UP Paranormal Society

In its outward or external form, meditation appears to be nothing more than just sitting quietly on a chair or floor, usually with eyes closed, spinal column straight and doing absolutely nothing for about 15 to 20 minutes.
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Meditation has been defined in so many different ways by so many different people that it is difficult to really find out exactly what it is. But each definition of meditation gives one an added insight into its nature.
Charles C. Wise Jr., author of the book Meditation, Prayer, Healing and the Psychic, defines meditation as “the process of learning and knowing … (it) is a mental discipline in which relationships are revealed. It is a process of pattern-recognition in which the mind is raised above the particulars to receive the universals which give coherence to the particulars.”
On the other hand, American psychic and prophet Edgar Cayce refers to meditation as “the emptying of ourselves of all that hinders the creative force from rising along the natural channels of our physical bodies to be disseminated through the sensitive spiritual centers in our physical bodies.”
“We meditate,” said Laurence LeShan in his book How to Meditate, “to find, to recover, to come back to something of ourselves we once dimly and unknowingly had and have lost without knowing what it was or where or when we lost it. We may call it access to more of our human potential, or being closer to ourselves and to reality.”
How does prayer differ from meditation? According to Edgar Cayce, “in prayer, we speak to God; in meditation, God speaks to us.”
Achieving Much From Doing Nothing
During normal waking hours, our brain waves are operating at 14-cycles per second and above. This is called the Beta rhythm. During meditation, the brain wave frequency goes down to about 8 to 13 cycles per second. This is called the Alpha rhythm. Science has discovered that a lot of things that the brain cannot ordinarily do at Beta can be done at the Alpha state, which is associated with altered state of consciousness as it has come to be known, such as extra sensory perception, healing, speed learning, among others.
While in deep meditation, one’s awareness is very much enhanced and studies have shown that the mind is completely passive and inactive. Studies have shown that the mind is passive and quiet only during the first stages of light meditation but at the deeper levels of the process, the mind is vibrant with powerful activity of a higher order which is almost imperceptible to ordinary senses. The mind goes into another level or dimension of reality and operates and participates in that level actively.
Research has also shown that the effect of meditation is to synchronize or harmonize the activities of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The left brain is associated with logical, sequential thinking, while the right brain is associated with intuitive and creative thinking. In meditation, the two parts of the brain function as one, thereby making it a more powerful, integrated instrument.
Edgar Cayce has explained that during meditation, the spiritual forces affect the physical by stimulating the sensitive psychic or spiritual centers in man. On the physical plane, these centers roughly correspond to the various glands such as the gonads, the adrenals, pancreas, thymus, thyroid, pineal and pituitary.
According to Cayce, “Meditation is not musing or daydreaming, but attuning our mental and physical bodies to their spiritual source.”
The energy that is released during meditation can easily be felt by anyone who tries to feel it as it rises from one psychic center or chakra to another, especially from the reproductive center to the pineal gland. If there is a block in anyone of these centers, the meditator will feel a strange sensation, perhaps even a feeling of uneasiness and nausea. He should work more on that center to clear it up.
As the energy rises to the different centers, a definite vibration in the physical body can be felt usually as motions either backward and forward, side to side or circular. Sometimes, the feeling is purely inner and will not have a corresponding external or bodily movement. Nevertheless, it is real. Not all, however, will have the same experience in meditation, so it is best not to compare what you experience with others.
Cayce explained further that your ideal determines the chakra or psychic center that will be stimulated when you meditate. If the ideal is material or sensual, then there will be a greater tendency toward a love of the wordly things. If the ideal is spiritual, there will consequently be a greater tendency to spiritual development.
“Psychic forces,” said Cayce, “are only an awakening of soul faculties through activities in these centers.”
If one is to profit from meditation, he must practice it daily. The ideal frequency is twice a day, once in the morning upon waking, and once in the evening upon retiring.
For most practical purposes, a 15 to 20-minute meditation is sufficient. And the less ritual there is, the better. One important physical condition is that the spinal column should be straight, because that is where the subtle energy or prana passes through.
There are as many different types of meditation techniques as there are advocates. What is best for one may be worst for another. So the most advisable thing to do is to try different methods until one gets the hang of it and settles with one method that suits best his being and his level of soul development.
For some, what works best is merely counting one’s breath from one to ten, or inversely from ten to one. Others need to choose a spiritual saying that serves as one’s ideal during meditation, for instance a phrase from a holy book.
If you think meditation is easy, try keeping your mind absolutely blank for just ten seconds. Chances are, you can’t do it.
It is only during meditation that one realizes how active and unbridled the mind of man is. The object of meditation is to control and manage that mind. The old saying that “he who conquers his own mind conquers the world,” is not without some significance.