Principles of Meditation & Entrainment

[Ta-tsu-wa]

A person might wonder what the problem with looking for validation is; why we shouldn’t seek to compare our experiences with those others have had. Shouldn’t there be some sort of indicators that our practice is producing an effect? There are indicators, but they are not the high profile, odd phenomena most frequently looked for, and they may not become apparent immediately. Some things do take a little time.

Genuine indicators of progress fall into two general categories: Physical/Emotional, and Spiritual. Some people deny there is any such thing as “spiritual”. Atheists, secular humanists, etc., do not as a rule accept the concept of the existence of things “spiritual.” For them the benefits of meditation are largely physical and/or emotional in nature. It is not my intention to dispute or attempt to change their views here. What I can say is that they are free to skip over any mention of things spiritual and focus on the physical/emotional aspects. Meditation is a broad enough discipline to encompass all these areas of our existence.

From a strictly physical/emotional viewpoint, the benefits of meditation include (but are not limited to) such things as greater resistance to stress; less physical illness and improved resilience when illness does occur; better quality of sleep and increased recovery during sleep; a generally magnified sense of well-being; a sharper, clearer mind; increased capacity for learning; improved functioning in daily life; more harmonious relationships; greater control over emotional states, and more.

For those who accept that we are spiritual beings currently experiencing a physical existence, you get all of the above, plus; a deeper feeling of connection and oneness with all things; a heightened sense of relationship with the Divine, whether you believe in an anthropomorphic God or just an All-Inclusive Presence; more peace and confidence in the Divine and less reliance on dogmatic policies and practices (this is not to say that dogma and ritual do not have their proper time and place!); more freedom from the fear of death; greater hope for that which comes after this life; a greater appreciation for and sense of relationship to others, even when others act in ways that are not in our personal best interests, and much, much more.

In all of the above it should be obvious that these benefits are cumulative in nature, meaning that their presence is felt to an ever greater degree as time passes. A person may feel some changes immediately, but such changes deepen greatly and expand over time.

As one person on the forum noted, the main Project Meditation site speaks about “waves of relaxation”, etc., upon listening to Lifeflow. It’s important to keep in mind; a person’s own experiences will be somewhat relative to their starting point. If you are a person who is completely stressed out, burned out, hanging on the ragged edge, experiencing total adrenal fatigue, and you’ve been at that point for awhile, then to you even a small degree of mental quiet and physical relaxation that entrainment and meditation bring will feel like a tsunami of relief.

On the other hand, if you’re a person who generally has their life together, and who is somewhat successful in your current coping strategies, even if they’re not perfect, then a little bit of additional quiet and relaxation may not seem so dramatic to you as it does to that burned out person. It will feel good, but the degree of difference between that and your normal way of life will not seem so extreme to you as it will to the burned out person. It is a relative experience.

You might suppose the burned out person gets the better deal because they experience such a dramatic shift. To be fair, that person probably has a lot farther to travel than you do before they begin experiencing those much deeper changes that meditation brings. Count yourself fortunate you’re beginning your journey with a bit of a head start.

The next principles might read:

Principle #21: “Indicators that entrainment/meditation is having an effect are long term and often subtle.”
Principle #22: “The intensity of one’s initial experiences is largely relative to their beginning state.”

[Ta-tsu-wa]

Even a person with good coping strategies should experience some measure of increased peace and well being early on when beginning to use entrainment in conjunction with meditation. If you truly feel no difference whatsoever this indicates something is not quite as it should be. One or more of the following problems is probably true:

1. You are using an entrainment product that is not well designed and is not assisting you with your meditative practice. Since this web community focuses on the use of Lifeflow it would be fair to point out that it has shown itself to be highly effective by literally thousands of users registered here on the forum. Its technical attributes have proven themselves over time. There are, of course, other products on the market which are also effective. We can safely say that Lifeflow has demonstrated that it works. Failure to experience its benefits are not due to defects in design or technical specifications.

2. You are already far beyond the need for using an entrainment product as a meditation aid. Those who sincerely believe this to be the case would not have come searching for a meditation site such as Project Meditation to help them learn and practice meditation. They would probably also not bother with using an entrainment aid; hence this entire discussion would be irrelevant to them. The fact that you are here, reading this, seeking to use entrainment to aid in meditation suggests you are not one of these folks whose development is so advanced that entrainment is of no use to you.

3. You are using the entrainment improperly and/or misunderstand the purpose of entrainment and/or are focusing your attention on the distracting phenomena rather than on the big picture, OR,

4. Your chosen technique for entering meditation is either not a correct technique for you, or else you may not be employing it correctly.

Point #3 can easily be the case if you are still subscribing to the false idea that just listening to an entrainment track is meditation all by itself. Some unscrupulous marketing copy of various entrainment products uses phrases such as; “Our meditation CD meditates you...” which is of course, complete nonsense. I was asked recently to review one marketing ad which claimed, “With our meditation CDs you don’t need to know how to meditate...” This is worse than nonsense, it’s hogwash. That’s like saying, “If you use our wonderful plates and silverware you don’t even need to know how to cook.” If you believe that you’re unlikely to get many takers on your dinner invitations.

If you’re going to enter a state of meditation a technique of some sort must be employed that takes you there. (Note – I am fully aware of references to “spontaneous enlightenment experiences”, but these are an entirely different category of phenomena than what is being discussed here and are outside the scope of this discussion. Perhaps another time.)

Meditation, as has been said previously, is a special state of consciousness. Among its characteristics, meditation increases and expands awareness, whereas simple relaxation in fact diffuses awareness. You could use entrainment merely to relax, but that state of consciousness would be something qualitatively very different than meditation.

Also, it is critical to note that just because you have an entrainment track playing does not mean you can “go on about your daily business” as some claim, and have that entrainment track produce the effect you’re targeting.

Take, for example, a person who plays the LF-10 track over open speakers on their stereo. Then, with the track playing in the background, they invite a bunch of friends over to watch the final game of the World Cup, complete with chips, dip, pretzels, beer and pizza. The group is loud and boisterous, cheering on their favorite team, jeering at the referees, complaining about bad calls, laughing at some of the terrible acting of the players as they writhe in agony on the ground in an attempt to get the referee to call a foul on another player, and then as soon as the call is made they spring to their feet and trot off, all memory of the agony of a moment before completely forgotten. Does anyone honestly believe for an instant that with all of this going on, that Lifeflow track playing in the background all this time will have put any of the people gathered together there into an Alpha state of brainwave activity?

This is an extreme example, naturally, but the idea holds true even in situations that are not as extreme. This ties in very closely with Point #4 above. If you are practicing a meditation technique, but you’re not really paying attention to what you’re doing, or perhaps you are performing the technique wrong, and you just allow your mind to drift off to wherever it takes you, it should come as no surprise that the entrainment track is not helping you achieve a state of meditation. That’s because in fact you aren’t really trying to enter meditation or because you’re specifically engaging in activities that prevent you from getting there.

The act of entering meditation must adhere to the following four guidelines:

1. Efforts to enter meditation must be consistent and intentional.
2. There must be a technique employed to get there and that technique must be technically sound.
3. It must also be appropriate to the individual. And finally,
4. It must be practiced correctly, and to the exclusion of all other activities at that moment.

If any of these things are not true, having an entrainment track playing is not going to put you into meditation. It might relax you (depending on what activity you are engaged in,) but it won’t place you into meditation.

The next principles might read:

Principle #23: “Most everyone should feel at least a small effect from using entrainment with meditation.”
Principle #24: “Anyone feeling no effect is experiencing one or more of the 4 problems listed above.”
Principle #25: “The successfully enter meditation all of the 4 guidelines above must be met.

[Ta-tsu-wa]

What does it mean to say that a person needs to be using a technique that is appropriate for that person?

Each of us is unique, and what works well for me might be totally useless to you. Generically speaking, there are three types of meditation techniques. There are techniques that take your awareness outwards, techniques that take your awareness inwards, and techniques that do a little of both. People with exceptionally busy minds tend to do better with techniques that take awareness outwards since their minds naturally head that direction anyway. People with more contemplative natures tend to do better with techniques that take you inwards. The combination techniques are a “maybe” for just about anyone, but are usually best used when a person has some experience with meditation under their belt.

The mantra technique as taught by Michael at Project Meditation is an excellent example of an outward technique. Since the vast majority of people have somewhat active minds, this mantra technique is a good bet for most of us. Even mantra techniques have some differences. Some require rigid concentration while others are more relaxed, such as Michael’s technique. There are some that use chanting which is helpful for a person whose mind is hyperactive. The exact technique that will be right for you is something you have to discover for yourself.

There is no universal way to pinpoint which technique is best for you with 100% accuracy. You may need to try out several until you find the one that really resonates with you. One way is to do a bit of research on a variety of techniques. Usually you will find one or more of them seem to “draw” you to them. Pick one of those techniques as your starting point.

What you should avoid doing is “technique surfing”. Don’t try one for a few days and then switch to another. Decide which one you want to try first and stick with it for at least a few months. Give it a chance to start working. How will you know if it’s working? You’ll begin to experience some of those long term changes mentioned earlier.

There are two things you cannot afford to do. Don’t switch back and forth between techniques. That’s like getting several dozen different books, reading only the first page of each chapter in every book, then wondering why the material you’ve just read doesn’t seem to form a consistent whole.

The other thing you cannot afford to do is evaluate whether or not a technique is having an effect based upon having (or not having) any of those superficial, irrelevant, distracting phenomena discussed above, like face flushing, seeing light swirls, having sensations of this, that or the other thing, etc. Those kinds of phenomena will just lead you down the wrong path and steer you away from the true benefits of meditation. If you’ve already fallen into the trap of this sort of conditioning, using something like the Release Technique, the Sedona Method, or even EFT can be helpful in breaking established conditioned associations.

So the final principles could be:

Principle #26: “We’re all unique, and no single meditation technique works equally well for everyone.”
Principle #27: “Pick one technique and stick with it for at least several months; don’t technique surf.”
Principle #28: “Assess your progress based on long term changes, not short term, oddball phenomena.”
Principle #29: “Use appropriate techniques to break any existing conditioned associations.”

[Ta-tsu-wa]

The final suggestion I have to offer is that you make your practice a regular, consistent habit. You don’t have to be perfect but you do need consistency. Like any other skill, entering meditation will develop in direct proportion to the consistency of your practice. Missing a session occasionally is not going to derail all your progress. But frequently skipping or blowing insincerely through practice is not going to produce any noteworthy results. There isn’t any hard and fast rule from frequency of practice that always applies to everyone, but most of us will instinctively know whether or not we’re giving our practice the time and effort it requires.

[Ta-tsu-wa]

Here are all the principles grouped together into one place:

Principle #1: “Meditation is a noun, not a verb.
Principle #2: “Meditation is a state of consciousness, not the technique used to get to that state.”
Principle #3: “Once meditation is achieved, drop your technique and leave it behind.”
Principle #4: “Just listening to an entrainment track does NOT mean you are in meditation.”
Principle #5: “Just having certain brainwaves does NOT mean you are in meditation.”
Principle #6: “Meditation requires the intent to be in meditation followed by taking appropriate actions.”
Principle #7: “Meditative intention plus entrainment increases chances of achieving the meditation state.”
Principle #8: “Achieving targeted brainwaves during meditation practice denotes likely state of meditation.”
Principle #9: “Entrainment primes the meditative pump, making the process quicker and more consistent.”
Principle #10 “Micro-defining the role of brainwave frequencies is pure, unsubstantiated fantasy.”
Principle #11 “Subscribing to such fantasies guarantees false expectations and disappointment.”
Principle #12 “General expectations, not entrainment, lead to association with specific phenomena.”
Principle #13 “Specific phenomena become conditioned responses linked to entrainment.”
Principle #14 “Conditioned phenomena may be either pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable.”
Principle #15: “Entrainment produces no brainwave state that is not produced naturally by the brain.”
Principle #16: “Each of us experiences the full range of brainwaves naturally many times every day.”
Principle #17: “Entrainment enables the conscious experience of normally unconscious brainwave states.”
Principle #18: “Mental/physical noise blocks perception of feelings and sensations that were always there.”
Principle #19: “Relaxation and quiet allow us to perceive these buried phenomena.”
Principle #20: “Buried phenomena may turn into conditioned experiences if we fixate attention on them.”
Principle #21: “Indicators that entrainment/meditation is having an effect are long term and often subtle.”
Principle #22: “The intensity of one’s initial experiences is largely relative to their beginning state.”
Principle #23: “Most everyone should feel at least a small effect from using entrainment with meditation.”
Principle #24: “Anyone feeling no effect is experiencing one or more of the 4 problems listed above.”
Principle #25: “The successfully enter meditation all of the 4 guidelines above must be met.
Principle #26: “We’re all unique, and no single meditation technique works equally well for everyone.”
Principle #27: “Pick one technique and stick with it for at least several months; don’t technique surf.”
Principle #28: “Assess your progress based on long term changes, not short term, oddball phenomena.”
Principle #29: “Use appropriate techniques to break any existing conditioned associations.”

If you don't understand what some of these things mean, take the time to read the book above in the previous posts to get the background on each principle.

[jgerard7]

Hi Ta-tsu-wa,

Thank you for the detailed explanation on the principles of meditation & entrainment. It's simply awesome. Just one request, could they be put together for printing purposes? Would like to keep the info in my personal file, just like what I'm doing for the support emails from Michael.

Thanks.

Joseph

[seatoncliffs]

Being relatively new to Project Meditation I and first time on the Forum I found just what I was looking for in your careful and detailed clarifications: I realised I needed to understand why I have 4 free CDs introducing me to meditation and techniques to realise that state, alongside the purchased series of Brain entrainment CDs. The relationship between the two activities had not been made clear to me till now, though it's possible I missed it somewhere.
Thanks for your time and care.

[Storymuse]

Thank you so much for your thread! This is the first time that I have finally "gotten it" on all aspects of meditating with LifeFlow. Yes, I am one of those who thought that listening to a track with my eyes closed and sitting very still was enough to help me enter meditation. Sometimes it did, but other times my busy mind kept chattering for the first 10 minutes or so. Interestingly, even just listening to a track without specifically using a meditation technique rarely failed to quiet my mind, help me relax, and make me feel better physically and emotionally. Something about just being still perhaps…

By the way, you're a great writer -- very informative and succinct.

[simpy3]

Some of this was okay, some was also just tripe too.

[pollyanna]

Hi Simpy3 and welcome to the community

was quite surprised to see your comment, still it's always good to hear another perspective. Can you elaborate more on which principles you thought were tripe?

I would be interested particularly as it's a thread that has helped many people and I recommend it quite often.

Look forward to hearing your perspective and wish you much peace and joy