Meditation Research

[John Sorensen]

Hi, I'm writing a series of articles and an ebook on Meditation that will include traditional Meditations methods and practices as well as covering technology / Binaural Beats / Isochronic tones / other Audio methods, and also covering dynamic moving meditations as well as seated / static meditation styles.

I am interested to hear from people of their experiences with any type of meditation, I do have some specific Q's to ask, but out of time just now so will post them here later.


EDIT: See Q's now posted in adjacent post.

[John Sorensen]

Okay, some basic Q's to ask, feel free to add more detail as you like. Answer however you like, the bits under the Q's in (brackets) are just to stimulate your thinking, feel free to add to that.
Jusy copy and paste the Q's so you can fill them in.


Q1. What is the main reason you meditate?
(stress, health, personal development etc, other)


Q2. What are the main benefits from your meditation practice?


Q3. What is your main meditation method / practice?
(Please specify whether it is a traditional method from a particular group, secular, other, binaural beat etc)


Q4. Do you have any other meditation practices, or do you practice any other methods than your primary method?
(please specify)


Q5. How long have you been Meditating?
(weeks? / months? / years?)


Q6. Will you continue meditating in the near-future?


EDIT [added Q] Q7.What, if any negative experiences have you had associated with meditation? How did you overcome them, do any of these issues still affect you?


Thanks for taking the time to fill this out. I'm really looking to how I can best communicate in my articles and ebook How and Why people meditate, what benefits they have found in their lives, and what are the main methods people are using.

[John Sorensen]

Okay, some basic Q's to ask, feel free to add more detail as you like. Answer however you like, the bits under the Q's in (brackets) are just to stimulate your thinking, feel free to add to that.
Jusy copy and paste the Q's so you can fill them in.


Q1. What is the main reason you meditate?
(stress, health, personal development etc, other)
In the beginning it was more out of curiosity, the health benefits appealed etc. I never got any results with "prayer" that various religious groups talk about, but with meditation, I got some immediate experiences that were unlike anything I had experienced in life before. I read some really powerful books early on, and they were used as a guide in my early experiences



Q2. What are the main benefits from your meditation practice?

The big one, is that after many years thoughts of suicide went away, as I longer felt myself to be living a in a purely material realm, but one of infinite dimensions, growth, change and endless possibilities.
I feel that there are no limits to imagination, and can design my way forward in life, rather than be a victim of cruel circumstances.
I've never taken drugs, but have had alcohol to excess over the years, and meditation (along with gym etc) has helped my to monitor my own health, and make it easy for me to pick up or drop any habit, without the "struggle" or resistance.

Q3. What is your main meditation method / practice?
(Please specify whether it is a traditional method from a particular group, secular, other, binaural beat etc)

Seated morning practice, 20 mins, watching the breath.
Afternoons backwards walking meditation derived from Chinese internal arts.


Q4. Do you have any other meditation practices, or do you practice any other methods than your primary method?
(please specify)

I keep to the daily morning meditation 90% of the time, and do use some other methods for various purposes. Some are different methods, others are the same method but a different focus.
Including:
Walking/moving meditations
Seated meditation
Lying down meditation
body scans
self-healing (usually lying down)
conscious dream recall while awake (beta state)
what I call 'Quantum Intentions', where I focus for 5-20 mins on a probable reality I am manifesting in my daily life (this is a daily practice, that I do year after year)

Q5. How long have you been Meditating?
(weeks? / months? / years?)

Don't remember, but over a decade at this point

Q6. Will you continue meditating in the near-future?

I am just as happy when not meditating, and as long as I am productive my biorhythms stay normal and I can function in life. But I can very easily get out of whack, start doing dumb things and collecting bad unhealthy habits with food and drink etc, then I get listless, and eventually start getting the blues.
High intensity exercise and meditation are my two best tools in not getting overly manic (which troubled me for years) and overly down and depressed, eventually moving into suicidal thoughts, rumination, and an inability to move out of that state or even want though, as it feels subjectively that nothing matters at all, so why bother?


EDIT [added Q] Q7.What, if any negative experiences have you had associated with meditation? How did you overcome them, do any of these issues still affect you?

My entire "identity" slipped away piece by piece. I went through this alone, it was incredibly painful and actually lead to my suicidal thoughts. When multidimensional information started being more "real" to me that every day waking life, I wanted to leave this physical form behind and go back to where I came from, I was so sick of living in a world full of hatred, ignorance, war and torture, I could feel a deep deep psychological scar on collective humanity that I was a part of, and had no wish to further contribute to.

It took me years to reconcile those feelings, to find a reason to live and want to stay in this physical world.
I am glad I did, even though at times it is still painful. I have felt alone and an outsider majority of my 34 years here on this earth, few if any people really understand me.
I see my role now in life to help anyone I can, especially anyone who goes through horrible experiences, as I don't want them to suffer alone.


Thanks for taking the time to fill this out. I'm really looking to how I can best communicate in my articles and ebook How and Why people meditate, what benefits they have found in their lives, and what are the main methods people are using.


No takers? Doe nobody here meditate, or just too busy to answer some questions?

Well I have filled out my own Q's and please if you are reading this take the time do so, I really appreciate it and thank you in advance.

[Dreamweaver]

I'll answer -

Q1. What is the main reason you meditate?
(stress, health, personal development etc, other)

to clear out and develop my energy body, to balance and ground thoughts and feelings, to receive information, to interact with spirit.

Q2. What are the main benefits from your meditation practice?

the stuff in Q1 happens ; )

Q3 - I use hermetic ritual including exercises involving the lightning flash, and circulation of the body of light. I do something I call the four-fold breath which has NEW aspects to it - and I practice NEW. I also just slow myself down and put myself in alpha and theta and "observe."

Q4 - I try new things when they pique my interest but mostly the above.

Q5 - over 10 years

Q6 - you betcha

Q7 - not sure if my negative experiences have their origin in meditation practice. I have become very sensitive to energies, and there is a lot I don't understand.

good luck with your project

[IA56]

No takers? Doe nobody here meditate, or just too busy to answer some questions?

Well I have filled out my own Q's and please if you are reading this take the time do so, I really appreciate it and thank you in advance.

Hi John,
I felt I can´t answer your questions because I do not meditate but I do go blank and with no expactations I Watch what comes up, and I am not sure it can be called meditation, I have tried some tequenics but that did only raise expactations in me and I did loose my focus....I have "watche" the "reality" of both inner and outer all my Life, I did come aware of this first after the big beating in 1980-81 because that time did AWAKEN me totally abruptly so to speak, and many memories did flood back to mind, and those memories is what I have told about here on this site....plus that I did start with memory re-call to solve my family issues, I Always felt my parents did lie to me, and I found the truth that I was right.


Love
ia

[CFTraveler]

Okay, some basic Q's to ask, feel free to add more detail as you like. Answer however you like, the bits under the Q's in (brackets) are just to stimulate your thinking, feel free to add to that.
Jusy copy and paste the Q's so you can fill them in.


Q1. What is the main reason you meditate?
(stress, health, personal development etc, other) It started out for stress and tranquility, it evolved as the years have gone by- Sometimes I meditate for the peace and relaxation, sometimes for the experiences it might bring on. Every day it's a different reason.



Q2. What are the main benefits from your meditation practice? Bottom line: It helps me deal with the rest of the day better.



Q3. What is your main meditation method / practice?
(Please specify whether it is a traditional method from a particular group, secular, other, binaural beat etc) Some sort of observation -observing the breath, observing a thought, or just contemplating on a thought or prayer.



Q4. Do you have any other meditation practices, or do you practice any other methods than your primary method?
(please specify) I've tried mantras and binaural beats, but not often.



Q5. How long have you been Meditating?
(weeks? / months? / years?) Years. Probably thirty.



Q6. Will you continue meditating in the near-future? I hope to.



EDIT [added Q] Q7.What, if any negative experiences have you had associated with meditation? How did you overcome them, do any of these issues still affect you?
None that I can connect.

[ButterflyWoman]

I don't know how I missed this. I saw the initial post and thought, "Cool, I'll answer some questions," but then I missed that they'd been posted. D'oh.


Q1. What is the main reason you meditate?
(stress, health, personal development etc, other)
I've been practicing a form of meditation since I was very young, though I didn't know it (contemplative prayer). As a kid I did it to escape my material homelife and family situation, so I guess you'd say it was for stress. As an adult, I pursued other forms of meditation, and it was for stress management (PTSD, panic/anxiety, etc.).


Q2. What are the main benefits from your meditation practice?
I handle stress much better than I once did. It's almost eerie sometimes, how calm I can be in situations that once would have sent me right into a panic attack.


Q3. What is your main meditation method / practice?
(Please specify whether it is a traditional method from a particular group, secular, other, binaural beat etc)
Still do the contemplative style sometimes. I also use binaural beats sometimes, though once I trained myself with them, I found I could easily slip into an alpha state without them, so I don't use them nearly as much. Occasionally I use guided meditations for a change of pace. For the most part, I just slip into a trance and sit quietly for a while. Not very complicated, but very effective.


Q4. Do you have any other meditation practices, or do you practice any other methods than your primary method?
(please specify)
I think I just did. ;)


Q5. How long have you been Meditating?
(weeks? / months? / years?)
If we count the early contemplative prayer (which I do), about 45 years or so. If we only want to go with the conscious and deliberate "now I will meditate" type stuff, about 15 years.


Q6. Will you continue meditating in the near-future?
I can't imagine that I would ever stop.


Q7.What, if any negative experiences have you had associated with meditation? How did you overcome them, do any of these issues still affect you?
None, that I can think of, other than when I meditated more consciously, I became more consciously aware of energetic, paranormal, metaphysical, mystical (whatever term we want to use, really) phenomena, and it used to freak me out until I got used to it and learned how to manage it.

I hope at least some of this has been helpful. :)