Review(s) for CD: Swimming with Dolphins

This is a well-recorded CD with lovely, gentle panpipe music accompanying the sounds of the sea and occasional dolphin calls. I feel this CD is perhaps best-suited to the novice meditator; there is a long introduction to grounding and preparing yourself prior to the meditation, which the more experienced meditator might find too long and un-necessary, perhaps even frustrating. The CD guides the listener to a beach location and gently into the sea. Again, it is some time before the dolphin element of the CD is introduced and more experienced meditators might find themselves journeying off on their own meditation at this point, and not hearing the words of the CD. Whilst this of itself is not necessarily a criticism, the ending of the CD may cause a problem if this occurs, as it did to me on one occasion. The reason I say this, is that if the actual meditation is followed in full, the listener is brought back to shore and into their own consciousness once more, again through quite a slow process, however, the same sea/pan pipe music is then re-started for a few minutes but ends abruptly, and if the listener has floated away from the narrator's voice and into their own meditation, the sudden jolt as the music ends can bring the listener out of their meditation in a potentially harmful way. The narrator has a pleasant and soothing voice, however, I found it very monotone, which I feel does not aid a novice in preparing to re-enter their waking consciousness at the end of the meditation, with no clear definition from the voice guiding the meditation, versus the voice when giving instructions on ending the experience. For the novice meditator who is finding it difficult to let go of daily thoughts entering their mind, the monotone style of Val Delph's voice may not aid this process. I have listened to the CD a number of times; it is enjoyable and I have found I have heard different sections on different occasions; for example, there is an invitation to swim with the dolphins which I only recall hearing and responding to on one occasion, and there is mention of the baby dolphins returning to their family towards the end of the CD, which I do not recall having heard previously during the meditation - obviously I had swam off somewhere else! Whilst I like the CD, which is very soothing, I feel it is too long at just over 35 minutes. Over 5 minutes are taken up with the initial grounding/preparation, and further time is spent at the shore/getting into the sea before any dolphins are introduced. As an experienced meditator I did not need this much preparation time as I find it easy to visualise what I want to experience. Whilst I will continue to work with this CD and explore it further, I don't feel the narrator's voice gives the impression of joy and spontaneity which the CD suggests the meditation guides the listener to experience. I feel the CD would be better if this could be addressed by Val Delph. This was disappointing, as the CD's description is very positive and encourages the listener to believe they will expereince something more magical than I feel the CD provides.

In summary, a soothing CD with lovely music, perhaps most-suited to the novice meditator.