[Scientific American article by Matthieu Ricard, Antoine Lutz, and Richard J. Davidson, Nov. 2014, p. 43]
"In our Wisconsin lab, we have studied experienced practioners while they performed an advanced form of mindfulness meditation called open presence. In open presence, sometimes called "pure awareness", the mind is calm and relaxed, not focused on anything in particular yet vividly clear, free from excitation or dullness. The meditator observes and is open to experience without making any attempt to interpret, change, reject or ignore painful sensation" ...[the experimenters somehow induced some pain to experienced meditators, then compared the results to novices.] ."We found that the intensity o0f the pain was not reduced in meditators, but it bothered them less than it did members of a control group". . "Compared with novices, expert meditators' brain activity diminished in anxiety related regions - the insular cortex and the amygdala - in the period preceding the painful stimulus." . "Other tests in our lab have shown that meditation training increases one's ability to better control and buffer basic physiological responses - inflammation or levels of a stress hormone - to a socially stressful task such as giving a public speech or doing mental arithmetic in front of a harsh jury." . ".
