Hello John:
Could you elaborate on the synergies (if such exist) between the practice of focusing on the breath coming in and out of the nostrils, and EM clearing?
Background:
I recently was turned away from a 10-day vipassana retreat because of my history of depression. Since that option is not available, I am dedicating myself more fully to daily EM clearing sessions.
10-day vipassana retreats treat breath focus, what they call anapana, as a prerequisite to vipassana. I was advised to practice it daily for 6+ months, then reapply to a 10-day retreat. My lay person understanding is that anapana cultivates a mental state of non-egoic concentration necessary to detect and stay with the subtle body sensations in vipassana practice.
This makes sense to me. Body sensations run through me 24x7, constantly morphing. One moment it's tension in my nose, the next it's a pinching sensation in my throat. In EM clearing I often try to "catch" one of those sensations and stay with it. I see these sensations as a type of echo, revealing emotional energies pent up in my subconscious. But to follow these echoes to their source in my subconscious requires a special mental state that differs from normal waking consciousness
Your alpha-state induction helps achieve the necessary mental state. But would I be right that a daily anapana practice would also aid here? The meditation section in "Deep Clearing" seems to imply this, specifically in the section about samadhi. I'm not sure I understand what samadhi is, but I think anapana is a technique for getting the mind into samadhi.
Right now my daily practice is 15 min anapana, followed by a 45-minute emotional clearing session. I have your CDs, and as 45 minutes is the length of each track, it works out well. I think pairing like this has synergies, and so I intend to keep at this 15+45 min practice and make it as ingrained a habit as I can. If you agree with my assessment of the synergies, that would encourage me to continue to devote the effort.
Thank you,
Dean
