ARE BIOFEEDBACK DEVICES SHORT CUTS TO MEDITATION?

WHY BIOFEEDBACK DEVICES CANNOT SHORTCUT MEDITATION by Swaram  (https://www.loveosho.co.uk)

Neurons in the brain communicate with each other via electric impulses which fluctuate rhythmically. Using EEG technology (electroencephalogram), it is possible to monitor these patterns, called brain waves. Interestingly, scientists have noticed a striking difference in brain waves patterns between meditators and non-meditators.

 This particular field of investigation, stemmed from the work of Dr Richard Davidson. In collaboration with the Dalai Lama, Dr Davidson monitored Tibetan monks’ brain waves activity. One of those monks is Matthieu Richard, who is considered to be “the world happiest man”, due to his exceptional brain waves patterns.

 But is happiness just the result of brain waves? And can biofeedback devises transform you in a Tibetan monk?

 First let’s have a quick look at all the different type of brain waves and their characteristics.

 BETA waves are the pattern of normal waking consciousness and fluctuate between 12 and 30 times per second. They are associated with concentration, arousal, alertness, and cognition. At the highest point, the most rapid beta waves are associated with anxiety and stress.

 ALPHA waves are the pattern of relaxation and fluctuate between 8 and 12 times per second. The slowest alpha is a state of deep relaxation, known as the twilight state between sleep and waking.

 THETA waves are the pattern of dreaming sleep and fluctuate between 4 and 8 times per second. During this state, the rational and critical mind is switched off and it is possible to access directly the subconscious mind.

 DELTA waves are the pattern of dreamless sleep and fluctuate between 0.1 and 4 times per second. Only advanced meditators can enter into this state whilst awake.

 GAMMA waves are the patterns of Tibetan monks. They are like spikes of activity which only happens inside Theta waves. Tibetan monks show very high amplitude gamma oscillations, several hundred % higher than the average person. It is estimated that this is the result of thousands of hours of meditation.

 Normally people function in beta waves and spend little time in alpha waves during waking hours. There are a number of benefits in slowing down the brain waves patterns: during alpha state endorphins are produced, cortisol (the stress hormone) is reduced, the parasympathetic nervous system is enhanced whilst the sympathetic nervous system calms down.

 As you might know there are on the market products that claim to slow down your brain activity, hence offering you all the benefits of meditation without effort. Biofeedback techniques promise to shortcut the thousands of hours of meditation practice deployed by Tibetan monks to reach those states. But is that so?

 Osho says: “There is going to be a great misunderstanding in scientific circles, and it has a certain basis. The basis of all misunderstanding is: when the being of a person is in a state of meditation, it creates certain waves in the mind. These waves can be created from the outside by technical means. But those waves will not create meditation – this is the misunderstanding. By creating the waves, you cannot create the situation – because those waves are only symptoms, indicators. It is perfectly good; you can study them. But remember that there is no shortcut to meditation, and no mechanical device can be of any help”.

 So biofeedback devises can certainly help you feel more relaxed, calm and peaceful; they are a natural remedy to anxiety, better than a sleeping pill. However, if you are interested in meditation, remember what Osho says: “If you want the real, you will have to go through a deep inner search, a profound understanding of your mind, an awareness of all the cunning ways of the mind so that the mind can be put aside. Meditation cannot be produced by drugs, it cannot be produced by machines, it cannot be produced from the outside”.

 So if you want the real deal, come and join us to experience the benefits of Osho Active Meditation.

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24 Responses to ARE BIOFEEDBACK DEVICES SHORT CUTS TO MEDITATION?

  1. frank says:

    Thing is, people like getting blasted. (Even some who speak against the use of drugs!).

    Extensive research shows that humans only shifted from hunter-gatherer to agrarian so that they could grow grain, not for bread, but for booze. This happened all over the world.

    Getting walloped for sensual, spiritual and oblivional reasons is an important part of the process. Chemicals, electricals, heavy breathing, you name it…

    “There is nothing that is not the Tao”…

    Even meditation is a hit compared to just being.

    Bom Shankar!
    Skol!
    Happy trails!
    Bzzzzzzz!,
    Hoohoohoo!
    Oooom!
    Yahoo!
    etc.

  2. shantam prem says:

    “So if you want the real deal, come and join us to experience the benefits of Osho Active Meditation.”
    Since when Swami Swaram is doing Osho Meditations?

    In the generic meditation market where every cult is selling their technique, in my opinion none of them have this much power and multi-layer benefits as O meditations. What I wonder is why world has ignored them completely, whereas Kundalini Yoga has become quite a hit thing.

    • Lokesh says:

      Shantam what is your opinion based on? You do not strike me as someone who has moved into different meditation techniques. For instance, have you ever done a prolonged Vipassana retreat?

      My son and his girlfriend recently returned from the Munroe Institute in America, where he experienced the deepest meditation of his life and he is quite a meditative person. He is also a free-dive instructor. Ever tried going 150 feet below the surface of the sea for five minutes on one breath? I do not believe you can even imagine the meditative discipline involved in doing such a thing.

      The meditation techniques Osho devised have not been ignored as you suggest. Millions of people have practised them. What on earth are you talking about? They are very effective up to a point. One day, if you go for it, they can be left behind, because they are like crutches.

      Meditation is a way of life, that is, ultimately speaking. This was Osho’s whole effort, to bring a meditative quality into one’s daily life.

    • Parmartha says:

      Shantam,
      You appear to take a swipe at Swaram whom I know, who is Italian but who lives in London. He has been a sannyasin for a good while, and clearly loves and has benefited on his own testimony from Osho active meditations, and wants to introduce them to others.

      Compared to some others whom I have known over many years, he is genuine, loves Osho, and has experienced the active meditations at some depth.

      He is also very good for those who might know other meditations but not the active meditations of Osho, and he has the gift of inspired, clear and concise explanation and description.

      Please do not attempt to deprecate when you have no idea about the author of this article and have never met him.

    • Parmartha says:

      Your second point, Shantam:
      The idea of active meditations has spread, it is true, well beyond the Osho fold, but IT OWES VERY MUCH to him.
      If it is not named, so be it. People are benefiting and moving into mysticism, and going beyond the known.

      Things actually called by Osho’s name are sometimes difficult to turn people on to. Are you one of those silly sannyasins who do not acknowledge that after 1985 everything around Osho became much more difficult, as far as the normal spiritual marketplace is/was concerned?

      Those 18 followers of Sheela who left the Ranch with her have a lot to answer for….

      • Arpana says:

        Parmartha,

        Just a thought…

        The crap that happened at the Ranch will keep the tourists from visiting but doesn’t keep the sincere away; the sincere like these two. Good luck to them. Always good to be reminded the torch is still being passed along by younger generations. Yee ha.

        • Parmartha says:

          Yes, Arps,
          I liked Swaram and Chetna when I met them, even though I am of course a totally different generation. I found it very refreshing when one gets the aroma of Osho from those who never met him….

          • kusum says:

            Most of the young people nowadays have that aroma; somehow they are born that way. It is called Evolution of Mankind. That’s why they don’t need any particular religion.

      • swamishanti says:

        “Those 18 followers of Sheela who left the Ranch with her have a lot to answer for.”

        Do you mean by their criminal acts, or accounts that they wrote after they had left? I don’t know if any of these followers wrote any books denouncing Osho when they left. I get the impression that Sheela was giving her group the impression that Osho was giving her the go-ahead to do everything that she did.

        Sheela`s young secretary from Poona 1, who came to the ashram when she was just 15, ended up working in the office and being groomed by Sheela.

        She had already left the Ranch long before Sheela left, although keeping in close contact with Sheela, and was not part of Sheela`s inner circle there, but Osho called her in to help to fill him in with the details about Sheela’s money laundering and financial escapades and any criminal activites that she might know about.

        But she left, and still seemed to believe that Sheela was acting under instructions from Bhagwan, and later wrote a book, ‘The Ultimate Game – The Rise and Fall of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh`, which I read recently. A rather boring book.

        Somewhere in 1985, Sheela claimed that she had ten videotapes of her private meetings with Bhagwan stashed somewhere in Germany, which was proof that he was in on all of her criminal acts.

        Kate Strelley believed this (although the video tapes never materialised) and seemed to favour Sheela`s account over Osho.

        • Parmartha says:

          According to Paritosh (Sam), the author of the good book, Life of Osho, I knew more about the Ranch than almost anyone else, through experience and through reading court reports, and all other literature, which would bore most people.

          I totally fail to understand how various anti-Osho narratives seem to have arisen.
          My God, Osho’s own room was bugged by Sheela technicians – he was a captive of Sheela in the end.

          If Sheela and her gang were so wonderful why did they not stay if they had nothing to hide etc? They ran when it was becoming clear that they would be found out.

          I accept the view that by late 1982 some were actually suffering mental illness, and Sheela in particular. But how far does one want to ‘excuse’ her strange behaviours because she was taking so many prescribed drugs? Clearly, running the Ranch was too much for someone of limited abilities. And like many others when in power they are not equal to, they use medicine to obliterate their moods and burdens of responsibility.

          Osho was, however, responsible for appointing Sheela, in that Indian way, where one gives jobs to the family of friends, etc. Don’t forget her father had had quite a lot to do with Osho many years before…But that was his only mistake, where Sheela was concerned.

        • Prateeksha says:

          I wish I could remember who Prem Avibha/Kate Strelley is.

          • Parmartha says:

            Prateeksha, thanks.

            Kate Strelley wrote this book in 1987, called ‘The Ultimate Game’. The book is still listed on Amazon UK. It was written with all the immediacy of her Ranch sannyas experience, and someone who had been groomed by Sheela, and who was really quite young.

            As I remember she was a sort of Secretary’s secretary for Sheela, but clearly an inexperienced and possibly immature person.

  3. shantam prem says:

    Lokesh, I hope you are saying millions of people thing in order to stress upon lots of people. You are not that PR type like Sadhana of previous string who insists 50,000 people visit Resort every month.

    And is the institution where your son and his friend got the deepest meditation of his life being run by Sannyas Syndicate? If not, no harm to accept the fact meditation quality into one´s daily life is not a propriety of any particular cult.

    Those who eat half-fried eggs and Nutella in breakfast get this meditative quality very easily!

    • Lokesh says:

      In other words, Shantam, your opinion is based on nothing more than hot and stale air.

      • shantam prem says:

        Projections, my dear, projections.
        Lokesh, have you ever thought how you project Osho´s work through the glasses craved in Lucknow?
        Be Honest.

        • Lokesh says:

          Projections, my ass. Shantam, I asked what your opinion about meditation is based on and your response was to post a flaky mashup, relating to only you know what.

          You ask, “Lokesh, have you ever thought how you project Osho´s work through the glasses craved in Lucknow?”
          Really, Shantam, that sort of shite does not bare thinking about. The question betrays your lack of depth and lack of understanding. You believe everyone is operating under the same set of mechanical principles as you are, and they are not.

          Despite the fact that I find your question totally stupid I still take the time to respond and answer your question in a clear way that would be difficult to misinterpret. Perhaps you could learn something from that. I very much doubt it, though. I will make a point of ignoring your comments for some time and thus avoid wasting my time.

          This morning, quite by chance, I listened to a short extract from an Osho discourse. The essence of which was, “Give life to things which are beautiful. Don’t give life to ugly things. You don’t have much time, much energy to waste. With such a small life, with such a short time on Earth.”

          I got the message.

          • shantam prem says:

            I have written it few times, let me write again.

            To talk about meditation and experience is very subjective, very person to person.

            It is also not my expertise to write or talk about meditation. I have also no desire to be meditation teacher or mini-guru to sharpen the skills and magnify the hidden to attract students.

            I do meditate the way I cook and eat. It is not five stars simply home-cooked, average meal.

  4. shantam prem says:

    Another Meditation or shortcut to meditation…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ros4gIUCtGQ

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