Vedas Beyond Science: 2013-10-13

Saturday 19 October 2013

How Long to Nap for the Biggest Brain Benefits

Taking a nap, we've seen time and again, is like rebooting your brain. But napping may be as much of an art as it is a science. Scientists offer recommendations for planning your perfect nap, including how long to nap and when.

7 Mind Blowing Facts About Your Body

The human body is even more impressive and magnificent than you can imagine. While we may sometimes look at it and see how weak and fragile it is, we also need to realize the mind blowing wonders we all hold inside ourselves. When our body works, we do not feel, or even notice it is doing anything special, however, it is. As we go about our daily lives like nothing is happening, the body is working, using power, and healing. Here are 7 mind blowing facts about your body.

Shree Krishna Wallpaper

Right click on the image and click "save image as" to download image
and click on the image to view all image in sequence

Rare Undersea Discovery Could Extend Your Life by 10, 20 or 30 Years

Humans have made incredible health strides and are living longer lives than ever. Many of the maladies that struck down our ancestors have for the most part been completely eliminated – everything from tuberculosis, to polio to malaria.

Today, the biggest killers stem as much from our lifestyles as from microscopic bacteria and viruses. One of the worst of these is heart disease, and specifically high blood pressure.

Each and every one of us can benefit from learning Tai Chi. This ancient Chinese art has been described as “meditation in motion” and is known to prevent and treat many health problems, as documented by several studies.

Tai chi is a practice that focuses on movements originating from the torso. Why is this important, and how do we lose this capability as we get older? Here is some insight, as presented by Synerchi Publishing:

Historical Scholar Claims Jesus Was a Roman Hoax

Science of TIME

It turns out Doctor Who was right: “Timey-wimey” is, indeed, a bit “wibbly-wobbly.”

Scientists have confirmed, several times, that the speed at which time passes is both variable and malleable. We can speed it up. We can slow it down. In fact, you do so every day without knowing it.

But before we explore the concept of time, we need to first explore the concept of gravity. We experience gravity two-dimensionally: up and down. However, gravity is not two-dimensional. If you were to drop a bowling ball off of a tower, it would fall down to the ground. If you were to drop a bowling ball off a tower in New York City at the same moment your Aussie friend dropped a bowling ball off a tower in Perth, both bowling balls would fall “down"—but they’d also be traveling in opposite directions. They’d be falling “down” as well as toward one another.

Earth’s gravity pulls all objects—from all directions—toward the center of the planet. We define “up” and “down” based on that gravitational pull. If you were to jump into a big underground drill and travel to the center of the Earth, you’d reach a point where there was no more “down”—only “up.” “Down” doesn’t exist at that point—at least in terms of the Earth.

Mass creates gravitational force. Therefore, all objects have gravity. The more mass an object has, the more gravitational force it exerts. Marbles have a little. I have some and would like less. Earth has the perfect amount, I’d argue. And Jupiter has a pantload. If you were to stand on the surface of Jupiter (a concept with which every geek reading this just started arguing), you would be pulled toward the center of the planet 154 percent harder than you are here on Earth. You’d weigh 254 percent of what you weigh here. You’d be crushed—not only emotionally, but physically as well.

Now, let’s take a step off the surface of these planets and explore what’s going on in the space around them. Our moon is held in orbit by the Earth’s gravitational pull. The Earth circles the Sun because of the Sun’s massive gravitational force. That’s all basic stuff we learned in fourth grade. Here’s where it gets wiblby-wobbly: Gravity also tugs at time and space.

In his 1905 special theory of relativity, Einstein asserted that space and time were not two separate phenomenons or entities. Instead, space (height, width, length) and time (forward? backward?) were mixed together in one continuum—woven together in one fabric. This single continuum of time and space has come to be called “spacetime”—the physical manifestation of all space and all time. I think of it as a soup. Spacetime is the broth and we’re the chunky bits floating about.

Think of spacetime soup this way: If you’re standing alone on top of a hill waiting for your significant other to wander up, you can point in an infinite number of directions: up, down, left, right, in front of you, behind you, slightly up-left, kinda down right, and so on. You can see and define the three physical dimensions of our universe. But if you stood perfectly still, you’d still move forward through time. At a point, your significant other would appear. And you would have traveled—while standing still on a hill—forward through time to that point.

In 1916, Einstein updated his special theory of relativity to account for gravity. Einstein’s first theory of relativity defined time as part of the physical world. (By “physical world” I mean all the aspects of the universe that exhibit as matter or energy—you know, that whole E=mc2 mass-energy equivalence thing.) This new theory of general relativity postulated that if time was, in fact, part of the physical world then gravity should affect time as well as space.

Scientists have confirmed this to be true several times since Einstein first put forth the idea. Using highly technical experiments and incredibly-sensitive instruments, people much smarter than I have been able to prove that gravitational force alters the speed of time. The most accessible example and proof of this phenomenon, I think, comes to us from the clocks aboard our nation’s GPS satellites.

There are a few dozen GPS satellites floating high above the Earth. Each satellite carries an atomic clock that, when on Earth, is perfectly precise and in sync with Earth time. However, when lifted to the less dense gravity of the upper atmosphere, the satellites’ atomic clocks speed up. Were an observer to fly up to one of these satellites and watch the on-board atomic clock, he would see no difference in the length of a second. It would still be that familiar tick, tick, tick of Earth seconds. At that level of gravity, he, too, would be moving faster through time and would therefore see one second to be one plain old second. But, from here on the Earth’s surface and from within our denser gravitational field, we can see that the seconds pass a little more quickly on the satellites.

Time is slowed by heavy gravity. Just as it's easier to swim through outer space, than it is through the atmosphere, than it is through water, than it is through rock, time moves more quickly through less dense gravity. Time passes more slowly on Jupiter than it does here on Earth. And, as the impatient clocks on the Mars rover prove, time passes more quickly on Mars due to its lighter gravitational pull.

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. “Gravity” is the same as “gravitational force"—or G-force—or acceleration. Therefore, as Einstein explained in his famous “twin thought experiment,” objects in motion experience greater gravitational force (G-force) and therefore travel more slowly through time than objects that are standing still. Therefore, Einstein said (and physicists have since proven), if two 20-something twins with identical heart rates were separated—one stayed put on Earth, and one traveled away from Earth at light speed for six months and then back for six months—the traveling twin would be one year older, and the stationary twin would be in a nursing home gumming Jell-O.

Time for the traveling twin was slowed by the gravitational force created by traveling at light speed, and time rushed forward—though rather boringly—for the twin who was left behind. And, most interestingly, throughout the whole experiment, each twin experienced their own heart rates as nothing but normal the entire time.

The implications of this discovery and still-relatively-new-model-of-thinking are staggering. First, and most importantly, move your bed to your basement and your evil twin’s bed to the attic you’ll get a longer night’s sleep and outlive the thieving bastard. Secondly, if time is affected by gravitational force, and we can create gravitational force through acceleration—whether in a rocket or a merry-go-round—we can control time.

If we can control time, can we now claim to be time-travelers? And if so, where’s my TARDIS?

Scientists study possible health benefits of Psychedelic Drugs (LSD ecstasy, marijuana)

A growing number of people are taking LSD and other psychedelic drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy to help them cope with a variety of conditions including anorexia nervosa, cluster headaches, and chronic anxiety attacks.

The emergence of a community that passes the drugs between users on the basis of friendship, support, and need – with money rarely involved – comes amid a resurgence of research into the possible therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. This is leading to a growing optimism among those using the drugs that soon they may be able to obtain medicines based on psychedelics from their doctor, rather than risk jail for taking illicit drugs.

Among those in Britain already using the drugs and hoping for a change in the way they are viewed is Anna Jones (not her real name), a 35-year-old university lecturer, who takes LSD once or twice a year. She fears that without an occasional dose she will go back to the drinking problem she left behind 14 years ago with the help of the banned drug.

LSD, the drug synonymous with the 1960s counter-culture, changed her life, she says. “For me it was the catalyst to give up destructive behaviour – heavy drinking and smoking. As a student I used to drink two or three bottles of wine, two or three days a week, because I didn’t have many friends and didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin.

“Then I took a hit of LSD one day and didn’t feel alone any more. It helped me to see myself differently, increase my self-confidence, lose my desire to drink or smoke and just feel at one with the world. I haven’t touched alcohol or cigarettes since that day in 1995 and am much happier than before.”

Many others are using the drugs to deal with chronic anxiety attacks brought on by terminal illness such as cancer.

Research was carried out in the 1950s and 1960s into psychedelics. In some places they were even used as a treatment for anxiety, depression and addiction. But a backlash against LSD – owing to concerns that the powerful hallucinogen was becoming widespread as a recreational drug, and fear that excessive use could trigger mental health conditions such as schizophrenia – led to prohibition of research in the 1970s.

Under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act it is classified as a Class A, schedule 1 substance – which means not only is LSD considered highly dangerous, but it is deemed to have no medical research value.

Now, though, distinguished academics and highly respected institutions are looking again at whether LSD and other psychedelics might help patients. Psychiatrist Dr John Halpern, of Harvard medical school in the US, found that almost all of 53 people with cluster headaches who illegally took LSD or psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, obtained relief from the searing pain. He and an international team have also begun investigating whether 2-Bromo-LSD, a non-psychedelic version of LSD known as BOL, can help ease the same condition.

Studies into how the drug may be helping such people are also being carried out in the UK. Amanda Feilding is the director of the Oxford-based Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust that investigates consciousness, its altered states and the effects of psychedelics and meditation. She is a key figure in the revival of scientific interest in psychedelics and expresses her excitement about the initial findings of two overseas studies with which her foundation is heavily involved.

“One, at the University of California in Berkeley, was the first research into LSD to get approval from regulators and ethics bodies since the 1970s,” she said. Those in the study are the first to be allowed to take LSD legally in decades as part of research into whether it aids creativity. “LSD is a potentially very valuable substance for human health and happiness.”

The other is a Swiss trial in which the drug is give alongside psychotherapy to people who have a terminal condition to help them cope with the profound anxiety brought on by impending death. “If you handle LSD with care, it isn’t any more dangerous than other therapies,” said Dr Peter Gasser, the psychiatrist leading the trial.

At Johns Hopkins University in Washington, another trial is examining whether psilocybin can aid psychotherapy for those with chronic substance addiction who have not been helped by more conventional treatment.

Professor Colin Blakemore, a former chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said the class-A status of psychedelics such as LSD should not stop them being explored as potential therapies. “No drug is completely safe, and that includes medical drugs as well as illegal substances,” he said. “But we have well-developed and universally respected methods of assessing the balance of benefit and harm for new medicines.

“If there are claims of benefits from substances that are not regulated medicines – even including illegal drugs – it is important that they should be tested as thoroughly for efficacy and safety as any new conventional drug.”

Past reputations may make it hard to get approval for psychedelic medicines, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

“The known adverse effect profiles of psychedelic drugs would have to be considered very carefully in the risk/benefit analysis before the drugs may be approved for medicinal use,” said a spokeswoman. “These products, if approved, are likely to be classified as a prescription-only medicine and also likely to remain on the dangerous drug list, which means that their supply would be strictly controlled.”

source: guardian.co.uk

(The image above has a really cool animation once it loads!)

Anyone that has tried a psychedelic drug know that it’s impossible to fully explain the experience to someone who hasn’t tried one. The entertainment industry completely misrepresents these experiences with dragons flying out of people’s faces and walls melting into nothing, which never occur even with strong doses. So, here is my best attempt at explaining the psychedelic experience.

I’d like to start this off with an anecdote from Ram Dass, who was talking about working with a member of the anti-drug coalition on a book about LSD. In choosing pictures for the book, they agreed on only one:

“It was a picture of a guy on the floor, looking at some spilled Coca-Cola. And he liked that because it showed the people under drugs became so trivial, and their minds became so caught in nothing. And I liked it because it showed this person was seeing that in everything there is everything. That in the spilled drop of Coca-Cola is the entire universe.”

The General Sensation

While tripping, you realize that Shakespeare’s idea that “All the world’s a stage” was excitingly true. Everyone else is still acting in this play, taking their characters very seriously. But you are backstage, watching it all play out with you mask off for once. Your beliefs, which you now realize are oh-so human and tied to your subjective sense of self, have come off with that mask. You are now able to look at the world through a truly differerent lens for the very first time. Without the filters of ‘sobriety’, the nature and innate truths of the world become clear.

Furthermore, your appreciation for absolutely everything is exponentially magnified. That filter in your brain that says “I’ve seen that flower a thousand times before, so it’s not that cool anymore” is turned off. Even the most insignificant objects are seen as though it is the first time you’ve ever encountered them. You are temporarily reborn with a child’s eyes for 4-6 hours.

The Visuals

For the most part, you do not see things that are not actually there. You see things that ARE physically there move around and warp into amazingly intricate patterns, but you will not see a colorful dragon-fly through your bedroom. All surfaces begin slowly undulating in tiny waves as if all matter has come alive. Not to the extent that you’ll think the world is melting or reality is breaking apart; just enough to let you know that ‘solid’ is more subjective than you thought.

However you will see some INSANE visuals when your eyes are closed (or in darkness, since the experience is the same), like a super-imagination that is much less under your control than usual. Imagine seeing an endless chain of vivid scenery seamlessly warping from one image to the next. The bizarreness of these images knows no bounds.

Perception

One of the coolest insights can come from the power of your perspective while tripping. The best example of this is when you look in the mirror. You will see your face morph back and forth between looking the most beautiful way you view yourself and the ugliest way you view yourself. If that’s hard to understand, think of someone with a horrible case of anorexia. Even when they are compared side-by-side to people they think are skinny, they still see themselves as fat. You can see this extreme, and the opposite extreme without any effort on your while you are tripping. But of course, you one see your own extremes… so you won’t see yourself look anorexic unless you are capable of thinking you look like that while sober.

This also holds true for any object you look at. You can look at a chair and consciously fluctuate between seeing it as a supremely evil, horrible, ugly chair, and seeing it as the most wondrous, angelic object you have ever seen. This is why having a ‘bad trip’ is possible because people can get stuck at the negative end of this spectrum if they have emotional issues or something traumatic happens during the trip.

In summation, the influence of your perception on reality is infinitely magnified on shrooms/lsd. While this is happening to you, you will see that this is also true while sober, but it occurs less immediately. Very cool stuff.

Rules for Tripping

1) Know your dealer & drugs. As with anything you ingest into your body, make sure you know what you’re buying. This includes amounts and strengths as not all mushrooms and tabs are created equal.

2) Trip where you feel extremely comfortable, especially with relation to temperature. You do NOT need to be outside to have a fantastic trip (my best trip ever was inside a small room), but nature is pretty sweet! You can clearly see the difference between dead and living ‘objects’ through the lens of mushrooms and LSD.

3) Trip only with people who you trust and enjoy completely while sober. Just one person can put a bad spin on your trip. This is a big event so don’t be afraid to be picky!

4) While tripping, be sure to spend time by yourself. The longer you spend alone, the deeper you can go into the trip, and the deeper insight you will receive. Focus is paramount while tripping. Insights and even intense visuals do not develop unless you focus your attention or vision on something for 5+ seconds.

5) Write down your epiphanies. Psychedelics experiences are like dreams in that they’re clear right after, but fade away quickly after. Try to write them down while you’re still tripping otherwise some of the understand will be lost, no matter what.

Maximizing Your Trip

- Drink orange juice beforehand. The vitamin C helps you to relax physically and mentally and the acidic nature of the juice helps the digestion of the substance.

- Change your surroundings every hour or so, even if you’re just moving to another room. It’s difficult to describe how awesomely different a new environment can feel while tripping.

- Wear the most comfortable clothing you own. Even if that outfit consists of footsie pajamas and one of your mothers crazy hats. Comfort is vital.

- Plan a fun activity to do while you’re waiting to come up. It’s much more fun to all of a sudden realize you’re tripping than to be constantly asking yourself ‘Am I up?’ for an hour and a half. Don’t worry, you won’t miss it :p

- Listen to music. You think music is amazing on weed? Oh just you wait :)

- Remember to spend some (if not most) of your trip alone. It’s important enough to be mentioned twice!

Other Things to Know

- These substances are perfectly safe. In fact they’re the safest drugs you can take behind marijuana. You cannot die or cause brain damage from LSD or mushrooms without eating hundreds of dollars worth of the stuff. It’s like alcohol — perfectly safe unless you’re extremely stupid about it. For that matter it’s far easier to cause harm to yourself with alcohol. Do your research online beforehand so you have more than my word to go off of! Erowid is a good place to start.

- You’re not alone in being intrigued by experience another type of perception. According to a site-wide poll in 2011, 47% of HEthens have tried mushrooms and 36% have tried LSD. Woot :)

- You will feel some discomfort and possibly nausea when you’re coming up on either magic mushrooms or LSD. Many people describe this feeling as ‘wanting to get out of your body’. For me, the non-physical nature of the soul becomes very obvious during the trip, so this sensation makes sense. The unpleasantness will go away when you’re all the way up.

This article is useful for the experienced dreamer who wishes to refine and deepen their lucid adventures. If you’ve never practiced being consciously aware within your dreams, check out the beginner lucid dreaming article.

To make the following techniques effective I suggest you maximize your dream recall ability. Two weeks worth of daily dream entries in your journal would be advantageous.

In-Dream Objectives

Gather ‘Chi’ Energy

You don’t have to be a Chi-Gong master to accomplish this! Visualise your key meridian points in the center of your palms and the center of your feet. Start to breathe slowly within the dreamscape, becoming aware of the inhalation and exhalation of our lungs. Now, imagine roots coming out of your feet and into the dreamscape’s ground, feel them deeply rooting themselves and feel the floor with your minds-eye. Now place your palms outwards and imagine sucking in positive energy into your hands. This greatly increases dream stability and makes the experience last a thousand times longer.

Breakdown the Dream Wall

When Lucid, preferably after grounding, state your date of birth and the place of where you were born. Say loudly, your home address and maybe recite what you did that day prior to sleeping. This breaks down the illusory wall that separates us when we’re dream-walking ‘Unconsciously’. By doing this regularly we strengthen the ability to become frequent lucid dreamers and will bring tremendous clarity between two worlds.

Advanced Dream Recall

When grounded in lucidity, boost your dream memory by stating out loud with eyes open the following: “I will remember all that there is to remember”. You may say it a few times till you feel the intention is firmly set in. Like all intentions, you must really put passion and belief behind these words. ‘Feel it’…

Meditate within the Dream World

I discovered this intuitively a few years back. It brings on surprising occurrences that connect us with spirit even more. The possibility to suddenly trans-locate from lucid dreaming to an out-of-body-experience is more than likely. Please experiment and see for yourself.

Call Out For Your Spirit Guide

Become Lucid and find a dream character and ask three times, “Are you my Spirit Guide?”Always ask three times so that you know they are genuine. The ‘dream law’ strangely seems to be that they must answer truthfully on the third answer. Once the bond has been established, maintain that connection with your guide and nurture the relationship. Work through deep problems and fast track your way to great wisdom. Just call out for them anytime; they will suddenly appear and be by your side! I’ve had great adventures with my guide for over three years; he’s helped me immensely on my spiritual path.

Increasing Your Chances of Lucidity

Before you lucid dream you can add a teaspoon of Turmeric and a pinch of Nutmeg to your last meal of the day. I tend to make a rice and vegetable dish with no meat whilst adding these two little gems! It really increases your vividness and dream recall. Give it a go, but go easy on the Nutmeg!

Don’t eat after 6pm. When journeying to the outer realms you want to ‘feel’ light. Your energy body needs to be flexible and movable. By being more disciplined with our diets we can achieve great focus and can become more lucid. The ‘Tibetan Dream Yogis’ do not eat after 6pm specifically for this reason.

Say ‘NO’ to caffeine! Did you know that just one cup of coffee can deduct one hour off our ‘REM’ dream period? By drinking coffee you will decrease your lucid dreamtime. However, you get a REM rebound if you take coffee regularly but it’s not naturally recommended.

Try Green Tea as a healthy alternative. Green Tea gives you a natural caffeine boost and won’t get in the way of your ‘REM’ period. In fact, studies now show ‘Green Tea’ to be a great Lucid Dream activator because of the two chemical compounds, L-glutamine and L-theanine.

EXTREME LUCID DREAMING!

5 HTP-100mg

Galantamine 4mg/Choline 200mg (blend)

GPC Choline- 300mg-900mg

First you take the 5 HTP one hour before sleep. Try and aim to go to sleep no later than 10:30pm. Before sleeping meditate in bed and state your intention to become lucid. Dream incubation also can be done at this stage.
Try and wake up naturally for 4 am. Use the toilet and try not to turn on any lights, as you still want to be in a ‘sleepy state’ of mind. Climb back into bed. Take the Galantamine with Choline blend along with the GPC Choline.
Lie now on your back, and state again your intention briefly in your mind and drift. After 20 mins roll over to your right side (for guys) or left side (for girls). Now get comfy and drift to sleep. You can also try to maintain awareness to the end and achieve a WILD. I personally like to drift to sleep and be awoken naturally by the buzzing sensations.
From here your adventures really begin! I will not share what ‘COULD’ happen as this may influence your journey and mindset.

Try the combination of diet and supplements along with ‘In-Dream objectives’ and share your experiences. We can learn so much from each other and uncover more truths regarding the wonderful world of Lucid Dreaming!

An out-of-body experience (OOBE) is when your energy/ethereal/astral body leaves your physical body, allowing you to float around the universe on another plane. This may sound like crazy at first, but there is much evidence out there validating these experiences. I thought it was hogwash until I had my first OOBE two years ago, but that’s a story for a future article detailing OOBE’s and how to achieve them.

Robert Monroe first legitimized OOBE’s by creating the Monroe Institute and refining a process by which anyone could come in an experience an OOBE. He then collected several decades worth of written reports from thousands of people. He shared many of his favorite reports in hisJourneys Out Of the Body books, but the following report takes the cake.

This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read…

Context: A woman is recounting one of her final OOBE’s at the Monroe Institute. At the beginning of this story, she has already left her body and is interacting with some of the other participants in her class.

“I was suddenly drawn by a powerful force to one room in particular — to one CHEC Unit in particular. It took me by total surprise, for the man in that unit was someone I didn’t know very well. In fact, he was the only one at the workshop I had never really had a chance to talk to. He was a young, good-looking psychologist, yet for some reason we seemed to be purposely avoiding each other.

All at once I had an all-knowing, as I seemed to float over him, that his vibrations were my vibrations. I had an overwhelming desire to meld, to feel a part of him — to become one. It was truly one of the sharpest and clearest of experiences.

I gave to him both my body and soul until there was this tremendous energy surge that rocked and exploded in us. It was an experience that is beyond words, for love, total and absolute, surrounded us more strongly than can’ be earthly experienced or imagined. The more I gave, the greater I received and I didn’t want to let go. I wanted to give him even more. It was like two energies in perfect unison becoming one at last. (I can remember thinking how physical sex paled in comparison.)

Memories of past lives together came rushing in like flashes of light. We talked in this state and I came to realize this experience could only have happened at the end of the workshop as it did, for each of us would have been distracted had we ‘met’ earlier on — perhaps hampering other growth experiences that week. There was a meeting of both our minds with this experience and I knew our meeting had been more than coincidence — it was predestined.

I truly experienced everything I asked for and more, and when I came down to the meeting room after the tape there was an unusual heightened energy where people seemed to be flying. I saw ‘him’ as I came down the stairs to join the group and he looked at me excitedly, ecstatically, as if something totally incredible had happened to him. I hadn’t said a word yet, as he quietly repeated a number of times, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’ I felt elated — I had made contact. We compared our individual experiences, making sure each of us was not coloring the other’s story. It didn’t matter — our stories fit like puzzle pieces, matching perfectly and interlocking. We both had also had the use of all our senses — the strongest being touch.

After this experience we were later reunited to share others together. We’ve been with each other for the past two years now — growing and loving together.”

—

I hope that story gave you the same chills it gave me a few years ago. If you’d like to learn more about OOBE’s, I suggest reading Robert Bruces’ Treatise on Astral Projection (free online) in addition to Roberto Monroe’s books (also easy to find for free online).

Equipment you need to start

1. An MP3 player and some very good headphones (comfortable!)

2. Albums by infected mushroom: IM The supervisor, Vicious Delicious, Classical Mushroom, Converting Vegetarians, Legend of the Black Shwarma, Friends on Mushrooms – Discography is fine, specific songs to follow in the end of the post.

3. Some weed/marijuana/cannabis and something to smoke (or eat) it with.

4. Darkness and quiet

Mind set you need to bring

1. You need to be comfortable with bass-strong music. If you hate this stuff, there are other albums to look for (again, will post at bottom).

2. You need to LET GO of all ties of ‘music’ you need to treat this as a journey

3. You need to be TIRED – staying up 2 or 3 hours past your bed time will work.

4. Do not fear anything, you can’t get hurt J

How to do it

Consume (eat or smoke) an amount of cannabis that will bring you to a high “one level” above your normal threshold. If you usually pack one bowl of your favorite device, pack an additional half bowl. After reaching your high gauge yourself if you can smoke (or eat) any additional amount. You want to be a ‘new kind of high’. When I attempted this, I would get to a point that I would forget why I was getting high in the first place.

You’ll put your music on and while its playing get in a comfortable position on your bed. You want as little light and sound as possible – so doing at night with the lights off is good.

As you ears adjust to the music you’ll be able to think about other things. You don’t want this. Always have the volume to a level that keeps your mind completely occupied by the music. As soon as you realize you’re comfortable with the music volume, and your thoughts drift, up the volume again. Eventually you’ll get to a point where the volume can’t be made relaxing, and your mind is completely occupied by the music.

Now, relax. Start by focusing on some of the sounds, and linking them to some kind of visualization. For instance, make the trumpets actually be trumpets in your head. Make them warp with the music. Slowly get more and more abstract and surreal and detailed with your imagery. Start connecting every sound that comes to you with an imagery and a place. Make your setting up – the moon, the middle of space, under water, filling it completely with imaginary representations of the music. You need to create a cosmic fantasia in your mind as the music plays.

Once you have created some sort of landscape place yourself inside. Now place yourself in this setting, moving to the music. Warping, bending, twisting as the music does; traveling in interstellar space, being stretched across the cosmos. At some point your mind will want to let go, but the ego will say ‘no’. If you’re lucky, the ego loses, and good bye! You’ll be WAY out there.

Why should you do this?

Well, aside from the incredible mind-blowing experience this has brought me and others, this gives a great respect to cannabis. Far greater than what is seen in most of our society today. In fact, this experience has the ability to transform your highs – allowing you to utilize marijuana to a fuller extent, for incredible uses in meditation, self-analysis, and awareness.

After I started doing this, no longer was I ‘addicted’ to marijuana. I used it as a ceremony of sorts. It became special to me – something to be respected and used as such.

The best song list of Infected Mushroom for this experience:

Vicious Delicious (The best, save for last), Ratio Shmatio, Frog Machine, Slowly, Unbalanced, B.P. Empire, Heavy Weight, Mushi Mushi, Bust a Move, Astrix on Mushrooms, Deeply Disturbed, Elation Station, Ballerium, Hush Mail (and more if you want to download single songs, start with these though).

Other artists for those who dislike heavy bass (some of these still have bass lines);

Kwoon, BlueTech, Erothyme, Ott, Shpongle, Vibrasphere.

Have any artists or songs you’d like to add?

origionally posted :www.highexistence.com

Basic instructions

Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight, the crown of your head ‘pulled upwards’ and your chin turned in a little towards your chest. If you feel any pain in the knees or in the back, sit a little bit higher on a cushion. It is of essential importance that you can relax deeper and deeper, and potentially even fall asleep while sitting. If this is not the case, choose to sit in a chair or to lie down on your back.

During the meditation, try to concentrate on the physical, bare, sensations of the breath. When you are new to meditation, focus on the area around the belly, sucking air in, pushing air out. Try to breathe into the belly, here are the most veins that take up oxygen and helps the parasympathetic nervous system to calm you down. In time, when you have developed a somewhat better concentration you can move to the sensations around the nostrils. The sensations here are harder to detect and thus you need to pay more attention. Keep in mind that everything else other than the bare sensations is a distraction. Feeling good? Go back to the sensation of the breath. Having a good thought? Go back. Making sounds on the rhythm of the breath? Then you are masking the true sensations of the moment, try to find how it actually feels so go back. You might want explicitly note every time you get distracted. So if you notice you are not on the breath anymore, label the moment ’distraction’ and move your attention back to the object of meditation. Keep in mind, every time you notice you lost the object, you are making progress!

Start with 5 minutes twice a day. Move up once you feel like you could and wanted to do more. This can already happen after the first session. Move up to 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes twice a day.

Intermediate instructions.

When you are around the 10 minute mark you probably noticed already the crazy habitual stream of thoughts. It is NOT the goal to get rid of these, just being aware of them and what their effect is on your state of mind is enough. Their pull will lessen over time. However, every time you get distracted from the breath, it means you didn’t notice the pull of the first thought that started another whole train of thoughts. You can ask yourself, why exactly that thought, that moment?

The more you meditate, the more you will notice that thoughts are just clouds passing by in the mind space. But some thoughts still attract your whole attention. These are the ones that you desire, or, in other words, the ones that distract you from what is really happening in your body, on the sensational level. These are the fantasies or worries that pre-occupy your existence because you don’t want to see what lies beneath.

When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick. Every time a stick is thrown, you run after it. Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower. One only throws a stick at a lion once.
-Milarepa

The instruction here is to relax into your body on every outbreath, letting go, and focusing more intensely on the bare sensations on every inbreath. This creates a rhythm, a tendency, that actually resembles a kind of courage to face old neurosis and traumas. Thoughts will still be there, but they will become powerless. They will show their true face, not the commander of the human passions, but the slave that works for the passions.

The next step is to go deep into the sensations. At the start of an inbreath, the sensations are barely noticeable. At one point, where the speed of inhalation is the highest, the tingling around the nostrils is the most intense. And at the end, when the lungs are quite full already the sensations slowly disappear. When they are hard to distinguish from other stimuli around you, try to go deeper. Zoom in. Can you feel a little more before they disappear? Is it really one sensation, or are there many small ones? Investigate and keep your eyes on the ball. Go back to the breath when distracted.

The more you meditate the more you find old layers of tension popping up in your awareness. Places where anxiety rests. These are the places that stress up when you are in a situation that seems hostile to you. This could be all the time (chronic tension). The most common ones are the areas around the neck and shoulder, chest and groin. When you notice this, try to be mindful during the day. Just being aware of it and when possible, try to relax the tension.

When you go deeper into these areas, you might get distracted much quicker than when concentrating on the sensations of the breath. This is because your defense mechanisms house there. You don’t like being aware of it, it feels like suffering. You would rather be un-conscious of them. This is true every time you are completely into your thought stream and not in your body. Thoughts can not feel suffering but your body can. And if your body get’s too in-tense, we run into our own fabricated house of symbols. Remember that most people go through life, day in day out, without a fundamental trusting connection with their body. Be compassionate, be caring. Being scared and hurt can show itself in many ways. (anger, arrogance, pride, revenge, anxiety etc). Don’t forget to include yourself into the circle of compassion.

If after a few months of being mindful of these problem areas you still can’t relax into them fully, then you could try to add yoga, tai chi, chi qong or dancing to your practice. It opens up the tension, it is a really powerful tool that is probably very uncomfortable for many. But, once the old knots disappear, you feel lifted, the world seems lighter and a more happy place.

Advanced Instructions

At one point you will experience what is sometimes called access concentration. This is the point where nothing will distract you from the object of the breath. Thoughts still appear but they are in the background, just like the sensation of your legs while sitting right now. They simply inform instead of screaming for attention. At this point, which should be easy doable in 1-2 months of 20 minutes of meditation twice a day, you can choose to go three different, albeit overlapping, ways.

1. Develop Deeper Concentration

Continue focusing on the breath. Keep zooming in more and more. The breath is a great tool because the more you relax, the harder it is to detect the sensations. So the difficulty level goes up over time and so keeps challenging your limits. Deeper concentration, being less prone to distraction, will benefit your overall well-being and other spiritual practices immensely.

At one point you can switch the object from the breath to the space of the mind. Here are where the small distractions lie that normally go unnoticed. The ones that pull you a little bit away from your moment to moment experience (because the mind doesn’t want to, I will elaborate a little bit on this later on). The object is the mind is everything that arises in the mind, and nothing else. Treat everything else, sounds, bodily sensations, pain etc. as distraction. In the beginning it is very hard to distinguish this area from the more tangible sensations. To make this a bit easier you can question yourself; what is the mind? Where does this question come from? Where is it located? Just relax and see what answers pops up! For a great overview what is possible and how far the mind can train itself read The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind.

2. Entering Jhana

Jhanas are the blissfull altered states of mind one can enter during meditation. Jhana is also called ‘absorption’ or ‘ecstasy’. And that is exactly how it feels. During jhanas you are so completely absorbed into the object of meditation that all distinctions between the observer and the observed will cease to exist. It can give you great insight into reality and give a profound sense of bliss and joy. There are eight jhanas but I will only elaborate on how to enter the first one. For more information you can check out this wonderful book Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity or this online free PDF.

When you entered access concentration and your body is as calm as can be, the places where you normally hold tension are now relaxed and thoughts are just whispers in the distance you can decide to enter the first jhana. Slowly, without getting distracted, move your attention from the breath to a pleasant sensation. Most common areas are the hands, the chest or the breath itself. Focus on the pleasantness of the sensation. It is of utmost importance to not get distracted. Don’t think to yourself how pleasant it is or if this is the right spot because it is very easy to lose access concentration. When you focus on something pleasant it is very likely it will cost you less effort. In this way, you can, as it were, slide into the absorptive state. It might start out small, but it can grow to infinity in a non-linear way. In the buddhist scriptures it has been said that jhana’s act as a fire that can burn away mental defilements. Just keep in mind not to get attached to these blissful sensations!

3. Investigate The Three Marks of Existence

The three marks of existence are experiential truths you can investigate to liberate yourself from suffering. Meditation is a tool to become skillful enough in this investigation that you can understand and face reality as it really is, at any given moment. Once you entered access concentration you can take any given phenomenon arising in your experiential field and find these three marks.

Anicca: Impermanence. Everything sensory experience changes from moment to moment. There is no fixed substance anywhere. Everything is transitory. This is one of the easiest marks to grasp. Every sensation consists of thousand other sensations which in turn also consists of a thousand others. Some are slow, some are fast, but they never last.

To investigate this, find an object, any part of now you like, and see if you can find something that is not changing. If you find anything, take that as an object and investigate deeper. Even the worst pains and the highest joys don’t last forever and neither does the mental projection of an observer.

Dukkha: This is often translated as suffering but a better term is un-satisfactoriness. Since all phenomena are in a constant state of flux, there is nothing you can hold on, nothing you can control, nothing you can keep safe. But our desire is to get happy, and once we have happiness, to keep it. Yet this is impossible.

To investigate this, take any object and explore the anicca part of it and see what the mind does. It tries to hold the pleasant states or reject the unpleasant states. If it has something it likes, it wants more of it or wants to try to secure it. It is something we constantly do, something we can’t even imagine we can do without. If we can let go of this continuous grasping, just like the tension I mentioned earlier, we get uplifted immediately. It takes some bravery and courage to investigate this, but it will also develop the strength needed to confront any issues you might have in life.

Anatta: Non self. There is no observer that observes. There is no thinker of thoughts, not hearer of sounds. If you entered a jhana you understand that at that point, the observer and the observed are one. But this goes for every single phenomena in our experience. At one point, there is just the breath, or just the hands, or just the ongoing stream of thoughts in our mind space. (Watch out! It is very easy to identify yourself with the one who has the thoughts, but remember, this ‘observer’ just arises and passes away too, it is just a mental construct designed to make something permanent).

If you made it this far, I want to thank you for reading my words. You clearly have an interest in meditation and I honestly believe it is one of most beautiful gifts we can give ourselves and others. every time you take a moment to sit, you show the world how courageous you are and that you are not afraid to take the whole universe into your comfort zone.

For those that show an interest in meditation but never really found a way to start or keep a daily practice. I know you can do it. Yes, it’s hard, it’s not always fun and it takes time. Sometimes you aren’t even sure why you are doing it at all. But isn’t this true for everything worth in life? There is great source of joy and strength to be discovered, all it takes is a little discipline. It is all right to be afraid, nobody can tell us where we have come from. Maybe it’s time to do away with the band-aids and accept our moment to moment experience as it really is and not as we wish it to be?

Originally posted on: High Existence

Vedas Beyond Science