Article
posted 17th November 2022
Admitting to phenomenon
In the last twenty years, there's been a modern revolution taking place in mind labs the world over investigating that which processes reality for us - Consciousness - and how it can be affected by mind-training.
Some of the findings are truly extraordinary. Changes in cerebral architecture regarding those centres of the brain associated with self-control have been observed in meditation naïve participants after only six hours of mind-training (1), and more recently, mindfulness meditation techniques have been shown by neuroimaging to elicit changes in brain structure and function after only 8 weeks of practice (2).
That such results are in and available in the public domain both fills me with hope and drains me of patience. Why is meditation perceived as the domain of the outsider? 'I've never met anyone that meditates before' is a line I've heard too often, and I'm beginning to wonder why this isn't being prescribed on the NHS because it should be.
We'd be in a much better spot as a society if we embraced the reality that comes with practice: That compassion, kindness, gratitude and humility are the balms with which to fight the ills of the world, and once realised, can change your life for the better.
That it took me to be in my late forties to truly connect with this has resulted in anger I wouldn't believe I'd the capacity to manifest, as well as relief that I've actually bothered my arse to do it.
Anger that I'd never had it presented as a reasonable means of psychotherapeutic intervention that might work. And relief that something as simple as sitting cross-legged on a sofa, can allow me the emotional and psychological wherewithal to confront a past riven with depression, anxiety and pain, and constantly feeling like an unruly outlier because of it.
That breathing in and out with a straight back can undo decades of unprocessed trauma? That might not be enlightenment, but it's a hell of a start for so little.
Enlightenment has no domain
I've never been in the company of someone who's genuinely enlightened. Or have I? Maybe the Tibetan myths of the corner shop owner being the most enlightened in the village play out here and I just haven't noticed them. Either that, or there are those that claim it personally, but don't let it be known.
But it's not like this isn't taken seriously. There are websites dedicated to the search and recognition of this state, and long lists of individuals, from Jesus to Ram Dass, are described as either enlightened or 'awakened', and essentially granted the monicker for reasons other than their own proclamations (3). Whilst critique of such outspoken proponents of conscious change are readily found, it's simply not the case that this is the domain of new-age spirituality. The very concept isn't owned by anybody, and that includes the Buddhists.
Sam Harris's contention (and I'm paraphrasing) that there are opportunities for spiritual transformation regardless of cultural backdrop - that essentially present the same due to the natural constraints of brain and biology - does appeal to the skeptical materialist in me. There's no need to invoke the divine even if if feels that way. As Sam's alluded to, a human on retreat in Qumran might feel the same as a human on retreat in Tibet after 18 months. If so, why, and can these experiences be replicated in the West?
For whilst I'm an advocate for the destigmatisation of mental health, especially when we know someone is genuinely struggling, shouldn't the opposite also apply? If there is such a thing as re-engineering your brain so you feel better about existing, maybe we should be championing that? And as to what the methodologies are, and how their efficacy's measured, perhaps more attention needs paid to that too.
Proof of enlightenment
I'm not using the word Enlightenment as we would to describe the scientific endeavours of yesteryear. I'm surfing on the net about how breathing changes the very configuration of your brain for fifty quid a month, so we got something right.
But the primrose path to modernity as paved by The Enlightenment, was an ostensibly Western phenomenon, not to be confused with the subject matter at hand here, which concerns how deliberate contemplative practice can result in profound changes in outlook and comportment now evidenced - not by outlandish claims and cult-affected hearsay - but brought to light by cutting edge technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and electroencephalography (EEG).
That this has been going on for decades now, and has resulted in nothing less than a sea-change in spiritual practice the world over (and in all religions based on PEW research), should maybe have us asking these questions of the human condition routinely and with some seriousness. Can you exist in an enlightened state? What proof do we have of progress in those on purported paths to it? Is it of use outside formal practice?
The answer to these questions is an emphatic yes. 10,000 hours plus of meditative practice can result in the practitioner self-inducting at will into states that create electrical activity in the brain comparable to grand mal seizures in intensity, but are produced voluntarily, in a stable fashion, and leave an imprint on brain architecture, structure and function that seemingly improves overall mood permanently, and staves off normal ageing of the brain (4).
As for the efficacy of these practices in the short-term, and how they can be evidenced as having the desired effect, we've now moved from the confines of the mind-lab, to that of the mail-order world, where meditation is something that's been (for better or worse) 'gamified'.
The happiest man in the world.
There's a fantastic facility in Dundonald that provides an experience I can only describe as transformative. It's called Hydroease (5), and is run by the wonderful Vivian McKinnon. Vivian has built a sensory deprivation facility, my experience of which eventually put on me on the path to adopting a daily meditation practice.
You lie in a large bath of blood-temperature water more saline than that of the Dead Sea. You then float in an environment where there's no difference between eyes closed or open, for up to an hour and a half. You wear ear plugs, and the most tangible point of reference you have for your breath is your nose, as your face never falls beneath the surface once you're settled. Breath in. Breath out. Repeat. And float off...
Sensory deprivation facilities provide much needed respite from the physical feelings that accompany trauma, and research carried out by Vivian and others have demonstrated 'floats' to be effective in treating symptoms of fibromyalgia, as well as alleviating the effects of stress and anxiety (6).
I took a lot of enjoyment from my time spent in the tanks, and on one occasion, Vivian was kind enough to share with me some new-fangled kit she'd discovered at a conflab in the States. It was a device you wore like a headband, with an electrode of sorts that sat across your forehead ('Muse' (7)). Once I'd checked the contact was suffice on the app, I chose a twenty minute exercise that played seaside sounds through your headphones.
If the wind and waves picked up, that meant the electrode had detected your brain-wave activity as being disordered. Upon calming the mind, those sounds diminish, and if you're lucky enough, you'll hear birds in the background.
I didn't give it too much thought, other than think it strange that inner space and the peace it affords us was somehow a new playground of competition. Because with any competition, there's always a winner.
Matthieu Ricard (8), whilst not only spear-heading the development of experimental designs conducive to investigating this phenomenon further, is also responsible for producing in himself states of consciousness that we associate with extreme well-being. He is a 40,000 hour plus meditator, and there's now a wealth of data from EEG and fMRI labs that have illustrated the differences in both brain activity and structure resulting from years of such dedicated meditative practice.
In particular, so-called 'gamma wave oscillations' produced by the brains of long-term practitioners have been observed at such intensity, that those in the labs charged with first recording them thought their equipment faulty. It wasn't, and the peak intensity of these brain-wave signatures created by Matthieu, have apocryphally earned him the title 'Happiest man in the world' (9).
It's extraordinary to think a human can develop these meditative skills such it actually changes their mind by changing their brain. And now we have the gadgets to not only monitor our progress, but as some have put it, 'are promising a shortcut to enlightenment' (10).
That we have at our disposal a means to measure these rarified instances of practice, whilst also possessing user-friendly technology capable of monitoring progress towards these seemingly transcendental states, only brings into focus what the Dalai Llama apparently asked of Richard Davidson (11), which was whether Richard could help him out in developing meditative practice that had the desired effect in half the time.
Anyone who's struggled with meditative practice and have had their doubts about whether it was doing them any good, might do well with such a purchase. Meditation is extremely hard work and consumes a wealth of your time to get good at. Progress can feel painfully slow at times, and having something to at least tell you it was having the desired effect on brain activity, while you might not be feeling it? That could inspire someone to stick at it regardless of sentiment. Because sometimes, just sometimes, you can be gifted with a breakthrough that simply wouldn't have happened if you hadn't put the time in.
Hardware, software and the new life of the mind
In the aforementioned article (10), Sigal Samuel contends that neurofeedback tools such as Muse, only provide an introduction to 'entry-level' states of meditation, and reports the contention of those developing this tech, that the replication of such lofty conditions as a consumer experience will have to wait 'Probably 20 or 30 more years'.
I should stress at this point my own contention put better by others, that 'Enlightenment is the Internet subject par excellence - vague, contradictory, fiercely blogged about by ill-credentialed authorities' (12). I'm not an authority, and my credentials of just over five hundred recorded hours on an app means I've only scratched the surface. However, I'm increasingly curious as to what the societal ramifications might be if a populace at large started to take this seriously.
Enlightenment as a distinct state of awareness in which one permanently experiences calm restful alertness, free from rambling thoughts, neuronal gossip and fear, sounds like a reasonable end-point to practice. But what's being made abundantly clear in the research, is that this is eminently obtainable, and is experienced more often by those that meditate, in comparison to those that don't.
And whilst the accumulation of data and evidence regarding the transformative potential of deliberately practicing is growing, the simple truth is that the direct experiential value of feeling loving-kindness towards our fellow human, regardless of how we are being treated is an arduous undertaking. It certainly was to me when I started.
My conditioning's been such that the notion of jeopardy has real volition, and feelings of advantage over others has unfortunately been a misguided means to gauge personal success. Truth is, such keening, comparative modes of thinking can delude us into ignoring ourselves and the genuine needs we might have, and it's rife amongst huge swathes of the population, undergirded as it is by the modern phenomenon of social media in all it's forms.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blind to the value these digital affectations have on our lives, and I'm not suggesting that meditation is simply a substitute for that which is lacking. Rather it's a practice that offers real solace during periods of emotional upset, and isn't transitory. It really sticks, and doesn't come with the emotional baggage created by any sense of the downer we feel after periods of excitement.
That's not to say it doesn't afford peak experiences - just look at the findings - but there does appear to be genuine benefits to experiencing life and all it throws at us with an equanimity we wouldn't otherwise be familiar with. And as for how enlightenment is actually described by those who've evidentially attained it? It should come as no surprise that it's often parsed as an experience for which words are poor substitutes.
It seems only direct, first-person encounters with these ways of being lend them credence. And in stark contrast with what we are presented in the West, this Eastern practice isn't held doggedly in place by canonical scripts and immutable texts. It has evolved as both an oral and literately sophisticated body of knowledge, which has sought to articulate both practice and any realisation that comes with it.
And to labour the point alluded to in the title of this section - if your brain is your hardware, and your learned behaviour and thinking is your software - meditation simply offers you an up-grade. If it's possible to establish a superior operating system be in effect in your brain, by taking time out to simply breath and be less attached to thoughts and what they can do to you, should this be taught in our schools from an early age? Because I really could have done with this when I was younger.
What upgrade counts?
Neuroplasticity is now an accepted truth about the brain which responds to changes in consciousness wrought from practice by altering the structure and function of both grey and white matter. Which means that contradictory to our previous understanding - that neural development is essentially fixed beyond adult maturity - the realisation in the West is these previously held beliefs about brain development and consciousness were essentially mistaken.
Professor Wolf Singer, a distinguished neuroscientist with decades of experience in the fields of neurophysiology and cognition (13), once put it to Matthieu Ricard that 'The mind is the product of the brain'. Matthieu's jolly retort of 'We'll see' (14), throws more light on this subject than I ever could. But if we are to take a cue from renowned olympic-level-meditators of the world, what should it be?
Loch Kelly, a long-term mindfulness practitioner from an early age, is on record as stating that aforementioned superior operating system in the brain is available to us (15), and that evidence is emerging about what is actually at play in the brain when these meditative states are realised.
As previously mentioned, profound shifts in brain activity and cerebral architecture occur in the brains of long-term meditators, and this activity can be modulated using will alone by expert adepts.
In addition to ensuring that the brain functions as a better connected whole (as evidenced by gamma oscillations), and that connectivity between regions of the brain associated with mood and executive functions are either bolstered or finessed to suit (16), other phenomenon regarding how the brain is actively shifted from it's 'default mode' due to mind-training are emerging.
In essence, the normal functioning modalities of the brain that deal with internal and external stimuli, can be affected to the extent they essentially diverge from hardwired functionality.
It's an extraordinary claim that's at the heart of Loch's 'effortless mindfulness' training, but there's now evidence to suggest his claims are true.
In 2012, a collaborative study between New York University, Columbia University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, led to the publication of a paper describing the 'Influence of meditation on anti-correlated networks in the brain' (17).
In simple terms, the brain can be divided into biological units of tissue that process internal signals (the intrinsic system), and external signals (the extrinsic system). I'm not going to bore you with neuroanatomy I don't fully understand, but at the heart of their findings is a truly astonishing observation.
The 'anti-correlated networks' referred to in the title, are those in the brain that deal with internal and external signals. Within and without. Even at rest, these circuits are competing with each other, and when the activity in one network increases, activity in the other drops off. This is what we're landed with when it comes to the gift of this organ. It doesn't know what to be at, even when it's doing nothing.
So what this team from the States and Israel discovered, was that in the brains of long-term meditators, their practice over the years had modulated their brain activity to an extent that the author's concluded that 'the anti-correlation found between extrinsic and intrinsic systems is not an immutable property of brain organisation'. Which means there's evidence for how we perceive as humans - at the most fundamental levels - to be amenable to change. Which is one of the most beautiful observations I've ever seen made by Science.
Even more fascinating perhaps, is the possibility of actually being able to do any of this. That that organ and nervous system (inalienably mine, yours and sacrosanct) can be trained to be happier, less troubled by thought, and functioning in a way that belies it's previous imperfections, whether genetic or conditioned by habits and environment? Yes please.
Links
1) https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1011043107
2) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-47470-4
3) https://www.poehm.com/en/list-of-enlightened-people/
4) Altered Traits 2017, Daniel Goleman, Richard Davidson. More Than Sound LLC.
5) https://hydro-ease.co.uk/bu/
6) https://www.irelandbeforeyoudie.com/northern-irelands-only-flotation-therapy-centre/
7) https://choosemuse.com/shop/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PaidSearch&utm_campaign=Non-Brand&gclid=CjwKCAjwtp2bBhAGEiwAOZZTuBE9p0VPbZPfor8ELqjRmQjzFkeH34G_doS-FDv0y8fskEeU2pXJchoCZI4QAvD_BwE
8) https://www.matthieuricard.org/en/
9) https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/a-69yearold-monk-who-scientists-call-the-world-s-happiest-man-says-the-secret-to-being-happy-takes-just-15-minutes-a-day-a7869166.html
10) https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22727109/enlightenment-technology-neurofeedback-brain-stimulation-psychedelics
11) https://www.richardjdavidson.com
12) https://jeffwarren.org/archive/column/inscapes3/
13) https://brain.mpg.de/singer
14) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_nuI1cNBgc
15) https://lochkelly.org
16) The No Nonsense Meditation Book 2021, Steven Laureys. Green Tree
17) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22287947/