“The more active one’s mind is, the more one is influenced by the external world to form one’s inner sense of identity. In other words, one becomes what one sees. So a busy mind, a super active mind, an overactive mind, is a reflection of a very stressed nervous system.”
Thom Knoles
Episode Summary
Does “opening the mind” through Vedic Meditation create a portal or opportunity for evil or satanic influences to enter the mind?
This question is relatively easy to answer. In fact, in this episode Thom doesn’t even get to the second part of the question and spends a short time addressing the first part, the notion of Vedic Meditation opening the mind.
While it’s certainly true that Vedic meditators are usually open-minded people, this is in the sense of being broad minded rather than having an exposed or vulnerable mind.
Vedic Meditation actually has the opposite effect. It dissipates stress and reduces the likelihood of suggestibility and allows one to become more aligned with the laws of Nature, rather than being susceptible to anything opposing the laws of Nature.
So if you’re feeling the need to build a ‘spiritual firewall’ for yourself, this is the episode for you.
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Episode Highlights
01.
An Open Mind About Vedic Meditation
(00:48)
02.
One Becomes What One Sees
(02:08)
03.
The Impact of Vedic Meditation
(03:34)
04.
Meditators Need Not Be Concerned About the Biased Views
(05:28)
Jai Guru Deva
Transcript
Does Vedic Meditation Expose Us to Evil Influences?
[00:00:48] An Open Mind About Vedic Meditation
[00:00:48] Today I’m going to answer a question that has been put on several occasions, or sometimes in the form of an assertion, mostly from people who’ve either been talked to by people with deep religious convictions, or perhaps from people who themselves have those convictions, that they’re afraid of the practice of Vedic Meditation because, as they’ve heard it, when we practice this form of meditation, we “open our mind”, and a mind which is sitting vacant and open then is moved into by Satan or by the Devil, and that meditators end up inviting evil into their lives by “opening their minds.”
[00:01:34] First of all, whatever we think about evil and devils and whatnot, let’s set that aside for the moment, opening the mind is not exactly what happens in Vedic Meditation, and we wouldn’t really describe it that way.
[00:01:46] What we would describe is the de-excitation of the mind, the mind becoming less excited. A very excited mind, a mind that has hundreds of thousands of thought forms in a given day, is a mind that is very eminently available to all kinds of suggestibility from the outside world.
[00:02:08] One Becomes What One Sees
[00:02:08] Indeed, it’s been shown that suggestibility, that is to say, the externalized locus of control, where people have an increased level of gullibility, is associated with very, very busy minds, minds that are overbusy, minds that overthink, a mind that thinks about one simple thing, 15 or 20 times prior to committing an action or omitting that action, rather than a mind that just has a thought once and either goes into action or not.
[00:02:39] The more active one’s mind is, the more one is influenced by the external world to form one’s inner sense of identity. In other words, one becomes what one sees. And so a busy mind, a super active mind, an overactive mind, is a reflection of a very stressed nervous system. Stress in the physiology equates with a very busy mind, which equates with suggestibility.
[00:03:05] The word that we might use, which isn’t quite as polite as suggestibility, is the word gullibility. And so, it can’t be seen that for spiritual reasons, we need to make ourselves even more gullible, even more suggestible, by continuing to have extremely active minds, which are influenced very easily in a way that is non discriminating by all of the suggestions of the outside environment.
[00:03:34] The Impact of Vedic Meditation
[00:03:34] Opposite to this is the impact of Vedic Meditation. As the mind settles down to less and less excited states, the mind gains grounding in that inner quiet field of Being. Being is not a state of mind that is open to suggestion.
[00:03:55] Being is a state of mind that is grounded and centered in that beautiful bliss consciousness quality. And that quality of bliss consciousness is associated with a very rested physiology.
[00:04:11] Deep unprecedented levels of rest are attained to during the 20 minutes of practice of Vedic Meditation. This deep and profound restfulness physiologically allows deep-rooted stresses that have been accumulating for years, and that have been assailing our clear thinking for years, those stresses to be released spontaneously easily.
[00:04:34] As the body becomes less and less stressed and heals itself and becomes more whole through the restful experience of Vedic Meditation, the mind becomes capable of thinking with much greater clarity, including, if one is a religious person, thinking about what is right to do and what is wrong to do, a greater capability to make decisions, uninfluenced by suggestibility or gullibility.
[00:05:01] And so, our practice of Vedic Meditation, if anything, is antithetical to the idea of being “taken over” by some outside influence. Being taken over by outside influences in the form of the media, in the form of the constant gossip of friends, in the form of the incessant demands being made on one, offering up their own ways of thinking to you for you to adopt.
[00:05:28] Meditators Need Not Be Concerned About the Biased Views
[00:05:28] Suggestibility, the capability to be “taken over” by something from the outside, is far greater a danger in a highly excited mind with a stressed physiology.
[00:05:39] And as a result of practicing Vedic Meditation, one becomes less and less suggestible. One becomes more and more capable of determining the way that the laws of Nature are functioning in a given situation, and being able to make decisions with clarity and distinction, decisiveness, and differentiation.
[00:06:02] So one who’s practicing Vedic Meditation need not worry about these, I would say, rather biased concepts that this is something not good for you and you’re going to somehow invite negativity into your life, in fact, quite the opposite. And negativity is eminently available the more stressed and more highly excited our mind may be.
[00:06:24] Jai Guru Deva.