You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter

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Part II
TRANSFORMATION
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Chapter Eleven
Meditation Preparation
Now that you’ve read and absorbed all the information in Part I, you’re ready to move to transformation. In this chapter, I’ll go over what you need to know to get ready to meditate so that when you get to the next chapter, you’ll be ready for me to walk you through the actual meditation. All of the participants in this book who changed something about themselves had to first go inward and change their state of being.
So think of your meditation practice as away for you to take the placebo everyday. But instead of taking a pill, you’ll be going inward. In time,
your meditation will become like your belief in taking medication.
When to Meditate
There are two times a day that are the most conducive to meditation:
right before you go to bed at night and right after you getup in the morning. That’s because when you fall asleep, you naturally shift though the entire spectrum of brainwave states, going from your waking, beta state to the slower alpha state, when you close your eyes, to the slower- still theta state, when you’re half-asleep and half-awake, all the way down to the deep-sleep delta brainwave state. And when you wake up in the morning, you do the same thing in reverse rising from delta to theta to alpha to beta, where you’re fully awake and conscious.
So if you meditate when you’re getting ready for sleep or just coming out of sleep, it’s easier to slip into alpha or theta brainwaves you’re more primed for being in an altered state, because it’s the direction you either have just come from or are slipping into. You could say that the door to the subconscious mind is open during these two times. I personally prefer to meditate in the morning, but either time is fine. Pick what will work best for you, and then stick with it. If you can meditate everyday, it will become a good habit and will be something you look forward to doing daily.
Where to Meditate
The most important consideration in selecting a place to meditate is to choose a place where you won’t be distracted. Because you’ll be unplugging from the external, physical world, pick a quiet place where you can be alone and uninterrupted (either by other people or by pets)—
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a place that you can return to everyday and use as your regular, sacred meditation spot.
I don’t recommend that you meditate in bed, because you associate bed with sleep. (For the same reason, I don’t recommend that you lie down or use a recliner when you meditate) Pick a chair to sit in, or arrange a spot on the floor where you’ll be able to sit for up to an hour—a spot away from any drafts and in a room where the temperature is comfortable.
If you prefer to meditate to music, choose soft, relaxing, trance- inducing instrumentals or chants without lyrics. (In fact, a little music works well to cover background noise if you aren’t in an environment that’s completely quiet) Definitely don’t play music that brings up associative memories of some past event or that would be distracting in anyway. Also, be sure to turn off your computer and your phone if they’re in the room. And try to avoid the aroma of coffee brewing or food cooking. You may even want to use a blindfold or earplugs to enhance thee ect of sensory deprivation, since the goal in your preparation is to eliminate as much external stimuli as possible.

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