Stream entry is the completion of your first insight cycle. Your first insight cycle is special because it forever changes the trajectory of your life. Stream entry is like becoming a parent. It fundamentally alters your value system and the constraints you live under.
The most important thing about stream entry is that it sets off a chain reaction. Prior to your first insight cycle, you can “get off the train”, so-to-speak. Stream entry triggers a cascade of insight cycles. After your first insight cycle, insight cycles will continue for a long time. You can speed it up or slow it down, but there’s no stopping or reversing it. This process takes years, and may end only when you die.
All insight cycles lower your baseline suffering by repairing disassociation, and stream entry is no exception. Stream entry can have an outsized impact, because stream heals the chronic suffering you perceive first, which tends to be the coarset, most obvious chronic suffering. It’s not unusual for stream entry to reduce your chronic suffering by something on the order of 90%.
Stream entry is destabilizing too. Insight cycles are often destabilizing, but stream entry can be especially destabilizing because you go into it blind. The first time your basic perceptions about reality are shredded is more shocking than the tenth time.