Spiritual and Material Values "Every experience has its level of physiology, and so unbounded awareness has its own level of physiology which can be measured. Every aspect of life is integrated and connected with every other phase. When we talk of scientific measurements, it does not take away from the spiritual experience. We are not responsible for those times when spiritual experience was thought of as metaphysical. Everything is physical. Consciousness is the product of the functioning of the brain. Talking of scientific measurements is no damage to that wholeness of life which is present everywhere and which begins to be lived when the physiology is taking on a particular form. This is our understanding about spirituality: it is not on the level of faith --it is on the level of blood and bone and flesh and activity. It is measurable."
-Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Sigh... Does no-one read my posts? I try to keep them to a minimum these days... Here's a mainstream review article on mind-wandering that I already linked to: Towards a Neuroscience of Mind-Wandering http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full Towards a Neuroscience of Mind-Wandering http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full Mind wandering is among the most robust and permanent expressions of human conscious awareness, classically regarded by philosophers, clinicians a... View on journal.frontie... http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full Preview by Yahoo From the abstract: "...classically regarded by philosophers, clinicians, and scientists as a core element of an intact sense of self." Further in" "MW serves “self” functions As detailed in the context of strategy B1, there are theoretical (Gallagher, 2000 http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full#B20), neuroanatomical (Gusnard, 2005 http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full#B28; Northoff et al., 2006 http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full#B45), and intuitive grounds to claim that MW is a self-related cognitive function, which serves to create and maintain an integrated, meaningful sense of self out of various aspects of self-related information and cognition. Northoff et al. (2006) http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00056/full#B45, for instance, conceptualizes MW as a “psychological baseline,” a form of continuous self-referential processing which is evident during non-task conditions and which ultimately forms our subjective experience of a “continuous stream of subjective experience” or “phenomenal time” where past, present, and future are no longer divided but integrated." Maharishi has always (in my memory) described TM as mind-wandering, allowing the mind to wander in the direction of greatest happiness, which he described as pure consciousness, pure self-referral consciousness, so his descriptions of the process of TM allowing the mind to settle down into its state of least excitation, while saying that that is pure self-referral consciousness, is supported by Western scientific concepts of self. Several studies published over the years have examined the physiological functioning of someone reporting pure consciousness during TM. The very concept of using science to study meditation and spirituality was proposed by Maharishi back as early as 1957. By 1959, _Hermit in My House_ described his students building a dark-room shack in the backyard of the Olson's house so they could photograph TMers in an attempt to catch "subtle glow" from meditator's faces. That never worked out, but the scientific research program on studying the physiology of meditation has been ongoing ever since, especially with the publication of R Keith Wallace's PhD research in Science in 1970. I quoted Maharishi's take on researching meditation at the start of this message. Research on pure consciousness during TM, and so on: Electrophysiologic characteristics of ... [Psychosom Med. 1984 May-Jun] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6377350 Electrophysiologic characteristics of ... [Psychosom Med. 1984 May-Jun] - PubMed - ... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6377350 PubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. View on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6377350 Preview by Yahoo Autonomic patterns during respiratory suspe... [Psychophysiology. 1997] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9009807 Autonomic patterns during respiratory suspe... [Psychophysiology. 1997] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9009807 PubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. View on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9009807 Preview by Yahoo Pure consciousness: distinct phenomenological... [Int J Neurosci. 2000] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10512549 Pure consciousness: distinct phenomenological... [Int J Neurosci. 2000] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10512549 PubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. View on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10512549 Preview by Yahoo A self-referential default brain state: pattern... [Cogn Process. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19862565 A self-referential default brain state: pattern... [Cogn Process. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19862565 PubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. View on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19862565 Preview by Yahoo Comparison of coherence, amplitude, and ... [Int J Psychophysiol. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21726586 Comparison of coherence, amplitude, and ... [Int J Psychophysiol. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21726586 PubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites. View on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21726586 Preview by Yahoo ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <seerdope@...> wrote : Sparaig said: " TM practice strengthens "sense of self." Samadhi, or pure consciousness, during TM, also happens to be the point where the relaxed mind-wandering activity of the brain associated in Western science with "sense of self" happens to be greatest." ---------------- What are the brain and physiological parameters that establish that a subject is in Samadhi? Same for "mind-wandering" activity of brain correlated with "sense of self" (individuality)? If there are brain and physiological parameters that establish that a subject is in Samadhi, then is Samadhi brain (and physiologically) dependent? Or is postulated that brain function is not a causal factor for Samadhi, but rather Samadhi causes these brain changes? If so, how was this established? If Samadhi is brain dependent, then established Samadhi (permanent in this life, coexistent with activity) would not be sustained upon death of the body. That would be inconsistent with significant portions of traditional literature that, among other things, state that established Samadhi perseveres after death of the body. Which in turn would then ten to place all statements in such traditional literature in question.
