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What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

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Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#51

Post by sunwukung »

markbao wrote: post #6

Is reducing beta waves actually a good thing? It might allow for focus and relaxation, but I wonder if that might do something like clear your working memory and make you less able to make connections between things. Could anyone that has a good grasp on this comment on whether this might be true?

The benefits of meditation (and any potential problems) do not result in permanent physiological changes. It's like makeup that purports to reduce the signs of aging - it only works if you keep applying it.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#52

Post by cLeEOGPw »

Volpe wrote: post #37
Simon321 wrote: post #29

Meditation, such a scam. I can't believe so many intelligent people are fooled by it. It's nothing more than a relaxation technique and that's it. The studies about meditation are mostly of dubious quality and origin, and people draw unwarranted conclusions from them. http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/08/21/quacks-eve...

Oh well.. you have a blog to backup what your are saying... pro-meditation "quacks" have been told! Internet: 1 Meditation: 0 I think you have to pause and reflect for a minute when you say things like: "I can't believe so many intelligent people are fooled by it". Maybe they aren't the ones being foolish... ?

Even without any knowledge about meditation it should be clear that attention control = brain activity, brain activity = brain rewiring (relearning). Rewired brain = different behavior and different thoughts. One meditation may yield insignificant rewiring, but make it routinely, and the effect adds up. Science will catch up later, because we all know it is difficult to quantify and measure anything related to brain.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#53

Post by lcedp »

agumonkey wrote: post #38
lcedp wrote: post #19

> More grey matter Well as study shows [1] meditation not only thickens cortex in some parts of the brain but also makes it thinner in other parts. Just saying. [1] http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/1/27.long

Smaller isn't necessarily worse (and vice-versa). Maybe its a refactoring process where some abstractions builds, rendering other sub-graphs unnecessary.

Indeed

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#54

Post by lcedp »

seren wrote: post #25
lcedp wrote: post #19

> More grey matter Well as study shows [1] meditation not only thickens cortex in some parts of the brain but also makes it thinner in other parts. Just saying. [1] http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/1/27.long

Interesting because this is a rarely reported consequence. It seems no one would object to have denser grey matter, but if it is thinner somewhere, it feels like you lost something.

I wouldn't mind loosing some gray matter areas which makes me nervous, angry and lazy.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#56

Post by cloverich »

psteinweber wrote: post #50
miloshadzic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tip: Try to keep your eyes open. Closing your eyes makes it easier to become slouched, wander off and fall asleep. I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of your post.

Many traditional meditation techniques recommend closing the eyes. For the reason that visual stimulation takes up >75% of our perception. Closing the eyes automatically makes it harder for our mind to wander off. Still hard enough, but at least you won't be distracted by those nice lights on the wall (or similar).

I always started by closing my eyes, but found that having them open felt... better. More natural. Not exactly sure - i just started preferring it. FWIW, there are some popular books[1] that recommend the eyes open approach - which surprised me when I first read about it.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Living-Unlocking-Happiness/dp/...

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#57

Post by agentultra »

I'm skeptical of articles like this because they tend to draw conclusions from studies that only provide weak correlations. The only concrete evidence I can find is that meditation can help some people relax and temporarily reduce their stress levels. My experience confirms this but I prefer other means of achieving the same effect (like exercising).

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#58

Post by dcoth »

lcedp wrote: post #19

> More grey matter Well as study shows [1] meditation not only thickens cortex in some parts of the brain but also makes it thinner in other parts. Just saying. [1] http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/8/1/27.long

Interestingly enough, the parietal region (which is shown to be thinner in the meditation group) is shown to be thicker than average in the brains of mathematicians: http://www.ajnr.org/content/28/10/1859.abstract?ijkey=c47242...

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#60

Post by smk11 »

psteinweber wrote: post #50
miloshadzic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tip: Try to keep your eyes open. Closing your eyes makes it easier to become slouched, wander off and fall asleep. I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of your post.

Many traditional meditation techniques recommend closing the eyes. For the reason that visual stimulation takes up >75% of our perception. Closing the eyes automatically makes it harder for our mind to wander off. Still hard enough, but at least you won't be distracted by those nice lights on the wall (or similar).

I have read some zen meditation material and I remember them usually suggesting to meditate with your eyes open, but not all the way open. If you are in the traditional mediation position, looking a few feet ahead, towards the ground with eyes about 25% open. However, being new to this and trying to learn, I have had better results with my eyes closed.
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