Over time, I have posted things that some here find to be 'woo’ or some such thing. Not having found out for sure what the term means, I merely project.
>From a major Buddhist and Scientific email group, I found the following post this morning. I emailed Lawrence and received his permission to copy his post here. So, some of what he says will clearly be out of context here without the posts before and after it. Yet, I fond the way he writes and some of the information he imparts to be of note so thought I’d share it here. While he will not be able to defend himself unless we invite him to join in, any sort of discussion you want to have about it would be nice. ================================ Hi Jan and everyone! Jan, I was hoping we were going to meet at the last AAPB meeting, that's the Assoc. for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, where we were both offering seminars on meditation last spring. I'm sorry you had to cancel at the last minute. I've been doing programs there and elsewhere on the science and art of meditation for many years. Perhaps we'll meet at the April meeting in Albuquerque. (www.aapb.org for those interested in learning about this organization) The research on physiological correlations of meditation go back into the 1950's where researchers put yogic meditators in a airtight box and discovered they used 50-60% less oxygen than was thought necessary to sustain life, and they got up and walked away perfectly fine afterwards! Almost the whole field of biofeedback grew out of early studies of yogis and Zen masters. It's always surprising to me how little the meditation researchers seem to be aware of the biofeedback and neurofeedback research and practice, though Rich Davidson was one of the keynote speakers at the AAPB conference a couple of years back. I'll be giving another half day seminar there on the science and art of meditation and yogic breathing. Breath work, pranayama and HRV, heartrate variability training, also have a profound impact on our physiology and state of conscousness. I use simple biofeedback equipment to teach mindfulness meditation practices to children and adult for everything from peak performance training for elite swimmers being coached by an olympic coach, to individuals with stress, anxiety, high blood pressure, PTSD, etc. Neurofeedback, which enables you to learn to directly control the brain, is used for treating ADHD, OCD, head trauma, PTSD, anxiety, autism, learning disorders, etc. These methods are also used for training meditation. I got into the field of biofeedback after teaching meditation for 25 years around the world and seeing that there were always people who couldn't get into the state of meditation. 11 years ago a colleague told me they were using biofeedback and neurfeedback to train people and that's when I added it to my practice. It's extremely beneficial for meditators and when used appropriately and skillfully for clinical disorders. One very important caveat we have to always be mindful of when discussing physiological correlates of meditation and states of consciousness is that tmany of he Eastern meditation disciplines come from an idealist, monistic philosophical perspective, not the materialist perspective that scientific research and western psychological perspectives adhere to. So the yogic, Hindu, Buddhist perspectives don't look to material causes for consciousness. Consciousness exists independent of the body/brain. So out-of-body experiences, past lives, post death, pre birth experiences are all possible and accepted as such, not needing to be dismissed as a materialist perspective needs to do because there is no material basis, no living brain present, to explain the basis for any such conscious experience. Thus scientism dismisses, explains away or pathologizes such experiences. So when the ordinary ego mind, conditioned by western materialist perspectives, attempts to understand "enlightenment", it does so from within this box. The meditaiton disciplines and practices are all about completely and utterly dissolving the box, even the notion, the experience of being bound by the brain/body and conditioned mind; a mind conditioned to be thoroughly identified with roles, gender, body, etc. While these meditative and yogic practices produce remarkable and measurable effects on the brain and body, ranging from changes in cortical thickness in specific areas of the brain, to frontal lobe changes, temporal lobe changes, lasting changes in alpha levels during waking state, immune system changes, lowering of blood pressure, lowering of cholesterol, etc., etc.,from the meditative perspective, these are all side-effects. The paradigm clash between the meditative perspectives and science has been written about for decades by Roger Walsh, Ken Wilber, etc. His Holiness the Dalai Lama can have wonderful, meaningful, invaluable conversations with physicists, neurologists, etc. and appear to be on the same page, but as soon as he brings up something like yogic masters being able to leave the body and enter another's body, the scientists suddenly head for the exits! Not literally, they laugh politely, as they did when this once happened, and mentally leave the discussion and bring it back to a domain they are familiar and comfortable with. State of enlightenment, or nirvana, "extinguished", having the condition mind and it's primal avidya, ignorance, and the desires and attachments this gives birth to extinguished, is a living state beyond whether the instrument of the brain is showing an orienting reflex and shutting down alpha rythms or not. The yogic/Buddhist literature is also clear that enlightenment doesn't necessarily involve siddhis, extraordinary powers. Ananda, Buddha's closest disciple became enlightened and didn't have powers, while others around Buddha became enlightened and did. It's irrelevant to the the enlightened state. However, to the ego mind, which is thoroughly conditioned to seek after power and efficacy in the ordinary world, powers are marvelously attractive and thus a very enticing trap. The instrument for measuring consciousness that would be refined enough to assess the changes in consciousness that are associated with enlightenment is consciousness itself. Thus a master, one with higher levels of refined consciousness, is always necessary. And whether material research ever finds a definitive set of neuro-physiological correlates to the sublime state of consciousness which we are capable of, with unbounded compassion, love, kindness and joy, will likely remain basically irrelevant to the dedicated practitioners and masters of yoga and meditation. The research does serve as a valuable bridge for many to see what meditation and yogic practices can do. This has given me and many teachers entry to lecturing in medical schools, hospitals, universities, etc. that wouldn't have been possible without the research. It is our body/high performance/ health conscious culture that has had its attention drawn to meditation and its benefits so that it gets written up in the Wall Street Journal, Time, etc., etc. It's great. And it reflects the desires and attachments of our culture for health, preserved youth, peak performance, competitive edge, etc. The mind move from the concrete to the abstract. I've had many clients who started these practices purely for the concrete health benefits and once they've had their migraines leave, their blood pressure drop, etc. they begin to discover that they have this innate capacity to experience an inner spaciousness of awareness within which the mind and body are preceived and beyond which lies an infinitude of simply being! It is a profound and truly awesome discovery to watch people make over and over again as they get beyond the limited confines of the ordinary condtioned ego mind. This is possible anywhere, everywhere with anyone and everyone. I've done probably 150 programs in prisons and seen individuals within even that horrifically stressful and bound environment changes their consciousness and tell me they are freer than they have ever been. Fleet Maul wrote a wonderful book called Dharma In Hell about living and teaching meditation and dharma to inmates while being one himself. What a great journey we are all on! May all our practices truly benefit everyone and may all beings become completely free of suffering. With great respect, Lawrence Edwards, Ph.D. Founder & Director The Anam Cara Foundation www.anamcara-ny.org www.optimalmind.net --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Memphis Freethought Alliance" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/memphisfreethoughtalliance?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
