Music is Bad For Meditation

Fighting Words is a column in which writers rub you the wrong way with their unpopular but well-argued opinions on fitness, health, nutrition, what have you. Got something to get off your chest? Send your pitch to tonic@vice.com.   I began meditating in 2014 when I returned home to Brooklyn from a five-week rock and roll tour. The day-to-day of that tour didn't exactly meet the debauchery I'd dreamed of watching the Pantera Vulgar video as a child, but I certainly partook in my fair share of binge-drinking and late nights. Upon returning home, I was mentally exhausted, out of control, and out of touch with my own intentions. Meditation offered the respite I was seeking.

As I began exploring meditation, I realized that sitting in silence and observing my breath was strangely new and enjoyable, but not simple. I turned to the internet for help and discovered a wealth of apps (including Insight Timer, eMindful, Headspace, and many others) that offered guided meditation courses set to an array of soothing ambient music. But one app that I was drawn to, 10% Happier, offered guided meditations which consisted, a majority of the time, of absolute silence. No ambient drones, no crashing waves, nothing.

"As the practice goes on and as the mind settles and gets quiet, there's a beauty to the experience of silence that is wonderful," Joseph Goldstein, meditation teacher and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society says. "It's amazing, dropping into the more intuitive aspect of the nature of mind that comes out of silence."

This came as somewhat of a revelation to me. My entire life, music had been my central obsession. I turned to music for inspiration; I listened to music for motivation while exercising, and I work in the music supervision department at Viceland, soundtracking every scene with wall-to-wall beats and melodies. Essentially, I was a huge proponent of the idea that music was the answer and the cure to all of my ailments.

Now, I began to wonder whether or not I had been misguided all along. Was music in fact bad for my mind? Maybe my compulsion to find and listen to new music was actually more of a distraction than something that left me feeling grounded.

I spoke with meditation teacher and author Oren Jay Sofer, who says that while many people find listening to music helpful for creating a relaxed mood, it's also useful to develop the capacity to simply observe the mind without any added sensory stimulation. "One of the hallmarks of our culture is the incessant sensory stimulation," Sofer says. "We're continually either bombarded by or feeding our habits with sense stimulation. We have this endless array of distractions to satisfy us or keep our minds occupied."

This notion of perpetual stimuli was certainly something I could relate to. For me, every morning starts with my iPhone alarm, morning podcasts, tracks from my Spotify, coffee, G-Chat, the news, Twitter, Instagram, iCal, Facebook, more coffee, e-mails, and so on until infinity.

Sofer adds, "One of the radical things about meditation is that we're actually unplugging and disengaging from our mind's habit to always seek some kind of sensory stimulation to occupy itself." Radical indeed. This seemed to go beyond the mainstream modern discourse that meditation is useful to reduce stress. Sofer suggests that stress reduction is actually a byproduct of the real goal of meditation: To understand the way our minds work. "When we understand the way our mind is functioning then we feel less stressed out, we have more clarity, we have more choice," he says.

If you are trying to focus on your breath, music could be distracting, because it will "on some level be perceived," says Aaron Berkowitz, director of global neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, and author of The Improvising Mind. "Presumably music is using some processing capacity that may take away from your ability to fully attend to your breath," he says.

As someone who pays close attention to music as a language and a structure, it's easy for my mind to get lost in the musical content of what I'm hearing, and then to lose the thread of awareness that I'm attempting to cultivate. On top of that, once you add the sonic realities of daily life, there's an increased level of difficulty to focus. It makes sense then, that letting Calvin Harris hijack your attention may not be the most conducive to slowing down your breathing pattern, especially while your roommate is cooking, and police sirens are blaring on the street corner outside.

Ultimately, however, several experts agree that while meditating in silence is most useful for understanding the inner workings of the mind, music can be a powerful bridge for people who are just starting out. "It's a matter of personal preference, and also of intention," says meditation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg. "If your intention is mostly to relax, and get to a calmer space, the music might help. If your intention is to see the patterns of your mind more clearly, silence might help."

For those looking to escape the day-to-day drudgery of the city, or the relentless inner monologue of their own mind, no one will blame them for wanting to relax with some ambient pan flute. But the reality is, when you're out in the world and emotions are running high, and anxiety is building, you might not be able to channel the comfort of your home stereo system and soothing spa sounds. But, as Sharon Salzberg noted, "You can be with your breath, noticing your emotions in a mindful way. No one even has to know you're doing it. That seems most empowering to me because it's so personal, and requires no equipment."