When people talk about the value of paying attention and slowing down, they often make it sound prudish and monk-like. But we shouldn’t forget how interesting and overpoweringly pleasurable sustained attention can be.| www.henrikkarlsson.xyz
When researchers were trying to understand the effects of LSD in the early 1960s, a team in Toronto strapped and blindfolded their subjects in sterile rooms before administering a dose and walking away.| nayafia.substack.com
Jhanas [1] are often described as an “advanced meditation practice,” a phrase that suggests that one must be a skilled meditator to access them – just as only a skilled outdoorsman would embark upon an expedition to the Arctic Circle. It implies that meditation exists on a spectrum of difficulty, with perhaps mindfulness apps like Calm and Headspace on one end, and jhanas on the other. Jhanas are a series of eight altered mental states, which progress from euphoria, to peacefulness, to ...| Nadia Asparouhova
The jhanas are a series of eight (or nine) altered mental states, which progress from euphoria, to calm, to dissolution of reality – culminating in cessation, or loss of consciousness. They are induced via sustained concentration, without any external stimuli or substances. This is a practical guide on how to do them yourself.| Nadia Asparouhova