Meditation Research

[violetsky]

It is nice to see universities studying the effects of meditation. Hopefully, this will spawn more research into altered state phenomena.

In this study mindfulness meditation was shown to improve immune system health. Another study is planned to determine if mindfulness meditation can help heal illness. Dr. Davidson who heads this study, was involved in a series of studies done with meditating Tibetan monks. It is nice to see he is bringing this knowledge into mainstream usage.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 074125.htm (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030204074125.htm)

I am leaving for Virginia tomorrow and will be gone for seven days.

Best Wishes to you all,
violetsky

[Quantitativefool]

That was a very intersting article, lets hope there are more to follow it! I hope your trip to Virginia goes well? Where are you going in Virginia? Well I'm guessing you already left so that prolly doesnt' matter now, oh well.

Best regaurds,
-Stu

[Rydel]

That was a great article Violetsky. It's so great to know that positive scientific research is advancing in this and other similar fields.

I hope you have a great time in Virginia! Beautiful state.

[Dan36oy]

Closely related, here is a list of scientific articles on the medical study of meditative/energy practices for anyone interested in some light reading:

Medical Qi Qong Articles (http://www.qigonginstitute.org/html/papers.php)

[enoch]

I was reading in national geographic that brain studies have confirmed that those adept at meditation are happier. Something to do with the bit that shows how happy you are in the brain...lol...not very technical but I was rushed at the time. :oops:

[Chris]

I was reading in national geographic that brain studies have confirmed that those adept at meditation are happier. Something to do with the bit that shows how happy you are in the brain...lol...not very technical but I was rushed at the time. :oops:

I'll have to look up an article I read last year which concerned something called neuroplacticity - which is basically the ability of the brain to restructure itself based upon conditions, such as damage to one area causes other areas of the brain to take up the workload of the damaged area. Or learning causes areas of the brain concerned with that learning process to grow. Usually neuroplacticity requires repeated physical change to create the changes in the brain – but this study discovered meditation over years can chance the structure of the brain too. Which ultimately means thoughts themselves can actually have physical effect on the brains structure.