Learn what theta meditation experts and practitioners have to say about this powerful mindfulness technique, then follow our guided prompts to get into this mindset on your own.
There are many different ways to meditate to work toward a more peaceful self. Some types of meditation have adherents practice breathing and noticing their thoughts. With theta meditation, the goal is actually to get you to produce certain kinds of brain waves to change your state of mind — in other words, tapping into your own brain activity to go deeper into your meditation practice.
Read on to learn what theta meditation experts and practitioners have to say about this powerful mindfulness technique and how you can get into this mindset on your own.
What Is Theta Meditation?
In general, meditation is a mindfulness practice that helps you quiet the chatter of your mind. Typically, you focus your attention on your breathing, noticing how your thoughts come and go, then bring awareness back to your breath when you lose yourself down a train of thought. There are numerous significant health benefits to meditation, from easing anxiety to improving overall brain health.
Theta meditation was popularized by Vianna Stibal, the founder of ThetaHealing®, who began helping people through her healing practice in 1995. This form of meditation is designed to allow you to enter a deep state of consciousness in which your brain waves and mind enter the theta state. In this state, Stibal believes, people can experience a sense of interconnectedness with the universe, reaching what she calls the “seventh plane of existence.”
Stibal has written that the seven planes of existence are inorganic material, organic material like plants and trees, people and animals, the spirit world, divine beings, the laws of the universe (gravity, time), and finally, the energy that flows through all things to create life. This last plane is what some might call the Creator, God, All That Is, or whatever you imagine encompasses the universe as a whole.
“Theta meditation is a journey that connects us with all the planes of the universe and the core of the earth, encompassing our being so delicately with love and light,” Trish Kane, a spirituality expert, Reiki II practitioner, and advanced theta healer, tells DailyOM. “We believe that anything is possible from the theta state.”
Interested in learning more? Check out Meditation for Beginners
How Does Someone Know When They’ve Achieved Theta State?
Practitioners of theta meditation say the technique shifts you into a deeper consciousness, and when you get to the theta state, you achieve positive mental disengagement, a very relaxed state of mind where your brain is on autopilot but also experiences a free flow of thought. (It’s also the mental place you’re in when you’re just about to fall asleep.)
Kane says that she knows she’s there when her breathing and her being become very relaxed and her eyes start to flutter. “If you compare how you look in a mirror prior to doing a theta meditation and then again after, you can see that your eyes and being are glowing after the meditation,” she explains.
As a meditation, getting to the theta state can be an exhilarating experience. However, your brain can find this state throughout the day in other ways, too: When you’ve zoned out on your morning train ride commuting to work or performing a repetitive task like doing the dishes, you’re likely in theta state. These moments can be ideal for excavating buried memories, doing something creative, or just experiencing a sense of peace, allowing you to tap into this frequency of brain waves simply through your awareness.
Benefits of Theta Meditation
Theta brain waves occur more frequently in experienced meditators and research shows that these waves indicate deep relaxation and mental calm. In addition to these peaceful effects, the experts who spoke with DailyOM have seen the following benefits of reaching theta state.
Finding Your Center
Kane says that theta meditation is “an excellent way to reach homeostasis, or a sense of equilibrium, within oneself.” In helping you tap into a deeply meditative state, you can reach your highest self and find a sense of equanimity with the universe.
Enhancing Spiritual Practices
Theta meditation can help you go deeper with other practices, like positive visualization and intuition. According to practitioner and instructor of ThetaHealing Kirsten Reitan, this form of meditation can enhance a manifestation practice by helping you find clarity about what you truly want. “It’s also an avenue for many people to become much more psychic,” she tells DailyOM.
Healing Old Wounds and Letting Go of Limiting Beliefs
Perhaps most importantly, one of the best uses of theta meditation is in healing unresolved wounds. “It does not replace therapy, but it certainly can enhance it,” Reitan says, explaining that in releasing old beliefs and feelings, theta meditation can also bring in new beliefs and feelings that are empowering, healing, and transforming.
Holistic therapist, certified life coach, and mindfulness teacher Megan Sherer agrees. “What makes theta meditation unique is that it allows you to reach a very creative, meditative state, which can in turn help you process emotions and imbalances in a quick and effective way,” she tells DailyOM.
How to Do a Theta Meditation
Theta healers typically meet with people one-on-one to guide them into a theta meditative state. However, you can try the following steps from Reitan to guide yourself into this type of meditation:
- Sit or lie down in a comfortable place and close your eyes. Feel your connection to the earth and imagine a white light from the earth coming up through your feet. Picture the white light passing up through your chakras and out of your head through the crown chakra.
- Next, imagine yourself surrounded by a ball of light. Then, expand your consciousness to be above you, your home, the earth, the solar system and out into the universe.
- In the universe, picture yourself passing through layers and layers of black and white light. Then, imagine yourself passing through a golden light, then through a jellylike substance that has streaks of rainbow colors, then through a pink mist of compassion, and finally, into a tingly white light. (While this might feel unfamiliar or even frustrating at first, try to stick with the practice.)
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Then, go deep into the tingly white light — this is what Stibel considered the seventh plane — to connect with the Creator (or whatever you would call what encompasses the universe) and make a request.
The request can be as simple as “I request that I sleep deeply and completely tonight” if you’re doing this meditation at night or “I request that I be blessed with _____ today” if you are doing it in the morning. Or you can ask for something to be healed, for clarification about a situation in your life, for anything that will create better circumstances and conditions in you.
- Try to sit in this meditative place for 20 minutes, having a conversation with the Creator about your request.
- Then, to fully awaken, open your eyes, stand up, and do a sweeping motion with your hands to break the theta state.
