Which Meditation CD?
You can certainly buy a single CD to try out a guided meditation
or brainwave entrainment experience. If that's what you are looking
for, I'll recommend one in a moment. But a good program
will have several recordings that will each bring you to a different
state of consciousness, so you have a lighter meditation (perhaps
to help you generate creative ideas) or a deeper meditation (for
relaxation and increased self awareness).
I have tried six or seven meditation CDs over the years. Those
using "binaural beats" or whatever they call their
brainwave entrainment technology work wonders for for putting
me in a relaxed state. And yes, the science behind this is real.
Beats or other sounds embedded into the music or other background
causes your brainwaves to slow to the alpha range (8 to 14 hertz,
or cycles-per-second), theta range (4 to 8 hertz), and sometimes
delta (below 5 hertz - normally deep sleep). The bottom line:
they put you in a meditative state, and you won't need a scientific
study to know they work.
All the ones I've tried have worked to some extent, but there
are differences, so here are some more specific things I've noticed
about each meditation CD:
Binaural Beats - This company has quality meditation
CDs with a decent guarantee. They start at around $30 or so,
and if you've never tried a brain wave entrainment product because
of the cost, this is where you can buy one at a time: Binaural
Beats. (I get a commission on sales.) But keep in mind that
you may end up wanting a more complete meditation CD program.
Silva Ultramind Program - I quickly slipped into a
relaxed state with the audio they let me try, which used a guided
meditation and brainwave entrainment. However, I didn't like
the fact that they focus too much on the paranormal aspects.
I am not convinced that I'm going to start reading minds or picking
winning lottery numbers by using their program (yes they do make
some wild claims), so I passed on this one.
The Holosync Program - From Centerpointe Research Institute,
this was my favorite for years. Both my wife and I loved the
results. It was fascinating at first (for myself it was almost
hallucinogenic at times), and later was an easy way to meditate
or just relax. We both still use their CDs, and my wife found
that she was not only less stressed after using them, but became
more self-aware. These are powerful CDs, and Centerpointe provides
great customer support and service.
They were a bit expensive though (over $100 for "The
Awakening Prologue"), and after the first level they wanted
even more for each subsequent one. Continue to the deepest levels
of meditation using their CDs, and you'll likely spend a couple
thousand dollars in total. But because of the quality of their
products and support, I don't want to discourage anyone from
using them.
Homemade Meditation CDs - A couple years ago we bought
software to make our own brainwave entrainment CDs. For myself
it was a very tedious process to learn how to make it work (my
wife is better at the technical stuff). The result was audio
recordings that put me to sleep or into a meditative state, but
the sound quality was not too good. I don't recommend trying
this unless you really like to play with sound recording technology
or plan to start selling your own meditation CDs.
The Meditation Program - I discovered this source a
short time ago, and bought the downloadable MP3s to save a little
money. I skipped the "Registration Backup Service,"
which replaces the audios for up to a year if you lose them,
and just made copies in my computer and on CDs. They include
a link to the Microsoft page that explains how to burn CDs with
the Windows Media Player, which was helpful. I needed my wife's
help to download and unzip the files initially. If you aren't
familiar with zip files and downloading audios, it is probably
worth the extra to just have the CDs sent to you by mail.
You get all levels with this program - no expensive up-sells
later. It comes as six CDs or eight MP3 downloads with eight
levels. A few days before writing this I listened to a meditation
CD from this program, and as it ended I thought, "There's
something wrong - it just started a few minutes ago." But
when I looked at the clock I saw that an hour had passed. I felt
very relaxed and refreshed. I believe these are just as powerful
as my Holosync CDs, and at the moment they are my favorite brainwave
entrainment CDs. The ad in the side panel has a link to the Meditation
Program if you want to know more.
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