Scientific American Mind (website) has a brief article on the science of meditation in its February/March 2006 issue which may be worth a look. But gee, why can’t the editors find a writer who actually knows the field, and devote more than two pages to the topics?

Consider the following:

Neuroscientists have shown that by altering brain-wave patterns, meditation purges negative thoughts.

Umm, not exactly.

What if a person could add 20 minutes of meditation, twice a day, to his deaily routine of 309 minutes on the treadmill and achieve physical and mental harmony?

Well Gee whiz. Why did it take mankind 10,000 years to figure that out?

What is more, if he (Clifford Saron, a UC Davis researcher who wants to do a one-year “Biosphere”-like study of meditators) can identify a brain region that brings about inner peace…

Yep, if we could just find that region…it must be there somewhere!

Picture credit: NOVARTIS VISIONS OF SCIENCE 2003/TOM BARRICK

This image, entitled Pathways of the Mind, was created at St George’s Hospital Medical School by Tom Barrick, using a magnetic resonance imaging scanner that measures the way in which water moves around the brain. It was one of the prize winners in the Visions of Science photographic awards.

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/content/vol331/issue7522/images/small/17926.gif

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 17:49 and is filed under neurotheology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.