- The benefits of mindfulness meditation, increasingly popular in recent years, are supposed to be many: reduced stress and risk for various diseases, improved well-being, a rewired brain. But the experimental bases to support these claims have been few. Supporters of the practice have relied on very small samples of unrepresentative subjects, like isolated Buddhist monks who spend hours meditating every day, or on studies that generally were not randomized and did not include placebo control groups.
I'm glad to see meditation getting attention. I recently started meditating after reading Waking Up by Sam Harris and 10% Happier by Dan Harris. Both are well worth the read (I recommend the audiobook versions, both of which are narrated by the author). Waking Up goes into the science of meditation, drugs, and the illusion of the self. There is also a great deal of discussion about the eastern religions (primarily hinduism and buddhism). Sam Harris gets a lot of flack from the philosophical community, because he makes claims without engaging with the current philosophical literature, but he mostly keep this book in the domain of his own study (neuroscience). 10% Happier is more biographical. Dan Harris talks about his journey from the beginning of his career to the time of his writing the book.
I have only recently begun meditating in earnest. I was introduced to Sam Harris via the below guided meditation that cW shared with me. I am enjoying it. Any other such guided meditations would be welcome if you have suggestions:
His guided meditations are great. I've been using the 'Calm' and 'Stop, Breathe, & Think' apps. Calm has good guides, but I think I might switch full time to SBT since you have to have a subscription to access a majority of Calm's content. SBT, on the other hand, has less content over all, but more of it is available to you for free. SBT also seems to be less guiding than Calm. It helps you with the setup and leaves the rest to you. That can be good or bad depending on your perspective. I've also heard that 'Headspace' is a good app for GMs. I haven't used it though. 10% Happier has an app, too. I wanted to try it, but it's only available on iOS.
Are you sure they help? It seems they somewhat add another layer of distraction? I have to launch it. I have to listen to it or something, I have to recharge my phone for it to work. And you're not competing, you can stay a 'beginner', no need to become 'better" at it, it's not a race. I guess it might help to "force" you into meditating. Yeah it's fair.
I can see what you mean. For me, the value of guided meditations is in reminding you when you're lost in thought. They can help to refocus your attention when you otherwise wouldn't have. As for getting 'better', I'll agree that it's not a race, but naturally, when you practice something repeatedly and consistently, you increase your skill in that area. Mindfulness is a skill that is exercised trough meditation.
Glad you dug it, thenewgreen, and thanks for the post, vile. In my experience, guided meditations (whether app or audio file or live) can really go one way or another. Some create that extra layer ooli is talking about, making it even harder to escape the thought-snarl, and some surgically detach you from it. Not sure, but probably that style which functions best for one depends upon one. Sam Harris's deployment is some of the most effective I've experienced, personally. It makes good sense to me, though, that guided meditation COULD work wonders for the one meditating, whether beginner or experienced. As near as I can science my way through this, when it works, it works by engaging the language centers of the brain. These same language centers might otherwise be spooling out an endless torrent of thought, drama, narrative, analysis, and all the rest of that which obscures the bliss of being in the present moment. The guided meditation, if executed deftly, occupies these centers without arousing criticism or accelerating the thought stream. In this sense, in my opinion, it performs the same primary function of the mantra, which drives other words off the tongue/mind by occupying that space, and thereby prevents more complex thought-forms from building in the mindspace. It's much the same principle by which drishti organizes vision and focus in yoga. Anyhow, that's how it all shakes out for me. I frequently meditate in silence, but as silence is so hard to come by, and also for their many wonderful properties, I frequently meditate to the accompaniment of the singing bowls -- and if the mantra/guide feels absent, toning works well too. Here's a few tracks I have really benefited from: This guy does some great composite crystal singing bowl tracks: Emile de Leon gives you 70 minutes, all 7 chakras! Don't really know if others share these leaps I've offered, but I owe my extrapolations to a great segment on Radiolab concerning language and bliss, and numerous conversations with my behaviorist colleague. Happy transcending.
The main problem I have with guided meditation is that it seems like a "crutch" for your mind. Of course it depends why you want to meditate. If you want to de-stress a little or to relieve yourself from the bombardment your senses get from everyday life, then they are probably a good resource for you, and these days I'm sure you can find one or several that are suitable for you. I started meditating because of an internal desire. It grew over a period of about 3 years and got so strong I was compelled to do something about it. I researched and practised with plenty of techniques and groups that teach meditation. There weren't any guided meditations at that time though, but I'm kind of glad for that because I had to struggle with lots of different ideas from a wide variety of sources. I eventually realised the reason I wanted to meditate is to understand my own mind in all its infinite glory. For my needs those guides don't help at all. I also think if your reason to meditate is similar they will probably hold you back. I really like your explanation of how they work, although it's different from my point of view. I'm also aware that I've learned a different model of how the mind and meditation work so our perspectives are different. That's good though, there is no single answer here I think, which is why you see so many different ideas, opinions and experiences.
This _is_ really good and instructive, so much so that I have to ask follow up questions. There are surely many different types of meditation, and I think that not just the means, but also the goals, can be widely divergent. From some things you've said, it sounds like this is the case with our respective experiences/intentions, and so I'm curious. In particular, you mention that your goal that became clear was the understanding of your mind. The purpose of my chosen style of meditation is not any kind of learning, or gaining knowledge, (although discoveries do invariably occur) or in the doing of anything, in fact. Rather, it is an active pursuit of non-doing, to borrow from the Taoists (I think). The non-doing is not the end in itself, but rather, is the vehicle to transcending the sphere of the self, to tapping into the state where my self is indistinguishable from the what-else-that-there-is. And this all sounds rather abstract, of course, since I'm trying to say it, but the experience is really that of bliss, of deep connection, and resolution. So, yes, it does facilitate relaxation and de-stressing, but that is really just an inevitable consequence of tapping into sources/underlying realities, as I have experienced it. But what I want to ask you is this: what kind of knowledge of the self can be harvested in your style of meditation? And what, if you are willing to discuss, are its methods? Regarding the crutch, I think that's apt. However, I would also like to point out how incredibly useful crutches can be for those with atrophied muscles/lack of skillsets. Training wheels might be another apt metaphor. They get you going fast enough so that two wheels is all you'll ever need thereafter. The important thing is remembering to take them off when they start to become a hindrance, rather than an aid.
I didn't mean to imply there's anything wrong with guided meditation. Like you say, they can be extremely helpful, just don't rely on them and throw the baby out with the bath water. You mentioned yoga and so my meditation is a yogic style which uses a mantra, (with some other techniques too). I did promise not to share the method or techniques though, sorry. Not because they are sacred or secretive, but to avoid distorting them by my own misunderstanding or lack of "book" knowledge. What I can share though is that what I've learned is based on some important ideas. The key idea I think is that we are aware of our own existence - we can use our mind to observe itself. If you follow that idea down the philosophical rabbit hole you end up with what the yogis call self-awareness. You put it very well - "the state where my self is indistinguishable from the what-else-that-there-is". The question then is, who or what is that self, really? For me the reason for meditation is trying to answer that question. Part of the process are 3 preparatory steps - to withdraw your mind from the physical environment, then from the body and finally from itself. Then you begin your meditation in earnest. That's why I think guided meditation is incompatible, because it is rooted firmly in that first step. I was careful to phrase my goal as "understanding my own mind" somewhat sneakily because I don't want to put anyone off with terminology or the inevitable philosophical debate about what the mind or the self is. I do like those musings though, but they can be esoteric and abstract and no-one needs that as their introduction to meditation. Since you've obviously thought deeply about those topics, I'll be frank. The desire that grew within me is not for mundane knowledge, but self-awareness or self-enlightenment. I think our aims are probably more similar than they might appear, just framed with different terminology and a different perspective. "the vehicle to transcending the sphere of the self." - whatever that hell that actually means :)
35 is very a low sample size. Especially if half are in a control group. A few month back someone posted an article here. The journalist tested a theory. If I remember well, his conclusion was that eating chocolate is good for your blood pressure or something. The news made some national media headline. It was bullshit. He pointed out that you can prove anything with a small sample size and enough markers. If you test "unhealthy inflammation in the blood" and Inventoxin level And Bullshiting Lymphocit and blood pressure. and ... Of course one of these marker will eventually show something positive for the meditating group (like it did for the chocolate eater group) 35 is a very low sample size. And unhealthy inflammation, is a very specific marker to conclude anything. And brain activity is probably higher if you ask people to concentrate, instead of asking them to small talk.
I have a rebuttal: I hope you read it with an open mind. I don't think you're wrong. I just think that there is a flip side (an upside) to the coin that you are not considering. I want to point out that the original study they measured IL-6 levels. IL-6 is a pretty specific inflammation marker - I think the author of the article uses "unhealthy inflammation" for better readability. The study claims that they can attribute 30% of the decrease they found in IL-6 levels from pretreatment to a 4-month follow-up can be attributed to mindful meditation. *bingo -- this is why I agree with you on the results of the study are probably not as significant as what the NYT article suggests. The authors of the original study do some statistical magic to arrive at this 30% number. Studies have to start somewhere... You have to have some basis before going to larger - more impactful trials. No one is going to fund or carry-out a study for 350 patients without having some data in smaller sample sizes before. So, sure, smaller sample size study outcomes carry less weight/influence - but that doesn't mean they are all bullshit just because they have a small number. Small sample size studies serve the purpose for initial investigation - their impact SHOULD remain small but doesn't make it insignificant if a real difference is found. And I think it is great that this study was done - alone it probably doesn't mean much - but it could lay the groundwork for more - larger - studies to look at mindfulness meditation and connect it with real inflammation markers. Best of all - it's free! compared to the alternative --> meds from big pharma.