I would like to steer this discussion away from the impact of drugs on the economy to a more practical one, namely the use of anything to boost concentration. In my case, I am referring to Holosync, but I am sure others can come up with similar examples.



I totally agree with Daniel that you need to see if you can do it on your own, and in my case, I can attain pretty deep concentration without Holosync. But that said, I can do it faster with it, and since many times my sitting time is constrained, I use it to jump-start the process. Is this a bad thing? Is this something I am likely to become dependent on, or is the end result justifying the means? My thinking is that if I can get to the insight stuff faster, then I can progress more and the concentration will naturally improve as a result.

I have ADHD pretty bad, and I find that meditation of any type is significantly easier when I've taken my medication. Neurologically, that's totally expected because Concerta/Ritalin is a prefrontal cortex stimulant so it will make anyone do better on a task that requires attention. Of course, it doesn't do the work for you. Not by a long shot. But it helps. It reduces the likelihood of unwanted thoughts appearing, increases the likelihood of identifying the ones that do, and helps both concentration and mindfulness. Energy has been known to take a hit (also expected because the medicine reduces hyperactivity aka restlessness, a source of energy), causing sloth and torpor if meditation is done when sleepy. Otherwise, it should be fine.

Marijuana tends to induce vibrations. I told a story somewhere on this forum about getting to Cause and Effect then Three Characteristics in a dance club because for some dumb reason, I thought it would be fun to go stoned. The strobe light didn't help either, because it was linked to the beat of the music. The loud bass meant you could actually feel that same beat too. So, three sense gates were being stimulated by the same vibration frequency, which really augmented the vipassana vibrations and the music locked their frequency into its own. Pretty weird stuff. So, if you're having insight vibrations, try experimenting with a strobe light or go to an online version of the Dream Machine, which you can google, which will make your screen flash at whatever rate you want it to. It's really helpful for getting an idea of just what "4-5 Hz vibrations" actually are, and your vipassana vibrations may lock into the strobe frequency.

Caffeine is less helpful than would be expected. It reduces sloth and torpor but causes restlessness. That said, I find it way easier to deal with restlessness as a meditation impediment than sloth and torpor, because when you're restless, at least you're awake enough to notice that you're restless, and come up with a plan to fix it (like switching to a lying down position). So, caffeine can help if you have the specific situation that you're torporous and you can fix restlessness more easily than torpor. I don't really notice an improvement in mindfulness, concentration, or energy due to caffeine, but maybe that's just me. I never get more awake from caffeine; I just get anxious and jittery and then have to go take a nap to sleep off the caffeine. That's probably not a normal experience, so take my evaluation of caffeine as a meditation aid for what it's worth.

Tom,

Most of the techniques involve some sort of aid or another. A visual object, a way of attending to things, a sound, a movement. They are yanas. Vehicles that one uses to reach a developmental attainment, after which they are sloughed off.

Use Holosync. Get the benefit. Then slough it off.

If you're worried that you're excessively attached, try meditating without it sometimes. You may find that you get along just fine without it. The truth is that the entire path is a crutch though.

That's my opinion. What do you think?

Nigel

Hey Tom!

It's interesting cause when I first asked the question about pot I hadn't conceived of it (temporarily) actually having the capacity to improve concentration!

Nor had I thought of any way in particular to umm.. hmmm... tricky to find the right word here, but I would say, intentionally try to 'boost' my meditative state (other than trying to find a quiet place).

Maybe this is because I have read mostly about the Zen tradition where at most you'll find some serious tea drinking. Also, I read several of Brad Warner's books and judging from his writings, seems to have a pretty good handle on things (he's quite open about coming from a 'straight edge' punk rock background (no drugs and if possible no sex although he never got that one)). He pretty much says that if you're looking for meditative aids then you're probably looking for a short-cut which means that you are probably more prone to be doing something wrong (like get taken advantage of by Genpo Roshi in his Big Mind process).

That's Brad's opinion, personally I don't know enough to say anything about it really (but I will ). Except that I'm used to most things worth it take discipline, time and effort so I tend towards his opinion.

But I guess you could also argue that like the Middle Way, 4 Noble Truths etc. this is also another way of gaining insight. However, I ALWAYS get suspicious when people start using buzz words (I'm used to it being in an architecture related discipline) which sound nice but may be used to disguise the truth. For example, this idea of a spiritual technology where 'science' and 'spirituality' are combined to create a super amazing way to get enlightened fast without much effort.

So in short, Tom I'm just a little suspicious of something that markets itself as, "The lazy man's way to meditate..." I mean no one wants to hear that you'll have to climb several mountains, cross a few deserts, sail a few oceans and die a couple of times get reborn a few times and then maybe you Might attain enlightenment... (hehe who knows I probably did that like a million trillion times over). But that sounds like a little bit too much in the, 'wow it's super easy!'

But I haven't tried it so this is just my own gut instinct and opinions that I have read from other people!

By the way I think this is the first forum I've been to where most people have their real photo! (or maybe not, Just a thought) You look like a pretty happy chap!

Mantras. Green tea. Kasina objects. Deity visualizations. Zen's 'wooden fish'. Pranayanam. Noting itself.

All of these are aids to meditative practice. I'll bet we could think of a much, much longer list.

So many methods start out as aids to help people who were having trouble with a previous method.

If it's helping, keep it. If it's not, throw it out. (Though it may still help someone else).

Holosync is not going to get anyone to enlightenment. Or if it is, that person could probably just as well have used a popcorn kernel. But it's an aid, particularly to those who are having trouble getting a practice started. Taken by itself, it's pretty passive. Expose yourself to this stimulus and see what happens.

Anyone who is here exploring noting, vipassana, progress of insight, etc., is clearly not limiting herself/himself to Holosync. On the other hand, it might be a helpful aid. I'd say the jury's still out on this one.

Hehe...that photo is a few years old. I just don't have many head shots! I am actually a pretty miserable guy.

Just kidding...thanks for the input. I am personally falling on the "in favour" side of the science+spirituality debate (I really like Shinzen Young, for example). While wary of the "quick fix", I also believe that so much of this thing we are chasing is wrapped in spiritual mumbo jumbo only because 2500 years ago, there were no PET scans. Something fundamental is afoot here, common to our biology, but I want to make sure I am not taking too big a shortcut.