The Meditation Blog

A somewhat more high tech means of reaching meditative states comes from biofeedback technologies. Although many devices exist, one of the most entertaining and engrossing I’ve found is the series which begins with The Journey to the Wild Divine.

The Wild Divine series is a group of rather sophisticated computer programs which provide a rather amazing and detailed means of monitoring internal physiological states during meditation. Provided with each of the programs is a biofeedback hand monitor which communicates with your computer via a USB cable. Events on the screen change as the physiological rates change in your body. The first two programs have a nearly video game appearance, and require that you find various locations in order to access the particular meditative exercises. The graphics which follow successful completion of each exercise are stunning.

My favorite of the three, though, is the last, which provides a direct series of tutorials on different meditative methods and different types of breathing exercises. Also included in this software is a heart rate variability monitor which allows for direct video biofeedback for this important physiological measure which many researchers claim correlates with heart health. This program is called Healing Rhythms. Another benefit set of this programs are the video instruction modules which include the likes of Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra. The ability to objectively observe the level of relaxation using the software makes all three of the programs excellent training tools, even for those who find meditation otherwise “boring.” These are all available for both Mac and PC platforms. Note I have no connection with the company or their website.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 at 22:06 and is filed under meditative experiences, meditative practice, pranayama, scientific data. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.