Thread: Does meditation merit anything?

I know it's supposed to grant you peace and calmness, but I don't quite understand what meditation produces. Some use it as a tool to get to know God (Which I don't understand), and others use it to "become one" (Whatever the hell that means)

Any enlightenment is appreciated.

It can be considered a very good way to focus and resolve problems or thought experiments. Plus, the mere act of focused breathing tends to lower your heart rate and blood pressure, and will often decrease cortisol levels.

As for third eyes and purple chakras and all that? Yeah... that's crap (or, more accurately, a rhetorical shorthand used by people who have little or no formal technical training to describe what they think is happening during the experience).

What inow said.

Also, meditation can also be a way of learning to ignore / shut down the constant babble of your conscious mind and improve your introspection.

It supposedly has health and psychological benefits, which seems likely to me.

"Meditation"
All that it means is concentration...
If there are lot of frustration,just make mind calm,after closing eyes just sit quite for some time,simple form of meditation..
There is no need for a coaching for all this

There is a term called neuroplasticity which encompasses change in neurons, their networks and their organisation and functioning through new experience.

Meditation is a tool which can be used to modulate neuroplasticity. Look up the studies of Richard Davidson with the Dalai Lama


http://www.pnas.org/content/101/46/16369.full

It is a soothingly calm way of (an effective way) to reduce stress, and articulate the mind, its thoughts and the speed at which information passes through the human mind. You can use it to furthur your concentration and give your body and muscles much needed rest.

Now about the talking to God, I believe that there is something there, not God wise, moreover the chakras are in my experience real. There are certain areas of the body that have more concentrated energy of the blood and neural connections and as such will feel more relaxed and at ease when the body is under control and peace from these meditations.

From my experiences, there are some kind of entites in a realm not detectable by visible light or other conventional electromagnetic matter. These entities somehow are able to maintain knowledge of our experiences and wisdom. Mostly this is in form of personal and private knowledge relayed through a medium (authentic medium) to you. Very detailed information that is impossible to guess with astounding accuracy.

From all that evidence I would say that by meditating the part of the body (for arguments sake I will call it the 'spirit'), the spirit is what can connect with a higher dimension or matter configurations, through these chakras or 'energy hot spots' (just like the Earths energy hot spots) the spirit is channeled and as such, connections can be made with higher plains of reality.


The 'become one' is ambigious and still remember that it is stating about being one with all and God. There are many experiences of people leaving their bodies as such, or still remaining embodied and feeling as though the walls around them, people they know, the all of creation they feel as though they are the same as them, by that I mean they feel as though the wall is a part of their body, the all of the universe is a part of their body.

In response to inow, I cannot appreciate his dismissal of this phenomena as crap, it may well be yet the evidence strongly suggests there is a deeper more unknown phenomena that exists above our plain of reality, detection of that reality and alternate configurations of matter. There are postulated to be many more dimensions in string theory and as such these ideas and concepts of chakras and 'wholeness', spirits etc may be possible in such light.


Personally I believe in spirits and the whole chakra energy higher dimensions concepts, however it is very ambigious and having not experienced this 'wholeness' or visiting the spirit world myself I cannot say with absolute certainty that it is fact, yet I would give it a very high probablity.

The problem with testing many of these concepts lies in the fact that science and methods of detection are currently unable to do so due to inferior technology. It is impossible for example for our configurations of matter to detect another configuration of matter. There are many alternate equivalent 'photonic radiation' sources to which our electromagnetic photonic radiation is incompatible and as such have no way of measuring these phenomena.

This explains why such impossible events such as FTL speeds, telepathy, tele- and psychokinesis and all the like can and do occur during the most intense meditational experiences. However in response to that there is also the probablity that the intense relaxation can cause the mind to hallucinate.

Either of which is very possible, and I would rather believe in something that moves humanity forwards, rather than keeping us where we are, as such that is the true belief of a scientist in my opinion; aware and ready to accept new facts and evidence, able to discard the old and following the only way to create this process, by searching for new and preposturous ideas to prove or disprove in so this objective can be accomplished.

Originally Posted by samcdkey

There is a term called neuroplasticity which encompasses change in neurons, their networks and their organisation and functioning through new experience.

Meditation is a tool which can be used to modulate neuroplasticity.

I find this to be a somewhat silly argument. Yes, we are neuroplastic, which basically just means that our synaptic connections grow and prune with every experience we have... whether we are having sex, watching tv, eating, or meditating... our neural connections will change somewhat as a result, and that change (and our body's ability to make them) is referred to as neural plasticity. Any experience we have will cause changes in our neural web, meditation is one such experience, but so is huffing on the tailpipe of an automobile or sniffing glue. That's really all there is to it.

I love this question. I've been meditating for years and a friend just said the same thing the other day.
"Isn't the point of meditation to become one and what not?" Meditation is about concentration. Think of it this way. If you can't sit still and be aware of what you are doing go 40 minutes what can you actually expect yourself to do? There are many ways to practice this but at it's core it is simply about being aware, or as it is called in Buddhist circles, cultivating mindfulness. In meditation one can experience unusual sensations in a similar way you experience sensations in sleep.

Meditation is often used as a tool to walk the Buddhist path, and is associated with Hinduism. This is where all the Chakra stuff comes in. These things are not "BS." For example, in martial arts training you are often expected to visualize an opponent or object which you are confronting with your physical self. This works the same way with visualizations in meditation. They are not meant to be physical things but rather tools to improve one's practice. Most importantly are the concepts brought up in Buddhism which are used to meditate upon. Usually in the form of a guided meditation these topics, such as "Equanimity" are supposed to be tools to help one along the Buddhist path.

Most people will have different reasons for meditating but it's purpose is merely concentration. Most people discover that it's benefits encompass far more however. Relaxation, critical thinking, understanding, separation, awareness, self discovery, improved reflex speed and accuracy, warmth or cold inducing, posture development, pain relief, flexibility, etc....

The phrase "to become one" actual is a completely valid way to describe meditation but it's meaning is often misunderstood by the inexperienced. As awareness improves you are able to indiscriminately feel more through all of your senses. This improved awareness can manifest in any of the examples given above and may lead to a sensation of being more bonded with the environment and universe as a whole; a sort of oneness with everything.

-EDIT-

whether we are having sex, watching tv, eating, or meditating... meditation is one such experience, but so is huffing on the tailpipe of an automobile or sniffing glue. That's really all there is to it.

Exactly, except that meditation is a direct practice. Where as other disciplines can put in a a sort of meditative state, meditation is the direct practice of that state.

Originally Posted by bradbradallen

I know it's supposed to grant you peace and calmness, but I don't quite understand what meditation produces. Some use it as a tool to get to know God (Which I don't understand), and others use it to "become one" (Whatever the hell that means)

Any enlightenment is appreciated.

There are many different forms of meditation, so just saying "meditation" is too vague. Many studies have been done on meditation, indicating many benefits like better health, increased intelligence, etc..

Personally I find the deep relaxation forms of meditation to be useless, since it's just a temporary state. It's useful in calming you down I guess.

I find concentration to be useful, since it's useful everyday at anytime

You can use sustained high-concentration to heal yourself, like the placebo effect shows

The form of meditation I practice is strange and involves destroying insecurities, feelings, and impulses with your will, this is my form of meditation

Meditation makes your mind more powerful

Originally Posted by inow

neuroplastic, which basically just means that our synaptic connections grow and prune with every experience we have...

In that case the term has little meaning, since this is the normal activity of neurons.

But I thought neuroplasticity referred to larger areas being used in ways they hadn't previously, especially areas we thought dedicated to a certain function. It happens in stroke victims, the newly blind, deaf, etc.

In my first time i join courses in meditation i was very surprised how all this people can focus and elevate their feeling to scene everything around them.

Then i used for beginning Holosync technique to get improve in meditation.