On Thursday evening at the Red Tara mandala in Glastonbury, I ducked into the bathroom over our dinner break and thought I noticed that my pupils were extremely dilated. As if I’d been given powerful eye drops. This shocked me for a moment. Then I dismissed it with the thought that it was due to the setting of the sun.
Once back in the ceremonial meeting room, I stood chatting with Sara from Boston and Adita the herbalist. Sara joked that we should all be in an altered state by now (after six days of chanting). She looked at me and had the same electric reaction that I had when I glanced into the mirror. She turned to Adita and said, “Look at her eyes! Look at her eyes!” I leaned toward Adita, meeting her gaze. But the ceremony began again at that moment, so that was the end of the conversation.
Since this episode, I have read that stimulation of the vagus nerve (the longest cranial nerve) causes pupil dilation. Yoga is known to affect the vagus nerve. Stimulating the vagus nerve reduces heart rate and blood pressure. It changes the function of certain parts of the brain. It relieves anxiety and depression.
I did not feel in an altered state when my eyes were open but when I closed them as we chanted I entered a luminous shamanic experience. That had begun on Saturday and continued throughout the week. The most mystical time of my life. That room at Earth Spirit Centre was indeed full of thousands of spirits. I saw them in my mind’s eye and felt them with my body.