Black Hole Zion: How I Got Into This Whole Meditations Thing

Monday, March 27, 2023

How I Got Into This Whole Meditations Thing

Wow!  So I have been talking a lot about the Meditations albums lately with Volume 2 coming out.  It might seem kind of odd with some wondering how the hell it all came about.  Here's what happened:

My friend, Jen, is a yoga teacher and a reiki practitioner like me.  Actually, Jen taught the first yoga class I ever went to and was my reiki teacher.  She's really cool and into all sorts of off-the-beaten-path modalities.  She also knows how skeptical I can be of things even when I feel something happening!  Haha!  Anyway, Jen was telling me about this crazy cool hypnosis/guided meditation thing she was learning.  I am always eager to try new things like this.  I am what I would describe as an "optimistic skeptic".  She said the whole thing was around an hour or two, and would sort of take you on a journey that may or may not relate to your true self, past lives, etc...  Sounded interesting, and I trusted her, so I did it.

I won't get into the whole thing, but it was WILD.  I don't know if I believe in past lives, aliens, god/spirits, or any of that stuff for sure.  I am not saying it isn't real.  I just don't know.  What I do know is that our minds are much more powerful than we think, and we hold a lot in our subconscious.  I 100% know that is true.  I saw, hear, and felt some pretty crazy and cool things in my head for this.  I wasn't unconscious.  It was very much like floating between being awake and dreaming.  I ended up seeing some things in outer space.  Crazy, I know.  As Jen was sort of helping me navigate it all and bring me back out of this sort of dreamlike state, she asked if there was anywhere else I wanted to go.  I said that I needed to stop at my house?!  Like, what?!

So I "stopped" at my house in this kind of dream.  I saw myself at my computer making music and sort of broadcasting it to people.  I could hear strange pulsations and miscellaneous tones, but not anything specific that I would later try to write.  I was sort of phasing between seeing myself at my computer with my MIDI piano and being in that body.  Making something, but nothing specific.  I instantly just KNEW that I had to try making music that tapped into a bit of that meditative-lose-yourself-find-yourself feeling I had.  Like it was just something I was SUPPOSED to do.  I can't remember if I thought about binaural beats during that session with Jen, but I knew of them before.  Either way, that session is how I got the idea to do Meditations, Volume 1.  It was a series of shorter pieces of music that I broadcasted live via our Facebook page.  I did one a week for five weeks and broadcast them around lunch time so folks that were working could listen on what might be a break.  Then, I made them available afterwards without me talking before or after.  I got some really good reactions, so I decided to release them all as a collection.  You can check those out here and here if you haven't already.  Jen wouldn't say she takes credit for it, but I most certainly want to thank her for helping to get that idea out of me!!  I don't know if it was spiritual/energetic intervention or subconscious thought getting out of me, but I am glad it happened.  Thank you, Jen/Illumination Healing!  You are a friend and a super rad person!

Volume 2 is an evolution of that.  Some of you know that I underwent a yoga teacher training program back in 2020 and I teach yoga on a regular basis at Main Street Yoga in Fairmont, WV.  

Side note:  science is real on yoga and you should try it!  It is absolutely one of the best things you can do for your mind and body. 

OK, back to post:  The training program was pretty intense in both physical and mental practice.  There were days were you had the option to do around six hours of yoga.  That's on top of having a regular practice outside of training sessions.  The instructor, Angela, is now someone I would call a friend.  It was a fantastic experience.  It was tough in the best way.  There was a lot of reading and writing both on philosophy AND anatomy. Lots of anatomy.  I can't speak for ever program in the world, or even the US.  However, I can say that the program I studied under put a massive emphasis on science while also handling the philosophical and spiritual side of things in a very practical manner.  Part of the program I took was to research a topic related to yoga and my own interests, then write a paper on it.  I decided to take a look at whether or not binaural beats had an impact on meditation and personal development.  I took it further and wrote music in conjunction with binaural beats (like Volume 1).  The difference this time was that even if someone wasn't using headphones to meditate, the music is designed to take someone through an hour long yoga practice.  I wanted music to work on multiple levels.  Either path someone takes, I wanted it to feel like they went on a journey with me or with themselves like I had done before.  Further still, I wanted it to flow seamlessly for an hour and then "loop" back onto itself so it could be played continuously.  This lets someone keep it going for as long as they want to meditate, work or create.  It also let's someone use it for an hour long yoga class and return to the beginning as they end class.  If class goes over a minute or two, you don't experience the shock of music suddenly stopping or shifting to a different/unrelated playlist.  

I put so much work into writing this, testing it in the yoga classes I teach, mixing, etc...  My sincere hope is that it shows and helps people in some way.  We do a lot of aggressive music in Black Hole Zion, but I think it is also important to remember that no one is one thing all of the time.  Meditations, Volume 2 is just a different side of that.  I teach a yoga class called Elemental Yoga just about every Tuesday at 5:30p.  That's exclusively the reason I decided to release this album on a Tuesday.  If you are local to me, you are welcome and encouraged to attend my class.  If not, I hope you will listen here or here on release day while working, studying, painting, drawing, practicing yoga, or meditating.  

Live long and prosper.

Mark



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