Books

Podcast with Dr. Are Holen: Inner Strength – The Free Mental Attitude in Acem Meditation

2023-01-27T11:45:09+01:00January 27th, 2023|

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 […]

New book on defensive functioning includes study on Acem Meditation

2022-03-29T21:17:18+02:00March 29th, 2022|

A new book that should be of interest to meditators is now available online with open access through Frontiers in Psychology and Frontiers in Psychiatry:

“Recent Empirical Research and Methodologies in Defense Mechanisms”

Edited by Mariagrazia Di Giuseppe, John Christopher Perry, Tracy A. Prout and Ciro Conversano

17 studies are being presented, […]

New book: A first on the history of Acem

2021-09-09T12:55:48+02:00September 9th, 2021|

This book follows the development of Acem School of Meditation through its first 50 years, from a small group of students in Oslo in 1966 to an international non-profit organization teaching Acem Meditation on every continent.

Founded by Are Holen, Acem has developed an understanding of meditation based on modern psychology and neuroscience. This approach includes […]

Be friends with your wandering mind

2019-07-12T15:53:15+02:00May 20th, 2019|

In this article Halvor Eifring discusses the important of mind wandering in meditation. Everyone who has learned Acem Meditation knows that meditation is not about emptying the mind, as many others tend to believe. The challenge is to become friends with everything that spontaneously emerges in consciousness. Restlessness, tension, and ruminating thoughts may be experienced as garbage in the body and mind, but often hide a sparkling diamond. This kind of experience is supported by old meditative traditions.

New book: “The Power of the Wandering Mind”

2019-07-05T11:32:46+02:00January 8th, 2019|

What does science say? In this new book, experts in neuroscience, medicine, psychology, philosophy and the humanities share groundbreaking perspectives on how nondirective meditation interacts with brain and body, mind and culture.

Nondirective meditation is not about emptying the mind. Instead, mind wandering is seen as an important resource. […]

In and out of Context: Contemporary Perspectives on Meditation

2019-07-05T11:39:01+02:00February 13th, 2018|

The recent book, Meditation and Culture: The Interplay of Practice and Context», edited by Halvor Eifring, has been reviewed in the journal Religious Studies Review (Vol. 43 No. 4, December 2017). The reviewer maintains that the book «offers provocative new insights for understanding meditation practice. …

… The key questions this book raises are: Should meditation be […]

Tragicomic obsession

2019-07-12T16:13:46+02:00September 23rd, 2017|

By Eva Skaar

Ester Nilsson is a complex woman who has been frequently discussed in newspapers, social media and various columns. She sometimes appears rational, verbal and intellectually sharp, and at other times irrational and immature.

Ester is a poet and essayist. Although she is smart, she shows surprisingly little self insight and low self-esteem in some […]

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