The first secret emerged when it became clear that our research participants, across practice methodologies and continents, seemed to only list a few types of practrices as what assisted them with transitioning to Fundamental Wellbeing.

So, Secret #1 is that not all methods are created equal. Some work much better than others, and for more people than others. You need to find, and use the very best methods available if you’re going to have a chance of transitioning to Fundamental Wellbeing.

When you first get exposed to meditation, it’s not uncommon to encounter claims from a person or group that they have the “best” or “most successful” meditation or other type of method. So the notion that some methods are better than others is often something that gets put into someone’s head right from the start of their exploration in this area. And,…it’s true.

Literally anyone can make up a meditation method and start advertising it as the best, and plenty of people have, which leads to a confusing marketplace. As this is being written, an internet search for “meditation method” brings up 74 million results. Talk about a confusing mess! How can anyone know where is best to start for them?

We are fortunate to have a global dataset that lets us know which methods worked the best for producing the highest forms of human wellbeing, and it’s literally the only place that this kind of information has been gathered that we know about.

Although you can gain access to them if you participate in our research programs, unfortunately we are unable to share the exact methods and instructions we use in our protocols outside of our programs for liability reasons. These methods are extremely powerful, and typically we have tweaked them to make them even more so.

Our programs are setup so that we know that people who come into them are psychologically healthy. They are structured so that participants are monitored as they work their way through them, and each time we use a protocol there is a professional psychological clinician on staff keeping an eye on everyone and available in case he or she is needed. We do everything possible to ensure that it is safe to use these ultra-powerful methods, and the even more powerful combinations of them that we create.

Unfortunately, none of that is available in a public information sharing situation like this. Anyone can read this and jump right in, even if it isn’t psychologically safe for them to do so. We’re interested in helping people, not potentially harming them – so that is not ethically acceptable to us.

Our database and research, however, provides come clues that are very helpful for you in your search for great method. Information that will give you a huge advantage. So let’s get to it!

If you were to analyze our data, one of the things you’d notice right away is that a majority of the techniques that rise to the top are ones that have been around for a very long time, centuries even. They have been tweaked and tuned over time by a large number of people, and there are often many variations of them that have been created and used. In short, they are highly vetted. Presumably, in each period of their use, many other methods were experimented with that didn’t work as well, and thus didn’t propagate forward in time. But, these did. They have, literally, stood the test of time. So, a great place for you to start exploring when you begin this process is with these types of older methods.

Let me give you an example of one. Mantras are words or phrases that you repeat silently or aloud. There are generally two ways to do this, one is repetitively and rythmicaly. Alternatively you can just think or mention the word or phrase, and let its flavor, so to speak, just sort of arise or be created in your mind and awareness, wait for that to fade, and then say it again.

Mantra methods have been documented to go back at least 3,000 years, so it has definitely stood the test of time. And, it is used in a wide variety of cultures, including Eastern, Western and indigenous religious and spiritual traditions. This is a mental hack that has been discovered by people all over the place, and cultivated for moat of recorded human history. In addition, it’s praised by a significant number of people as working for them today, all around the world.

This is a great example of what we refer to as a “gold-standard” method. It’s:
1.) Been around a very long time
2.) Been shown to work across most geographic regions and cultures
3.) Has people today who praise its effectiveness worldwide.

In this case, it even has decades of scientific research into it that ranges from psychology and cognitive science, to neuroscience and biology. Not every gold-standard method does, but this one happens to. So that is a 4th element that suggests it should be on anyone’s short list to try.

The downside of a method like this, is that because it is so widely practiced there are many, many variations of it and it can be hard to know which one to pick. We know from our research that the second example I gave is the most effective for most people today. We use a special variation of it in our research protocols.

The benefit of using older methods is that there has been a filtering process that’s already taken place. However, there are some excellent contemporary methods – some of which are extremely hard to find and others of which sound ridiculous and like they’d never work.

For contemporary methods, you want to make sure that they have a lot of people who testify that they work. Let me give you an example. One of the best methods from the last 60 years or so is Headless Way. Although it seems like a silly set of practices, the reality is that it has worked for many people all around the world.

If you’re going to use a contemporary method, you have to make sure it’s a successful one like Headless Way. The only way to know that is by searching online and seeing how many people said it worked to transition them. Ignore anyone who talks about how a method made them feel better, and so on. Only pay attention to the number of people who said it got them to Fundamental Wellbeing.

Finally, here are two well known types of meditation that didn’t show up in our study as widely effective in transitioning people to Fundamental Wellbeing. No movement-based practices like Yoga rose to the top of the list. Exercises involving intentional breathing didn’t either. These categories are often hugely popular, and they show the value of a broad-based research effort. They seem helpful at assisting people with reaching temporary states, but not persistence.

Once you know how to narrow down which methods might be among the best to try out, the next step is to understand how to most efficiently select the best methods for you, right now. That’s what we’ll do next …