A number of years ago the Dalai Lama invited biological
psychologist Richard Davidson to come to India to test one
of his Tibetan monks--a Frenchman, actually--by applying
electrodes on his cranium while the monk was meditating
on "unconditional loving-kindness and compassion." This
particular Buddhist monk had already accrued more than
10,000 hours of meditation, so he surely had to be a
seasoned contemplative. Davidson's team, from the
University of Wisconsin, nearly immediately noticed
powerful gamma brain wave activity. Later more Buddhist
monks were tested by Davidson, and he found similar
results.
Gamma brain waves essentially are considered the brain's
optimal frequency of functioning and associated with a
"conscious awareness of reality and increased mental abilities.
The reported benefits of gamma brain waves are as follows:
Boosted Memory, Enhanced Perception of Reality, Building
of Senses, Increased Compassion, High-Level Information
Processing, Natural Antidepressant, Advanced Learning
Ability, IQ Increase, High Level of Focus, and Improved
Perception/Consciousness,
These reports about these monks and their brain waves
caught my interest when it comes to how the Universal Spirit
might be working through us, perhaps upon us by enhancing
our brain's capabilities.
Meditation more than often has been in Religion's bailiwick,
though nowadays this kind of mental focus has also rapidly
moved out into the secular world: i.e., Transcendental Meditation
and Biofeedback.
Regardless the specific milieu for meditation, it's an interesting
phenomenon when the study of such has come under the
scrutiny of neuroscientists. It would seem our brain is far more
activated. As to "why," well that's a question that will have to
wait for another day to be answered. As for "what" might stand
behind all this, well that's open to speculation.
Just maybe there really *is* a Higher Reality acting upon us,
an Universal Spirit, that might actually be evolving us. Could
be our brains have finally reached the level where some of us
humans, like the French Buddhist meditator, seem to have
become an open channel for the reconfiguring of our brain
processes.
