My name is Michael Taft. I’m a mindfulness meditation teacher who’s been practicing meditation for decades. I’m writing a book to share the best of what I’ve learned and I’d like your help in bringing it to life.
Called The Mindful Geek, this book details how to derive the benefits of mindfulness meditation without having to join a religion or drink anyone’s metaphysical Kool-Aid. In the book, I give you step-by-step instructions in the powerful and reliable techniques of mindfulness meditation, and outline the psychological and neuroscientific research underpinning these practices — all without you having to believe in reincarnation, karma, or other sacred cows.
My motto for the book is simple: You shouldn't have to join a religion to get the benefits of meditation.
By treating mindfulness as a scientifically-based, psychological technique, you can keep your atheistic or agnostic secular skepticism and still maintain a powerful, regular, and deeply effective meditation practice. In this book I won’t refer to anything "spiritual," ever.
That is because meditation doesn’t require you to believe in it to work. Like any good technology, if you use it correctly, it will do the job reliably whether you believe in it or not. And—make no mistake—meditation is a kind of technology; a technology for hacking the human wetware in order to improve your life. This book is a practical, hands-on manual about how to make the most of that technology for yourself.
As the title makes clear, this is a book for the smart, skeptical, and technically-inclined. It's loaded with flow charts, diagrams, and Star Trek references. I have also taught a lot of meditation programs at tech corporations like Google, so this material has been field-tested on some world-class geeks.
See for yourself: Get a peek at a sample chapter from the book here.
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WHAT I'M ASKING FOR
Your generous contribution will benefit The Mindful Geek project in crucial ways. The funds we generate will allow me to pay a highly respected author and editor (Gareth Branwyn of Boing Boing and Make magazine fame) to bring the text (which already exists) to a highly-polished, fun-to-read state.
It will also underwrite hiring professional graphic designers, illustrators, book formatting specialists, and even some marketers.
A portion of the funds will also give me a few extra weeks to focus solely on bringing the text and the book itself to a perfect finish. I want this to be a useful, handsome, and fully-realized book.
WHAT YOU GET
In exchange for your help, you’ll be receiving some of the best of what I have to offer. Depending on your contribution, you can get ebook and/or paperback versions of The Mindful Geek. You will also receive an ebook and/or paperback copy of my Nondualism text (nondualismbook.com).
All contributors will also receive one or more 10-minute guided mindfulness meditations I recorded. One of them is a body scan practice and the other is a guided breath awareness meditation. Both are excellent for relaxing, relieving stress, and beginning your mindfulness meditation practice.
All contributors will also be credited by name in the book, unless they want to remain anonymous.
Additionally I’ll be offering one or more live online meditation classes. This will take the form of a video broadcast, featuring guided meditation, instruction, and a Q&A session.
You can also meet with me one-on-one (in person, or via phone or video) for personalized meditation instruction. This is the same individualized, step-by-step coaching I offer to my corporate and other clients for $250 per hour, and includes a structure of practice and accountability that can help to establish your mindfulness practice in a long-term way.
What can you do to help with this project besides give money? Lots! Help me to get the word out about the book. Tell your friends about it. Share the link to this Indiegogo campaign on your FB page or Twitter feed. Post the campaign video in your feed. Invite me to do interviews, podcasts, meditation instruction, or talks for your community. I'm happy to do these things to spread the word, if possible. I live in the SF Bay Area, so events in that region are easiest to make happen.
The majority of The Mindful Geek is already written. With the funds you help me to gather, I can bring it over the finish line and ship it to you and the world at large.
Let's do this thing!
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Leading a free meditation class
31 Jan ~
In celebration of all the support we're receiving The Mindful Geek team is adding two "stretch goals." That means that if we hit certain levels above our target there are special rewards that will go to everyone who has contributed.
$9k ~ If we raise one thousand dollars over our original target, then I will host a one-of-a-kind meditation class live in person and over Google Hangouts on Air (sort of like Skype), available to all contributors. In this celebratory gathering, I'll thank everyone, lead a guided meditation (at least 30 min) and give a talk. I may also take questions from the audience, whether in the room or on the air.
$10k ~ If you all go crazy and we rocket two thousand dollars over our original target, not only will I personally thank everyone from the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge on video, but—and this will really be a huge undertaking—I will create a full audio recording of the entire book, read by me, and give it as a gift to all contributors.
If you have already contributed, but want to help us make these stretch goals, there are a couple of ways you can help. One is to encourage your friends who might be interested to support the book.
Here's a sample recommendation you can just cut and paste:
Learn to meditate w/o religion. Check out
The Mindful Geek —Secular Mindfulness for Smart Skeptics @Indiegogo
http://bit.ly/1CWTyvs
ABOUT ME
I’m an experienced author, editor, publisher, and meditation instructor. I’ve been creating material about mindfulness, meditation, and spirituality my entire adult life.
I've been meditating for well over 30 years, and have completed intensive practices in Buddhist, Hindu, and secular traditions. I’ve meditated in Zen temples in Japan and yogi caves in India and logged thousands of hours at hardcore meditation retreats. I love that stuff, and maintain my lifelong practice.
Starting in about 2007, I began working on the Being Human project, which gave me the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the leading scientists in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, biology, and evolution. This radically reshaped my understanding of my meditation practice and began the process of secularizing my teaching. I'm now an official advisor at the Therapeutic Neuroscience Lab at UMass, collaborate on large curriculum for corporate meditation trainings, and teach in college courses at institutions such as Vassar. I'm not a neuroscientist or an expert in biology, but I bring these topics into the book in an informed way.
Many of the practices in the book come from Shinzen Young's Basic Mindfulness system (in which I am a senior facilitator), and which is also highly secular.
I was the editorial director of the meditation publishing company Sounds True for many years, where I created teaching programs with some of the greatest teachers of our time. For example, I edited the perennial audio hit The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young, and recently edited his upcoming book of the same name for Sounds True. I also was the producer and interviewer behind one of Robert Anton Wilson’s last interviews, Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything — a pet project of mine that I really love.
I wrote and published a book entitled, Nondualism: A Brief History of a Timeless Concept and co-authored (with Peter Baumann, former member of Tangerine Dream) the book Ego: The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity. I’ve edited a number of other books, such as the NY Times bestseller Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson and DreamTending by Steve Aizenstat. I'm also the founding editor and a major contributor on the meditation blog Deconstructing Yourself.
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ENDORSEMENTS
"Michael Taft is a gifted teacher of mindfulness with an impressive track record of helping people get results. As one of my senior facilitators with over 30 years of practice experience, he has a comprehensive understanding of meditative traditions and practices, and is able to translate that into science-friendly, secular language. I recommend him wholeheartedly."
~ Shinzen Young, meditation teacher and author of The Science of Enlightenment
"Michael has a deep understanding of meditation practice and its underpinnings, and manifests the wisdom and compassion that comes from this. He is also a skilled listener which is an important complement to these other critical components."
~ Judson Brewer, MD,PhD, Director of Research at the Center for Mindfulness and an associate professor in Medicine and Psychiatry at UMass Medical School
"Michael possesses a rare combination of talents. First, he has decades of experience, which allows him to teach from a place of great depth and to directly speak to the many different ways a student can come to practice. Second, he is at the forefront of brain and emotion science and is able to speak about contemplative practices to smart, skeptical students. Finally, he has deep practice experiences in multiple wisdom traditions, which allows his secular viewpoint to be not become untethered from the foundation and heart of how mindfulness has been practiced throughout history. "
~ Bill Duane, Superintendent of Well Being at Google
"I have known Michael Taft for fifteen years and have seen him teach various meditation classes as well as academic classes in the Department of Religion and Asian Studies at Vassar College. Michael is a truly accomplished teacher with a skill set that spans and integrates Asian Buddhist and Hindu tradition with Western Neuroscience and contemporary practices of Mindfulness in corporate as well as personal contexts."
~ Rick Jarow, PhD, Professor of Religion at Vassar College and author of The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide.
Gareth Branwyn interviews Michael about The Mindful Geek on Gareth's Cafe Gaga podcast:
In this video, I lead a guided meditation on emotions.
Jerry Katz (
nonduality.com) interviews me about the
other book in the perks, entitled
Nondualism: A Brief History of a Timeless Concept. I
f you're interested in a (nerdy, wide-ranging) look at how the world's most esoteric concept developed over time, then this is a book you'll love. We cover many of the topics in the book, and generally geek-out on occultish meditation philosophy. Fun for the whole family! I hope you enjoy.