Brain and
Consciousness
Meditations Are Not the Same:
Three Categories of Meditation
Timeline: 7:45 – 9:00
Sun
Sept
Sept
Monday
Tuesday
11: Paradigms
Wed
Thursday
Friday
Sat
13: Brain
Development
Mongolia Conference
Sept
Yom Kippur
27:
Sleeping
Oct
2: Science and
Pseudoscience
4: Other
Meditations
Oct
9: Cosmic
Consciousness
28: TM
and TC
Drfredtravis.com-> Presentations and Videos-> Power
Points->Brain and Consciousness for lecture power points
Wholeness
The procedures of different
meditations are different, and so
activate different brain areas.
Experience of wakefulness at the
basis of all experiences during
TM practice activates the total
brain.
Class Reading
“Focused Attention,
Open Monitoring and
Automatic SelfTranscending”
Introduction
Travis and Shear, 2010, Consciousness and Cognition, 19:1110-1119.
Delta
0-4 Hz
Deep sleep. During waking, if
brain is strongly inhibited.
Theta1 4-6 Hz
Dreaming
Theta2 6-8 Hz
Memory processes and
general internal processes
Alpha1 8-10 Hz Inner wakefulness –higher
cerebral metabolic rate
(paradoxical alpha)
Alpha2 10-12 Hz Brain modules primed but not
active (idling)—lower CBR
Beta1
16-20 Hz General processing
Gamma 20-50 Hz Focused processing
Cognitive Control
Highest
Focused
Attention
• Zen
• Compassion
Meditation
Gamma (20-50 Hz)
Open
Monitoring
Theta (6-8 Hz)
Automatic SelfTranscending
• Zazen
• Mindfulness
• Vipassana
•Transcendental
Meditation
• Qicong
Lowest
Alpha1 (8-10 Hz)
Travis and Shear, 2010, Consciousness and Cognition, 19:1110-1119.
Phases within TM practice:
Inward stroke versus pure
consciousness
30
30 Subjects
Inward Stroke
Three
Bell
Rings
30
Pure
Consciousness
Travis and Wallace, 1997
Travis and Wallace, 1997
• "Meditation is not easy. It takes time
and it takes energy. It also takes grit,
determination, and discipline. It
requires a host of personal qualities
that we normally regard as unpleasant
and like to avoid whenever possible.
We can sum up all of these qualities in
the American word gumption
Meditation takes gumption." —Bhante
Henepola Gunaratana, "Mindfulness in
Plain English." Wisdom Publications,
Boston, 2002
Cognitive Control
Highest
Lowest
TM is Procedural Knowledge
Class Reading
“Focused Attention,
Open Monitoring and
Automatic SelfTranscending”
Discussion
Travis and Shear, 2010, Consciousness and Cognition, 19:1110-1119.
SCI 18
“Any system that does
transcend its emotional,
intellectual, or perceptual
activity will be
Transcendental Meditation.”
Maharishi, 18-8
Meditation procedures
differ and associated EEG
patterns differ;
So effects from different
meditation should also
differ.
Higher
Connectivity
Lower
Connectivity
A = Initial rest vs
meditation (All)
B = Final rest vs
meditation (All)
13 Tibetan Buddhists,
15 QiGong,
14 Sahaja Yoga,
14 Ananda Marga Yoga,
15 Zen
Meta analysis (Overvew):
Psychological Measures
Sedlmeier et al, 2012, Psychological Bulletin
Effectiveness in Reducing Trait Anxiety
Meta-Analysis
TM
Placebo
Other Relaxation
Relaxation Response
Other Meditation
PMR
EMG-Biofeedback
Mantra Meditation
Concentration
0
.05
1
Journal of Clinical Psychology. 1989; 45:957-974
18
Effectiveness in Reducing BP
Meta-Analysis
TM
Relaxation
Response
Other
Meditation
Systolic BP
Diastolic BP
Biofeedback
All others
5
0
-5
-10
-15
Mm Hg
.American Journal of Health Promotion. 1998:(5)297-298
Meta-analysis on SelfActualization
Main Point
Meditation practices differ in
procedure, resulting EEG patterns,
resulting neural imaging patterns
and benefits. Thus, different
meditation pracatices have
different impacts on our life and
our evolution.
Group Exercise
The Mayo Clinic website describes TM
as: “… you use a mantra, such as a
word, sound or phrase repeatedly
silently, to narrow your conscious
awareness and eliminate all thoughts
from your mind. You focus exclusively
on your mantra to achieve a state of
perfect stillness and consciousness.
How might you respond?
Sedlmeier et al, 2012,
Psychological Bulletin
Effects of TM and MBSR on PTSD
1.60
1.40
Effect Size
Sandardized Mean Difference (d)
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
TM (Brooks, 1985)
TM (Rosenthal, 2011)
MBSR (Bremner, 2011)
MBSR (Kearny, 2011)
Not for publication or distribution until the final meta-analysis is published. Copyright David Orme-Johnson, Ph.D, 2012