Artificial enlightenment  

Well, as someone who has used drugs to achieve higher plains of enlightenment, I have to say I think it's alright. I've smoked marijuana and taken peyote before, to open my mind. But my faith is a strange mix of Christianity and traditional Native American traditions. With some paganism thrown in.

In theory, life is a stimulant, according to the purists. That also means you can attain enlightenment by living in the mundane and material world, which I would have thought was a contradiction of the whole idea.

Also according to them, prayer, meditation, and altruism have been the basis for moral and social superiority for about 4-5 thousand years.

Some forms of meditation work. Prayer works for some people. Altruism of the real sort is a form of enlightenment, not a way of getting there.

Artificiality is debatable. Methods created by humans are by definition artificial. That can apply to philosophies, and any ritual. Drugs and technology are usually one trick wonders. You get an experience, other than normal. That's expansion, but only of a sort, and limited by the methods used.

Depending on your goals with this, if you want to expand your consciousness and achieve enlightenment, education and thought is the only reliable way of doing it, because you can form opinions. The other methods, apart from meditation, are arbitrary, How To sorts of practices, self help with editors.

Really, all this comes from within. Consider who you're trying to enlighten, and what you consider to be an enlightened state. Is it? Does it stand up to your own criteria? Does a transcranial stimulator achieve that? Good luck. When you start to get somewhere, you'll be sure.

I suppose there is no way to tell if the states you reach with this device are as intense and real as an enlightenment experience obtained after months or years of meditation and mental training.

But I know that historically many Shamans, witches, druids, alchemists used herbs and mushrooms to obtain altered states.

I would tend to think of the device as training wheels. Once your mind learns the path to that state of conciousness and has traveled there many times you will know the route. You can experiment by turning off the device and attempting to maintain the state for longer and longer periods of time.

I have read about such devices on the Extropian Mailint List. Please tell me a little more about it Cost?, A phone number or website and whether it is working for you. If so could you describe the experience the best you can. I know such states do not translate easily into words.

I have achieved what I believe to be enlightenment for short periods of time (less than 2 hours) on about 5 occasions but the experience has been devilishly hard to reproduce. The same method of getting there does not seem to work twice for me. Twice was with a brain wave sychronizer light and sound only nothing transcranial but the second time I had combine it with a second method.

I had to join this discussion because that TMS was a new one on me. To answer your question you have to know what true enlightenment is for you. It is different for everyone. What you describe is not enlightenment by stimulation. They are two different things in my view.

As for the TMS I'd like to learn more about it.

Its very rite that you can feel the feeling of consciousness through these short-cuts like stimulator or psychedelic drugs. I have gone through thse experience also and I found that it the feeling only not the state you acheive. you can get this feeling just becuase you are surronded or resisted by your own feelings and when you use of any new thing like drugs or stimulator, it just remove your own resistence feeling and gives you as if you achieve the enlightment state but in real it is not like that.
Enlightment state is state ..just not explain in words, its gives so much joy but this joy is very much superior than joy when using drugs or stimulator.
Morever artificial enlightment is for few hours of time only, as soon as you contact anybody with no believe init, your enlightment goes away. whereas thru drugs it goes away by its own by the release of effect of drug.
It is very vast subject to discuss. Im very much new in this and may by someone gives more sincere advice towards aritifical enlightenment.

yes friend u are right meditation and yoga are enough to keep ur mind fresh

Day after day while you are using this thing you wont be able to leave such things.Then that will be a weak point and I don't love this.In my openion these artificial equipment can be used only by the persons with special needs,despite that these equipment must have side effects and in case that we don't know that effect doesn't delete its presence.
I think you better use the mental training procedures to reach what do you want.

YA THESE THINGS DO WORK AS OUR BODY IS FULL OF PULSE GENERATING POINTS MORE OVER ITS PROVED THAT IN OUR BODI ABOVE 10 VOLTS OF SIGNAL IS PRESENT

ya ya ya ya

I think if you are after the alpha level of consciousness, then it would be best if you do some meditation. Some minutes of meditation everyday is an excellent way of clearing your mind with obscure and useless thoughts. Meditation is also a harmless, natural way of expanding your consciousness.