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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

#81

Post by Sven7 »

jblow wrote: post #71

I have done meditation for years now and found it to be very beneficial. However, I find this article to be very Cargo Cult and am disturbed that nowhere in this entire thread has it been called out as such. "Look! Meditation must do things because we can make these colored charts telling you about beta waves. What are beta waves? Well, it doesn't really matter, just think of them as bad, because look, meditation doe…

Please be suspicious...pfft...Deepak "quantum healing" Chopra got invited to Google to sell his books. I gave up all hope after that.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#82

Post by chris_mahan »

CodeCube wrote: post #78
300bps wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technique that you outline is one that I discovered myself as an easy way to fall asleep. I think of it as "starting a dream".

hah, I thought I was the only one that did this! Though my usual go to dream-starter is either flight, or snowboarding. With flight, I just imagine that I'm flying relatively low above the tree line (Iron Man style with my hands at my side, rather than Superman style with arms outstretched ... not sure why, but this matters to my brain :P ). Also, I start somewhere that I'm really familiar with such as my house or of…

I imagine going to the concert hall and listening to classical music. I find myself wanting to direct, but then the music is slower, more mechanical. When I let go and just listen, the melody gets faster and more complex, more enjoyable. Usually that lasts a few seconds and then I slip under.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#83

Post by [deleted] »

smk11 wrote: post #61
mail2gaurav wrote: post #30

The app is just to help you to get into a rhythm. I downloaded the app and really liked the user flow. Will definitely use to begin my meditation. In my experience, I have seen a sea change in people who have started meditating. They are much more calmer and happy. There is a flip side as well. Many people get into a happy mode and start giving up in life.

I think those people are the ones who are getting into in an extreme way, for long periods at a time. And if they are "giving up on life", then they are probably using the euphoria it can cause to hide their problems the same way people use drugs or religion.

[deleted]

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#84

Post by Volpe »

Simon321 wrote: post #70
Volpe wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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... ?

I think, just like a religion, it's not really the skeptics job to 'disprove' the theory. I think the job of the ones promoting it is to prove it. A link to skeptics dictionary: http://www.skepdic.com/tm.html TM recruiting literature is full of charts and graphs demonstrating the wonders of TM. Things like metabolic rate, oxygen consumption rate, bodily production of carbon dioxide, hormone production, brain waves, e…

Umm... what about non "Transcendental Meditation"? Or are you just finding one perceived misuse and applying it to everything? (Does skepdic.com have an entry on that particular fallacy?)

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#85

Post by kranner »

CodeCube wrote: post #79
kranner wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great tip. I occasionally sit through a somewhat exotic variant: I imagine I can take to flight like a bird (slow flight only, not like Superman) and mentally take off from the balcony and imagine what the town would look like from above. The end of the exercise would be taking a full trip and 'returning' home. It's a bit more engaging to figure out the aerial view of a place you normally navigate only by ro…

See my other response above (wrote that before I read this, though well after you'd made the comment): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6286046 I wonder how many people use flight for this kind of thing.

I can tell you I came by it because I'd commonly see kites (as in birds of prey) drifting by, for hours on end, and I wondered what things would look like from their POV. Then when I actually tried to think like that (or imagine, I should say) in a sustained manner, it was unexpectedly hard; so I kept it around as an informal practice.

edit: it's interesting that we both mention "not like Superman". For me it's about going as slow as possible.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#86

Post by Alex3917 »

jblow wrote: post #71

I have done meditation for years now and found it to be very beneficial. However, I find this article to be very Cargo Cult and am disturbed that nowhere in this entire thread has it been called out as such. "Look! Meditation must do things because we can make these colored charts telling you about beta waves. What are beta waves? Well, it doesn't really matter, just think of them as bad, because look, meditation doe…

> There is actual science involving meditation and the brain, but it is in extremely early stages and is hard to draw conclusions from.

IMHO the best place for information on the science of meditation is the Buddhist Geeks podcast. There are talks on YouTube from their annual conference, which is are also great. The talk this year from Willoughby Britton does a pretty good job outlining the current state of contemplative science:

http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2012/10/bg-266-mindful-binge-dr...

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#87

Post by hippee-lee »

dmoney wrote: post #43
hippee-lee wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it's because there is only so much expression in our genetics. Don't think of it as if you lost something. Think of it as if you are investing and building up in the areas with max rio. By max rio I mean it on all levels of genome. Individual, your family & our society. I also believe the results can compound over time. As a side note, I was raised Roman Catholic. Although I have not gone to church since coll…

> max rio Do you mean ROI?

Yes.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#88

Post by hippee-lee »

seren wrote: post #31
hippee-lee wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps it's because there is only so much expression in our genetics. Don't think of it as if you lost something. Think of it as if you are investing and building up in the areas with max rio. By max rio I mean it on all levels of genome. Individual, your family & our society. I also believe the results can compound over time. As a side note, I was raised Roman Catholic. Although I have not gone to church since coll…

I don't really think you are 'losing' something in the literal sense when meditating. It is probably more akin to exercising/reshaping it. I was just commenting on the public perception.

What I was referring to was that our bodies can only produce and manage so much brain tissue. This is dictated by genetics. So if connections are managed in one area they will strophe in another.

I think lose is an ok word but not quite right for what's really going on.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#89

Post by fourthchakra »

One of the biggest publishers of meditation products is MindValley (http://mindvalley.com). The story of its founder, Vishen is well documented, and really inspiring. He bootstrapped and grew his business to seven figures without external funds. His purpose is not only monetary; he seeks to "push humanity forward" with his groundbreaking programs.

Re: What Happens to the Brain When You Meditate

#90

Post by mailshanx »

fourthchakra wrote: post #89

One of the biggest publishers of meditation products is MindValley ( http://mindvalley.com ). The story of its founder, Vishen is well documented, and really inspiring. He bootstrapped and grew his business to seven figures without external funds. His purpose is not only monetary; he seeks to "push humanity forward" with his groundbreaking programs.

That MindValley guy seems shady at best. After digging around their site for hours, you will be hard pressed to figure out exactly what do they do.
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