Posted 08 July 2012 - 03:26 AM

From all my research into Meditation and mental training, it seems to be widely accepted that the mind CAN be trained and strengthened to function at higher levels and altered states of minds, without any changes to diet. I personally have experienced this throughout my life, since I started meditating. Meditation is like a pushup for the mind, only you can do far more things and it can heal/recover at much more extreme rates.Anyways, I make this post in regards to an experiment I plan to conduct and the theory and logic behind it, and how other people can easily apply it to their lives.Many people use supplements to function at higher cognitive levels(and at physical levels too), but on this forum, I'll stick to the cognitive aspect.If a person takes supplements, they may receive a short term, and even long term boost, though once supplementation has ceased, the effects will decline.The solution:Mental training.To briefly describe the essence of mental training:If somebody focuses the mind with an activity such as meditation(which can be done in less than 20 minutes), that person will notice a significant mental boost in focus, and overall cognitive functioning. The more this state is practiced the more benefits the person will experience over the long term. This is a perfect example of someone training the mind to operate in a certain state.With meditation though, results can only come so fast.Though if a person receives a boost of supplements, and trains the mind to stay in that state of conscious functioning, meditating on it daily, while weening his/herself off of the supplement that brought the boost in the first place.... then the person will notice he can operate at that level of functioning without the supplement. - ASSUMING the person does not decrease their dose any further until they have reached a level of functioning as high, or higher than their previous does on the supplement(before they began the weening. You basically, find a state of mind you enjoy on a supplement, decrease your dose a little, focus the mind on reaching that boosted state again, once it has been reached, decrease the dose some more, and keep doing this, only decreasing the dose when you are able to have your mind working at a level of your highest enjoyable dose.A similar concept can be seen in the movie Limitless, where instead of relying on the drug NTZ, he trains himself to operate at that level of functioning without the drug.If a short meditation session can definitely boost a persons overall mindstate, and constant/daily meditation can cause long term changes, then it only makes sense that a person can train his mind to operate at any level.On a meditation retreat last year, where we would meditate for 10-15 hours aday, for about 10 days straight... on the 4th day my mind was extremely powerful. I could halucinate at will, astral project and leave my body and fly around, and (lucid)dream with a single intention on turning a thought into reality. Though, this is hard core meditation here. After the retreat the abilities faded as my schedule only allowed me to practice meditation about 20 minutes aday, which is not enough time to ingrain such amazing abilities into my natural functioning.Anyways, any boost received from a supplement can be ingrained into your natural functioning. The fact is that the supplement makes it a million times easier since you know where you are going ahead of time. By understanding what functioning on the supplement is like, and focusing the mind to enter that state frequently, while gradually reducing your dose over time... you can successfully adopt functioning like that any time.It only makes sense. Your conscious experience of the world is dependent upon your brain waves, which are induced by chemicals. If meditating intensively can induce the same mental state as tripping 30 hits of acid, and meditating is merely using your natural brain chemicals... then this can be done with any state of mind.This being said, I firmly believe it is a rule of thumb that any state of mind that can be experienced under any drug/supplement, can be adopted in sober functioning with the proper mental training.This makes me point to Isochroma. While he did a bit manic, he achieved some amazing states of mind through the use of Piracetam. Imagine if he focused his mind, and achieved being able to operate like that while sober.It is proven that experienced monks who have meditated many hours are able to alter their brainwaves at will. This is basically because they've dedicated their life to controlling their mind.I hope I have inspired many of you. Any state of mind you can experience on a supplement can be experienced while off the supplement... and the brain is limitless. If you train your brainwaves to replicate their activity as when you were on a supplement, while sober... then you could go back on the supplement and achieve in higher states with the same doses, train your mind to stay in those states naturally by weening off the supplement, and repeat.In theory, you could become infinitely smarter, while would not be possible by merely talking an infinite amount of the substance because it is relying on a bunch of other brain faculties that are not up to speed with it... but by training your mind to stay in these states while sober, you are also training the other parts of your brain to keep up with the demand..... just a little brain theory for you folks. With the mind/brain... anything is possible.Cheers!If you have any questions, feel free to ask, though I am very busy with my career so I will try my best to answer the questions.-OS

Edited by OpenStrife, 08 July 2012 - 03:32 AM.