Meditation has been suggested by the homeopathy crowd as a modality for pain relief. I always thought that meditation was a synonym for deep cognition on a specific subject, such as the meaning of life. However, the Internet advises that one must drain the mind of all thought when meditating. Well I’ve been doing that whenever insomnia strikes. Instead of drowsiness, the mind is still functioning at the normal awake levels of app. 14-40 Hz. Removing all thought isn’t easy but it does work. The mind drifts downward to halfway between conscious and sub-conscious, the so-called alpha stage (app. 7-14 Hz) and then the 1st two sleep stages of NREM sleep, theta stage (app, 4-7 Hz) and then deep NREM sleep, delta (app 1-4 Hz) before entering REM sleep. Wrong say those who practice the discipline. You stay awake while meditating. I assume that they mean that the mind should remain in that wool gathering 7-14 Hz stage referenced above. (Despite what many say about staying awake. some experienced practitioners do drop into that 4-7 Hz stage which is defined as sleep.) My questions are: how does one drift into that conscious and subconscious state and stay there? And while this stage may lower respiration rate, heart rate, and BP, how does it ease pain?