Dr. Baron
Short

Today we’re joined by Dr Baron Short, an Interventional Psychiatrist at the Medical University of South Carolina, and co-founder of Zendo, an electronic headset that purports to enhance both the experience and the long-term benefits of meditation.

How might a direct current of electricity to the brain affect our meditation? This is not a hypothetical question. All three of us – two hosts and one guide – wire up the Zendo, select the highest possible setting, and ride out the hum. Tasha and Baron go to Bliss-land. Jeff goes… somewhere else! 

Baron’s guidance is lovely and supportive and useful for everyone – you do not need electronic pads to get something out of this meditation. In fact, his 13-minute practice is a kind of guided tour of meditative landmarks many of us experience, from “the body drop” to the “stickiness of thoughts” and more.

After the practice, we get into an animated discussion about the pros and cons of technologically-enhanced meditation. Do we need it? Why or why not? Have we always been enhanced, and what might a more enhanced evolutionary future look like? Much ensues from the Zendo tingle!

To go straight to Baron’s 14-minute guided meditation, it begins at 14:00 and ends at 28:00.