G one are the days when meditation was all about concentrating on the image of your favourite God/Goddess and breathing motion to gain peace of mind. With meditation becoming a popular activity all over the globe, there now are a lot of local twists — for instance, the Japanese have perfected the technique of Zen meditation while the Thai have what is called Lotus meditation, that traces its origin to the Buddhist Lotus Sutra. Similarly, the goal of meditation too has changed. It is not about just getting in touch with one’s inner-self or attaining a higher level of consciousness any more. These days the emphasis is more on living a stress-free life. And that is why several other things like psychic powers, paranormal influences have given rise to these new forms of meditation being embraced by millions of people all over the world.
New age meditation isn’t all that new. If one takes a closer look at its origins, this began during the 1960s — popularly known as the hippie era — when transcendental meditation started gaining popularity. Charmed by its effects, people began experimenting with meditation.

A psychic connection
Some people have strong intuition or psychic abilities and one of the ways to develop these skills is through meditation. Meditating on one’s intuition and concentrating on a particular problem and urging a higher power to provide some indication of a solution is one of the common ways in which psychic meditation is done. This is often a group activity that like-minded people join in. Sometimes they use the help of tools like tarot cards or even hypnotism that encourages the development of psychic powers.

Chakra cleansing
Often when we fall ill or feel down, alternative healing therapists recommend that we get our chakras cleansed. Infections or other physical diseases tend to block these energy points and disrupt the flow of clean and positive energy in the body. Meditating on one’s chakras prompts one to focus on these various energy points and allows the influx of positive energy into them. Another thing that is done in this form of meditation is aligning the chakras, which plays a huge role in one’s emotional and mental well-being.

Calling on spirits
Some people say that they sometimes feel the presence of a loved one who has passed on to another world. While the debate about the existence of these spirits is a never-ending one, those who have the ability to make this connection are encouraged to strengthen the bond because it is believed that these spirits may hold the key to a lot of solutions. Meditating on these spirits is one of the primary ways of calling on them. As one progresses further into this, one is able to communicate with the spirits and seek answers to various questions. However, this form of meditation requires a lot of practice and is best done under the guidance of an able practitioner.

Meditate to heal
It is said that we can rid ourselves of everything that we go through, including the illness that we face, by the power of thought. This combined with the advantage that meditation offers is said to be a winning combination. Healing through meditation can be done for oneself or for others and it is also effective when it is done in groups. What actually happens is that one sends and receives a lot of positive vibes during this time which automatically puts one on the road to recovery.

The author is an alternative
healing teacher