life-style, wellness, amy cooper, meditation gadgets, muse headbands
Here’s a question to meditate upon: can you hack enlightenment? I’ve heard it takes a few lifetimes to attain the supreme state, so probably no. And what’s that strapped to your head? This is a high-tech meditation aid called Muse. It’s a headband that reads my brainwaves with EEG technology to monitor my meditation performance. If I achieve my goals, I’m rewarded with chirping birds. Stop right there. Performance, reward, achievement, goals … and meditation. Spot the one that does not belong. Seriously? You have relaxation KPIs? Yes. Analogue meditation is so 2012. In this century, gamified gadgets can fast-track your path to enlightenment. More lifestyle: Holy mandala! Is nothing sacred? Meditation, the last bastion of serenity in this data-driven, hack-hooked, technology-tormented digital din of a world, has been reduced to gadgets and games. I’m trying to breathe out the anger, but it’s not working. Here, try my headset. It monitors your breathing – and your heartbeat, too. It can also translate your mental activity into weather sounds: calm, or stormy. I don’t need your gadget to know I’m a category five hurricane right now. Please tell me something good about all this. If someone needs a bit of digital help to establish a meditation practice, where’s the harm? Remember, meditation has scientifically proven benefits: lower stress levels, better immunity, improved emotional health, sharper mental focus… Now you’re making sense. What else is rocking this brave new world of plugged-in Zen? There’s Core, a circular-ish gadget that pulses and vibrates to guide your breathing when you hold it during meditation; Spire, a clip-on device for monitoring your breathing, and Braintap, a double whammy of spectacles and headphones lulling you into “a heightened state of consciousness” with light and sound. And if you’re cashed up and want to go all-out, there’s the Somadome, a $47,000 isolation pod. It looks like a chair with half of Humpty Dumpty on top and transports you to private bliss with light and sound therapy. Still not sold. Here’s my problem with all this paraphernalia: meditation is meant to help us find inner peace, not extra worldly goods. I don’t want devices getting all up in my dharma. I’ll stick to old-school cushion and candles, thanks. Have it your own way, but I reckon I’m only three more electric bird chirps away from nirvana.
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Here’s a question to meditate upon: can you hack enlightenment?
I’ve heard it takes a few lifetimes to attain the supreme state, so probably no. And what’s that strapped to your head?
This is a high-tech meditation aid called Muse. It’s a headband that reads my brainwaves with EEG technology to monitor my meditation performance. If I achieve my goals, I’m rewarded with chirping birds.
Stop right there. Performance, reward, achievement, goals … and meditation. Spot the one that does not belong. Seriously? You have relaxation KPIs?
Yes. Analogue meditation is so 2012. In this century, gamified gadgets can fast-track your path to enlightenment.
Holy mandala! Is nothing sacred? Meditation, the last bastion of serenity in this data-driven, hack-hooked, technology-tormented digital din of a world, has been reduced to gadgets and games. I’m trying to breathe out the anger, but it’s not working.
Here, try my headset. It monitors your breathing – and your heartbeat, too. It can also translate your mental activity into weather sounds: calm, or stormy.
I don’t need your gadget to know I’m a category five hurricane right now. Please tell me something good about all this.
If someone needs a bit of digital help to establish a meditation practice, where’s the harm? Remember, meditation has scientifically proven benefits: lower stress levels, better immunity, improved emotional health, sharper mental focus…
Now you’re making sense. What else is rocking this brave new world of plugged-in Zen?
There’s Core, a circular-ish gadget that pulses and vibrates to guide your breathing when you hold it during meditation; Spire, a clip-on device for monitoring your breathing, and Braintap, a double whammy of spectacles and headphones lulling you into “a heightened state of consciousness” with light and sound.
And if you’re cashed up and want to go all-out, there’s the Somadome, a $47,000 isolation pod. It looks like a chair with half of Humpty Dumpty on top and transports you to private bliss with light and sound therapy.
Still not sold. Here’s my problem with all this paraphernalia: meditation is meant to help us find inner peace, not extra worldly goods. I don’t want devices getting all up in my dharma. I’ll stick to old-school cushion and candles, thanks.
Have it your own way, but I reckon I’m only three more electric bird chirps away from nirvana.
- Amy Cooper is a journalist who embraces wellness, but has also used kale to garnish a cocktail.
