Although it seems the thread has moved past the meditation topic, I had some thoughts about that still.
When I was a teenager my mom and I got some self help tapes that had a metaphysical bent, I guess they could be loosely described as new age, sort of. They had guided meditations which my mom could really get into. I had a lot of trouble keeping my mind on them, it would always wander and I would lose track of the meditation.
One is that I'm not sure which form of meditation expects the practitioner to empty their mind, and I'm also not quite sure what is meant by that.
I do remember at Unity church we had prayer and meditation and we would discussing "quieting the monkey mind" which is about the constant thought content bouncing around. It was either our minister or someone else who said they managed this by thinking of their meditation as a visit with God, and if their mind wandered, they would acknowledge "God and I are looking at the grocery list" and then bring themselves back to the purpose of their prayer. The church also painted the words "Peace. Be Still" behind the lectern, with lights on it at night, so people who passed at night could see the phrase through the windows.
About a dozen years ago or so, not far apart in time from the memories I described above, I had an interesting experience. Sometimes when I was by myself I would grumble and rant aloud about some problems I was trying to resolve. It was always my assumption that God and/or whatever angels were supposed to be around me, were my audience in the background, whether or not I was intentionally engaging in any petitionary prayer or anything. One afternoon I was grumbling away about this that and the third that I thought I would have to do, or whatever help it was I thought I wanted or needed and couldn't get, when I just froze in my speech and my tracks and my mind went (relatively) blank. There was no dissociative experience or anything, I was aware of my surroundings. Just my train of thought stopped in its tracks. No more careless words or vain imaginings. I didn't lose free will or anything. I could start thinking again or start talking or moving again if I really wanted to, (I tried and realized all of it was possible but would take greater than normal effort and I wanted to see what was up and not override it).
So I gave it time. And it lasted for several minutes.
It would be easy enough to say that God just cut me off in my babbling. After all there are biblical account of Ezekiel and Zachariah being struck dumb though the context is somewhat different and it seems like trying to draw too strong a parallel would miss the point. There was simply no additional information presented indicating either rebuke (ex. "stop this how dare you"), or comfort (ex. "it's okay relax") no feeling like either of those, but more like the experience of a nonchalant coach repositioning you if you're performing a skill wrong (ex "no not that way this way") No emotion either way, nothing threatening or reassuring, nothing trying to scare me away or draw me in, just, STOP, experience this "empty" (ish) state for a moment. Akin to, Just listen. I could hear and see my environment, and not much was going on.
I had it happen again a few months later, and a few more times. If I grumble or rant in private, I hit a wall and just have to stop. And just be in stillness -semi-blank for a bit. No more careless words or vain imaginings for some minutes.
Nothing else ever happens, I never lose track of where I am, I never do anything weird or get any weird messages or anything, no visions, no strange sensations, no sense that I'm transported to anywhere else, no altered states of consciousness nor any nightmares or anything else weird, no belief changes, no headaches or dizziness in those moments or close in time to it, no seizures, nothing like that, what I described is just it. Nor is there any substance use that would play any role. It's always very simple and no different than when some skill or technique performance is being adjusted, a nonchalant, unemotional course correction, no rebuke, no comfort, just a redirect into a long moment of silence free of excess thought content. (aka sans the careless words or vain imaginings)
I don't know if I could get there by deliberate meditation in any form if I tried.
www.biblestudytools.com
en.wikipedia.org
