WA Working in a bookstore can give you a unique viewpoint of the trends that define public consciousness. Watts, using clear and accessible language, as well as clever examples and analogies, was able to make obtuse and foreign concepts come alive, but his was often a philosophical viewpoint. For instance, rather than inducing a hypnogogic state in which one is susceptible to suggestion, meditation effects a clarity of mind, which only increases discernment. Meditation refers to a state of consciousness in which the mind is crystal clear and thoughts are still, allowing one to experience a sense of spontaneity, calmness, and well-being.
Direct perception is what differentiates philosophy and experience.
A person can read all about oranges, know their chemical composition, and argue about their nutritional merits and still not know their essence until he actually bites into one. Meditation has been taught as a practice to reduce stress and promote physical well-being, but these are merely side effects. Meditation is essentially a spiritual practice because the energy that usually goes out through the senses, connecting us to the physical world, gets redirected inward to the spinal nerves and the brain. We begin to experience ourselves as a consciousness that is a part of an even greater consciousness, rather than as a bag of bones and flesh that is conscious. Because of the profound effect meditation has on the lives of its practitioners, as more and more people meditate and it becomes part of the mainstream, one can expect great changes in our culture, and indeed the world.