The Floatation Tank: Microwave Meditation for Busy Creatives

[MachineGhost]

If you’re to have any chance of success tomorrow, you need to de-stress and recharge your creative batteries fast. Ideally, you’d like the creative benefits of several days of meditation compressed into a single evening: a kind of microwave meditation. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s possible, thanks to the extraordinary effect of the floatation tank.

http://99u.com/articles/36931/the-float ... -creatives

[Reub]

That sounds much too close to waterboarding to me. I'm against it!

[Greg]

I've always wanted to try this.

[MachineGhost]

If you go to the site, you can find a list of locations in your area!

[l82start]

weren't these called sensory deprivation tanks back in the 60's? it always seemed like a cool idea, neat that they are still around..

[Benko]

MG,

This reply will I hope answer your questions in the other thread.

The idea of expedited meditation is very american, and silly (not to mention ineffective).  I should add that this feeds into one of (what appears to me) to be one of your biases (appears because I only know how you seem over the internet).  An infinite number of pills may add to, but is not a substitute for a healthy diet, and no amount of gimicks will substitute for putting in effort meditating over time.

One can (and I recommend people do) spend time in peaceful spaces in nature e.g. parks, forests, etc.  This can be very relaxing.  HOWEVER unless the person is also doing some form of meditation IN ADDITION, just spending time with the absense of external stimuli does little good.  WHy?  Because even without any external stimuli, there is still the matter of your mind. The mind is the problem to which meditation is (partly) the answer.  As someone once said, the mind is a useful servant, but a terrible master.  Most of us are slaves of our mind.

You can quiet the mind by valium, or a number of different kinds of "meditation" which induce trance states (I remember one which completely zoned me out and my whole body seemed to "fall asleep").  And these can be healthful since for that period of time, you are not stressed out by your mind. OUr minds is the source of much stress.  More useful are kinds of meditation that help us become aware of the thoughts.  So we can see what our mind is feeding us and see if we agree. 

[Mountaineer]

Altered States - watch the movie.

... Mountaineer

[MachineGhost]

You can quiet the mind by valium, or a number of different kinds of "meditation" which induce trance states (I remember one which completely zoned me out and my whole body seemed to "fall asleep").  And these can be healthful since for that period of time, you are not stressed out by your mind. OUr minds is the source of much stress.  More useful are kinds of meditation that help us become aware of the thoughts.  So we can see what our mind is feeding us and see if we agree.

Sensible advice as always, but as I'm highly aware of my own thoughts and emotions all the time already, has it ever occured to you that actually meditating for the purpose of specifically doing so, might perhaps be stressful in and of itself?  I find it tediously boring, not relaxing.  The gap meditation is great exactly because you're not examing your own thoughts!

[Benko]

You can quiet the mind by valium, or a number of different kinds of "meditation" which induce trance states (I remember one which completely zoned me out and my whole body seemed to "fall asleep").  And these can be healthful since for that period of time, you are not stressed out by your mind. OUr minds is the source of much stress.  More useful are kinds of meditation that help us become aware of the thoughts.  So we can see what our mind is feeding us and see if we agree.

Sensible advice as always, but as I'm highly aware of my own thoughts and emotions all the time already, has it ever occured to you that actually meditating for the purpose of specifically doing so, might perhaps be stressful in and of itself?  I find it tediously boring, not relaxing.  The gap meditation is great exactly because you're not examing your own thoughts!

1.  I'd forgotten I'd given you the "GAP" meditation.  Doing that even for long periods of time is far better than floatation tanks.  it works because it is a way to both be present and a way to go around, or temporarily put the mind in abeyance.  Doing this regularly and frequently will do wonders for you (unless you opt for more effective choices I  can provide). 

2.  Have you ever seen a ceiling fan, perhaps in a resteraunt?  The kind I'm talking about if you look at it, the fan looks like it is moving slowly, but it is actually moving MUCH MUCH faster.  What you see is perhaps (to pick random numbers to give you a feel) one revolution per second.  WHat is actually happening is it is revolving 5 times per second.  I can guarantee that you are not aware of all your thoughts and feelings and I can prove it to you.  Have someone in your life, someone you trust and will give you honest feedback look at your forum posts.  Not all of them, but a number of them have episodes of emotional tone e.g. anger in them, that I suspect you are not aware of.  This anger is not explained by anything in the forum thread, so it orginiates within you. 

3.  "has it ever occured to you that actually meditating for the purpose of specifically doing so, might perhaps be stressful in and of itself?  I find it tediously boring, not relaxing"

A.  Which is more important, your experience during the e.g. 20 min a day you meditate, or how the other 23 2/3 hours a day goes?

B.  "has it ever occured to you that actually meditating for the purpose of specifically doing so, might perhaps be stressful in and of itself?"
Damn straight.  The kind of meditation I do requires effort, but the benefits in improvement in my life are significant.  Wouldn't a short amount of hard work be worth it if the rest of your day goes better?  There is no free lunch, no magic wand to make your life better. 

C.  "I find it tediously boring"
Who is the I that finds it boring?  I've been where you are, and it took me years to listen/understand and do something about it.  You are run 24/7 by your mind.  Your mind (and nearly everyone elses on the planet) loves to run your life, it insists you feed it  i.e. do mental stuff and rebells when you do things to loosen its control over you. 

[Benko]

PS there is a good article relating to the mind.  The end of the article goes (bolding mine):

"It is very important to provide time in which the mind is stilled, in which energy is available for other facets of your being to come into play. Silence or quiet is actually the most powerful means of growth, just simply being present to yourself. . There is a zen saying:


Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
spring comes,
and the grass grows by itself.

What the mind actually prefers is to keep pulling the grass up to see how it is doing. Or, if it can't do that, it likes to read and think about the best ways to make it grow. Or worry about the various problems it could have or might have. The grass might be destroyed by drought or eaten by insects; or your neighbor might have greener grass; ad infinitum, ad nauseam . Notice that most of the time the mind is not present to either your self or your surroundings. It just spins off on whatever program it has been conditioned to follow. However, all you need do is to keep on bringing it back to whatever you are doing or feeling. Simply bring it back. Done repeatedly, that is all it takes to undo the mind's control over you, leaving no harbor for its thoughts

Not sure if website just down now or permanently but full article archived here 9article is for advanced seekers, but portions very relevant):

https://web.archive.org/web/20131227122 ... ughts.html