RITUAL IN IMA

[KEND]

Anybody relate to this

Why Rituals Work
There are real benefits to rituals, religious or otherwise
By Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton Scientific American May 14, 2013

Think about the last time you were about to interview for a job, speak in front of an audience, or go on a first date. To quell your nerves, chances are you spent time preparing – reading up on the company, reviewing your slides, practicing your charming patter. People facing situations that induce anxiety typically take comfort in engaging in preparatory activities, inducing a feeling of being back in control and reducing uncertainty.
While a little extra preparation seems perfectly reasonable, people also engage in seemingly less logical behaviors in such situations. Here’s one person’s description from our research:
I pound my feet strongly on the ground several times, I take several deep breaths, and I "shake" my body to remove any negative energies. I do this often before going to work, going into meetings, and at the front door before entering my house after a long day.
While we wonder what this person’s co-workers and neighbors think of their shaky acquaintance, such rituals – the symbolic behaviors we perform before, during, and after meaningful event – are surprisingly ubiquitous, across culture and time. Rituals take an extraordinary array of shapes and forms. At times performed in communal or religious settings, at times performed in solitude; at times involving fixed, repeated sequences of actions, at other times not. People engage in rituals with the intention of achieving a wide set of desired outcomes, from reducing their anxiety to boosting their confidence, alleviating their grief to performing well in a competition – or even making it rain.
Recent research suggests that rituals may be more rational than they appear. Why? Because even simple rituals can be extremely effective. Rituals performed after experiencing losses – from loved ones to lotteries – do alleviate grief, and rituals performed before high-pressure tasks – like singing in public – do in fact reduce anxiety and increase people’s confidence. What’s more, rituals appear to benefit even people who claim not to believe that rituals work. While anthropologists have documented rituals across cultures, this earlier research has been primarily observational. Recently, a series of investigations by psychologists have revealed intriguing new results demonstrating that rituals can have a causal impact on people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Basketball superstar Michael Jordan wore his North Carolina shorts underneath his Chicago Bulls shorts in every game; Curtis Martin of the New York Jets reads Psalm 91 before every game. And Wade Boggs, former third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, woke up at the same time each day, ate chicken before each game, took exactly 117 ground balls in practice, took batting practice at 5:17, and ran sprints at 7:17. (Boggs also wrote the Hebrew word Chai (“living”) in the dirt before each at bat. Boggs was not Jewish.) Do rituals like these actually improve performance? In one recent experiment, people received either a “lucky golf ball” or an ordinary golf ball, and then performed a golf task; in another, people performed a motor dexterity task and were either asked to simply start the game or heard the researcher say “I’ll cross fingers for you” before starting the game. The superstitious rituals enhanced people’s confidence in their abilities, motivated greater effort – and improved subsequent performance. These findings are consistent with research in sport psychology demonstrating the performance benefits of pre-performance routines, from improving attention and execution to increasing emotional stability and confidence.

[Michael]

I think it's a misuse of the word ritual. What he's describing are habits, customs, superstitions and idiosyncrasies.

My guess is that people who know rituals had a strong hand in developing the awareness needed for IMA, although my humble and limited experience is that a person can be skilled in IMA without really knowing much about rituals and how they really work.

Peacedog has on RSF recommended an author, John Greer, who wrote Circles of Power, which I think has an excellent description of rituals and how they work. There may be some extremely minimal overlap between what a ritual is with what is described in this article, because there are more than a bazillion ways to activate your mind's power, but it's a miss.

Waiting for the next blind man to tell me about the beauty of Rembrandt, lol.

[Steve Rowe]

Anything that strengthens mental focus is worthwhile.

[Michael]

So this must be the appropriate moment for an exaggerated Hitler comparison to disprove your platitude.

[wiesiek]

well,
IMA it is ritual by itself , all the way in the 6 directions

[roger hao]

Caperia is all about rituals and......superstitions

[Peacedog]

xxxxxxxxxxxx

[Interloper]

well,
IMA it is ritual by itself , all the way in the 6 directions

Six Directions isn't a ritual, it's a very calculated description of the way IMA people manipulate their connective tissues -tendons, muscle -- that sends force out in 6 directions... really 360 degrees, like a sphere, but 6 directions of up/down, front/back, side/side are used as simpler "shorthand." It's just a verbal and visual prompt for how to direct force and to shape body structure.

[Strange]

Six Directions isn't a ritual, it's a very calculated description of the way IMA people manipulate their connective tissues -tendons, muscle -- that sends force out in 6 directions... really 360 degrees, like a sphere, but 6 directions of up/down, front/back, side/side are used as simpler "shorthand." It's just a verbal and visual prompt for how to direct force and to shape body structure.

yes

[KEND]

The lines between ritual, habit and culture become blurred. I feel ritual in the form of some preset series of physical movements, mental visualizations or spoken/unspoken words are useful for remembering or maximizing performance. Culture may modify the ritual, different branches of a church may employ modified rituals to put its members in an altered state of consciousness, 'talking' oneself through a form, visualizing outcomes, imagining 'chi' flow, an opening bow these are often a mix of memory techniques and self hypnosis. It is a large and complex subject and I feel the article merely scraped the surface
Anyway what are your rituals in IMA

[Steve James]

Well, a ritual is only a series of actions performed in a certain order. However, we usually use it in reference to religion. So, to many, connecting ritual to cma seems or feels incongruous. But, c'mon, getting up to do a particular set of exercises every day (or every week) is just as much a ritual as taking communion or genuflection. Then again, there's the issue of the practitioner's intent for the behavior. If it's religious, then it's a religious ritual. That don't make it Daoist, though

[Interloper]

Well, a ritual is only a series of actions performed in a certain order. However, we usually use it in reference to religion. So, to many, connecting ritual to cma seems or feels incongruous. But, c'mon, getting up to do a particular set of exercises every day (or every week) is just as much a ritual as taking communion or genuflection. Then again, there's the issue of the practitioner's intent for the behavior. If it's religious, then it's a religious ritual. That don't make it Daoist, though

If a person is practicing mindfully, then training is for the specific purpose of advancing and refining his skill. If just mindfully going through the motions, then it becomes mere ritual, or ritualistic. While we can say that religious rituals also have a purpose, I wouldn't mix spiritual meaning with pragmatic practice. The latter is not a ritual if there is a logic to things being done in a certain order to build on a developmental foundation.

[Steve James]

Well, Catholic rituals on Sunday have a purpose, though that purpose is not to increase skill. However, I think there are those who'd argue that circle-walking started as a religious practice that was found to be useful. At the same time, the separation of any aspect of daily life from religion is a cultural thing. Different groups ritualize the wearing of certain objects.

I take your theoretical point that separates practicing something for skill acquisition from practicing for something not-related to a skill. Though, I could argue that this wouldn't apply to meditation, I think it's just safer to say that the absence of the intention for skill acquisition isn't enough to disqualify something from being a ritual. For ex., people wash their hands before eating. But, some do it before praying, too. One is usually for religious reasons; the other may or may not be, or it can be both. So, I'd say that it's the individual's intention (or belief) at the time that makes something a ritual. It's what transforms the bread into flesh.

Again, it's not that anyone does cma as a religious act. Of course, I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear of someone creating a Universal Church of the Supreme Ultimate.

[wiesiek]

well,
IMA it is ritual by itself , all the way in the 6 directions

Six Directions isn't a ritual, it's a very calculated description of the way IMA people manipulate their connective tissues -tendons, muscle -- that sends force out in 6 directions... really 360 degrees, like a sphere, but 6 directions of up/down, front/back, side/side are used as simpler "shorthand." It's just a verbal and visual prompt for how to direct force and to shape body structure.

aaah, that six
then ,
we have 36

+
I love to note, :
ritual, it's a very calculated description

[Interloper]

well,
IMA it is ritual by itself , all the way in the 6 directions

Six Directions isn't a ritual, it's a very calculated description of the way IMA people manipulate their connective tissues -tendons, muscle -- that sends force out in 6 directions... really 360 degrees, like a sphere, but 6 directions of up/down, front/back, side/side are used as simpler "shorthand." It's just a verbal and visual prompt for how to direct force and to shape body structure.

aaah, that six
then ,
we have 36

+
I love to note, :
ritual, it's a very calculated description