The results of a four-year international study of 2060 cardiac arrest cases across 15 hospitals concludes the following. The themes relating to the experience of death appear far broader than what has been understood so far, or what has been described as so called near-death experiences. In some cases of cardiac arrest, memories of visual […]
]]>Do you want to engage with current research into meditation and mindfulness? If yes, here are a few opportunities that might work for you. Reflecting the growing number of researchers engaged in meditation and mindfulness research, the increasingly diverse settings meditation-based approaches are applied in and the expanding range of scientific questions that are being addressed, more and more meetings are set up for staying informed, exchanging and learning more.… Read More »
]]>With mindfulness and other forms of meditation entering the mainstream questions regarding its transformation from a spiritual practice, embedded within a complete system, to a secular “collection of tools” are being raised. The Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society (BPS) set out to address this question at their next section conference, hosted by the University of Northampton. From 10 – 12 October 2014 the conference entitled “Contextualising Mindfulness:… Read More »
]]>If you are interested in reading a range of research articles on mindfulness, this may be for you: The publisher Routledge (member of the Taylor & Francis Group) makes 70 articles on mindfulness available online – and this offer will be there until the end of 2014. You can access these articles at: www.explore.tandfonline.com/page/beh/mindfulness-article-collection Enjoy the browsing and reading © 2014, Peter Malinowski. All rights reserved. You may republish… Read More »
]]>Contrary to popular belief, not all meditation techniques produce similar effects of body and mind. Indeed, a recent study by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has demonstrated for the first time that different types of Buddhist meditation – namely the Vajrayana and Theravada styles of meditation – elicit qualitatively different influences on […]
]]>Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks Mass. General-led study shows changes over time in areas associated with awareness, empathy, stress 21/Jan/2011 Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program […]
]]>Let me share a few thoughts regarding the state of mindfulness research and also reflecting on mindfulness-based applications that, at least partially, justify their use by referring to scientific evidence of their effectiveness. A recently published analysis of the available research regarding the effectiveness of meditation programmes for psychological stress and wellbeing inspired me to jot down some of the thoughts I have been carrying around for a while. This… Read More »
]]>The Universe Really Is a Hologram, According to New Simulations A team of physicists has provided some of the clearest evidence yet that our universe could be just one big projection. In 1997, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena proposed that an audacious model of the Universe in which gravity arises from infinitesimally thin, vibrating strings could […]
]]>PROBLEM: The Internet is probably destroying our attention spans and working memories, but companies still want employees who are able to “focus.” Also, even though they are pretty minimally predictive of professional success, academic admissions departments still seem to love standardized test scores. Improving memory and ability to focus takes years of cultivation and training, […]
]]>A new study has found that participating in an 8-week meditation training program can have measurable effects on how the brain functions even when someone is not actively meditating. In their report in the November issue of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston University (BU), and several other research centers […]
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