Originally Posted by
A_Usher
I dont have time for a full, big reply, but wanted to briefly comment as someone who has both studied and teaches meditation, although the way i teach upsets some other teachers of meditation as i dont believe meditation is anything out of the ordinary, nor transcends concious or unconscious thoughts, and can be learned by everyone, without a guide, religious conviction etc.
So what is meditation, well thats a very curious question, as the process is different from individual to individual, but having conducted some research using EEG etc i have found that in the majority of cases meditation is an inward state of focus, which results in physiological change, such as respiration rate, cerebral blood flow, heart rate variation etc.
The process can vary, from guided imagery, to story telling, to sensory awareness, and psychological absorption etc.
Can everyone do it, sure, you just need like most things some time and outcome to work towards.
The process varies from tutor to tutor, some stringing it out, with mumble jumble, praying on individual belief systems etc, where as the reality is much more simplistic, and can be learnt in a couple of sessions, and with EEG and neurofeedback you can learn it in a amazingly fast time.
The reason we teach meditation at Dunbeath Surgery is that is a very good tool for removing anxiety, hypertension etc, and the way we teach is very simplistic, and yet very cutting edge. Why, well we uses neurofeedback to let people see their brain wave activity, and to demonstrate patterns of thought and neurological change. I am interested purely from a clinical point of view, and have a vast client load who have seen a great change in levels of hypertensions, stress etc.
Most people involved in meditation from my experience have little if any neurological understanding and dont actually know what happens in a meditation session, and like every field there are good and bad, some charging ridiculous amount of cash, claiming you can only be taught by them etc, which i just not right in my opinion.
That fine, but you should be honest in your process and levels of understanding. I recently saw a client who had been involved in meditation for over 15 years, yet was still not getting any real benefits. We stripped away the process, showed her her brainwaves under her process, and then our process, and two sessions later she is getting good results.
I want to add that meditation is NOT hypnosis, as mentioned in a previous post, hypnosis is a process of suggestion, and states of suggestibility usually between therapist and client, and under EEG and MRI scans it has been noted that a different part of the brain becomes active in hypnosis sessions to that of meditation.
If i have time ill post later, but if anyone wants to see meditation whilst on an EEG session etc, let me know and we will put on another free workshop at the surgery on the topic.
Andrew.