Candle Meditation

The Advantages of Candle Meditation

If you’ve had problems with other forms of meditation, candle meditation might be the answer.

You may, for example, have found the visualization exercise difficult. For some people reconstituting an image in the “mind’s eye”  can be really hard work.

Now, on the other hand, there’s something attractive about a candle flame. It has a “living” quality that just makes you want to look at it. And that’s its main advantage. You won’t have to struggle to create a mental image. You’ll have a real, concrete image in front of you, one that’s almost begging to be looked at.

Preparation for Candle Meditation

First of all, you’ll need a chair with a high, straight back. It should be one that you can rest your head against if necessary.

You’ll need a candlestick of some sort to place on a desk or table in front of you. This is because the candle flame needs to be at the same height as your face. You shouldn’t be stooping as you look at it.

Please note that the candle should be at least 50 cm from your face.

I didn’t realize until I started to do the research for this post that there was some sort of controversy over which type of candle to use.

There’s apparently a growing number of people who avoid the use of candles made from paraffin wax because they believe that they give off toxic fumes.

This viewpoint could have its origins in research conducted at South Carolina State University in 2009 which showed that paraffin wax candles emitted air pollutants like toluene and benzene.

Apparently lighting the odd candle once in a while doesn’t pose any threat. But lighting candles frequently or lighting many candles at once age could lead to the aggravation of asthma, irritation of the respiratory tract or allergy-like symptoms.

I suppose a sort of worst-case scenario might be taking a hot bath in a small bathroom surrounded by 20 lighted paraffin wax candles.

If you suffer from asthma or other respiratory problems, or if you are simply concerned about this, look for candles made from beeswax or soy wax. Make sure that you see those words on the packaging.

Candle Meditation

Allow at least 10 minutes, plus five minutes rest afterward, for candle meditation.

Sit on your chair with your back straight, but relaxed.

Practice your breathing. Breathe in through your nose, counting to 4. Feel the breath on the bottom of your nostrils as it goes in. Follow it down into your lungs. Feel your abdomen rise. Hold your breath and count to 4. Now breathe out, counting to 4. Feel your abdomen fall. Follow the breath up to your nose. Feel it on your top lip as it goes out.

Turn down the lighting in the room you’re using.

Place the candle in front of you. Light it.

Keep our eyes on the flame. Watch it moving.

Carry on breathing into a count of 4, holding your breath to a count of 4, breathing out to a count of 4.

If you experience distracting thoughts, don’t fight them. Just imagine them like passing clouds… floating away.

Keep watching the candle flame.

Now, as you breathe in, imagine yourself breathing in light from the flame. As you hold your breath, imagine yourself filled with light. As you breathe out, imagine yourself breathing out the light.

You may find, after a time, that your vision of your surroundings gradually fades until you can’t see anything but the candle flame. This is quite OK.

However, if you don’t have this experience, don’t get depressed and feel that you have “failed”.

The purpose of candle meditation, like all other meditation, is to enable you to center yourself, to relax in the present moment. Just breathing, watching the candle flame and allowing distracting thoughts to “float away” will enable you to do this.

After Candle Meditation

When you’ve finished your meditation, either sit in an armchair or lie down.

Close your eyes and rest for about 5 minutes.

Make sure that your vision is back to normal.

As with all forms of meditation, try this a few times before deciding whether you like it or not.

If you decide that candle meditation is for you, practicing it once a day should be enough.

Binaural Beats Meditation

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What is Binaural Beats Meditation?

The aim of binaural beats meditation is to get you into a state of consciousness like that of meditation by influencing the frequency of your brainwaves. Technically this process is known as brain entrainment. You achieve the desired state of consciousness by listening to binaural beats(usually accompanied by soothing music) through stereo headphones.

How do Binaural Beats work?

Two sounds of almost equal frequencies are played one in each ear by means of headphones or speakers. On hearing them, the brain integrates the two signals and causes the sensation of a third sound which is called the binaural beat.

The frequency of the binaural beat is the difference between the frequencies of the two sounds that are played. So, if a sound of frequency 100 Hz is played to one ear and a sound of frequency 110 Hz is played to the other ear, the brain creates a binaural beat of 10Hz.

When the beat frequency falls within the range of human brainwave frequencies( i.e. 0.5 – 40 Hz), the brainwaves entrain to or move towards the beat frequency.

Brainwaves and the State of Consciousness

There are a variety of human brainwave frequencies. They’re classified by letters of the Greek alphabet. Each one produces a corresponding state of consciousness.

Gamma Waves(over 40 Hz) is associated with the higher mental activity(perception, problem-solving) and fear

Beta Waves (13-40 Hz) are associated with active concentration and busy or anxious thinking

Alpha Waves((7 -13 Hz) are associated with deep conscious relaxation, pre-sleep drowsiness, rapid eye movement sleep and dreams

Theta Waves(4-7 Hz) is associated with deep relaxation and non-rapid eye movement sleep

Delta Waves(less than 4 Hz)  are associated with deep dreamless sleep and loss of consciousness.

Alpha Waves are the ideal frequency range for meditation. A frequency of  10 Hz is ideal.

How to Meditate with Binaural Beats

If you haven’t already got any, get yourself a pair of stereo headphones.

Download some meditation music into which binaural beats have been embedded. There’s a wide variety of music out there. Choose some which you find pleasant and relaxing. Make sure that the music you’ve chosen is designed to entrain your brain to an alpha wave frequency.

Sit upright in a high-backed chair. Place both feet flat on the ground and place your palms face down on your thighs. Close your eyes and follow your breath in and out of your nose.  Feel it on the bottom of your nostrils as it goes in and on your top lip as it goes out. Don’t attempt to control your breathing in any way. Just let it happen. If thoughts come into your mind don’t try to engage with them. Simply let them come and go like passing clouds. Do this for about five minutes.

The rest is easy. Put on your headphones, plug them in and play your music.

Again, if thoughts come into your mind, don’t engage with them. Let them come and go, then gently return your attention to the music.

It’s possible to listen to binaural beats without music(you can find them on the internet). Indeed there are those who say that this is the only way to do it. However, I feel that most people would find it rather boring.

It normally takes about seven minutes for human brainwaves to entrain to the required frequency. An ideal session of binaural beats meditation lasts about 30 minutes.

The Advantages of Binaural Beats Meditation

I’ve included a preliminary breathing exercise in my version of this meditation. It ’s to help you forget about the cares of the day and relax a bit.

But, other than this, with binaural beats meditation, you don’t have to work hard to attain a desired state of consciousness. You just relax and listen.  For this reason, it’s useful for people who find breathing, counting, concentrating and so on difficult.

Most forms of meditation have a sort of “religious” feel about them. That’s because a lot of meditation procedures are secularized versions of Eastern religious practices.  This puts some people off. Binaural beats meditation is more “technical” in nature and might appeal to those people.

Meditation and Sleep

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The Assumption about Meditation and Sleep

If you enter the words “meditation” and “sleep” into the search bar of your browser you’ll get a really big response.

Many of these items lead to articles which claim to show that meditation can lead to better sleep. Many of them are ads for either CDs or DVDs of meditation exercises that are supposed to help you sleep better.

It seems that the public assumes that the practice of meditation leads to better sleep.

In this post, I’m basically asking the question “Is this assumption  correct?”

I’ll begin by looking at the nature of meditation and the nature of sleep as states of being.

The Similarities between Meditation and Sleep

Meditation and sleep both give us deep rest. In both cases brain waves are at the Alpha Frequency, i.e. 7-13 Hz.

Both meditation and sleep reduce metabolic activity. Metabolic activity is a term which includes all the chemical processes which take place in a living organism in order to maintain life. Digestion is an example.

Both meditation and sleep ultimately refresh us.

The Differences between Meditation and Sleep

You can choose to practice meditation or not to practice it. You have a certain amount of choice in the matter of when you sleep. But you can’t choose to sleep, because tiredness will eventually overwhelm you.

After sleep, you feel lethargic. After meditation, you don’t.

Meditation can actually free us from troublesome thoughts. At best sleep may help us to forget such thoughts for a bit. At worst sleep can encourage and exaggerate such thoughts in the form of nightmares.

Meditation heightens awareness. The practice of candle meditation is a good example of this. During sleep, there is no awareness.

Does the Practice of Meditation actually improve Sleep?

The best research on this subject was conducted by Dr. Willoughby Britton, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University Medical School.

Unlike some of the previous research, which used only subjects who practiced meditation, Dr. Willoughby’s research was what is called a randomized control trial. This means that half of the subjects were randomly allocated to the meditation group and the other half were told not to meditate.

A lot of the previous research relied on self-reported sleep experiences. With this sort of data, it’s possible that a subject will report what s/he thinks ought to have happened, rather than what actually did happen. For example, if a subject believes that meditation improves sleep, s/he will report that is what happened.

Dr. Willoughby’s research was conducted overnight in a sleep laboratory, where she and her team could actually observe the subjects’ behavior.

In addition to this Dr. Willoughby’s research was what is called a polysomnographic sleep study.  For those of you who, like me, find this description a bit of a jawbreaker, it means that brain waves, eye movements and muscle tone were all measured.

The conclusion that Dr. Willoughby came to was that the practice of meditation neither improves nor deepens sleep.

In fact, she made the following discoveries.

1. Meditation increased wakefulness. Subjects who meditated were less likely to fall asleep.
2. Subjects who meditated were more likely to wake up from sleep.
3. Subjects who meditated experienced more light sleep and less deep sleep.

Meditation and Sleep: Conclusion

An internet search will reveal that the public believes the practice of meditation leads to better sleep.

Evidence of the strength of this belief can be seen in the fact that members of the public are willing to spend quite large amounts of money on putting it into practice.

It’s probably come about because meditation and sleep are two similar(but not identical) states of being.

Unfortunately, research by Dr. Willoughby Britton of Brown University shows that this belief is misguided. She found that meditation leads to increased wakefulness and less deep sleep.

But there’s no reason for despondency.

Both meditation and sleep are beneficial in their separate ways

And hopefully, Dr. Britton’s research will further undermine the dangerous belief that meditation can be a substitute for sleep.