Comments on meditation

What goes on in the brain when we meditate?

Many people have asked this question and to date research in this area is surprisingly limited

We do know though that it has a positive affect in reducing blood pressure

We do know that meditation can reduce depression

These we can all agree are good things

Then others ask are we biologically programmed to need religious and mystical experiences?

With all due respect to whoever asked those questions how are you going to prove this?

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Besides meditation is not a religious or mystical experience

And if we cannot measure or understand consciousness then anything that is beyond or out of mind is certainly beyond our measurement

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Meditation is often beyond or out of mind

Recent research on meditation shows that it affects your brain the way exercise affects your body, making it stronger, healthier, and more efficient.

Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has found that experienced meditators produce more gamma brain waves.

Gamma waves are associated with intense, clear thinking and heightened cooperation between various parts of the brain

And high gamma-wave levels weren't limited to the time spent meditating, indicating that the subjects' brains had become conditioned to work better around the clock.

What's more, there's reason to believe that meditation prevents or even reverses the effects of aging on the brain.

Sara Lazar, Ph.D., a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, put 20 subjects who had meditated for an average of 40 minutes a day for 9 years through an MRI. She found that their prefrontal cortexes — the part of the brain responsible for attention and sensory perception — weren't showing typical age-related thinning. "Just as the area of the brain associated with motor skills is thicker in athletes, the area of the brain associated with attention and sensory perception is thicker in meditators," she says.

These are more good things we think you would agree

Other research that shows practices such as meditation, tai chi and certain yoga are not only helpful in reducing stress; they may actually be crucial for good health and optimal brain functioning

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"Yes but" many scientists would argue

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And here we go again many scientists, by definition left brain types for the most part, feel very uncomfortable with anything they cannot understand

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Something they cannot prove

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Meditation is not a left brain practice hence many scientists cannot themselves meditate

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So there is a lot of resistance to something they cannot do, cannot understand and have yet to measure in any meaningful way

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Forget that meditation has been around for many thousands of years

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Forget that it's benefits have been extolled for millenia

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Forget the testimony of millions in Asia and the rest of the world who have attested to it's benefits

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No

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Don't play that game leave doubtors to their scepticism

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Just use your own common sense and try it

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Yes it is hard, do not believe those who tell you otherwise

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Yes it requires serious self discipline and perseverance

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No you are not likely to get instant results

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Challenge to you

In these troubled times tell us something else that offers such clear and clean benefits?

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Over to you