#111 — The Science of Meditation
In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson about the current scientific understanding of meditation practice. They speak about the original stigma associated with meditation, the history of introspection in eastern and western cultures, the recent collaboration between Buddhism and western science, the difference between altered states and altered traits, an alternate conception of mental health, “meta-awareness,” the relationship between mindfulness and “flow,” the difference between pain and suffering, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and other topics.
Daniel Goleman, known for his bestselling books on emotional intelligence, has a long-standing interest in meditation dating back to his two years in India as a graduate student at Harvard. A psychologist who for many years reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times, Dr. Goleman previously was a visiting faculty member at Harvard. Dr. Goleman has received many journalistic awards for his writing, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize for his articles in the Times, and a Career Achievement award for journalism from the American Psychological Association.
Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in psychology and has been at Wisconsin since 1984. Davidson has published more than 320 articles, as well as numerous chapters and reviews, and edited fourteen books. His research has received many awards.
Their most recent book is Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body.
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Meditation has a neurological basis but the ancients were of the view that the brain is simply an instrument to connect to subtler states of consciousness with consciousness considered rarefied stuff whose gross effect is mass-energy thereby making the entire universe a conscious entity.
In 1900, Jagdish Chandra Bose, using his crescograph, demonstrated the innate presence of consciousness in metal, plant and animal.
With the ancients, the nervous system and brain were the repository of the less complex states of consciousness, while they opined that exalted universal states of consciousness existed without and could be tapped into via the subjective meditational states with their concomitant powers or phenomena.
Science has yet to arrive at this understanding which could be spot on or hallucinatory.
The hard problem of consciousness is a huge stumbling block for our sciences.
However, there exist numerous instances that largely go unreported of psychics manifestating marvellous paranormal faculties one of which is the well known remote viewing faculty that greatly interested American military agencies who reported success in remote viewing experiments under Dr Dean Radin, ex-Director of the wellknown Stargate project that ran for 20 years.
Healing with a glance, mind reading, levitation, knowing the past, present and future, calling on disembodied conscious formations etc are other interesting psychic faculties supposedly exhibited by the adepts at SSRF, India.
Premonitory dreams that fulfill themselves to the last detail in future is a mystery to science that remains stuck in the objective aspect of existence but has no clue about the subjective side through direct evidence.