Today, most people are aware of the negative consequences of frequent screen use. News websites, social media, and apps are designed to make us dependent. The ability to concentrate and focus is weakened. Much suggests that excessive screen use may even make us lonelier. […]
During lunch at work, we discuss our holiday plans. After I have told my colleagues that I am going on a meditation retreat in the summer, the conversation turns to meditation. I do not divulge to them how many hours I will meditate, but tell my colleague, who like me has ‘Manager’ in her job […]
Meditating regularly is like building a lasting friendship, entering into a dialogue with a living partner, creating a space of calm and peace within ourselves.
Our daily inward journeys in meditation are an encounter with a current that reflects everything we contain inside us. Thoughts, feelings, memories. It is like stepping into an […]
Restlessness and boredom may be a challenge in meditation – here is some advice that may help.
At times, something makes friction in your meditation. You sit down in order to relax, but it feels like you are only at the surface, and you feel like breaking off the meditation. When it seems meaningless to continue, […]
When we need to get something done in the short term, keeping unpleasant information out of our awareness may be necessary. But the price to be paid can be high in the long term. This may be easy to recognize in other people, in politics, in work life, or in our family. “The Emperor’s New […]
In 2022 an engineer at Google leaked an interview with the advanced chatbot LaMDA. LaMDA is an artificial intelligence language model like the now-popular ChatGPT.
The Google engineer publicly announced that LaMDA had developed consciousness and that it had a soul. Therefore, he claimed, it was entitled to certain rights and that Google for example should […]
In this recording, Dr. Are Holen explains how practitioners of Acem Meditation may cultivate a free mental attitude, and what kind of change that might bring about. Dr. Holen is a professor emeritus at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He founded Acem in 1966.
The recording is based on a previously published CD production […]
Many who learn Acem Meditation are satisfied with the short-term effects that the method provides. They feel that Acem Meditation enables them to relax, get rid of some of the day’s stress, and tap into a little more energy in their everyday life.
Despite these benefits, it can still be difficult to maintain a regular meditation […]
Johan Øye shares his experience with Acem Meditation in his daily life and at a deepening retreat at Acem’s Retreat Center Halvorsbøle. He is a Norwegian teacher who has practiced meditation for many years.
“When one is together with others one wears a social mask and adjusts one’s role”, says Johan Øye. “But when I meditate, […]
The Meditation Blog has received several questions regarding the relationship between the so-called Default Mode Network of the brain and meditation.
The discovery of the brain’s Default Mode Network by Raichle et al. (2001) opened new perspectives on the functioning of the brain when we are at rest. Several areas of the cortex, mostly in the […]
