Meditation

What is meditation and what is it for?

Most people would want to know what meditation is and what it’s supposed to accomplish before deciding to try it, but this is a very lengthy answer so we will first cover how to meditate, which is easy, then come back to this.

How to meditate

If you have never mediated before, these should serve as good beginning methods. If you are listening to a musical track where they are speaking to you, you are, of course, permitted to follow their suggestions or not, or even do it in a way that is comfortable and productive to you, as long as you don’t fall asleep, unless it’s at night, in bed, and that’s your goal.

Turn off the lights and close the blinds. Remove distractions. Light a candle. Light an incense stick. Play meditative music. Start a timer for fifteen minutes. Sit on the floor with your legs crossed. Keep your back straight. Place your thumb and ring finger together on each hand and place your hands/wrists on your knees. Close your eyes. The darkness activates your pineal gland, or your mind’s eye. Now make large circles with your spine and slowly get smaller and smaller until you settle on the precise center where you feel your spine is perfectly vertical and straight. Now you will breathe in through your nose a long, deep breath, down into your belly so your belly moves out and not your upper rib cage. Breath back out through your nose or mouth, and count out loud, “One”. Now repeat for a two count all the way up to a nine count. Once you reach nine, count that as one full set, and begin again at one. Do nine full sets. Your timer may expire before you get a chance to complete them all. If you reach the full nine sets of counting, continue to breath in the same manner, but you may stop counting. Focus your attention on the black canvas of your mind’s eye. Do not try to see something in particular, but rather, watch and let it happen. If something forms, like colours or waves of light, watch it. There is no need to try to push it away. If your mind wanders to other thoughts, simply bring your focus back beyond your eyelids. Do not get discouraged or annoyed. Try to maintain calmness, emptiness, void. If you feel like you are falling or swinging, just enjoy it. Do not try to stop it. Do this for 21 days straight to develop a habit, then continue.

There is no right or wrong, no original way, or best way. There is only what works for you.

Ways to improve this: Use a singing bowl. Use headphones for stereo effect and help block out distracting noise. Accept noise you cannot block, such as traffic, as part of the experience. Use a blindfold to help block out light. You may deviate your timer, or sync it with your music. Whatever works for you. You can sit on a cushion if you find it uncomfortable. You could even add a thick book under your cushion if you have lower back pain. This will tilt your pelvis. You could even sit in a corner so your shoulders touch the wall. This will ensure your back is straight and you won’t have to make circles with your spine. You could even sit in a chair, or lie down, as long as you don’t fall asleep, unless you are in bed and you are trying to fall asleep. Stop counting your breaths, but continue to breath deeply through your nose on the inhale. You can use tape or elastics on your fingers if they separate during meditation, or place them in your pockets to help hold them together, or just let them do what they want.

What is meditation and what is it used for?

Meditation has been around for a very long time. There are various types but they are all very similar. The goals are all similar, their methods are all similar, and the beliefs are similar.

Some think that spirituality plays an important part, such as out of body experiences (a.k.a.. astral projection), traveling to spirit worlds, communicating with the dead...but we just don’t know for certain. It certainly has elements of hypnotic states, and so, the rest might be a result of that, and maybe not. You decide. It has also been called false somnambulism (false sleep walking), nervous sleep, mesmerization, trance, among others. People who can be hypnotized or meditate to a deep trance-like state are called (at least historically) hystericals. It should be noted that if nothing happens while you mediate, that does not mean something is wrong. Everyone’s experience is different.

Hypnosis is the method by which we seek to understand and control others. Meditation is the method by which we seek to understand and control our own thoughts.

Binaural beats are a method of using music tuned at a specific frequency that your brain reacts to. It has a 95% success rate in achieving the desired goal. It uses 2 frequencies (1 in each ear using headphones) and your brain extrapolates a third signal between the 2 that is subliminal. If you play music at 100 hz into your left ear and 110 hz into your right ear, you brain will extrapolate and “hear” a third signal between them at 10 hz, the difference. In this way, you can invisibly program your goals. Different frequencies will induce specific results.

The subliminal messages should only include a frequency of sound. If it includes words and messages, it should legally be written on the package or spoken at the beginning of a track.

Do not overuse mediation music. It alters your mind and can affect your daily functioning. Some sources will caution an hour or 2 per day, but my experience would say you only need about 15 minutes once per day. Do not listen to any type of meditation music while driving or when you need to be alert.

Many neuro-experts say that 40 hz is very important to binding new information.

Brain waves are the frequency at which your brain cycles if you hooked up an electroencephalogram (EEG) machine. Alpha waves are when you are alert; beta waves are when you are relaxed or lightly sleeping; delta waves are when you are in deep sleep, or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep; and theta waves are when you are in a meditative hypnotic state.

Delta waves are the slowest of all four brain wave frequencies. Most commonly associated with deep sleep, it also trigger the release of Human Growth Hormone so beneficial for healing and regeneration. This is why deep restorative sleep is so essential to the healing process.

Delta is the brain wave signal of the subconscious, the seat from which intuition arises. That means Delta wave programs are not only an ideal choice for their sleep and deep regeneration potential, but also when you want to access your unconscious activity and help that information flow to your conscious mind. Delta waves range between 0-4 hz.

Fire Method Meditation is another method that is similar and is supposed to produce results of extreme temperature variations (1 monk climbed Mt. Everest and Mt. Kilimanjaro wearing only shorts and shoes, and can increase their body temperature, focus speed healing to desired areas of your body, block pain, and more. You breathe deeply, imagine the breathe going in your nostrils, then curling down the sides of your energy channel inside the center of your body, then it joins at the bottom. Keep it there and compress the energy together with previous breaths by holding your breath for about 15 seconds, then repeat a few more times (more as you get experienced). On the final breath, you lock it into place by tightening your sphincter muscle below it, then swallow saliva from above it. Hold your breath for 15 seconds or so, then when you release it, let it all fly up straight through the top of your head at high speed. It is very similar to ki training, if you have learnt about that.

Grey matter in the brain is said to increase with continued meditation sessions. This results in positive effects, such as greater relaxation, renewed energy, self-acceptance, it helps you love others with empathy. insight, improved physiological functioning, reduced stress hormones such as cortisol, increased activity in the parasympathetic
nervous system, decreased activity in the sympathetic
nervous system, increase in serotonin and melatonin, improved sleep patterns, reduced reliance on medication for chronic pain, lowered incidence of heart disease (48%!) and cancer, oxygen consumption is reduced up to 20%, reduced heart rate, blood lactose levels decrease four times faster, decreases in anxiety, neuroticism, depression, and irritability, and increases in happiness, vitality, learning ability & memory (as much as 16 points on test scores), creativity, emotional stability, faster processing of information, making decisions, forming memories, improving attention, and improved productivity in every area of life. It can also assist the brain with age related declines. It makes us more extrovert and less introvert. It makes us better in high performance jobs. It removes feelings of isolation and replaces them with connectedness. It also increases mitochondria within cells which results in fat loss. It also helps childhood obesity. It improves your attention span. It also helps you be more creative and think out of the box. You can endure extreme heat and cold and other hardships.

Your senses are enhanced due to the grey matter also, so much so that studies have shown 50 years olds to have the same grey matter as 25 year olds (your brain shrinks with age). The study with MRIs showed that the posterior cingulate grew thicker, the left hippocampus grew, the temporo parietal junction grew, the Pons (part of the brain stem) grew, the corpus callosum (communication speed between both brain hemispheres), and the amygdala, the fight or flight part of the brain, shrunk! The study was only over 8 weeks at 27 minutes per day. *Harvard neuroscientist Sarah Lazar. Your telomeres are also positively affected (you age slower).

The history of meditation is closely related to hypnosis and can be seen to be influenced by “animal magnetism” which was “discovered” by Franz Anton Mesmer, from whom we get the term “mesmerized”. Meditation itself was in existence long before that, of course. During the French Revolution that started in 1789, members of the Societies of Harmony were considered antirevolutionists and nearly every one associated with Mesmer were executed by way of the guillotine, including the inventor of the guillotine, Dr. Guillotine himself. Surgeon James Esdaile (1808–1859) performed hundreds of operations without anesthesia, while the patients were under a mesmeric trance. The Lamaze classes used for pregnancy is also closely related to meditation. Meditation can also be traced back thousands of years in various religions. Transcendental meditation, which is very similar, was founded in India in circa 1958.

Kids can do it too, but you should supervise them for unusual or unwanted results.

Mantra is a sound you make, and a mudra is a hand position. The word “mantra” comes from Sanskrit and means “sacred utterance”. The word “mudra” means “seal”.

Mindfulness is a word you may hear a lot. It is basically the same as awareness of your environment, but is in a meditation context, more about awareness of self. It has been said that we have over 60,000 thought per day. When we meditate, we want to be as zero as possible, focused on the black space within our mind, aware of it, and mindful about drifting. If we find ourselves drifting, we bring it back to center and zero again. This is done because we are mindful of self. With practice, we get better.

Monism or dualism? This may or may not be important to you. Monism is the belief that our mind and body are one and cannot be separated. Dualism is the belief that our mind/soul are independent of the physical body and they are two, not one. In Christianity, we actually believe we are three parts, made in the image of God: Body, soul (mind/memories/consciousness), and spirit (a spiritual body similar to our physical one). What does this mean for you? Not much, but it could help steer you in the right direction. This could affect your belief that you are experiencing an out-of-body experience, or that you are hallucinating, or, as I stated before, many people don’t experience anything so dramatic, so it would really mean nothing. But a word of caution, if strange things do happen, I strongly urge you to consult me or a Christian leader. There is no sense you experiencing the trouble I have if you jump down the rabbit hole.

Music is an important part of meditation for reasons we already covered, but this could also mean sound in general, such as a thunderstorm audio file, or nature, or something else. In fact, you should try various kinds of musical scores to achieve the goose bumps or unusual events that meet your goals. Consider symphonic music, nature, trance music, Tibetan throat singing, Native American music, chanting monks, music with unusual instruments, binaural beats, guided meditation tracks, taiko/kodo or other Japanese rhythmic music, poetic...basically anything that moves you while meditating. If you try something and you just don’t “feel it”, then take it off your playlist. The other hand is also true: if you unexpectedly find a piece of music that stirs you, add it to your repertoire of meditation music.

Results will vary hugely among people. Some will notice drastic effects after the first try, while others could take years, or never.

Research has shown that altering the autonomic nervous system is possible, from slightly to completely, with illnesses such as bronchial asthma, drug and alcohol abuse, anxiety, tension and migraine headaches, cardiac arrhythmias, essential hypertension, Raynaud's disease/syndrome, fecal and urinary incontinence, irritable bowel syndrome, muscle reeducation, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder, epilepsy, menopausal hot flashes, chronic pain syndromes, and anticipatory nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, some psychological and mental disorders, stuttering, and many other psychiatric disorders. People who meditate are said to be better actors, since the more believable actors put themselves so deeply into the role, they achieve an altered state of consciousness (think Hensojutsu, the art of disguise and impersonation). Research also showed monks could raise the temperature of their fingers and toes by up to 17 degrees! *Herbert Benson, Harvard Medical School

The Second Brain is a term doctors are giving to a recent discovery of 80 million neurons in your gut. It communicates with your brain and so, your mind and body’s health work together. It talks to your brain but can also work independently. Meditation can help this. Fort generations, people viewed the mind and body as interconnected. Only recent generations have sought to solve body problems without the mind (i.e.. drugs, surgeries)

Theta waves are on the threshold of your subconscious. It is most commonly associated with the deepest levels of meditation. Theta also plays an important part in behavior modification programs and has been used in the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. Theta waves are an ideal state for super-learning, re-programming your mind, dream recall, and self-hypnosis.

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