potential problems?

Griffin · March 6th, 2010, 03:39

hey all , does anyone know of any potential problems with overdoing the lifeflow meditations?. i've been enjoying lifeflow since day 1 with evident success and increasing pleasure, so much so that after my 40 minutes has ended i just wanna go again. is it ok to do so?

Itlandm · March 6th, 2010, 05:26

There is in fact such a thing as over-meditation, and with brainwave entrainment even more so. It probably takes quite a bit though when you have gotten used to it. I frequently spend an hour or a little more each morning with no ill effect now. But when I was just starting, I went on a binge one day, playing the demo continuously for a couple hours, and that only a couple hours after I had sat through a session of Holosync (a competing program). I only stopped because I felt a bit lightheaded, but the next day was really trippy. My short term memory was completely shot. If I closed my eyes, I had no idea where things were that I had seen a second before. In fact, when I moved my eyes to one side, the other side was blank. (Normally you keep everything you've just seen in memory so it is like you are seeing it all at once. Evidently you don't actually see much of it - peripheral vision is overrated.) Luckily I did not need to drive a car. It was seriously trippy, I would have run to the emergency room if I did not know what had set it off. It lasted only less than a day though. The next week I had two nightmares, something I don't have every decade. One was so bad that I could not bring myself to go down in the basement for a couple weeks afterwards, even in daylight. I did learn something from it, but... I am not trying that again. I'll take my time, thank you very much.

harijan · March 7th, 2010, 04:09

Hi Griffin, welcome to the forum
I regularly do two sessions in a row (sometimes only one, depending on what time I wake up) and have no adverse effects. I once tried three sessions in a row, again no adverse effect though I did feel that was quite enough.
I must admit I don't think I have ever reached a true meditative state or what I perceive as a meditative state while doing these sessions,( maybe if I was in a meditative state one session would be ample), still this doesn't deter me. I do enjoy them and will continue to hammer on the rock.

Edwin · March 8th, 2010, 10:15

Originally Posted by harijan

I must admit I don't think I have ever reached a true meditative state or what I perceive as a meditative state while doing these sessions,( maybe if I was in a meditative state one session would be ample), still this doesn't deter me.

I dare to challenge that statement.
If one doesn't enter a meditative state, you would have to be practically inhuman to be able to sit out 3 LifeFlow sessions in a row. You would be bored out of your skull !

Perhaps your mental image of what meditation should be is somewhat off ?

Edwin · March 8th, 2010, 10:22

Originally Posted by Griffin

hey all , does anyone know of any potential problems with overdoing the lifeflow meditations?. i've been enjoying lifeflow since day 1 with evident success and increasing pleasure, so much so that after my 40 minutes has ended i just wanna go again. is it ok to do so?

Griffin, your common sense is the best advisor for you in this particular case.

Observe your body and your mental state in between meditation sessions. If you feel shaky, depressed, lethargic, or just not comfortable, it would probably mean that you are moving a bit too fast. You see, meditation will release stored emotions, memories that you labeled "bad", painful events in your past that you haven't quite processed ( read: accepted ) yet.

If you over-meditate, the release might be a bit too much all at once, and this might cause you to feel somewhat flooded with negative emotions.

As long as you feel good, by all means, keep it up !

Griffin · March 9th, 2010, 03:00

hey guys, thanks for the responses. i think i'll stretch my times gradually starting with an hour tomorrow and see how it goes. i just dont want to make myself physically/psychologically sick of of something that is bringing me so much fulfillment. i sincerely hope that lifeflow is doing for you all what it is doing for me.

love and peace.

harijan · March 9th, 2010, 10:06

Edwin, Greetings and thank you for sharing all your insights on the forum.

Seeing as I am human and I don't get bored out of my skull, perhaps my mental image of what meditation should be is somewhat off.

This is what happens in my session, I listen to life flow and start repeating my mantra silently in my mind. I listen to my mantra and also listen to the silence between the sound of the mantra. But this only lasts a little while before my mind starts having thoughts, so then when I become aware of these thoughts happening I go back to my mantra and start repeating and watching again. And so this cycle continues over and over, again and again.

Now my idea of what happens in a meditative state is that the thoughts would subside untill only the mantra remains and then even the mantra would disappear and only awareness remains. One would be totally present in the moment.

But alas, for this humble neophyte this is not to be, so I will continue to hammer on the rock.

Panthau · March 9th, 2010, 21:05

Hehe!

One question for you guys... have you ever experienced, that you´re breathing yourself "in"? When i use this technique i found for letting go in my meditation, its like with every breath i suck myself into myself until i´ve lost any focus. After the meditation im slight dizzy... has someone ever experienced something like that or am i a bit crazy? *gg*

Thanks
Pan

Edwin · March 10th, 2010, 11:28

Originally Posted by harijan

Edwin, Greetings and thank you for sharing all your insights on the forum.

Seeing as I am human and I don't get bored out of my skull, perhaps my mental image of what meditation should be is somewhat off.

This is what happens in my session, I listen to life flow and start repeating my mantra silently in my mind. I listen to my mantra and also listen to the silence between the sound of the mantra. But this only lasts a little while before my mind starts having thoughts, so then when I become aware of these thoughts happening I go back to my mantra and start repeating and watching again. And so this cycle continues over and over, again and again.

This is meditation allready

Keep it up, you are doing great !

Now my idea of what happens in a meditative state is that the thoughts would subside untill only the mantra remains and then even the mantra would disappear and only awareness remains. One would be totally present in the moment.

But alas, for this humble neophyte this is not to be, so I will continue to hammer on the rock.

The thoughts subsiding can be a pleasant byproduct of meditation. You have made it your goal. Making a goal for meditation is the second big no no in meditation. In case you are wondering, the first no no is putting in effort, or straining to stop thoughts.

Meditation is not about stopping thoughts. It is about losing attachment to those thoughts. If you stop believing those thoughts instantly, but simply observe them indifferently, the thoughts will slow down. Why spend energy on creating thoughts if you aren't going to act upon them, will be the brain's conclusion.

About being present in the moment: you can do that while having thoughts allready. People who have realised their true nature, or to use the common phrase, enlightened ones, don't turn into zombies because they don't think anymore.
They just know that the thoughts that come up are not about their person, because that person is also imaginary. So, thoughts that come up can be useful for their situation, and they can act upon it, or they can simply let the thought go effortlessly.

So, meditation is not about stopping thought, it is about losing your attachment to that thought.

chris-da-fur · March 10th, 2010, 19:29

not to hijack the thread or anything but the more I observe my mind at work, the more I realize I am having a hard time observing thoughts. It's like, I will either be thinking thoughts, as in focused on them or identifying with them, continuing their existence by focusing on them, or I snap out of the thought and when I do that it instantly disappears. Then nothing comes up until I have a thought/s then as soon as I step outside of them and observe them they disappear. It's like I can't identify with the observing presence and have thoughts going through my head at the same time, so depending on how alert and present I am I'm either resting in quiet not really working on anything, or dealing with thoughts that very easily suck me into them.

So I guess I'm saying I can't indifferently observe thoughts as waves on the surface of my ocean, etc because they disappear when I try to observe them, so I can't get into the habit of viewing them as natural phenomena coming and going because they are always gone when I rest patiently waiting for a sign of them.

Am I doing something wrong, right, am I taking a quiet mind for granted or something? I have no idea