In Depth

If you meditate, you do as ten million American adults do, among them film stars Goldie Hawn and Richard Gere, and former Vice President Al Gore. You are also an object of study for serious scientists, who are now discovering that some kinds of meditation have interesting effects that can be measured.

This is a short overview of longer meditations, effects, requirements and results.

Acem Meditation develops inner strength and expands our inner freedom. But psychological changes do not come without resistance.

What is the unconscious?
Something that lies dormant most of the time?
That from time to time manifests itself in a dream, in a slip-of-the-tongue, but which generally leads a slumbering existence without making much of a fuss? Is the impact of the unconscious so limited and infrequent that we may put it aside as insignificant? Or does our unconscious take an active part in everything we do, in all our thinking, and in all our activities?

How can we recount the variety of meditations?

The term ‘meditation’ is generic for practices as diverse as ‘sports’.
Goals differ considerably, so does the act of meditating.

Below, central aspects will be briefly reviewed. The purpose is to shed some light on the meditation phenomenon in general, and to put Acem Meditation into perspective.

Article by Torbjorn Hobbel on the art of meditation
Acem International Newsletter no 2 1999

A Norwegian going to India to teach meditation? It sounds almost as absurd as if an Indian travelled to Norway to teach Norwegians how to ski. Yet Torbjorn Hobbel has travelled to New Delhi many times to teach Indians Acem Meditation. In this article he reflects on one of his experiences there.

Time passes, and every one of us will pass away. By bringing us closer to the present moment, meditation opens up a dimension that goes beyond individual and temporal existence.

when I thought that I ought to go out and save the world. I knew that the world was somewhere else, a place out there from which the journalists sent their reports. It seemed to me in those days that the world was a sick place filled with evil and injustice.

Contemporary culture has a tendency to idealize demands and strong expressions of emotion. It is as if the stronger the expression, the more justified the demand or the emotion. Acem Meditation counteracts this tendency and helps us to find better compromises between our own needs and the needs of our surroundings.

Article by Ole Gjems-Onstad,
Professor of Fiscal Law at the Norwegian School of Management and a Meditation Teacher in Acem.
Acem International Newsletter no 1 2000

No event has been more predicted than September 11th 2001. So claims Peter Schwartz, a well-known futurist and the author of the book Inevitable Surprises. The whole world was shocked by this act of terrorism, and most people found what happened unthinkable. Nevertheless, the event was actually predicted.

"Long meditations bring us closer to the universal and the timeless aspects of existence, shared by all mankind, beyond language, image or thought," says Dr. Are Holen. Every summer, he directs weeklong international retreats of Acem Meditation.