The lights and shapes described are well-known phenomena of perception. They are real as experiences, but do not, in themselves, prove the existence of an external object.

• Lights, colors and circles. With eyes closed or in prolonged attention, the retina and visual cortex spontaneously produce phosphenes and geometric shapes (circles, spirals, networks), which Heinrich Klüver described as "shape constants".
• Furniture and landscapes fade away. A fixed gaze or a uniform field of vision erases the periphery (Troxler effect, Ganzfeld effect). The return to normal is rapid, as the text notes.
• White. It is not a color of the spectrum: it is the perception of their entirety (Newton, Opticks, 1704).
• Internal sound. In silence, the ear and brain allow their own noises to be perceived (circulation, cochlear activity, tinnitus), which attention amplifies.
• “Recharging the battery” and “egocentric adjustment”. Prolonged meditation is associated with less activity in the default mode network, linked to self-centered thinking (Brewer et al., PNAS, 2011).
• The “difficult moment”. Perceptual changes (lights, derealization) can be destabilizing for some practitioners; support and gradual progression are advised (Lindahl et al., PLOS ONE, 2017).
• The 1000 minutes. To my knowledge, no study establishes this threshold. This represents approximately 17 hours, or 50 days at 20 minutes per day.
• Caution. Sudden, new or persistent flashes of light warrant an ophthalmological consultation.

Hinduism

The Veda is shruti, "that which is heard" by the Rishis. In Bhartrihari, the Word has four levels, including pashyanti, "that which sees": sound and vision are linked from the beginning. In the Taittiriya Upanishad (2.1), space, whose quality is sound, precedes fire (tejas), whose quality is form and light. Yogis describe colored lights within.

Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism associates five lights (white, yellow, red, green, blue) with the five wisdoms.

The Bardo Thödol describes the clear light to be recognized.

Sikhism

Listening to the Name precedes seeing the light: the ear opens the way to the inner eye.

Judaism

Kabbalah describes the infinite light (Or Ein Sof) and lights of different colors in the sefirot. The "hidden light" of creation is reserved for the righteous.

Christianity

Mystics distinguish between external, imaginary, and intellectual visions (Teresa of Avila) and urge caution: judge the tree by its fruit.

Symbol of purity: “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:9).

Islam and Sufism

Najm al-Din Kubra and the Kubrawiya school describe colored lights perceived in meditation, each color marking a stage of the path.

Listen before you see

Before perceiving, one must learn to listen. Listening does not seek to possess: it opens, it waits, it lets come. Shabda, the inner sound, is not an idea about the divine. It is a presence that works in silence and that, little by little, carves a channel.

It requires patience, at least a thousand minutes of faithful observation, they say. Without this channel, the lights that appear resemble fireworks: dazzling, quickly extinguished, deceptive. With it, the light becomes discreet. White, yellow, red, green, then that purer white even more so: a snowflake that rounds itself into a constantly moving circle.

But light is not the goal. It is Tejas, the form that energy takes when it allows itself to be seen, and the form is still at the threshold, perceived as outside of oneself.

Then comes the question: is it real, or an illusion? The furniture blurs, the landscapes fade, and one fears losing one's bearings. Yet, when the effect wears off, everything returns: the table, the window, the garden. Nothing has been destroyed. Only the gaze has loosened.

Perhaps this is the sign: not what appears, but what remains when the appearance recedes. A gentler heart, a less strained attention, a self that adjusts.

Listen first. Observe later, without getting attached. And come back.