The first thing that one needs to wrap their mind around is that the initial goal of an aspiring meditator should be simple. Yes all of the things that you wish to achieve through meditation are possible. However, you need to learn to walk before you can run.

My suggestion would be letting go of the desire of mystical experiences and focus on the goal of training yourself to be in the moment. When we are born, we are naturally in the moment. However, due to the way in which our society has structured itself, we are trained out of this very early.

This is caused by the combination of linear time and core beliefs about time that are taught to us. We are taught from a very early age that we should focus on events of the past and what might happen in the future. Moreover, most of us are brought up to believe that if we do not do this then we will be doomed to repeat our mistakes and not be ready for what is going to happen.

This is all due to the center of consciousness of our society. That would be the mechanical Gregorian Calendar that was forced upon the earth by the Catholic Church. Why is a whole other discussion that wont help you with your questions.  If you want to know more about that then you should watch the Ian Lungold Presentation available on either my Recommended Videos Page or The “What is a Tone 3 Jaguar Post”.

Another entrained habit we get into is actually caused by television. When you watch television, you are actually in a form of unconscious meditation. We sit down and “zone out” on what is being displayed in front of us on the screen. This is a huge problem for a simple reason. The way that television is structured is fragmented.

The actual program you watch is not the culprit. The culprit are the commercials. Unwittingly we are training our minds to jump from thought to thought randomly while watching these commercials. Not only that, they hide archetypal symbolist in these commercials which makes the imprinting even more effective.

So the first step you should take is to either stop watching TV, or mute the commercials and close your eyes while they are on. Or even better would be fast forwarding through them with the aid of a DVR. The fast forwarding may not do the trick though. This is because when you do this you are being “blipverted” just like in the Max Headroom series from the 80′s. So if you are going to fast forward through the commercials, either throw your eyes out of focus or close them entirely.

Blip Vert Out Take from Max Headroom Television Show

The meditation for training yourself to be in the moment is really quite simple. The one that I learned when I was in your position is called Japa. I learned it from a CD by Wayne Dyer called “Meditation for Manifestation”.

CLICK HERE FOR MEDITATIONS FOR MANIFESTATIONS

It is a 6000 year old or older meditation that comes out of Tibet. It does not take much time to do every day. In the mourning after you have woken up, you sit in a comfortable chair with your backbone as vertical as it can be while still being relaxed. Next you visualize white light coming out of the earth, up through your legs, then up your spine, into your head, and out of your forehead.

After you have accomplished this then you begin making the sound Ah……., Ah……., Ah……. When you first start this practice you will find that the random thoughts will still continue to flash into your consciousness. This is normal for beginners. The key is not to push against the thoughts.

Allow them to surface and allow them to leave on their own. As you progress doing this every mourning, you will find that the random thoughts will become less and less during your mourning meditation. Don’t expect immediate gratification with sudden results. Just like any learned skill, the progress will come as it will.

The second part of Japa is a meditation that is done at night. This meditation is even more simple than the mourning one. I usually do this meditation laying in bed before sleep. You simply repeat the classic Ohm……., Ohm…….., Ohm…….., while concentrating on nothing but feeling love and happiness.

When you do these meditations you are actually changing the configuration of the neurological pathways in your mind. So long as you are consistent with it, the old pathways which cause random thought will decay and fade. They will be replaced with the new ones that allow you to be in the moment.

After you have gotten to the point to where you can have a quiet mind during these simple meditations, then you will be able to move on to the more advanced stuff like out of body experiences.

Another form of meditation that I have just started recently is called Hemi-Sync. Hemi-Sync actually gets your mind to form a wave front between the two Hemispheres. I have gotten some good results with this. Different results than I got with the Japa Meditation. However, it seems promising as far as accomplishing the same thing as the other meditations do.