On Jan 14, 2009, at 1:02 PM, sparaig wrote:
"Patterns of EEG coherence, power, and contingent negative
variation characterize the
integration of transcendental and waking states"
There are others, but this is the one with the complete article
available online via
pub med.
As far as I am aware there is no standard neurological definition of
"transcendental consciousness", so they made up their own definition.
It's self-defined--and therefore quite meaningless--beyond TB's and
people who buy the marketing spiel.
This is probably why the Cambridge Handbook of Neuroscience
considered it a problem to make a claim "about the ultimate meaning
or nature of
the state attained". It doesn't really tell you anything other than
'we're claiming this is significant because it's "transcendental
consciousness" becasue we say it is'. As the Cambridge Handbook
comments: "Thus, from the vantagepoint of the researcher who stands
outside the tradition, it is crucial to separate the highly detailed
and verifiable aspects of traditional knowledge about meditation from
the transcendental claims that form the metaphysical or theological
context of that knowledge." It's not enough to say "here is nirvana"
or here is "witnessing". And it certainly demonstrates nothing
outside of EEG correlates seen in the normal EEG's of waking,
dreaming or sleeping humans. This is why neuroscientists are by and
large, underwhelmed by these type of claims.
It's also why the TMO needs to desperately to use high marketing spin
to mask the ho-hum--or simply bad--"science".
