It seems to me that the likely conclusion is that those who have claimed meditation to be essential to transcendental consciousness and the scientific findings on meditation are both talking about the same thing in different language. Example: Isolation tanks. People who are inclined towards spiritualistic assumptions about life use them and experience what they are quick to call transcendental states of being, not without justification. I, being phenomenally non-spiritual, use them and am comfortable assuming I feel just about the same thing that a highly spiritual person would feel, yet readily pin the cause on the scientific aspects of it. So we're basically arriving at the same conclusion via different interpretations, one fact-based and one... er, not so much.
I think I agree with what you're saying, though I would say that one was stated in scientific terms and the other in metaphysical terms... both were "based" on facts (the experience/changes that occurred within the tank).
If an action of an individual can influence the activity in the brain, particularly if such action can expand the consciously processed data... then I think the implications for Philosophy could be huge.
If through meditation (or exercising the parts of the brain which meditation supposedly exercises), we can perceive information which the average human brain misses... what missing information could be brought to bear on philosophical positions? How would determinism be affected, if a human can change the functionality within the brain? How might this affect Materialism vs. Dualism?
Like, imagine if you could actually restructure the way your neurons are wired together, by like, I dunno, exposing your eyes to a bunch of linearly ordered symbols which, when understood holistically yeild some kind of cognitively significant message? And imagine that message allowed you to understand things in ways people who hadn't "read" it could not!?!??! Imagine the implications! It's like the mind affecting the brain or something! Holy shit!
The "newer scientific proof" is anything but, and the guy at wisconsin is a follower of the dhalai llama who had prior commitments to the efficacy of meditation. In other words, not exactly unbiased.
I don't disagree. Which is why I stated it as "according to a study" "appears to confirm" etc. I don't believe its true, but it does make testable claims... which means that (at least) it should be of interest, particularly if someone else can repeat the tests.
Well, the testable claims it makes don't seem to support your speculation in the OP. It makes no testable claims about whether meditation is a path to "higher consciousness" or whether it allows us to be more "aware of the world" (note : briefly perceiving a minor sensory input does not constitute being more "aware of the world" in any important respect, and in any case that would certainly need to be repeated by other people).
What the study showed was that, among an incredibly unique and non-representative portion of the population, if you practice concentrating for an incredible length of time, you will appear to be able to concentrate better. In other words, you can learn to concentrate better. Thats it. I don't see how this connects with taking acid, magic or "awareness of the universe."
Not that I agree with tosk's speculations on magical powers and so on...
but tons of studies have been done by respected researchers on various forms of meditation demonstrating a myriad of positive psychological and physiological effects.
A related set of questions that may be even more pertinent to philosophy could be: does the experience of practiced meditators provide a challenge common (among Western philosophers) metaphysical assumptions, and to what effect? The various traditions that have placed a lot of emphasis on meditation have also often performed rigorous phenomenological analysis of their experience, but with conclusions that (I think...) differ radically between themselves as well as from those that are considered basic, sometimes infallibly so, in Western traditions that are also in some sense or another phenomenological.
I think this is an very interesting line of questioning.
A class I took discussed the "Circuit" model of consciousness that Leary defined (Bio-Survival/Territorial/Semantic-Time Binding/Socio-Sexual) and examined the different traditions of 'magic' systems, religious systems etc. The idea was to examine the traditions, their methods of ritual and which circuits their rituals may be acting on. Antero Alli has designed a system called Paratheatrics which utilizes his research on ritual and its effect on human psychology.
In short, meditation/concentration/focus on the bio-survival circuit might be seen in martial arts, where the individual modifies their "Fight or Flee" response (which Leary considered to be imprinted within the first few weeks of life). Concentration/Meditation/etc. in the fourth circuit (socio-sexual) might be what Tantric traditions are accomplishing.
Perhaps the experience and the effects depend both on the type of exercises performed and the 'circuit' that the exercising is focused on (like tummy crunches).
I don't think the results are particularly surprising. Meditation enhances concentration and attention, eh? Never would have guessed that seeing as concentration is presumably partly constitutive of what people do in meditation. All this study says to me is that people who spend time concentrating are good at concentrating.
Also, we miss "data", whatever that means, in our everyday life all the time. Google "change blindness" for some interesting experiments and information. But there's absolutely no reason to believe what we're "missing out on" has something to do with Life, The Universe and Everything. All we miss out on is attending to normal everyday objects in our occurent environments.
Also, please explain what you mean by higher consciousness, or, if you like, Higher Consciousness. I have a sneaking suspicious that this is one of those airy-fairy phrases which, when properly analysed, might simply show itself to be something either obviously trivial or obviously false.
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If through meditation (or exercising the parts of the brain which meditation supposedly exercises), we can perceive information which the average human brain misses... what missing information could be brought to bear on philosophical positions? How would determinism be affected, if a human can change the functionality within the brain? How might this affect Materialism vs. Dualism?
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What the study showed was that, among an incredibly unique and non-representative portion of the population, if you practice concentrating for an incredible length of time, you will appear to be able to concentrate better. In other words, you can learn to concentrate better. Thats it. I don't see how this connects with taking acid, magic or "awareness of the universe."
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but tons of studies have been done by respected researchers on various forms of meditation demonstrating a myriad of positive psychological and physiological effects.
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A class I took discussed the "Circuit" model of consciousness that Leary defined (Bio-Survival/Territorial/Semantic-Time Binding/Socio-Sexual) and examined the different traditions of 'magic' systems, religious systems etc. The idea was to examine the traditions, their methods of ritual and which circuits their rituals may be acting on. Antero Alli has designed a system called Paratheatrics which utilizes his research on ritual and its effect on human psychology.
In short, meditation/concentration/focus on the bio-survival circuit might be seen in martial arts, where the individual modifies their "Fight or Flee" response (which Leary considered to be imprinted within the first few weeks of life). Concentration/Meditation/etc. in the fourth circuit (socio-sexual) might be what Tantric traditions are accomplishing.
Perhaps the experience and the effects depend both on the type of exercises performed and the 'circuit' that the exercising is focused on (like tummy crunches).
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Also, we miss "data", whatever that means, in our everyday life all the time. Google "change blindness" for some interesting experiments and information. But there's absolutely no reason to believe what we're "missing out on" has something to do with Life, The Universe and Everything. All we miss out on is attending to normal everyday objects in our occurent environments.
Also, please explain what you mean by higher consciousness, or, if you like, Higher Consciousness. I have a sneaking suspicious that this is one of those airy-fairy phrases which, when properly analysed, might simply show itself to be something either obviously trivial or obviously false.
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I have no idea what "higher consciousness" could even possibly mean.
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