Fun fact: the researcher mentioned here, Herbert Benson, was also the leader of a big study of intercessory prayer, which divided patients into (1) a control group, (2) a group that were prayed for but weren't told that, and (3) a group that were prayed for and were told that; the only statistically significant effect they found was that knowing you are being prayed for is apparently associated with worse outcomes.

Confounding variable for prayer studies: God knows who is in each group and can control the outcome of the study.

Sympathy is a social incentive to be unwell.

Or people resort to prayer when there's no other hope.

Yeah, I think that's what it is. "Sending our thoughts and prayers" lost its actual impact and now it's associated with hopelessness.

Fostering a survivor mindset. It will make one expect hardships and ultimately create them.

Don’t survive, thrive.

lets reproduce that study, why not

that helps explain why thoughts and prayers is so popular on Fox News

“Meditation” is such an umbrella term that it is impossible to make general statements about it without being too specific. Benson, for example, was studying advanced techniques practiced in Tibet (such as the “tummo” technique mentioned in the article), which are not common in the rest of the world. “Meditation” research done in other contexts would probably yield some very disparate results.

Yep, vipassana/mindfulness, anapana, tonglen, tummo, metta (hey! My favorite!), they're all quite different.

The way I usually meditate is just sitting in a quiet place and trying not to think, if a thought pops into my head I just let it float away. What are these advanced meditation techniques for? Being able to raise your body temperature doesn't seem that useful compared to having a clear mind?

I don't know much about tummo but I am working my way through The Mind Illuminated, a book on a type of mindfulness meditation that gets into pretty advanced levels, so I can answer from that perspective.

The book goes through several models of consciousness, but one is "moments of consciousness." In each of those moments, you could have your attention on the meditation object, or on something else ("distraction"). But you can also have moments in which you aren't conscious at all. Each moment is extremely brief, but if you have a lot of moments of unconsciousness, this is "dullness." Dullness is just as much a problem as distraction, and there are practices specifically to combat it.

If you're just trying not to think, you might be dealing well with distraction, but you might also have a lot of dullness. It's easy to think you're very good at meditating, when actually you just have dullness.

If you can fix both distraction and dullness, you can attain a high level of awareness of what's going on in your mind. This leads to the sort of insights that for Buddhists are the main point. It also has a lot of side benefits, like just being more present and alive in your everyday life.

I think one idea is to gain a better understanding of how thoughts and emotions manifest themselves physiologically. What are the physical sensations that accompany embarrassment, frustration, joy, etc.. Having some familiarity with those patterns in the body, and a practice for being able to pay attention to and change those sensations is a good tool kit to have.

Tummo is explained pretty well in “The Bliss of Inner Fire” [1]. The practices from Vajrayana Buddhism are very different than what you’d find in a Theravada vipassana practice. It relies on lots of visualizations and breath work.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Inner-Fire-Practice-Naropa/dp/0...

Recommend you read this book to learn more: https://www.amazon.com/Bones-Master-Journey-Secret-Mongolia/...

Unless you're stuck in the cold. (source: me waiting outside at night :)

Body temperature might cause other somatic benefits (ala wim hof) but I'm wildly speculating here.

Tummo is the basis of advanced forms of Vajrayana meditation; heat here is just a side effect. The aim of all of these Buddhist practices is the same: to recognize the essence of mind.

Anybody have any good links to any studies on Tummo? It's become very popular with Wim Hof (or, I've seen his practice ascribed to Tummo techniques and it does involve cold exposure). I'm curious particularly if there's negative effects from the hypoxia component.

The difference between Tummo and Wim Hof's method is just like between Zen and corporate mindfulness. As for Tummo itself, it's not one method but a family of different practices differing from one another on various points. Many of these use very different breathing methods that Wim Hof is using. But the most important difference is that the main point is completely missing. It's like, I don't know, practicing calligraphy of Shakespeare's plays without understanding a word in English.

I know the WHM. Wim himself claims that the WHM is not tummo.

And with good reason, it isn't. It might use similar breathing techniques (vase breathing seems to be similar to one WHM breathing technique) but that doesn't make the WHM tummo.

I wonder what the practical benefits of such an advanced level and type of meditation are.

Increase of vitality, imune system, consciousness which includes emotional order, environment awareness and then an increased sensibility to the beauty of nature. Deep feeling of being at the right place. Globally a very enjoyable inner state. And more.

Most people enjoy that from a healthy, balanced lifestyle that includes some meditation. But spending most of your life focused on meditation doesn't seem beneficial.

Dry sheets, according to the article.

I mean, it's certainly useful to be able to raise your body temperature. I've done a bit of biofeedback and can raise my hand temperature by about 15°F in a few minutes, although not if it's really cold out. I assume if I practiced more, it could actually be a survival skill.

If you asked the mystics, they would probably say none whatsoever. Why spend your whole life learning how to walk on water if you can pay the boatsmen for a ride?

If it is all that you want.

Exactly. Obviously there are advantages to meditation, but THAT much... diminishing returns.