Archive for the 'Personal Development' Category
Those of you who have been following the Gamma mind enhancement experiment probably noticed the long delay between the end of the experiment and this post about the results from the final week of the experiment. The reason for the delay is because I wanted to observe whether or not the results lasted after I stopped using the CD, and, if so, how long after the end of the experiment they lasted.
Regarding whether or not the effects lasted beyond the end of the experiment, the answer to that question is yes and no. Some of the results lasted and others didn't. As I described in the report from Days 8 through 11 of the experiment, it's common for some effects to occur right away while others take time, and also common for some effects to occur only while using the technology and for other effects to last long after the final listening session is over.
Some of the effects occurred only while I was listening to the CD and faded within a few hours or less after the end of the listening session. For example, the tingling in the forehead, which I first described in the report from Day 1 of the experiment, occurred only during the 30-minute listening sessions and gradually faded away within a few hours after each session ended.
The pulsing sensation I described early in the experiment, which I observed during …Continue reading
It's no secret that what we eat affects our health, but how does it affect the mind? Can eating specific foods help you think more clearly, improve your ability to focus, or increase your creativity? By the same token, can avoiding certain foods have a similar effect? Can your diet also increase or decrease your odds of experiencing expanded states of consciousness or awareness?
Those are the questions I'll be exploring over the next few months as I transition from being a carnivore to being a vegetarian. During the first month, I'll eliminate only meat, fish and poultry. That will put me in the category of "lacto-ovo vegetarian" — a vegetarian who doesn't eat meat but still eats eggs and dairy products. During the second month, I'll also eliminate eggs and dairy products, which will put me in the vegan category.
My goal is to observe how the change in diet affects my mind, and to get answers to these questions, among others:
- Will I think more clearly or have an easier time focusing?
- Will I feel more creative or inspired?
- Will I notice any changes in dreaming or an increase in the frequency of lucid dreams?
- Will my awareness or sensitivity increase?
- Will I notice changes in my emotional state, in how I react or respond to various situations?
- Will my experiences during meditation and other consciousness-related practices be affected by the change in diet?
I'll stick to a vegan diet for a minimum of a few months. I believe it will take at least that long (probably longer) for my body to fully shed the toxins from my current meat-eating diet and adjust to the new neurochemical balance triggered by the vegan diet. If the positive results outweigh any negative results, I'll remain a vegan for the long-term. It's something I've often considered doing over the past few years, but until now I wasn't ready to make that change in my life.
Meditation, once considered a spiritual practice reserved for monks and yogis, is gradually achieving mainstream popularity as more people discover its many benefits.
Meditation doesn't have to be complicated, doesn't require you to subscribe to any particular spiritual belief, and doesn't necessitate sitting cross-legged on the floor and chanting mantras. It can be as simple as sitting in a quiet room and focusing on your breath, or counting your steps while walking around your neighborhood. You can also turn everyday activities like washing the dishes or vacuuming the carpet into a meditation.
There are many different forms of meditation, making it easy for everyone to find a style that best suits their lifestyle. At the end of this article, I'll describe a few simple meditation techniques, including one method that will allow you to meditate deeply without even trying.
But first, let's talk about the top five reasons you should try meditation.
1. Your health will improve
No matter what your age, meditation is one of the easiest ways to improve your health. Research at the Medical College of Georgia found that meditation lowered blood pressure and reduced the risk of …Continue reading
This past year brought a wave of interest in the "Law of Attraction" (which is really more like a Hypothesis of Attraction), due in large part to a DVD movie and its companion book, both called The Secret. After applying the techniques described in The Secret, some people experience amazing results while other people get few or no results, and there is a very simple reason for that.
The most important factor — one that was ignored in the movie — is that if you don't align your actions with your intent, you will never achieve what you are trying to manifest. Simply thinking about your goals and focusing your thoughts and emotions on your intention isn't enough. That is only half the "secret".
If your goal is to lose weight but you eat 5,000 calories worth of junk food every day and never exercise, you are not aligning your actions with your intent and therefore you won't lose weight, no matter how many hours you spend visualizing a slender, healthier version of your self.
If your goal is to get a terrific new job but you spend every day lounging on the sofa watching Law & Order reruns instead of filling out job applications and sending out resumes, you won't find a new job, even if you spend a full hour every day mentally projecting your intent out into the universe.
If your actions contradict your intent, guess which one will win out in the end?
Before you take any action, ask yourself, "Will this action bring me closer to achieving my goal?" If the answer is no, you will need to decide whether or not you truly want to take that action. If the answer is that not only will the action not bring you closer to your goal but instead will take you in the opposite direction, you will need to determine which is more important to you — achieving your goal or taking that particular action instead.
Practicing that technique throughout each and every day will also help you learn how to differentiate between behavior that stems from a desire for instant gratification versus behavior that grows out of focusing on your true purpose and intent. If your goal is to lose weight and you have a sudden desire to eat a candy bar, focusing on your goal and asking yourself whether or not eating the candy bar will bring you closer to that goal or will drive you further away from it can help you find the willpower to overcome the urge. In overcoming that urge, you are aligning your actions with your intent. This principle can be applied to any area of your life.
Each morning, focus on your intent and decide on at least one action you will take today toward reaching your goal. It doesn't have to be something elaborate or dramatic. It may be as simple as placing a phone call, sending an email, or attending a class. Every step you take to align your actions with your intent will result in progress toward achieving your goal, while sitting in your living room just thinking about things you wish you had or things you'd like to do won't get you very far.
The self-help gurus involved in The Secret quickly realized they had failed to address this important point. In subsequent appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live, nearly every guest from The Secret made a deliberate attempt to emphasize that the Law of Attraction requires action, not just intent. If you doubt this, watch the episodes of those talk shows and count how many times the guests say "If you sit around and visualize, they’ll come take your furniture away!" That statement became their mantra, a way to address after-the-fact what they had neglected to mention in the film.
I firmly believe in the old adage "You get what you focus on", which is the basis for the Law of Attraction. Whether it has anything to do with your intent creating quantum vibrations that resonate throughout the universe, I have no idea. I'm not a quantum physicist. I think it has more to do with two other factors instead:
1. When you focus on something, you typically spend more time on actions related to whatever you're focusing on.
2. When you focus on something, you direct your subconscious to be on the lookout for anything related to that goal. As a result, you tend to notice things that otherwise would have slipped under your radar. You suddenly begin to experience synchronicities, events and opportunities that bring you closer to your goal, but is this happening because your intent is "vibrating outward into the universe at a certain frequency" or instead because you've programmed your subconscious mind to bring to your conscious attention anything specifically related to your goal? To me, the latter possibility is just as wondrous as the former, though it sounds far less magical to some people, probably because it doesn't involve the use of the ever popular words "quantum" and "vibration".
Another thing to keep in mind is that "the secret" was never a secret at all. Books like As a Man Thinketh by James Allen and The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel covered the same ground (and covered it more thoroughly) long before The Secret became a self-help phenomenon. Rhonda Byrne, producer of The Secret, didn't hide the fact that the inspiration for the movie came from reading a book by Wallace D. Wattles called The Science of Getting Rich, which was first published in 1910. The so-called secret has been popular, well-known, and easily accessible to everyone for far longer than anyone reading this article has been alive.
If the techniques described in The Secret aren't working for you, I recommend reading the books mentioned above and applying the methods described in those books instead. Each of the books is a quick, easy read. They emphasize not only the need to direct your thoughts and emotions toward your goals but also the importance of fully embodying your intent through your actions as a way to bring about the results you desire, and they provide advice and techniques to help you align your day-to-day actions with your intent.
This is a very simple meditation technique you can perform in any location that has enough room for you to walk around — a park, your neighborhood, a shopping mall, etc. I recommend trying it outdoors first, preferably in a place that isn't too crowded, but with a bit of practice you can use this technique even in a crowded place (sometimes with unusual results, which I'll explain later in this article).
This technique might sound a bit too "new agey" at first but give it a try anyway. It's simply a different way of interpreting sensory input, so there is really nothing new agey about it.
If you're practicing lucid dreaming, you can also try this technique while in a lucid dream.
Step 1: To begin, just walk for a few minutes at a comfortable pace. Look around and get a feel for your surroundings.
Step 2: Continue walking and begin to imagine that everything around you — trees, cars, animals, people, buildings — is made up of the same thing. Some people like to imagine that everything is …Continue reading
