The main question I have about meditation is that I hear its about entirely clearing your mind of every single emotion, thought and keeping them all out. If so what am I supposed to keep in or out when it comes to doing meditation in order to attune to allow better communication?

I can try and as said do the following when it came to telepathy and results are/were as follows: http://www.creepyhollows.com/phpBB3/topic70268.html

I can try to make impressions of and picture what they would say into words within my head. Ironically somebody also bought me a fidget spinner when we were discussing the crisis with why I 'overthink' and then that meditation is needed etc.

The Overthinking/Overanalyzing Problem and its roots

I will have you know in the past that my parent taught me to overthink or brought me up like that, she follows an extremely old tradition(People would say 'medieval') of viewing every single thing 'DA' with extreme suspicion including all humans out there. Constantly scolding me if I thought too positively in childhood, seeing it as naive and accusing me of being 'too simple' until I stopped most of it. Frequently told that 'things are always more complicated than you think'. They believe in spirits/entities but in a similar kind of way that 'medieval' people did you could say plus with lots of dogma.

This is not to slander but they believe the following for any detail and this paragraph's only for background info: "All Graveyards and Cemeteries are places of evil & dangerous haunted by vampires/undead entities, to be avoided at all costs using any measure unless you absolutely must go there", "People who die from suicide are most likely damned or become evil spirits.", "Demons and evil spirits cause alot of but not all mentally related issues in the population", "Most DA beings/spirits like Kitsunes are demonic from hell", "Bad people are very likely to be possessed by evil spirits" and "Only people born a certain way can perceive the non-physical, and they can see them manifest in full form on the physical". Not to offend anyone but these are their beliefs.

Another way that my overthinking strategy could have come about was as a tactic of dealing with adversity or pain from adversity. When I faced a bad situation I made up a 'conspiracy theory' revolving around it, to a point where the conspiracy theory could almost be a story that excites me and so it greatly reduced or act as something that 'nerfed' the emotional pain I was supposed to fully experience like armour stopping a fatal wound but still enabling impact of the force to damage you.

I was very susceptible to believing in conspiracy theories or that demons plagued us to explain bad situations/things during the times that the overthinking problem started.

A note, make sure to address the main topic. What do I 'keep out' when I do it?

Step one: block out physical distractions. Be away from rooms where the TV is blaring, people will try to engage you in conversation, and every other kind of external distraction can arise. If your home is a noise-fest under normal circumstances, consider meditating after everyone else is sleeping, or before anyone else wakes up. Heading out to a local library or park might work well, too. Put your phone on its "do not disturb" setting.

Track down some apps, if you have a smartphone, with guided meditations. Or search for YouTube videos with meditations in them. With those, you will be able to turn your attention TO one thing and focus on it, rather than turning attention AWAY from countless things and fretting that you haven't blocked out enough unwanted items yet.

Realize that everyone starting out with meditating will deal with distracting thoughts arising. This is a given. The thing is that when something does cross your mind, just ignore it and let it pass right on through. Don't feed the distracting thought with attention or energy, because then IT will become the thing on your mind, frustration will arise about that, and the tranquil mindspace you were aiming for will go right out the window. So when an unwanted thought arises, don't even acknowledge it. It'll fade away more easily that way.

Consider taking a class in something like yoga, or even meditation itself. Are there any new age bookstores or metaphysical shops near you? They might have books or classes you can make use of. If not, or if you think your family would throw a fit over having a new age book under their roof, look into an e-reader and purchase electronic books. (Though Kindle and Nook also have apps so you can read your e-books on phones, tablets, and computers, too.)

Finally, practice regularly. No one achieves nirvana the first time they try meditating, just as no one is going to win at Wimbledon the first time they pick up a tennis racket. Skills are developed over time and with practice, and with learning from mistakes. So be persistent.

Likes2Read wrote:Consider taking a class in something like yoga, or even meditation itself. Are there any new age bookstores or metaphysical shops near you? They might have books or classes you can make use of. If not, or if you think your family would throw a fit over having a new age book under their roof, look into an e-reader and purchase electronic books. (Though Kindle and Nook also have apps so you can read your e-books on phones, tablets, and computers, too.)

Finally, practice regularly. No one achieves nirvana the first time they try meditating, just as no one is going to win at Wimbledon the first time they pick up a tennis racket. Skills are developed over time and with practice, and with learning from mistakes. So be persistent.

Very few near me, if at all unfortunately. I live in Sydney like our other member here.

Buddhist organizations are plentiful, but our most common religion is Catholicism and most influential. They even have lots and lots of influence over many 'secular' stuff.

Baha'is also offer help and assistance with topics regarding meditation because they have the Buddhist element into account, there is also Hinduism although I'm not sure if they would help somebody who isn't a practicing one.

When I am using meditation to help communicate though how do I not block out the being or spirit's message either? What happens if a 'thought' could be from them? Just incase.

I have kindle on my phone too.

I also need to do meditation in a way to avoid the 'overthinking/analyzing problem', and prevent it from switching on. While keeping the 'perceive' switched on and view things from first impression instead of give in to temptation to 'find meaning' to make them seem interesting to myself.

The 'think to find meaning in things' is an escape, upbringing or boredom coping thing from feeling too constrained by the physical and its laws? Whatever this is seems to act like the mind's equivalent of an 'addictive drug' sometimes. Making me view things from it distorted just because I feel 'its more interesting' instead of normal perception.

I drugged myself and my perception by trying to 'overthink' and find more meaning in things, chances strongly are. Might there also be any meditation techniques or a binding for that part to help overcome it turning on either from addiction or 'anxiety and needing to find comfort' btw?

First, focus on getting the mechanics of meditation down pat. Don't worry if it will accidentally prevent a spirit message from getting through. Tell any spirit whose call gets sent to your mental voice mail to just call back later when you're home. The learning process has to be made about YOU, not them, and I think they would understand that.

It also crosses my mind that there are lots of forms of meditation. Some involve stilling the mind entirely. Others involve focusing on something, like guided visualizations or a specific idea. That fidget spinner was a stroke of genius, as one thing you can do is spin it and turn your attention to it. Focus on it until it becomes the only thing in your awareness. That, too, is a form of meditation.

There are also mantras and prayers that a person can say repeatedly. Different mantras have different meanings, so pick one that resonates with you or what you want to focus on, and go with it. Or, for those of us who prefer prayers, all I can say is that as a Catholic, I have found unlimited benefits from saying the rosary or one of the various saints' chaplets that are out there. Non-Catholics who would rather say other prayers have options, too, as there is more than one form of prayer beads out there to be explored.

So if bringing your thoughts to Utter Stillness isn't your cup of tea, perhaps bringing them into strong focus on mental images, or a specific idea, or specific sets of prayers will be something you find more compatible.

As for overthinking, it might be hard for another person to offer solutions unless they have been through the same thing themselves, as it can be hard to discern how another person's own thought processes work. But I can say that if hyper-analyzing is a learned behavior, then you are in luck, because any habit that is learned can be unlearned. It might take time to make the change you desire, as the habit also took time to build up, but you can build up a different habit instead. If it has a medical basis, such as being a result of ADD, ADHD, bipolar, anxiety, or any other medical condition that impacts how someone's brain works, then you still have options of talking to a doctor or counselor and saying, "This is how my train of thought runs, and I am not satisfied with it anymore. I want to change it." Then they can offer advice to you that is tailored to your unique situation. And remember that the two things need not be mutually exclusive, because it is entirely possible that both things can be at play. Maybe, for example, anxiety has caused fear of being blindsided by an unconsidered result to arise, and the defense mechanism against that happening is to think about EVERY LAST POSSIBLE RESULT that could ever exist in the history of history. In that situation, fear might be the catalyst, and over, over, over-preparedness is the response that is being chosen in order to combat that fear.

But again, an outside party can't make a diagnosis long-distance, so it might be a good thing for you to sit with someone who can hear you out, and has professional training in offering guidance to the folks who want to make changes to the track on which their train of thought runs. All I can say is that it CAN be done.

Likes2Read wrote:First, focus on getting the mechanics of meditation down pat. Don't worry if it will accidentally prevent a spirit message from getting through. Tell any spirit whose call gets sent to your mental voice mail to just call back later when you're home. The learning process has to be made about YOU, not them, and I think they would understand that.

It also crosses my mind that there are lots of forms of meditation. Some involve stilling the mind entirely. Others involve focusing on something, like guided visualizations or a specific idea. That fidget spinner was a stroke of genius, as one thing you can do is spin it and turn your attention to it. Focus on it until it becomes the only thing in your awareness. That, too, is a form of meditation.

There are also mantras and prayers that a person can say repeatedly. Different mantras have different meanings, so pick one that resonates with you or what you want to focus on, and go with it. Or, for those of us who prefer prayers, all I can say is that as a Catholic, I have found unlimited benefits from saying the rosary or one of the various saints' chaplets that are out there. Non-Catholics who would rather say other prayers have options, too, as there is more than one form of prayer beads out there to be explored.

So if bringing your thoughts to Utter Stillness isn't your cup of tea, perhaps bringing them into strong focus on mental images, or a specific idea, or specific sets of prayers will be something you find more compatible.

As for overthinking, it might be hard for another person to offer solutions unless they have been through the same thing themselves, as it can be hard to discern how another person's own thought processes work. But I can say that if hyper-analyzing is a learned behavior, then you are in luck, because any habit that is learned can be unlearned. It might take time to make the change you desire, as the habit also took time to build up, but you can build up a different habit instead. If it has a medical basis, such as being a result of ADD, ADHD, bipolar, anxiety, or any other medical condition that impacts how someone's brain works, then you still have options of talking to a doctor or counselor and saying, "This is how my train of thought runs, and I am not satisfied with it anymore. I want to change it." Then they can offer advice to you that is tailored to your unique situation. And remember that the two things need not be mutually exclusive, because it is entirely possible that both things can be at play. Maybe, for example, anxiety has caused fear of being blindsided by an unconsidered result to arise, and the defense mechanism against that happening is to think about EVERY LAST POSSIBLE RESULT that could ever exist in the history of history. In that situation, fear might be the catalyst, and over, over, over-preparedness is the response that is being chosen in order to combat that fear.

But again, an outside party can't make a diagnosis long-distance, so it might be a good thing for you to sit with someone who can hear you out, and has professional training in offering guidance to the folks who want to make changes to the track on which their train of thought runs. All I can say is that it CAN be done.

I've also worked out how my creativity was suppressed. Before that it ran so free that others were disturbed? In elementary/primary school I barely or never did any work and did not realize it because I found drawing, reading books and other 'creative' endeavors way more interesting. Sometimes the ones inspired by fiction. If I was grounded instead of doing work I would draw and 'drift off', people mocked me for being unrestrained by their 'laws on how things are'.

The school was sometimes like 'seriously what's wrong with this kid?'. And I was told that I often received a dozen phone calls with threat of being removed from the school or was punished until I changed the way I acted somehow, but at the cost of what. I 'daydreamed' instead of doing homework or classwork sometimes back then. Always going 'nope' at the mention/notion of a 'there is a crime and place for everything' quote.

When I was early on in high school some of it was still there but I was attempting to 'modify', and put thought into all creative endeavor/activity to have it be viewed 'acceptable' by society in order to be accepted myself. I even became too afraid to draw incase somebody would stumble across it then judge and played games to try to make up for that.

In that case, acknowledging (aloud, perhaps) that those old coping strategies can be safely discarded, because your situation is entirely different now, is a step to consider. The subconscious mind sometimes needs to hear these things, so it can get to work on its new task... especially when the NEW task is a direct contradiction of the OLD task.

A book I have reread multiple times is Urban Shaman by Serge Kahili King, who wrote about Hawaiian shamanic teachings. They acknowledge separate aspects of our mind, Lono and Ku, that roughly (though not precisely) behave like our concepts of the conscious and subconscious minds. When you address the Ku in this way, aloud, you are telling it what you want it to do for you.

BUT. (There is always a "but", isn't there?) Before addressing the Ku, be aware that it doesn't perceive the concept of NO or NOT. So telling it "Do not be afraid" will have the opposite affect. Therefore, only tell your Ku what you DO want it to do, not what you do NOT want it to do.

The book does a better job explaining all this than I just did, so I highly recommend reading the book. But this concept has stuck with me for a lot of years.

So now, armed with a new reading assignment, craft some marching orders for your subconscious that will give it new, constructive things to work on, like "Do ABC", rather than telling it "Do not XYZ".

While you search for the book, check this out: https://www.huna.org/html/teaching.html

Oo that's a lot of reading materials. Thanks, L2R : D