My wife made me do this. . .

When it comes to certain core meditations, many do not try to visualize these things that many have come to associate with meditation.Some would call these visualizations distractions at best.

When it comes to meditation the center of your focus usually is yourself.For this matter focusing on what you are feeling inside is important.There are several chakra systems out there which many associate with power transfer points and the ability to send/recieve energy, in your body. I use none of them...

In our lives that we experience things see things and most importantly feel things over time .Many things can come to build up within us.Making it hard to relax.

This can be due to many things but what we have to focus on here is how to get away from what we feel and aswell what we associate with those feelings.

On a day to day basis we can come to have something some would call feeling habits. Such as the phone ringing can make us stress out. To make an easy example.if your relative called every day at a certain time you would create a feeling habit around that phone call depending on whether or not you liked talking to this person.

The important thing to do here my friend is disassociate the time, feeling and thought from who you are. The purpose of higher meditation methods are to allow you to easily deal with anything that can happen on a minute to minute basis not allowing these things to influence how you feel inside.

So the easiest way for many to begin on the lower teachings are to learn to do this in a calm motionless state.The point of this is so you can focus.

And when i say focus i mean focus on not focusing.Learning how to channel energy can be a hard thing,and not neccesarily important or even a part of meditation at all.

In many teachings meditation is to limit or cut off the flow of thought and the energies contained within.When i say energies i mean the feelings that spread throughout your body that are associated with the thoughts and notions of that which can stress you out.

Two of the most important teachings in my mind when it comes to meditation is that of the observer and that of the alder state.

The observer state when it comes to meditation,is usually one of the most effective teachings when it comes to stress and not knowing how to deal with it.In this teaching we say to let your thoughts become something separate from ourselves.This is hard to do on any level when we are in the thick of our hard times.

The main problem we find with meditation of any sort is what many of us call the chattering monkey, which in truth is our brain thinking much like a spoken voice we can hear,when trying to clear the mind it will keep going and going and going.

See we are very simple in many aspects.Our bodies get used to what we feel, sort of like a primary basis it is used to feeling.This is caused by our feeling habits we get accustomed to everyday. Our brain patterns or rather the way we think is effected by these daily events or happenings and we release what some call endorphines which is what causes us to feel. Some will associate this with the release of our kinetic energy, or chi.

These feelings are logged with these thoughts, within us, and we can eventually relive these stressful moments upon just a thought,because our bodies are used to releasing this energy with the thought of what stresses us out.And our bodies are used to being stressed out or rather have gotten comfortable in this state even if we are dying from it.

So the observer state is a key, used to try and stop this chattering monkey from talking to us in our heads.

It can be hard at first.but what you have to try to do is prepare a meditative routine to build up our own intention towards it and empower the ritual or procedure within ourselves. What i do is go and sit in the same place everyday and run some water.

Sound is used by many to distract us while trying not to think.I like running water cause it has always eased the process for me. Aswell when thinking about using tapes of people talking, words can sometimes cause us to think more due to the communication so usually organic sounds or music even is used alot.

When i was younger and this teaching was first introduced to me, i was told to try and isolate my thoughts,become a person watching these events or happenings that we are "reliving" or thinking about as apposed to being the person involved.

Try not to connect yourself to the person of which you are thinking about(yourself) and this will help distance your thoughts with the immediate sense or feeling of what had happened.Stopping the thoughts is what we are trying to achieve but at times even just slowing them down can help.

This is where the alder state or alderman state as i call it can come in handy. As i had spoke of before we log feelings and thoughts within us,many call this the subconcious. We have the ability to use a portion of our brain for every day minute to minute use,and we have a storage of sorts.What is happening is we are connecting with mostly bad memories or maybey we arnt connecting with memories at all,but living within the daily confines of our feeling habits?

Our metaphysical self or soul (many people call it different things)is essentially made up of these thoughts feelings and memories all the way back to our first days as a child to now. Somewhere between then and now we have come to certain points where we recognize ourselves as being "US" usually for many people these are moments of clarity and meaning,happiness and accomplishment.Times when we are all we are.

The point of of trying to create an alderman state within you is to help draw on power from yourself using your thoughts and memories of great meaning or happiness to do so,by using the feelings and chi produced by those thoughts to help charge us when we are down.To let us know hey it hasnt always been like this.I can do it.!!

As we try to connect with our past and the "good" moments within our lives we begin to see energies flow back to us and the more we try to remind ourselves of who we are inspite of everything the more power we can draw on.

Well i hope this helps.Let me know if you have any questions.I can tend to ramble at times





[edit on 10-3-2009 by toraylin]

[edit on 10-3-2009 by toraylin]

My immediate thought after reading this was for you to resolve any unresolved relationships. When people love psychic bonds (or "tethers") form and can be very hard to break if someone hasn't had real closure. One can move on oblivious while the other still waits.

I might be completely off the mark but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

To the OP just for some trivia since you're new to the field:

What Toraylin is describing is classic no-mind 'style' meditation, to be differentiated from what you're currently during with your pranic work. I say classic because this is the style of meditation with the most known history (and most popularized via TM as well). He's right that it is good for stress reduction; quite a few research studies using this kind of meditation have shown it as very effective (most stemming from MIU).

There are two primary kinds of meditation: active and passive. That is a passive form of meditation. That is to say, you're not DOing something, unless you could say what you are 'do-ing' is pointedly-not-doing/thinking-anything.

Archetype work, and pranic work, are active types of meditation. Some people don't even call them meditation because of the active state of it. Some people do better with this because they don't do well at clearing their mind. (Although it's a healthy exercise to learn to do so, on many levels, the clearing part.) Some people (like me) just by nature prefer them. I did TM for a long time and as much as I loved spacing out aka 'transcending' and as genuinely helpful and healthy as the practice was, I'm pretty Type-A so actually "doing" something, focusing on something, is just preferable to me.

But if you have the opportunity to try what he's talking about, or take a second class in that kind of meditation, it would probably be worth your while.

I might add, as a small not quite offtopic aside, that there are nutritional issues heavily involved with medical problems if these exist and relate to what you're doing (or why), and the solution to them is something like 'the polar opposite' of what the ag/food/drug/medical/government sources making money off all of it including illness will tell you, so you may consider some internet research on the topic; feel welcome to PEM me at redcairo at gmail dot com if you'd like more.

Best,
PJ

This sounds like a situation where the goal is right but perhaps the approach isn't. If you have some resistance to going to these classes after you'd been to one, then likely it's just going to be more stress and a pain for you for each thereafter. It sounds like your wife really loves you (which is why she wants to help you through this stress problem) and you love her as evidenced by agreeing to go. It's okay to say "this isn't working out" as long as it is prefaced with sincerely saying, "honey, I'm very grateful you love me so much that you're willing to help me become a better person." I believe your wife will be key in helping you find the most relaxation. Often times people go through very complex methods to just get somewhere where they can finally relax, but often the best solution is the most simple because it's easy to repeat.

Ask yourself the following if you haven't already:

What helps me relax?

Is there a way I can do more of it?

Is there a way I can 'place myself there' without actually being there? (like reading about it, grabbing a quick nap, daydreaming for a moment, etc.)

Are there perhaps some other unexplored relaxations I'd like to try? (hiking, jogging, other physical exercises)

Are there relaxing experiences that both my wife and I could do together? Sometimes there's great comfort in co-operative mini-vacations. You don't have to do the same thing at the same time necessarily. For example while at the pool my spouse likes to swim whereas I enjoy writing. We can still be together without doing the same activity all the time. Discuss goals, "I'd like to head to the park and flip through some magazines for an hour...is there anything you'd like to do there too?"

For me I've divided health into three parts: Mind, Body, and Soul. For my mind, I try to improve it every day by learning new things whether that's online or in a book. My body requires the most work and found kung-fu, using the Wii Fit, and playing with the dog as good exercises for me. I also have found a way to get out to my car and take a nap during lunchbreak with my cellphone alarm to wake me up. My soul is enriched by attending church, prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with other believers. Just hanging with the family at a restaurant is good for the soul. Just some thoughts, hope you find a solution that makes both you and your wife happy and healthy.

[edit on 10-3-2009 by saint4God]

Sorry about not posting for a few days. We've been dealing with doc appointments and a flaky babysitter. I've also been researching and following up on many of the directions that you all have been kind enough to share.

However, Class 5 is tonight. It is Crown Chakra night. Should be fun. . .just got to make sure that my BS detector does some breathe meditations before class to calm him down.

Crown is my favorite!! I'm more sensitive to energy there than any of the others. Fuzzy-buzzy-warm pranic work on the crown, yum. (Actually you get the best 'feel' when the energy is 'overflowing' because it's not accepting more, which is unnecessary, but the most fun for the person under the hands.)

A couple things before I get to the meat of this post. . .

First, when I first posted, I was reading TheRiverGoddess's amazingly eternal topic where she honestly reported her experiences with OOBE. I know I'm no RiverGoddess and that my subject matter is much more mundane, but that is the spirit of why I have continued commenting here.

If someone can get any insight from a long-time (badword)hole reporting his experiences learning that he doesn't have to be a (badword)hole, that is a good thing.

Second, this is probably going to make me sound like an idiot because I don't have much experience posting at ATS, but if someone else is reading this post that is just learning or wants to report their trials and experiences while they were learning, please feel free to post here.

Anyway, I broke through the heart chakra blackness for the first time during the class this Wednesday. I got the light through. The instructor was guiding us through the Twin Hearts technique. Instead of using the visualization the instructor was using (the face of a loved one in a flower), I used a technique that I researched based on someone's advice here and just visualized/remembered the birth of my daughter. It wasn't easy, but I 'knew' it was the right technique. And slowly, the light began trickling through, tinged with green. There is more work to do, but it was nice progress.

What I really wanted to report, though, is an experience I just had that strains my rationalist world view. I am comfortable with the research that has demonstrated that various methods of meditation can reduce stress. The pranic healing thing that I was exposed to DID create some cognitive dissonance because I still cannot explain what I experienced despite training and discipline in identifying and preventing psychological errors. (That's a whole other post.)

Tonight's experience, while it can't be held to even the slightest level of scientific analysis, was amazing to me based on my level of expertise and experience in the subject matter. I do welcome debunkers to harshly challenge me.

Here it is. I don't expect that this community has much knowledge of this topic or that it will put me in a very positive light here, but here is goes anyway.

I play poker as a hobby. I am good enough to make a very small profit at it. The original reason that I persued poker was a realization that it could train me, in a measurable way, to improve some life skills that I sucked at. When I played a lot, I kept very careful track of the time spent at each session, how much I won/lost, etc. (I can tell you that I averaged exactly $5.82.6/hour profit in 2007, including expenses/tips.) I identified that the nature of this game invites psychological errors (much like paranormal topics) and requires some strict discipline to avoid them. The reason I mention this is that I am generally hyper-aware of my brain doing silly stuff while I am playing poker, for the simple reason that I lose when I don't catch the silly stuff.

OK. SO. . .tonight I won my first tourney in about 1 1/2 years. 250 people, low stakes, on-line. After the first hour, I was doing about as well as I usually do, just a typical Friday night. At the break, though, I went through a cycle of pranic exercises. At some point in the first 15 minutes of the second hour, I visualized that the poker server's noise (which is the base on which the random number generator depends) would occur in a manner that would benefit me.

From observing the hands in which I had enough defined information to calculate actualized probability, (I think I need to summarize). Too many cards came up that benefited me, estimated probability about 60-1. While this is not enough for me to say that there was an effect, it is enough oddness that I think that further testing is warranted.

I don't know what my motive for talking about this is. . .maybe I'm looking for someone to offer a rational explanation?

A rational explanation?

One of the common ways that skeptics have used to explain away events ranging from spontaneous paranormal to lab-based psi research, is "luck."

Maybe they're right.

But maybe, just maybe, the significance of the quantum research since the 70's, is telling us that "luck" is not something magical, but something real, synchronicity or entanglement or whatever, albeit on a micro level we cannot consciously perceive nor determine. That when the observer is 'involved' in observing the outcome, that the outcome is affected by the observer themselves.

It may be that in larger combinations of events than a dual slit experiment, there is something more required than merely an observer. Human bodies are organic machines, we have energy fields and so on. It's possible that a larger concentration of energy tied into a human focus creates what you might call "a more robust observer." And while unlikely to be consistent or predictable, it could result in an 'observer effect' in somewhat larger systems.

Just one wild guess.

PJ

[edit on 14-3-2009 by RedCairo]

I might add that cognitive dissonance is the primary problem in personal development work. The people who are the most logical have the most problem with it. Their worldview, their belief system, really doesn't have any room for this kind of stuff. Worse, they have often learned to greatly "define themselves" by their "logical and more-rational" persona, so there are some related issues with ego and identity that crop up alongside. (Don't ask me how I know . . . )

Logic is based in what we already know. Much of this stuff goes beyond what we currently have a framework to hold. I lost a lot of time, trouble, and development, trying desperately NOT to 'let myself' do a lot of stuff fully because I didn't want to be 'just imagining' it or 'deluding myself' or 'exaggerating what might be a more minor and perfectly explainable effect'.

What it took me way too many years to understand is that the imagination is a robust tool. We only use one dimension of it so to speak, in our 'logical world'. It has a much more powerful role, and straddles the border, with growth into all areas, of your conscious self, your everything-else self, and possibly parts of reality that we do not consciously perceive as reality and yet which might exist even in objective technical terms if we knew how to measure it.

(Eg we don't perceive anything outside our beat pattern, or outside frequencies the body perceives, or possibly even within but in very limited spectrums, but parts of us might perceive that; we just don't get that information consciously, if so.)

The imagination is not just something that we feed conscious intent into. It is like a translator. Information from the subconscious (hate the word but you know what I mean) and possibly from 'other sources', can feed into the imagination just like our conscious intent can. We provide information to those other parts of self/whatever when we visualize, 'through' the imagination -- and we GET information as well, by allowing our conscious 'hold' on the imagination to loosen so it can freely express. When you start getting visuals and ideas and more that you did not consciously create, when you imagine doing one thing and you sense or see the result in a certain way, that is you getting the communication--through your imagination, which at that point in that way you are not consciously driving.

A lot of people eventually realize this, but still dismiss it, like, "Oh that's just subconscious stuff" -- as if that automatically invalidates it, because it's not "magic from another dimension" or something like they were expecting. Our body is part of a spectrum and it has degrees of perception and intelligence that we really have barely begun, scientifically, to explore let alone understand.

The cognitive dissonance drives people away. As I'm sure you know, the primary reaction to that is 'avoidance' -- the person will simply attempt to remove themselves from the situation causing the dissonance, so they are not forced to strain their brain by facing the dichotomy and finding a way to 'integrate' so they can resolve it.

I hope being aware enough to see this helps you stay with it.

PJ