Sense and soul in couple's therapy, Part II

I happened upon a somewhat recent article and wanted to post about it as a sort of follow up to my earlier one about meditation and science. Apparently in 2004, the Dalai Lama invited several neuroscientists to his home in Dharamsala, India, to examine brain scans of Tibetan Buddhist monks who engage in meditation on a regular basis. What scientists have found is that meditation actually does alter the structure of the brain. They call this effect neuroplasticity.

The term refers to the brain's recently discovered ability to change its structure and function, in particular by expanding or strengthening circuits that are used and by shrinking or weakening those that are rarely engaged. In its short history, the science of neuroplasticity has mostly documented brain changes that reflect physical experience and input from the outside world. In pianists who play many arpeggios, for instance, brain regions that control the index finger and middle finger become fused, apparently because when one finger hits a key in one of these fast-tempo movements, the other does so almost simultaneously, fooling the brain into thinking the two fingers are one. As a result of the fused brain regions, the pianist can no longer move those fingers independently of one another.

Weird. The external influence on the brain's structure led the scientists to explore whether or not purely internal, mental signals could likewise effect the structure. To do this, they gathered a group of novice meditators and compared the brain activity to that of the Buddhist monks who had spent more than 10,000 hours in meditation.

In a striking difference between novices and monks, the latter showed a dramatic increase in high-frequency brain activity called gamma waves during compassion meditation. Thought to be the signature of neuronal activity that knits together far-flung brain circuits, gamma waves underlie higher mental activity such as consciousness. The novice meditators "showed a slight increase in gamma activity, but most monks showed extremely large increases of a sort that has never been reported before in the neuroscience literature," says Prof. Davidson, suggesting that mental training can bring the brain to a greater level of consciousness.

On one hand this is awesome because science is now confirming meditative effects on the brain. On the other hand this is kind of lame because science is only confirming meditative effects on the brain. The really interesting effects of meditation don't happen in the brain; they happen in one's life. Meditation is truly transformative on a person's outlook regardless of physical effects. The difference is a matter of translative versus transformative. So they've translated spiritual awareness to physical brain activities? That's great. It's actually pretty awesome. But really, stop looking at the brain scans and go and meditate already. Experience the transformative side. That's so much more exciting.

Check it out: Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning