Meditation
How to Trip Balls Without Taking Drugs
I first learned how to meditate from my dad. When I was 33, on the verge of becoming a father myself, my dad (sensing my terror) revealed to me that he had been meditating since the early 1970s. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was visiting the United States from India, and my dad received a mantra from him as part of his Transcendental Meditation practice.
It would be 15 years before a yogi would give me my own personal mantra (more on that later), so I made one up for myself. My limited understanding was that it simply needed to be a word that had no active meaning so as not to lead my mind while meditating. I made up the word SCHRING, sat down with my dad, closed my eyes, and meditated.
As my dad instructed me, the goal of meditation was simple: come back to center. Easier said than done.
I used that basic technique ever since, meditating at least once a day, usually around 4 p.m. when I would start to get sleepy and need a recharge. Of course, that changed when I started to experience symptoms of ALS.
Transcendental Meditation wasn’t enough.
First off, it’s not easy to meditate when you’re in the middle of dealing with anxiety, insomnia, and depression. No matter how strong your practice is, if you have an obsessive mind and are in the throes of a mental health crisis, I recommend getting help. (Lexapro, for example, or any SSRI—but your doctor must advise you.)
Once I got the anxiety under control, I started to learn about different kinds of meditation from different master teachers around the world.
Meeting Sadhguru
First, I came across a man named Sadhguru—a yogi mystic from India who has spent the greater part of his life traveling the world, sharing enlightenment with tens of millions. His YouTube videos are compelling for their simplicity, deep truths, sense of humor, and his ability to answer any question with grace and wisdom. If you’re new to him, I recommend watching his interview with Mike Tyson!
I attended a meditation event he hosted in Los Angeles. I joined 4,000 other students and, over the course of a weekend, learned a yoga meditation involving flutter breath through the nose and bandhas (locks with breath holds). Day one was instruction and practice. Day two, he led us personally into meditation.
Before beginning the first guided meditation, Sadhguru warned us:
"People will be screaming, laughing, crying, and having emotional outbursts. You pay no attention to them. You just pay attention to me. It will just be you and me."
Despite sitting amongst thousands, his words proved true.
As I dropped into the meditation, just when I thought nothing was happening—WHAM—Sadhguru was there in my mind, flying around and sprinkling some kind of gold dust over me. Was I hallucinating? Dreaming? What was happening?
I was consciously aware this was happening—and yet my eyes were closed. My intuition told me he was helping heal me. I started to sob uncontrollably. The vision ended with my teachers from high school and college lifting me up into the air, joined by friends and family—I was crowd-surfing on a network of love and support.
At lunch, I told my friend Yam (who had invited me) what happened. She shared that something similar happened to her. We figured: "Okay, after lunch we'll meditate again, but there's no way that could happen twice." Yet it did.
During the second session, Sadhguru appeared again, this time poking me right in my spiritual third eye. Another mystical vision, more sobbing, another day I’ll never forget.
Finding Dr. Joe Dispenza
After committing to a 30-day at-home practice of Sadhguru’s method, I never experienced quite the same mystical phenomena again. I felt blissed out for two weeks: food tasted better, nature was awe-inspiring, I experienced the oneness of all things in a way I had only ever dreamed of. But I knew that was the residual effect of having spent time with Sadhguru., Not the result of my own at home practice. After a month of plateauing, I decided to try something new.
That's when I discovered Dr. Joe Dispenza.
On a YouTube channel called Stories of Transformation, I listened to hundreds of videos from Dr. Joe’s students who had experienced miraculous healings through meditation—everything from glioblastoma brain cancers to lupus to even recovering from ALS.
I signed up for a weeklong event with Dr. Joe and took a 26-hour preparatory course. I loved it! Totally awesome as Joe breaks meditation down into a science. Dr. Joe’s meditations are guided journeys into trance states.
Similar to dropping a mantra into the depths of consciousness, Dr. Joe guides you into the nothingness, helping brain waves slow, and from that darkness, he teaches you to build new emotional states and visions of healing.
"If you want to change your personal reality, you have to change your personality." —Dr. Joe
At the weeklong event, I experienced:
Incredible energetic releases
Primal screams of decades of trapped sadness and anger
Mystical revelations and moments of profound connection
I was totally blown away. I returned home to continue the meditations on my own and had some success. One afternoon, I found myself walking around my apartment strong, healthy, and free of disability! I hadn’t done this for over a year. It wasn’t until a car horn woke me up that I realized I was meditating. I couldn’t believe it, it had all felt so completely real.
Returning to Transcendental Meditation
This past fall, I returned to TM with my Dad and another great meditation teacher, Natalie Mendoza. Natalie spent four days with my dad and me, teaching us the finer techniques of Transcendental Meditation.
She explained:
The mantra is like a stone dropped into an active body of water.
The surface ripples are thoughts—constant, ever-moving.
The mantra drops deeper, where brain waves slow from beta → alpha → theta → delta. Just like Dr. Joe.
Thoughts aren't interruptions—they are unstressing movements of the mind, releasing tension so deeper states can be reached.
Where I Am Today
Prior to ALS, I meditated maybe once a day for 15–20 minutes around 4 p.m.—often just falling asleep while trying to find enlightenment.
Now I understand:
Meditation is about letting go. We are all enlightened beings, but like lightbulbs that are always on we have covered up our light with thick blankets. Meditation helps us strip away everything in the way of us and our light. The same Light that is all around us. The divinity within us and all around us .
It’s about surrender, not force. The only thing inevitable besides death is this moment. I learned that from Sadhguru . And so surrender and accept each moment, without insisting that it would be something else. Meditation is an opportunity to practice that.
And mystical experiences are beautiful, but the real miracle is in getting to know yourself. Meditation helps you remember who you are.
To know thyself isn’t for everyone. It takes courage, discipline, incredible persistence, but in the nightmare of ALS, meditation has helped me to dream again. It’s a daily opportunity, to connect with the mind I want to practice, not the mind that does not serve me. What greater gift could there be than to remember who you really are?
In peace, love and health, Aaron
PS. A special thanks to my dad, Paul Lazar one of the most extraordinary humans I will ever know.