Meditation Is Simple
By Bill Harris
Director, Centerpointe Research InstituteAs meditation became popular in the West, beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s, and many different meditation approaches were introduced to the West, a lot of misinformation was spread. At Centerpointe, we talk to a lot of people everyday interested in meditation -- some of whom have been meditating off and on for years (unfortunately, a lot of times with little to show for it). The mish-mash of beliefs about meditation, what it is, how it works, and how to identify when you are doing it properly is amazing. Hopefully this article will clear up some of the misconceptions and simplify something that has been overly complicated over the last 30 years.
Meditation is a tool used to gain self-awareness, to help get the mind out of the way so you can more clearly see who you really are. Those who have succeeded in this quest tell us the resulting peace, happiness, and connection to (God, the One, your Self, the Infinite -- pick one) is immeasurably better than the stressed-out and often hopeless existence many people are experiencing.
From research done in the 1970s, we learned that all forms of meditation involve the slowing of the electrical brain wave patterns from the normal, everyday beta brain wave pattern to the slower alpha rhythms. Very experienced meditators enjoy short excursions, lasting a few moments at a time, into the even slower trance-like theta brain wave pattern.
This slowing of the electrical brain wave patterns in every case is accomplished -- in traditional meditation -- by some kind of focusing, the most popular points of focus being the breath, or a mantra or prayer. Any kind of focusing causes the brain wave patterns to slow.
[Now I know this "brain wave pattern" approach to understanding doesn't sound as romantic as some of the more metaphorical Eastern explanations, but I believe it is more useful (and I don't think it negates the Eastern explanations, either).]
We live in a hectic world where stress can build to a major health crisis; luckily meditation is one of the best tools against stress. If you like what you're reading about Centerpointe check out Holosync for the ultimate meditation experience. - Editors
So what does slowing the brain wave patterns accomplish? Several things. First, it creates an altered state. You become more relaxed. The brain makes endorphins, DHEA (a hormone related to health and well-being and a buffer against stress), human growth hormone, serotonin, and a number of other hormones and neurochemicals related to relaxation, stress release, and well-being. While in this altered state, you may partially or even totally lose contact with the outside world for moments at a time.
Second, the slower brain wave patterns create electrical fluctuations the brain cannot handle -- the way it is currently structured. To deal with this, the brain creates a new structure that can handle these fluctuations. The two sides of the brain begin to communicate more, leading to whole brain functioning, which includes greater mental abilities, and greater self awareness, resolution of emotional problems, greater balance in the brain, and what most people describe as a greater feeling of connect to everything around them.
Now, you may have meditated, even meditated quite a lot, and had very little of this happen to you. Why is that? It's because it isn't that easy to create the focus required to slow the brain wave patterns and then to hold them at the point where the brain must create the required changes. Most people require several years of practice to get the technique down -- and most people are too impatient to really work at it long enough to do so. Then, it requires practicing this focus for a few hours a day to really create deep changes. So, at best, people experience some relaxation (which is good) but little real transformation.
Then there is the issue of what many people call the "monkey mind." As you focus on your breath or your mantra, you periodically realize you're thinking about something else: what happened before, what will happen later, the noise you just heard, the pain in your leg -- anything but what you intended to focus on. Your mind fights you. It wants to do anything other than focus. It flits from thought to thought, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch. This causes people to think they are failing at meditation, and there is probably more misconception around this "problem" than any other aspect of meditation.
Here's what's happening: when you focus and the brain slows down, you make contact with deeper parts of your mind. There are stresses stored in the nervous system at this level, and when your awareness reaches the level where these stresses live, they are activated, in a sense, and bubble up to the surface of your awareness. As they break the surface of your awareness, they take the form of random thoughts, old memories, muscle twitches, flashes of light in your visual field, inner auditory sensations, and even odd physical or kinesthetic sensations.
In the Eastern meditation schools these are called "kriyas" and represent the burning off of stresses in the nervous system -- a good thing. As long as you gently return to the point of focus as soon as you realize your attention has wandered, you are still meditating. If you let your mind go off on the thought or other distraction, you are just sitting there thinking. In a typical meditation you might be distracted hundreds of times, each representing a stress in the nervous system coming to the surface and being released.
Most people in the West think they are having a terrible meditation when this happens because they think meditation means a quiet mind, but the opposite is true. While these kinds of meditations are not necessarily peaceful, they are very productive (and pave the way for a generally quieter mind, both in and out of meditation). Meditation is often -- especially in the first several years -- an upheaval of all the "stuff" needing release. When you have these meditations you should say "All right! I'm making progress!"
Meditation, then, is really very simple. You pay attention to whatever is your chosen point of focus, and whenever you realize you have been distracted, you re-focus. If you are immediately distracted again, so what? You just say good-by to more stress and re-focus again -- as often as it takes.
Meditation with Holosync® happens in an entirely different league, however. When you meditate with Holosync®, the same mechanism is at work, except you don't need to focus. Instead, Holosync® is creating the slowing of the brain wave patterns, ordinarily created through focusing, for you, effortlessly. In fact, much larger fluctuations in electrical brain wave patterns can easily be created, leading to faster and deeper results. You don't have to spend years perfecting a technique, and you immediately begin experiencing the kinds of deep, core-level changes generally only experienced by long-time yogis. Holosync meditation is more precise, it is more consistent, it's deeper, and it skips the long years of perfecting the technique. It's like going from a bicycle to a jet plane.
Occasionally people think we're saying this is the "easy way" to meditate -- and in terms of not having to work so hard to get into the states where changes happen, that's true. However, by piddling around in light alpha states reached by most traditional meditators, you don't have to face yourself in the same way you would if you could really meditate deeply, as with Holosync®. (Of course, that means little or no results.)
Meditating with Holosync® really does put you face to face with what is keeping you from being happy and peaceful and knowing who you really are. Sometimes this is difficult, because it puts you face to face with those parts of you that you THINK are not okay and have therefore repressed (where though they may be out of awareness, they can be big troublemakers in your life). That's why we teach you, in the support materials, how to deal with this stuff (which is EASY if you follow the instructions we give, and can be very difficult if you don't and instead resist it).
Meditation truly can change you life, if you do it. Most people don't, because traditional meditation is a lot of work, and takes so long to see real results. Luckily, now that the world has Holosync®, the investment in time and effort is a fraction of what it once was. For those of you already in the program and enjoying the growth created by meditating with Holosync, keep going. For those of you on the fence, jump off and join us. We've made it as easy as possible, and with the one year money back guarantee, we've made it as risk free as anything in life can get.
There is no reason to live in fear, anger, anxiety, or depression any longer. The tool is available. It works, and we invite you to join us in taking advantage of it.
Be well.
William Harris
Director
Centerpointe Research Institute
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