How scientists are bringing advanced meditation out of the monastery

Re:How scientists are bringing advanced meditation out of th... by haswell on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @09:09AM (#37235293)

> a gradual loss of trust in logic, reason and science, even in those with decades of education. They fall for silly quackeries and psychic beliefs or that the meditation teacher mystically can know things

This is again all very vague, so it’s difficult to understand your perspective. Silly quackeries like what?

It also doesn’t align with what I’ve experienced, or have observed in others: I’m still a staunch believer in logic, reason and science. Have never felt the need to take on psychic beliefs, etc.

I’m not saying you’re wrong about the people you’re referring to, I just don’t have a similar frame of reference.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How scientists are bringing advanced meditation out of th... by jules22 on Friday August 25, 2023 @03:34AM (#37259110)

Quite possible. We might also be talking about different kinds of meditation. Mindfulness meditators seem to have a healthy attitude. TM meditators start talking psychic things pretty quickly. The people around me are all TM types.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How scientists are bringing advanced meditation out of th... by haswell on Monday August 28, 2023 @06:39PM (#37301299)

Yeah, TM is quite a different thing.

The scientific interest in meditation is primarily focused on the mindfulness variety, which is more about observing your state of mind without judgement, and learning to stop getting lost in discursive thought, vs. TM's focus on mantras.

While the mindfulness family of practices has been fairly well secularized, it does seem that TM brings a lot more baggage along with it.

I think this still boils down to the person practicing. While researching/evaluating meditation practices, TM was something that I decided to steer clear of, for many of the reasons you describe.

[ Parent | on HN ]