The Other Side Forum · Counterplane Awakening
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Read first: how to post practice notes without escalating claims

Started by Mira Vale · forum steward 42 replies 1.8k views latest Nisha Corin · today

Pinned by moderation. New members, please read this once before posting. It is not a rulebook so much as a way of keeping the board honest and gentle.

MV Mira Vale Forum steward
Mira ValeApr 02 · 08:14#1

Welcome. This board exists so people practising bilateral signalling have somewhere calm to compare notes. Most of you found your way here through a retreat, a circle, or a friend who sits. A few of you found the Meridian papers first and worked backwards. All welcome.

One request before you post. Describe sensations as sensations. "My palms felt warm and the warmth seemed to sit in the gap between them" is a good post. "I made contact with the Counterplane" is not — not because anyone doubts your sincerity, but because it collapses a careful practice into a claim none of us can stand behind.

A short orientation:

  • Begin with grounding. Feet, breath, a glass of water, the ordinary room around you. Every good session I have seen starts and ends in the ordinary.
  • Do not practise while distressed. If a sitting leaves you shaky, stop. The Quiet Room is here for exactly that.
  • Keep Second Sky material contained. No active Second Sky protocols outside Second Sky Watch. Remote-viewing scripts, altered-state work and substance protocols do not belong in beginner threads.
  • Meridian is source, not endorsement. Cite the papers freely. Do not present your own impression as something the Institute has validated. It has validated none of this.

We are not a proof-gathering operation. We are people learning to hold two mirrored planes in one field of attention without forcing anything. The mirror holds. The mind remembers. That is enough to be going on with.

Edited Apr 02 · pinned by Tom Arden
TA Tom Arden Practice mod
Tom ArdenApr 02 · 09:40#2

Seconding all of this. The single most useful habit I can pass on: write your note before you decide what it means. Log the warmth, the tilt of the lower hand, the length of the sit. Interpretation can wait a day. Half the time it changes.

LM LarkMorning Member · since Feb
LarkMorningApr 02 · 12:26#3

This is reassuring to read as someone brand new. I came in half-expecting to be told I'd felt something enormous. Instead the advice is basically "write down that your hands were warm." Weirdly grounding.

TB Theo_Between Member · since Nov
Theo_BetweenApr 03 · 07:02#4
Mira Vale wroteMeridian is source, not endorsement. Cite the papers freely.

Can we get a sticky list of which papers are actually public? I keep seeing people quote paragraph numbers that don't match my copy, and I'd rather we all argue from the same text. Happy to help maintain it.

MV Mira Vale Forum steward
Mira ValeApr 03 · 09:15#5

Good idea, Theo. There's a running index in Meridian Papers Discussion. I'll ask that citations link there so we stop quoting from memory. Memory is exactly the thing this practice teaches us to distrust.

QR QuietRiver Member · since Mar
QuietRiverApr 05 · 21:33#6

What's the etiquette if you read something in another thread that feels like it's overclaiming? I don't want to be the person policing everyone's experience, but sometimes a post makes a big jump and no one says anything.

NC Nisha Corin Quiet Room mod
Nisha CorinApr 06 · 06:50#7

tbh Kindly and once. Something like "that's a strong reading — what did you actually notice in the body?" brings people back without shaming them. If it keeps escalating, flag it and one of us will step in. You don't have to carry the moderation, QuietRiver. That's ours.

HF HaleField Member · since Jan
HaleFieldApr 09 · 14:11#8

Appreciating the tone here. I've been on other boards where the loudest claim wins. This feels more like a circle where the quietest careful note is the one people actually trust.

24 earlier replies collapsed by moderator summary. Selected posts shown from Apr 02–Jul 01. Older discussion archived after grounding review.
AL AdaLowLight Member · since Dec
AdaLowLightJun 28 · 19:07#39

Coming back to this three months in to say the "write before you interpret" rule genuinely changed my practice. Half my dramatic notes read as ordinary the next morning. The other half I still don't understand, and that's fine.

NC Nisha Corin Quiet Room mod
Moderator · thread care
Nisha Corintoday · 07:22#42

Leaving this pinned and open. If you're new and you've read this far: welcome, take your time, and remember the board is slower than the practice on purpose. Post when you're grounded, not when you're lit up.

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Forum testimony is movement-side and is not Meridian-validated evidence. Members describe personal experience only. Begin with grounding. Do not practise while distressed.