Summary: Experienced mediators can voluntarily induce unconsciousness, known as withdrawal, without the use of drugs. This ability, seen in Tibetan Buddhist practice, allows meditators to experience a momentary emptiness of consciousness, followed by improved mental clarity.
The study, conducted in several countries, used EEG spectral analysis to objectively measure brain activity during these stopping events. By correlating the meditator’s first-person experience with neuroimaging data, researchers have gained insights into the profound changes in consciousness that can be achieved through advanced meditation practices.
Key facts:
- Experienced hypnotists can voluntarily enter a state of discontinuity, temporarily lose consciousness without external help.
- The study analyzed 37 cessation events in one expert meditator over 29 sessions using EEG spectral analysis.
- This research opens up new avenues for understanding the transformation of consciousness through meditation.
Source: BIAL Foundation
A study shows that experienced meditators can voluntarily adjust their state of consciousness during meditation. In other words, without the use of drugs, they have the extraordinary ability to create a temporary void of consciousness by halting large-scale modulation of brain activity.
Under what circumstances can a human being lose consciousness? Anesthesia, concussion, intoxication, epilepsy, seizure or other fainting/syncopal episode caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain can cause total loss of consciousness. But can unconsciousness be induced without the use of drugs?
In an event known as cessation (or nirodha, according to Tibetan Buddhist terminology), the meditators briefly lose consciousness, but when they reawaken, they are said to experience significant changes in the way their minds work, including sudden mental awakenings. and clarity of perception.
Matthew Sachet, along with researchers from Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States, found that the idea that a meridian can “turn off” consciousness could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of cognitive processes. Previous studies on interruptions have had several limitations, namely that few expert meditators have reached the stage of meditation where interruptions occur, and interruptions are also difficult to predict.
In his article, “Examining Advanced Mindfulness Meditation ‘Discontinuity’ Experiences Using EEG Spectral Analysis,” published in the November issue of the journal NeuropsychologyIn this in-depth case study, one practitioner recruited meditators who overcame these challenges and reported that they were able to log and report more episodes of withdrawal as they emerged from frequent meditation sessions.
The researchers used neurophenomenological methods related to real neuroimaging data to describe the “first person” stops. In other words, the expert meditator systematically evaluated mental and physiological processes (context, input, event, result, after-effects) during the practice, and these evaluations were used to classify and select events for subsequent EEG-based analysis.
Spectral analysis of EEG data from the participant’s 37 interruption events recorded over 29 sessions allowed for correlation of interruptions with objective and intrinsic measures of brain activity related to consciousness and higher-order psychological functioning.
“These results lay the foundation for further study of these unique states using neuroscience and other empirical approaches,” says researcher Matthew Sachet.
So the news of consciousness research
Author: Press team
Source: BIAL Foundation
Contact: Press Group – BIAL Foundation
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News.
Preliminary study: Open Access.
“Investigating Advanced Mindfulness Meditation “Stopping” Practices Using EEG Spectral Analysis in a Highly Sampled Case Study” by Avijit Chaudhuri et al Neuropsychology
Draft
Investigating Advanced Mindfulness Meditation “Stopping” Practices Using EEG Spectral Analysis in a Highly Sampled Case Study
Mindfulness meditation is a meditative practice known in Buddhism that focuses on present-centered awareness and nonjudgment of experience. Interest in mindfulness is growing, and it has been shown to be effective in improving mental and physical health in clinical and non-clinical settings.
In this report, for the first time, we used electroencephalography (EEG) combined with a neurophenomenological approach to investigate the neural signature of “stopping” events, which are dramatic experiences of a complete cessation of awareness similar to unconsciousness. It is offered to be practiced by the most experienced meditators and to be a mastery of mindfulness meditation.
We analyzed these terminations as experienced by an advanced meditator (more than 23,000 hours of meditation training) and 37 termination events collected in 29 EEG sessions between November 12, 2019 and March 11, 2020. Interruptions showed that these events were marked by a large decrease in alpha-power 40 seconds before their onset, and this alpha power was lowest after the interruption.
A region-of-interest (ROI)-based examination of this finding showed that this alpha suppression showed a linear decrease in the occipital and parietal regions of the brain during the pre-interruption period.
Additionally, there were modest increases in theta power for the central, parietal, and right temporal ROIs in the pre-interruption time frame, but power in the delta and beta frequency bands around interruptions were not significantly different.
By associating the cessation of brain activity (ie, EEG activity) associated with consciousness and higher-level psychological functions, these results provide evidence that experienced mnemonics can voluntarily adjust their state of consciousness and lay the groundwork. To study these special states using a neuroscience approach.