Over Stimulating the Sense

Another type of people - perhaps more extroverted - have sought toe transcend the senses in seemingly the opposite manner, not by depriving them but by over-stimulating them. Over-saturated with sights, sounds, movements and sensations, the nervous threshold of stimulation becomes so high that further stimulation is impossible and the senses turn off, rather like a fuse which has blown because too many electric appliances are drawing its current. So the Sufi "whirling dervishes" spin and spin in an accelerating, twirling dance until they "lose consciousness" and fall into ecstasy. African warriors and Caribbean sects dance frenziedly to wildly beating drums and rhythmic chanting and clapping, their limbs flying, until they collapse from sensory exhaustion and experience, perhaps a glimpse beyond.
Religious fanatics of all persuasions have sought the fastest and most brutal way to overload their nervous systems - through pain. Christian devotees whip themselves until they are drenched with blood; Indian fakirs lie on beds of nails or sit on thrones of swords; Japanese Zen monks meditate under freezing waterfalls; Sioux Indians suffer extreme heat and thirst in the desert sun and Tibetan seekers sit for hours, naked, in the mountain snows. By mortifying their flesh, they seek to overcome the transitory pleasures of their senses and attain the One Imperishable Reality.
But how many can follow this path? In this modern world, how many people are ready to hide away in the Himalayan Mountains, fast for forty days, whip them or pierce their tongues with spears? Yet does this mean that the highest state of awareness, our birthright as human beings, is to be forever denied to us just because we lead normal lives in the world?
No, there is a universal process - so simple that even a child can perform it - the most practical and natural way to realize one's self. It is the practice of meditation, and it begins with sensory withdrawal.