meditation

[phattmatt]

scaning the brain of the Dali Lama, meditation does produce positive results for your mental and physical health  and well being, Could you tell me the session of meditation of an Atheist?

[Solitary]

When I was younger I met a Hindu that told me I didn't believe in God because I never experienced Him. I agreed, and he told me if he could teach me how to do it I would. It took three yes of daily meditation to achieve the tunnel with the bright light at the end and feeling absolute peace of mind. He may think it was God, but I say it was a figment of my imagination. Go figure. This was all in my mind and not in reality which means it is BS.  Solitary

[Naberius]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_Buddhism

[Solitary]

This is the kind of Buddha taught and not all the various schools of Buddhism that have been corrupted by other religions.  Solitary

[Mermaid]

I am still trying to understand the question.

[GSOgymrat]

Meditation is a practice that can religious or secular, kind of like singing.

[Johan]

You are annoying.

[ApostateLois]

When I was younger I met a Hindu that told me I didn't believe in God because I never experienced Him. I agreed, and he told me if he could teach me how to do it I would. It took three yes of daily meditation to achieve the tunnel with the bright light at the end and feeling absolute peace of mind. He may think it was God, but I say it was a figment of my imagination. Go figure. This was all in my mind and not in reality which means it is BS.  Solitary

If it's in your mind, it's real. It's, like, really in your mind, man.

[Berati]

A couple of months ago I got into a sensory deprivation tank exactly like this one (minus the babe, dammit)


It lasted an hour and I really enjoyed it. Supposedly after only a few sessions or so you can get your brain to produce the same theta waves that it takes monks years to achieve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_tank

[Casparov]

Meditation is the practice of learning to stop doing.

You first learn to cease thinking thoughts. How long can you go without thinking a single thought? Maybe 2 seconds for most. If you can get to the point where you can hold that state of zero thought for around 5 minutes, interesting things begin to happen. You will forget where your hands are situated. You may forget you have a body at all.

There is a point during meditation in which you find that you exist as nothing but a point of awareness floating in an infinite void. From this state your intent is extremely effective. So many beneficial things can be achieved from this state. You have effectively let go of physical reality.

There may soon arise a sensation of intense vibrations. It may feel as though you are being electrocuted but in a slightly pleasurable way. You may find yourself floating or standing in your room staring at your physical body that is meditating. You may decide to soar through the ceiling and through the dark attic and through the roof and up over your neighborhood and look down at a familiar world from an unfamiliar perspective. You may soar at the speed of light up away from earth into space towards the stars and past the galaxies and solar systems and into a glowing white tunnel which takes you back to the infinite void. You may find that floating in front of you is being of light that is telepathically communicating with you. A being which seems to be made out of pure love. You may ask it questions and instantly receive mind blowing answers. You may come to know the true nature of reality and experience the indescribable truth that truly we are all one. You may writh in the ecstasy of knowledge and experience, vibrating with love and understanding, a feeling of excitement and truth like you've never experienced until a single thought sneaks in... am i still meditating?

And then you open your eyes. You look at your hands and remember where they were positioned in just that way. You feel heavy and groggy and your eyes are hard to open. And you try to remember what the being told you but it's slipping away from memory faster than a dream. You can't hold onto it. Your brain doesn't seem to be able to handle it. THere are not sufficient symbols to store it with. You might get up and stumble to the bathroom and drink a glass of milk in the kitchen and think to yourself, "Was that all just a product of my brain? Was that all just BS?"

And it perhaps it was.

[DunkleSeele]

A couple of months ago I got into a sensory deprivation tank exactly like this one (minus the babe, dammit)

Well, with the babe inside the tank I can't imagine a lot of sensory deprivation going on... then again, sensory deprivation is overrated :)

[PopeyesPappy]

Sensory depravation maybe...

[Solitary]

If it's in your mind, it's real. It's, like, really in your mind, man.

He! He! Solitary

[Solitary]

Meditation is the practice of learning to stop doing.

You first learn to cease thinking thoughts. How long can you go without thinking a single thought? Maybe 2 seconds for most. If you can get to the point where you can hold that state of zero thought for around 5 minutes, interesting things begin to happen. You will forget where your hands are situated. You may forget you have a body at all.

There is a point during meditation in which you find that you exist as nothing but a point of awareness floating in an infinite void. From this state your intent is extremely effective. So many beneficial things can be achieved from this state. You have effectively let go of physical reality.

There may soon arise a sensation of intense vibrations. It may feel as though you are being electrocuted but in a slightly pleasurable way. You may find yourself floating or standing in your room staring at your physical body that is meditating. You may decide to soar through the ceiling and through the dark attic and through the roof and up over your neighborhood and look down at a familiar world from an unfamiliar perspective. You may soar at the speed of light up away from earth into space towards the stars and past the galaxies and solar systems and into a glowing white tunnel which takes you back to the infinite void. You may find that floating in front of you is being of light that is telepathically communicating with you. A being which seems to be made out of pure love. You may ask it questions and instantly receive mind blowing answers. You may come to know the true nature of reality and experience the indescribable truth that truly we are all one. You may writh in the ecstasy of knowledge and experience, vibrating with love and understanding, a feeling of excitement and truth like you've never experienced until a single thought sneaks in... am i still meditating?

And then you open your eyes. You look at your hands and remember where they were positioned in just that way. You feel heavy and groggy and your eyes are hard to open. And you try to remember what the being told you but it's slipping away from memory faster than a dream. You can't hold onto it. Your brain doesn't seem to be able to handle it. THere are not sufficient symbols to store it with. You might get up and stumble to the bathroom and drink a glass of milk in the kitchen and think to yourself, "Was that all just a product of my brain? Was that all just BS?"

And it perhaps it was.

That is an excellent presentation of what happens. It took me three years to reach that level. When I showed my wife how to do it she flew out the window and it scared her and she wouldn't do it again. I can do it very easily now in about 7 minutes. There are machines now that enable you to do it instantly. We have a psychedelic chemical in our bodies that can cause it in near death episodes, or under extreme stress. Solitary I should warn people that it can be a hellish experience also.

[Berati]

There may soon arise a sensation of intense vibrations. It may feel as though you are being electrocuted but in a slightly pleasurable way. You may find yourself floating or standing in your room staring at your physical body that is meditating. You may decide to soar through the ceiling and through the dark attic and through the roof and up over your neighborhood and look down at a familiar world from an unfamiliar perspective. You may soar at the speed of light up away from earth into space towards the stars and past the galaxies and solar systems and into a glowing white tunnel which takes you back to the infinite void. You may find that floating in front of you is being of light that is telepathically communicating with you. A being which seems to be made out of pure love. You may ask it questions and instantly receive mind blowing answers. You may come to know the true nature of reality and experience the indescribable truth that truly we are all one. You may writh in the ecstasy of knowledge and experience, vibrating with love and understanding, a feeling of excitement and truth like you've never experienced until a single thought sneaks in... am i still meditating?

And then you open your eyes. You look at your hands and remember where they were positioned in just that way. You feel heavy and groggy and your eyes are hard to open. And you try to remember what the being told you but it's slipping away from memory faster than a dream. You can't hold onto it. Your brain doesn't seem to be able to handle it. THere are not sufficient symbols to store it with. You might get up and stumble to the bathroom and drink a glass of milk in the kitchen and think to yourself, "Was that all just a product of my brain? Was that all just BS?"

And it perhaps it was.

There is a way to test if the experience was real, but only if the results of the test are positive. If the results are negative, it is a clue that the experience was imagined, but not proof that the experience was imagined. There is no way to prove it was imagined; only that it was real.

The experiment. Set up a separate room from the subject and write some random sentences on easels within that room. Have the person claiming the out of body experience soar through the walls, retrieve the information from the other room, then return to their body and tell you what they read.
Repeat this several times with different people.

This type of experiment has been available for a long time now and no one has ever been able to perform this very simple task repeatedly. Repeatability is an absolute necessity in science.
This experiment CANNOT PROVE that OBEs are only imagined. It can only prove that they are real. This is because a test of the hypothesis that OBE's are real is possible as the one above, while there is no test possible that can prove that they are only imagined. (hint; same reason why you can't prove god is only  imagined)

Casparov, do you understand why there is no way to test a claim that something is only imagined and (briefly) explain why this is?
If you disagree, then give please give me an example of evidence that would prove to someone that they were only imagining the OBE.