Hundreds exist. One meditation method stands alone.
One based on science, not tradition, is failproof.
Introducing: The Feedback Method
"...a fix for the wandering mind."
"To the critical eye of a research psychologist, meditation lacks something vital. ...only with feedback can success be guaranteed."
From STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION [PRESS RELEASE].
Meditation's benefits are research confirmed. Traditional methods however, have major shortfalls:
* Wasted practice time Even with the best intentions, time is spent dreaming and drifting when you'd hoped for attention.
* Slow, or even no practice skill development Practice skill - your power of concentration, is slow to develop. You might get even less effective with practice. ("After twenty years," warned a Zen Master, "you can finally say you've begun to learn how to sit.")
* Slow, unreliably progress
Traditional methods yield slow, unreliable benefits. (“Just sit," says Buddhism, "maybe after many lifetimes you will come upon the truth.") No traditional method can guarantee success.
A superior Feedback Method offers:
* Fast, sure practice skill development
* Accelerated progress
* Guaranteed success
Whatever your goal, feedback assures the best meditation. The proof follows.
Feedback to the Rescue:
How A New Technique Guarantees Success
Meditation: What's Missing?
Traditional methods of meditation differ. Some sit, some move, some are vocal, some silent, but all work the same way. Each attends to something (a mantra or the breath for instance). Attention is meditation's ‘active ingredient.’ Attention makes it work. With attention, meditation moves mountains. Without it we while away time.
Attention brings success, but traditional methods fail here. Even with the best intentions, practice time goes to dreaming and drifting when you'd hoped for attention.
To solve the problem we need to know why it is difficult to sustain attention? The answer is this: we lose attention without knowing we are losing it. We set out to attend, but attention slips away unseen. We simply can’t see what we are doing.
From the standpoint of skill learning, meditation is like shooting darts blindfolded. Your target is attention, but if you can't see your target you can't correct your aim. To excel at darts, meditation (or at any skill), we have to see what we are doing. Meditation needs a way to monitor attention. It needs what psychology calls "feedback." To find feedback, we have not far to look. Visual feedback has been right before our eyes all along, unrecognized!
Feedback? Right Before Our Eyes!
Where can we find feedback - visible proof of attention? Amazingly, it's right before our eyes!
I chanced on it while meditating with open eyes. Focusing on a spot on the floor, I noticed a small halo of light flickering round it. I knew my attention had caused this light. It was feedback. I had the solution!
The Feedback Solution
The light I saw was visual feedback. It was caused in this way: attention holds the eyes still. This holds the image in the same place on the eyes’ retinas. Retinal fatigue follows, and with it visual distortion in the form of light. (The same light is often reported at enlightenment.)
I continued focusing on the light. As long as I attended, I saw it. When my mind wandered however, my eyes wandered too and instantly the light vanished. Thus it signaled attention and alerted me when I wandered off. I focused on the light, holding on the way you would grab a rope for a tow. It gave me a straight line to success.
'Meditating in Circles?' - Try Straight Line Meditation
No more meditating in circles! I'd found a direct route. On that same day, feedback took me straight to a breakthrough. My life since was devoted to teaching, testing and refining the method and to crafting self-tests [TEST YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT] for a book that takes readers, step by step, far further than prior meditation instruction: STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION: HOW TO RESTORE AWARENESS AND WHY YOU NEED TO, by Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. with Master Deac Cataldo [THE BOOK].
Now experience this wonder yourself. See how easily you can master meditation with feedback.
The Feedback Method How-To
"Effortless; efficient; one hundred percent reliable..."
(From Straight Line Meditation, Chapter 1)
The How-To
Sit comfortably erect as illustrated (the floor is fine too):
Basic Sitting Position
Place a Focusing Disc on the floor. Use the "Solar Flare" below or a Focusing Disc online [FOCUSING DISCS]. (Focusing Discs facilitate feedback, but a spot on the floor will do.) With a gentle gaze, focus attention on the bull's eye.
Solar Flare Focusing Disc: With this disc, feedback resembles solar flares.
Within seconds you'll see distortion in the form of light. Direct your attention to the light. The light is feedback signalling attention.
When your mind wanders, your eyes will wander and the light will disappear. That's your signal to return to the bull's eye.
Use the light to monitor attention. Focus on the light and attend to your attention. Take charge of your practice. Feedback lets you mind your mind! "Feedback is to meditation what good steering is to navigation."
(From Straight Line Meditation, Chapter 1)
Detailed instruction at all practice levels, complete with self-tests [EnlightenmentTests], is presented in STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION by Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. with Master Deac Cataldo [HIGHLIGHTS].
Now see the advantages of feedback.
"The best meditation requires the most efficient method."
(From Straight Line Meditation, Chapter 6)
Advantages of Feedback
Here's what makes the new method superior to the traditional:
Practice Skill Developes Fast
Meditation is a skill, and skill learning requires feedback. With traditional meditation (as in shooting darts blindfolded), you can't see what you are doing so you can't correct your aim. Practice skill improves slowly if at all. You might get even less effective over time.
Feedback solves the problem. Seeing what you are doing, your power of concentration develops fast. (Note that great gain comes from doing this better, not necessarily longer.)
Progress Accelerates
Traditional meditation wanders. Using feedback prevents this, and when you don't wander you cover ground fast. This is straight line meditation. The butterfly mind takes a bee-line. With feedback's precision self-guidance, progress accelerates.
"Beginners have instant success..."
(From Straight Line Meditation, Chapter 1)
Self-guidance Keeps you on Course
Traditional meditation instruction is vague and nebulous. Some teachers even say there's "no right or wrong way" to do it. Meditators sit passively hoping for luck.
Meditation is passive however only because (with traditional methods) it has to be. Being aggressive would be like running full speed when you're not sure where you are going.
With the new method, you are sure where you are going. You can see where you are going, and let feedback correct your course. Just as shooting darts blindfolded is the wrong way to practice darts, meditation without feedback is slow and inefficient. Feedback eliminates guesswork. No "luck" is necessary for success. Skilled practice develops automatically and you can go full speed to your goal.
You Can go for the Goal
You can tell if someone is driving blind. He's all over the road. Inconsistent results of meditation show the same problem. It's all too easy to meditate in circles, getting nowhere.
Some teachers try to encourage students by saying there is no goal. Some even say there is nothing to be gained, but this puts a damper on motivation to practice. Who wants to work toward no goal?
The new method takes care of this too. Goals (ranging from simple relaxation to highest enlightenment) can be set and reached systematically. Whatever your goal, take command of attention and you're likely to surpass it. Success breeds success here. Beneficial side-effects are many, and you can aim high.
"Advanced practice has breakthrough intensity."
(From Straight Line Meditation, Chapter 10)
You Can Aim High
Many meditate for relaxation, but meditating for relaxation is like attending a banquet and eating crumbs off the floor. With feedback you feast at the banquet, and with feedback, success is guaranteed.
"...more benefit in less time."
(From Straight Line Meditation, Chapter 1)
Success Is Guaranteed
Meditation is a trial and error process. With traditional methods however, most error goes undetected. There can be no guarantee of success.
Feedback however, assures you meditation's active ingredient - attention. Attention is both necessary and sufficient for success. The proof (of attention) is right before your eyes. Feedback guarantees it.
Now compare the new method to the traditional. The advantages are clear.
The Feedback Method versus Traditional Meditation
WITH FEEDBACK | WITHOUT FEEDBACK |
Explicit 'no guesswork' instructions | Incomplete, nebulous instructions |
No practice time need be lost to daydreams | Wasted time unavoidable |
Effortless ease in holding attention | All but impossible to hold attention |
Fast and sure practice skill development | Slow (or no) practice skill development |
Energized relaxation follows | Collapsed relaxation often follows |
Personal goals in everyone's reach | Modest gains expected |
Guaranteed success | No guarantees possible |
What makes the Feedback Method the best way to meditate?
Unprecedented efficiency; reliability, and effectiveness:
* You take command of attention.
* Practice skill builds automatically.
* Every second of practice time counts.
* You see the light (literally and figuratively), and success is guaranteed.
Scientifically based; tested and refined over three decades;
Complete with self-tests, trouble-shooting, motivation and true story inspiration;
The Feedback Method is presented in:
STRAIGHT LINE MEDITATION:
HOW TO RESTORE AWARENESS AND WHY YOU NEED TO
by Carol E. McMahon, Ph.D. with Master Deac Cataldo
See: HIGHLIGHTS from the book; Review & Comment; Sample self-tests: TEST YOUR ENLIGHTENMENT
To order: ORDER ONLINE