Did Meditating Make us
Human?
Introduction
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Anatomically modern human appeared
between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago.
Conscious altering rituals, like healing rituals
performed by a shaman, was an important
and unique aspect of human selective
environment.
This environment targeted area of the brain
involved in the focused attention and working
memory.
Over time this facilitated the genetic
mutations fixing both working memory and
symbolic functions in the human population.
Propositions
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Symbolic evidence in tools, artwork, and
grave goods late in the archaeological
record
Fortuitous genetic mutation(s)
The Baldwin Effect
Meditation long and short term effects
Hypnotizablity is a hereditable trait
The Late Emergence of
Symbolism
The Late Emergence of
Symbolism
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A debate has been going on to determine when
symbolism emerged.(2000) Bar-Yosef characterized late
hominins possessed a low level of symbolic behavior.
(2001) Paleolithic image making varies in “symbolic
complexity)
These both acknowledge that symbolism may not be as
unitary a phenomenon as it is often portrayed.
C.S. Peirce categorized referential thinking into three
categories: iconic, indexical, and symbolic
These levels are built upon the earlier stages, each
placing increasing cognitive demands on the organism.
Iconic Referential Thought
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Iconic referents are
those that bear a
physical resemblance
to things they
symbolize.
Indexical Referential Thought
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Indexical referents
represent the
presence of what they
signify, based on
temporal or spatial
association.
Symbolic Referential Thought
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Symbolic referents
are noted by their
relationship between
the signifier and the
signified is an
arbitrary one.
Higher Level Symbolism
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It was this late arriving higher level symbolic thought that was
required for enhanced working memory
Some argue that the sudden appearance of symbolism in the
form of art, tools, and grave goods in the European Upper
Paleolithic signifies a “revolution” in human thought and
behavior
100,000 ybp non symbolic blade production, seasonal mobility,
use of grindstones, and barbed points appeared.
However 50,000 ybp more symbolic usage is seen as beads
are being used as ornamentation and mineral pigments are
being used for ritual purposes.
 May represent a lower level of symbolic thought
 This provides a foundation for the constructed symbols in
modern society.( red pigment = blood)
 It is the move from practical to ceremonial that we see the
aspects of Peircian symbolism.
Fortuitous Mutation
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Klein & Edgar (2002): ultimate mechanism must
come down to a fortuitous genetic mutation that
reorganized brain stricture and function.
(granting early homo sapiens a cognitive
advantage)
Coolidge & Wynn (2001) attributed the
mutations target to be on the enhancement of
working memory capacity
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It was essential for cognitive innovation,
experimentation, and ultimately symbolism.
Mutations on Working
Memory
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Williams (2002), Ancestors could voluntarily
recall and manipulate the experiences of altered
states of consciousness and dreams and use
these as a basis for art and religion.
Donald (2002), Ancestors held movement
templates in mind as a basis for directing,
executing, and refining motor sequence.
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This provided a foundation for the mimetic skills of
pantomime, imitation, and role play.
Shepard (1997), Ancestors held mental
simulations of actions in mind and evaluated and
selected from potential plans.
Fortuitous Mutation Cont.
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Our ancestors had an enhanced capacity to
recall, consciously retain, and manipulate
information.
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This is the key for going from indexical or iconic
referents to purely arbitrary based symbols.
Coolidge & Wynn state that the genetic changes
could have occurred as early as 200-150,000
ybp when anatomically modern humans
emerged or as late as 70,000.
According to the author, the change became
widespread around 50,000ybp.
The Baldwin Effect
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Was proposed in 1896
by James Mark
Baldwin, C.L. Morgan,
and H.F. Osborn.
Acquired traits could
create or importantly
contribute to selective
conditions that would,
in time, genetically
establish them in the
population
The Baldwin Effect - Studies
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Waddington (1975): created a no-cross vein fruit
fly by inducing heat shock in early generations.
(the environment facilitated the trait)
Bjorklund & Rosenberg (2005): showed more
sophisticated cognitive skills in captive or
human-razed chimpanzees in areas such as tool
use, imitative learning, and language.
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These skills may have begun as novel acquired
traits induced by atypical environmental demands.
Mechanisms Accounting for the
Baldwin Effect.
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Others have found that environmental stress
may actually affect the rate and character of the
mutations
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Jollos (1934) and Plough & Ives (1935) found that
mutation rates increased in heat-treated fruit fly
larvae and those mutations were specific to loci.
Kirschner & Gerhart (2005) proposed “facilitated
variation” where direct evolutionary change is
facilitated by the organism itself. (developmental
constraints bias which mutations are passed on)
Baldwin Effect Cont.
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Any mutation that resets the range of a
physiological system to a more adaptive
level would be positively selected by
environmental conditions. (high altitude &
blood cell production)
The brain is suggested to be one of these
systems prone to adapt under changing
environmental conditions.
Meditation and the Brain
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Recent studies have
shown that areas in
the frontal lobe
associated with
working memory and
attention, especially
the DLPFC and the
anterior cingulate are
activated during
meditation.
Meditation Studies
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Lazar (2000) showed significant metabolic
increases in activity in many brain structures.
Newberg (2001) found increased activity in
many of the same regions (DLPFC, orbital
PFC, anterior cingulate, and the sensormotor
cortices of 8 subjects
Lutz (2004) found experienced meditators
generated high gamma waves synchrony over
the frontoparietal regions.
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Some showed the highest reports in literature in a
non-pathological context.
Meditation also affected long-term base line
activity.
Meditation Studies
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Davidson (2003) found increases in naïve
subjects assigned to an 8 week meditation
training program in left frontal lobe activity.
Lazar (2005) found significantly thicker
regions of the PFC, including the right
superior frontal sulci and right anterior
cingulate.
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These areas are associated with attention and
sensory processing.
Older subjects showed more change and showed
that meditation may work to reverse age related
thinning of the PFC
Carter (2005) Monks could exert conscious
control over binocular rivalry.
Meditation Summary
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Provides long-term changes involved in
attention and working memory
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This competitive change could have given homo
sapiens an edge over other hominins and led to
symbolism.
Campfire rituals (tasks involving focused attention
and working memory, unlike tool-making and
hunting could have involved children, leading to a
possibility for adaptive brain modification.)
Environmentally induced changes in brain function
could have, overtime, become as genetically
hereditable as a result of the selective pressure of
the rituals themselves.
Shamanistic Healing Rituals
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The shaman: anyone
using consciousnessaltering rituals as a
means of connecting
with the spiritual
world for the purpose
of individual or
community healing.
Shamanistic Ritual
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Evidence shows it is humanities
oldest
religion.
Finds from Fumane cave in Italy showed this
image from 35,000 ybp depicting images of a
human with antlered headgear typical of a
shaman
These findings could show shamanism pre-dates
the Upper Paleolithic since it depicts an already
present system.
Physical and Psychological
Effects of Rituals
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The shamans healing rituals served as an important
adaptive function in our ancestral past.
The Kulari !Kung use healing dances as a central role in
life, health, and vitality of both individuals and the tribe.
McClenon (1997, 2002) showed that our ancestors were
most susceptible to the benefits of shamanistic healing
had a selective advantage over others
 They were better able to overcoming illness or
injury
 Overcoming debilitating emotional states
 And enduring childbirth
Effects of Rituals
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Ritual healing is universal across traditional
societies.
It involves hypnosis and altered states of
consciousness.
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Hypnosis is measurable, variable, and has a
hereditable component.
Often effective for a wide variety of maladies
where psychological factors are present
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Chronic pain, burns, bleeding, headaches, skin
disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, and discomforts
and complications in childbirth
Rituals Continued
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It is very effective as no linguistic skills or
ideologies are needed for the rituals to work
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It is the nature of the ritual not the belief in the
supernatural that is important.
Only minimal verbal expression is required
What is required is the belief in a healing spiritual
power accessible through a conscious altering ritual.
They require focused attention, activating brain areas
associated with attention and working memory.
Rituals Continued
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In summary, those whose brains that were
most “ritually capable’ would gain the
greatest fitness.
Enhanced working memory was a
byproduct of brain changes resulting from
ritually induced health benefits.
What Made Humans Different
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It is these rituals, acting as an environmental
effect on working memory development that
may have facilitated a change.
100,000 ybp homo sapiens and Neanderthals
shared a space in the Levant. Due to some
event homo sapiens left.
60,000 years late homo sapiens returned moving
into Europe and eventually spreading across the
world for good this time.
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Neither climate change or the Neanderthals could
stop them.
What Made Us Different
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Both H. sapiens and Neanderthals made tools (and
Neanderthal tool construction required a degree of expertise
akin to blacksmithing)
Both collected pigments, built fires, and hunted.(Neanderthals
were also highly skilled as well)
If any of these activities created selection pressures for
expanded working memory, Neanderthals would have evolved
as well.
 Some artifacts have even shown beads, pendants, tools,
and other items appearing to have symbolic function
 Maybe do to their harsh lifestyle, symbolic functioning and
representation was not a regular function of their society.
Why Neanderthals Didn’t
Meditate
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Had neither the time nor the energy as they lived very harsh
lives
 Habitations show less spatial structure
 Shows they invested little time in home bases and the
activities associated with them.
 Nutritional stress may have affected them as evidence of
cannibalism was found by Defleur et. al.
Berger and Trinkaus (1995) documented extensive head,
neck, and upper body trauma in Neanderthal skeletons
 May show that degenerative bone disease was
commonplace
Tellingly and Trinkaus (1995) failed to uncover a single
instance of a healed immobilizing lower leg injury
 Those not able to keep up were left behind
Summary
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Somewhere between the Levant and the Upper
Paleolithic something happened: symbolism
emerged.
This change through a Baldwinian process,
enabled an environmentally induced trait to
become genetically hereditable over time.
It is thorough developed shamanistic healing and
campfire rituals we see how these genes for
attention and expanded working memory thrived.
And through these forms of meditation, homo
sapiens emerged as a superior hominin, excelling
where other species could not.