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Washington Post: Elin Danien quietly listens to a meditation tape, eyes closed, as the radioactive tracer is injected into her IV, freezing a picture of the blood flow in her brain. As a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Danien is sharp enough to organize an upcoming exhibit on the Mayans but finds herself increasingly forgetful. Now she is part of a study to determine whether meditation can improve brain functioning — to measure … Click to read more »

A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

Vipassana meditation
Neural correlates of Zen meditation
The Finer Points of Map Based Practice
Science of Happiness
Words for Milo
Sitting Together in Silence
way past right/wrong

A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

Knitting as meditation
Writing as meditation
Meditation and the Crashing of Computers
sustaining happiness: the science of buddhist meditation
Is it meditation if you’re multitasking?

New Scientist: Though neuroscience will never peer inside of Luke Skywalker or Yoda’s head to find the brain region responsible for feeling the Force, a new study comes close.
Trained Zen Buddhists return to a state of inner calm faster than people who don’t practice meditation, according to neuroscientist Giuseppe Pagnoni and his colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta. Read more here.

Live Science: The seemingly nonsensical Zen practice of “thinking about not thinking” could help free the mind of distractions, new brain scans reveal. This suggests Zen meditation could help treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (so-called ADD or ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, major depression and other disorders marked by distracting thoughts. Read more here.

The New Straits Times: Meditation is a process by which one attempts to get beyond the conditioned, “thinking” mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness.
It often involves turning attention to a single point of reference. Meditation is recognised as a component of traditional medicine especially Ayurveda. We know Albert Einstein was keen on spirituality. But did he practise meditation? Could this give us an insight to his genius? Read more here.

The Times Picayune: The ancient discipline of meditation is making a big comeback among brain scientists. Advances in brain imaging and monitoring have made it possible to see inside the brain and explore the biological forces creating and driving conscious thoughts.

“Now we are in a position to ask questions about people’s experience and measure brain activity in close to real time,” says Clifford Saron, a scientist at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California at Davis. … Click to read more »

A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

Benefits of meditation researched by scientists

“Maybe I will try dad’s hippie meditation bullshit”

Doctors Find Meditation Affects Your Body

Introduction to Meditation from Audio Dharma

Meditation For Kids In An ADD World

Washington Post: Researchers say they’ve taken a significant stride forward in understanding how relaxation techniques such as meditation, prayer and yoga improve health: by changing patterns of gene activity that affect how the body responds to stress. The changes were seen both in long-term practitioners and in newer recruits, the scientists said. Read more here.

A not-entirely-random selection of blog posts on meditation.

Meditation and neuroplasticity

The Contemplative Heart

Further Meditations on Meditation

Does God Approve of Meditative Prayer?

Get back on track

The Oregonian: To unravel the workings of the brain, neuroscientist Michael Posner and colleagues at the University of Oregon have turned to an ancient discipline: meditation. A recent experiment tested college students’ ability to focus their attention and filter out distractions. Half the students received training in mindfulness meditation while the other half received relaxation training.
After five days, meditators outpaced nonmeditators on the attention test, and they became significantly better at handling stress. Read more here.

We all know that mindfulness and meditation are increasingly taught as ways of coping with stressful situations. But what about other forms of Buddhist practice? A research study led by Dr. Russ Phillips, a Buddhist and professor of psychology at Missouri Western State University, identified 14 Buddhist coping strategies by asking Buddhist practitioners what coping mechanisms they used and by examining the outcomes.

The use of religion to cope with stress — known … Click to read more »

Jill Bolte Taylor was suddenly struck by an awareness of a deep connectedness with the world, a profound spiritual realization that her body blended with the world around her, that she was a being composed of energy, connected to other beings composed of energy. “The energy of my spirit seemed to flow like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria,” she later wrote.

And this all happened because of a … Click to read more »

New York Times: Mindfulness meditation, as it is called, is rooted in the teachings of a fifth-century B.C. Indian prince, Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha. It is catching the attention of talk therapists of all stripes, including academic researchers, Freudian analysts in private practice and skeptics who see all the hallmarks of another fad. For years, psychotherapists have worked to relieve suffering by reframing the content of patients’ thoughts, directly altering behavior or helping people gain insight into … Click to read more »

Given that it’s the mind that makes up the stories with which we try to make sense of the world, perhaps it’s not surprising that the mind tells us the story that it is the most important part of ourselves.

We think of ourselves as distinguished from other animals by our thinking. When we think about what makes us uniquely us (as opposed to another individual human being) we often point to our memories … Click to read more »

BBC: Scientists are beginning to uncover evidence that meditation has a tangible effect on the brain. Although sceptics argue that it is not a practical way to try to deal with the stresses of modern life, the long years when adherents were unable to point to hard science to support their belief in the technique may finally be coming to an end. Read more here.

Scientific American: People who practice meditation can enhance their ability to concentrate—or even lower their blood pressure. They can also cultivate compassion, according to a new study. Specifically, concentrating on the loving kindness one feels toward one’s family (and expanding that to include strangers) physically affects brain regions that play a role in empathy. Read more here.

The Daily Mail: As a scientist, I have always been cautious about alternative therapies. But having spent the past few months examining the scientific facts about hypnotherapy, reflexology and meditation — three of the fastest growing therapies in the UK — I’m beginning to understand their appeal. Take meditation, for instance. Not so long ago, I would have said sitting around cross-legged for hours, reflecting on goodness knows what, would be a pretty futile exercise. Yet it’s said meditation can … Click to read more »

Science Daily: Transcendental Meditation is an effective treatment for controlling high blood pressure with the added benefit of bypassing possible side effects and hazards of anti-hypertension drugs, according to a new meta-analysis conducted at the University of Kentucky. The meta-analysis evaluated nine randomized, controlled trials using Transcendental Meditation as a primary intervention for hypertensive patients. The practice of Transcendental Meditation was found to reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure by several points. Read more here.

Meditation can help heart health, a study from the Medical College of Georgia shows. Read more here.