Meditation is both an ancient spiritual practice as well as a contemporary technique for relaxing the body and calming the mind. It is recognized as a component of almost all religions, and has been practised for over 5,000 years.
Experienced meditators achieve a state of consciousness in which they experience the world in a distinctly different and clearer way. The experience has been described as comprising moments of contentless awareness, bliss, broader awareness, all-encompassing compassion and love, awareness of being present and being connected to other beings and/or a transcendent reality, together with moments of special insight and knowledge.
The Beckley Foundation is investigating the physiological basis of mediation as part of its programme of research into altered states of consciousness.
This report summarizes the achievements of the first phase of the research project “Psychophysiological Monitoring of States of Consciousness as a Tool for Assistance in Meditation” a collaboration between Dr. Thilo Hinterberger at Freiburg University, Germany and the Beckley Foundation. 2 Expanding vocabulary The main purpose of the research outlined here was to develop a [...]
Using similar methodologies and expertise as in the project monitoring higher states of consciousness, this project will develop a device that will be able to determine the level and nature of cognitive processing in both comatose patients and those suffering from a variety of mentally impaired states.
Meditation is both an ancient spiritual practice and a contemporary technique for relaxing the body and calming the mind. Meditative techniques originally came from Asian religious practices and have been widely adopted in western society, where their health benefits have become widely recognised.
