Satanic Meditation

Wow, looking up terms related to meditation opens the usual book of Christian crazy. Since meditation is the act of an individual looking inward rather than skyward, to see what kind of actions they can take to effect positive change on themselves, it gets labeled “satanic.”

The common Christian thread is that you have no control over your life. You must submit to the power and will of JC, or else you live a false and deluded life. Unhappiness comes from living as a reckless individual and working to solve your own problems. There is no problem the lord can’t solve.
These devolve into a series of grossly idiotic statements with wild assertions. To save time and pain, here’s a couple watered down versions.

• Mediation as a practice leads to demonic possession.
• For meditation to work, you need to understand, align and tune your chakras. Chakras are outside the divine and compete with the soul so they are evil.
• The only way to be mindful is to put your trust in JC.
• Meditation is summoning Satan.
• The answers to life do not lie within, they’re in JC.
• And to make everything about them, mediation as a practice is an affront to Christianity. Go, Go, Christian Ego!

I’ll say straight up that my self-centric form of meditation doesn’t have anything to do with chakras. There is no summoning of Satan, because that’s not a thing. There is no trust in JC, because that’s not a thing either. There is no demonic possession, or spiritual energy.

If anything, my mindful meditation takes the form of journal writing, which I described previously. I set aside time to clear my mind by writing down my thoughts, feelings, experiences, both positive and negative. Not in an “energy” sort of way, but am I happy with or unhappy with X? I write down experiences, their source, and triggers.

I focus on positive experiences and accomplishments, replaying that moment to create a lasting memory. I use the time and practice to look inward on what I feel good about, what I dislike and why.

If there was a good experience, what can I do to repeat it? How can I keep this momentum going?

It there was a bad experience, what can I do to avoid it? How can I smooth my level of frustration with it?

I find it an extremely beneficial practice, and work with a digital journal almost daily.

If there is a traditional form on “meditation,” it is probably at night as I get ready for bed. Just to scare the Christians, my “ritual” is similar to the following:

• I listen to instrumental music. No words and something simple. It’s the same list each time so it creates a pattern. When my mind hears that music, it triggers a response that I’m at the end of the day and it’s time to sleep.
• For a few minutes, I breathe in a specific, deep, pattern.
• I focus on the music as a whole, then the sounds of each instrument.
• It’s a deliberate attempt not to focus on people, events, or actions. I don’t replay the days events or try to plan what I need to do tomorrow. It’s a deliberate act of “being in the moment,” focusing on music.
  There is no woo-woo mysticism.

Over time this works very well for me. Unless I’m totally hopped up on caffeine[1], I can usually fall asleep in a reasonably short amount of time. In the past, I’ve had a bad time of lying awake, playing things over in my head, thinking of how I would do things differently, etc.

I take time during the day to replay things over in a journal, express how I would have done things differently, and plan what to do next. With that out of my head, I’m able to have a more relaxed mind at the end of the day.

Coupling this with exercise during the day, I have a more relaxed body and mind.

From where I sit, meditation and mindfulness can be anything you want. However, to me, it has nothing to do with chakras, spirituality, or the idiotic idea of summoning a demon, let alone Satan.

You can’t summon what doesn’t exit.

[1] Monster Energy and Unleashing the Beast gets me into trouble all the time on the weekends. 🙂