Originally Posted by
John Sorensen
Okay, some basic Q's to ask, feel free to add more detail as you like. Answer however you like, the bits under the Q's in (brackets) are just to stimulate your thinking, feel free to add to that.
Jusy copy and paste the Q's so you can fill them in.
Q1. What is the main reason you meditate?
(stress, health, personal development etc, other)
In the beginning it was more out of curiosity, the health benefits appealed etc. I never got any results with "prayer" that various religious groups talk about, but with meditation, I got some immediate experiences that were unlike anything I had experienced in life before. I read some really powerful books early on, and they were used as a guide in my early experiences
Q2. What are the main benefits from your meditation practice?
The big one, is that after many years thoughts of suicide went away, as I longer felt myself to be living a in a purely material realm, but one of infinite dimensions, growth, change and endless possibilities.
I feel that there are no limits to imagination, and can design my way forward in life, rather than be a victim of cruel circumstances.
I've never taken drugs, but have had alcohol to excess over the years, and meditation (along with gym etc) has helped my to monitor my own health, and make it easy for me to pick up or drop any habit, without the "struggle" or resistance.
Q3. What is your main meditation method / practice?
(Please specify whether it is a traditional method from a particular group, secular, other, binaural beat etc)
Seated morning practice, 20 mins, watching the breath.
Afternoons backwards walking meditation derived from Chinese internal arts.
Q4. Do you have any other meditation practices, or do you practice any other methods than your primary method?
(please specify)
I keep to the daily morning meditation 90% of the time, and do use some other methods for various purposes. Some are different methods, others are the same method but a different focus.
Including:
Walking/moving meditations
Seated meditation
Lying down meditation
body scans
self-healing (usually lying down)
conscious dream recall while awake (beta state)
what I call 'Quantum Intentions', where I focus for 5-20 mins on a probable reality I am manifesting in my daily life (this is a daily practice, that I do year after year)
Q5. How long have you been Meditating?
(weeks? / months? / years?)
Don't remember, but over a decade at this point
Q6. Will you continue meditating in the near-future?
I am just as happy when not meditating, and as long as I am productive my biorhythms stay normal and I can function in life. But I can very easily get out of whack, start doing dumb things and collecting bad unhealthy habits with food and drink etc, then I get listless, and eventually start getting the blues.
High intensity exercise and meditation are my two best tools in not getting overly manic (which troubled me for years) and overly down and depressed, eventually moving into suicidal thoughts, rumination, and an inability to move out of that state or even want though, as it feels subjectively that nothing matters at all, so why bother?
EDIT [added Q] Q7.What, if any negative experiences have you had associated with meditation? How did you overcome them, do any of these issues still affect you?
My entire "identity" slipped away piece by piece. I went through this alone, it was incredibly painful and actually lead to my suicidal thoughts. When multidimensional information started being more "real" to me that every day waking life, I wanted to leave this physical form behind and go back to where I came from, I was so sick of living in a world full of hatred, ignorance, war and torture, I could feel a deep deep psychological scar on collective humanity that I was a part of, and had no wish to further contribute to.
It took me years to reconcile those feelings, to find a reason to live and want to stay in this physical world.
I am glad I did, even though at times it is still painful. I have felt alone and an outsider majority of my 34 years here on this earth, few if any people really understand me.
I see my role now in life to help anyone I can, especially anyone who goes through horrible experiences, as I don't want them to suffer alone.
Thanks for taking the time to fill this out. I'm really looking to how I can best communicate in my articles and ebook How and Why people meditate, what benefits they have found in their lives, and what are the main methods people are using.