Stephen Zerfas - How to Access Deep Bliss and Wellbeing with Jhana Meditation

Stephen Zerfas is the CEO and Co-founder of Jhourney — a tech startup scaling transformative meditation through a data-driven lens, guiding complete beginners into deeply absorbed meditation states known as the Jhanas, in less than a week.  

Stephen discovered the first three jhanas through his own practice and, upon learning of their profound history, made it his mission to bring them to as many people as possible. He has since trained with leading jhana teachers, including Leigh Brasington and Delson Armstrong.

Thus far, Jhourney has served over 1,300 alumni with a 60-70% success rate in helping participants access the jhanas on weeklong retreats.

Before founding Jhourney, Stephen worked as a software engineer at Lyft and a management consultant at Bridgespan, a Bain affiliate. A University of Notre Dame graduate, he lives in the Bay Area with his wife and daughter. 

The following conversation was recorded live during Limicon - a digital conference for people in the liminal, game b, and metamodern adjacent spaces. 

In it, we speak about what the Jhanas are, how Stephen discovered them through self-experimentation, and why he decided to found a tech-company that teaches them. Later, Stephen guides us through a towards Jhana meditation, and we close with a group discussion on whether morality is — or must be — part of such a meditation practice.

🔗[Links & Resources]🔗

• Jhourney's website
• Subscribe to Stephen on Substack
• 90 second video capturing the intensity of the jhanas from people recorded on retreat
• A Jhourney retreat reflection
• Meditation safety podcast
• How to cry on cue
• The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa

🕰️[Time Stamps]🕰️

0:00 - Introduction 
2:49 - The contemplative corner of the liminal web 
6:12 - How Stephen discovered the Jhanas on his own 
12:22 - The guesswork problem of meditation and starting Jhourney 
17:23 - What are the Jhanas?
20:26 - Are these universally discovered states?
22:44 - What do the Jhanas feel like?
24:15 - Super well-being and taking the technology of meditation seriously 
27:07 - Main barriers to accessing the Jhanas
34:50 - Orienting to the meditation: Reflect like a scientist, play like a child 
38:10 - Towards Jhana guided meditation 
1:18:19 - What role does morality play in meditation?
1:28:09 - The biggest concerns of Jhana meditation practice 

*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast 

*Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional