while driving? Is that what you say when you run into the back of the car you hit while meditating? Opps?
Thanks Jim for your very thoughtful reply. In this results-oriented society we do want quick results. I guess it just takes a lot of work to do nothing. Really. The time I have actually felt that I "got it" once while meditating, it was with great concentration to do so. Maybe this is the way, maybe not. Everyone I know who meditates (ok, the one person I knew.... books too)say that it takes many times and much practice to reach the state.
Interesting note: The one person referenced above guided a small group of us at meditation once/week during the lunch hour (she has since left the company) and had a most interesting personality trait.... in that she was happy. So damn happy! She radiated warmth, and peace. That was a real motivation because don't we all want to be happy and at peace? She had been doing this for 15 years or more and follows her Guru (Sri Chinmoy).
Another note: When I asked about a group in the Boston area that virtually guarantees you will meditate properly within some period of time, but charges a bit of money for its services ($1200? They go by the TM trademark), she would neither endorse or disapprove of it, although remarked that she didn't feel people should charge for what we were doing.
Thanks again. Great web site!
Pete Reinhard
In Reply to: Oopsilon State? posted by Pete R on July 01, 1998 at 09:49:04:
Thanks, Pete.
The truth is that most meditative techniques (at least dozens) have been studied and their % effectiveness have been determined.
For example: TM "works" for 49% of all those who take the training and followup as recommended. That means that 51% (no matter how hard they try--in any reasonable period of time) will not reach the "relaxation response" (alpha/theta level) I have been talking about. Silva Mind Training "works" for about 70% of those who take the training & followup as recommended. EACH approach has its own % effectiveness.
As yet, the best way to predict which person will be successful with any approach (without trying it) was documented in "The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook" I have mentioned so many times on this BB. Unfortunately, it looks like the early editions (late '70s-early '80s) did the best job of that. Your library would have copies available.
NO ONE can "guarantee" that their method will work for everyone. I would steer clear of anyone who claims that!
If you have found the approach that is for YOU, it takes very little time to "get it" right. A couple of weeks is about the average. That is why I suggest that EVERYONE test their procedure with biofeedback at about 2 weeks since, if it isn't working by then, it probably won't.
Some eastern disciplines have (for thousands of years) taken entire lifetimes to accomplish this skill reliably. This is where this idea came from that it takes a long time to learn this. It IS true that, if one is willing to spend their entire lifetime, nearly all can make any technique work for them. Biofeedback has freed us from this kind of slavery to tradition. This is where combining the mysticism of the East with the technology of the West is far in advance of either one alone. Why take a lifetime when one can learn the skill in a few weeks????
Most people can learn this for very little cost. You won't see this information advertized because the proponent makes little (or no) money & cannot afford to advertize it. Get the workbook and test at the end of 2 weeks (about $100-150 for the hour long test). 85% of people get it right the first time--by using the workbook to try the most likely thing the first time. About 85% of the 15% left get it right the second thing they try. The very small % left would do well to rent a GSR biofeedback machine & practice with it a couple of hours a day for a few weeks.
IF there is ANYONE left, and they KNOW that they do best by having someone help them with ANY skill, these expensive programs are effective for some.
Walt
Dear Pete,
Once you learn to put yourself into the alpha/theta rhythm, you can do it with a snap of the fingers. While in this rhythm, you are a safer driver than in the regular beta rhythm (more focused). However, I would not think it safe to LEARN while driving.
BY far the best time of day to do this is upon arising. If you are into the relaxation response, you are getting 24 times as much reversal of the fight or flight storage in the hypothalamus as if you were asleep. Therefore getting up a half hour early will have you a lot more rested at the time you would have regularly gotten up than if you had stayed asleep. That takes care of one of the two times you need per day. If you cannot find one 20 minute period a day for this, you need to look hard at your priorities.
Many people find that tapes work. The workbook gives other options for those for whom that is NOT the best way. I have just been notified that the earlier editions are MUCH more helpful than the later ones. Ask your librarian for one from the late '70s.
Once you can reliably switch into alpha/theta on command, you no longer need to schedule a time. You can do it for an interview, while you work, while you drive, etc. You will be much more effective in anything you do while in that rhythm. As you learn that, please share your experiences with the bb participants. We have not talked much about that dividend of this process.
Walt
Dear Jim,
Once again, wonderful!
You have a talent of saying exactly what needs to be said in the most effective way possible.
I would like to add an encouraging note here, though.
Once one has done this regularly for 6-12 months one tends to find oneself in the alpha/ theta rhythm without even trying. One will note that s/he needs far less sleep and that they are more effective with anything they do while awake. Once one reaches this point--which is inevitable practiced long enough--one is functionally a lot more like humans are supposed to be all the time and WERE before this "load" came to be accumulated in the hypothalamus (over the past 150 years).
We are finally starting to feel "normal".
Let us know when that happens for you. It is wonderful!
Namaste` Walt
Dear Walt,
My wish for you today, and a message for everyone is contained in this quote from the "word musician," e.e. cummings.
"Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question."
Jim
Out in left field, mitt on head, looking at dandelions.
In Reply to: Message From The Outfield posted by Jim on July 12, 1998 at 12:20:32:
Dear Jim,
THAT one deserves some contemplation time.
Thanks, Walt