What makes the shield stronger?

[Stony1205]

innerfire said:

I wouldn't say it could make them *actually* indestructible, but having some faith in what you make would probably be useful That's why I tend to spend some extra time picking out a particular visualization for each of my shield layers, having something that I consider to be strong really has an effect on its structural strength in my opinion.

But that's just the thing, a select few who follow this ideology think that their constructs are indestructible and instantly programmable. I refuse to mention places or names, so if you know who I'm talking about, great, if not, it isn't a big deal. Some people follow really radical thinking, and want me on the bandwagon, but I just don't want any of it.

[Requisite]

I haven't found anyone that actually thinks faith makes it indestructible. That is a pretty crazy assertion.

I like your bird bones analogy. I would say that a strong way to make a shield constructed so well is to have a clear mind. Focal meditations help greatly with this (flame, breath, energy, visualizations (like in Stony's article), etc.). Any stray thoughts can get implanted into the program.

[confuded]

Stony's article... Which one?

Flames... Ha?

[Requisite]

confuded said:

Stony's article... Which one?

The Visual Workout is a good article concerning a focal meditation. PaleHorse's "Exercise One: 'Slide-show'" is also a great meditation. It is indeed a very sad thing that people do not realize the paramount importance of these exercises in their practice of psi. It can enhance one's strength, especially in energy manipulation, many times more than most think.

confuded said:

Flames... Ha?

One can focally meditate on a candle flame. It's a great tool because it naturally draws one's attention whilst giving an easy target for later practice, such as kinesis of varying degrees.

One can also meditate on the breath, which is a great tool for "mindfulness" as well. One can meditate on psi energies. One can also meditate on mental images as well, as aforementioned. Lastly, there is the "et cetera" meaning that there are other objects on which one can focally meditate.

People typically don't like the sound of "meditation". Sitting in one place, in the eyes of many, is quite boring. There is also the fact that many don't see how simply meditating can aid skill more than actually gettin' down and dirty and doing it hands on.

On the topic of this thread, though this is certainly not from where the extreme benefit of meditation comes, having extreme focus of mind aids program strength considerably. Merely thinking, "My cat is fluffy," whilst programming will cause that thought, to some degree, to be implanted into the construct. This will weaken the construct in the same way that dirt taints pure water.

To take matters further, if your focus is not entirely sharp and clear, perhaps if you are trying to shell a construct and you think to yourself, "This shell will not last, I am a bad programmer, it will leak," then quite easily that will get put into the construct. The construct will perfectly obey its commands, it will leak . This is one reason why faith in one's ability is of importance, and this is also one reason why a focused mind is important.


Namaste

[confuded]

Cosncentrating on one thing gets kinda boriung and your thoughts fly away... Maybe its olny me... Thanks .

[The Devil's Advocate]

Concentration may be boring, but if you are concentrating ON something it works much better. Find something simple you are interested in watching. It doesn't have to be a flame, but flame is frequently used because it's obvious, dynamic, and a we bit on the traditional side.

Your first concentration excercise: Sit down and spend a solid 2 min making a list of everything you think you MIGHT be able to concentrate on. Time yourself. If you find your mind wandering. Tack on 5 seconds every time. Then start running through the list and see if you can spend a solid 2 min concentrating on one thing. *grins* Get an analog watch and see if you can watch the seconds for 2 min straight. Just 2 min. I bet you've spent at least that long staring at the clock in your least favorite classes.

~The Devil's Advocate

[Requisite]

That is a great idea that I've never thought of, DA. Thanks

You could try to meditate with the goal of an amount of focus time rather than an amount of practice time. For example, rather than having the goal of meditating for fifteen minutes, but only have a couple of seconds of complete focus, you should try having the goal of having complete focus for one minute, even if it takes ten minutes to do this. Therefore, you practice for however long it takes you to achieve a state of COMPLETE focus on an invisible point/dot in your mind for one minute while your eyes are closed. To do this it might take about ten minutes. Once this can be done, raise it to two minutes. Once that is done, raise it again. Once this can be achieved, try holding complex visualizations, like Stony's article The Visual Workout, for ten minutes or something of the like, with complete focus.

Doing this allows you to quickly and efficiently achieve states of complete focus for when you are performing psi feats/acts. This unshakable, forceful focus adds great strength to your psi ability. After having complete focus on the dot for simply two minutes you should already start noticing benefits when programming shields. It is a good idea to practice this meditation before any psi feats are attempted, to get you into the proper, focused state of mind. Complete focus on the imaginary dot means that you have a solid, vigorous focus on the dot, and even though some thoughts may spring up in the back of your mind, you pay them NO attention and so they immediately vanish. It is very hard at first to not pay them attention and soon forget about the dot, but you must have ALL focus on the dot for one minute, then two minutes, etc.

You see, the thing about meditation, the secret key to it all, is that when done properly it makes no difference to the meditative whether he or she is meditating for one minute or one hour. The trick to meditation is that you release ALL cares and ALL thoughts completely. There is no past and there is no future, and therefore there are no worries. You don't need to be anywhere, you aren't meditating for a specific amount of time (because the future doesn't exist, thus there is no specified end to the meditation, you simply EXIST), you even release the desire to meditate to gain skill and focus. Once you begin meditating, you simply EXIST. You put all focus on that one dot and release EVERYTHING else and exist in the present. A good way to do this is my meditating on the breath. Breath in and out. There is no special focus, in fact, eventually you don't want to even differentiate between your in-breath and your out-breath. You simply ARE.

Once you can do this, you sit down to meditate. You simply "exist" with complete focus on that focal point. It is a relaxed focus because you've learned to release everything but that one point. In fact, they say focal meditation is the doorway to void meditation, when nothing is being focused on and you simply exist. A while later you will suddenly realize, "Meh, I can finish now." Sometimes it will be fifteen minutes later and sometimes it will be two hours later. It will make NO difference to you because you released the observation of time. Once you can do this you'll notice some GREAT benefits, HUGE benefits, in psi and in your daily life. This is why some say that it matters not how long you meditate, the only thing that matters is achieving that state of mind.

It's easier for some to do this then others. Obviously kids with A.D.D. will have quite a hard time with this, and it seems SO many youngsters today are diagnosed with this. Kids just don't know how to focus these days. If I remember correctly, a recent study showed that focal meditations performed by kids with A.D.D. had the same affect as the drugs, but...without the drugs. We really should be turning to healthier alternatives. It's to bad todays world is filled with fast food restaurants and...well, I'll stop before I begin a rant. Goodness gracious I love rants

As a ending note, some people stress over in what position they should meditate. Depending on what you're doing, this can be important, specifically if you are doing QiGong. Overall, however, there is one position that is very good for meditation. I believe that in Qaballah it is called the Throne Asana, but I'm unsure. Basically you want to sit like the Pharaohs and Kings do in all those old pictures and hieroglyphics. Find a sturdy chair with a solid back that is not too reclined. You want to be sitting up straight, but not uncomfortably straight. At the same time, you don't want to be reclined. You should be sitting upright, comfortable, but not TO comfortable. Your knee should form a right angle, as should your hip joint. Your entire body should be forming right angles (ankle joint, knee joint, hip joint) to form a good position. Your hands should be resting on your knees. It is from this position that I do ALL meditations and energy workings, whether telepathy, shielding, meditating, whatever. It's a solid, upright position that is sturdy and good for my body if I am sitting still and unmoving for long periods of time. For those who believe in energetic systems, this is a good position for that as well. I'm comfortable and, once I begin practicing, I quickly forget about my body completely. However, it isn't too comfortable that I am lulled to sleep.

P.S. Sorry for the long post, Confuded, I hope you understood it all (language barrier) and that you didn't simply skim it. Try this stuff out, I know it sounds so boring. However, once you achieve it not only does it no longer become boring, but also you will find your abilities becoming much stronger. A shield made with complete focus looks like the same shield, but twice as sturdy and twice as energized.


Namaste

[innerfire]

I don't mean to necessarily introduce this as the easy way out, rather a less intense stepping stone for those cringing at mediation. This is really basic and has worked incredibly well for me.

No position is really needed, just get conformtable (the less you have to shift around the better), I prefer laying down. Close your eyes and start counting up from one. The trick is though while you're counting form images of the numbers in your head, block numbering is the best. So if you're at 5, focus on making a nice big block "5" appear.

If this concept is seeming strange, you may need to just practice at that abstractly first without meditation. Most people can see image fragments if they close their eyes and the room isn't blindly bright. If you focus a little you can make simple images come up at will. The idea is combining this process with counting chews up just enough of your thinking capacity that you don't have to fight your way through to keep your mind clear. It may take anywhere from counting up to 90-220 for each individual person to find themselves fairly relaxed, play around with it.

Why is this easier than a dot? First, everyone can count. Second, you are still *gasp* thinking! You are merely directing your mental energies in a way that doesn't produce as much side thoughts and noise. I strongly recomend trying Requisite's thing after you get this because the problem is what makes it easier: you are still thinking very slightly in doing the counting thing, so you are not really quieting your mind, rather you are distracting it.

The problem with meditation most people encounter is they just try to go "BOOM! No more thoughts!" If that was so easy to pull off, you wouldn't need meditation in the first place. In any process the idea is to slowly ease your way into it. Once you master more simple stuff like this technique hopefully you'll find it easier to do stuff like what Requisite is saying.

[Requisite]

*nod* While simply starting with one minute of complete focus, as I was saying in my previous post, is quite an easy starting ground, it can be a bit daunting for the craze-minded (and I say that in good humor). What InnerFire has suggested is quite a good stepping stone to the meditation that I suggested. However, InnerFire, might I mention that what you have given in your post is simply a form of focal meditation, albeit an easier one. Once you can do this, and have progressed past my suggestions as well, you may find yourself able to even enter periods of void meditation. Obtaining control of one's thoughts is a steady progress.

[confuded]

Heh, I found an object that I can stare for a long time , my computer monitor. Awesome thing to stare at specialy when there is something on it , lol. Or a motherboard or something... I'll see... I don't look at time, because then it seems to me to go slower...

No I understand how to read long posts . Speacialy the ones that I make (which are mostly pathetic...)

Thanks for your help . This is going a little off topic and I dont want a thread to be deleted like last time...

[Requisite]

Actually this is right on topic.

[confuded]

OK, good... Just making sure... ")

[Leek]

More psi, ofcourse. Lol i think that this questions is a bit obvious.

[The Devil's Advocate]

Actually no. It's easy to shred a shield that's all power and no finesse. Just like it's much easier to block an attack that's all brute force with no skill. If you don't have the skill all the raw power in the world isn't going to help you much against someone skilled. I've been in that kind of argument, and skill won out hands down. In psionics as well as in physical combat.

~The Devil's Advocate

[Leek]

But more power = stronger. Even YOU can't debate that.