I am completeing the Holosync program tomorrow, March 31st, 2011. I just wanted to say how thankful I am that I have done this. Over the years Bill Harris’s business has definitely “sold-out” to all of the trendy (but effective) ultra-hype-marketing-techniques, which I personally find repulsive. But it’s important to focus on whether or not the product is good. I would easily place the Holosync program (called “the end”-centerpointe meditation, or some such thing back when I started) in the top five things to do again if I had to live my life over. It has expanded my map of reality and bridged the gap between my thoughts and actions to an extent I never thought possible for me. It has been at least as important a tool in my quest for integration as my transition to a vegan diet, my physical exercise program, Ken Wilber’s writings, and my marriage to in intelligent partner. I can accurately compare these things because they have all been going on for about ten years each. If anyone has an questions about the program they’d like to ask, or just want someone to chat with regarding these topics, you can email me at :

kosmiccartographer@gmail.com

I am very thankful that I discovered holosync, and recommend it in spite of the overpriced/overhyped business model. In fairness, I should also mention that I consider the retreats, books, and one-off audio products sold by CRI to be a waste of money. If you do have money to spend with them, use it for the Holosync program, which works, not on silly stuff of comparatively little use.

seeyaz

I think definitely the path is worth it; anyway it is to late for you to regret that you started, you are obviously already a good way on the path. But the path does not have to go on with Holosync. It can fork, if you like it to.

And if you stop Holosync, you will probably not be any more doomed to Samsara that Buddha himself was, since he probably wouldn’t be able to afford Holosync either – had it been around in his days.

I learned another meditation technique which goes fine together with Holosync: Vipassana (My way of Vipassana is the way you can get do it via http://www.dhamma.org). It is very affordable, since the centers are worked by volunteers and you are actually not allowed to pay for the teaching. You receive it as at donation (DANA) from old students – and you are granted ample opportunity to donate later on, if you want to – and you probably will, because it is worth it.
How much? – you decide.
A Vipassana retreat of 10 days teaches you three techniques: Anapanna, an exercise in observation af the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. Vipassana, systematic observation of the whole body, and Metta – a meditation on loving-kindness.

I recommend it to you though, because it seems to me that you havent been introduced to an important piece of knowledge or just haven’t got it. One that is stressed very much in dhamma.org-vipassa:
The object of meditation og liberation or whatever you call this is not to get to feel good or to avoid feeling bad.

The object is to learn to experience reality truly – exactly as it is, and to learn to endure it that way.
To get there you must learn equanimity – or equilibrium of mind. Which means learning not to react automatically and impulsively on things you lige or dislike: Craving and Aversion – the longing and striving for pleasant feelings and the avoiding and escaping from unpleasant feelings.

So during the meditation, just watch any feelings with curiosity, as Bill says.

Don’t indulge in enjoying the highs or in fearing og hating the lows. Keep a distance and observe carefully from there. The object is learn to experience truth and cope with it, not to select the nice parts and enjoy them, because this leads to a distorted life in illusions, where you cannot help creating confusion and suffering for yourself and others – so you won’t succeed in feeling good anyway.

I start my days with Holosync and some days I use Anapanna as well. I have noticed, that the meditation support provided by Holosync has changed the experience when I use Anapanna-Vipassana-Metta in the afternoon without Holosync. It feels more effective (though Bill Harris says you can’t judge by that). And I am confident that I am not especially lost if I decide not to go on buying Holosync levels. Vipassana is there too.

Hope you find this useful.
Greetings – Frands.

ADDICTIVE INQUIRY:
Frankly, I am afraid to get off Holosync. I am afraid that once I stop listening that I will lack the ability to feel deeply into my soul as I have been lately. “Another of the extraordinary things about using brain entrainment technology with meditation, which I have found in myself and heard reported by others, is that even when not using the technology, the Holosync® practitioner is able to access deep meditative states”. I meditate with Holosync everyday for 45 minutes and continue sitting for the full hour and once a week do the full hour. (I find myself too stimulated when I do the whole thing, too emotional). Then at night I meditate for 30 to 45 minutes. I have no doubt that my meditation has deepened by the use of Holosync but my concern is, will it continue if I were to stop? What about when I cant afford to purchase anymore levels? Will I be doomed to samsara because of my lack of funding as a college student? It is like the saying that it is better not to start the spiritual path than to start it then stop. Is that even worse for Holosync? I am afraid to quit.

SPIRITUAL LIVING:
In the morning, I feel as if I am truly living in the mystery of the universe. Though strangely, I rarely ever feel the radiant Love of existence like I do on meditation retreats. I just experience the Suchness and the Mystery aspects of awakening. It is truly interesting and amazing and wonderful, though while on the peak of this delta wave change I never stop and analyze my experience to say ‘this is cool’, I just fully appreciate what is in front of me. Truly a shortcut, in my opinion, to awakening. Which is not good or bad necessarily as the next section reveals. I am so wowed by the Mystery that I don’t even ‘know’ that I am in the Mystery. All of my, ‘filters of mind’ are seen through. So much so that I cannot even ‘see’ the filters that are being seen through. That takes time. Also, my intuition increases by a ridiculous degree.

SHADOW/SOUL WORK:
As I come down, in the evening, my soul begins to come back to the reality of a habituated ego, but with the trust and openness from experiencing the ‘high’ of Holosync. Every night is like a rebirth into ego. This is the time when I can become very emotional and expressive and my soul is let out, crying for the heaven it had but did not knwo it had. I do have emotional ‘leaks’ during the day, but they come and go so quickly that there is no time to digest them and explore their roots. For this, I have found that the Diamond Approach is a superior method of exploring amazing relationship of Soul to Spirit. The soul is ‘prematurely’ let free from its cage of ego when on the high of Holosync, so our egoic position of a peak experience finds these things threatening, which is why I keep it at 45 minutes as the leaks become too much to handle. When in the safety of my own home, I can deeply, and I mean deeply, explore the beautiful inner terrain of my soul. This, I believe, is ABSOLUTELY essential for Holosync to have truly ‘expedient’ results as a spiritual tool. Otherwise you bump and bruise and learn blindly and eventually your soul catches on and relinquishes the illusion of ego. Is that really faster than just plain mindfulness?

Also, I experience a significant degree of calm while I am ‘high’ from it (which, by the way, peaks for about 4 hours and slowly settles more and more throughout the day). I mean, sometimes I am suuuuuper calm.

So back to my original concern about its addictiveness. I can feel when Holosync starts to wear off later in the day, even during one hour days, and am back into a normally condition self. So my fear, once again, is that I’ll never be able to access the depths of my soul as Holosync gives me the trust to do so. This may just be one big bleh about my own spiritual path. Who knows, maybe all ‘teaching’ is just that and we all learn from one another’s stories.

INTENTION:
Why do we use Holosync? Is it the burning desire to know Truth? To know God? If, as spiritual teachers say, this very desire is the fire that burns away all of our illusory veils of ego, why do we need Holosync? I do not do it for the spiritual ‘high’, because honestly, its not intrinsicly desirable. Its up and down just like life is, its just more dynamic while being able to retain a sense of calm. What is more desirable for me is to burn away all of our resistances to the simple Truth of what is right now, which occurs in the night when it starts wearing off. I do it for the soul work in other words. Its silly to want the state of Holosync because there is no glory in it, no sweetness. Its just raw experience, a ‘premature’ awakening. How is that desirable to a soul that is believing the lie of ego? It is the work itself that we desire. The slow freeing of our souls conviction that there is something better somewhere else, something more satisfying. It is a catch-22. A paradox. A loop with no exit. We cannot want the experience of Holosync and want the Truth at the same time. The Truth is not found in any experience, no matter how raw it is, no matter how many filters of the mind are suspended. So, I guess my intention of using Holosync is for soul work, not ‘spiritual development’. It is for what is called in the Integral movement, the Shadow.

THE CONTRAST:
Now this is a weird thing to talk about but truthful nonetheless. So I am experiencing someone during the day while I am still ‘high’ and am calm and authentic throughout our interaction. Then I see them in the night and I am a rip roaring talkative crazy guy that wants to get everyone excited and moving. (Ennea-type 7, by the way). So dynamic. Strangely though, I don’d mind it too much. Others though, can seem to get dissapointed when they see me so ‘real’ during the day and speedy and avoiding at night. So dynamic.

THE BIG QUESTION:
Is it really worth it? I would have to say yes. In spite of my fears of addiction and the other confusing and difficult aspects of dynamics I would have to say that, yes, it is worth it. My soul screams yes, breathing the fresh air of beauty that surrounds her.

And also, re: the marketing, Bill Harris is definitely got shadow issues there…but folks don’t seem to want to talk about those openly, although I have done so with Ken Wilber privately…

I am a resident at Kanzeon where Genpo Roshi is abbot, and have been for 1 1/2 years. I am also a consistent user of Holosync for about 3 years. At the center, I meditate with the sanga, in the Zendo, without holosync and meditate with holosync on my own. If you’ve got the time to devote to meditation, it is a nice practice, splitting up the time between Holosync and traditional meditation. There is something subtely different between them, especially if when the traditional meditation takes place in a spiritual/traditional/religious context as opposed to a self help or personal growth context. I mentioned this to Bill Harris when he was here for a retreat and he agreed it is a good/best practice to combine traditional meditation with holosync.

One thing, you might want to verify with Genpo Roshi himself or talk with Bill Harris again about the extent to which Holosync is used by or recommended by Roshi before talking very loudly about it. There is little if any talk about it here, but of course I am not privey to every student-teacher relationship that Genpo Roshi is involved in.

Take Care,
Don Wingate

Holosync is accessible to layers of society that wouldn’t engage in traditional meditation. It is incredibly poweful technology. My father is a tough nut to crack – his use of holosync opened up conversations I’d given up on having with him in this life time. In my own personal experience it steered my meditation into corners of work that had not been addressed in my 12 years of deep meditative practice.

The best analogy I’ve come up with for holosync is that it is to meditation as weight machines are to free weights! They are a lot safer and easier to use on your own, but don’t necessarily develop all of the ancillary muscles. Fundamentally, at the end of the day for me, the test has got to be, will it let me let go of my body in a graceful way when its time to transition. Holosync can help train for that but it won’t take you across.

I would like to note for the sake of balance that I do believe Bill Harris has some shadow material to work on in relationship to its marketing – which is a major put off to many folks. There is something fundamentally wrong with trying to induce a state of fear or urgency to get someone to purchase something in my opinion. The product does work but that is no excuse. His arguments about price point are completely bogus also. Awakening prologue has no customized material and he could easily seed bit torrent sites with a sample audio image free of charge. Another example is the high fidelity headphones he supposedly offers at a rock bottom price . . . googles shopping engine readily finds a lower price point. I love the technology, but he drinks his own marketing Kool aid Bill if you need any help implementing my suggestions I’ll provide technical assistance to walk the walk I’m talking!

With Love,

-Siri Dhyan

PS John I’m going to try and put together a video of a meditation technique I practice for you to give a go at and potentially use with your clients.