--- In [email protected], "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" <anartaxius@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "sparaig" <LEnglish5@> wrote: > > > > Funny, Travis still thinks it is one of hte most important markers of > > Transcendental Consciousness, so Does Arenander. However, they agree that > > it isn't always present during TC. What DOES happen is some marked change > > in breathing. Sometimes it is an apparent suspension, and sometimes only a > > sharp reduction, but it is very consistent according to what they say in > > all their reseach. > > > > The thing to keep in mind is that you do NOT notice breath suspension ala > > TC. If you notice breath suspension, that is NOT TC, by definition. > > > > L. > > Obviously. You would only know something happened when coming out of that > experience, and not be able to remember when the breath stopped or not, > though there was that experience of having to take a breath suddenly. I only > recall that from the first few years of meditating. > > I wonder what a large group of meditators who had been meditating for, say, > 50 years would show? In browsing some non-TM websites, a number mention that > advanced yogis experience shallow or suspended breath during meditation. >
Well, one of the TM studies was on a woman who had been meditating since the age of 10, that is, for 50 years, who was showing breath suspension for up to 60 seconds at a time, for a total of 50+% of her meditation period. However, TM theory predicts that episodes of pure consciousness are not a good indicator of enlightenment because a single episode of PC might cause changes in the nervous system that take months or years to fully resolve, and during that period, meditations might be less restful. Also, the most striking examples of the EEG pattern associated with pure consciousness are shown in figure 2 of this paper, but they aren't generally associated with breath suspension. My own take is that they don't last long enough. The EEG associated with breath suspensions lasted for many seconds, while the hyper-coherence shown in figure 2 only lasts for a cycle or so, which means only 1/10th of a second: http://brainresearchinstitute.org/research/totalbrain/TM&synch_SignalProc05_Hebert.pdf > A book called Zen and the Brain mentions suspension of breath, citing TM > research where suspension of breath lasted an average of 18 seconds > The range was actually 15 to 60 seconds, for the study that he cited. He misread/misquoted (I have the study). L.
