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Understanding Meditation

It is impossible to overstate the importance of daily meditation. The benefits are enormous. They are: improved physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health; greater personal power, enhanced creativity, increased ability to enact ideals and an enhanced sense of purpose and well-being.

Meditation is the art of stilling the mind. Contemplation often gets confused with meditation; but contemplation is not meditation. Contemplation is focusing the mind, while meditation is stilling the mind.

The normal waking operation of the brain is in the Beta State, which limits learning ability and full brain function. In this normal waking Beta State, the brain wave frequency is between 15 and 75 cycles per second, averaging 25 cycles per second. The mind is busy with about 60,000 thoughts per day passing fleetingly through consciousness.

The first level of meditation is the Alpha State, which facilitates faster and more complete learning. In this meditative Alpha State, brain wave frequency is between 7 and 14 cycles per second. Your mind becomes stiller, calmer and less busy, less noisy so that your ability to learn new information is enhanced.

This Alpha State is often referred to as the Super Learning state by educators, or as The Zone by athletes, or The Groove by musicians and artists. Fewer thoughts occur but they are more focused and persistent.

Most people's experience with meditation is limited to this Alpha State; but there are two deeper states where the mind gets progressively stiller.

When deeper meditative states occur in the Theta State, brain wave frequency is between 4 to 6 cycles per second. You begin to achieve real stillness and silence, and joy is experienced as the mind achieves harmony with its source. The mind is considerably less busy in this Theta State with very few thoughts occurring; and those that do occur are laser focused, intentionally chosen and consciously recycled to create a recurring subconscious affirmation of maximum beingness. 12 step traditions


Below Theta is the Delta State, in which brain wave frequency is below 4 cycles per second and can go as low as half a cycle per second. This is complete stillness and silence. It is in this state that a full transcendent consciousness or what some have called cosmic consciousness or divine consciousness is achieved. It is a state of bliss and power.

It often takes a lifetime of practice to attain this Delta State, but occasionally individuals are propelled into it 'by accident' and have inspirational, transcendent experiences that are almost impossible to describe. It is similar to a NDE or near death experience, which coincidently, is also characterized by no, or very little, brain wave activity. Sober And Single Sobriety, Fellowship Fun

Most people's minds operate like a hyper-kinetic, unruly, two-year-old child having practically no attention span and no apparent focus. Practicing meditation techniques will empower you to become more focused, more mentally powerful and more able to create a successful and happy life. Even if you only ever attain the Alpha State in your meditations, you will be healthier, happier, more purposeful and more capable of creating the life you desire to have for yourself.