Re:Ask HN: Is meditation entirely a placebo effect?
by aneeshm on Wednesday December 25, 2013 @11:40PM
(#6965276)
No.
Mindfulness meditation has a measurable and significant effect not only on stress, emotional regulation, recurrent thoughts/rumination, attention, and decision-making, but also a physical effect in the brain in the form of a reduction of amygdala size, and an increase in the activity (and size) of the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices.
`Internally', it changes the meditator's subjective sense of self and of how he experiences the world.
Mindfulness meditation has a measurable and significant effect not only on stress, emotional regulation, recurrent thoughts/rumination, attention, and decision-making, but also a physical effect in the brain in the form of a reduction of amygdala size, and an increase in the activity (and size) of the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices.
`Internally', it changes the meditator's subjective sense of self and of how he experiences the world.