I have been teaching a simple, natural, and effortless mental technique for transcending thoughts, feelings, and cognitions for the last ten years, with a total client number of over 2200. This teaching experience has proven that most of the thoughts, feelings, body movements, and other experiences and disorders related to the body and mind are expressions of stresses or strains stored in the nervous system by overloads of experience. These overloads work something like the circuit breakers in a house, protecting the nervous system from further overload. However, their side effects llmit the functioning of the nervous system so that our knowledge of "normalcy" is highly distorted, leading to many of the specific topics of psychology.

The deep rest created by transcending, which acts like a fourth state of the physiology, allows the nervous system to reverse the process of stress creation, dissolving and eliminating these internal stresses. See www.nsrusa.org/about-stress.php for details about this new theory of stress acquisition and elimination.

Our theory is supported by very dramatic improvement in STAI scores, even for trait anxiety, within days of learning this technique. Two pilot studies have been published, although these studies are limited and can be criticized for their methodology due to our need to keep study costs low.

When our stored stresses are finally released, we discover that life is naturally peaceful, free of the distractions of thinking and searching for solutions to personal problems, harmonious with others, and frequently happy. Stress-based psychological abnormaties and dysfunctions tend to lessen and disappear without further intervention. Specific and dramatic improvement in diagnosed dysthymia, PTSD, generalized social anxiety, and other cases of stress-based disorders have been seen.

It is easy to recast this understanding of stress and the release of stress into terms such as you have listed in your question. Subjects practicing the fourth state of the physiology and of consciousness are easy to obtain, since we produce training materials that are easy to incorporate into studies (a printed manual and CD), and since we charge only what it costs us to produce these materials (we are a charitable and nonprofit organization). But note that, for ethical reasons, we maintain a personal link with each client to answer their questions as they arise. That and a few other simple guidelines are required and easy for researchers to follow. The result is a great ease in creating random, longitudinal, and single-blinded studies of any desired scale, free of selection and other biases.

Shame can be experienced in many ways and as the result of various life losses and traumas.  When it is internalized it connects to our identity and as a result influences the whole body experience.  Symptoms (bodily sensations) can be signals that can be utilized to teach clients/patients to listen to their emotional states.  Ideally, we want them to heal beyond symptom reduction.  That is not to imply that symptoms are not useful.  Teaching people to recognize their emotions and evaluate them accurately so they can manage them effectively is crucial to reducing distress.  I am exploring a model I created on sustainability counseling and coaching to explore how we go beyond resilience and move in the direction of sustainability in relationships and to the connection to self. Several years ago I wrote a book entitled Dancing Through the Darkness:  The Cognitive Treatment of Shame.  I found in my research that shame can be learned and thus it can be unlearned.  The emotion of shame can be simple in response to a situation, but more importantly, when it becomes an identity it puts us more at risk to a compromise of self that can endanger us mentally, socially, emotionally, and physically.  Acceptance of the loss or traumatic event(s), free of negative judgment is the key but it takes work to bring one to that place of healing.  When this occurs the body quiets and is in balance. 

Thank you, Catherine, for your insight.

The idea of a default mode network (coordination between different areas of the brain) has only been partially successful in describing aspects of how we think (including but not limited to self-referentiality), given the assumption that the brain comes first and awareness and all other mental phenomena come second. Such a mechanical (reductionist) viewpoint has not been successful as a basis for artificial intelligence, nor has it solved the mind-body problem in philosophy. It has not even been proposed as a solution to individual or societal problems, at which it would most certainly fail.

Humans like to assume that we function normally (correctly), and hence that it is possible to describe thinking as a basic, meaningful, and algorithmic process (an algorithm is a finite list of logical operations that terminates in finite time). However, the prevalence of stupidity at all levels in spite of our highly developed institutions of science, economics, and politics, of action based on self-interest or anger, of inequality, injustice, and poverty, and of war, should be sufficient to prove that humans have some fundamental flaws in their functioning. Normal psychology is anything but normal.

We live not only with unsoluble problems on the level of society, but with stress-based individual problems as well. We seek the perfect relationship, drug, or psychological theory (anything outside of ourself, of finding out who we really are), feeling unreasonably that our many past failures don't have much to teach us.

The strange and problematic situation for society, individuals, and psychologists is made worse because all of us, even trained scientists, share a set of false beliefs that keep us searching for peace, harmony, and happiness when a few minutes of guided introspection would suffice to make us aware that these qualities are already present, based on our actual experience.

According to the ancient Vedic spiritual tradition of India, and confirmed by certain effective forms of meditation (including the forms known as nonduality and transcending), there is a successful theory that shows the creation of internal stress and strain due to overloads of experience to be sufficient to explain why we do not usually live in a state of peace, harmony, and happiness. It is our pattern of stresses that supports our unrealistic beliefs and pervasive problems (details at www.nsrusa.org/about-stress.php). It is a simple theory, akin to how circuit breakers work to prevent fire, and it justifies itself in the experience of thousands of meditators who have dissolved and eliminated stress stored in the nervous system through the deep rest provided by the easy and effortless practice which Vedic subjective science describes as the "fourth state of consciousness". Each of these thousands has found their life transformed to the satisfaction of peace, harmony, strength, productivity, and joy.

How long will psychological research continue to limit itself to an incorrect theoretical framework, one that supports the process of peer-reviewed publication well but does not help solve the problems of society or of the individual?

Catherine,

As to "self-referential thoughts", we tend to take our thoughts way too seriously. Such analysis that respects or values thinking leads to error, since thoughts are not a cause, but a result of life.

Modern psychology and philosophy are all tangled up because they assume that matter comes first, and hence that the brain comes first. Neither is true; consciousness comes first and has created the ever-changing diversity of the universe and the creativity and intelligence of thoughts. No scientist has ever found matter; the closer they look through objective experimentation the more strangeness is found. Our reality is that we can only observe through our senses, so we postulate a fixed world outside of ourselves when there actually is no "outside" or "fixedness".

The reality, which we can confirm ourselves, is that only awareness is permanent, and hence reliable. It is the only valid place to start when trying to understand the world or ourselves. Science would be free of contradictions if it was purely subjective instead of purely objective.

Because neither psychology or philosophy is founded on reality, neither gives rise to consistent principles that have improved society much. We still see around us stupidity, strain, effort, anger, racism, injustice, suffering, greed, poverty, selfishness, and warfare. If psychology or philosophy were effective, these unwanted aspects of society would be rapidly disappearing. The NSR project is one of several effective approaches that has a real chance to bring peace, happiness, and harmony to everyone, transforming life and improving all societies on earth. NSR or pure nonduality should be adopted by those who practice psychology and philosophy so they can fulfill their promise to their society and the world.

Your next question, about the effects of the fourth state of consciousness, has the answer: both. The practice of transcending thinking has an immediate result in that stresses and strains that have been created in the nervous system as a result of overloads of experience are dissolved and eliminated, and in the long term this produces a complete freedom from stress and the dysfunctions that it causes. We can interpret this answer to say that the fourth state of consciousness naturally gives rise to fifth (and higher) states of consciousness with the passage of time. Evidence of the short term and long term benefits of transcending is provided by our use of the STAI Form Y inventory to show that both state and trait anxiety is dramatically reduced as soon as an individual learns NSR.

Your final question, about where this could fit in with psychology, is difficult to answer. Psychology tries to be a science, and all of science is pervaded by the unscientific (because untested) belief in materialism, that the universe of objects, events, space, time, and energy gave rise to the brain through evolution (for which there is ample evidence), and that the brain gave rise to awareness (for which there is no evidence at all).

This believed sequence of creation gives rise to many problems. For example, where does awareness come from? How and when can inanimate matter become self-aware? This is called the "hard problem of consciousness" or the "mind-body problem" in philosophy, and is an artifact of the fundamental mistake of assuming that objects come first and somehow naturally generate the observer in a dualistic relationship. Even the magical believed nature of right-wing religious creationism, where God instantly creates paleontology and the diversity of life, makes more sense than believing that matter can create awareness or intelligence.

Perhaps the closest that psychology has come to understanding reality in a way that helps people enjoy peace and happiness instead of struggling with distraction and problems is the Hierarchy of Needs of Abraham Maslow. Although Maslow's framework for human fulfillment is mostly empirical (as is most of psychology), he does seem to praise what he calls "peak experiences" that transform life. This may be the closest that psychology has ever come to recognizing or understanding the subjective process of transcending, although in truth it isn't very close at all.

 Thanks for your presence and activity in this question!

First, I try to highlight what I could pick out from your answer related to my question, which specified a little: ’imagine that you ask your subject in a research to close the eyes, pay attention to the body and report the emerging experiences. She says, she felt a tingling sensation in the chest.’ As I understood your answers, in order to explain this phenomenon as a researcher:

·         David, you would examine her ability to create deep rest, connecting to a nondual, transcending state of mind, and the level of stress stored unresolved

·         Clare, you would examine the level of shame (and the history of it); judgments and acceptance.

·         Catherine, you would examine this imagined participant regarding the activity of her thoughts, her default-mode network, the ability to meditate and if for her the body is also a reminder to arrive to a ’immediate experience of being alive, part of which is a delightful acceptance of whatever is happening (even if 'unpleasant') […] directly experience yourself as a series of energetic sensations, without thoughts and judgements’

Am I correct in interpreting your shares? Do you have a scientific work that examines  these aspects, so that I could refer to it in our manuscript in progress?

Second, Andreas, thanks, the second one was new to me J!

David (and others interested), I invite you the share your thought in another Question, if the overload of experience and stress, and the inability to rest stems in our civilized lifestyle and culture: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_compare_the_hunter-gatherer_tribal_and_civilized_lifestyle_especially_regarding_the_amount_of_resources_safe_and_social_support?_tpcectx=profile_questions

Third, since you added informations which I can hardly connect directly to my original topic, and since I need transparency and simplicity, I ask you to continue lines of thought not strictly linked to this topic of body experiences in other forums.

Benedek,

I apologize for including topics that were at some distance from your interests and your specific question. When I teach meditation, I do not ask my clients to pay attention to their bodies, except when they are having trouble with persistent anxiety, fear, or other unwanted mental states, and so need help in making their stress release experiences smoother or deeper.

What I was trying to say in answer to your question was that reports of sensations in the body are not meaningful in themselves to guide any sort of therapeutic intervention. Such sensations only represent the activity of stresses or strains stored in the body, specifically in the nervous system. So what is significant is that fact that stress may or may not be dissolving, not the actual content of the sensations or thoughts accompanying that dissolution. The meaning, if any, of sensations or stresses is irrelevant to individual improvement or therapy, in my professional opinion as a teacher of transcending.

In NSR, my clients learn how to release stresses, but this procedure does not involve any interaction with their stresses or with the side effects of the release of their stresses. The procedure of NSR only involves learning how to practice the fourth state of consciousness, a deep state of rest in which mental alertness is not lost. Imaging a society in which people do not know how to sleep, and you may get an idea of the value of NSR; it simply supplies a state of the physiology that is needed for a healthy life.

I hope this clarifies what I can contribute on this topic. Again, I do not recommend body awareness, since the sensations my clients report are the results of a process (the process of stress release), not the cause of anything.

Further, I have no knowledge concerning your other interest, involving ancient humans and hunter-gatherer societies. I am aware that we have much to learn about the value of reducing the carbohydrate level and perhaps adding intermittent fasting or ketosis to our knowledge of diet, all of which are demonstrated in ancient societies during an earlier period in human evolution. But, diet seems not to be your area of specific interest, and in any case I am not an expert in ketogenic diets or fasting.

I wish you luck in getting your questions answered in the specific way you wish them answered and I thank you for the opportunity to provide what insights I am able to provide.

David Spector

Volunteer President,

Natural Stress Relief/USA

Dear David, 

My impression is that you tried to connect more strongly to this actual question and answer my questions, for which I'm thankful!

Your lines were interesting for me, and inspired me share further questions and opinions, after mirroring what I understood:

• 'body sensations during meditation can only be caused by stress (either still stored or released)' it is not the first time that I meet with the notion that body sensations are always the sign of something negative, or at best, the end of something negative. does anyone know a scientific resource for such opinion? I would argue, that body sensations can be caused by stress or coping with it, and can be caused by joy&satisfaction and savoring it (e.g. Bryant, 2005). A body experience of warm tingling, or heartbeat or breath during meditation can be the sign of (or at least, can be interpreted as) that we are living, existing, constantly changing, and that we can be aware of our own life. 
• 'the meaning of the body sensations appearing during (e.g.) meditation are irrelevant regarding the individual improvement or therapy' Hypotethically, I could imagine an intervention, where thoughts and interpretations are not important, if anyone knows about scientific work about such notion, please share. At the same time, I would argue that thoughts, integrating experiences on a cognitive level are highly important part of therapy, especially for impacting our client's everyday life, outside of the therapeutic meetings (e.g. Yalom, 2002). The thoughts of the clients, personal meanings of sensations can help reveal his resources to e.g. reach/allow/search for recharging states of consciousness regularly, and to understand returning patterns of obstacles. 
• 'body awareness is the result of stress relief, not the cause of anything' there is a body of evidence that identified body awareness as a key factor in therapeutic processes (Mehling, 2011 e.g.). Even if I don't agree, that body awareness is just a by-product of stress releasing, I can imagine, that stress releasing can enhance body awareness, and in extreme situations, is needed before body awareness is applied. 

For me, science is dialogue. It would be nice David, if your opinions were published in scientific forums, so that I could refer to them. If you have such papers, please, share them.

References:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10902-005-3889-4

https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Therapy-Generation-Therapists-Patients/dp/0061719617

https://peh-med.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1747-5341-6-6

Benedek, While much of our actual research into Natural Stress Relief meditation (NSR) has been published (see http://www.nsrusa.org/research.php), our theories on stress release and the roles of thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and motor movements during transcending have not been published. Frankly, I have no time to spend toin writing additional papers or seeing to further publications currently, partly because much of my time is devoted to supporting my clients and to dealing with my stage IV cancer. Note also that I am not credentialled in psychology, my training having been in teaching meditation only.

I do realize that our theories on stress release may be difficult either to understand or accept for those familiar with more accepoted or standard theories, and I apologize for that. You can, however, read an overview of stress release at www.nsrusa.org/about-stress.php .

I am a practical person interested in improving the world directly, and not much interested in spending the great deal of time necessary to explain to you how transcending and samadhi differ from usual or popular meditation teachings, or to justify my statements. Again, I apologize for this. My time is currently too limited for in-depth academic discussions. Again, I apologize. You have caught me too late in my lifetime for this.

Hello, Benedek! 

So first maybe this article has some interesting ideas for you  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480633/ 

And second, I would look after articles about the Theory of Mind Network or Default Mode Network. 

Good luck! 

Luca 

• Dear Luca, I was aware of and love David's paper on self-awareness, -regulation, and -transcendence, and I read some papers on the neural network of theory of mind and default mode. how would you answer my original questions based on the papers suggested?
• Dear David, for me, Researchgate is a place for in-depth academic discussions. I understand if you concentrate on more practical activities (a part of mine, besides my researcher self also concentrates on the therapeutic work). I'm not angry, at the same time I just ask you to use this forum (my question pages) for scientific debates: with references and with openness for contradicting statements and opinions. For non-academic debates, e.g. sharing therapeutic processes and opinions, I'm open outside Researcgate, e.g. on linkedin. 

Btw, your page states interesting hypotheses that could be examined scientifically, e.g. 'In NSR©, the attention of the mind starts from where it already is: from the surface or concrete level of thinking. From that level we begin the technique, in which our attention gets drawn naturally to more abstract and quieter levels of thinking, which are more charming to the mind (our thinking always aims at greater happiness and satisfaction, for ourselves and others).(...) This process is called transcending. Transcending is effortless, simple, natural, and innocent.' 'In NSR©, the mind picks up a mantra, or syllable, which is used for its sound value only (...) No matter what type of meditation, only this unique combination of suitable mantra and the method of using it can give rise to the process of efficient transcending.'

Benedek, Thank you for your comments, and I do agree with them. However, my life situation is different from yours.

As a non-academic meditation teacher with a singularly effective form of meditation to teach, and with a volunteer and charity business model that chooses to sell our course for the lowest feasible amount (under $50 USD), and as someone recovering from Stage IV cancer, I am forced to choose to participate in whatever online forums allow me to generate publicity for NSR among those who can really make a difference in society: scientists.

While it is true that many of our public statements, such as can be found on our website, could be wonderful candidates for serious and important research, I find that there is a substantial barrier for others to do so (mostly a barrier made up of beliefs and assumptions). And as for myself, I have neither the scientific training nor the personal time or energy to write papers on these interesting concepts and statements.

I do appeciate your input and interest, but so long as Research Gate feel that I am not being outright commercial, or a spammer, I plan to continue to champion and advocate for NSR here and elsewhere as the solution to the practical psychological problems and limitations that cause such suffering in our society today. NSR is an open project, currently consisting of three organizations distributing the course in three languages. We are not in this to make money, and indeed it would be impossible to do so given the extremely low prices for instruction and support for our clients.

I am not at all opposed to academic research in psychology. But I find that the majority of it confuses causes and effects, or attempts to combine effects along with other effects (such as anxiety and fear, which are different but both produced by overloads of experience which have lasting impact on the nervous system, see www.nsrusa.org/about-stress.php) in ways that do not work. I find that all this research does not result in practical public health programs to eliminate problems and bring natural peace of mind, harmony with others, and happiness to all citizens.

The day that research psychology succeeds in helping the human race cease its suffering, I will shut up. Until then, I have something relevant to say, something that I hope will influence researchers and theoretists to study and verify.