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Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

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Re: Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

#91

Post by georgieporgie »

xavoy wrote: post #52
gojomo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people react poorly to meditation -- even having hallucinations. See this story for more examples: http://www.sfweekly.com/2002-08-28/news/bad-vibes/ So sure, try it, but if it doesn't feel right, don't force it.

If you're forcing anything in meditation, you're doing it wrong. And of course some people will 'react poorly'. For most people it's the first time in their lives they've actually sat down and looked at themselves. This can be shocking. Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away though. That's just 'treating' the symptoms and ignoring the causes, just like we do with modern medicine.

> just like we do with modern medicine.

I think you mean, "just like we do when we misuse modern medicine."

Re: Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

#92

Post by mannicken »

alexkiwi wrote: post #10
mannicken wrote: post #3

I used to meditate but no longer do since I'm starting to trip (audial/visual hallucinations) very fast and the trip is usually not a good one. It is a very powerful natural psychedelic experience, comparable to third plateau of DXM at least... but controllable, unlike DXM.

were you on nutmeg?

Nope and I stay the hell away from deliriants.

Re: Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

#93

Post by ahoyhere »

Estragon wrote: post #20
markbao wrote: post #11

| For the study, participants were taught to meditate by focusing on the sensation of their breathing, acknowledging and dismissing any stray thoughts that popped into their heads. For those who do practice meditation, what are other techniques that are effective to you?

That description of meditation uses terms which cause a lot of confusion. Focusing on anything leads to problems. Dismissing thoughts leads to repression and unconscious expression of the thoughts. The way my teacher puts it is "rest in the experience of breathing." That means fostering awareness of every aspect of experience: the physical, the emotional and the mental. As for "effective," if you practice with any ho…

No, the "dismissing" of thoughts goes like this:

1. Recognize you are having a discoursive thought 2. Identify it 3. Release it

It's not repression at all: it's acknowledgment, like saying hello to someone you recognize on the street, but continuing where you are going.

Re: Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

#94

Post by gojomo »

xavoy wrote: post #52
gojomo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people react poorly to meditation -- even having hallucinations. See this story for more examples: http://www.sfweekly.com/2002-08-28/news/bad-vibes/ So sure, try it, but if it doesn't feel right, don't force it.

If you're forcing anything in meditation, you're doing it wrong. And of course some people will 'react poorly'. For most people it's the first time in their lives they've actually sat down and looked at themselves. This can be shocking. Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away though. That's just 'treating' the symptoms and ignoring the causes, just like we do with modern medicine.

I can't tell if you read the article -- but anxiety attacks, hallucinations, and seizures are reported in some percentage of people who engage in meditation.

There are an amazing variety of human brains, and if you accept the results that meditation causes measurable physical changes in brain structure, you should also be open to the idea that for some brains, those changes might interact badly with other preexisting (and quite possibly inherent) brain tendencies.

People should know that if they have bad reactions, it's not necessarily a matter of 'doing it wrong', or just fighting to get over an initial challenging hump. Stopping might be the right thing for their brain health.

Re: Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

#95

Post by moolave »

mike463 wrote: post #34
moolave wrote: post #9

I can say it's true that meditation does help with insomnia. In my case, it has made me sleep easily. Give it some time to relax and breathe, next thing you know you are feeling groggy. I know some serious meditators avoid falling asleep if they want to do these for hours, but it can be a challenge achieving that.

I learned to relax many years ago using one of these that a friend had: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E22DFE It's a galvanic skin response gadget. There are others (I got one from radio shack too). Search for GSR. It basically lowers a tone when you relax. It takes almost no time at all to learn to relax with the immediate feedback the device offers. When you lower the tone very low, you have basically relaxed your wh…

It's almost like it, and that is an awesome gadget. You basically lower your body's frequencies - more like into a theta state. And that's when you can easily get into superlearning mode and/or eventually fall asleep.

Re: Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

#96

Post by rsheridan6 »

kalmar wrote: post #86
brihas wrote: post #2

Check out Vipassana meditation: http://www.dhamma.org . They offer 10-day residential courses for no charge at centres worldwide.

Be aware that there are some reports of these Goenka retreats being cult-like and involving some aspects of brain-washing. Additionally they may force a particular style and experience of meditation. http://melissamaples.com/how-not-to-do-a-goenka-vipassana-re... http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/criticism/goenka.htm (I do not wish to start an argument, I am just pointing this out so that readers might be better inf…

I've done it and I didn't find it at all cultlike. They had a donation booth at the end with no pressure to actually donate, and that's it. Nobody's tried to contact me or pressure me or anything like that. Most of the retreat is spent in silence.

As for the links you posted, the first one had a bad experience at an incompetently run retreat (it was tl;dr so I didn't finish it - maybe there were more problems). I can say that I was well fed at the one I went to. The second one is by an obvious lunatic who was mad that they didn't recognize that he's many times more egoless than they are. Other reports trashing the retreat that I've seen (and I read a ton of them before signing up), with the hindsight of having actually done it, mostly come across as people who feel like losers because they couldn't finish the retreat, so they blame it on anyone but themselves.

Re: Meditation Becomes Beneficial Surprisingly Fast

#97

Post by mannicken »

xavoy wrote: post #51
mannicken wrote: post #3

I used to meditate but no longer do since I'm starting to trip (audial/visual hallucinations) very fast and the trip is usually not a good one. It is a very powerful natural psychedelic experience, comparable to third plateau of DXM at least... but controllable, unlike DXM.

They are called Makyo in Zen (check wiki). They are just another distraction, like any other thought but visual. Just let them go. The bigger a deal you make of them, the harder that will be. Acknowledge them and let them go. As you progress in your practice you might have spacial and auditory hallucinations too. The same thing applies here. Just let them go.

If I relax and continue with hallucinations I start vibrating and having an out-of-body experience. It's fun and great but I like normal reality more :)
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