Mindfulness and meditation app (on Android)

[Admin]

Jim Marshall (not a doctor) said ...
You need to know
A number of members have told me how mindfulness or meditation has helped them cope with their prostate cancer journey. Some are very strong in their praise of the technique.

Sam Harris, a current champion of mindfulness and meditation (without religion), has produced an app called Waking Up: A Meditation Course (Android only). The app tells about mindfulness and meditation, teaches how to do it, and provides practice sessions.

It costs USD$15 per month. The app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Of the 7,808 people who have rated it, most rated it 5 stars (out of 5 stars).
Sam Harris offers both a money back guarantee, and free access to the app in case of hardship.
My thoughts are that if you can access a good teacher that might be best, but if that is a problem, this app could work for you.
You don't need to know
Although I am attracted to the notion, mindfulness and meditation have never really taken fully on me. I have had a few short sessions at events I have attended, and I have downloaded and tried several apps (but not this Sam Harris one). However, I sometimes do breathing and other distraction exercises to cope with strong pain or very emotional events.
You really don't need to know
Sam Harris says that people who don't come to a deep understanding of themselves may be helped to do so by taking LSD or psilocybin. He says that is how he came to a deep understanding himself. He does not recommend that for other people.
NOR DO I. Back in '66, at a poetry reading by Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko I met

Timothy Leary, an American psychologist who advocated exploring these psychedelic drugs under controlled conditions.
Although the air was thick with the pungent smell of another more common drug that it may have influenced my mind, he had no chance of convincing me.

A friend (a neighbour of Wendy's) had shortly before taken LSD at a party in the city. He had crawled out the window of a third floor toilet. He was badly injured.

Before he took to psychedelic drugs, we used to talk for hours, sometimes all night about the sort of questions that absorb some young people. After he recovered, however, we drifted apart.

... end Jim
The app can be found at:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wakingup.android

If this link no longer works, search for:
"Waking up" Sam Harris
If you don't have an android phone or tablet, Sam Harris has written a book "Waking Up" which you can get from Goodreads, or as a spoken book from Audible (spoken by Sam Harris himself).

[timbaker]

I fully endorse meditation as a wonderful therapy. I have become quite a devoted Vipassana meditator and have done four 10-day retreats in Pomona in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. I find the benefits really wonderful as it quietens the mind and allows you to live in the present moment rather than worrying about the past and future. I won't evangelise too heavily and I'm sure it's not for everyone and a 10-day retreat is not to be taken lightly but has been transformative for me and I know some others dealing with a diagnosis.  Course schedule for Pomona is here: https://www.dhamma.org/en/schedules/schrasmi