Hi, this is Ken Rose from Outtakes and Fresh Starts on Substack. This week’s podcast is an excerpt from chapter two of The Neural Mystic, a book that I am writing based on courses that I have taught at the college level and on Embodied Philosophy, anonline yoga and alternative spirituality platform.
If you liked this post, consider sharing it.
If you haven’t already subscribed, you can here:
More of my writing in written and spoken form is available on Amazon
The information presented in this post is the author’s opinion and does not constitute any health or medical advice. The content of this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease. Please seek advice from your healthcare provider for your personal health concerns.
Notes for This Podcast (See the post on Substack for the context of the footnotes):
1 Chris Walsh, “Mindfulness Training,” www.cwalsh.com.au; Carolyn Schatz, “Mindfulness meditation improves connections in the brain,” Harvard Health Blog, April 8, 2011; Michael D. Mrazek, Michael S. Franklin, Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Benjamin Baird, and Jonathan W Schooler, “Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering,” Psychological Science, Mar 28, 2013 DOI: 10.1177/0956797612459659; Kimberly Sarah Tay, “Effects of Breathing Practice in Vinyasa Yoga on Heart Rate Variability in University Students,” University of Arizona BA Thesis, 2015, http://hdl.handle.net/10150/579419; Yi-Yuan Tang, Qilin Lu, Hongbo Feng, Rongxiang Tang and Michael I. Posner, “Short-term meditation increases blood flow in anterior cingulate cortex and insula,” Frontiers in Psychology June 2015 (212), doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00212; A. Nesvold, M. W. Fagerland, S. Davanger, et al., “Increased heart rate variability during nondirective meditation,” European Journal of Preventive Cardiology 19(4) (2012): 773-780, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21693507/.
2 Chiesa, A. and A. Serretti. 2010. “A Systematic Review of Neurobiological and Clinical Features of Mindfulness Meditations,” Psychological Medicine 40.8: 1239-52, doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709991747, and https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/systematic-review-neurobiological-clinical/docview/577669987/se-2?accountid=10100.
Some caveats: Some of the authors of these studies point out that it’s unclear whether these outcomes are due to meditation or other factors. They also note that the studies are weakened by inadequate methodologies. For a comprehensive metastudy of research on meditation, see Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (also published as The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body).
