Positive Health Online

What is Meditation?

Meditation is a natural process for restoring balance and harmony in the physiology. It helps us to remember and restore wholeness throughout our entire mind/body system. It helps to re-enliven the body's own healing mechanisms. Many people have noticed dramatic improvements in their lives and dramatic changes in their health. However, meditation should not be looked on as a cure for any particular health problem, and you should not discontinue the advice or medication that you are currently receiving from your health practitioner.

The author with Deepak Chopra

By experiencing our essential nature through meditation we rediscover who we really are – when we know and understand ourselves – who we really are – then we can hope to understand other people. It is only by loving ourselves that we can possibly learn to love other people. Therefore, meditation gives us the tools by which we can start to enjoy fuller, happier, and more harmonious long-lasting relationships.

Behind the screen of our internal dialogue, there is something entirely different; the silence of a mind that is not imprisoned by the past. That's the silence we want to bring into our awareness through meditation. Why is this important? Because silence is the birthplace of happiness.

Silence is where we get our bursts of inspiration, our tender feelings of compassion and empathy, our sense of love. These are all delicate emotions, and they're easily drowned out by the chaotic roar of the internal dialogue. But when you discover the silence in your mind, you no longer have to pay attention to all those random images that trigger worry, anger and pain.

What is Primordial Sound Meditation?

Primordial Sound Meditation is a mantra meditation that offers over 100 different mantras. A mantra is selected for you by a PSM teacher by taking into account your date, time and place of birth. At the time of your birth, there is a specific vibration or frequency that exists in the Universe. These sounds or vibrations were cognized and recorded by sages and seers thousands of years ago. So by knowing when and where you were born, we are able to calculate the sound or vibration that existed when you came from the unmanifest to the manifest (according to this system of meditation). By knowing that sound, and using it as part of your mantra, your awareness is attracted back to the level of universal consciousness. In other words, you are going from localised awareness to non-local awareness. In doing this you have the experience of your true essential nature and your connection to the Universe.

Dr Deepak Chopra has given this form of meditation the title Primordial Sound Meditation – a new name, from an ancient tradition. Practised for many thousands of years – but which has only recently been revised after a few hundred years of lying dormant. Dr Deepak Chopra and Dr David Simon have revised this ancient system of meditation with scholars both in the West and in India.

In the West meditation has been thought of as a method of Stress Management and yes, it does do that, but its true purpose, or value, is that it is a Spiritual journey. Therefore PSM is a spiritual practice, because it takes our awareness to the level of our spirit, which is the same spirit that connects everything in creation, but it is not a religion. In fact, many people of many different religions now practise Primordial Sound Meditation without any conflict with their religious practices.

Primordial Sound Meditation helps us to enrich our lives, to live our lives to the fullest extent. It enables us to enjoy whatever it is we do in our lives more fully and happily, whether that is playing sports or our relationships or our religion. We can learn to enjoy and participate in all our activities more fully by the results we gain from Primordial Sound Meditation.

What is the Purpose of Meditation?

The true purpose of meditation is to rediscover who we really are.

Meditation is the most powerful tool for getting in touch with our spirit, the same spirit that flows through all creation. It reconnects us with our own essential nature, opening the doors to freedom, creativity and bliss. Primordial Sound Meditation, because it is a very exact programme, giving us direct access to our Spirit in a gentle, systematic manner provides us with regular contact with this field of pure awareness, allows our true potential to unfold, bringing fulfilment on every level of life.

Meditation is not about forcing your mind to be quiet. It is finding the quiet that's already there. In fact, when you really examine the background static of guilt, worry, resentment, wishful thinking, fantasy, unfulfilled hopes, and vague dreams in your head, it becomes clear that the internal dialogue going on inside is literally controlling us. Each of us is the victim of memory – that's how the Ayurvedic masters diagnosed it thousands of years ago.

Where does this form of Meditation come from?

Primordial Sound Meditation comes from the 'Yoga' tradition of India – Yoga has a special meaning – it is often thought of as a series of breathing exercises, or bodily movements – which it is – but it also means 'Yoke' in English, which means 'Union'. Meditation is therefore the 'Union' – of body, mind, soul and spirit.

The Primordial Sound Meditation technique is a universal technique, first cognized by Indian sages, thousands of years ago. The technique has been maintained in India but this does not make it an Indian technique. It is a universal technique. Because Thomas Edison first discovered electricity, that does not make electricity American.

Meditation does not belong to India any more than anywhere else.

There are no lifestyle changes that are required with Primordial Sound Meditation. The only change or adjustment you will need to make is to allow the time to meditate regularly twice a day. Other than that, any changes in your life will come automatically and spontaneously. Some of the bad habits we have will start to drop off and other better habits will start to come into our lifestyle. Everything happens at a gradual pace which we can best accommodate and feel comfortable with.

What are Primordial Sounds?

Primordial Sounds are Pre-linguistic (before language), they are very basic to nature, they are vibrations of nature. If you look at the stars, trees, anything, it is made up of recycled elements – space, air, fire, water and earth – our brain is the same. Reduce everything to its essential state and all you have is vibration. These are Primordial Sounds.

Primordial sounds were cognized thousands of years ago by Rishis, or Sages, and when they were recorded it was in relation to the moon. The moon has no particular significance in PSM, it just enables the reference point for recording the sounds. Vedic mathematics is used to work out the position/sound or vibration for each person.

Mantras are sounds which take our awareness to quieter, more subtle levels. The word mantra means vehicle or instrument of the mind. Any sound has an effect on our physiology. Mantras are just a vehicle to help us on our spiritual journey – mantras create a more powerful tool. These mantras take your awareness back to the non-local state – your non-local awareness.

Mantras are, therefore, a very important aspect of Primordial Sound Meditation. Mantras are used in all cultures and are used for a number of different purposes. The Mantras used in PSM are specifically designed as a vehicle to take our awareness 'in'. They have a very soothing effect on the physiology. Individual mantras are chosen from about 100 mantras related to the position of the moon at the time of the individual's birth (manifestation) and as we use the mantras they become personalised. The mantras used are Bija Mantras (Bija means seed), related to Briha – Brahman – Abraham – the primordial human, which is related to cerebrum, which is our nervous system, where we find out who we really are.

What happens during Meditation?

During Primordial Sound Meditation our minds become quiet, allowing our bodies to gain the deep rest necessary to release stress and fatigue. We reconnect with our essence. This connection extends into our daily lives and can result in improved health, more fulfilling relationships, enthusiasm for life and increased creativity.

Is it difficult to learn?

Primordial Sound Meditation is learnt easily and effortlessly, by sitting quietly and closing the eyes. It is worth remembering that meditation is not an intellectual process. In fact, the less you do, the greater are the rewards.

It is recommended that you meditate twice a day for about thirty minutes each time, sitting comfortably with your eyes closed. Meditating on a regular basis will help you to discover who you really are and gain access to your own infinite storehouse of knowledge, energy and bliss.

PSM requires no lifestyle changes, although as you continue to grow and evolve, you may find that unhealthy habits start to naturally fall away. You will also begin to receive more support in your environment to manifest your dreams because you are connecting with the consciousness that orchestrates the activities of the Universe.

Who are we?

Well, we are already perfect beings – we have simply forgotten this. We often think of ourselves as unhealthy, unfulfilled – but the Spirit is always perfect.

Meditation is not about learning – it is about remembering what you already know. Why do we forget? Stress – Toxins – Impurities – our subtle channels get clogged. We lose 'whole-ness' – then we see ourselves as 'bits' and no longer a flow of energy and information.

Primordial Sound Meditation allows us to explore our essential state – to have union of all levels of our existence. It allows us to go beyond the mind and get in touch with who we really are. It takes us to the field of Pure Potentiality, beyond space and time, to the real 'you' – the thinker of the thought.

Meditation; which is at the level of the mind, is limited, true meditation, takes you to the level of the spirit – beyond the realm of thought.

We spend most of our lives looking 'out' for the answers – in fact all the answers are inside ourselves.

What are the Benefits of Meditating?

Meditation techniques elicit reproducible physiological changes including reduced respiratory rates, lowered oxygen consumption, increased skin resistance and coherent brain wave patterns. These changes are consistent with a state of relaxed awareness – the antidote to the stress response.

Daily practice of meditation and relaxation techniques have been found to be beneficial in a number of common health concerns including hypertension, chronic pain, irritable bowel disease, insomnia, anxiety and infertility.

Regular practice of meditation is absolutely essential for anyone who is truly embarking on a spiritual path. Meditation provides a direct route to reaching the Self. From that level, the mind channels its own infinite intelligence to achieve many benefits in all aspects of life. Meditation is one of the most powerful tools there is to help us restore the harmony within and to gain access to our body's inner intelligence.

Dr Deepak Chopra's experience of early life, by most standards, was very comfortable; a happy childhood with loving parents, a good education leading to a successful career and a loving wife and children. He was all set for the American dream. But that's all it was, a dream, an illusion, a search for happiness in things outside himself. It was not until he discovered meditation that he began to experience the true joy and fulfilment that life has to offer.

As he says,
"Once I learned to be still, to be simple, to stop struggling, I found that Nature was just waiting to unfold her beauty before me.
"Since learning to meditate and setting out on my spiritual journey, the ordinary has become the miraculous, the impossible has become the probable and every intention has become a seed for fulfilment."

Approximately 10,000 people are now meditating with more than 120 teachers throughout the world.

PSM is easily learned in four short sessions over two or three days. Courses are led by teachers personally trained by Dr Deepak Chopra. The course includes personal instruction in your specific mantra.

Further Information

The course is offered regularly nationwide and is under £150 with discounted rates for students and senior citizens.
For more information please telephone: The Wessex Centre for Well Being, 6 Hatherley Road, Winchester, Hants SO22 6RT (Tel/Fax 01962 866302).