Meditation is a sacred practice. Shamans, gurus, priests, medicine men and other wise beings have practiced meditation for over 5000 years. In 20th century, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi popularized one form of meditation he named Transcendental Meditation, This is a simple form of mantra meditation, easy to learn and to do.

We meditate by sitting quietly, eyes open, and concentrating on an image such as a mandala, or a candle, or sitting with closed eyes, and, in either case, repeating a mantra. A mantra is not a word. A mantra is a sound. Different sounds, repeated over and over and over again, affect energies within body, each in its own way.

There are many ways to meditate. In most instances, you sit quietly. Teachers may recommend different postures. These include lotus position in which Buddha is often depicted. Diverse cultures recommend various deployments of fingers. (one example: thumbs and forefingers lightly touching, palms up.)

When we meditate, we slow down our brain waves. We change them from beta state, (22 cycles per second in normal waking consciousness) to alpha state (11 cycles per second.)

This slower vibration opens up access to subconscious mind. The subconscious mind, in turn, opens awareness of our otherwise inaccessible higher consciousness. To higher consciousness as well as to universal intelligence.

2. Divine Essence:

The term NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming and was coined in early seventies by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. They began their work by studying: Fritz Perls, psychotherapist and originator of Gestalt school of therapy, Virginia Satir, well-known family therapist and Milton Erickson, a world-famous hypnotherapist. Their intention was to model outstanding therapists (i.e. identify patterns) in order that others could use these patterns to generate similar results. You may say that NLP is about identifying excellence, and then devising means for others to use those patterns to achieve similar results.

And NLP is more than that.

NLP also draws on earlier work, such as Ivan Pavlov's conditioned reflexes (1904). In NLP this is called anchoring. You could say that NLP takes theoretical results developed by others and makes them available to you and me so that we can improve our lives and well-being.

And NLP is more than that.

NLP had its origins in therapy and is now applied in all areas of human endeavour - education, health, sports, business, and list goes on. For a list of NLP books and audiotapes, please see www.renewal.ca/books.htm.

And NLP is much more than that.

Let us look at terms Neuro Linguistic Programming.

Neuro refers to your brain and your neurology. It is about how you take in information. For example, you can use your eyes to see something. Other ways to experience an event include: hear, kinesthetic (tactile touch or emotional feeling), gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell).

Linguistic refers to language -- pictures, sounds, feelings (kinesthetic), tastes, smells and words -- that you use to remember a particular experience (or to forecast a future experience). For example, did you have breakfast this morning? When you remember having breakfast, can you see a picture in your mind, can you hear sounds (maybe a radio was on or someone said something to you), what about tastes and smells, how were you feeling - happy, tired, excited?