If you’ve never felt the mind settle into stillness, it might not seem possible. It might seem out of reach. But I can assure you that this experience is very real. And that’s just the beginning of it.

What follows is a map of the four levels of meditation. This is based on five years of experience. It’s not intended to give you every single possibility of what you’ll experience in meditation, but instead an outline that rings true for me and others. Less cartographical, more casual.

Remember that one stage is no better than any other. It might be tempting to want only experiences in stage 4, but wanting something out of meditation is a great way to never get anything out of meditation. This is intended to be a guidebook, not a goal. Don’t use this information as a reminder of everything you haven’t experienced. Use it instead to understand the kind of meditation you experienced and if you’re “doing it right.” (The answer, as always, is that you are.)

A note on technique: this article outlines stages of meditation based on closing your eyes and paying attention to your breath. Choose a different meditation style and the stages will be different.

These stages flow into each other. They don’t always go in order, and sometimes you skip certain stages entirely. The following is based on my personal experience, as well as wisdom from other meditators and mentors.

Stage 1: You’ve just closed your eyes a few seconds ago. There’s no peace or calm. You’re simply sitting with your eyes closed. You have a lot of thoughts: work, shows you want to watch, the news. You might feel an itch. Your mind wanders. You might remember a few times to come back to the breath, but you don’t do it almost at all. If you do remember, the experience is far from effortless. You’ll know if this was the deepest stage you reached because you’ll finish meditation and wonder why someone would do such an ineffective activity. I can say from personal experience, however, that daily meditation that “only” reaches this stage will have a huge positive impact on your life.

Stage 2: You start returning more frequently to the breath. You redirect yourself back to paying attention to your breathing. You get distracted, but then you remember that you’re supposed to be meditating right now, so you return to the pattern of inhales and exhales. There’s a glimmer of peace—not grand flashes of calm, but tiny shards of tranquility. You’ll know if this was your deepest stage in meditation because you’ll finish meditation and things will seem softer, like you’ve just woken up from a summer nap just as you were starting to dream.

Stage 3: Your mind settles. The space without thought lengthens. It clarifies as well, becoming less of an effort. The relationship flips; it’s easier to remain thoughtless than to get distracted. You might feel the space between your eyes tingle. You might feel some sensations in your hands or feet. You might begin to see hallucinations: blobs of color, faces that appear and dissolve. This is the period where you can ask questions to yourself, receiving clear answers that resonate deeply. Existing in this space seems easy. You might re-examine your problems, the natural response being that you were so worried over nothing. You’ll know if you hit this stage because when you open your eyes after meditation, the world will seem like it’s in HD and colors will seem brighter.

Stage 4: Time falls away and your alarm surprises you at how quickly it comes. This is the stage where you feel overwhelming joy and peace. Hallucinations become movies that you watch and join. Spiritual figures like the Buddha come to you and offer advice. Insights about how you exist in the world bubble to the surface. If you have hallucinations, you might transform into an animal or plant, experiencing the world in a completely new way. This is the stage that people talk about when they talk about enlightening meditation. You feel as if you’ve merged with the cosmos. You forget about your personality entirely. You’ll know if you hit this stage of meditation because the afterglow—a feeling of joy, wonder, and gratitude—will persist for a day or two.

Remember that it’s not about getting to a specific stage. It’s about connecting to that shimmering hologram beyond your daily experience, and that’s valuable in any form.