People often ask me why meditation works for healing. And I can offer these 5 ways in response to the question:
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- Meditation interrupts the momentum
- The loop effect dissolves or disappears
- Meditation reveals the truth about human conditions
- Meditation shifts our attention
- Meditation affects the body’s vibratory rate
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Science Hints at Why Meditation Works
Scientific research shows, in study after study, that meditation aids in healing. From heart disease to stress, meditation works for healing. In fact, more than 3000 studies on different human conditions prove it out. The proof is irrefutable, as Jon Kabat-Zinn‘s groundbreaking research into the subject has shown.
The question I posed to myself is, “Why does meditation work the way it does for healing?” so that we all can understand what is going. I thought that if I could get close to the kernel of truth, to discern the principle behind meditation’s efficacy, we would then have a principal that we could apply to nearly any troublesome situation be it health, wealth, better performance, or any other issue that comes along in our lives.
Meditation Interrupts the Momentum
I think meditation works because it interrupts the momentum that gets built up within our biomechanical body/mind/personality in the direction of some problem. The problem begins for some reason. Who knows–genetic, environmental, karma, a dysfunctional childhood and the pain associated thereto, whatever?
While the cause within 3-dimensional reality can be hard to pinpoint, problems or conditions do occur, possibly involving multiple swirling causes. And when a condition starts it begins to loop. The problem gets bigger, causes the causes to amplify, and the problem feeds on itself. A loop begins to occur, kind of like when I say to Alexa on my Amazon device about a song I am listening to, “Alexa, loop it”, and the song plays over and over.
The Loop Effect Dissolves or Disappears
I’ll bet everyone reading this message will recognize the loop effect. Somebody does something mean or thoughtless to us and we begin to wonder what’s going on. We try to figure it out and also begin to think of that person as a “_______” (fill in the blank). Over and over the mean thing we go, and the person’s motivations, and we can’t get it out of our minds. The loop effect has begun.
We begin to weave a web of upset, negativity, judgment, accusation and desire to get retribution. The story begins to take on a life of its own. We tell those close to us about it. We speculate together. We may confront the perpetrator for his/her rude behavior. An argument might ensue. More mass is added to the situation and the momentum intensifies. The loop is hard to escape.
Meditation is therapeutic because it interrupts the momentum. Sitting in silence and withdrawing attention from the condition, interrupts the influence of the condition. If only for a moment. The condition goes into abeyance. If for only a moment.
Meditation Reveals the Truth About Human Conditions
In addition, if as in Higher Consciousness Meditation, we, in that moment of silence realize our 5-Dimensional Nature, realize that Spirit is the real life force that animates our human body/mind/personality, we allow Spirit to rush into the vacuum left by withdrawal of attention from the human condition. Spirit, rushing in is a healing agent, going to all corners of our human condition to elevate it to Soul level. And we become our true Eternal Beingnesses. If only for a moment.
Human conditions exist only in the third dimension. They have no existence in 5-Dimensional Reality. My diagnosed glaucoma is not a condition in my Soul. My existence as Buddha Mind is unaffected by the condition of my human eyes. The condition is not real, except in my human eye’s biological condition.
So far my approach to healing my glaucoma has been to go to the doctor every three months to get my eye pressure checked, to meditate before I go, and to use mindfulness exercise while I am there, to interrupt the momentum of the visit’s compelling but illusory nature. So far that my eye pressure numbers have not increased and that I am having no symptoms.
As I write this, I am realizing that the theory behind the medical treatment, the eye drops, and the eye vitamins I am receiving, is to do the same thing. To interrupt the momentum of the dis-ease, the condition of the biomechanical system that I occupy, to arrest or reverse the condition that has been diagnosed. Similar intervention to meditation. Although this hasn’t been the case with this condition I have, the unfortunate thing about medicinal treatment of some physical conditions is that the side effects are as bad or worse than the condition itself.
In my case, I think both my meditation and the medication are helpful. That my Spiritual intervention adds to the medical effects. Each can amplify the effect of the other. Therefore, I do a meditation the morning before going to the doctor and I take a brief mindfulness moment when I put in the eyedrops and swallow the vitamins, which I also do every evening.
Meditation Shifts Our Attention
I can understand why certain conditions like hypertension, for example, respond to meditation. If you are hyper-tense, meditation, becoming more peaceful, would seem an obvious helpful antidote. But it surprised me that cancer, arthritis, and even psoriasis respond positively.
I’ve concluded that one of the significant reasons that meditation works is that it consists of withdrawing our attention, and thus our human energy from it, allowing Spiritual energy, which is always there (Omnipresent) to flow in and animate the moment. Realizing that human conditions are merely a part of the illusory, dreamlike nature of our body/mind/personality’s functioning, renders those conditions powerless. If only for a moment. When those moments come more and more frequently, the conditions become less and less powerful.
Deepak Chopra, founder of the Chopra Center and teacher of the ancient (Hindu) wisdom teachings, says this more elegantly and succinctly, “There is only secret to healing and it is enlightenment” through meditation. “And realizing that you are the Universe manifesting through a human nervous system and becoming self-aware.” (Secret of Healing YouTube video, which includes a recitation of an ancient Hindu guided meditation or sutras).
Meditation Affects the Vibratory Rate of the Body
All things are made up of energy. The chair I am sitting on may look like it is solid, but science says that it is largely air, and some atomic particles that have been given shape by way of the maker’s intention, as Deepak Chopra has pointed out numerous times in his meditation. And all energy has a vibration. This vibration causes seemingly solid objects to be different from each other.
A tree has a different vibratory rate than a car. The cohesive vibratory rate of that tree makes it look, act, and seem different than a four-wheeled vehicle. Bodies have a vibratory rate which, unlike a tree, is more in flux than a tree. Depending on many factors, body vibratory can change from moment depending on our perceptions our surroundings, our thoughts and feelings, and the condition of our body at a particular moment in time.
These vibratory rates are quite complicated. We may see something that is beautiful but triggers an unpleasant memory from our past. One part of our brain may be pleasantly stimulated at the same time another part of our brain experiences pain. This sets up a discordant set of vibrations that can jangle the system we call our body.
The same with stress. A little stress can be motivating and helpful. Too much stress over a long period of time can be quite damaging and cause disease (interesting the word is a combination of dis and ease, dis-ease, not at ease). This unease can set up a distressed vibratory rate in our heart or lungs, in turn causing inflammation, a burning, in or one more parts of the body.
Meditation has the opposite effect on the body. It calms the system down, lowering the vibratory rate of various body parts. It lessens inflammation and, therefore , soothes the dis-ease, causing the body to resume its more normal vibratory rate. The natural peacefulness that we are born with returns to the physical form. The body has time to heal.
Conclusion: Meditation Has Many Amazing Benefits
In my FREE book, The Amazing Benefits of Meditation, I explore these issues in more depth and breadth, as well as offer some specific meditation techniques that can be useful to achieve a more peaceful state of mind and body. So important for dealing with the complicated, stressful, and troublesome world we live today. And important for the body’s health, as well.
This is also what my other new book (Higher Consciousness Meditation available at Amazon Kindle) is about: a simple but effective 5-minute “sit down” meditation technique, as well as some new “mindfulness meditations” along with a few of the traditional tried and true ones. All for the purpose of Illumination. This method is easier and requires much less time to get to that State of Awareness where the benefits of meditation can be realized.
Do these ideas resonate with you? How? Comment below, if you will.
