How Was Instinctive Meditation Approach Created?
Instinctive Meditation® approach was developed by Dr. Lorin Roche and Camille Maurine. It represents the coming together of different streams of knowledge and practice.
1.Scientific Research
One stream is the scientific research on meditation that have proven that meditation is an effective and powerful way of evoking a recovery state of the body and mind, in which the entire system shifts into the mirror opposite of the stress response. We could call it the rest-relax-recover-recharge-reorient response.
It makes sense that nature would equip us with a quick way of recovering from the exhaustion and unbalancing effects of stress. This has survival value. Our approach is that meditation is a natural human instinct, part of our self-regulation, survival and adaptation mechanisms. Meditation is a way for the body-mind system to recover from stress and exhaustion and get ready to cope.
2. Vijnana Bhairava Tantra
Another stream of knowledge and practice informing Instinctive Meditation is the yoga tradition as represented in the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. This is a classic yoga meditation text from around 800 AD which has been put into fresh language by Dr. Lorin Roche as The Radiance Sutras. The text describes 112 different doorways into meditative experience: breathing, subtle motion, mantras, music, dancing, eating, sex, wandering in nature to the point of exhaustion, gazing out at space, being scared, being in brilliant sunlight, being in total darkness, and so on. All these doorways into meditative experience are here to be encountered in daily life and happen spontaneously, and also can be cultivated. From this wealth and variety of approaches, any individual can find what works for them.
3. Movement
The third stream of knowledge comes from Camille Maurine's unique approach to inner exploration and creativity that integrates the fields of meditation, yoga, dance, and theater. A dancer versed in the performing and healing arts, she is the creator of kinAesthetics dance yoga and Moving Theater, a transformative creative process.
After she started meditating in 1972, Camille became fascinated with the internal dimensions of movement, eventually teaching meditation and body awareness in the context of her dance classes. Her own inner journey led her to a profound inquiry into psychological, physical, and spiritual health, and to training in the healing arts. Her experience includes five decades of yoga, twelve years as a practitioner of Essential Integration body therapy (1977-1989), and Continuum movement since 1983. She has delved into the practices of many traditions, including Transcendental Meditation, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism. The devoted study of Jungian depth psychology and dreamwork also richly informs her work.
4. 50+ Years of Teaching
Lastly, this approach is based on Lorin and Camille’s experience of teaching meditation over the last 50 years, working with tens of thousands of individuals. We have been working with complete beginners of every conceivable walk of life, as well as meditation teachers who have come for coaching to evolve their own practice, or to find out what is wrong.