Meditation and the Brain 2/12: Neurological Differences in Advanced Meditators

http://ProfoundMeditationProgram.com - Take the free test drive . . .

http://www.profoundmeditationprogram.com/learn-how-to-meditate - Receive a free, powerful meditation audio and PDF course on Meditation and the Brain.

Visit and "Like" our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/ProfoundMeditationProgram

Category:

Education

Tags:

• neuroscience
• contemplative neuroscience
• meditation
• compassion
• sara lazar
• nervous system
• brain
• brain science
• mindfulness
• buddhist meditation
• buddhism
• mike merzenich
• mental causation
• meditation and the brain
• mind
• empathy
• awareness
• consciousness
• consciousness studies
• parietal lobe
• awakening
• thalamus
• steven sadleir
• andrew newberg
• how god changes your brain
• toad the wet sprocket

[Metatronicus]

i like this very much, although sceptocal mind inquires if this is not selfindulgence?

[integraleric]

@Metatronicus The development of consciousness through meditation is no more self-indulgence than eating or going to college, both of which presuppose the need to first care for one's basic needs before being able to serve society's needs. And while only a small percentage of humanity consistently develops its intellectual knowledge base for the betterment of self and society, fewer still engage and evolve the very foundation and context for such intellectual development: conscious awareness.

[integraleric]

@integraleric As such, the need for meditation and the development of consciousness is not only NOT self-indulgent, but more necessary now than ever. The deeper you connect with your own consciousness through meditation, the more awareness, compassion and service you can offer others. As Socrates stated, "the unexamined life is not worth living." And meditation, really, is the capacity to examine the conditioned (and often fallacious) contents of the mind without being a slave to those contents.

[integraleric]

Without such examination, we are destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. So again, is meditation/self-examination self-indulgent? No. In its deepest expression, meditation is the antidote to self-indulgence.

[integraleric]

@DerMacDuff Not at all, because the actual design of these studies is to see exactly how such spiritual perceptions affect the brain. There have been similar studies examining the effect of atheistic perceptions on the brain. Though I may not agree with such atheistic perceptions, I can still respect such perceptions and how they affect the brain. You may not agree with these meditator's perceptions, but that does not discount the effect that such perceptions have on their brains.

[integraleric]

@DerMacDuff The reason for mentioning it is to highlight how unique perceptions have equally unique effects on the brain; and these effects are dependent on the subjective perceptions themselves. As such, it is necessary to describe this phenomenological emergence from the subjective experience of the long-term meditator. This is vitally important, because, regardless of whether or not you agree with such subjective exeprience, it helps reveal how subjectivity impacts the human nervous system.

[DerMacDuff]

wouldnt it be better to meantion all of the effects on the brain without any spirituality?? greets

[integraleric]

Please do your homework before making such off color statements.

[integraleric]

If you watch the video again, you'll find that scientists are saying that the inner INTERPRETATION of such a mystical view within the minds of long-term meditators is what is changing the brain, not the perceived mystical reality itself. And to say that this inner interpretation is influencing brain development is completely in line with cognitive neuroscience. Just because you disagree with the perception that happens inside the minds of meditators, doesn't make this pseudoscience.

[PhysiologicAli]

@DerMacDuff  Pseudoscience!?? Dude you must have been living under a rock or something.