Posted on 11/15/2005 2:20:30 PM PST by S0122017
Meditation builds up the brain
* 11:01 15 November 2005 * NewScientist.com news service * Alison Motluk
Meditating does more than just feel good and calm you down, it makes you perform better – and alters the structure of your brain, researchers have found.
People who meditate say the practice restores their energy, and some claim they need less sleep as a result. Many studies have reported that the brain works differently during meditation – brainwave patterns change and neuronal firing patterns synchronise. But whether meditation actually brings any of the restorative benefits of sleep has remained largely unexplored.
So Bruce O’Hara and colleagues at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, US, decided to investigate. They used a well-established “psychomotor vigilance task”, which has long been used to quantify the effects of sleepiness on mental acuity. The test involves staring at an LCD screen and pressing a button as soon as an image pops up. Typically, people take 200 to 300 milliseconds to respond, but sleep-deprived people take much longer, and sometimes miss the stimulus altogether.
Ten volunteers were tested before and after 40 minutes of either sleep, meditation, reading or light conversation, with all subjects trying all conditions. The 40-minute nap was known to improve performance (after an hour or so to recover from grogginess). But what astonished the researchers was that meditation was the only intervention that immediately led to superior performance, despite none of the volunteers being experienced at meditation.
“Every single subject showed improvement,” says O’Hara. The improvement was even more dramatic after a night without sleep. But, he admits: “Why it improves performance, we do not know.” The team is now studying experienced meditators, who spend several hours each day in practice. Brain builder
What effect meditating has on the structure of the brain has also been a matter of some debate. Now Sara Lazar at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, US, and colleagues have used MRI to compare 15 meditators, with experience ranging from 1 to 30 years, and 15 non-meditators.
They found that meditating actually increases the thickness of the cortex in areas involved in attention and sensory processing, such as the prefrontal cortex and the right anterior insula.
“You are exercising it while you meditate, and it gets bigger,” she says. The finding is in line with studies showing that accomplished musicians, athletes and linguists all have thickening in relevant areas of the cortex. It is further evidence, says Lazar, that yogis “aren’t just sitting there doing nothing".
The growth of the cortex is not due to the growth of new neurons, she points out, but results from wider blood vessels, more supporting structures such as glia and astrocytes, and increased branching and connections.
The new studies were presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, in Washington DC, US. Related Articles
* If meditation is good, God makes it better * http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725154.300 * 02 September 2005 * Does inner peace lead to longer life? * http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624984.600 * 07 May 2005 * The colour of happiness * http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg17823965.200 * 24 May 2003
Weblinks
* Society for Neuroscience annual meeting * http://apu.sfn.org/am2005/index.cfm?pagename=home * Bruce O'Hara, University of Kentucky * http://ukcc.uky.edu/cgi-bin/phq?def=ukt&field=deptcode&value=102&field=name&value=O'Hara,+Bruce * Massachusetts General Hospital * http://www.researchmatters.harvard.edu/program.php?program_id=127
Not to persuade you, but most genuine Christian mystics also are extremely careful about what they advocate. The real thing is initiated by God, not by the mystic, who plays a basically passive role.
Most genuine mystics warn that voices and visions should be ignored unless they accord with the known teachings of the Church, and one of the signs of an orthodox mystic is obedience to superiors.
The commonest source of mystical imagery, providing language to talk about the inexpressible, is the Song of Songs, in which the soul is the bride and Christ is the Bridegroom, who plays the active role and goes out to find His bride. This is the basis for much of the imagery that John of the Cross uses in his poetry. It is not unrelated to the Protestant conviction that we can do nothing without God's grace.
By bogus I mean does not lead one closer to God. Therefore, not spiritually enlightening. Having read a little here and there about Christian monks and nuns, some would practice meditation on Jesus Christ, with prayer either verbal or silent.
Who the hell wants that?
How did you make the intellectual leap from meditation to religion?
I think this is a little vague. If the people had not meditated before, did someone tell them what to do and/or what specific thing/person/entity to meditate on, etc. Did they make them chant too? I want details.
Well, because it is a religious practice. You might as well ask me how I made the leap from prayer to religion.
I don't think it's accurate to describe meditation as 'emptying your mind of all thoughts'.
At least not in my experience.
I could characterize it as a 'stillness'.
During meditation thoughts, feelings, sensations and insights can occur.
The trick, as it were, is to observe their fleeting presence yet remain grounded in the present, not to cling to them.
For me the premier goal of all my efforts is to know my Father and be pleasing in His sight.
Meditation, to me, can aid in that effort.
For one thing, being quiet reveals to me the tricks and illusions of my ego.
For another, it opens my mind and heart for my Father to enter.
While I find some encouragement for my course in scripture...
For example Luke 17:20-21, Matthew 6:33and Ps.46:10,
the real proof of the pudding is the intimacy of my relation to my Father.
It seems odd that you would indentify the 'cloud of unknowing' with Hinduism since it is a term of Christian literature.
I'm curious about 'Meditating on the law of God'.
I assume that it is a contemplation. A fertile spiritual technique.
But perhaps I misunderstand your meaning. Can you describe, meditating on the law of God?
And additional meditation may help ensure that you use the original title instead of the grammatically incorrect one you made up.
Contemplatives describe meditating on the law of God as taking a short bit of scripture and saying it over and over...allowing a word to rise above the others until you are not thinking of anything at all. You are to empty your mind of everything, and enter into silence. The scripture is just a mantra to get you to "the cloud of unknowing." Better to study the Scripture so you can better understand it. Memorize it. But don't just use it as a mantra so you can have some sort of extra-biblical revelation.
Depends on how hard the promoting is, I'd guess.
That would be magical thinking. And not part of any Christian contemplative tradition or teaching that I'm aware of. Perhaps some new or new age Christian kinda blend, but not any of any history and tradition - lectio divina, etc.
BTW, God is always present, whether we are consciously aware of His presence at this moment is another matter.
I'm sure it's true that people who meditate are doing their brains a favor. It takes practice and concentration and ability - and without question it reduces stress.
Not explorefaith.com. Explorefaith.org. They practice it. Read all about what it is to them. They are finding god within themselves.
My son't youth pastor recommended both www.innerexplorations.com and explorefaith.org to my son and the entire youth group. That's how I first discovered what this was all about. We no longer go to that so-called Church. Actually, I call it First Buddhist Temple of the Holy Cinema.
I've never been able to meditate. Too hyper. Can't even begin to clear my mind.
Not if you know what you're doing. It's spiritual, perhaps but not religious, there's a big difference.
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