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principles (Mind/Body)
healing power of meditation
psychospiritual approaches

definition

The power of the mind to alleviate suffering, and to contribute to psychological and physiological well-being, has been known in the sacred traditions since before the dawn of history, and was probably first recognized by early shamans. Meditation is not a single practice, easily defined. And which meditation techniques can heal which humans or which human conditions? Each aspect of meditation has specific uses and drawbacks, depending on the individual and the circumstances. Techniques vary in degrees of control or letting go that are required, and naturally are found in combinations as well:

• Directing the body: posture; immobility of Zazen; discipline
• Letting go of the body: relaxation; non-doing; spontaneous movement
• Directing the mind: contemplation on the guru or mantra recitation;
concentration on a single object such as breath awareness, the guru, sound; visualization practices as in Tibetan Buddhism, and creative imagery
• Letting go of the mind: passive attention such as Vipassana/insight meditations with mindfulness of the ever changing field; absorption into deeper levels of dissolution or nothingness; faith as in the Sufi discovery of inner guidance and the belief in the gift to the power of spirit to cure

The diagnosis and prescription of meditative practices for the many varieties of suffering has received far less attention than warranted. A few precautions:

• In general, concentrative practices should be avoided by individuals whose reality testing function is poor, who are strongly paranoid, or who are likely to develop delusions of grandeur from the altered states that these practices tend to produce.
• People with overwhelming anxiety should probably avoid insight meditations, in which the anxiety level can reach intolerable proportions.
• Long periods of meditative practice (as in contemplative meditation) may precipitate psychotic episodes in susceptible individuals.
• Meditation practice can be misused in a way that maintains psychopathology of family pathology: for example, when a meditator maintains a defensive feeling of specialness and tyrannizes the rest of the family into silence by the remote control of his or her daily meditation sessions; or when one uses meditation as a method of isolation and withdrawal, or conflict avoidance.
(Bliss, (Kathleen Speeth), p. 110-115)

see:
attitudinal healing
Ayurvedic healing
compassion and healing
healing belief systems
healing power of humor
healing power of meditation
healing power of prayer
holographic consciousness
human energy fields
Kahuna healing
mind beyond body
Native American healing
meditation: forgiveness
meditation: pain

psychic healing
quantum healing
search for god
state-dependent learning
Sufi healing
Tai Qi as a healing art
the shadow and physical symptoms
yogic view of the human body


footnotes