Gibberish Meditation

The English word gibberish, which means "unintelligible or meaningless language," comes from the name of the Sufi mystic who taught it as a path to enlightenment. Nothing Jabbar said to his followers made sense—he spoke fast, with no punctuation or structure, to prove a point: nothing can be said through words; we must learn to go deeper than words.

When we eat, our body digests the food, absorbs the good nutrients, and gets rid of the garbage. This process happens every day. When the body doesn’t get rid of what it needs to, what happens? Toxins build up in the blood and we become ill. The very same process happens in our mind. Every day we take in a vast quantity of information—overheard snippets of conversation, advertisements, Facebook feeds, product labels, interactions with others—and the mind is filled with rubbish that turns into distractions and ruminations if it isn’t released. Gibberish meditation is a mental purging technique. It is calculated insanity: letting the mind and body go totally free through nonsensical sounds and free movement to release blocked, repressed energy. We can then enter a state of profound inner silence.

Jabbar never gave lectures to the thousands of people who came to visit him; instead, he would speak whatever came to mind, in whatever made-up language he chose that day. To the seekers who understood the purpose of the apparent madness, the Sufi mystic would say, “Sit down and start.” Osho, one of the twentieth century’s most prominent spiritual teachers, is responsible for developing gibberish meditation into a modern technique. It’s one of the mystic’s active meditations; it uses a chaotic method to push the center of consciousness from the brain to the heart. Traditional techniques, Osho argues, are irrelevant today because humans have changed so much since the times of the Buddha and Krishna. Gibberish meditation is one of the ways Osho teaches us to “freeze” our overactive minds so we can operate from a place closer to our roots.

Everything. Gibberish is unlike any traditional concept of meditation; on first glance, it is an anti-meditation. Instead of sitting quietly, focusing, or stilling the mind, gibberish meditation instructs us to let loose, move, shake, mumble, cry, hoot, or holler—to let raw emotions and our incorrigible monkey mind have free reign. Osho explains why catharsis is key to achieving peace: “If you begin with sitting, you will feel disturbed inside_… You will become aware only of your insane mind and nothing else_… Begin with your insanity, not with a sitting posture_…If you dance madly, the opposite happens within you. With a mad dance, you become aware of a silent point within you; when sitting silently, you become aware of your madness. The opposite is always the point of awareness.” After the catharsis, Osho notes, sitting will just happen. It will be natural, because the madness is no longer inside to disturb it.

The catharsis experienced during this meditation is one of its most powerful benefits, because suppressed emotions wreak havoc on our physical, mental, and energetic bodies. We’ve been suppressing emotions since we were children—every time we were told not to be angry, every time we didn’t cry, every time we didn’t speak our truth. Those emotions became the “black bags” we carry, and they appear as blockages among the pathways of our neural system. Gibberish meditation flushes out suppressed emotions and it’s particularly effective at dealing with anger—it’s better to scream gibberish than to unleash rage at another person. The practice shows us that we are in control of our emotions, which is an empowering realization, and that our destructive emotions can be turned into creativity and compassion.

Dr. Candace Pert was a groundbreaking neuroscientist who proved the existence of a mind-body connection and shattered Western beliefs about the origin of disease. By researching the brain’s opiate reaction during her doctoral research in the 1970s, Pert discovered that neuropeptides and their receptors are the biochemicals of emotion. Our cells carry imprints of emotional distress and pass them along to new generations of cells, impeding free-flowing communication in the body. “Health is not just a matter of thinking ‘happy thoughts,’” Pert says. “Sometimes the biggest impetus to healing can come from jump-starting the immune system with a burst of long-repressed anger.” Babette Rothschild, author of a seminal text on the psychophysiology of trauma, advocates for the use of cathartic treatment methods. Gibberish meditation is one of the most cathartic meditation techniques taught today.

It’s also beneficial in learning environments. A study published in the International Journal of Medicine and Public Health tested two groups of dental school students on academic performance. The group that practiced gibberish meditation scored higher; they were reported to be more attentive, comfortable, and relaxed than the control group. They also showed a significant reduction in their pulse rate.

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Gibberish meditation isn’t controversial, but Osho, the charismatic teacher of the technique, led a life akin to a Hollywood thriller. With a penchant for free love and fine cars, he sparked ire in India, started a commune in Oregon that responded to neighborhood criticism with a bioterror attack, became the subject of serious criminal speculation, and was eventually kicked out of the country to spend a year drifting aboard his private jet. He advocated for joyful self-knowledge and railed against traditional relationships and religion. His discourses, which have been published in sixty languages, continue to inspire new devotees, and the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, India, is legendary among spiritual seekers.

Gibberish meditation is simple to learn through self-study and can be practiced alone or with a group.

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To practice this meditation, find a place where you can let go of all inhibitions. Sit or stand and move in any way you’d like. Begin to speak in made-up languages, letting the non-words and sounds come out freely. Whisper, scream, shout, or sing. When you stop, become totally still and silent and see what arises. Our step-by-step guided meditation is available on this page.

This is a physical activity that has no associations with religion, so people from all backgrounds can feel comfortable exploring it.

The best-known teachers and authors in this field include:

Various teachers at the Osho Multiversity
(www.osho.com/learn/programs/courses)
Pragito Dove
(www.discovermeditation.com)

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