I got a chance to look over the synopsis of Ekman's research on
diminishing of negative emotions which Grate had wondered about.
These occurred after the aforementioned meeting with HHDL that proved
so transformative for him.
Inspired by his meeting with the Dalai Lama, Ekman decided to perform
some tests on a western Buddhist meditator, who was an expert in
various meditational styles. One of the first tests he did was the
type of work Ekman was famous for: looking at how well people can
distinguish minute facial expressions, micro-expressions, which
reveal the underlying mind of "the other" and how well one can
resonate with that other being. Of the 5000+ people who had
previously been tested there were certain people who were better at
it than average: psychiatrists, judges, lawyers, custom officials,
etc.--people who by their profession have to routinely ascertain the
minds of others. Secret service agents had previously been shown to
be the most adept. In order to test one's ability to resonate with
other's micro-expressions, what Ekman does is flash a picture of a
certain subset of a specific emotion, in one version for 1/5th of a
second, in the other for 1/30th of second, to see if a person can
accurately ascertain the emotion being conveyed in the subset being
shown. The latter is so fast, you'd effectively miss the image if you
blinked. One must then select from 7 emotions he or she has just
seen. The ability to ascertain fleeting expressions signals an
unusual capacity distinguish accurate empathy for others. Ekman's
results were astounding: the expert meditators were two standard
deviations above the norm, far beyond what had ever been previously
demonstrated. This same finding was also replicated in another
western Buddhist meditator.
It gets even more interesting.
They also tested these adepts in social relations. In this
investigation the meditators would have two confrontational
discussions during which the investigators would measure the degree
of their disagreement via monitored of their physiology and recording
of their faces for micro-expressions. The topics were chosen to
guarantee disagreement. The result was the meditators physiology was
the same regardless of whether he talked to someone he agreed with or
someone he disagreed with them. Even more startling was the
confrontational person he was arguing with. The arguer started out
showing high emotional arousal, but as he continued arguing with the
meditator he became less and less aroused, as the presence of someone
with no aggression had a quieting effect on the arguer! In fact the
confrontational arguer, a professor with a known confrontational
style and chosen for holding the opposite views of the meditator,
spontaneously shared that as the argument ensued, he simply could not
be confrontational! The presence of meditator had a naturally
pacifying effect on the rationalist, oppositional arguer.
So these are some of the initial studies done which reflect on
pacification when a meditator has a practice which can effectively
pacify his or her negative emotions--and how that state resonates
spontaneously with others. Sorry for delay, I'm reading so much new
material, it took me a while to find and review this older material,
which from 9 or 10 years ago. Enjoy.
