Transcendental Meditation and the Brain

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Last night I watched something about the human body and brain on National Geographic, and in it they did scans of people who meditate, such as Buddhist monks. What they revealed is that people who meditate can quite literally control their brain, and that the scans show that when they are meditating the left side of their brain lights up, and that there is better communication and coherence among the various brain structures.

In addition, those who meditate are found to have bigger brains than those who don't, and that the brain does not deteriorate as much as one ages (which you can read more about here: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/dai ... ation.html).

Here's a youtube video on it (not from National Geographic though):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1AalVxr5Tg[/youtube]


Interesting stuff, isn't it?

I used to be very deep into this, but then again I was also the one who thought humans dont use all of their brain so what do I know lol Whats more important than knowing why/how it works, is learning how to make it work. Its one of the most healthy things to do for your brain, and should be a manditory study in public schools, like the way foreign languages should. There isnt much to say for the American school systems so...

Herbert Benson did some interesting research on TM. The results are published, in popular form, in his book, The Relaxation Response and its sequels. What he found is that the same results claimed for TM can also be effected by silently repeating any mantra (or equivalent), especially one that is personally meaningful. At the same time, one observes one's thoughts without dwelling on them. When the mind begins to become distracted, one gently brings it back to the mantra.

Well, I may have just saved some people on the cost of purchasing his books (or on the TM courses).

TM is a profit-making business, but the actual idea behind meditation is good ... I think.

Although sometimes I worry that it can make someone too passive. It's good to get into a relaxed state, but surely it's also important to have an adrenalin rush every now and then?

Yes, TM is a branded, trademarked version of meditation that is sold for large sums of money. It does work, but so do many other types of meditation. You can spend as much or as little on meditation as you wish.

Any 'mantra' can calm the mind. The rosary has a similar effect - after about 15 minutes of doing that, peoples breathing and heart rate tend to settle into a very synchronized, harmonic pattern that is different from ordinary consciousness. It may be a change in breathing that does this - one study found that when people did the rosary and kept their breathing rate high (> 6 breathes per minute), the meditation effect didn't occur.

There is some evidence that OM is different from other mantras - sort of - but it is because is audible humming. The vibrations seem to activate some parts of the nervous system. It increases nitric oxide (among other things) and stimulates nerves in the chest.

I don't believe the 'we only use 10% of our brain' statistic, but lets assume it is true. I imagine it would hurt to remember everything at once. I want 99%+ of my memory banks quiet at any given moment. Likewise, for all the brain structures that can produce lots of chemicals that are strongly stimulatory and strongly sedative, I am glad those are not working 100% very often. I do not want to be very hungry and very full at the same time, or feel extremely hot and very cold all the time.

I think the 10% statistic might be true that only 10% of the brain is involved in conscious thought, but the other 90% is important for various other things. A lot of the brain is made up of support tissue (glial cells, blood vessels, etc). These don't 'think' the way nerve cells do, but we couldn't have a big brain without them.

I can't meditate at all. We tried to do it in class, but my brain doesn't shut up. But I'm fairly heavily left brained though, so I'm not sure I need meditation to make that side of my brain light up. It gets plenty of exercise with math. It's my right brain that's probably almost dead.