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The Meditation-Observation Exercise

By Dr. Larry Wilson

Meditation is a very commonly-used word with many different meanings. It generally refers to a method of calming or stilling the mind for the purpose of enhancing peace, increasing awareness. In some instances, meditation refers specifically to a religious or spiritual practice of some kind.

This article begins with a definition of meditation, followed by a discussion of the benefits of meditation. It ends with the procedure I recommend for healing, grounding and balancing the energies or chakra centers of the body.

I hope the meditation-observation practice is as beneficial for you, dear reader, as it has been for me and many thousands of others. It is not mine, but was adapted from the work of Mr. Roy Masters of Grants Pass, Oregon. He says the exercise has no religious affiliation or spiritual practice affiliation. However, he is a Judeo-Christian teacher.

A Definition of Meditation

Let us define meditation as a specific exercise or method for bringing into the body the maximum amount of subtle energy. This may seem like an unusual definition. It is not the usual reason why one meditates. However, it is the intent of the exercise I will suggest.

One may ask, why this definition? The reason is that the practice I recommend is not a general meditation exercise. It is very specific in its intent. The next question is, What is subtle energy? Let us define this.

Subtle energy is the basic energy that animates all life on planet earth. The energy itself is unseen and unfelt for the most part, but is in fact the basic 'stuff' or ether out of which all created matter is built. In other cultures and traditions, it is known as prana, chi, qi, vital force or zero-point energy.

The more of this energy that we possess or take in and pass through our bodies, the better we look and feel. Also, by ingesting or absorbing more of it, we can develop certain brain centers that otherwise remain dormant in almost everyone. These can offer new abilities such as telepathy, an ability to see the aura or energy field around an object or person, and much more. Thus, the goal of this meditation is to bring in more of this energy in a safe and simple manner available to most anyone willing to spend the time to do the exercise.

I have used this method for some 30 years on a daily basis. It has helped heal the body and developed my mind in ways I would not have imagined. This is the only reason I continue to recommend it.

A New Source of Energy

The reason I define meditation as I do is that the main benefit of the exercise recommended here is to permit one to connect with a new source of personal and healing energy. This may seem like a strange idea. However, it is no doubt true, and one can feel it, first as a slight tingling and later throughout the body. This source is the etheric or subtle energy of the universe.

I believe this is really what people call the "high self", the "real self" and the "still, small voice within" referred to in the holy bible. This source promotes and provides health and long life. It is also associated with new abilities and powers that are not available when one is connected only to the physical and environmental sources of energy or physical reality. This is the key to the meditation exercise.

The Goal of This Practice

The goal of meditation is to activate your full potential. This is much greater than you may imagine. Some readers have heard of advanced saints, yogis and others who perform amazing feats of courage, skill or daring. Others learn fantastic knowledge that they share with the world.

Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and other world leaders are such individuals. You can be one, too, in your own sphere. Meditation is the path recommended in all major religions to do this. It is a long, slow road, so it is best to begin now.

Benefits of Meditation

Physical Healing

The effects of the new source of energy are many, and they occur on all levels of our being. For example, physical healing occurs because the subtle energy, as it enters the body through the head, automatically flows to constricted and congested areas of the brain and body.

Many other subtle changes occur in the glands and other organs of the physical body. For example, the practice of sitting quietly and meditating as I will suggest inhibits the sympathetic nervous system. This is the fight-or-flight nervous system. Resting this system powerfully affects the adrenal and thyroid glands and assists the activity of the immune, digestive and elimination systems.

Many other benefits flow from this one benefit to the nervous system. Breathing also slows and deepens, bringing more oxygen to the body cells. As breathing changes, the body becomes better oxygenated. More oxygen in the body greatly assists the proper nutrition and metabolism in the body. This often brings healing all by itself and is the reason oxygen therapies are highly recommended for certain ailments.

Mental/Emotional Healing

So much change occurs on mental and emotional levels that a large section of this article will discuss just a few of the major ones.

Mental healing occurs for several reasons. Meditation is like a once-or-twice-a-day mental checkup. Often you will find that you automatically review your day and plan for tomarrow without having to think about it.

Incomplete thought processes will be completed as the mind stops racing out of control. Most people do not realize that they are so busy with their momentary activities that they do not complete both jobs at home or at the office, as well as thought processes. So during meditation, this will often be brought to your attention and thinking processes will complete, often with surprising insights and creative ideas for you.

Old mental and emotional traumas come up for viewing and are resolved in the light. This reduces stress dramatically. This is a very necessary process for many people's physical and moreso emotional and mental healing. It is not always pleasant, but if one will just observe whatever comes up with equanimity and an observing attitude, not judging whatever it is, then it will pass eventually. That is all that is needed in most cases. Rarely, it is wise to talk about your insights with a counselor or a good friend.

Meditation also brings and keeps one in the present moment. This is where all wisdom and healing lie. Fear and anxiety are in the future, while guilt and remorse are in the past.

The exercise I will recommend is extremely grounding and centering. This is not true of most meditations, by the way. Grounding, which is the subject of an article on this website, is most important for healing for many people today. Especially as our world is changing rapidly, grounding and centering are extremely important for all healing processes.

Deprogramming Versus Reprogramming. The exercise I recommend is a deprogramming exercise. That is, it slowly undoes your past traumas and issues.

In contrast, affirmations, most visualization and concentration exercises only reprogram the mind. This is a vital difference between the dual-focus exercise I recommend and most other mental exercises labeled as meditations and other names.

Whitewashing Vs. Removal. This subject could fill an entire book. It means that other methods will tend to whitewash over your problems, fears, angers and the rest of the unwanted thoughts and emotions. Instead, the meditation I recommend will often do the opposite.

It will bring them up for review. If you are able to just observe them without too much reaction, they will then be released and you will be free from the original cause of the attitude, emotion or thought.

This process of deprogramming takes years but is well worth the effort. Each level that you progress through clears more negative thought patterns and little by little you will be free and will function much better.

Deprogramming and Healing. Freeing negative energetic patterns also greatly opens the body for physical and every other kind of healing. So this difference between the exercise I recommend and most all others is definitely worth understanding completely.

The Time For Affirmations.
Affirmations, visualization, prayer and the other meditation types of exercise are definitely needed at times, but one should understand when and why.

Basically, these are most helpful in other ways. They are able to

  1. Bring you to this exercise by helping you learn to focus better on something positive
  2. help when negative thoughts and feelings come up and seem overwhelming
  3. achieve a certain level of positivity, which is needed by many people
  4. they can teach a person that there is help available from other realms, as in using the 23rd Psalm and so many other wonderful prayers and affirmations

There may be other benefits, but these are the main ones that I have noticed with prayer and affirmations of many kinds.

The problem is, most people are content to just use their prayers and affirmations and do not realize that another type of mental exercise is available to them and is easy to do. Some may believe they have to pay a lot of money to learn "real" meditation, or travel far away, or sit for hours, or something else. None of this is true. Affirmations are a wonderful and often necessary start but one can go much further with mental exercises. So please do not believe that affirmations and prayer are the whole answer, as many books, CDs, videos and even churches suggest.

Prayer is Asking, Meditation is Receiving.
This I have heard from several sources and there is some truth to it. In fact, of course, asking and receiving cannot be separated so easily.

Prayer involves opening oneself to receive and indeed proper use of prayer is to open oneself. That is, indeed, the beauty of prayer. Many people pray selfishly, not really opening themselves to God's will or the higher will. They are often disappointed.

Meditation is a much more powerful aspect of prayer that some people do naturally and some must learn specifically. One could say the exercise I recommend is designed to help anyone learn to pray in a powerful way.

I was once asked by a friend who spend some time with me, "How often do you pray?" I thought about it and answered as truthfully as I can, saying "continuously".

This is the truth of the meditation I am suggesting. It will lead you to what may be called "a prayerful attitude" that will overtake your life in all your waking and even during sleep. Roy Masters, from whom I learned the exercise, says that one should eventually do 24 hours a day. It becomes a habit, though not a mindless habit.

This meditation exercise is thus:

Meditation is a form of psychotherapy. It gently brings up hidden thoughts and attitudes so they can be examined objectively. It is a self-therapy that proceeds at one's own pace and brings up issues in exactly the correct order. By cultivating the 'witness' in oneself, it shines the light of truth on every activity, relationship and event in one's life. This has a powerful healing effect if one is willing to make needed changes that are best for oneself and best for others as well.

Negative and random, distracting thoughts suddenly are found to have less power. This is a mental effect that is quite startling to people. It has to do with observing one's thoughts and the idea of bringing up and releasing old traumas. As this is done, the negative thoughts and feelings associated with the traumas stop coming into your mind. You no longer may feel so sorry for yourself, for example, or you will strangely find you are less angry or upset with your family, perhaps. Automatically reducing negative thinking is an incredible benefit for many people who have tried affirmations, prayer, other meditations and many methods to accomplish this goal.

The meditation I will suggest is anti-hypnosis. Roy Masters is a hypnotist by profession. He realized people did not need hypnosis to cure their problems. In fact, most are already hypnotized! Most people live in a light trance state that he calls "the hypnosis of life". For example, television and especially advertising induce hypnotic suggestions. These only work because the population is already in somewhat of a trance state and are easily influenced.

Most everyone really needs an end to their hypnotic trance state or de-hypnosis. Meditation, by increasing awareness, very slowly assists one out of the hypnotic or very light trance state they are in an back to reality.

Meditation will help develop healthier attitudes. Emotionally, one slowly becomes more centered and balanced in one's attitudes and approaches to life. One becomes more centered in oneself, which is not the same as becoming self-centered. The difference between these two states is enormous. Centered in oneself means that one has a place of balance and peace within. This allows one to become less self-centered, which refers to preoccupation with the ego in most instances.

These physical, mental and emotional effects combine to reshape the entire person, top to bottom, into a more loving, more unselfish, more Christian or more enlightened being. This is the beauty of this meditation.

Habit Change

With this meditation, bad habits will tend to drop you. Interestingly, you will no longer be compatible with them. Many such habits simply stem from unawareness. As your awareness grows, you will see the roots of your habits. This meditation allows you to understand yourself without becoming morbid or negatively self-conscious.

You will see the process of your thinking and why you smoke or drink or engage in habits or activities that deplete you. As you begin to take more of your cues from the higher self or real self, you will be less often triggered by people or events. Common sense and a spiritual sense take over. Change then becomes much easier. Life becomes simpler.

The Witness

By bringing in the new source of energy, this exercise offers a simple way to retrain the mind to watch itself without judgment or condemnation. It is not, in itself, a way to solve problems, but a way to increase awareness.

By increasing awareness, one understands oneself and others better. This understanding brings solutions for problems without struggle or effort. The only effort required is to practice the exercise regularly.

Useful Analogies for this Meditation

This meditation is:

From Externally Controlled to Internally Motivated

This meditation helps enormously to shift the control or major influence on a person from the world and its hidden forces to the inner person. This makes room in the mind and opens the way, later, for receiving direct guidance from beings who may be called angels and others. They, in turn, will guide you and enable you to live an amazing life of love, prosperity and rewarding work.

Change in this direction, however, takes time and occurs slowly and gently in most cases. If an opening occurs quickly, all the better. However, one must be on guard, in fact, against the intrusion of other beings into the mind who are not benign, or who are less benign. These are sometimes called negative souls or negative guides. One must always use common sense in regard to following any possible guidance. It is imperative that one be fully rested, hydrated and well-nourished to receive better guidance.

Meditation allows one to unfold from within, like a flower in the spring. In our physical development, we grow from the inside out, but mentally we generally grow from without. That is, one's education, friends, events and traumas shape the mind. Meditation permits a different kind of mental and emotional development from within. It occurs according to one's personal plan, not by accident or by the effects of others or random circumstances of ones life.

The Ultimate Lifestyle Modification

This exercise is the ultimate lifestyle modification because it will shift everything in the lifestyle as you change as a result of meditating daily.

Improved Relationships

Meditation cultivates a relationship between the inner self or soul and the outer self. It is a powerful way of loving the real self. By working on this relationship, all other relationships improve because one is in better touch with one's deepest essence or higher self or God. Marriages begin to work better, children begin to shape up and one relates to people in a more genuine way.

As one learns to see oneself more clearly, one sees others with more clarity and discernment. Of course, not all your friends and family will like this. They may have been using your anger against you, manipulating you with praise or blame, flattering you to get what they want or intimidating you with idle threats. You will see all this more clearly and the relationship will change.

One becomes less influenced by images and illusions outside as you dissolve the images and illusions inside your head. One becomes less gullible and less vulnerable to other's attempts to deceive and control you. If a couple meditates, it is like adding a neutral third party or mediator to the relationship. This reduces ego fighting and the battle of the wills that often occurs between partners.

By loving oneself through meditation, one becomes less dependent on the love of others. Meditation allows you to practice true love. Many people want to be loving, but they don't seem to know how. By connecting to your higher self or real self, one is filled the love of the creator. This can then be shared with others.

This love is detached, asks nothing in return, and is therefore more pure and unconditional. One can see what others really need, not what they think they need or what they say they need. It is the quality of compassion and not a bargaining session - if you love me I will love you. By experiencing the real thing, one becomes aware of selfish motives and feelings that one thought were love. These include attachment, identification, projection, lust, ambition, sentimentality, enabling and pride. One will be able to let these go as one sees they are not love at all and are unnecessary and harmful.

Emotional Control

True meditation is a marvelous way to "know thyself". It is the impartial study of oneself. As one understands the self more deeply, power and control over the self increases. As you gain control over yourself, you will find yourself more confident and having a certain natural authority over others without having to struggle for it.

In a sense, the real Armageddon is fought inside your head. When you have conquered yourself, dealing with the world is much easier. The world situation is no more than a reflection of the struggle that goes on inside each of us. By changing yourself, the spiritual struggle is won and the world will change.

Greater Ability to Love and Help Others

Many times, we wish to help others, but it is not so easy. By learning to love yourself through meditation, you will have a greater understanding of how to love others. You will cease to spread stress, negative thoughts and emotions you didn't even know you had. This alone has a calming and uplifting effect on everyone.

You will have a greater sense of perspective and become more compassionate. Compassion is a special kind of love in which you understand more. You will understand better what people need, when to intervene and when to leave people alone.

Happiness

This meditation causes an honest positiveness. It causes a happiness and positiveness because one is relieved of false ideas, delusions and useless emotions. One's perspective comes more and more from the higher self or real self, the real spiritual source of truth and happiness. This occurs slowly as layer after layer of unreality is removed.

This is very different from blocking out negative thoughts. The latter type of "positive thinking" usually does not hold up under stress.

Awareness, as a result of meditation, is a great source of happiness. Most sources of our happiness are fleeting. Most material things that we think we want are ephemeral, and soon we want something else. Awareness is knowing and understanding about yourself and about the world. You will stop looking for happiness outside yourself, and this relieves a great amount of anxiety.

A Positive Mental Focus and Way to Solve Problems

Meditation teaches a new focus for one's life - to become self-aware. It reduces the energy-wasting folly of the ego life. Shifting one's focus away from time-wasting and unhealthy ego pursuits has a powerful healing effect. Bad habits such a smoking, drinking or eating junk food are easier to eliminate as one sees them for what they really are and how they affect oneself.

Meditation offers much greater clarity about ones life. This can result in new directions, new pursuits, new occupations and relationships that are far more healthful.

This meditation is not a way to directly solve problems, but a way to increase awareness. This will slowly bring new insights that will solve many problems. The principle is 'the truth will set you free. J. Krishnamurti, a famous author, once said, "awareness brings its own action".

A principle used in the science of biofeedback is "anything you can monitor, you can change". Meditation is a form of biofeedback in that one monitors one's thoughts and other mental activities. As one does this, thinking and feeling habits will change. Confucius said "if you understand a problem deeply enough, you will have the answer". Meditation is a way to study yourself ever more deeply. This will bring answers to many problems.

Meditation is like carefully a studying a friend from an objective perspective. Often it is easier to solve friend's problems, because one is less involved. The same will occur with one's own problems as they are seen more objectively. Common sense will take over in many instances and help you solve your problem.

This meditation is a way to "gather the facts" about oneself and one's situation in a new way. The trick is not to judge what you see or observe. Don't say, "Oh, but this can't be. That person seems so nice".

Just keep observing and ask only for the truth to be revealed. With enough insight, solutions to problems become apparent. There is no need or benefit to adding any new thoughts or ideas of your own. It is enough to see what is. The underlying premise is that you know the answers. They are just obscured by confusion and misperceptions. This meditation is, in fact, a removal process. This differs from many exercises that seek to "affirm away" or cover over negative or undesirable thoughts or emotions.

Meditating in order to solve a problem is not the correct motivation for meditation. One should not "meditate on something".

However, it is fine to begin with this motivation. Later you can change your motive to just wanting greater awareness, which will in turn bring answers in their own time. In the meantime, if you do not know what to do about a problem, often it is best to just wait. In your helplessness, help will come.

Stress Reduction

When the head is filled with racing thoughts, one is often unaware of danger and stress until it becomes extreme. As one meditates regularly, one becomes aware of stress sooner and can take faster action. One becomes more like the wild animals who sense danger and react quickly, as by instinct.

For example, it allows you to feel tensions in the body each day, so one can change posture, habits or other causes rather than let the tensions build up.

A Positive Stressor

The new source of energy functions as a positive stressor. This means it stresses you in a positive or beneficial way. It brings in more truth, along with the subtle energy, so one can say it is the stress of truth and awareness. This places a spiritual stress on one that can result in character development.

One is not forced to change, but the exercise will show one the truth about many things. If one does not act on the new information, it will be brought up over and over again.

Spiritual Development

The new source of energy slowly develops the subtle or energy bodies of a mature person. These are known in some circles, but rarely mentioned in Western medical literature.

In fact, the human being has six or more subtle bodies. These are not physical, but can be felt and measured with the proper measuring devices. This exercise, unlike many others, definitely promotes the development of these bodies in anyone who practices the exercise correctly and regularly.

The change may not be noticeable immediately. However, this form of development promotes better health and long life, along with many other benefits that are discussed in esoteric books on this subject.

For example, the energy that comes into a person who does the meditation exercise first develops the etheric body. This is an energy body that completely surrounds the physical body.

It is observable by some as part of the aura or energy field that surrounds every living thing. The energy one brings in through the head that causes a light tingling sensation in the hand is an aspect of the etheric body.

How to Meditate

I learned this exercise originally from Mr. Roy Masters of the Foundation Of Human Understanding in Grants Pass, Oregon. If you want to learn about him, his website is www.fhu.com. Mr. Masters offers this exercise on a cassette tape or CD, and for those out of the country, I believe you can download it from his website.

Here is the basic procedure:

Distractions. You will probably find you cannot do the exercise for very long without becoming distracted. Thoughts arise, as may songs, memories or things you have to do later that day.

Your body may itch or hurt, or you may even fall asleep. Just observe the thoughts and feelings without judgment. Bring your attention back to your hand. Bring it back thousands of times if needed. Slowly, your mind will not stray quite as much. You are training part of your mind to observe at all times.

Results. You may notice results within a week or less, or results may take longer. You may feel calmer, more detached, and you may gain insights. Often the insights will not come while meditating. They may come while you are doing the dishes or driving your car.

Each time you meditate, you alter the way you perceive the world. You will see things slightly differently. Some of what you see may not be pleasant. Just watch it all from a neutral place

Procedural Matters

How to Stay With It if You Have Trouble Meditating

It is perfectly normal to have difficulty meditating with this exercise at times, particularly when starting out. Here are several suggestions. Make meditation part of your daily lifestyle. Set things up so you have the time to do it in peace. Turn off the phone and, if needed, arrange for someone to watch children. Go to the office early if you cannot meditate at home. Ideally, have a special room and chair that you use just for meditation.

Some days won't be easy. Think of disciplining an unruly child who has been spoiled for 40 or more years. Sometimes it will resist a lot. Don't worry about it. Just say, "OK, we'll do our best and perhaps better tomarrow."

If you are an athlete or train at anything, you know that training involves good and bad days. Just take it all in stride. Meditation involves discipline, which comes from the same root as the word 'disciple'. It is not about forcing things. It is about gently staying with or following your path and the results will come.

Gimmicks. Use gimmicks to help you stay with it. The best one I have found is to use a CD or cassette tape to help you maintain your focus and to time your sessions.

Another is that I learned to do the exercise while walking slowly, as I had difficulty sitting still. I also learned to meditate while doing a coffee enema that was part of a physical healing program I undertook. It was a perfect time to meditate, as I was forced to lie still for 20 minutes or so while retaining the enema.

Any place you are confined to a chair such as during an airplane flight or at a pleasant concert can be an excellent place to meditate. Meditate in the bathroom stall if that is the only peaceful place where you find yourself.

How to Cope with What Comes Up

One reason some do not continue with meditation is the fact that everything negative within you will be revealed, slowly but surely. This can be very disconcerting.

The key to success is learning to just observe whatever comes up during meditation. Be grateful for seeing the truth, even if it is unpleasant. You do not have to react in any way. Definitely do not judge yourself or others. If you wallow in your thoughts or insights, it will keep them around. It is best to view all thoughts, emotions and insights as you would view clouds in the sky. Let them come and let them go.

How Does this Meditation Differ from the Other Exercises?

Prayer and ritual are different from meditation in several ways. Prayer, as mentioned earlier, is often an asking process, while meditation is a receiving process. Prayer involves a conscious use of the will while in meditation one is more receptive, using the will only to do the meditation exercise.

The meditation recommended here contains neither doctrines nor rituals. It is simply an exercise. It is not a religion, although I feel it is the essence of religious practice. The word religion from the Latin means to link back. Meditation is a way to link oneself back to one's source, higher self, real self, angelic guides or the creator.

This meditation has no doctrines except to recommend increasing awareness, which in turn will lead one to many truths. It is the way to put into practice the injunctions "thy will be done" and "the truth will set you free", and the way to contact "the kingdom of heaven within".

Unfortunately, many religions exclude and even shun meditation. Meditation is a way to experience being 'reborn again of spirit' spoken of in the bible. This is also sometimes described in religious circles as salvation or the conversion process.

Relaxation, visualization, self-hypnosis and concentration exercises involve the use of the will to achieve a particular state or result. They often involve repetition of certain phrases or sounds.

Meditation and the Purpose of Life

I feel meditation is concerned with the main reason we are here. That is, to grow in awareness and wisdom. Many people spend their whole life running around, chasing after friends, family, money or power. This, they call living.

Meditation represents the willingness to stop every day and to develop your "real self" or inner self, which is the deepest core of your being. It is something we are not taught in school or even in church, many times. For most people, it simply will not happen by itself unless through great adversity or with a practice undertaken to specifically focus your attention on your inner self.

While there are many other spiritual practices, this one is quick, direct and requires no particular church affiliation, although faith in God is very helpful. Also, it does not require special apparatus or trips to faraway places in order to succeed with it. These are among the many reasons I encourage you to pursue it.

Most people live the ego lifestyle, going from goal to goal, often trampling others to achieve their goals. Meditation allows you to grow from the inside. You will find, if you do the exercise regularly, that your outer life, work, relationships, family matters and more will change for the better, often in unusual ways. As you meditate, you let go of the blocks that are in the way of your happiness and success.

If you would like a hair test, please contact Joy Feldman

References:
Masters, R., How Your Mind Can Keep You Well, Foundation of Human Understanding, Grants Pass, Oregon, www.fhu.com.

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