Meditation Isn’t About Switching Off, It’s About Turning On
- 7 hours ago
- 7 min read
Katalin Fligg is an international consciousness educator, evidential and trance medium, and spiritual teacher who helps people develop intuition, resilience, and self-awareness. Through her writing, she explores the practical connection between consciousness, personal growth, and spiritual development.
“I can’t meditate. My mind won’t stop.” This is probably one of the most common things I hear when people tell me why they have never really started meditating. They imagine that meditation requires them to sit perfectly still, completely calm, with an empty mind and no thoughts whatsoever. That is exactly where many people get stuck, because meditation is not about having no thoughts. It is about changing your relationship with your thoughts.
You don't have to stop thinking
Your mind is designed to think. Thoughts will arise whether you are meditating or not. So when you sit down to meditate and suddenly remember the shopping list, an unfinished email, something someone said yesterday, or what you need to do tomorrow, you haven't failed. You have simply noticed your mind, and that noticing is part of the practice.
Instead of following every thought, you can learn to observe it, There is a thought. There is a feeling. There is a sensation in my body. Then you gently return your attention to your breath, your body, or simply the experience of being present.
Research supports the idea that meditation is not about eliminating thoughts completely. A systematic review of mindfulness meditation found that practitioners become more familiar with observing spontaneous thoughts while maintaining openness and equanimity, and that longer-term mindfulness practice can reduce mind-wandering and its disruptive effects.[1]
In other words, the goal isn't necessarily to have a completely empty mind. It is to become less controlled by everything that passes through it.
You don't have to feel calm before you begin
Another misconception is that you need to be relaxed before you meditate. What if meditation is actually one of the ways you learn to become more regulated?
You can begin with something incredibly simple, your breathing. Sit comfortably. You don't even need to sit cross-legged. You can sit on a chair, lie down, or stand if that is what feels right for you. Then begin to slow your breathing gently.
There is no need to force a huge breath. Simply allow the inhale to become comfortable and let your exhale become a little slower and longer.
Slow breathing has been extensively studied in relation to the autonomic nervous system. A systematic review and meta-analysis found that voluntary slow breathing was associated with increases in vagally mediated heart rate variability during breathing and in some periods following practice.[2]
The vagus nerve is a major component of the parasympathetic nervous system and plays an important role in communication between the brain and organs throughout the body. So your meditation does not have to begin with a perfectly peaceful mind. It can begin with your body, with your breath, and with a simple invitation to your nervous system. Slow down. Be here.
Don't meditate with an expectation
One of my favourite ways to begin a meditation is not to decide what must happen. Instead, I give the meditation a gentle direction. Perhaps, "What do I need today?" or, "What energy would support me this morning?" or, in the evening, "What can I release from today so that I can rest?"
Then I become quiet and observe. I don't try to manufacture an answer. I don't decide beforehand what I am supposed to see, hear, or feel. I simply create a space for something to arise.
This is an important distinction. Meditation isn't necessarily about producing a particular experience. It is about becoming receptive enough to notice what is already there.
Meditation is not switching off, it is turning on
This is where meditation becomes particularly fascinating to me. When we continually live in mental noise, physical tension, and constant external stimulation, it can be difficult to notice the subtler layers of our experience. But when we become quieter, we may begin to notice sensations, emotions, impulses, images, memories, intuitive impressions, or subtle changes in our inner state.
I often describe this as turning ourselves on.
Scientifically, the human body is a living, breathing electrical circuit. Cells maintain electrical potentials across their membranes, and electrical activity in organs such as the heart and brain produces measurable magnetic fields. Biomagnetism research, for example, measures the weak magnetic fields produced by the heart, brain, nerves, and muscles.[3]
The heart produces the strongest measurable biomagnetic signal in the body, while brain activity can also be measured magnetically through techniques such as magnetoencephalography.[4]
This provides a fascinating scientific foundation for discussing the body's electrical and electromagnetic activity, but there is an important distinction. Science can measure these physiological electromagnetic signals. It has not established that meditation increases or expands a person's electromagnetic field in the spiritual sense.
For me, however, the language of “turning on” is also an experiential and spiritual one. It describes becoming more consciously aware of our whole presence, including body, breath, mind, emotions, attention, and what I experience as our energetic field. We are not switching ourselves off. We are connecting more deeply with who we are.
From meditation to trance: Becoming receptive
So, what do I mean by trance? The word trance can mean different things in different traditions. For the purposes of this article, I use it broadly to describe an altered state of consciousness in which our ordinary, analytical mode of awareness changes and we become more receptive to deeper levels of experience.
Meditation is one way to reach these states. While the science is still in its early stages, studies show that these deep experiences can change our breathing, relax our muscles, and alter our brain waves.[5]
However, I wouldn’t look at trance as just reaching a certain brainwave pattern, like theta. Brain activity is dynamic, and different meditative and altered states can involve different patterns of neural activity. There is no single brainwave frequency that scientifically defines every form of trance.
What interests me much more is the shift in conscious control. In ordinary meditation, we may simply observe our thoughts, sensations, and inner experiences without trying to control them. In deeper trance work, we can become increasingly receptive to what emerges from beyond our usual conscious intention.
Different traditions understand this differently. Some schools of trance mediumship understand trance as a state in which a spirit communicator works through or takes control of aspects of the medium's expression. Other approaches understand trance more broadly, as a state in which the person's own deeper consciousness, subconscious mind, higher self, or soul becomes more influential than the everyday conscious mind.
I see these as different interpretations of what can happen within an altered state of consciousness rather than necessarily opposing ideas. What matters is the shift from consciously controlling the experience to becoming receptive to what emerges.
Sometimes this may be experienced as an intuitive impulse, a feeling, a spontaneous image, or a word. In deeper trance work, it may develop into a distinct experience of communication or expression that feels as though it is coming from beyond the ordinary conscious mind.
Whether someone understands that source psychologically, as the subconscious or deeper aspects of their own consciousness, or spiritually, as the soul, higher self, or a spirit communicator, the experience begins with a similar fundamental skill, learning to enter an altered state of consciousness and become receptive rather than controlling.
So how can meditation become a foundation for trance mediumship?
It can begin with something remarkably simple. You breathe, settle, become aware of your body, notice your thoughts without chasing them, connect with an intention, become aware of your presence and your energetic experience, allow the mind to soften, and then become receptive.
This is why I believe meditation can be such a beautiful foundation for trance mediumship. You first learn to become aware. Then you learn to become still. Then you learn to become receptive. Eventually, you can learn what it feels like to allow something beyond your ordinary conscious intention to emerge. You don't have to force it. You learn to notice it.
Start with five minutes
If sitting still feels difficult, don't start with thirty minutes. Start with five. Sit somewhere comfortable. Close your eyes if that feels safe and comfortable, or simply soften your gaze. Take several slow, comfortable breaths. Notice your body and your thoughts. Don't fight them or follow them. Simply observe.
Then ask yourself one simple question, "What do I need today?" And wait. Maybe nothing happens. Maybe a thought appears. Maybe you feel something in your body. Maybe an image comes. Maybe you simply experience five minutes of breathing. All of those are valid.
The goal isn't to have a spectacular meditation. The goal is to begin building a relationship with your own inner world. With practice, those five minutes can become a doorway into deeper awareness, intuition, altered states of consciousness, and perhaps, eventually, trance.
Curious about trance mediumship?
If you feel drawn to explore what can happen when meditation, altered states of consciousness, and mediumship come together, I invite you to join my masterclass, "How to Become a Trance Medium."
I will take you through the foundations of entering trance, developing awareness, working with your energy, and learning to recognise the subtle shifts that can occur when you move beyond ordinary conscious control.
You don't have to know how to meditate perfectly. You don't have to empty your mind. You simply have to be willing to become curious about what is possible when you become quiet enough to listen.
Read more from Katalin Fligg
Katalin Fligg, Trance Evidential Medium & Consciousness Educator
Katalin Fligg is an international consciousness educator, evidential & trance medium, spiritual healer, and teacher. She teaches across Europe, including Germany, Austria, and England, as well as online, helping people develop intuition, expand consciousness, and explore their spiritual potential. Her journey began during a challenging time in her life when a close family member experienced severe depression. Through meditation, she discovered expanded states of awareness and spiritual connection that transformed her own life. Today, Katalin is dedicated to empowering others through consciousness, intuition, and personal growth.
References:
[1] ScienceDirect
[2] PubMed
[4] PubMed Central (PMC)
[5] PubMed
