The Alchemy of Jabbar: The Gibberish Meditation

Getting Sane By Going Crazy

“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.” – Voltaire

Language has to be the greatest invention of mankind, but it has also become a heavy burden. Language has created a thick crust that prevents many of us from experiencing our true inner silence. Almost all our anxiety and stress can be attributed to our incessant mental chatter. We only get a break from this mental noise when we go to sleep, and even then the subconscious mind may continue its chatter by penetrating our dreams.

How can we relieve ourselves of this mental chatter? This is where the Sufi mystic Jabbar comes in by offering us his unique method. It is said that all Jabbar did was talk nonsense. He would speak so fast that no one could understand him, hence the English word gibberish was derived from him. This was his special method for his disciples. He simply advised you to speak gibberish. All our lives from the moment we were born we have been crammed with words, with language. Our language comes with hundreds of years of history and meaning.

Gibberish allows you to speak in a language that has no meaning to you. With this meditation make sure to do it enthusiastically and put your full energy and feeling into it. You’re doing a brain dump of language. Through this playful technique, you will feel a certain lightness throughout your whole being afterward. In the absence of inner verbalization, meditation happens easily.

The gibberish meditation is a good way of emptying the mind of all the rubbish it has accumulated so that you can experience pure silence and plunge into the depths of your being. It will give you a rejuvenating feeling. The essential aspect of this simple yet powerful technique is the release and expression of blocked, repressed energies.

It’s kind of like when you are caught in a rage and you tear your pillow apart. You allow that anger, that energy to flow out of your body and onto the pillow. Doing so you immediately feel an immense relaxation. You gave an outlet to an energy that was overwhelming you. By speaking gibberish you allow your mind to relieve itself of its constant mental chatter.

You can do this in the privacy of your own home or with others. If you have thin walls your next-door neighbors might really think you are going crazy if you get too loud though. My favorite time I did this meditation was in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Being in such a green and lush environment only deepened my experience. If possible find a quiet place in nature where you can be all alone to practice this meditation.

The Gibberish Meditation

Stage One: Gibberish

Get in a comfortable position. You can sit down in a lotus position, lie down on your back, or in your favorite comfortable chair, whatever works for you. Now close your eyes and just start speaking in gibberish, nonsense sounds. You can pretend you’re an alien from another planet that has just landed on Earth. Don’t worry or feel self-conscious about what you sound like, just go totally crazy. You are totally free to make any sounds you like; just make sure you don’t use any language you may know. Allow yourself to express whatever energy you feel within you. You can sing, mumble, cry, shout, talk, anything is fine. Put your whole energy, awareness, and feeling into it.

Let your body go free too. Feel the energy and just allow it to go wherever it wants. In the beginning, you may have to deliberately make the movement, but once you get going your body can find its own flow.  You can jump, swing your arms, shake your head, anything, just make sure you are in a safe space where you won’t hurt yourself. Keep your energy up and do not let up. You should be moving and talking simultaneously. Don’t have any breaks in making a sound. If you run out of sounds to make you can use “hoo…hoo” until you can change it up. You want to completely exhaust yourself.

If you do happen to live in a place where you can’t be loud then you can mouth the sounds silently but with the same force as if you were shouting out loud.

You can start with 10 minutes and increase it in 5-minute increments until you find your sweet spot. Set an alarm to let you know the first stage is done.

Stage Two: Witnessing

When you hear your alarm go off, immediately freeze, and stop all inner and outer movement.

Sit or lie in silence with eyes closed and witness whatever is going on within you with a passive awareness. Feel the space you have created by throwing out all your repressed energies.  Allow whatever arises, but don’t judge or condemn what you observe.

If you have fully exhausted yourself, it will be much easier to fall into a space where your thoughts will not have much power. It will be much easier to separate the witnessing self from your thoughts so that you can fall into the gap between your thought processes. Enjoy this.

In the gap, you will feel immense peace and freedom. Allow the gap to happen on its own, don’t try to force or cling on to anything. As soon as you feel ready get up and enjoy the rest of your day in a mindful and peaceful way.

Hope you enjoy this meditation, if you try it out please let me know how it goes. Take care and much love.

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