MRI shows meditation changes brain structure in 8 weeks
esciencenews.com
esciencenews.com
It certainly has seemed to me that the important part of meditation is the relaxation that it lets you achieve. I think it's literally impossible for me (at least) to get as relaxed as I am after a typical hour of meditation by any nonmeditative means. (If you interpret "relaxation" as having low blood levels of e.g. cortisol this is actually measurable.) And I know that I have days when I don't sufficiently relax myself when I sit, and I usually don't see the same benefits that I do from "good" sits. 'Course, a lot of this could be confirmation bias.
Also, anecdotally, I maintain substantial concentration for 30+ minutes a day because that's what studying is, and the short- and long-term effects of that concentration don't seem to be anything like the effects of meditation.
Myself included.
Point being is that how we react to our environment has a profound affect on the expression (or suppression) of genes in our DNA, and can be passed on through generations.
Mindful meditation is probably (pure conjecture on my part) causing methylation of genes involved in the production of cortisol (indirect).
This of course is nowhere near proof, but it's my experience:
1. After the intense concentration I nearly feel out of it afterwards, or lower in energy. It feels like I have lost track of where and who in the universe I just was. Depending on the task, I may afterwards feel a certain sense of accomplishment or the opposite, wasteful.
2. After an awareness exercise I get a sense of relief. I feel like I can look upon the world in a less biased way -- see reality for more of what it is. I feel like certain worries and stresses have dissipated, and an overall life-focus has improved -- I can see better than usual what is more important for me and for my life. In addition, my judgments of people and things has dissipated too, become more healthy and realistic.
I completely agree a real study would be great though.
There were three main effects I personally got from meditation:
1. A constant headache that lasted a few years and then promptly ended when I stopped meditating. Of course this could just be correlation, but it's one hell of correlation.
2. From my later experiences I found out that meditating that often and on that level (I could go into lucid REM within a minute of concentrating and then snap myself out of it at will) had a similar effect as constantly being on light doses of hallucinogenic drugs. It was really quite awesome, everything had a deep richness to it, colours were brighter, shapes were more pronounced etc.
3. Daily meditation also produced some quite interesting side-effects like being able to hold my breath for several minutes and reducing my heart rate to 40bpm (measured with an at-home cardiograph).
Another interesting effect of being able to go into REM at will was that I could live for a few years on 4 hours of daily sleep because I was in effect doing polyphasic sleep.
The only prolonged effect from meditation that I can still notice three-ish years after stopping is that I no longer dream like a normal person.
Maybe I should start meditating again, that stuff was kinda fun.
First you need to learn to focus your mind, you take a bright object (a firelighter works great) and you stare into the flame. Then you slowly and carefully shut down your brain and just focus on the bright light. If a tought pops up the most important thing to remember is to let it go and focus away from it, if you get mad or focusing on not focusing on it that's one more tought that popped up.
Then once you get the hang of that you can start doing more interesting things. My favourite was to attempt super-position and out of body experiences. Basically you sit in a comfortable position and focus on a memory of a place, or a made-up place. You slowly build up the image of your surroundings, starting with what's immediately before your eyes and then going from there. Once you're proficient in building a visual representation of fake surroundings you start with sounds, smells and tastes. When you get that down you can start fooling your kinestatic sense, which means you have to feel your arms/legs/body in a different position than it actually is.
Once you've done that, voila, you've just achieved lucid REM at will.
If you talk to a spirituality guru they will tell you it's an astral plane, or out of body experience. But really it's just lucid REM :)
I never managed to quite completely detach myself from reality, I got into the super-position state where I could feel myself being in two places at once ... sort of everywhere.
The main thing you have to remember when doing any of these experiments is that your mind is the only thing in the world fully under your control. It cannot do something you don't let it do.
Most actively I was going after clairvoyance.
And it worked to an extent, I eventually stopped because I couldn't distinguish what my mind was thinking it was doing from any sort of actual physical effect and I never managed to achieve anything that couldn't adequately be explained as lucid REM.
To me your method is more likely to induce WILD not OBE. And I don't think it's the same. Edit: visualization and the fact you seeked clairvoyance could be an explanation for your constant headache, I suppose your sixth chakra was very active?
Might have something to do with unconscious straining of the eyes. Diagnosis based on hearsay - my friend had this problem and it vanished after he switched from a closed-eyed to open-eyed technique.
Recently I started again with a teacher and it is awesome. It makes all the good bits great and minimizes all the unpleasant stuff.
There is a dude called Alan Chapman, who has a great deal of experience with meditation and dream states. In addition to this he reads Wired and is down to earth.
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/091012_2.html
I expect any new activity will change the brain structure and make it more "elastic". To really assess if there are long time benefits of meditation, one needs a way larger sample size and longer time period. I wonder how the changes juggling does to our brain compare to those of meditation or other activities.
1. Find a quiet and comfortable place. Sit in a chair or on the floor with your head, neck and back straight but not stiff.
2. Try to put aside all thoughts of the past and the future and stay in the present.
3. Become aware of your breathing, focusing on the sensation of air moving in and out of your body as you breathe. Feel your belly rise and fall, the air enter your nostrils and leave your mouth. Pay attention to the way each breath changes and is different.
4. Watch every thought come and go, whether it be a worry, fear, anxiety or hope. When thoughts come up in your mind, don't ignore or suppress them but simply note them, remain calm and use your breathing as an anchor.
5. If you find yourself getting carried away in your thoughts, observe where your mind went off to, without judging, and simply return to your breathing. Remember not to be hard on yourself if this happens.
6. As the time comes to a close, sit for a minute or two, becoming aware of where you are. Get up gradually.
I just did it for the first time for 10 minutes. I am surprised by the number of thoughts that flashed through my mind. I think doing this really help clear up the queue of things your subconscious wants to bring up but you have not had the time to get to. My temples and forehead feels really oxygenated. I think the deep breathing is a big part of it.
It's simple. It's easy. You don't need to pay a $1000 to some Guru Master to learn it.
[Psychological Functioning in a Sample of Long-Term Practitioners of Mindfulness Meditation](https://webspace.utexas.edu/neffk/pubs/baermeditators.pdf)
[The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Cognitive Processes and Affect in Patients With Past Depression](http://www.openground.com.au/archive/Effects_of_Mindfulness....)
[Loving-Kindness Meditation Increases Social Connectedness](https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/cgi-bin/drupalm/sys...)
[Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation](http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/~lutz/Lutz_attention_re...)
[Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation](http://ppesports.com/uploads/MBM_Short-Term_Impact_on_Perfor...)
[A Randomized, Wait-List Controlled Clinical Trial: The Effect of a Mindfulness Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program on Mood and Symptoms of Stress in Cancer Outpatients](http://shamrockdesign.com/sitesOffline/sp/pdfs/Med_The_Effec...)
[Effectiveness of a Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders](http://www.gsas.columbia.edu/itc/hs/medical/cp4/client_edit/...)
[Mental Training Affects Distribution of Limited Brain Resources](http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/publications/2007/Slagt...)
[The Surprising Speed of Om](http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/the-surprising-speed-o...)
[Meditation boosts part of brain where ADD, addictions reside](http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/08/meditation-boost...)
[Brief Meditative Exercise Helps Cognition](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100414184220.ht...)
As for haecib's point about improvements in cognitive function, I say it's tough to measure in the global sense we really care about. What's the value of being a more kind and patient person? Can you measure cleverness?
Current tests of cognitive function are things like working memory (somebody must have tested that -- I'll look), phonemic fluency, etc. Did you know that "long working hours may have a negative effect on cognitive performance in middle age."[1]
Is Hacker News going to start covering meditation? Great! in the meantime, here are two more articles that might interest readers of this topic.
This is Your Brain on Meditation, quote: "Science and meditation teachings are exactly parallel" he explained "but they don't speak the same language."[2]
Can Meditation Cure Disease?[3]
[1] http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/169/5/596.full
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/28/this-is-your-brain-...
[3] http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-12-25/ca...
There seems to be some confusion regarding the different kinds of meditation there are, and there are lot. Within the Buddhist context there are two main types: Samatha (concentration) and Vipassana (insight).
Concentration meditation calms and relaxes, and this is usually achieved by instructing the practitioner to focus on something and not to let go for the period set aside to meditate. That which is focused on (the object of meditation) can be the breath where the instruction would be :follow your breath while you meditate, a syllable - om is the classic one, a posture - by sitting in a certain way and just being fully aware or engaging in a yoga asana or even the whole body which is what mindfulness meditation seems to be about. Most people find it hard to stay with something like the breath without interruptions for 3 minutes, let alone 15, 30 or 60 minutes. If this is done long enough it becomes natural to stay with the object for any amount of time and the ability to focus increases.
Insight meditation leads to breakthroughs in the Buddhist framework. In this practice one focuses on something in one’s awareness: a physical sensation, a thought, a mental imagine or visualisation, etc... By doing this one is said to be able to realise it’s 3 Characteristics which are Impermanence, Suffering and No-Self. The breakthrough will eventually lead to Enlightenment which is the Cessation of Suffering. The capitalisation is to denote Buddhist dogma for a great explanation of these concepts and the stages one goes through please refere to: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram MD, available for free here. http://www.interactivebuddha.com/mctb.shtml
Traditionally, in Buddhism anyway, one builds up the ability to stay with an object with clarity for a period of time by doing concentration (samatha) and then moves on to do (vipassana)
I hope this is helpful. Meditation is an interesting topic but at this point in time it is difficult to make sense of all the jargon and perspectives. Perhaps my time reading up on this is helpful to someone in a position similar to mine a few years ago.
reader5000: "I would like to see these sorts of studies controlled with a group"
Swizec: "What I'd really like to know is whether these changes are permanent"
andrewwingram: "I'd like to see if this is backed up by similar studies."
haecib, "what I really want to know is do those changes in the brain's structure manifest in any sort of measurable cognitive improvement."
It's possible no skepticism is intended in the above cases, but let's say it is. Certainly there are some skeptical people. And hesitation is implied, as if, 'Once it's proven that meditation has certain benefits, then maybe I'll try it.' There's nothing wrong with skepticism and hesitation. These traits can be lifesaving, but there's an opportunity cost whenever these traits guide behavior.
The opportunity cost for a 6 or 8 week meditation trial is very low. We know enough to see the potential for a positive result, which may be modest or huge. So you don't see a few movies, so what? It's not like you can't see them later. Just try it.
I'm fine with a modest benefit, whatever it may be, but what energizes my practice is the big stuff: seeing clearly, substantially more skillful action, happiness not based on conditions, equanimity, even the big E. I can't think of any other activity, not even starting Google, with that kind of return.
One thing I found useful was the book "Zen and the Brain" by Dr. James H. Austin, published by MIT Press. Austin is an emeritus professor of neuroscience, and has been practicing Zen since he spent some time in Japan in the late 60s.
The book is a massive, thousand page, dense doorstop, with lots of information. He tries to come up with possible explanations of the phenomena experienced in meditation, and for how meditation can cause long-term changes. The Table of Contents even includes a listing of chapters with "Testable Hypotheses".
The book goes through other phenomena similar to those experienced in meditation, which are caused by known influences such as drugs or localized tissue damage.
If I recall correctly, his main idea for how meditation might cause long-term changes in behavior is excitotoxic action of glutamate, etching away certain neural connection pathways.
I'm encouraged that all this information about mindfulness is appearing just as I'm getting interested in it. Perhaps it's a form of cognitive bias.
"Lie on your back, place your hand on your stomach, focus on your breathing ensuring that you expand your stomach on inhalation and contract it on exhalation. Do not concentrate on any specific thought(s). If your mind starts to wander, acknowledge the thought(s) and then let it go. Do this for 30 - 60 mins a day.".
Discipline is required to do this, something I am terrible at. Either I feel like I am wasting time or I fall asleep. :D
As far as I've learned & experienced, meditation is always practiced sitting upright - it's actually a quite important part about it. Like that: http://www.google.at/images?q=mindfulness+meditation+posture...
however personally i've experienced meditative state most deeply lying flat. YMMV and i haven't read that book.
Much of the book is has him discussing his pain & wellness center, patients & his own life. Which is why I said it's wordy. I have read reviews that suggest his follow-up book has more meat & potatoes on meditation techniques:
http://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-There-Are-ROUGH/dp/140130...
*Yes there are exception to this which my logical mind started going down, such as paralysis, death, drowning, choking... etc...
It can be summed up even shorter than you're describing ... but it's fucking hard to do, unless you have strong motives to do it and belief that this practice will have a good ROI on your mind / body.
"The changes were strongest in connections involving the anterior cingulate, a brain area related to the ability to regulate emotions and behavior. The changes were observed only in those who practiced meditation and not in the control group. The changes in connectivity began after six hours of training and became clear by 11 hours of practice. The researchers said it is possible the changes resulted from a reorganization of white-matter tracts or by an increase of myelin that surrounds the connections."
http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2010/8/chines...
While the meditation protocol was not published (MBSR used in the main post has been well documented), I actually interviewed one of the lead investigators for the book I'm working on now and he shared that the U of O protocol was a hybrid that combined elements of mindfulness and some more basic physical relaxation techniques.
1) A scientist has a outlandish idea, but is able to convince someone to fund him, albeit limitedly.
2) Scientist from the previous step publishes results of his study. If results seem worth following up on, continue to step 3. Otherwise, go back to step 1.
3) Another scientist looks at the previous scientist's results and attempts to get funding for an even more ambitious study, building upon previous scientist's work. This scientist may be trying to refute or support the previous scientist's findings.
4) This new scientist publishes. If his results support the results of the previous scientist, go back to step 3. If the results refute the results of the previous scientist, go back to step 1.
This process applies to any studies that are sufficiently "costly", thus mitigating risk. This is relevant, of course, because similar studies often elicit comments about why the study is insufficient. And, for a certain class of them, they always will be.
There seems to be some confusion regarding the different kinds of meditation there are, and there are lot. Within the Buddhist context there are two main types: Samatha (concentration) and Vipassana (insight).
Concentration meditation calms and relaxes, and this is usually achieved by instructing the practitioner to focus on something and not to let go for the period set aside to meditate. That which is focused on (the object of meditation) can be the breath where the instruction would be :follow your breath while you meditate, a syllable - om is the classic one, a posture - by sitting in a certain way and just being fully aware or engaging in a yoga asana or even the whole body which is what mindfulness meditation seems to be about. Most people find it hard to stay with something like the breath without interruptions for 3 minutes, let alone 15, 30 or 60 minutes. If this is done long enough it becomes natural to stay with the object for any amount of time and the ability to focus increases.
Insight meditation leads to breakthroughs in the Buddhist framework. In this practice one focuses on something in one’s awareness: a physical sensation, a thought, a mental imagine or visualisation, etc... By doing this one is said to be able to realise it’s 3 Characteristics which are Impermanence, Suffering and No-Self. The breakthrough will eventually lead to Enlightenment which is the Cessation of Suffering. The capitalisation is to denote Buddhist dogma for a great explanation of these concepts and the stages one goes through please refere to: Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram MD, available for free here. http://www.interactivebuddha.com/mctb.shtml
Traditionally, in Buddhism anyway, one builds up the ability to stay with an object with clarity for a period of time by doing concentration (samatha) and then moves on to do (vipassana)
I hope this is helpful. Meditation is an interesting topic but at this point in time it is difficult to make sense of all the jargon and perspectives. Perhaps my time reading up on this is helpful to someone in a position similar to mine a few years ago.
Those who meditate also tend to have a much shortened "Attentional Blink". This is quite interesting as it shows a brain reorganisation which allows for greater information intake and filtering. You can find youtube and wikipedia entries for "Attentional Blink".
And the researchers website: http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/~lazar/
That is my hypothesis. Now falsify me, please :-)