The increasing use of technology including zoom and other online conferencing solutions is leaving people tired, drained, with headaches and wondering how to embrace this new world that is sure to last long past the current COVID crisis. Exploring the subtle body impact of increased immersion online offers solutions and a pathway to be able to use these technologies in a way that supports our good health and sense of connection instead of taking away from it.

Today Zoom alone registers over 3.3 trillion annual meeting minutes.* This is obviously only going to increase, and of course further down the line it will be something else, such as virtual reality meetings and so on.

Zooming Is Now A Commonly Used Verb, And It Impacts People’s Life Force or Qi or Vitality Levels

The term “zoom fatigue” is now a well known description for the kind of energetic collapse some people experience when coming out of long days of conference calls.

Just as “Googling” is something akin to any web search, the term “Zooming” has become ubiquitous and a generic verb to replace videoconferencing. Virtual meetings have skyrocketed, with hundreds of millions happening daily, as social distancing protocols have kept people apart physically.

Prompted by the recent boom in videoconferencing, communication Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), examined the psychological consequences of spending hours per day on these platforms.**

Understanding Subtle Bodies and Technology Is A Pathway to Victory

Understanding how the increasing pace of change and growing use of technology can potentially drain people on the level of life force, qi or prana could turn our future online into a far brighter, healthier and happier prospect.

In 2004-13, I worked on a project (that became a Masters Thesis) about understanding Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and subtle bodies***, which included understanding the impact of the increasing pace of change in technology, globalization and information overload. Now we can add one more thing, zoom fatigue!

I am therefore, now revisiting this work with a new focus on how technology does change or influence our consciousness, and energy. In an in-person presentation and question and answer session in Berkeley, I will describe how it works in terms of subtle bodies and why this could make a really big difference to people’s well-being and their success.

The reason that I am first giving the talk in person is ironically that I want some in person feedback, as talking with people who are experiencing these things in their lives now will give me a sense of how to bring these topics into a zoom conference call for more people.

There is really so much to say and explore in this area, that I find it incredibly exciting. And it is only the beginning. With the new VR Occulus machines making Virtual Reality so much more accessible, it is obvious that soon we will be dealing with VR fatigue and more.

Meditation Online is Also an Example of A Completely New Way of Connecting

As someone who meditates very intensively, and very often with groups, I have also been online a lot in the last 18 months. Meditation in the online environment is really quite different. Human beings have been meditating in the presence of other human beings for many thousands of years.

The earliest documented records that mentioned meditation involved Vedantism, which is a Hindu tradition in India, around 1500 BCE. However, historians believe that meditation was practiced before this time, as early as 3000 BCE. ****

The term “meditate” originates from the Latin word meditatum, which means, “to ponder.” Monk Guigo II introduced this terminology for the first time in the 12th century AD. ****

Meditating in the online conference environment misses some crucial elements. Mainly the level of the physical body and the life force body being physically close to other people, and the ambient space of a shared meditation room or hall. The practice is carried out online.

This brings so many questions. Such as how do we bring the element of presence into an online environment? How do connect with people in a way that is akin to the physical environment? How are our communication skills changing and therefore our consciousness too?

I will address all of this and more in the upcoming in-person talk in Berkeley CA. Please go to meetup (https://www.meetup.com/Find-Creative-Inspiration-Using-Meditation-Skills/events/279277584/) to register and shoot me a text or a call to find out the address when you register. If you are not in the area, do not worry there will be a zoom meeting soon at a to be determined date.

Warm wishes

Samantha

References

*https://backlinko.com/zoom-users

** https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/

*** A central reference for the thesis was KT Subtle Bodies: The Fourfold Model by Samuel Sagan founder of the Clairvision School of Meditation.

**** https://www.news-medical.net/health/Meditation-History.aspx