In many traditions, breathing is an essential consciousness hack, enabling control over the mind through the body. But how exactly is that accomplished? And how can technology facilitate this age-old tradition?

At this month's Consciousness Hacking speaker meetup, Professor and Zen Priest, Ken Kushner, will share with us his story of learning to 'hack the hara.' Hara is the Japanese word for the lower abdomen, and is viewed as the seat of ki (chi, vital energy). In Kushner's tradition of Zen, practitioners learn to control the mind through the body; and, the key to this is the hara. He believes that the changes in consciousness associated with Zen—particularly samadhi—are enabled by hara breathing and that the hara is the intersection of the physical, psychological, and spiritual aspects of the human experience.

Kushner has studied Zen for 40 years, at first struggling with the concept of the hara and how to breathe with and connect to his hara. It took Kushner years to master, and now, he wants to make hara breathing -- and, thus, the Zen experience -- easier to learn and accessible to more people; to hack hara development, if you will.

Kushner created an analogue biofeedback device, the HaraMeter®, that makes it easier for beginners to learn hara breathing and to deepen it once they have acquired it. Kushner is now creating a digital version of the HaraMeter®, which has numerous advantages over the analogue model.

More on Ken here: www.haradevelopment.org