Jhana AI

"It's like TikTok for meditation."

This software is a WIP adaptive guided meditation with a "boost focus" function that instantly adapts the meditation to keep you focused.

The goal is to create an addictive meditation experience.

The meditation includes components like body scans, breathing, visualizations, Metta, and more.

Philosophy

Meditation doesn't have to be boring. But almost no one knows this.

A more engaging style of meditation is necessary to keep up with the increasing addictiveness of modern software technology.

Meditation these days is associated with "defensive" benefits such as stress reduction, but it can also be used "offensively" to build extreme clarity of mind. Steve Jobs type shit.

Business

No one has tried to make adaptive meditation software before, I think?

It was only realized in the past couple decades that the jhanas can be attained by a normal person in dozens of hours. They were previously thought to require thousands.

As powerful psychotech like the light jhanas and fetters inquiry become more widely accessible and robust in the wellness marketplace, those who have identity structure around spiritual accomplishment will increasingly lash out against this trend by attacking the validity of…

— owen (@blissbrah) August 25, 2024

The jhanas are pretty hot (Vox), but "there isn't an app for that."

Jhourney's "super secret master plan" includes building a lab... but I don't see why we can't just YOLO an app out there.

Thanks

Thank you to Owen (@blissbrah), who helped me find that meditation can be enjoyable!

Thank you to Jhourney for operationalizing shortcutting to the jhanas!

Thank you to Sam Z for helping me find Jhourney!

Thank you to Igor for sending me Mindfulness in Plain English!

Limitations

This software was born on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, so it's very immature.

Some of the more advanced instructions are not explained.

The media navigation controls can be a little finicky.

It could always be better tuned to be more engaging and deep.

The text-to-speech voice might not be considered aesthetically pleasing.

Disclaimer

This software is for general enlightenment purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. The user assumes any risk of stress, anxiety, ego death, transcendence of humanity, being sigma as fuck, cackling, demigodhood, moving to a hut in the woods, and nirvana. Avoid driving or operating heavy machinery during use. Use at your own risk.

Get Started

To start, set a really ambitious duration that feels like, "I could never meditate for that long."

This software is mostly controlled using media navigation commands like "next track." It's probably best to enact these commands using a digital assistant voice command like "Hey Siri" because minimizing the movement of your body helps to maintain a meditative state.

Try to create an environment free of any interruptions or disturbances.

This software is currently only tested on Desktop Safari on MacOS, but it probably also works in Chrome.

The recommended way to enjoy this meditation is lying down in bed in corpse pose with an eye mask. Feel free to vary the pose to make it more comfortable.

There's a sleep timer in case you want to go to sleep.

You are welcome to play some ambient or noise music, although the music software can sometimes "steal" the media navigation commands.

Trying hard will hold you back. Hoping or expecting to feel a certain way or get a certain result will hold you back. Kind of weird but that's how it works. You might receive an instruction to do something that feels impossible or nonsensical. Give it a shot, try to observe if anything happened, and then you can move onto the next instruction.

It's often ambiguous whether the focus is waning or a thought is just passing by. If unsure, it's probably simpler to just smash the "focus boost" button.