Science of Meditation & Prayer
Last updated
Last updated
Meditation is a practice that requires mindfulness. Contrary to what some people believe, its goal is not to empty the mind of thoughts, but to experience them objectively. That is to say, you experience your thoughts, feelings, and memories as if they were leaves floating down a stream. You watch them all come and go, holding on to nothing. You pay attention only to the moment youβre living in, but itβs deep attention, which accepts both the painful and the pleasant experiences.
π"First of all. It is helpful to understand that meditation is not just about feeling good. To think that this is why we meditate is to set ourselves up for failure. Even the most experienced meditator experiences psychological and physical pain. Meditation takes us just as we are. This acceptance of ourselves is called maitri - or unconditional friendliness - a direct relationship with the way we are." Pema Chodron, the Pocket
Daniel Goleman is a psychologist, lecturer, and science journalist whose latest book is Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body, which he has co-authored with Richard Davidson reveals the science of what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it.
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.
Researchers have been pouring more effort into studying the exact effects of meditation on human physiology. A very recent study was just released (July 2016) which discovered how meditating for only 3 days can change your brain and body even up to 4 months down the road.
In 2011, researchers at Harvard were among the first to demonstrate that just eight weeks of mindfulness meditation training caused significant increase in the thickness of the hippocampus.
The same team of Harvard researchers also found that mindfulness meditation decreases brain cell volume in the amygdala, the part of our brain responsible for fear, anxiety and stress.
Since focusing our attention on an object (ex: breath or mantra) is one of the central practices of meditation, itβs no surprise that meditation should help improve our ability to focus and be less susceptible to distractions. Improved concentration and attention is one of the most well-studied benefits of meditation.
How this happens is actually quite simple. When we focus our mind, we activate the frontal cortex and increase blood flow to this area. If we do this enough times, we start to see that enhanced blood flow activity become more stable. This activity leads to the growth of grey matter (known as cortical thickening) and can be seen in the brains of meditators. [3]
Empathy is about reading others β itβs defined as the ability to understand the feelings of another. Compassion is something different β itβs about sympathetic concern for the suffering of another or oneself. In the past 10 years, research has consistently shown that meditation enhances both of these qualities. These benefits are traced to a brain region known as the insula.
The insula is a key player in self-awareness and empathy for emotions. It enables us to be mindful of our own emotional reactions, as well as better read and understand those of others. The more empathic people are, the more the insula lights up when we witness emotions in other. Meditators show enhanced activity in the insula and greater cortical thickness in this region. More recent studies have also shown that meditation increases compassionate responses to the suffering of others.
The human brain starts to decrease in volume and weight as we age, but research has shown that long-term meditators have better preserved brains that non-meditators, as they age. They have more grey matter volume and while older meditators still had some volume loss, it wasnβt as pronounced as the older non-meditators.
Meditation also helps to protect our telomeres, the protective caps at the end of our chromosomes. Telomeres are longest when weβre young and naturally shorten as we age. Shorter telomeres are associated with stress and higher risk for many diseases including cancer, and depend on the telomerase enzyme to enable them to rebuild and repair.
Researchers at the University of California were the first to show that meditators have significantly higher telomerase activity than non-meditators. Their findings have since been replicated.
Summarized by Elissa Epel, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, shorter telomere length in cells is linked with poorer immune system functioning, cardiovascular disease, and degenerative conditions like osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease. The shorter the length of our telomeres, the more susceptible our cells are to dying and the more susceptible we are to disease, as we get older.
Telomere shortening happens naturally as we age, but research now shows that it can be accelerated by stress, speeding up the aging process of the body.
In 2004, Epel and her team found that that psychological stress is significantly correlated with shorter telomere length in leukocytes, antibody cells that fight disease. The study compared telomere length of premenopausal mothers caring for a chronically ill child and pre-identified to have higher objective stress to telomere length of mothers with a healthy child with lower objective stress. As predicted, the first group facing more environmental stress had significantly shorter telomere length and lower telomerase activity than the control group of mothers.
An even more striking finding was that high levels of perceived stress in both groups of women, regardless of circumstance and controlling for effects of the normal aging process, was also significantly associated with shorter telomere length and lower telomerase levels. Women with the highest levels of perceived stress in the study had telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of one decade of additional aging compared to low-stress women. These results strongly suggest that both chronic environmental stress as well as perceived stress may induce premature aging.
Given that mindfulness practice has been historically connected to reduced ruminative thinking and stress, Epel's research team suggested in a 2009 follow-up paper that mindfulness meditation may also have potential positive effects on preservation of telomere length and telomerase activity.
In 2013, Elizabeth Hoge, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, investigated this idea by leading a study comparing telomere length of experienced loving-kindness meditation (LKM) practitioners with that of non-meditators. Results revealed that those with more years of meditation practice had longer telomere length overall, and that women meditators had significantly longer telomeres as compared to women non-meditators. These findings further support meditation's positive effect on healthy cellular aging and provide fodder for future longitudinal research that could track change in telomere length over time. [4]
At a base level, we can say that meditation is simply a practice of breath air. Air is so good for our health that Israeli scientists have used oxygen therapy to reverse aging.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy extends life, the telomeres, and everything
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases telomere length and decreases immunosenescence in isolated blood cells: a prospective trial
https://www.aging-us.com/article/202188/text
[insert it's the thought that counts research]
Wim Hof, also known as The Iceman, is a Dutch motivational speaker and extreme athlete noted for his ability to withstand freezing temperatures and other general feats of mind over matter. He attributes these feats to his Wim Hof Method (WHM), a combination of frequent cold exposure, breathing techniques, yoga and meditation. Hof has been the subject of several medical assessments and a book by investigative journalist Scott Carney.
A wide range of claims are made for the beneficial effects of the Method for human health. While a reduced inflammatory response due to hyperventilation has been documented, as well as suppression of injected endotoxins, Hof's other claims regarding the health benefits of the Method have not been scientifically proven.
One 2018 study of Wim Hof published in the journal NeuroImage used a combination of fMRI and PET/CT imaging to find
. . . forceful respiration results in increased sympathetic innervation and glucose consumption in intercostal muscle, generating heat that dissipates to lung tissue and warms circulating blood in the pulmonary capillaries. Our results provide compelling evidence for the primacy of the brain (CNS) rather than the body (peripheral mechanisms) in mediating the Iceman's [Wim Hof's] responses to cold exposure.[28]
A 2012 study of Wim Hof by a group of researchers in The Netherlands and published by the journal Psychosomatic Medicine found that his "concentration/meditation during ice immersion" greatly reduced Hoff's "ex vivo proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokine response":
The concentration/meditation technique used by this particular individual seems to evoke a controlled stress response. This response is characterized by sympathetic nervous system activation and subsequent catecholamine/cortisol release, which seems to attenuate the innate immune response.[29]
People have died while attempting the Wim Hof Method.[30][31] Four practitioners of the WHM drowned in 2015 and 2016, and relatives suspected the breathing exercises were to blame.[30][31] Hof now cautions against using his method when diving or driving due to the possibility of blackout.[25]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof
Wim Hof uses Meditation to Cure Illness in his Body
Meet Wim Hof
Is prayer good for our health? Is prayer different from meditation?
A prayer is a mental or verbal request for help or an expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship. On a base level, we can say a prayer is a thought-wave. It can come in many forms such as: giving thanks (thank you for my health), making an intention (I pray for good things to come my way), or asking for help (I pray for strength to help my through this tough time).
πβA prayer that is strong and deep will definitely receive Godβs answer....By the application of science in religion, your uncertain belief in spiritual possibilities can become realization of their highest fulfillment.β - Paramahansa Yogananda
