MEDITATION

The Power of Imagination in Meditation

Many meditation techniques from The Book of Secrets use imagination to help you connect to an energetic phenomenon which is already there in you, but which you are unaware of. Osho has always said that imagination is very powerful, because energy follows imagination.

For example, if you start by imagining a sensation of peace between the armpits, after a while you really feel it. This is because it is real – by moving your attention to the part of your body where your energetic heart is centered, you give energy to it, and activate this source of inner peace which was lying there, dormant. The same thing happens when you imagine a small blue flame in the area of your third eye. And practicing these meditations regularly, brings about a real transformation in you.

As always, science is a little behind the mystics, who have known about the power of imagination for centuries. But science has finally ‘proved’ this power.

At Harvard Medical School, neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone taught a bunch of students a little five-finger piano exercise. Then the group was divided into two. One group had to come every day for five days to practice the music for two hours. At the end of each day's practice, scientists mapped how much of the motor cortex of the brain controlled the finger movements needed for the piano exercise. After five days of practice, the motor cortex devoted to these finger movements had grown significantly.

The second group also came every day for five days, but instead of practicing their music on a piano, they were told to just imagine their fingers were playing for the two hours. Then they too were tested. And to the great surprise of the researchers, they discovered that the region of motor cortex that controls the piano-playing fingers also expanded in the brains of volunteers who imagined playing the music, just as it had in those who actually played it.

In other words, they discovered that imagination can actually alter the physical structure and function of our brains.

So keep going with your meditation practices – they are creating new neural pathways in your brain which will make permanent changes in your life.

an article by Anando published in the italian Osho Times