Advanced Meditators Research Articles

Awareness without time

Abstract Recently, philosophers with an interest in consciousness have turned their attention towards ‘fringe states of consciousness’. Examples include dreams, trances, and meditative states. Teetering between wakefulness and non-consciousness, fringe states illuminate the limits and boundaries of consciousness. This paper aims to give a coherent conceptualization of deep meditative states, focussing in particular on phenomenal temporality during meditation. Advanced meditators overwhelmingly describe deep states of meditation as atemporal and timeless; however, they also report being continuously alert while meditating. I intend to give a coherent interpretation of this apparent contradiction. After introducing some candidate interpretations, I shall argue that during (deepest) meditation, the subject experiences ‘pure duration’ without temporal structure. This, I argue, explains best why meditators describe deep meditation as ongoing but timeless awareness. A central part of the paper will expand on an account of phenomenal duration without phenomenal succession. The conclusion points towards some further avenues of research.

Beyond the veil of duality-topographic reorganization model of meditation.

Meditation can exert a profound impact on our mental life, with proficient practitioners often reporting an experience free of boundaries between a separate self and the environment, suggesting an explicit experience of “nondual awareness.” What are the neural correlates of such experiences and how do they relate to the idea of nondual awareness itself? In order to unravel the effects that meditation has on the brain’s spatial topography, we review functional magnetic resonance imaging brain findings from studies specific to an array of meditation types and meditator experience levels. We also review findings from studies that directly probe the interaction between meditation and the experience of the self. The main results are (i) decreased posterior default mode network (DMN) activity, (ii) increased central executive network (CEN) activity, (iii) decreased connectivity within posterior DMN as well as between posterior and anterior DMN, (iv) increased connectivity within the anterior DMN and CEN, and (v) significantly impacted connectivity between the DMN and CEN (likely a nonlinear phenomenon). Together, these suggest a profound organizational shift of the brain’s spatial topography in advanced meditators—we therefore propose a topographic reorganization model of meditation (TRoM). One core component of the TRoM is that the topographic reorganization of DMN and CEN is related to a decrease in the mental-self-processing along with a synchronization with the more nondual layers of self-processing, notably interoceptive and exteroceptive-self-processing. This reorganization of the functionality of both brain and self-processing can result in the explicit experience of nondual awareness. In conclusion, this review provides insight into the profound neural effects of advanced meditation and proposes a result-driven unifying model (TRoM) aimed at identifying the inextricably tied objective (neural) and subjective (experiential) effects of meditation.

Practice Matters: Pro-environmental Motivations and Diet-Related Impact Vary With Meditation Experience.

Mindfulness has emerged as a potential motivator for sustainable lifestyles, yet few studies provide insight into the relationship between mindfulness practice levels and individual engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. We also lack information about the significance of meditators’ behavioral differences in terms of their measurable environmental impact and the motivational processes underlying these differences in pro-environmental performance. We classified 300 individuals in three groups with varying meditation experience and compared their pro-environmental motivations and levels of animal protein consumption. Exceeding prior attempts to compare high-impact behaviors of mindfulness practitioners and non-practitioners, we created the most detailed classification of practice engagement by assessing frequency, experience and type of meditation practice. This nuanced view on mindfulness practice reveals that advanced meditators, who reported high levels of connectedness with nature (CWN), subjective happiness and dispositional mindfulness showed significantly more concern for the environment. They also demonstrated the lowest levels of greenhouse gas emissions, land occupation and water use related to their animal-protein consumption. This study is the first to follow a self-determination theory perspective to deepen our understanding of the motivational differences between meditator groups. We revealed that advanced meditators reported significantly more integrated motivation toward the environment than non-meditators. We also provided preliminary evidence for a new theoretical framework suggesting that experiential strategies such as mindfulness practices could strengthen the relational pathway of pro-environmental behaviors. Using sequential mediation analysis, we confirmed that the negative effect of mindful compassion practice on greenhouse gas emissions from animal-protein consumption is partially mediated by CWN and integrated motivation toward the environment. While our study does not support assumptions of causality, it shows that much can be learned by studying the motivations of advanced meditators for maintaining high levels of pro-environmental behavior.

Why Do People Begin to Meditate and Why Do They Continue?

ObjectivesStudies that have examined why people begin to meditate and why they stay with it are few and inconclusive. We looked at these questions in two comprehensive exploratory studies.MethodsIn study 1, meditation teachers were asked why participants in their courses might begin to meditate and why they might continue to do so. A qualitative analysis of their responses, together with suggestions from the literature, yielded 77 distinct reasons that were applicable to both beginners and advanced meditators. In study 2, 245 meditators (49 who had practiced for less than 1 year) rated how strongly these reasons applied to themselves. Exploratory factor analyses of the reasons both to begin and to continue meditation were conducted.ResultsWe found a large number of different categories that go beyond those identified in previous research. Reasons changed with increasing meditation practice, although spiritual goals tended to become more important only for practitioners with a spiritual background.ConclusionsOur results indicate that reasons for meditating are much more diverse than previously assumed and that they are influenced by practitioners’ spiritual background and their personality characteristics.

Evolution from four mental states to the highest state of consciousness: A neurophysiological basis of meditation as defined in yoga texts.

This chapter provides a theoretical introduction to states of consciousness and reviews neuroscientific investigations of meditation. The different states of consciousness consist of four mental states, i.e., cancalata (random thinking), ekagrata (non-meditative focusing), dharna (focused meditation), and dhyana (meditation) as defined in yoga texts. Meditation is a self-regulated mental process associated with deep relaxation and increased internalized attention. Scientific investigations on meditation reported changes in electrophysiological signals and neuroimaging measures. But most outcomes of meditation studies showed inconsistent results, this may be due to heterogeneity in meditation methods and techniques evolved in the last 200 years. Traditionally, the features of meditation include the capacity to sustain a heightened awareness of thoughts, behaviors, emotions, and perceptions. Generally, meditation involves non-reactive effortless monitoring of the content of experience from moment to moment. Focused meditation practice involves awareness on a single object and open monitoring meditation is a non-directive meditation involved attention in breathing, mantra, or sound. Therefore, results of few empirical studies of advanced meditators or beginners remain tentative. This is an attempt to compile the meditation-related changes in electrophysiological and neuroimaging processes among experienced and novice practitioners.

Exploring Emptiness and its Effects on Non-attachment, Mystical Experiences, and Psycho-spiritual Wellbeing: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Advanced Meditators

Wisdom-based Buddhist-derived practices (BDPs) are concerned with transmuting suffering by cultivating insight into the ultimate nature of both the self and reality. Arguably the most important wisdom-based BDP is emptiness (Sanskrit: śūnyatā) that implies that although phenomena are perceptible to the human mind, they do not intrinsically exist. Despite its significance in Buddhism, emptiness has received little empirical attention. Advancing scientific understanding of emptiness is important as it may yield novel insights not only into the nature of mind and reality, but also in terms of helping human beings realise more of their capacity for wisdom and wellbeing. This study recruited 25 advanced Buddhist meditators and compared emptiness meditation against a mindfulness meditation control condition within the same group of participants. Qualitative analytical techniques were also employed to investigate meditators' experiences of emptiness. Compared to the mindfulness control condition, emptiness meditation resulted in significantly greater improvements in non-attachment to self and environment, mystical experiences, compassion, positive affect, and negative affect. No significant relationship was observed between duration of emptiness meditation and any of the aforementioned outcome measures. Qualitative outcomes demonstrated that participants (i) combined concentrative and investigative meditation techniques to induce emptiness, (ii) elicited spiritually meaningful insights both during and following the meditation on emptiness, and (iii) retained volitional control over the content and duration of the emptiness meditation. Cultivating emptiness appears to be a means of reconnecting advanced Buddhist meditators to what they deem to be the innermost nature of their minds and phenomena.

After Awakening, the Laundry: Is Nonduality a Spiritual Experience?

Historically the exclusive purview of contemplative religious paths, awakening into nonduality was considered the pinnacle of human attainment, even if, in some traditions, it proved to be the threshold to even more sublime states. Awakening was traditionally available only to dedicated elite seekers, usually renunciates who practiced for years in monastic communities, their progress directed by the authorities of their lineage. Today technologies for creating the electroencephalographic signatures of advanced meditators are available for purchase, and esoteric religious practices like Zen meditation and asana yoga have been secularized as stress-reduction techniques and physical exercise, respectively. Increased numbers of teachers of nonduality not aligned with any religious lineage and requiring no religious belief are in the business of helping people awaken, i.e., achieve a discrete shift in awareness, in which the consensual, apparently manifest reality of normal waking, adult sensory experience is perceived to derive from a singular unmanifest source in a seamless whole. This study investigated whether people who awakened with the help of nonaligned teachers, usually after working with lineage teachers, considered their awakening to be a spiritual experience, and why? This qualitative study examined the awakening experiences of 26 adults of varying religious backgrounds to see how they interpreted them. Findings suggest that spiritual experiences involve non- or extraordinary features, in contrast to awakening and ongoing nonduality, considered to be the essence of ordinariness despite their being unlike consensual sensory reality. Awakening was not always easy or smooth, and the ramifications of its secularization outside a spiritual context are many.

Meditation-Induced Near-Death Experiences: a 3-Year Longitudinal Study

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are life transformational events that are increasingly being subjected to empirical research. However, to date, no study has investigated the phenomenon of a meditation-induced near-death experience (MI-NDE) that is referred to in ancient Buddhist texts. Given that some advanced Buddhist meditators can induce NDEs at a pre-planned point in time, the MI-NDE may make NDEs more empirically accessible and thus advance understanding into the psychology of death-related processes. The present study recruited 12 advanced Buddhist meditators and compared the MI-NDE against two other meditation practices (i.e. that acted as control conditions) in the same participant group. Changes in the content and profundity of the MI-NDE were assessed longitudinally over a 3-year period. Findings demonstrated that compared to the control conditions, the MI-NDE prompted significantly greater pre-post increases in NDE profundity, mystical experiences and non-attachment. Furthermore, participants demonstrated significant increases in NDE profundity across the 3-year study period. Findings from an embedded qualitative analysis (using grounded theory) demonstrated that participants (i) were consciously aware of experiencing NDEs, (ii) retained volitional control over the content and duration of NDEs and (iii) elicited a rich array of non-worldly encounters and spiritual experiences. In addition to providing corroborating evidence in terms of the content of a “regular” (i.e. non-meditation-induced) NDE, novel NDE features identified in the present study indicate that there exist unexplored and/or poorly understood dimensions to NDEs. Furthermore, the study indicates that it would be feasible—including ethically feasible—for future research to recruit advanced meditators in order to assess real-time changes in neurological activity during NDEs.

Mapping complex mind states: EEG neural substrates of meditative unified compassionate awareness.

Specific mental training cultivates diminished self-reference, encompassing non-duality, emptiness, awakened-awareness, and compassionate experiences. We aimed to elucidate the neural substrates of four distinct, interdependent Essence-of-Mind states: (1) timelessness, (2) non-preference, non-duality, non-conceptualization, (3) the view of luminosity and limitlessness, (4) unified compassionate experience of oneness (stable awakened-awareness). EEG data were collected from 30 advanced meditators concomitant to eyes-open/eyes-closed resting baseline, followed by 60-min of instructed practice. Alpha, beta, and gamma, frequency-spatial EEG-dimensions were analyzed. The results revealed that compared to baseline, current density across frequencies significantly decreased upon meditation onset in self-referential, and executive-control regions. During meditation, gamma-band current density significantly increased from state-1 compared to state-4, within the ACC, precuneus, and superior parietal lobule, whereas beta-band activity increased within the insula. These findings suggest a dissociation between brain regions regulating self-referential vs. executive-control processing, during non-dual, compassionate states, characterized by brilliantly awake awareness, free from conceptual thought and "doing".

TANTRA O YOGA. ESTUDIOS CLÍNICOS, 1ª PARTE: YOGA

Varios estudios clínicos muestran cómo los ejercicios de las tradiciones védicas, como el yoga, o budistas theravada o mahayana así como las prácticas tántricas tienen un impacto psicobiológico significativo. Este estudio busca el correlato neurofisiológico de las prácticas llamadas meditaciones tántricas y no-tántricas mediante una revisión sistemática cualitativa de los datos recolectados. Primero se verificaron los resultados de las no-tántricas, luego se recolectaron los datos de las tántricas, se las comparó y presentamos el resultado dividido en tres partes. En esta primera parte se encontró que las no-tántricas crean una mejor respuesta de relajación con actividad parasimpática incrementada e inhibición del sistema simpático, que induce un estado hipometabólico de descanso profundo donde el practicante permanece despierto y su atención, en «alerta tónica» con los síntomas correspondientes a ese estado hipometabólico -hipotonía, disminución del consumo de oxígeno, de la tasa cardíaca y de la concentración de lactato en sangre-, modificación del normal funcionamiento endócrino, aumentos en la concentración de fenilalanina en los meditadores avanzados, en los niveles de prolactina plasmática, un incremento de cinco veces en los niveles plasmáticos de arginina vasopresina, mientras que la hormona estimulante de la tiroides disminuye de forma crónica y aguda. Esta investigación abre el camino para desarrollar estudios clínicos longitudinales, para confirmar los efectos benéficos a largo plazo de las prácticas y establecer mecanismos para contrarrestar los secundarios indeseados mostrados aquí. AbstractSeveral clinical studies show how exercises in Vedic traditions, such as Yoga, or Theravada or Mahayana Buddhisms as well as tantric practices have a significant psychobiological impact. This study seeks the neurophysiological correlate of the practices called tantric and non-tantric meditations through a qualitative systematic review of the data collected. First the non-tantric meditations results were checked, then the tantric meditations data was collected, finally both were compared and we hereby report the results arranged in three sections. In this first section, it was found that non-tantric meditations create a better relaxation response with increased parasympathetic activity and inhibition of the sympathetic system, which induces a deep rest hypometabolic state where the practitioner remains awake and their attention, in "tonic alertness" with the symptoms corresponding to such hypometabolic state -hypotonia, decreased oxygen consumption, heart rate and blood lactate concentration- change in normal endocrine function, increased phenylalanine concentration in advanced meditators, increased plasma prolactin levels, a five-fold increase in arginine vasopressin plasma levels, while thyroid stimulating hormone decreases chronically and acutely. This research opens the door to conduct longitudinal clinical studies, to confirm the long-term beneficial effects of practices and establish mechanisms to counteract the unwanted side-effects herein presented.

Ānāpāna: Neuro-engineering of Mindfulness

Meditation benefits have been widely supported by many research works. It is considered a natural way of reducing stress, depression, and other anxiety disorders. However, meditation process is a breathe pursuing task that requires long time training to avoid the so-called mind wandering. In this work, we propose a neural-feedback system that detects when mind wanders and generates an audible signal, this way patient’s attention is recovered back again. Finally, we support our approach by testing the system on novice and advanced meditators.

Control over experience? Magnitude of the attentional blink depends on meditative state

The information processing capacity of the human mind is limited, as is evidenced by the so-called 'attentional-blink' deficit. This deficit is believed to result from competition between stimuli for limited attentional resources. We examined to what extent advanced meditators can manipulate their attentional state and control performance on an attentional blink task. We compared the magnitude of the attentional blink between states of focused attention meditation (in which one focuses tightly on an object) and states of open monitoring meditation (in which one is simply aware of whatever comes into experience) in a sample of experienced meditators. We found a smaller attentional blink during open monitoring compared to focused attention meditation due to reduced T1 capture. Of note, this effect was only found for very experienced meditators (on average 10,704 h of experience). These data may suggest that very advanced practitioners can exert some control over their conscious experience.

Electrocortical Activity Prior to Unpredictable Stimuli in Meditators and Nonmeditators

Advanced meditators occasionally report experiences of timelessness, or states of awareness that seem to transcend the usual boundaries of the subjective present. This type of experience was investigated in eight experienced meditators and eight matched controls by measuring 32 channels of EEG before, during, and after exposure to unpredictable light and sound stimuli. The experiment postulated that if some aspect of consciousness extends beyond the present moment, then prestimulus electrocortical signals should differ depending on stimuli that were about to be selected by a truly random process, and that if such experiences were catalyzed through meditation practice, then prestimulus differences should be more apparent in meditators than in nonmeditators. Each of the 32 EEG channels was baseline adjusted on each trial by the electrical potential averaged between two- and one-second prestimulus, then for each channel the average potential was determined from one-second prestimulus to stimulus onset. The resulting means across subjects in each group were compared by stimulus type using randomized permutation procedures and corrected for multiple comparisons. Within the control group, no EEG channels showed significant prestimulus differences between light versus sound stimulus conditions, but within the meditator group five of 32 channels resulted in significant differences (P < .05, two tailed). Comparisons between control and meditator groups showed significant prestimulus differences prior to audio tone stimuli in 14 of 32 channels (P < .05, two tailed, of which eight channels were P < .005, two tailed). This outcome successfully replicates effects reported in earlier experiments, suggesting that sometimes the subjective sense of awareness extending into the future may be ontologically accurate.

Across Cultural Boundaries: Psychophysiological Responses, Absorption, and Dissociation Comparison Between Brazilian Spiritists and Advanced Meditators

A psychophysiological study was conducted with two Brazilian claimant mediums and a non-medium living in Recife, Brazil and 7 North American advanced meditators from the esoteric school, Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment, located in Yelm, Washington. Results revealed specific incongruence in the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central autonomic nervous system (CNS). For Brazilians, there was a general reduction of sympathetic PNS vasoconstriction and increased muscle tension (EMG) during the imagined incorporation of spirits, and an increase in (EMG) and alpha wave percentage (EEG); both were paradoxical. Increase in frontal EMG while imagining spirit incorporation is consistent with a hypothesis of increased muscle tension possibly driven by intrusive cognitions and/or affect; however, the mediums reported feeling calm, not agitated. The non-medium control showed a large increase in EEG alpha wave percentage and decreased EMG in the eyes closed conditions. The mediums’ imagination condition was discrepant from what is typical during an eyes closed imagination condition, and EMG and EEG were positively correlated contrasting research findings from other studies revealing a negative correlation. This supports previous findings that physiological incongruence are frequent outcomes of individuals claiming mediumistic abilities; they are described as living episodically in two worlds (i.e., critical, rational, and practical; expansion and deepening of fantasy and emotional reactivity). As such, medium/mediumistic-like practitioners may be at risk for psychosomatic illnesses, but these descriptors do not particularly apply to the Brazilian control showing no noticeable incongruence. The advanced Ramtha meditators were not tested with an EEG, but also showed sympathetic activation during the meditation session and reported minimal/none negative affect. Incongruence between CNS and ANS are not unusual among spiritual practitioners, and other studies have noted sympathetic activation during meditation styles that use cognitive faculties and/or accelerated breathing (voluntary hyperventilation) techniques. The findings suggest medium/mediumistic-like practitioners may need to create “buffers” to maintain physical and emotional well being.

Dreams, Telepathy, and Various States of Consciousness

We are pleased to present this special edition on Dreams, Telepathy, and Various States of Consciousness. This edition includes a broad array of articles from well-known authors in the field that address topics such as anomalous experiences of mediums and advanced meditators, shamanic experiences, near-death experiences, experiences related to dreams and body wisdom, and the various ways that anomalous experiences can be conceptualized and categorized.

Cerebral blood flow differences between long-term meditators and non-meditators

We have studied a number of long-term meditators in previous studies. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are differences in baseline brain function of experienced meditators compared to non-meditators. All subjects were recruited as part of an ongoing study of different meditation practices. We evaluated 12 advanced meditators and 14 non-meditators with cerebral blood flow (CBF) SPECT imaging at rest. Images were analyzed with both region of interest and statistical parametric mapping. The CBF of long-term meditators was significantly higher (p<.05) compared to non-meditators in the prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, thalamus, putamen, caudate, and midbrain. There was also a significant difference in the thalamic laterality with long-term meditators having greater asymmetry. The observed changes associated with long-term meditation appear in structures that underlie the attention network and also those that relate to emotion and autonomic function.

Voices of Experienced Meditators: The Impact of Meditation Practice on Intimate Relationships

Using a qualitative methodology, we explored advanced meditators’ understandings of the effect of the meditation traits on close relationships. Seven participants were interviewed. The meditative traits that the participants identified were (1) awareness of body sensations and emotions; (2) disidentification from emotions and thoughts; (3) acceptance of situations, oneself, and others; and (4) compassion and loving kindness for oneself and others. The relational effects of these traits were (1) less reactivity in relationships; (2) greater freedom and safety in relationships; and (3) a new understanding of the nature of connection between people, marked by unity, separation, intimacy and independence. Implications for further research and for clinical practice are proposed.

Mastery of the Mind East and West

Western psychological research on positive psychology and Buddhism have recently converged in their emphasis on the development of positive states, like states of excellence and everyday happiness. Yet, these traditions differ in their approaches to positive states, with respect to a state-trait and doing-being distinction. Western scientific research on peak performance emphasizes discontinuous, time-limited peak performance states wherein individuals do things extraordinarily well in sports and in the arts. The Eastern spiritual traditions emphasize continuous excellence of being, in the form of traits or character strengths. In both traditions mental imagery is a key ingredient to excellence training. With respect to everyday happiness, Western psychological research has focused on the role of meaning systems in the transformation of flow states into vital engagement in everyday life, while Buddhism stresses the role of meditation training to gain mastery over all levels of mind that leads to everyday happiness. Rorschach and tachistoscopic research on advanced meditators suggests that advance meditators have gained unusual mastery over states of mind not yet documented in the Western psychological research on positive psychology.

New Beginnings: Evidence That the Meditational Regimen Can Lead to Optimization of Perception, Attention, Cognition, and Other Functions

A "framework" is presented for understanding empirically confirmed and unconfirmed phenomena in the Indo-Tibetan meditation system, from an integrative perspective, and providing evidence that certain meditative practices enable meditators to realize the innate human potential to perceive light "at the limits imposed by quantum mechanics," on the level of individual photons. This is part of a larger Buddhist agenda to meditatitively develop perceptual/attentional capacities to achieve penetrating insight into the nature of phenomena. Such capacities may also allow advanced meditators to perceive changes in natural scenes that are "hidden" from persons with "normal" attentional capacities, according to research on "change blindness," and to enhance their visual system functioning akin to high-speed and time-lapse photography, in toto allowing for the perception, as well as sophisticated understanding, of the "moment to moment change or impermanence" universally characteristic of the phenomenal world but normally outside untrained attention and perception according to Buddhist doctrine.

NONPHARMACOLOGIC TREATMENTS

Background: The benefits of meditation are well documented, but the biochemical mechanisms have not been fully identified. One effect mechanism may be via influence on neurotransmitters. Material and methods: Therefore, plasma melatonin and blood serotonin concentrations were measured before and after 1 hour of meditation in advanced male meditators (n = 27, mean age 46 years). They were compared with a matched reference group (n = 29, mean age 43 years) who rested for 1 hour. In the meditators, melatonin, and serotonin from before and after three consecutive hours of meditation were also compared. Results: Initially, the median melatonin level was 4.9 pg per milliliter in the meditators and 3.1 pg per milliliter in the reference group (P &lt; .01). After 1 hour of practice, melatonin had decreased to a median of 3.4 pg per milliliter in the meditators (P &lt; .0001), but was unchanged in the reference group. After 3 hours of meditation, melatonin had declined further in the meditators. After 1 hour of practice, serotonin concentrations decreased in both the meditators and the reference group (P &lt; .01). Conclusions: The findings suggest that advanced meditators have higher melatonin levels than nonmeditators. Melatonin decreases during long meditation, a finding the study does not explain. Serotonin declines after both 1‐hour meditation and rest, indicating that serotonin may be a marker of general rest and not meditation‐specific relaxation. Comments: Many small studies have evaluated the effects of melatonin on cluster and migraine. Here the authors summarize a relationship of melatonin, serotonin, meditation, and rest (the latter two variables clearly helpful in migraine). Does this help to explain why migraine tends to remit in sleep? Stewart J. Tepper