The Remarkable Brains of Long-Term High-Level Meditators

The remarkable brain waves of long-term high-level meditators

The remarkable brain waves of high-level meditators. Researchers suggest that people with an advanced meditation practice might operate at a different level of awareness — and it shows in their brainwaves. As science begins to dig into the long-term impacts meditation has on the brain, researchers are turning to the minds “Olympic-level” meditators for answers—people who have done up to 62,000 hours of meditation in their lifetime. Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman says the brainwaves of long-term meditators may look a lot different than the rest of ours.

Inside the mind of long-term meditators

In the video, above from BigThink, Goleman describes how neuroscientist Richard Davidson, his co-author on the book Altered Traits, measured the brainwaves of advanced meditators. Davidson found their brainwaves showed never-before-seen levels of gamma, one of the strongest types of brain waves, theorized to appear when the different regions of the brain harmonize. “We get [gamma] when we bite into an apple or imagine biting into an apple,” explains Goleman, “and for a brief period, a split second, inputs from taste, sound, smell, vision, all of that comes together in that imaged bite into the apple.” The typical person will have a gamma wave very briefly, for example when we’ve solved a problem we’ve been grappling with, and for a second all of our sensory inputs come together in harmony. The brainwaves of long-term meditators, however, show gamma all the time as a lasting trait, no matter what they are doing. “It’s their everyday state of mind,” says Goleman. “Science has never seen this before.”

“The people that we’ve talked to in this Olympic level group say it’s very spacious and you’re wide open, you’re prepared for whatever may come, we just don’t know. But we do know it’s quite remarkable.”

Interestingly, when these long-term meditators are studied while they are meditating on compassion, their level of gamma jumps 700 to 800 percent in a few seconds. This “awakeness” is special state of consciousness that you only see in the highest-level meditators.

“The people that we’ve talked to in this Olympic-level group say it’s very spacious and you’re wide open, you’re prepared for whatever may come—we just don’t know,” says Goleman, “but we do know it’s quite remarkable.” People who have meditated for thousands of hours exhibit a remarkable difference in their brainwaves. Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman says we can actually see what happens in the heads of those who have achieved "enlightenment" and the results are unprecedented in science. The co-author of the book Altered Traits is a neuroscientist, Richard Davidson.

He has a lab at the University of Wisconsin. It’s a very large lab, he has dedicated scanners, he has about 100 people working there, and he was able to do some remarkable research where he flew Olympic level meditators—who live in Nepal or India typically, some in France—he flew them over to the lab and put them through a protocol in his brain scanners and did state-of-the-art tests and the results were just astounding. We found, for example, or he found that their brain waves are really different. Perhaps the most remarkable findings in the Olympic level meditators has to do with what’s called a gamma wave. All of us get gamma for a very short period when we solve a problem we’ve been grappling with, even if it’s something that’s vexed us for months.

We get about half second of gamma; it’s the strongest wave in the EEG spectrum. We get it when we bite into an apple or imagine biting into an apple, and for a brief period, a split-second, inputs from taste, sound, smell, vision, all of that come together in that imagined bite into the apple. But that lasts very short period in an ordinary EEG. What was stunning was that the Olympic level meditators, these are people who have done up to 62,000 lifetime hours of meditation, their brainwave shows gamma very strong all the time as a lasting trait just no matter what they’re doing.

It’s not a state effect, it’s not during their meditation alone, but it’s just their every day state of mind. We actually have no idea what that means experientially. Science has never seen it before. We also find that in these Olympic level meditators when we asked them, for example, to do a meditation on compassion their level of gamma jumps 700 to 800 percent in a few seconds.

This has also never been seen by science. So we have to assume that the special state of consciousness that you see in the highest level meditators is a lot like something described in the classical meditation literatures centuries ago, which is that there is a state of being which is not like our ordinary state.

Sometimes it’s called liberation, enlightenment, awake, whatever the word may be we suspect there’s really no vocabulary that captures what that might be. The people that we’ve talked to in this Olympic level group say it’s very spacious and you’re wide open, you’re prepared for whatever may come, we just don’t know. But we do know it’s quite remarkable.

Turning Sounds into a Meditation Practice

You don’t need calm and peace to be mindful. Here’s a guided meditation that takes the basics of mindfulness into the noisier parts of life.

Take a moment right now, pause, and just listen. As we allow our minds to settle into hearing, we start to see that sounds have the same nature as sensations in the body and thoughts. They appear and disappear, and each time one disappears, that sound doesn’t leave a trace. There is silence until another sound appears.

Any sound can be the object of our focus in mindfulness practice. Even the most annoying sounds, like a horn blaring outside, an alarm clock beeping, or people yelling, can be perceived differently when we bring mindfulness to them. The annoyance of those sounds doesn’t come from the sounds themselves; it comes from our interpretation of those sounds as “bad.” When we bring mindfulness to it, we shift our relationship from aversion to curiosity, allowing the sounds to rise and fall, lessening their negative impact.

When we bring mindfulness to irritating sounds, we shift our relationship from aversion to curiosity, allowing the sounds to rise and fall, lessening their negative impact.

It’s worth setting some time aside to just sit or lie down and listen to the sounds inside the house, out in the city, or in the contemplative setting of nature. In mindfulness-based stress reduction classes, we introduce a formal practice that combines mindfulness of the breath and the body scan with sound in the appropriately titled meditation “breath, body, sound.” The beauty of this practice is it builds on the basics: You start with a narrow attention on the breath, then expand out to the body, and then expand further to the world of hearing.

To allow you to fully experience this meditation, we recommend that you listen to the audio version. However, you can also simply read the text below. If you choose to do so, read through the entire script first to familiarize yourself with the practice, then do the practice, referring back to the text as needed and pausing briefly after each paragraph. Take about fifteen minutes for the practice. You can do this practice in a seated position, standing, or even lying down. Choose a position in which you can be comfortable and alert.

A Meditation on Annoying Sounds

1. So, taking the next few moments to just find a posture for you that gives you a sense of comfort yet wakefulness the same time becoming mindful of the various movements that you need to make to come into this posture.

2. And as you’re doing this, beginning to become aware of how this body is just naturally breathing itself. Taking a few moments to notice where you’re aware of the breath most prominently. This may be the tip of the nose, or the chest or the belly. Just noticing where the sense of breathing seems to be the strongest.

3. And so as you become aware of this, breathing in and just noticing the breath coming in, and breathing out and just noticing the breath going out, as it’s happening moment to moment. Being aware of the breath coming in on an inhalation, and going out on an exhalation. Just being aware of this simple inflow and outflow of the breath. And just letting it be, breathing in and breathing out. Just taking this part of the practice one breath at a time.

4. In doing this practice, it’s quite natural for the mind to wander off thinking about this worrying about that could be a memory or a dream. When this happens, just take a moment to notice where the mind has wandered to. And maybe even just labeling it as thinking thinking very gently guiding awareness back to just breathing breathing in. Just allowing for this natural inflow and outflow without any need to push the breath out or pull the breath. And we’re simply being aware of breathing much like a fallen leaf can sit on the ripples of waves or maybe the inflow and outflow of waves coming onto the beach and off the beach. So too, our awareness can simply ride the natural inhalation and exhalation of the breath.

5. And so now, just allowing the breath to go into the background of our awareness as we begin to shift our attention now to include this entire body. Now we’re just being aware of sensations in the body. This body has a field of sensations that are occurring at any given point, appearing and disappearing, coming and going. There may be sensations of heat or coolness shakiness itchiness tingling pressure pulses heaviness or lightness. There may even be parts of the body that feel pain. So as much as possible, holding this body in awareness and just being aware of the variety of sensations that seem to be coming and going, and just allowing, allowing and letting be. And bringing the mind back that’s wandered.

6. As we’re paying attention to sensations in the body, we might even adopt an attitude of curiosity or beginner’s mind, becoming aware of these feelings that are here as if for the very first time. And in doing this practice, we may even notice emotions arise, at times a sense of frustration or irritation a sense of boredom maybe anxiousness or maybe there’s calm. So being aware of where these experiences, your feelings are in the body. And again, just being aware of them without striving to change them or make them any different just allowing their presence and letting them be.

7. Now, beginning to gently shift from the field of sensations in the body and allowing that to fall into the background of awareness, and now in the foreground of awareness we begin to open our ears, bring awareness to our ears as we become aware of hearing. Because of the brain and the ears, we have this gift of audibility, of hearing sounds. Sounds come in the form of pitches or tones, sometimes frequency sounds. Even in my voice right here. You may notice that as sound comes from a sense of silence and then has a picture tone, and rises and then falls and then goes back into silence. You may have noticed that even in between the silence there’s some sounds there. So just being aware of this very fundamental aspect of hearing sounds, rising sounds, falling just sounds. Taking a moment to know if you’re trying to hear sounds.

8. And if so, just allowing the pure sense of just being aware of whatever hearing is occurring and just allowing yourself to be in a receptive place of just hearing whatever sounds or hear. Recognizing and allowing and letting be. And doing this practice you may become aware of how the mind becomes busy with images or stories connected with the sounds. As much as possible, just noticing this and just coming back to being aware of the fundamental aspect of hearing. Sounds appearing and disappearing, just sounds. And beginning to withdraw awareness from hearing now as we come back. To breathing in and knowing, breathing in and breathing out, and knowing breathing out. And in a moment you will hear the sound of a bell and that will signify the end of this practice. Until then, just acknowledging the active choice of taking this time out of all daily busyness for your own health and well-being. This is an act of cultivating awareness and is also an act of self care. To thanking yourself for even taking this time at all.

In Search of The Sandman

Science writer Nicholls (The Galápagos: A Natural History) in his book, Sleepyhead: The Neuroscience of a Good Night’s Rest, uses his decades-long experiences with narcolepsy as a jumping-off point for this stimulating exploration of sleep. He relates his own condition, and the related one of cataplexy—an abrupt loss of muscle tone in response to strong emotion—to the more common experiences of insomnia and sleep apnea. Nichols is careful to ground readers in the history of research into REM and circadian rhythms, but takes more interest in new research, primarily concerning a certain kind of neurotransmitter, the hypocretin.

As he reveals, a genetic study of narcoleptic dogs in the late 1990s suggested problems with the functioning of the hypocretins could be involved in multiple sleep disorders. Along the way, Nicholls shares a few dramatic cases—including one of a man who strangled his wife while both were sleeping—but avoids the traps of sensationalism and prurience by keeping his focus on himself and others whom he meets. Actual advice on better rest is modest and ranges from common sense, such as avoiding caffeine, to research-based but perhaps counterintuitive, such as sleep restriction as a treatment for insomnia. Everybody sleeps, and Nicholls’s entry into the genre of pop science books that use the unusual to illuminate the everyday has equally universal appeal.

Read on ... http://iamjohnasilva.blogspot.com/2018/09/search4sandman.html