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Wed 21 May, 2003 08:57 pm
Just in case you missed this story, here it is the one from
Reuters. Hopefully, one of you will report on the
New Science magazine article.
Quote:Meditation Shown to Light Up Brains of Buddhists
Wed May 21, 2003 02:48 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Buddhists really are happy, calm and serene people -- at least according to their brain scans.
Using new scanning techniques, neuroscientists have discovered that certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, which indicates positive emotions and good mood. This happens at times even when they are not meditating.
"We can now hypothesize with some confidence that those apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as Dharamsala, India, really are happy," Professor Owen Flanagan, of Duke University in North Carolina, said Wednesday.
Dharamsala is the home base of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.
The scanning studies by scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison showed activity in the left prefrontal lobes of experienced Buddhist practitioners. The area is linked to positive emotions, self-control and temperament.
Other research by Paul Ekman, of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, suggests that meditation and mindfulness can tame the amygdala, an area of the brain which is the hub of fear memory.
Ekman discovered that experienced Buddhists were less likely to be shocked, flustered, surprised or as angry as other people.
Flanagan believes that if the findings of the studies can be confirmed they could be of major importance.
"The most reasonable hypothesis is that there is something about conscientious Buddhist practice that results in the kind of happiness we all seek," Flanagan said in a report in New Scientist magazine.
How fascinating. Beliefnet sends me daily little Buddhist
quotes from the various texts of Buddhism. I enjoy them
for they all seem to point my mind in the direction of calm
and peacefulness - well, they refer to it as "mindfulness".
Being much more aware of how you are feeling, being,
doing - all the time, monitoring your thoughts and feelings
scanning your thoughts for all your old ideas and thoughts
of FEARS. These are at the bottom of all the bane of our
existence, and it does seem that this is an alterable aspect
of our lives. The Buddhist monks really DO manage to find
happiness in even the tiniest things. Although they DO get
up at 3am to begin this daily practice of mindfulness with
calming peaceful meditation. I noticed during the several
years that I practiced along with my yoga tapes, doing the
exercises in the morning, then the relaxation exercise at
the end of the stretching, mobility exercise part - that I had
a BIG decrease in the amount of daily tension, even my
voice and blood pressure lowered during that time. Even at
an extremely busy pharmacy where those prescriptions go
flying past you, but it is your job first & foremost to be sure
that absolutely NOTHING is wrong. You have the correct drug,
dosage, directions, the number of pills is right, the technicians
did many parts of the work, but it wasn't their job on the line.
Being the pharmacist on duty it was my job to catch any & all
errors. It was very stressful, but my days when I got up early
enough to follow along with the yoga tapes were SO much
better. There are many things about Buddhism that I find so
comfortable for me. An example of one of the daily messages
is; "Right speech, harmlessness, restraint in speaking ill of
others, moderation in food, at peace in remoteness and solitude,
devotion to higher meditation, this is the teachings of the Buddha."
Very laid back, simple and effective messages like this are
very helpful to me, and come to think of it, there is not so much
difference among the most basic of cores among all the world's
religions.
Quote:Hopefully, one of you will report on the New Science magazine article.
Couldn't find that magazine but I did look up a link for this, Mapleleaf, and found one which might be very interesting to Babs and anyone with an interest in Buddhism. The article gives a lot of detail about the manner of the experiment and insight into this phenomena of meditation lighting up certain areas of the brain.
Religion and the Brain
There are an amazing number of fascinating articles and biographies on this website,
www.american-buddha.com
Thanks SO much for the link Piffka - I will have to make
a note of it and spend some time digging around. I
like it - looks like a great place to find some new
information. You ARE such a dear...Love ya,
Babs
yes- it is something you can see externally in lots of those people, too.
the compassion practices are also lovely
i am sure that any effective meditation technique would have an effect, though
Years ago, I used to go to a Yoga Center, where in addition to Yoga, we did a lot of meditation. I don't know what it did to my physical brain, but the meditation did caused a shift in my mind that was very positive, relaxing and calming. The effects would last for quite a while after I came home!
Meditation might "light" up your brain, but sex really "lights" up your brain!
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