This Week in Psychedelics - 3.30.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Here’s how much marijuana you’d need to be eligible for the death penalty under federal law (The Washington Post)
• New Jersey Just Approved Medical Marijuana Program Expansion (High Times)
• Arizona Legislature Poised to Approve Using Medical Marijuana to Treat Opioid Abuse (Phoenix New Times)
• Marijuana could soon be LEGAL in parts of Australia - with lawmakers saying legalising the drug is 'better than prohibition' (Daily Mail)
• French Biotech Targets the Brain to Treat Cannabis Abuse (Labiotech)
• Does Cannabis Affect Hormone Levels? (High Times)
• A Stunning Small Home Made From Hemp (Living Big in a Tiny House)
• Does Cannabis Affect Cardiovascular Health? (High Times)
• A Dying Southern Town Needed a Miracle. Marijuana Came Calling. (The New York Times)
• Colombia Strives to Lead Global Pot Market, Pushing Out Peasant Growers (Cannabis Now)
• Mitch McConnell Wants Hemp Removed From Controlled Substances List (TIME)
• NOPD marijuana arrests plunged to 1 percent after ordinance change (The Times-Picayune)
• Alzheimer’s Patients in Puerto Rico May Get Cannabis-Based Treatment (High Times)
• Could cannabis help cure lung cancer? This man thinks so – and he's already spent £1.5m on research (Metro)
• Pennsylvania Medical Schools May Start to Study Cannabis (High Times)
• How Cannabis Tech Can Help Build a Better Cup of Coffee (Wired)
• Prospective analysis of safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in large unselected population of patients with cancer (European Journal of Internal Medicine)
• How Cannabis and Other “Drugs” Can be Gateways to a Better Life (Chacruna)
• Reader: Denver Doesn't Even Pretend to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (Westword)
• How to Brew Cannabis Kombucha (High Times)
• Review cannabis laws for potential recreational use in Victoria, report say (Cannabis Club Australia)
• CBD and the Psychedelic Receptor (Reality Sandwich)
• 'He's enjoying life more' – Mum of boy on medicinal cannabis scheme speaks about results (Tasmania Talks)
• Escape from the Underground: Lessons to the cannabis industry from craft beer (The Growler)
• Cannabis-infused beer is coming to Colorado (The Cannabist)
• Another view of traffic deaths blamed on cannabis in CDOT study (The Denver Post)
• Don't Call It Pot: My Dinner With San Francisco's Cannabis Gourmets (Mother Jones)
• Is Cannabis Allowed in Nursing Homes? (Leafly)
• Marijuana-Friendly States Want to Meet with Jeff Sessions to Resolve Cannabis' Legal Limbo (TIME)
• Gene Simmons Says He Was 'Wrong', 'Not Informed', About Cannabis (Ultimate Classic Rock)
• House committee approves, advances medical cannabis legislation (The Tennessean)
• Cannabis Activists Give Joints To Washington Lawmakers During Rally (High Times)
• Rush for Cannabis Business Permits Overwhelms Oakland (East Bay Express)
• London Group Launches Scare Tactic Campaign Against Cannabis (High Times)
• How to Correctly Use Marijuana Edibles (Cannabis Now)
• Cannabis Farmer-CEO Raising Capital, Navigating Complex New Market (Forbes)
• Medical-cannabis producer again locked up (Echo Net Daily)
• Cannabis Business Convention Comes to Boston (U.S. News & World Report)

LSD

• What LSD Taught Researchers About Mental Health Treatment (The Fix)
• LSD Might Save The World (But Microdosing Won't) (Tech Open Air)
• LSD at Princeton: New book blows minds (The Daily Princetonian)
• Boy, 15, stabbed his best friend during 'bad' LSD trip (Metro)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Scientists who want to study psychedelic mushrooms have to pay $7,000 per gram (Quartz)
• Oregon couple working on ballot initiative to legalize 'magic' mushrooms for therapeutic use (KVAL)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• The Most Popular Ecstasy Pills In the World — Ranked by Name & Color (Digital Music News)
• 'Is Psychiatry Ready for MDMA?' (ABC)
• Father's heartbreak at death of sons who died on same night from ecstasy and cocaine (Metro)
• Police warning to parents over pink ecstasy tablets (ITV)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• If You’ve Met Aliens While on DMT, These Scientists Would Like to Hear From You (Motherboard)
• A Doctor's Initiation into the Powerful Shamanic Brew Ayahuasca (Kahpi)
• A little-known hallucinogenic drug called DMT takes people to a place that feels 'more real than real' — here's what researchers know about it (Business Insider)
• Lawyers and venture capitalists do yoga and meditate in a new type of New York City coworking space that was created after its founder took a psychedelic drug in Peru – see inside (Business Insider)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• New research underway on ibogaine for the treatment of alcoholism (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education Research and Service)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Clare taxi driver, 25, dies hours after snorting what he thought was MDMA but was actually a synthetic drug called ‘Dr Death’, inquest hears (The Irish Sun)

Dissociatives

• Side Effects Stop Small Study of Repeated Intranasal Ketamine (Psych Congress Network)
• Mom says she gave daughters PCP after confusing bottle with vanilla extract (FOX59)

Opiates/Opioids

• Medicare Is Cracking Down on Opioids. Doctors Fear Pain Patients Will Suffer. (The New York Times)
• Senate Passes Bill to Make Increase Availability of Naloxone (U.S. News & World Report)
• In withdrawal: Treating the babies of Illinois' opioid crisis (Crain's)
• Prince toxicology report shows very high drug level, experts say (NBC News)
• Federal Ban On Methadone Vans Seen As Barrier To Treatment (HuffPost)
• Quitting Heroin in the Sunshine State (The New York Times)
• Frequent opioid users might be the best candidates for naloxone training, study finds (The Hub)

Kratom

• Case Report Reveals Another Possible Side Effect of Kratom (Monthly Prescribing Reference)
• Kratom Product Recalled for Potential Salmonella Contamination (Pain Medicine News)
• "Kratom Ruined My Life," User Says (Westword)
• Why Is Kratom Lab Testing Really Important? (Kratom Guides)
• Kratom becoming a problem for local Law Enforcement (My Panhandle)

Kava

• Kava consumption helps cut down alcohol consumption and gang affiliations in male Pacifika youth in New Zealand claims a researcher says. (TVNZ)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Will the Spirit of Burning Man Art Survive in Museums? (The New York Times)
• High Society: The Universal Impulse to Alter Consciousness (Kahpi)
• A trip to dreamland (The Boston Globe)
• The War on Drugs Breeds Crafty Traffickers (The New York Times)
• Why police boss thinks drug users should get to test their substances at clubs and festivals (Daily Post)
• The Mystery of the Terrifying Xanax Resurgence in America (VICE)
• Doing the Plant's Bidding: Reflections on the Congreso de Plantas Sagradas en Las Américas (Reality Sandwich)
• DREAMing about Drug Reform: An Interview with Arturo Lua Castillo (Psymposia)
• 'Mad Honey' and 4 Other Naturally Occurring Psychedelics (Inverse)
• Drug Overdose Death Rates in the U.S. Are Rising Everywhere, CDC Says (TIME)
• The solution to Australia's drug epidemic starts with a conversation (The Guardian)
• How China Is Using the Death Penalty for Drug Dealers: An Approach that Works (ExpertClick)
• What The Hell Is Happening With Pill Testing At Groovin' The Moo? (BuzzFeed News)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" does not censor or analyze the news links presented here. The purpose of this column is solely to catalogue how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Three-Year Blogiversary!

Image by laura, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Today marks the three-year blogiversary of Think Wilder. It's been quite a busy year for me and for the blog. During the past year I started writing for Psychedelic Times, participated on a panel for a Psychedelic Career Day webinar (hosted by the Toronto Psychedelic Society), created a monthly Think Wilder email newsletter, and increased the output of blog posts on this site.

At the one-year blogiversary of Think Wilder, I announced a full 2.0 site redesign. That redesign made it easier to navigate through the site and improved its visual design. A UI/UX upgrade, if you will.

During last year's two-year blogiversary I made the promise that I would start writing more featured posts and dedicate more time to writing and working on the blog. That goal is sort of difficult to measure, but I do feel like I dedicated more time to writing and working on the blog and ended up publishing more featured posts toward the latter half of the year. I feel like this last year pushed me harder as a writer than any years prior, and I'm proud of the work that I accomplished—both with this site and other writing endeavors.

I have three announcements that I am excited to make about new pages that I have created for this site.

For a long time I think that it's been tough for a brand-new Think Wilder visitor to know where to get started on the site. That's why I created a new Start Here page that will give new readers a taste of what to expect from this blog. And if you've been around for a while but haven't checked out my back catalog of blog posts, you might like to take a look at it as well.

Although I have written for a few web sites in the past, I've been wanting to expand even more and start writing for some new blogs and publications. So to that end, I created a new Hire Me page to let publishers and editors know that I can be hired for freelance writing projects. I'm hoping that I can get some more clients and get featured on some other publications during the next year. If you have a blog or publication and are looking for writers, feel free to get in touch with me and we can find out whether my services would be a good fit for you.

In fact, I only started making some money from freelance writing projects during this past year. Ever since the start, Think Wilder has been a labor of love. I've put money and effort into the site but haven't made a cent off of this blog. Part of that is because I do not want to become an ad-supported project, and haven't been willing to host ads here. I've decided that I am more interested in giving the patron-supported model a try. Now there is a Support page on this site that will enable readers who are willing and able to donate to offset the expenses for keeping this blog can begin doing so. If you feel that you have gotten value from my blog in the past, I encourage you to make a donation to my Patreon account. I will be grateful for anything that you are able to contribute—thank you!

As you can see, it's been a busy year for Think Wilder. Each year this blog becomes more mature and my skills as a writer improve. I'm excited to see what happens during the next year and hope you'll stick with me on that journey.

Weekend Thoughts - 3.24.18

Image by pasja1000, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Undoubtedly the biggest news this week was a scandal involving Facebook. It turns out that the political consulting firm named Cambridge Analytica harvested private data from more than 50 million Facebook profiles—mostly without consent. That data was used by Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 and has ties to Steve Bannon and GOP megadonor Robert Mercer (who recently donated $1 million to MAPS), which has raised ethical and potentially legal questions about the firm's business practices. The hashtag #deletefacebook became popular on Twitter shortly after this story broke, and users have been leaving Facebook left and right. If you are interested in securing your Facebook account, it would be worth your while to check out Wired's piece The Complete Guide to Facebook Privacy, which has practical steps you can take to ensure that your account is as private as possible. However, you could also consider deleting your account entirely if you prefer. Just remember that even if you delete your Facebook account, the company may still be able to collect your data through its other apps—WhatsApp and Instagram. And plenty of other companies and websites are capable of collecting your information, anyway. Remember that if you're not paying for a product with money, you're almost always paying for it with something else. In this case it happens to be potentially sensitive private data.

2. Similar to the plot of an episode from Black Mirror's third season, China is expected to start banning citizens with a low "social credit" score from buying plane or train tickets for up to a year. This change will go into effect in May, and the social credit system will rate people based on criminal history, financial misdeeds, and what they purchase, say, and do. Citizens who receive a low score will face a variety of penalties; this travel restriction being one of the first to be announced. Hopefully this practice won't spread to other countries around the world, but we'll just have to wait and see.

3. One of Uber's self-driving cars struck and killed a woman in Arizona this week, which was the first time a pedestrian has died in connection with an autonomous vehicle. It still isn't quite clear how this happened, but some reports are saying that the woman walked across the road directly in front of the car—outside of the designated crosswalk and from the shadows—and that neither the vehicle's sensors nor the backup human driver were able to detect that she was there because it was nighttime. In other words, it sounds like this may have been the pedestrian's fault, not flaky software. However, even if Uber is to blame, the motivation for our society to transition to using autonomous vehicles is that they will be demonstrably better than human drivers—not 100% perfect. In my opinion, if self-driving cars are able to reduce car crash deaths by a significant amount then they should be considered a success.

4. Police in my hometown (Raleigh, North Carolina) recently obtained search warrants in order to ask Google to hand over data the company has about devices that were close to crime scenes at the time that the crime occurred. This is a new type of request, because the police are not looking for data related to specific users. Rather, they are asking to have the information about every mobile device within close proximity to the crime scene during the time that the crime occurred. And before. And after, as well—just for good measure. The data would be anonymized before the police get their hands on it, but it's creepy to think that our devices are continuously leaving breadcrumbs that could be used by police (or people with nefarious intent) to learn more about where we have been and where we might be going to next.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

This Week in Psychedelics - 3.23.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Congress Protects Medical Marijuana From Jeff Sessions In New Federal Spending Bill (Forbes)
• Study: Traffic Fatalities Have Not Increased As A Consequence Of Legalization (NORML)
• The Governor of Utah Just Signed A Medical Marijuana Bill (High Times)
• Canadians Who Smoke Weed Could Be Banned From Entering US (High Times)
• Should Medical Schools Start Teaching About Cannabis? (High Times)
• Research Reveals Link Between Coffee, Cannabis and Brain Function (High Times)
• Is home delivery for medical marijuana coming to Kentucky? (WCPO)
• In California, Learning How Marijuana Is an Unlikely Divider (The New York Times)
• This State Just Shut Down 40 Medical Marijuana Dispensaries (High Times)
• Colorado Lawmakers Form Nation's First Statewide Cannabis Caucus (NORML)
• Big Pharma has officially entered the Canadian cannabis industry (VICE)
• Shatter, Batter, Wax: How Cannabis Extracts Came to Be (Wired)
• Oklahoma: Lawmakers Move Forward To Preemptively Quash Medical Marijuana Vote (NORML)
• Mexico is going to have to build a wall to keep out American weed (Herb)
• Why won't the VA recognize the value of medical marijuana? (Here & There)
• The law keeping vets from marijuana might not actually exist (Herb)
• How pot-smoking became illegal in Canada (National Post)
• Avoid Most Cannabis Investment Funds For Now (Forbes)
• Dana Rohrabacher's Last Stand: California Conservative's Fate Could Hinge on Cannabis Vote (Leafly)
• Marijuana Is the New Gold for Mining Companies Going to Pot (Bloomberg)
• Is Walmart Doing Business With The Cannabis Industry? (Forbes)
• Racial Disparities Persist Among NYC Cannabis Possession Arrests (Uncle Cliffy)
• Voters In Illinois' Cook County Approve Marijuana Legalization Ballot Measure (Forbes)
• Chicago Voters Embrace Cannabis Legalization in a Big Way (Leafly)
• Majority of American Studies Focus on Confirming Negative Myths About Cannabis, Instead of Testing Benefits (Disinfo)
• Blast From the Past: Ten Funniest Anti-Marijuana Commercials (Westword)
• Washington's Most Powerful Anti-Pot Official Is Named Sessions. It's Not Who You Think. (Politico)
• New podcast humorously highlights the heroes and hidden history of cannabis (Los Angeles Times)
• Major Risk To Cannabis Stocks On Verge Of Lifting (Forbes)
• Can Employers Rely on Federal Ban on Cannabis? (Workforce)
• Part 1, The Latest in Cannabis Research: Spring 2018 (Leafly)
• Iowa State's Marijuana Shirt Ban Case Costs School $1 Mln (U.S. News & World Report)
• Cannabis crackdown uncovers 10,000 marijuana plants, 30 guns and $50,000 cash (Stuff.co.nz)
• The Cannabis Industry Needs To Support Advocacy. Here's Why. (Forbes)
• Green Space Lounge Wants to Be the Upscale, Cannabis-Friendly Social Club Portland Never Knew it Needed (Willamette Week)
• A Dad Who Was Arrested For Growing Cannabis For His Sick Daughters Has Pleaded Not Guilty (BuzzFeed)
• Donors to medical marijuana effort are being kept under wraps. A Missouri man thinks that's wrong (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Cannabis Farmer Gets $1 Million Insurance Payout (Santa Barbara Independent)
• How Grass Roots Made It Through California's Changing Cannabis Climate (Leafly)
• O Cannabis: Pot and Pets, THC a No-No but CBD Shows Promise (Valley Advocate)
• Time for cannabis rethink? (Isle of Man)
• Part 2, How to Top Dress Cannabis Nutrients (Leafly)
• Better Marijuana Stock: Aphria vs. Aurora Cannabis (The Motley Fool)
• True Leaf Announces Cannabis Cultivation Team (Cannabis Business Times)
• Cannabis Collab Seeking New Members (The Source Weekly)

LSD

• New LSD Research May Help Explain the Brain Chemistry of Depression and Schizophrenia (Gizmodo)
• 'Microdosing' LSD is not just a Silicon Valley trend – it is spreading to other workplaces (The Independent)
• LSD: A wonder drug once again? (CBS News)
• Acid Drops: An Interview with Andy Roberts (Psychedelic Frontier)
• LSD blurs boundaries between the experience of self and other (EurekAlert!)
• South Lyon boy found naked and tripping on LSD (Oakland Press)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Are Mind-Altering Magic Mushroom Retreats the Future of Wellness Travel? (Well + Good)
• Denver to Vote This November on Whether to Decriminalize Magic Mushrooms (Psychedelic Times)
• 'Magic' mushroom research could lead to help for addicts (The Columbus Dispatch)
• Scientists trace why magic mushrooms evolved to be "magic" (Herb)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• The UK ecstasy guru from the 90s who influenced MDMA research forever (Dazed)
• MDMA-assisted Therapy (Sapiensoup)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• New Ayahuasca Study Reveals Its Psychological Benefits (Medium)
• 5 Common Misunderstandings about Ayahuasca Demystified (Kahpi)
• I Didn't Need to Drop Ayahuasca to Learn Something Deep About Community From This Coworking Space (Entrepreneur)
• Johns Hopkins University seeks DMT psychonauts who have met machine elves! (Boing Boing)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Exploring the power of ibogaine treatment with The Avante Institute (PR Newswire)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Homegrown festival warned of dangerous fake ecstasy drug (Radio New Zealand)

Dissociatives

• Column: Are Ketamine Clinics Profiteering or Leading Innovation? (MD Magazine)
• Study questions efficacy, safety of intranasal ketamine for depression (News-Medical)
• The Case for Ketamine in Treating Suicidal Ideation (Psychology Today)
• Snorting Ketamine May Not Be The Best Way to Treat Depression, Study Shows (Science Alert)
• Florida Woman High on PCP Gouges Mother's Eyes Out, Placed Them on Cardboard Box (Eurweb)

Opiates/Opioids

• President Trump's New Opioid Plan Includes the Death Penalty for Drug Traffickers (TIME)
• Sessions 'Strongly Encourages' Federal Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for Some Drug Dealers (Reason)
• Opium production in Afghanistan reaches record high (Al Jazeera)
• Opioid Overdoses May Be Seriously Undercounted (KBIA)
• The Pain Refugees: The forgotten victims of America's opioid crisis (Harpers)
• Naloxone, Yes, But 3 Other Drugs Are Essential to Fight the Opioid Epidemic (Forbes)
• You May Have Traces of Cocaine or Heroin on Your Fingertips Right Now (Fortune)
• As libraries grapple with overdose crisis, Vancouver tells staff not to intervene (The Globe and Mail)
• Naloxone: What you need to know about this lifesaving drug (ABC News)
• US journalism students should undergo anti-overdose training (Al Jazeera)

Absinthe

• Elon Musk quietly went to 'technological superpower' Israel to drink absinthe and discuss the future of Tesla in the Middle East (Business Insider)

Kratom

• Kratom linked to Salmonella infections, CDC says (WSPA)
• Ask the doctors: Not enough is known about kratom to support its use (The Spokesman-Review)

Kava

• Kava: Inside the All-Natural High That's Sweeping America (Rolling Stone)
• Kava circles keeping young males away from alcohol and gangs, researcher says (Stuff.co.nz)
• Tudei issue revists reputational risk for Vanuatu kava industry (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy During Prohibition (Chacruna)
• Two movements converge in Mexico at CryptoPsychedelic (Psymposia)
• Psychedelics Panel Invited to Mainstream Healthcare Conference (Chacruna)
• Norway's drug policies 'could set example for rest of the world' (The Independent)
• John F. Kennedy. President. Visionary. Meth head. (Rooster)
• The Art of Burning Man, Without the Burn (The Wall Street Journal)
• We have a drug that's effective against depression – now the government needs to let us use it (Spectator)
• Helen Clark backs festival drug-testing and injecting rooms (NZ Herald)
• Night Lives: Reducing Drug-Related Harm in the Night Time Economy (VolteFace)
• Into the psyche of Psychedelic Art (Media India Group)
• Psychedelics in the Age After Aquarius (Harvard Political Review)
• Nootropedia Teams Up with MAPS to Make Psychedelics Legal (Business Wire)
• It's time to integrate psychedelics into therapy (Big Think)
• Breaking the Cycle of Addiction, With Hallucinogens (HowStuffWorks)
• Clubbers need 'access to drug safety testing' (BBC)
• It's Not In Your Head - Psychedelics Are Making A Scientific Comeback (KTNV)
• Psychedelics and the Full-Fluency Phenomenon (Psymposia)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" does not censor or analyze the news links presented here. The purpose of this column is solely to catalogue how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

The Seven-Point Meditation Posture

Image by nandhukumar, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This is the fourth post in a series featuring helpful meditation techniques. Previous posts focused on introducing mantras, compassion meditation, and breathing meditation.

In previous blog posts about meditation I have discussed the benefits I have experienced by committing to a regular meditation practice, an introduction to mantras, and the fundamentals of compassion meditation and breathing meditation. You may have noticed from previous posts covering meditation that it is important to spend some time getting into a comfortable position before each meditation session. In this blog post I will introduce the concept of the seven-point meditation posture and explore some simple ways to incorporate it into your own meditation practice.

What is the Seven-Point Meditation Posture?

If you've ever seen a Buddha statue (and let's be honest—if you read Think Wilder regularly, then you've definitely seen a Buddha statue or two!), then you've most likely already seen this meditation posture in practice. The definition of the seven-point meditation posture is fairly self-explanatory.—it consists of seven distinct points, each of which corresponds with a separate area of the body. The posture has been used by meditators for thousands of years and serves as a solid foundation for a successful meditation practice. Before each meditation session it is helpful to check in with each of the seven points to make sure that the body is positioned as comfortably as possible. This will greatly impact the overall quality of the meditation session.

For someone who is new to meditating, this particular posture can be quite difficult to achieve. In fact, I am still working on improving my posture during meditation! Making even a small effort to practice the seven-point meditation posture can result in a more productive meditation practice, so it's worth giving a shot.

The Seven Points

Some meditation traditions present the following points in a different order than others, however the sorting order isn't all that important because all of the individual points add up to a complete picture of ideal posture, regardless of which ones come first. I am going to present them in the order that I first learned them, when I attended classes in the Tibetan tradition of Mahayana Buddhism.

1. Legs
   
   The first point in this meditation posture focuses on the legs. Those who are capable of sitting in Full Lotus Pose (also known as Padmasana) should do so. If you are unable to get into that position, perhaps you could try the Half Lotus Pose (Ardha Padmasana).
   
   If neither of those positions are comfortable enough for you to relax during your meditation session, then you could try sitting in a cross-legged position instead. Many people (especially in Western society) are unable to sit on the floor at all, and it is completely possible to modify the seven-point meditation posture so that someone sitting in a chair or on props can practice it.
   
   Make sure that you choose a sitting position that you can sit comfortably in for a long period of time, and do not feel like you have to choose the most impressive option—being comfortable and relaxed is more important than showing off.
   

2. Arms
   
   Next up are the arms. Your hands should be held loosely in your lap, with the right hand resting in the palm of the left, palms upward, thumbs lightly touching, forming the shape of a teardrop or flame. They should be positioned roughly 2-3 inches below the navel. Make sure to relax your shoulders and your arms. It can help to keep your arms slightly away from your body so that air can circulate. This will help prevent sleepiness during meditation.
   

3. Back
   
   The most important point in this series is the back, which should be straight, relaxed, and fully upright, as if the vertebrae were a stack of rocks effortlessly balanced in a pile. The position of the legs contributes greatly to how easy it is to keep a straight back. The higher your butt is and the lower your knees, the easier it is to maintain. Experiment with various sitting positions to see what works best for you.
   

4. Eyes
   
   In the beginning, it is typically best to keep your eyes fully closed because it helps facilitate concentration. This is completely fine. However, after you gain some experience with meditation it will become possible to leave your eyes slightly open in order to admit a little light, and to direct your gaze downwards, not focusing on anything in particular. This is optimal because closing the eyes can result in sluggishness, sleep, or daydreaming, all of which are obstacles to a clear meditation session.
   

5. Jaw and Mouth
   
   Keep your jaw and mouth relaxed, with your teeth slightly apart, relaxed, and with lips slightly touching.
   

6. Tongue
   
   It can be helpful to rest your tongue against the upper palate, with the tip gently touching the back of the teeth. This prevents the production of saliva, which reduces the need to swallow and can also eliminate the undesired side effect that many monks and nuns experience during extremely long meditation sessions—drooling.
   

7. Head
   
   Finally, slightly incline your head so that your gaze is directed naturally toward the floor in front of you. This is all about finding a proper balance—if your chin is held too high you may have problems with mental wandering and distraction, whereas if you drop your head too forward you may experience mental dullness or sleepiness.

Conclusion

Although it may be challenging at first, this meditation posture can really help cultivate concentration and mindfulness. Now that you have an idea of how to get into the seven-point meditation posture, I encourage you to begin to incorporate it into your own meditation sessions. Hopefully it will help deepen your practice and eventually lead to enlightenment.

Namaste.