5 replies to this topic

[OpenStrife]

From all my research into Meditation and mental training, it seems to be widely accepted that the mind CAN be trained and strengthened to function at higher levels and altered states of minds, without any changes to diet. I personally have experienced this throughout my life, since I started meditating. Meditation is like a pushup for the mind, only you can do far more things and it can heal/recover at much more extreme rates.

Anyways, I make this post in regards to an experiment I plan to conduct and the theory and logic behind it, and how other people can easily apply it to their lives.


Many people use supplements to function at higher cognitive levels(and at physical levels too), but on this forum, I'll stick to the cognitive aspect.

If a person takes supplements, they may receive a short term, and even long term boost, though once supplementation has ceased, the effects will decline.

The solution:
Mental training.

To briefly describe the essence of mental training:
If somebody focuses the mind with an activity such as meditation(which can be done in less than 20 minutes), that person will notice a significant mental boost in focus, and overall cognitive functioning. The more this state is practiced the more benefits the person will experience over the long term. This is a perfect example of someone training the mind to operate in a certain state.

With meditation though, results can only come so fast.

Though if a person receives a boost of supplements, and trains the mind to stay in that state of conscious functioning, meditating on it daily, while weening his/herself off of the supplement that brought the boost in the first place.... then the person will notice he can operate at that level of functioning without the supplement. - ASSUMING the person does not decrease their dose any further until they have reached a level of functioning as high, or higher than their previous does on the supplement(before they began the weening. You basically, find a state of mind you enjoy on a supplement, decrease your dose a little, focus the mind on reaching that boosted state again, once it has been reached, decrease the dose some more, and keep doing this, only decreasing the dose when you are able to have your mind working at a level of your highest enjoyable dose.


A similar concept can be seen in the movie Limitless, where instead of relying on the drug NTZ, he trains himself to operate at that level of functioning without the drug.

If a short meditation session can definitely boost a persons overall mindstate, and constant/daily meditation can cause long term changes, then it only makes sense that a person can train his mind to operate at any level.

On a meditation retreat last year, where we would meditate for 10-15 hours aday, for about 10 days straight... on the 4th day my mind was extremely powerful. I could halucinate at will, astral project and leave my body and fly around, and (lucid)dream with a single intention on turning a thought into reality. Though, this is hard core meditation here. After the retreat the abilities faded as my schedule only allowed me to practice meditation about 20 minutes aday, which is not enough time to ingrain such amazing abilities into my natural functioning.


Anyways, any boost received from a supplement can be ingrained into your natural functioning. The fact is that the supplement makes it a million times easier since you know where you are going ahead of time. By understanding what functioning on the supplement is like, and focusing the mind to enter that state frequently, while gradually reducing your dose over time... you can successfully adopt functioning like that any time.


It only makes sense. Your conscious experience of the world is dependent upon your brain waves, which are induced by chemicals. If meditating intensively can induce the same mental state as tripping 30 hits of acid, and meditating is merely using your natural brain chemicals... then this can be done with any state of mind.

This being said, I firmly believe it is a rule of thumb that any state of mind that can be experienced under any drug/supplement, can be adopted in sober functioning with the proper mental training.

This makes me point to Isochroma. While he did a bit manic, he achieved some amazing states of mind through the use of Piracetam. Imagine if he focused his mind, and achieved being able to operate like that while sober.

It is proven that experienced monks who have meditated many hours are able to alter their brainwaves at will. This is basically because they've dedicated their life to controlling their mind.

I hope I have inspired many of you. Any state of mind you can experience on a supplement can be experienced while off the supplement... and the brain is limitless. If you train your brainwaves to replicate their activity as when you were on a supplement, while sober... then you could go back on the supplement and achieve in higher states with the same doses, train your mind to stay in those states naturally by weening off the supplement, and repeat.

In theory, you could become infinitely smarter, while would not be possible by merely talking an infinite amount of the substance because it is relying on a bunch of other brain faculties that are not up to speed with it... but by training your mind to stay in these states while sober, you are also training the other parts of your brain to keep up with the demand..... just a little brain theory for you folks. With the mind/brain... anything is possible.

Cheers!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, though I am very busy with my career so I will try my best to answer the questions.

-OS

Edited by OpenStrife, 08 July 2012 - 03:32 AM.

[mksta1000]

Can you go into more detail about the meditation retreat? Since you mentioned a ten day period, I'm assuming it was a Vipassana workshop.

Also, what length of daily meditation would you feel to be adequate to maintain the ability level you achieved at the retreat?

Edited by mksta1000, 15 July 2012 - 02:28 PM.

[Introspecta]

We think we are only limited to periods of the day where we can meditate but you can use walking meditation where you use present moment awareness into your daily tasks, like washing the dishes, walking from place to place, driving, at red lights the list goes on. Meditation is not only limited to taking yourself out of the world and sitting for a period of time. Whenever you can remember take 3 conscious breaths. All day everyday. Anytime you can remember. Eventually it because second nature. At first its hard to remember and you might go days or weeks of being unconscious. I meditate for spiritual purposes but the mind benefits are an added plus. I've been away from this path the last few months do to a major life change which sort of knocked me off but am making my way back up to higher states of consciousness.

[OpenStrife]

Can you go into more detail about the meditation retreat? Since you mentioned a ten day period, I'm assuming it was a Vipassana workshop.

Also, what length of daily meditation would you feel to be adequate to maintain the ability level you achieved at the retreat?

I actually focused more on Samatha at the retreat. Perhaps a retreat is the wrong word. Everyone just went through, we ate meals, weren't allowed to talk, and just sat in meditation. I do believe there was a teacher there for people who needed advice but I was so absorbed in my own practice that I kept to myself for the entire period.

What length of daily meditation would I feel is necessarily to maintain the ability level I achieved at the retreat? This question is not that easy to answer. For example, emotional boosts don't tend to last as long as the learned behaviors. My ability to enter meditation has never really decreased since that period of deep practice, but some of the emotional boosts faded to an extent. I also never really 'unlearned' any of some of the amazing mystical abilities, but entering them became harder gradually over time as I didn't really practice them that much. Some of these abilities were just things I wasn't too interested in practicing at the time. To me, meditation is a tool, to cultivate the mind, and your consciousness is the direction to which it can be cultivated. As long as you have an idea of where you want to progress to, from your current state of consciousness, then there is no limit to how far the mind can be cultivated.

We think we are only limited to periods of the day where we can meditate but you can use walking meditation where you use present moment awareness into your daily tasks, like washing the dishes, walking from place to place, driving, at red lights the list goes on. Meditation is not only limited to taking yourself out of the world and sitting for a period of time. Whenever you can remember take 3 conscious breaths. All day everyday. Anytime you can remember. Eventually it because second nature. At first its hard to remember and you might go days or weeks of being unconscious. I meditate for spiritual purposes but the mind benefits are an added plus. I've been away from this path the last few months do to a major life change which sort of knocked me off but am making my way back up to higher states of consciousness.

Walking meditation is effective in a sense, but far different from sitting. Rather, it will be very difficult to do concentration/samatha meditation when standing up and walking, especially if you are doing multiple changing activities, because the essence of concentration meditation is getting into a focused grove. Insight meditation is a different story, and can be done any time, as it involves a more outwards focus.

[Introspecta]

Yes I agree with you I just wanted to add that because many people don't have time or won't make time for meditation and therefore abandon the practice altogether when much of my spiritual progress with awareness has come from present moment awareness do to life getting busy and not sitting down and meditating. Open Strife have you ever read the book The Universe in a single atom by the Dalai Lama? It talks alot about science and spirituality and studies of monks meditating and the brain changes that are made.

[OpenStrife]

I have not. There are many texts on meditation I wish to read including the Yoga Sutras.

As far as I am concerned, many buddhist throughout the east, for centuries, underplay the power of meditation, portraying it as tool to become 'enlightened' - which it is. When really, Meditation will give you as much power as you believe it will give you. Ultimately cultivating any mental states you can imagine or desire to cultivate. The true power in meditation lies within the users desire and intention. Which buddhism throughout the east focuses on eliminating desire to gain enlightenment - which is rather a ....self-depowering point of view. Focused meditation employed with desire can allow one to gain anything out of it that they can possibly imagine. Meditation builds your potential for mental power but without a desire to use it in some way or another, it is simply a weapon of masspower sitting near-idle in the back of the mind - though every action in life stems from a desire of some sort, so even without focused intent to build brain power, meditation will still enhance ones daily activities.