On May 28, 2009, at 11:19 AM, sparaig wrote:
--- In [email protected], Vaj <vajradh...@...> wrote:
[...]
I'm glad you brought up shamatha too Willy since TM is a form of
shamatha. There's a big upsurge in interest in that form of
meditation as well, esp. since the guys and gals in the Shamatha
Project were regularly transcending for hours at a time, and emerging
refreshed.
The physiological correlates for "pure consciousness" during TM
practice
are reasonably well-documented.
Unfortunately Lawson, not many non-TM folks who are familiar which
the merging field of contemplative science takes seriously the "pure
consciousness" label. That's all it really is, an arbitrarily
assigned label.
Since the research you have been citing for the Buddhist meditators
eschews alpha coherence and TM-style breath suspension (the afore-
mentioned correlates) as unworthy of consideration, I have to conclude
that there are other physiological correlates being found for
transcending
that you and the researchers consider more important markers.
Neuroplastic changes to the brain, activation of areas of the brain
associated with empathy and positive emotions. Slowing of aging at
the cellular level is another important one--a claim long made by
yogis, but only fairly recently actually shown to be taking place at
the cellular level. Another very important area of research is in
regards to the mid-prefrontal cortex which tends to shut down it's
relational/resonance circuits in response to anything different (e.g.
different people, people suffering terribly) whereas in experienced
meditators, these areas actually 'light up' (link). Another
interesting observation is muting of the startle reflex in advanced
meditators, which of course, is one of the traditional observations
for samadhi. Open-presence style meditation enables a non-reactive
awareness of the stream of on-going experience and so therefore tends
reduce "elaborative" thinking when conscious awareness selects a
particular object. In advanced forms of calming/transcending
meditation, one observation is that specific neural systems
associated with conflict monitoring (e.g. the dorsal anterior
cingulate cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), selective
attention (e.g. the temporal-parietal junction, ventro-lateral
prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields and intraparietal sulcus) and
sustaining attention (e.g. right frontal and parietal areas and the
thalamus) are involved in inducing and maintaining the state of
advanced transcending meditation. The neurophysiological changes
would be significant improvements in the ability for sustained
attention and selective attention. There is also EEG evidence for
partial ‘deautomatization’ of the mental processes that shape and
interpret perceptual stimuli. As these changes are engrained, one
develops a true "effortless attention" where the props of meditation
and monitoring (e.g. waiting for the mantra, returning to the mantra)
are no longer needed. Simultaneous with the arising of this level of
true effortless meditation, the need for sleep begins to be reduced.
Another interesting one is increased immune function. Meditators show
twice the amount of increased antibodies after being given a flu
vaccine. So those are a few of the observations that come immediately
to mind.
Do you know what those markers are? I can't find any published
research
on the physiological correlates of transcending for hours at a time.
The Shamatha Project has only made some preliminary results public,
but a number of the aforementioned observations do come from advanced
contemplatives. The other results will come out over the next few
years. It's also important to distinguish between the type of
meditation being used: Focused Attention (e.g. TM, shamatha) or Open
Presence style of meditation, as these are two major branches of
meditation practice that have quite different correlates.
