The Legend of Holy Sword: An Immersive Experience for Concentration Enhancement

For example, Patanjala Ashtanga Yoga gives an all-encompassing framework to learn to focus/concentrate and if needed, experience a distinct supra-normal mental state (i.e. Samadhi). But the last is not necessary and you could use the framework to do and feel better in the everyday activities of life.

Here is how to do it;

1) Yama - We are embedded in an environment which influences us. Thus we have to practice restraints w.r.t. the environment to settle on a equilibrium state where we can have some control over how we react to external factors.

2) Niyama - We are active living beings with certain essential everyday needs. These need to be automated away using personal discipline so that we don't have to think and waste precious mental energy on them.

3) Asana - Because "we" are housed in a material Body we need to take care of and maintain the body so that it is healthy, strong and free of diseases leaving us free to work on our mental aspects.

4) Pranayama - The Body and the Mind are linked through the Breath. Hence to control the Mind one needs to learn to control the Breath first.

The above are the four "external" aspects, the four "internal" aspects follow;

5) Pratyahara - In order to focus and concentrate on one thing we first need to "withdraw" our Mind from other things and this is the practice of such withdrawal.

6) Dharana - Now we focus on one thing; it will be momentary at first but with repeated practice becomes easier.

7) Dhyana - Now we hold our attention for long periods of time on one thing. This is commonly known as Concentration/Contemplation. For all normal everyday activities we can stop at this stage.

8) Samadhi - This is the state where the distinction between subject and object does not exist and the individual has "dissolved himself" (called "Laya" in Sanskrit). A good common example is when people laugh and cry (literally) with the protagonist when watching a emotional movie. The key here is to be completely permeated by the experience itself with no other thought/emotion/feeling (Classic example - Orgasm). In modern psychology this can be approximated by the "Flow State" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

As you can see, the framework given by Ashtanga Yoga is eminently practical.

A further mindblow occurred when I realized that this is a thematic element in the game. In the upper left corner of the screen is a "system log" that describes what you're doing and names the things you're shooting down, that can be said to represent the mind's "narrator". But you almost never look at it because you're more concerned with what's happening on the screen. Steering your attention to the log means you'll lose focus on the actual gameplay.

Rez is like that. It's almost a metacommentary on the experience of playing it, and experience in general, sometimes. Everyone should play it.

¹ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rez_(video_game)

Try and do this before falling asleep in your bed at night and your quality of sleep will improve greatly. You can also do this just after you wake up in the morning in your bed (but before looking at your phone, talking to your spouse etc.) and you will feel more refreshed than normal.

Once you get the trick you can actually use a home blood pressure monitor and see the changes in physiological parameters yourself.

As for the experience. Well, first it gets you high. Then it gets really easy. Then you encounter weird stuff and more weird stuff, vast and deep. And that's as far as I'll go with that line of conversation.

During the session, I distinctly felt what could be described as the "opening of the third eye." However, the sensation was much more mechanical than subtle, almost as if my forehead was literally opening up. It felt real, but strangely, it wasn’t part of the practice or anything the teacher mentioned. After the session, everything went back to normal; it was just this momentary experience during the practice.

I’ve never come across descriptions of it happening this way in any readings on yoga or meditation. Has anyone else had a similar experience?