Health applications and clinical studies of meditation
Scenes of Inner Taksang, temple hall, built just above the cave where Padmasambhava meditated
In their review of scientific studies of meditation, published in the International Journal of Psychotherapy, Perez-De-Albeniz and Holmes identified the following behavioral components of meditation:
1. relaxation,
2. concentration,
3. altered state of awareness,
4. suspension of logical thought processes, and
5. maintenance of self-observing attitude.
Scenes of Inner Taksang, temple hall, built just above the cave where Padmasambhava meditated
In their review of scientific studies of meditation, published in the International Journal of Psychotherapy, Perez-De-Albeniz and Holmes identified the following behavioral components of meditation:
1. relaxation,
2. concentration,
3. altered state of awareness,
4. suspension of logical thought processes, and
5. maintenance of self-observing attitude.
The medical community has studied the physiological effects of meditation. Many concepts of meditation have been applied to clinical settings in order to measure its effect on somatic motor function as well as cardiovascular and respiratory function. Also the hermeneutic and phenomenological aspects of meditation are areas of growing interest. Meditation has entered the mainstream of health care as a method of stress and pain reduction. In 1976, the Australian psychiatrist Ainslie Meares, reported in the Medical Journal of Australia, the regression of cancer following intensive meditation. Meares wrote a number of books on the subject, including his best-seller Relief without Drugs.
As a method of stress reduction, meditation is often used in hospitals in cases of chronic or terminal illness to reduce complications associated with increased stress including a depressed immune system. There is growing agreement in the medical community that mental factors such as stress significantly contribute to a lack of physical health, and there is a growing movement in mainstream science to fund research in this area (e.g. the establishment by the NIH in the U.S. of 5 research centers to research the mind-body aspects of disease.)
Dr. James Austin, a neurophysiologist at the University of Colorado, reported that Zen meditation rewires the circuitry of the brain in his landmark book Zen and the Brain (Austin, 1999). This has been confirmed using functional MRI imaging which examines the activity of the brain.
Dr. Herbert Benson of the Mind-Body Medical Institute, which is affiliated with Harvard and several Boston hospitals, reports that meditation induces a host of biochemical and physical changes in the body collectively referred to as the "relaxation response." The relaxation response includes changes in metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and brain chemistry. Benson and his team have also done clinical studies at Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayan Mountains.
Other studies within this field include the research of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts who have studied the effects of mindfulness meditation on stress.
Potential hazards
There is anecdotal evidence that meditation can cause some people to experience psychotic episodes, particularly in those with a history of mental illness, or those who submit themselves to long meditation retreats without prior meditation experience.
Meditation in popular fiction
Various forms of meditation have been described in popular culture sources. In particular, science fiction stories such as Frank Herbert's Dune, Star Trek, Star Wars, Maskman and Stargate SG-1 have featured characters who practice one form of meditation or another. Usually these practices are inspired by real-world meditation traditions, but sometimes they have very different methods and purposes.
Source : Wikipedia
As a method of stress reduction, meditation is often used in hospitals in cases of chronic or terminal illness to reduce complications associated with increased stress including a depressed immune system. There is growing agreement in the medical community that mental factors such as stress significantly contribute to a lack of physical health, and there is a growing movement in mainstream science to fund research in this area (e.g. the establishment by the NIH in the U.S. of 5 research centers to research the mind-body aspects of disease.)
Dr. James Austin, a neurophysiologist at the University of Colorado, reported that Zen meditation rewires the circuitry of the brain in his landmark book Zen and the Brain (Austin, 1999). This has been confirmed using functional MRI imaging which examines the activity of the brain.
Dr. Herbert Benson of the Mind-Body Medical Institute, which is affiliated with Harvard and several Boston hospitals, reports that meditation induces a host of biochemical and physical changes in the body collectively referred to as the "relaxation response." The relaxation response includes changes in metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and brain chemistry. Benson and his team have also done clinical studies at Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayan Mountains.
Other studies within this field include the research of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts who have studied the effects of mindfulness meditation on stress.
Potential hazards
There is anecdotal evidence that meditation can cause some people to experience psychotic episodes, particularly in those with a history of mental illness, or those who submit themselves to long meditation retreats without prior meditation experience.
Meditation in popular fiction
Various forms of meditation have been described in popular culture sources. In particular, science fiction stories such as Frank Herbert's Dune, Star Trek, Star Wars, Maskman and Stargate SG-1 have featured characters who practice one form of meditation or another. Usually these practices are inspired by real-world meditation traditions, but sometimes they have very different methods and purposes.
Source : Wikipedia
