Fun exercise with music

[bluremi]

Since I discovered this it's become my favorite way to listen to music. You need to be as comfortable as possible, though, because you will lose sensation of your body and fall over or slump badly and end up with a stiff neck.


Frank Kepple often talked about changing your focal point of awareness. Usually this point is in your eyes, when you're looking at the world. When I meditate on my breath I move this focal point of awareness to my nose.

Recently I found out that if you're listening to music you can move your focal point of awareness to the music. I do not mean to your ears, but to the actual music being interpreted by your brain once it travels to your auditory cortex. At first it took me about 30-40 minutes to reach this state, but since I've been practicing (this is extremely fun to do!) I can get there in about 15 minutes now. It's AWESOME, here's how to do it:

1) Get in a relaxed position. Sitting down with neck support is fine, lying down is even better.
2) Close your eyes and listen to music through headphones.
3) Relax your face and eyes as much as possible. The eyes will be the hardest thing to relax completely, so don't spend more than a few minutes on this as it will happen by itself in the following steps.
4) Calmly focus on all the instruments and voices you hear in the music. At first it seems like you're just hearing sounds in your ears, but after a while you may notice that the sounds are actually taking shape in your consciousness, somewhere inside your head. For me it feels like they are at a point near the back of my head, where men get bald spots.
5) Focus on the music in this location and try to perceive it with your mind instead of with your ears or eyes. Yes, you are actually using your eyes to listen to music: if you pay attention you will notice this subtle action.
6) Eventually everything falls away except the music. You perceive pure music, and you hear all the sounds, instruments, subtle touches you never noticed, all at once. Your body disappears completely, like you're in sleep paralysis (but of course you can move if you want). This stage is EXTREMELY obvious, you will know you're there right away. You will probably lose it after a few seconds, but be patient and it will come back.

What I'm describing is basically mindfulness meditation, where the focus of mindfulness is the music. This is great if you have good-quality headphones, since you end up hearing every little detail in the music. It's like being on stage with the musicians. Some types of music work better than others: for example, music with a high degree of stereo separation is harder than music where the instruments are more spatially centered (narrower sound stage).

Anyway, it's entertaining and I predict success for anyone with any meditation experience, and would love to hear about the experiences of others who try it! It's a great way to practice moving your focal point of awareness away from your eyes, as well, which was my original intent. It just turns out it's a great way to listen to music.

[cyborg]

Cool.
I do the same somtimes.