Silent Lifeflow

Hi Everybody ! A question arose whilst i was sitting with Lifeflow 9 the other day. How effective would the entrainment be without the sound effects ? I ve been sitting with Zen and other practices for many years and have to admit that Lifeflow feels a little bit like cheating but i do find it extremely motivating and believe it has moved me forward in my practice.
One of my teachers once said that you can listen to music or meditate, you cant do both at the same time. This has always stuck with me, though i appreciate that Lifeflow is not just music. Has anybody had the opportunity to sit just with just the 'beats' ?

Graham
_/\_

 

Hi Graham

This is true, you can't listen to music and meditate in the sense that you meditate to let go of thoughts. Listening to music (or any sounds) will create thoughts and prevent that process. However, it's possible to meditate with the music as a focus, but this won't be the same sort of deep meditation that you would typically experience from mantra based meditations.

If the Lifeflow did not have the music/sound effects and just had the entrainment frequencies then they would work just as well, however I guess some people would feel a little cheated as if they'd bought a track of almost nothing.

When I meditate with lifeflow, I quickly get into the meditative state where I'm not focused on the sounds, so it's no issue for me. The Lifeflow is just something there that's doing it's job, I have no focus on it, I'm simply just aware that it's there.

Hugs

Giles

 

Hi Graham
I prefer to turn down the LF tracks to almost zero and it seems to work just as well that way.

Bhavya

 

Thank you Bhavya that makes a lot of sense. So i ask myself - why didnt i think of that ?

Graham

 

I am a long time meditation practitioner like yourself; I could tell immediately that the sound didn't agree with me. Like Bhavya I began turning down the volume to nearly nothing. It seems to work for me. Also you will realize that meditation is just as deep with or without LifeFlow. It seems that once the work is done with LF it sticks even without the CD. Proof to me of an excellent product.
Gus

 

Either a very profound statement or a typo.

Did you mean music

 

You will probably never hear anything profound from this end Giles. It was merely a typo. One of my many mistakes to date


gus

 

Ooo, I dunno, I'm sure you've got some profound insights inside you.

 

Thanks for the advice Bhavya and Bashmaki. Turning down the volume has really helped smooth things out, in fact i sense a greater feeling of depth in my sitting.

 

Subdued LifeFlow...

Hey Guys,
I used one of my "jump ahead" times (only was tempted and gave in 3 times) to listen to LF6 CD with the volume so low (did i hear "owls"???) just to test the "subdued volume method" and yes it "pulled me into a very relaxed state"...
Although that said, I currently still have the volume at a medium setting. I do like many of the sound scapes and if I find I am "growing tired" of them I "rethink" my attitude and I find I can appreciate them again...
Currently, I am on LF8 and am going with LF8 for another month just to "get back" to the initial 60 day plan (I did LF9 in one month though I listen to it still at bedtime as my wife is on LF9 still)....
So in effect I will be each level "intermixed" for a good stretch as our (my wife and I) journeys progress...
For the most part I have not had much "overwhelm" in these early levels as observed by others I have read on this forum. At this time I do find I perhaps "fall asleep" (even in the chair) most times (could be the early morning workouts) and "come to" in the few minutes before the end of the track..
I will endeavour to add an extra hour of sleep as people on this forum have suggested but all in all the "amazing relaxed body" after every session is the "max" and "tuning" the meditation "awareness" will come in time..........no hurry as the important thing is this journey will be a "well travelled round trip" in the years ahead as ALL the levels will become "destination points"...



Oh ya Gus BTW (Bushmaki) you have had a profound edge from "day one" when i first visited this forum..........


shine on

jim

 

hi could someone explain to me how lifeflow works if it is silent i thought you had to hear something for entrainment to happen

 

Well, scientifically speaking your brain needs to hear the sound. You don't need to be aware of them. Most of the sound on LifeFlow (and competing products too) is not part of the entrainment. Instead the nature sounds, music etc serve to make it more pleasant to the human listener.

If you turn down the volume it will still work as long as your brain can hear the tones, even if "you" cannot. But you will eventually reach a point where there is no entrainment if you are new to that particular frequency. If you are used to it, however, your brain may still respond. This is because the body can "fill in the gaps" when it knows how something work.

For an example of just how powerful is the body's ability to learn: A study published in 2003 by F Benedetti and others injected volunteers with a drug that increases production of growth hormone and reduces the production of cortisol. After a series of injections, a harmless thin salt solution was used instead of the drug. The body then released the same hormones as it had when given the real drug. But it first needed to be shown how to do it. It is not enough to just tell people to produce growth hormone.

You may have heard that people who are given placebo pills made to look like painkillers will feel relief from the pain. But did you know that if you give them a drug that blocks the effect of the painkiller - even if they eat it without knowing what it is - the pain will return? They did not simply believe that they felt better: The body actually created the painkiller chemicals. So it is no wonder that, once you have learned how to enter a certain meditative state, you can easily enter it again without actually hearing the sounds. But first your brain needs to learn how to do it.

 

so what you are saying is that all the sounds that you can "hear" are just there so we are aware consciously that something is happening, while the real work is taking place beyond our hearing capacity but as we get more used to the particular meditative state we dont need those sounds as props and the cues are there in place in the "silent" listening.

 

You can hear the sounds that are used for entrainment, in the background, if you know what to listen for. But they are not the main soundscape and most people won't notice them, especially if you play softly. Once your brain has learned a frequency, it can make it with less and less sound. Eventually you won't need the sound at all, but can simply remember how it felt and you can go into that state of meditation anywhere. But this takes time, and it varies from person to person.