Meditation and Imagination | Overactive Imaginations

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Do you have an overactive imagination? Do you use your imagination to escape pain? Is the difference between fantasy and reality sometimes difficult to determine?

On this podcast episode, Sharon brings up that she has been meditating regularly for over a year, and is concerned that it may be hypnotic. Radio counselor Roy Masters spells out how to know if you are hypnotized by meditation. Though she may not be hypnotized by meditation, Sharon is addicted to creating elaborate stories in her mind. Roy discusses how getting lost in your imagination through preplanning, and fantasy is really the misuse of a God-given talent.

A second caller, June, is wondering if what she is envisioning during meditation is a product of her overactive imagination. At one point in the free guided meditation, Roy says, “You can almost see an outline of your hand, through your mind’s eye.” When meditating, June says that here hand doesn’t look like her own. Roy explains how becoming objective and aware lead you to see things differently.

(Clip from episodes: K3537 and K4485)
This podcast is brought to you by the Foundation of Human Understanding: http://www.fhu.com

Quotes regarding imagination from Roy Masters’ books :

“The meditation is the science of starting a similar stimulation from the other side of the psyche. It is a science of diminishing response to temptation, persons or things. By eliminating the response to outer stimulation, we starve the roots of unfounded fears and dissolve the faulty imagination, opening up a whole new world of understanding. Then, and only then, do we begin to see reality.”
- How Your Mind Can Keep You Well

“Your imaginative mind is a computer. You are not supposed to live inside your computer; otherwise, you lose control over the input. Lost in your imagination, your computer is overshadowed by other forces suggesting exciting lies and ideas to you. You are no longer creating in a godly sense, but in a prideful and tragic sense.”
- Adam and Eve Sindrome

“Since childhood, your mind has been lost in your imagination, just as Alice lost herself in Wonderland. You have probably confused fixation and fascination with true concentration and meditation. You have been so involved with fascinating things that you could not be aware enough to realize the vital difference between fascination and concentration.”
- How to Conquer Negative Emotions

“Seek, therefore, the true ground of being. To find it, you must be willing to give up pride, emotion, and fantasy. Imagination is the world where pride lives away from reality, where you are the only reality. That is a very dangerous place to be. When you are lost in your mind, words take on a false life and false meaning; they lie, they excite. Here you are like God, in control of everything. It seems as though you are making people serve you. But you are merely giving power to devils to excite you with lies, with words, with the knowledge of good and evil.”
- Adam and Eve Sindrome

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If you suffer deeply from the effects of stress, fear and pain, we recommend Roy Masters’ special meditation and advice pack: Overcoming Stress Fear and Pain.

Meditation and Relaxation | Is Meditation Meant to Relax?

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Are you easily stressed out? Wondering if meditation will help you relax? Is relaxation even a proper goal regarding meditation?

Many believe that meditation and relaxation are inseparable concepts. In this free podcast episode, radio counselor Roy Masters explains that while relaxation can be a healthy side effect of meditation, one should not meditate for the comfort of feeling relaxed. Roy points out the difference between meditation and hypnosis.

While the meditation technique has benefited Brad, he felt the need to call because he doesn't know how to handle the divorce from his wife who is suffering from multiple sclerosis. Roy describes possible spiritual and emotional factors that could spread multiple sclerosis; along with how one should handle a loved one inflicted with M.S. without making it worse.
(Clip from episode: K4616)
This podcast is brought to you by the Foundation of Human Understanding: http://www.fhu.com

Quotes regarding relaxation from the book
How Your Mind Can Keep You Well by Roy Masters:

“Be careful not to go to sleep or to do the exercise for relaxation. The procedure is only to prevent an accumulation of tension by correctly meeting life’s experiences, not to dull the effects that will follow your failure to do so.”

“When we cannot give love, we need love. When we cannot understand, we need understanding. It is very frustrating, because no one has any to give us. We usually try to bring ourselves ease, relaxation and peace of mind through external or material endeavors, and that is impossible. These substitutes are not truly fulfilling, and only make us crave more of what does not fill; nothing really satisfies.”

Quotes regarding relaxation from the book
How to Conquer Suffering Without Doctors
by Roy Masters:

“Pride, like God, wills things to happen. In your pride you cannot relax your will, your effort; you cannot let go to let happen what should. There being nothing greater than you, you are alone with the problems, which cry out for decisions and judgments. And if you should finally let go, it is only because the world you have shaped draws upon you and drains you of your ignoble breath until you have no strength left with which to will things, to hold everything together, and it all comes crashing down around you. Here is panic again, panic that comes from having to face your fallibility; add to this the panic of having the terrible responsibility for what you have done.”

“If you can now realize the Truth concerning your pride, you can also realize all the implications. Realizing the implications, you can relax from the error of goal setting and cure getting. Realizing that decision making is the original sin of pride should relieve your ego from the burden, the loathing of its own puny efforts. It is simply a matter of realizing that you cannot make decisions and realizing that you cannot cure the problems either. Curing sin involves effort of your pride, and effort leads to guilt because it is an ambition.”