Brains of Buddhist monks scanned in meditation study

[Horn]

In a laboratory tucked away off a noisy New York City street, a soft-spoken neuroscientist has been placing Tibetan Buddhist monks into a car-sized brain scanner to better understand the ancient practice of meditation.

But could this unusual research not only unravel the secrets of leading a harmonious life but also shed light on some of the world's more mysterious diseases?

Zoran Josipovic, a research scientist and adjunct professor at New York University, says he has been peering into the brains of monks while they meditate in an attempt to understand how their brains reorganise themselves during the exercise.

Since 2008, the researcher has been placing the minds and bodies of prominent Buddhist figures into a five-tonne (5,000kg) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine.

The scanner tracks blood flow within the monks' heads as they meditate inside its clunky walls, which echoes a musical rhythm when the machine is operating.

Dr Josipovic, who also moonlights as a Buddhist monk, says he is hoping to find how some meditators achieve a state of "nonduality" or "oneness" with the world, a unifying consciousness between a person and their environment.One thing that meditation does for those who practise it a lot is that it cultivates attentional skills," Dr Josipovic says, adding that those harnessed skills can help lead to a more tranquil and happier way of being.

"Meditation research, particularly in the last 10 years or so, has shown to be very promising because it points to an ability of the brain to change and optimise in a way we didn't know previously was possible."
When one relaxes into a state of oneness, the neural networks in experienced practitioners change as they lower the psychological wall between themselves and their environments, Dr Josipovic says.

And this reorganisation in the brain may lead to what some meditators claim to be a deep harmony between themselves and their surroundings.
Shifting attention

Dr Josipovic's research is part of a larger effort better to understand what scientists have dubbed the default network in the brain.

He says the brain appears to be organised into two networks: the extrinsic network and the intrinsic, or default, network.
Zoran Josipovic prepares a Buddhist monk for a brain scan in an fMRI machine Dr Josipovic has scanned the brains of more than 20 experienced meditators during the study

The extrinsic portion of the brain becomes active when individuals are focused on external tasks, like playing sports or pouring a cup of coffee.

The default network churns when people reflect on matters that involve themselves and their emotions
But the networks are rarely fully active at the same time. And like a seesaw, when one rises, the other one dips down.

This neural set-up allows individuals to concentrate more easily on one task at any given time, without being consumed by distractions like daydreaming.

"What we're trying to do is basically track the changes in the networks in the brain as the person shifts between these modes of attention," Dr Josipovic says.

Dr Josipovic has found that some Buddhist monks and other experienced meditators have the ability to keep both neural networks active at the same time during meditation - that is to say, they have found a way to lift both sides of the seesaw simultaneously.

And Dr Josipovic believes this ability to churn both the internal and external networks in the brain concurrently may lead the monks to experience a harmonious feeling of oneness with their environment.
Self-reflection

Scientists previously believed the self-reflective, default network in the brain was simply one that was active when a person had no task on which to focus their attention.

But researchers have found in the past decade that this section of the brain swells with activity when the subject thinks about the self.

The default network came to light in 2001 when Dr Marcus Raichle, a neurologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in the US state of Missouri, began scanning the brains of individuals who were not given tasks to perform.

The patients quickly became bored, and Dr Raichle noticed a second network, that had previously gone unnoticed, danced with activity. But the researcher was unclear why this activity was occurring.

Other scientists were quick to suggest that Dr Raichle's subjects could have actually been thinking about themselves.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

It's a major and understudied network in the brain that seems to be very involved in a lot of neurological disorders, including autism and Alzheimer's”

Cindy Lustig University of Michigan, associate professor of neuroscience

Soon other neuroscientists, who conducted studies using movies to stimulate the brain, found that when there was a lull of activity in a film, the default network began to flash - signalling that research subjects may have begun to think about themselves out of boredom.

But Dr Raichle says the default network is important for more than just thinking about what one had for dinner last night.

"Researchers have wrestled with this idea of how we know we are who we are. The default mode network says something about how that might have come to be," he says.

And Dr Raichle adds that those studying the default network may also help in uncovering the secrets surrounding some psychological disorders, like depression, autism and even Alzheimer's disease.

"If you look at Alzheimer's Disease, and you look at whether it attacks a particular part of the brain, what's amazing is that it actually attacks the default mode network," says Dr Raichle, adding that intrinsic network research, like Dr Josipovic's, could assist in explaining why that is.

Cindy Lustig, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, agrees.

"It's a major and understudied network in the brain that seems to be very involved in a lot of neurological disorders, including autism and Alzheimer's, and understanding how that network interacts with the task-oriented [extrinsic] network is important," she says. "It is sort of the other piece of the puzzle that's been ignored for too long."

Dr Josipovic has scanned the brains of more than 20 experienced meditators, both monks and nuns who primarily study the Tibetan Buddhist style of meditation, to better understand this mysterious network.

He says his research, which will soon be published, will for the moment continue to concentrate on explaining the neurological implications of oneness and tranquillity - though improving understanding of autism or Alzheimer's along the way would certainly be quite a bonus.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12661646

[drafter]

Interesting. Thank you.

[TheNocturnalEgyptian]

Some more interesting facts..


A buddhist in prayer and a christian in meditation have very similar brainscans, both located in the so-called "God Spot" of the brain....

After just 8 weeks of daily meditation it is a scientific fact that you will have physical brain changes

[Ponce]

I did reach the stage of Nirvana one time in my life while I was dancing.....it was just the music and my partner................when the music was over it was just me and my partner on the dance floor (it was full when we started) and the DJ even forgot to put on a new record (he told me later on that it was the first time ever that he had done that), everybody aplauded (first time it happened) and that night I sign up five more students.

[cortez]

I did reach the stage of Nirvana one time in my life while I was dancing.....it was just the music and my partner................when the music was over it was just me and my partner on the dance floor (it was full when we started) and the DJ even forgot to put on a new record (he told me later on that it was the first time ever that he had done that), everybody aplauded (first time it happened) and that night I sign up five more students.


your understanding of Nibbana is incorrect. The word literally means "blowing out" or "extinguish. its not a high or utopia. not to say that you didnt experience something wonderful, i'm just defending the Dharma.

[PatColo]

a good lay person's book on meditation/mindfulness, is "Wherever You Go, There You Are (http://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-There-Are-ROUGH/dp/1401307787/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8)" by Jon Kabat Zinn. Check out the amazon reviews, etc, meditation is all good and no bad- except practicing it takes valuable time away from your usual stuck-in-spin-cycle mind.

[Horn]

The default network churns when people reflect on matters that involve themselves and their emotions
But the networks are rarely fully active at the same time. And like a seesaw, when one rises, the other one dips down.

This neural set-up allows individuals to concentrate more easily on one task at any given time, without being consumed by distractions like daydreaming.

This is the part I found interesting... When I think about it more, its almost as if you can be ever aware of the "daydream" state a conscious decision can be made to meditate away from it and in the whole position, or one goes through this net in away to get to the daydreaming.

What do ya think of that?

[Horn]

OK, now for some distraction. ;D

http://st1.tuffclassified.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/302450.jpg

[cortez]

for me the meditations are not for the minutes spent in meditation but for the rest of the day. as i gain a higher awareness of the nature of all phenomenon and the tranquility of the meditative state i am distracted and ensnared less by my coming and going in the world, because as the external is bombarded and emotions arise, i recall the state of being obtained in the meditative state and the result is i am harmed by worldly things less, and my reaction is less intrusive to nature

[Horn]

for me the meditations are not for the minutes spent in meditation but for the rest of the day. as i gain a higher awareness of the nature of all phenomenon and the tranquility of the meditative state i am distracted and ensnared less by my coming and going in the world, because as the external is bombarded and emotions arise, i recall the state of being obtained in the meditative state and the result is i am harmed by worldly things less, and my reaction is less intrusive to nature


I'm finding it hard to focus amidst reports of random floating plutonium particles.

Do they make a form fitting rad suit?

[cortez]

these times call not only on our prep skills but spiritual strength to get us through all the B.S. first the masses ran to Obama, i'll be curious to see where all the lost will go next? Alien overlords? false teachers, or maybe Trump.

[Book]

i'll be curious to see where all the lost will go next?



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8l8ZP5vzDq8/SCZ7wfj7MQI/AAAAAAAAB_Q/yxGZmpoUuBI/s1600/chertoff%2Bhomeland%2Biz.jpg

Kosher FEMA Camps

[solid]

OK, now for some distraction. ;D

http://st1.tuffclassified.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/302450.jpg


Good job Horn, your distraction worked! ;D

Anyone read the book Buddha's Brain? It's about Buddhist meditation, I've been thinking about getting into this actually, it makes a lot of sense to me.

[cortez]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7a9Ur2x0o&feature=related

[TheNocturnalEgyptian]

OK, now for some distraction. ;D

http://st1.tuffclassified.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/302450.jpg


Good job Horn, your distraction worked! ;D

Anyone read the book Buddha's Brain? It's about Buddhist meditation, I've been thinking about getting into this actually, it makes a lot of sense to me.



There is a book, "Zen and the Brain" written by Neurscientist James H. Austin M. D.. He is also a practicioner of ZaZen meditation who has been sitting for over 30 years.

He writes his point of view on meditation, it is about 900 pages long and it includes many formal studies and diagrams and charts, very educational

It is entirely about the brain chemistry of meditation

[Hillbilly]

I wonder if the same thing hold true for musicians. Many of them will tell you that the feeling you get when you are jamming just right is better than sex. I've experienced it playing guitar and yes it was better than sex or any kind of drug I have ever had.

[Book]

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/cgo/lowres/cgon374l.jpg

[Ponce]

Cortez? maybe you are right........my head wasen't shaved :boohoo

[solid]

There is a book, "Zen and the Brain" written by Neurscientist James H. Austin M. D.. He is also a practicioner of ZaZen meditation who has been sitting for over 30 years.

He writes his point of view on meditation, it is about 900 pages long and it includes many formal studies and diagrams and charts, very educational

It is entirely about the brain chemistry of meditation


I'll have to look into that book, it sounds a lot like Buddha's Brain. Not focused on the religious aspects of Buddhism, and the various sects, but more back to the original roots of meditation.

I think this type of meditation could be a good way of self-improvement.

Basically, the awakening as called to true reality. Not the perceptions of reality that everyone has, that's different. Reality is just what folks individually perceive. By meditation you train yourself to see reality truly in the present moment.

[SLV^GLD]

I wonder if the same thing hold true for musicians. Many of them will tell you that the feeling you get when you are jamming just right is better than sex. I've experienced it playing guitar and yes it was better than sex or any kind of drug I have ever had.




Sounds like you are getting shitty drugs and shitty sex as well.

:P



I keed, I keed, but seriously....

[Hillbilly]

I wonder if the same thing hold true for musicians. Many of them will tell you that the feeling you get when you are jamming just right is better than sex. I've experienced it playing guitar and yes it was better than sex or any kind of drug I have ever had.




Sounds like you are getting shitty drugs and shitty sex as well.

:P



I keed, I keed, but seriously....


are you a musician?

[SLV^GLD]

Yes, I play guitar, trumpet and I dabble in turntablism (not just beatmatching). I understand where you are coming from concerning altered states achieved through music. However, for sustained, eye bugging, adrenaline dumping, color swirling, wall melting, face melting, screaming in ecstasy I would have to say sex and drugs and sex combined with drugs or even music combined with drugs takes the cake. There really isn't much endogenous mechanism to replicate the fully open throttles that ingested compounds can create. Also, there isn't much wiring in the brain to provide a higher reward response for physical action greater than the action required for procreation. Yes, running, playing music, meditating and sensory deprivation have led me to startling states of alteration while entirely sober but they do not exceed what I have experienced through sex and/or drugs and I find it laughable to think that they could.

[sirgonzo420]

Yes, I play guitar, trumpet and I dabble in turntablism (not just beatmatching). I understand where you are coming from concerning altered states achieved through music. However, for sustained, eye bugging, adrenaline dumping, color swirling, wall melting, face melting, screaming in ecstasy I would have to say sex and drugs and sex combined with drugs or even music combined with drugs takes the cake. There really isn't much endogenous mechanism to replicate the fully open throttles that ingested compounds can create. Also, there isn't much wiring in the brain to provide a higher reward response for physical action greater than the action required for procreation. Yes, running, playing music, meditating and sensory deprivation have led me to startling states of alteration while entirely sober but they do not exceed what I have experienced through sex and/or drugs and I find it laughable to think that they could.


This.

[learn2swim]

The KGB had an interest in meditation too............. :P


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srw3YSda1XY

[Horn]

Yes, running, playing music, meditating and sensory deprivation have led me to startling states of alteration while entirely sober but they do not exceed what I have experienced through sex and/or drugs and I find it laughable to think that they could.


Have you ever meditated while running, having sex, or playing music?

So as not to repeat the motions to a climactic finality, but a series of expanded and contracted rhythm so repeated, they become a constant in time space. And, or the frame rate doesn't vary with the speed of the reel. :o

[Horn]

The KGB had an interest in meditation too............. :P


That's inward meditation it is rather useless, out dated, and antiquated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeKx6EuMZWM

[SLV^GLD]

Have you ever meditated while running, having sex, or playing music?
Yes, no and yes. Your description is very accurate.

[Horn]

Have you ever meditated while running, having sex, or playing music?
Yes, no and yes. Your description is very accurate.


Kind of encapsulates the word, MEDItate.

[Hillbilly]

Yes, I play guitar, trumpet and I dabble in turntablism (not just beatmatching). I understand where you are coming from concerning altered states achieved through music. However, for sustained, eye bugging, adrenaline dumping, color swirling, wall melting, face melting, screaming in ecstasy I would have to say sex and drugs and sex combined with drugs or even music combined with drugs takes the cake. There really isn't much endogenous mechanism to replicate the fully open throttles that ingested compounds can create. Also, there isn't much wiring in the brain to provide a higher reward response for physical action greater than the action required for procreation. Yes, running, playing music, meditating and sensory deprivation have led me to startling states of alteration while entirely sober but they do not exceed what I have experienced through sex and/or drugs and I find it laughable to think that they could.


Right on a fellow guitar player. Not everyone gets to have the same trip, I'm just luck I guess.

[Jewboo]

https://img.4plebs.org/boards/pol/image/1469/85/1469853752837.jpg

[cheka.]

no doubt she can ride like a champ. ya know every guy put her up there....a lot

[Neuro]

https://img.4plebs.org/boards/pol/image/1469/85/1469853752837.jpg

OMG!

I would like to see what that does to the brains of Buddhist monks!

[Horn]

https://img.4plebs.org/boards/pol/image/1469/85/1469853752837.jpg



I bet she can get her brain swelling meditation in a matter of seconds.Thru pendulum effects

[Neuro]

I bet she can get her brain swelling meditation in a matter of seconds.Thru pendulum effects

The fuckall (sp?) pendulum effect would prove that earth is a globe rotating around its axis...

[singular_me]

the results and benefits of meditation/praying depends on the data input.

mediating and praying without any awareness of the objective reality will just do nothing. Thats the trap of all religions, new age included. Just look at the world, political, social, environmental and its religious state of affair. Speaks by itself.

[Horn]

the results and benefits of meditation/praying depends on the data input.

mediating and praying without any awareness of the objective reality will just do nothing. Thats the trap of all religions, new age included. Just look at the world, political, social, environmental and its religious state of affair. Speaks by itself.

maybe u need more pendulum effect in reality to receive swelling benefits?? 😅

[crimethink]

OMG!

I would like to see what that does to the brains of Buddhist monks!

With "assets" that big, she will need your chiropractic services soon.

[singular_me]

I had to go to a memorial mass 2 weeks ago, last time I was attending was like 15 years ago, and could see all the brainwashing even clearer. They spoke a lot of about praying for violence in the world and kids' suffering. Yeah, lets pray ???

new agers and those christians attending share a lot in common. The 1st only care about their mediation bubble and the later just wait for the 2nd coming. Then we have atheism which gets a boost from agnosticism and religious fundamentalism

the ignorance of "objective reality" is really, and literally, killing this world. The problem is that the NWO operates on the objective reality level

so humanity may not be rescueable

bible believers hate this verse or just do not grasp it:
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

the Truth is right there... dualism is mentioned in ALL belief systems. What people like Twisted Titan, for example, do not get. Yet he claims that he has studied Taoism/Buddhism. Really???

Bashing the divinity of the feminine and masculine is also the evidence of fundamentalism since since electricity, without a positive and negative charges, canNOT be -- and that electricity glues the cosmos/LIFE together. Masculine and Feminine are the 2 expressions of the S-A-M-E Force. That is why Mary is VIRGIN, metaphorically (and that Eve was made of Adam's rib) She embodies the Feminine component of God. The Universe is sexed -- thus made out of LOVE, the mating of particles -- and without it Life cannot be.

And yet many wonder why the debasement of the feminine/women, the CARE principle, has caused such a widespread disaster.

we are just doomed, because most people cannot stretch it, simple.

Just speaking out loud here... same concept appears in all belief systems.



maybe u need more pendulum effect in reality to receive swelling benefits?? 

[palani]

humanity may not be rescueable
Hue-man? Color of man.

Humanism was never meant to be survivable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn7bEVnFlds

[Neuro]

I had to go to a memorial mass 2 weeks ago, last time I was attending was like 15 years ago, and could see all the brainwashing even clearer. They spoke a lot of about praying for violence in the world and kids' suffering. Yeah, lets pray ???

new agers and those christians attending share a lot in common. The 1st only care about their mediation bubble and the later just wait for the 2nd coming. Then we have atheism which gets a boost from agnosticism and religious fundamentalism

the ignorance of "objective reality" is really, and literally, killing this world. The problem is that the NWO operates on the objective reality level

so humanity may not be rescueable

bible believers hate this verse or just do not grasp it:
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7

the Truth is right there... dualism is mentioned in ALL belief systems. What people like Twisted Titan, for example, do not get. Yet he claims that he has studied Taoism/Buddhism. Really???

Bashing the divinity of the feminine and masculine is also the evidence of fundamentalism since since electricity, without a positive and negative charges, canNOT be -- and that electricity glues the cosmos/LIFE together. Masculine and Feminine are the 2 expressions of the S-A-M-E Force. That is why Mary is VIRGIN, metaphorically (and that Eve was made of Adam's rib) She embodies the Feminine component of God. The Universe is sexed -- thus made out of LOVE, the mating of particles -- and without it Life cannot be.

And yet many wonder why the debasement of the feminine/women, the CARE principle, has caused such a widespread disaster.

we are just doomed, because most people cannot stretch it, simple.

Just speaking out loud here... same concept appears in all belief systems.
Maybe this could help you set you straight...
http://www.teachingtheword.org/apps/articles/?articleid=59465&blogid=5435

[Jewboo]

mediation bubble...the ignorance of "objective reality" is really, and literally, killing this world...





http://www.developermindfulness.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/WomanOnRoad.jpg


:rolleyes:

[Horn]

bible believers hate this verse or just do not grasp it:
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7


I find it hard to believe it myself, it may be a result of bad translation or perception?

Evil in most cases is a reactionary force to a known or perceived threat/theft. Light a reaction to darkness. keyword RE in REaction is repetitive.

While God has created the field in which they both operate repetitively, which is ALL, I can only think this reply in Isaiah was a reactionary statement by him to some dumb fool who was so silly to question him directly..

Now that man has removed almost all known threats to his dominance over the planet, he has named himself the evil threat and started to remove himself thru AGW and geoengineering robotics and many other forms we discuss at forum.

True most any form of reaction to those forces will further their cause and create more potent forms.

If there are any surviving Buddhist monks left in China, the R.O.C. leaves them be. Yet does Not permit its practice "widely".

Yes China is still evil.

[singular_me]

I find it hard to believe it myself, it may be a result of bad translation or perception?

no it is not, the isahia verse is the biblical metaphor for the Yin and Yang symbol.

good will forever allow the danger to commit evil and evil will always offer a chance for redemption. God must allow both to prove His existence. Only immutable laws can define both, good and evil. I recommend Mark Passio's natural laws' seminar on utube.

God will never eradicate evil, but our own free will to not commit evil. That is why religions are very dangerous when those concepts are not understood at their objective levels. It is NWO's favorite field of action and why they were able to INvert everything.

[singular_me]

it is just more fog to prevent people from grasping Objective Reality.


Maybe this could help you set you straight...
http://www.teachingtheword.org/apps/articles/?articleid=59465&blogid=5435

[singular_me]

loved the movie

by the way, I dont go by the terms such as humanism, capitalism, socialism, etc but the understanding of human condition vs the human nature


Hue-man? Color of man.

Humanism was never meant to be survivable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn7bEVnFlds

[Neuro]

it is just more fog to prevent people from grasping Objective Reality.

Is it? The evil God is behind is suggested to be a calamity or a natural catastrophe rather than the evil of the sinful nature of the human mind (or devious). More like a human subjective reality interpretation of what we consider evil...

[Horn]

no it is not, the isahia verse is the biblical metaphor for the Yin and Yang symbol.

I was referring to God stating the passage.

As the creator of the freewill field, he would not define good and evil in general terms.

Most of the commandments when applied in reality could have a proper defense if transgressed for any particular reason.

[Neuro]

I find it hard to believe it myself, it may be a result of bad translation or perception?


Yes, it is. Almost all English bible translations apart from KJV, say a catastrophe/calamity instead of evil, also the Norwegian/Danish/Swedish translations say this, as does the analysis of the Hebrew words. But according to Goldie it is just fog to her "objective reality".

Accept it. She has decided it is so, there really can't be any argument against it. She's the authority!

[Horn]

There was another guy onboard who tried translating Hebrew himself at one point.

Magnus stoned him and I have not seen him since...