Can this stuff really make you more zen?
Maybe hacking your meditation practice with high-tech programs and devices is the ultimate irony, but can they really be time savers? A brain-trainer? ¶ I tested three systems that promised to deliver more quickly the effects of meditation. ¶ As they say about traditional meditation, you don’t feel the benefits while you’re sitting but throughout your day. Was I calmer, more present, focused? Perhaps. Each device allowed me the freedom and lack of interruptions to reach a peaceful, altered state of awareness. ¶ Here’s what I found:
A sci-f i recliner
The Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village houses a Somadome, a pod with a hinged, illuminated dome lid that bathes users in color immersion light therapy while they don headphones and select a themed session. When I pick Manifest, the dome glows lavender and a guided track utters phrases such as “I am one with the universal mind …” My eyelids grow heavy as I slip into relaxed, refreshing semiconsciousness that seems to end too soon. Where: The device is at six resorts. Cost: At the Four Seasons in Westlake Village, a session is $85, or $45 with additional spa service.
Mind-altering cinema
The Dream Reality Cinema program uses a film series to train the unconscious to bring improvements to conscious life.
In the darkened back room of a Beverly Hills storefront, I recline in a zero-gravity chair and struggle to stay awake through the 40-minute, surrealistic movie. The website (www.dreamrealitycinema.com) details many of the expected physiological benefits, but I had none, apparently; just a vivid, nightmarish dream that night. Cost: A session is $80; eight, $240.
Headband for the mind
Muse, a brain-wave-sensing headband, connects via Bluetooth to an app that measures and rewards your meditation-training progress by the consistency of your focus. The app (www.choosemuse.com) also instructs you on how to interpret the real-time biofeedback.
When my mind wanders, the headband measures the activity and translates it in real time to the app’s soundscape.The sounds act like road signs to keep my meditation on track and learn new meditation methods. Where: Wanderlust Hollywood offers Wednesday training sessions. Cost: $249