I'd try to answer if he was asking about some kind of problem. But if it was an obvious case of "I have nothing better to do than start six pointless threads to see if I get any attention", I would ignore it.

I have done yoga and meditation in the past. Was quite regular with it for several years. I never saw anything, though.

Someone suggested gazing into a chrystal ball. So, I got one and tried it. I didn't persist with it, though.

I would like to get back to doing meditation.

I listened to a program on NPR this morning. The guest was talking about the detrimental effects on the brain of multitasking. And, it was beyond habits of thought, it was also physiological changes that take place in the brain. At the same time, people interviewing the guest were saying how hard it is to practice one-pointed attention.

Meditation is a good thing when it's done to calm your mind, and yoga is a wonderful thing for your body. I don't meditate but I do yoga.

In this thread the meditation was being used to accomplish a very dubious goal which is not a good thing IMO. Using meditation to "discover" your past lives is delusional thinking and giving yourself false memories.

I always thought meditation was the art of thinking about nothing. NOTHING AT ALL...

I'm good at that, empty headed as I am...

Huh? You said something?

I'm not good at it. My mind DOES NOT want to be empty. It would rather spin along at about 100 miles an hour.

"Standard" meditation is about focusing on your breathing and thinking about nothing. But there's also purposeful meditation, where you concentrate on a single subject with a specific goal in mind.

Here's a brief article on the subject: http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/n ... ation.html I think it's pretty funny, because the real purpose of the website is about entrepreneurship, investing, and making money, which is about as far removed from meditation as you can get. For me there was a huge, screen-filling picture of Warren Buffett at the top of the article with an ad for Vanguard on the side, and smaller ads under the picture for publications like the Wall Street Journal. I opened the link in other browsers to see if there was always a picture of Warren Buffett, but there wasn't. I got people like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Oprah Winfrey (huh?!?).

I use a simmilar technique before sleeping.

I breathe in and think about the sea coming onto the beach.
I breathe out and think about the water pulling away.
I don't let any other thought stay in my head. I clear my head of anything but thinking about my breath and the sea.
I doze of like nothing !

In the beginning stages when I did this I did have a lot of thought come at me. Like a train packed full of people pressing to get on or of the train. But if you keep at it you'l notice that the thoughts stay away after a while. If you reach that moment (and are still awake) that's where you can reflect on things that matter in life. One thought at a time.

I've started using this breathing technique since I was 12. My sensei (karate) tought me.

If I do it when I'm trying to fall asleep it it makes me more awake. My guess is that paying attention to breathing ends up in more oxygen going to the brain. Maybe if I did it regularly it would start putting me to sleep, but right now it doesn't work that way.

Steven Levine wrote a good meditation book, "The Gradual Awakening." He describes how you just note the thoughts and let them go, not getting involved in them.

He says it is like sitting on a hillside watching train tracks. The trains come and go. The cars are transparent. One of them has your angry boss in it. Another has a lion chasing you. They all just drift by, without your being attached to them. I loved that image.

I don't meditate.... or do yoga....
I just get on with life as best I can.....

Same here.