Loren Dickson, Entertainment Reporter February 27, 2017 Filed under News, Online

Dating back thousands of years, meditation is one of the most common forms of relaxation.

To inspire students to try it out for themselves, Easterns own Meditation Club will be hosting a concert on campus featuring Ahl-e Qulub, a musical Persian group.

Several members of the Meditation Club are a part of the group, which has been around for about a year.

Ahl-e Qulub, which means people of the heart, will be performing 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the University Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

The concert was moved from its original location in the 7th Street Underground.

This will be Ahl-e Qulubs first time performing on Easterns campus.

Ahl-e Qulub member Alex Hill said the group only uses percussion and vocals during its performance.

We dont use other instruments because the focus is more on the audience to make it an internal listening experience, Hill said.

The percussion instruments that will be played are congas, djembes and dafs.

A conga is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum that has origins from Africa and Cuba. A djembe is a rope-tuned, skin-covered drum that is played with bare hands, originally from Africa, and a daf is a large Persian frame drum that is usually made of hardwood with metal rings attached.

Hill said for some who are not familiar with meditation, the music can help enrich the experience and get them in the right mindset.

Ahl-e Qulub member Ali Fisher said although there are many different forms of meditation, the group never deviates from the form they use.

This particular meditation method we use has been around for about 1,400 years, and we teach it the same way every time, she said. We encourage, if you do want to try meditating, just try to choose one method and go deeper in that. Cultivate that one meditation method.

Meditation is really simple, Hill said.

There are a few preliminary steps to get you in the right mindset, he said. Like most meditations that you will find, you focus on your breathing and your words. Sometimes its known as positive affirmation.

Hill said the words people choose to focus on are completely applicable to anyone and anyone can use meditation to better themselves and find what is purposeful in their life.

Its really interesting because we are telling everyone in the audience to say the same thing, truth you are, but for each individual person that can mean something totally different, Fisher said. Its universal.

Fisher said the goal of the Meditation Club is to give students a tool to help themselves and enrich their lives.

When you close your eyes, you are imagining something that brings peace to your heart, Hill said.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Loren Dickson can be reached at 581-2812 or ladickson@eiu.edu.

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Persian meditation music group, to perform - The Daily Eastern News