Mapping Candle Flame Meditation

Science is so rad. I love listening to Science Friday on my local NPR station. In October I heard this story and immediately had to look up the video. Gazing at a candle flame is commonly used as a focal point for entering a meditative, or light trance, state. However, this new work of modeling a candle flame adds the fascinating element of knowing that the clear part of the flame, at the center, near the wick, pretty much is what it seems like— an opening in the flame. It’s not on fire. It is cool there, at the root of the flame. This introduces an interesting element into the symbolism of flame more generally, but in terms of candle meditation, it really emphasizes the enchanting idea that in the center of the flame is an opening, symbolically speaking, a doorway—into an altered state of mind, into your subconscious, into Otherworlds…