The Experiment
In conducting this experiment, Group A was allowed to train daily on the pitch for a month. Group B was given a meditation session with a period equal the time used for practice by group A. They were guided to meditate on playing basketball on the pitch and applying new techniques all in their imaginations for one month. The last group which is group C was denied access to anything basketball also for the same duration of one month.
The Results of the Experiement.
After the experiment, Group A's performance had increased about 20 percent. Group C had decreased in performance as expected. But the mouth opener, Group B had equally increased about 20 percent.
Isn't it surprising? The group that didn't have any physical experience but just mental experience had increased in physical performance as much as the group that had the physical experience.
The results of this experiment as described in the passage brought up a memory that solidified my conviction about the power of imagination. I sat there smiling happily like a child who has found a candy. There have often been times that I have imagined some events and my mind would just jerk up my body as though I was actually having the experience. Sometimes I would even pant and breath heavily just by focusing on a scary thought or event. Other times, I would be full of smiles just imagining myself in possession of something I am expecting to have.
After pondering over this passage and my personal experiences, I decided to make meditating on places I wanted to be and things I wanted to have a habit. And truly trust me when you get a laxative chair under a shady tree in a nice breezy zone. There is no where around the world you cannot go. You no longer become bound by money, time and space. Your only limit becomes your mind. You can travel even beyond the world and create experiences that even the world can not give you. You can even live in the world of fantasy and enjoy it as though it was physical.
You might say but it is just a temporal feeling. Yes it is, but so is every other physical experience. There is actually not much difference. Physical experiences are also temporal because they are also a subset of vanity. Once you possess them, they begin to die gradually at the rate of time and separation.