Meditation music is music performed to aid in the practice of meditation. It can have a specific religious content, but also more recently has been associated with modern composers who use meditation techniques in their process of composition, or who compose such music with no particular religious group as a focus.
heart meditation | listening meditation
There is an ongoing PBS TV series (also several books and also a website) called “Closer to Truth”. It is hosted by neuroscientist Robert Lawrence Kuhn. He’s featured in one-on-one interviews and panel discussions with the cream of the cream of today’s cosmologists, physicists, philosophers, theologians, psychologists, etc. on all of the Big Questions surrounding a trilogy of broad topics – Cosmos; Consciousness; Meaning. The trilogy collectively dealt with reality, space and time, mind and consciousness, aliens, theology and on and on and on. Here are a few more of my comments on one of the general topics covered, the simulation hypothesis – are we living in a computer simulation?
Are We Living in a Simulation?
There is another logical ways and means of programming that would or could result in our sort of simulated cosmos quite apart from a deliberate coding of it resulting in the way that it is. It could well be that the Supreme Programmer just selected from a vast array of possible laws, principles and relationships in physics and other sciences as well a, well, select few of those. These software packages were entered into the computer and our Supreme Programmer just hit “run program” and sat back to see what would happen; what would evolve. There might have been no pre-planning involved at all. This is a very common ways and means that our own scientists use to test the waters and see what, if any, parameters results in whatever facet of our cosmos they are interested in, be it an evolving Universe, galaxy, stellar system, or even of life.
Are We Living in a Simulation 2?
Are cosmic coincidences evidence for the simulation hypothesis?
There are two main cosmic coincidences that come to mind, and while coincidences happen, they still raise eyebrows and often beg for some sort of rational explanation. My suggestion is that some sort of Supreme Computer Programmer created our Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe and thus our cosmic coincidences.
Cosmic coincidence number one is with respect to gravity. Currently, during our reign in the cosmos, according to the standard model of cosmology, the Universe’s gravity, matter plus dark matter, is the same order of magnitude to the Universe’s anti-gravity, otherwise known as dark energy. In the early, early Universe, way before humans were thought of in anyone’s philosophy, gravity would have been orders and orders of magnitude more prominent than anti-gravity. In the far, far future Universe, long after humans have collectively gone extinct, anti-gravity will be orders upon orders of magnitude more prominent than gravity. By a rare coincidence, the rise of humans and the near equality of gravity and anti-gravity coincide. Coincidence in the here and now, or was this programmed?
Cosmic coincidence number two is with respect to the relative angular diameters of the Sun and the Moon. Unique in the solar system, the apparent size of the Moon and the apparent size of the Sun, match, thus giving us the spectacular celestial show we call a solar eclipse. All this matching is again while humans have taken centre stage. In the geological past, the Moon was much closer to Earth and would have blotted out the Sun – no solar eclipse of the kind we’ve come to appreciate. In the far geological future, the Moon will have moved away further from the Earth and thus will be smaller in appearance than the Sun, so no solar eclipse will be possible. Coincidence in the here and now, or was this programmed?
Are We Living in a Simulation 3?
Just because, as most believe, that we are living in a really real landscape now, doesn’t mean that in the ‘far’ future, which might only be decades away, we might not deliberately choose to convert our essence, our consciousness, our personal identity, into software code and enter it into a computer’s virtual reality landscape (along with our peers, friends, family and the rest of society) in order to experience brave new (simulated) worlds but mostly to achieve near immortality too.
Are We Living in a Simulation 4?
I’m a bit reluctant to involve Biblical theology into the simulation hypothesis picture – you know how touchy some creationists, evangelists, and fundamentalists can be – but I can see connections. “In the beginning” equates to “enter” or “run program”. Then you need to explain all those hundreds of Biblical miracles like the Sun and Moon standing still in the sky; the tall fishy tale of Jonah; those loaves and fishes that multiply; walking on water, etc. All are all too easily simulated – Hollywood does this trick all the time. The “end times” is just when our software programming runs out. The “new heaven and new earth” is just “The Life and Times of the Third Rock from the Star Known as Sol: Mark II”. And the afterlife is just a virtual landscape titled “Pearly Gates (Complete with 72 Virgins)”! But you just gotta love it when theologians find out that “God” is just a mortal fallible teenager(s) and we’re just his / her / it / their science project!
Could Our Universe Be a Fake?
One hint that we might exist in a simulated landscape, as part of a larger Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe, is that contradictions (oops) arise in our laws, principles and relationships of physics. One wouldn’t expect that in a really real cosmos. The one particular case I’m thinking of right now is an oops with respect to time travel to the past. Our physics (Einstein’s equations) suggest that time travel to the past is indeed possible. Such a scenario is currently way, way beyond our technological ways and means, but in theory it could be done. The contradictory counterpoint is that time travel to the past will, not might, produce a temporal paradox. Just showing up in the past changes the past, even if only via the butterfly effect. This is clearly a case – like superposition of state – where something both is (theoretically possible) and is not (theoretically possible) at the time and place, or at least in the same manner. However, like superposition-of-state, Hollywood special effects can deal with this time travel contradiction – and so can software.
Could Our Universe Be a Fake 2?
Here are some more thoughts on the Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe.
The simulation hypothesis comes in very handy in resolving conflicts between theory and observation as in “it can’t be therefore it isn’t” versus “I know what I saw”.
To a really technologically advanced civilization it could be far more interesting and even productive to create and explore multi-thousands of ‘what if’ virtual landscapes than to endless explore their one really real reality they have already endlessly explored before.
Though we haven’t given up on exploring what we think is our really real reality, we’ve just barely begun to boldly go, if you stop and think about it, it’s not just the multi-thousands of simulations, especially video games, we now create as alternative realities, every fictional movie, TV series, novel, short story, oral tall tale told around the camp fire, play and theatrical productions are also alternate realities we’ve created. They number in the multi-hundreds of thousands if not in the millions.
Further, we like to explore alternate realities via altered states of consciousness via dreams and daydreams, sensory isolation tanks, drugs (legal and otherwise), meditation, and even via music.
So, if we can produce altered states of consciousness and other simulations of a virtual reality kind by the multi-millions, what’s the odds we aren’t in turn the end product of someone or something else’s creativity?
For those who are really interested in the simulation hypothesis, check out this web site: http://www.simulation-argument.com/
Could Our Universe Be a Fake 3?
Virtual reality is one of several options regarding the nature of reality. The others are a Mother Nature really real reality and a Supernatural reality that can now and again override really real reality. When faced with a choice over which of the trilogy of possible realities best explains the anomalies the cosmos tosses our way, I’ve concluded the simulation hypothesis is the best bet. I believe the simulation is the correct version of reality; I’m not saying that it must be the only version. I can’t absolutely disprove a supernatural God, so I have to entertain that possibility. Perhaps Mother Nature’s reality, including quantum mechanics, is quirky and not just ‘special effects’. You pay your money and you take your chances, and I’m betting on virtual reality. That’s my worldview and it’s of no ultimate consequence. That it’s not your worldview is also of no ultimate consequence. The cosmos is the way it is and nothing anyone says anywhere is going to change that.
Could Our Universe Be a Fake 4?
Mind over matter? Can you be anything you want to be?
Okay, so if I imagine that I am Superman, or Sherlock Holmes, or James Bond or James T. Kirk or Zeus, then all those imaginings will become a real probability and then my reality. Wow! Of course maybe I could steal some magic gold from the Rhine-maidens and forge a magic ring out of it and become Master of the Universe! Love it! Of course that’s only likely to happen in virtual reality, not in really real reality.
On a more serious note, there are all kinds of things we may want to be; aspire to be, but for various reasons cannot achieve. An obvious example is that anyone who is not a native-born American citizen can be President of the United States (POTUS) – no matter what. If you just don’t have musical talent, you’re not going to play at Carnegie Hall; if you have no mathematical ability you’re not likely to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. You’re unlikely to ever captain an aircraft carrier if you are beyond the age limit to enlist in the navy. A midget is not going to become a professional basketball player, no matter how determined.
Could Our Universe Be a Fake 5?
One explanation for the apparent fine-tuning of our Universe for life’s existence; why our Universe is a bio-friendly or Goldilocks Universe is that there exists a Multiverse of multi-thousands, millions (or even more) separate and apart individual universes each one with a different set of laws, principles and relationships of physics. Most combinations are NOT bio-friendly – a few combinations (note: a FEW, not just one singular combination), like our Universe, are. If that sort of logic holds, then when it comes to the Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe concept, and the universe our Supreme (computer/software) Programmer exists in, the same sort of logic should apply, in that that really real universe has a differing combination of laws, principles and relationships of physics, different to the virtual reality physics of ours, yet also bio-friendly or machine-intelligence friendly or just plain life-not-as-we-know-it friendly. That particular combination of laws, principles and relationships of really real physics might also be different enough from our virtual reality physics such that the nature of the universe the Supreme Programmer inhabits is such that creating simulations with consciousness, like ours, is child’s play. It may not require some sort of super-advanced quantum-computer type technology at all.
Could Our Universe Be a Fake 6?
There is this major anomaly that surrounds the relationship between radioactive decay and the resulting mathematically precise half-life relationship. The anomaly is that radioactive decay apparently happens totally at random without any causality being up front and centre. Somehow randomness and lack of causality can manifest itself in a precise mathematical equation. The half-life relationship isn’t in doubt, so something’s screwy somewhere.
The half-life relationship, although it has nothing to do with terrestrial life surviving, even thriving, could be considered an example of fine-tuning so wildly improbable is it. In fact it is so wildly improbable that I’d be bold enough to postulate that the origin of the half-life relationship is among the best evidence that we ‘exist’ in a Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe.
Could Our Universe Be a Fake 7?
Those of us who have seen the TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” will be aware of the concept of the holodeck or holosuite. Basically it is a form of virtual reality that you, in the form of really real reality, can enter and interact with. In “Star Trek”, the holodeck is used for recreation, sports or training. That’s the purpose. That’s the reason for the simulations.
If we ‘exist’ in a virtual reality landscape, a program created for a holodeck, what’s the reason? The question arises, if we’re just a simulation in a virtual reality ‘universe’, what’s in it for the simulator?
Currently our major form of interaction with virtual reality is via video games. Video games are all well and good and of course they sell by the millions. But what would be infinitely more exciting is to, like in “Star Trek”, is to actually enter virtual reality as a flesh-and-blood entity and interact with all those simulated beings who inhabit the virtual reality landscape. To some degree that’s already possible, but not to the extent or degree of realism exhibited in the “Star Trek” universe. Perhaps someday; perhaps someday has already come for non-human intelligences. Perhaps we are a holodeck program for some technologically advanced civilization who would like to interact with us in much the same way as the characters in “Star Trek” boldly go and interact with their holodeck programs.
Now one immediate objection is that the universe is a pretty big arena for a holodeck simulation, except the out to infinity appearance is just an illusion, just as in “Star Trek” where the apparent inside of the program the holodeck is simulating appears bigger on the inside than can be contained within the holodeck dimensions that’s on the outside. It’s oft been postulated that our apparently really real Universe is just a 3-D hologram giving the illusion of a vaster cosmos than is the case. So, instead of an apparent really real cosmos, if we’re a program in a holodeck scenario then that cosmic-sized holodeck has been reduced down to a more manageable size. The apparently really real cosmos is reduced down to a holographic planetarium.
It’s worth noting here that in “Star Trek” each holodeck or holosuite has multi-dozen, even hundreds of software programs, potentially even a vaster number since holodeck programs can be custom made to suit the individual or the group. The point here is that one really real landscape can play host to many simulated landscapes. From the perspective of us earthlings, might that not translate into far greater odds that we’re in a simulated landscape instead of a really real landscape?
Okay, so we’re just a software program – a holodeck scenario. The entities that created our holodeck program can enter same and interact with us, or not if they so wish.
On the grounds we were programmed (created) in the same likeness as that of the programmer or of the species to which the programmer belongs, then those who walk among us will look like us and we wouldn’t ever be the wiser. On the other hand, perhaps this speculation is useful in explaining the presence of otherworldly beings, perhaps even the gods part and parcel of our various cultural mythologies.
Listening to music while you are meditating – not a good idea. … Anything you do with the thought that you are meditating is meditating. There are many ways to meditate. Personally, I find music to be distracting, but paying attention to sounds in your environment is part of insight meditation.
Types of meditation
Loving-kindness meditation. With the many types of meditation to try, there should be one to suit most individuals. …
Body scan or progressive relaxation. …
Mindfulness meditation. …
Breath awareness meditation. …
Kundalini yoga. …
Zen meditation. …
Transcendental Meditation.
Meditation is a habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Many people think of it as a way to reduce stress and develop concentration.
Basic meditation music simply provides a way for an individual to go deeper with their meditation by adding a new layer to their experience. … Unlike many other music forms, the binaural beats work with the brain to develop a frequency most associated with relaxation.