If you’re in the realm of disposable income that allows you to spend in excess of three hundred dollars on a little piece of technology to assist in your meditation practice, you’d want to hear the birds that sing when you hit the bliss brain wave.

The ‘Muse‘ headset application plays the lovely sound of gentle, chirping birds, when your brain remains in a state of calm for long periods of time. It’s quite nice to use, really, and one feels a sense of real achievement when there are multiple birds listed on the review and tracking screen.

But this isn’t a sales pitch. The question potentially more fitting for those serious meditators – is this the sort of device that would be used by a Tibetan Monk? Trust our generation of humans to take an age old practice and modernise it by convincing people they should wear a special little headband to meditate, and then check over a fun little series of graphs and charts to see what progress was made. Our consumerism-driven society is alive and well in 2021, that’s for sure.

I’m informed that evidently, the name of this little game is ‘bio feedback’. For correcting and practicing the art of meditation, receive real-time feedback about how your brain is dancing whilst you sit still and breathe. Well, why not, I suppose. If you do have the sort of aforementioned cash to throw around on this little treasure, you’ve probably also got a lot of noise in your brain that a bit of assistance and good natured nudging could help to dislodge. Good natured, because you can choose either the beach or the rainforest to listen to during your practice. The thing monitors when your brain goes haywire: (did I lock the front door? Is that the baby crying? Is there enough bread for breakfast?) and plays increasingly stormy weather in order to jolt you back into the ether. Once you’re calm for an extended period, the birds start – and then theres no going back.

A luxurious purchase, for sure. Excessive, some might even say. But worth it? That’s for you to decide. Meanwhile, I’m going to borrow my husband’s to see what all the fuss is about.