samadhi Lamp and Tratakam



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Quote: Samadhi Lamp and Tratakam



Basically this lamp is a blue light bulb behind a 12” disc with a 1.5” clear frosted filtered hole cut in the middle with a .5” black dot in the middle of the frosted portion. This whole thing is suspended from the ceiling.



This device is used in developing the magicians tratakam ability. Tratakam is a raja yoga technique of fixed gaze. It is a self induced hypnotic trance that allows the magician to stare at a fixed point for several minutes without blinking. Now at first I thought, hell that’s easy I don’t need a bunch of books and lights and crap to stare at something. Poke offers a simple test in his book…simply try to stare at your wrist watch for 3 full minutes without blinking. If you are like me you will find that its damn near impossible to stare unblinking for longer than 1 minute. My eyes welled up, my eyes twitched, my face tingled…it was a true learning experience.



The purpose of learning tratakam is for later when we are working with the black mirrors with doing our evocations. Tratakam is the fundamental method that Poke suggests one uses when working with your black mirror. I figured, after my failed watch experiment that there was something to learn here…so I built my first Samadhi Lamp.



The first lamp I built was done very cheaply. I used a clip on light for the actual lamp piece ($5 at Lowes) and of course the blue light build ($3 – they are proud of blue light bulbs). For the disk I just used cardboard and for the filtered center I used the top of a clear coat spray paint can. The thing looked horrible but the effects were pretty incredible.



I am at a totally loss as to what the blue lights and dots and such actually do…but let me tell you if you use this thing as Poke suggests…WOW. I did the exercise by the book…starting with Pranayama breathing techniques for a few minutes I would then lie on my back and stare at the black dot of the lamp. You have not probe the lamp, if that makes sense…just look at the dot…fix your eyes on the dot. And try to not think…quiet your mind and relax your body. I almost immediately had some really wild visual effects going on – reminded me of my early 20’s and the time my room mate convinced me 3 hits of acid and a drive to Joshua Tree State park in the desert would be a cool way to spend a Saturday. Once you have experienced the visual effects but can still maintain contact with the dot I begin feeling intense relaxation…almost as if I couldn’t move if I wanted to. I have experienced other sensations as well…most often it feels as if I am sinking and even sometimes like the bed is spinning but still I can maintain contact with the light.



After about my 10th use of the lamp I decided that it was going to be a permanent piece in the bedroom…and I knew that the wife was not going to tolerate a bunch of cardboard and junk hanging over the bed...so I built a right purdy one. I got everything at the local Lowe’s – stool seat ($6) – 10’ of decorative chain ($4) – upright desk lamp ($6) – florescent filter replacement ($7 – enough to make about 20 of these things) – hardware to hang the lamp ($3). I cut a 1.5” hole in the middle of the stool seat and using my router I recessed a lip to place the filter on that I cut using tin snips and glued in place. On the back side of the seat I routed a hole that was 3/8” deep that was exactly the diameter of the lamp I bought - about 3”. I also drilled the lamp (it’s basically a cylinder with little feet on the bottom…the bulb goes in the middle and normally it would direct the light straight up – for this purpose I just turned it upside down) to allow light to seep out around the outside edge of the disk. I attached the light with a couple small ‘L’ brackets and screws. For the middle dot I used my trusty black Sharpie. In finished it off with a nice coat of stain and poly clear coat. It actually looks like some sort of art deco lamp. (I will provide pictures when the wife gets back from England – she took the digital camera). Image:

Quote: I originally found this on another BBS a long while ago and put it to use with amazing result:[snip]Image:



"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."

--C.G. JUNG

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