Progress in Brain Research
January 1, 2019
Tracy Brandmeyer, Arnaud Delorme, Helané Wahbeh
143 citations
Meditation research has grown substantially over the last 30 years, emerging from contemplative and spiritual traditions. This chapter reviews meditation classifications, which remain varied and subjective, and suggests broader multidimensional models for future improvement. Phenomenological studies, though few, are increasing and link subjective experience to neurophysiology. EEG oscillatory studies are inconclusive due to heterogeneity in meditation styles and practitioners. Neuroimaging reveals common patterns during meditation and in long-term practitioners, reflecting general similarities, but most patterns differ across traditions. Research on attention and emotion regulation mechanisms is discussed. Evidence shows positive benefits for stress reduction, anxiety, depression, and pain in some clinical populations, though methodological and conceptual issues remain.
PLoS One
November 7, 2018
Cassandra Vieten, Helané Wahbeh, B Rael Cahn et al.
124 citations
A survey of 1120 meditators found that most report having had anomalous and extraordinary experiences during meditation, such as mystical, transpersonal, or difficult phenomena. While meditation research has largely focused on clinical effectiveness and neural correlates, these less-studied experiences may be crucial for psychological and spiritual development, act as mediators of meditation's benefits, or be important outcomes themselves. A task force of researchers and teachers developed recommendations to expand research into these areas, which represent largely uncharted scientific terrain suitable for rigorous investigation.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2022
Helané Wahbeh, Dean Radin, Cedric Cannard et al.
37 citations
Consciousness remains a profound mystery. Mainstream neuroscience assumes it arises solely from brain neurons, but the origin of subjective experience (qualia) is unexplained. David Chalmers called this the 'hard problem.' This review argues the hard problem may stem from flawed materialist assumptions. It examines phenomena suggesting consciousness can extend beyond the brain and body in space and time, called non-local properties. These effects vaguely resemble quantum entanglement, but mechanisms are highly speculative. The authors suggest post-materialistic models may be needed to resolve the conceptual impasse.
F1000Research
January 1, 2019
Helané Wahbeh, Cedric Cannard, Jennifer Okonsky et al.
21 citations
In a controlled experiment with 13 healthy adult trance channels, voice recordings showed increased arousal and power differences in specific frequency bins when participants read a story in a channeling state compared to a no-channeling state. However, electroencephalography, electrocardiography, galvanic skin response, and respiration measures did not differ significantly between the two states, despite participants reporting distinct subjective experiences. The findings suggest that while voice parameters may reflect the channeling experience, other physiological measures do not capture it. Future research should explore alternative measures such as EEG connectivity, fMRI, and biomarkers.
Front Hum Neurosci
March 1, 2024
Tam Hunt, Mostyn Jones, Johnjoe Mcfadden et al.
11 citations
This editorial examines the potential of electromagnetic field theories to explain consciousness, highlighting both promising avenues and significant challenges. It discusses how neural electromagnetic fields might integrate information across brain regions, offering a framework for conscious experience. However, it also addresses obstacles such as the lack of direct causal evidence and difficulties in testing these theories empirically. The piece calls for interdisciplinary collaboration to refine hypotheses and develop experimental approaches that could bridge theoretical gaps.
Journal of Scientific Exploration
March 8, 2021
Marilyn Schlitz, Daryl Bem, † Davíd et al.
11 citations
Two international experiments attempted to replicate a controversial precognition study by Daryl Bem. The experiments reversed the usual cause-effect sequence: participants responded to stimuli before a prime appeared, testing whether response times would be longer for incongruent stimuli. The preregistered confirmatory hypothesis was not supported in either experiment. Exploratory analyses in Experiment 1 found a significant effect only among English-language participants, not those using translations.
Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine
January 1, 2022
Helané Wahbeh, Garret Yount, Cassandra Vieten et al.
9 citations
People who feel more interconnected with others and nature tend to report better well-being, including more positive emotions and compassion, and less pain and sleep disturbance. In a study of adults attending personal development workshops, measures of interconnectedness were positively correlated with well-being and positive affect, and negatively correlated with sleep disturbance and pain. Extended perception tasks showed no link to interconnectedness or well-being. After workshops, participants reported improved well-being, interconnectedness, positive emotion, and compassion, and reduced sleep disturbances, negative emotion, and pain. Workshop formats involving lecture, small groups, pairs, and discussion predicted well-being improvements, as did content including meditation and technology tools. Meditation was the most consistent predictor of positive well-being changes. Conscientiousness was the only individual characteristic that predicted changes, but its effects were mixed.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
June 20, 2020
Jacob van Doorn, Mengqi Xing, B. Rael Cahn et al.
1 citation
preprint
Brain connectivity patterns differ between meditation states and instructed mind-wandering, regardless of meditation experience or tradition. Experienced meditators from Isha Yoga, Himalayan Yoga, and Vipassana traditions, along with meditation-naïve individuals, performed breath awareness, autobiographical thinking, and their own meditation practice while 64-electrode EEG recorded brain activity. A new method called Thought Chart mapped each person's dynamic functional connectivity. Both breath awareness and meditation tasks showed consistently different connectivity patterns compared to mind-wandering, measured by Hausdorff distance. The meditation state most closely resembled breath awareness across all groups. These differences were not driven by specific frequency bands, and no significant group differences emerged.
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science
March 1, 2025
Noga Aviad, Oz Moskovich, Ophir Orenstein et al.
A machine learning algorithm classified electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from 26 experienced meditators as either a focused attention meditation state or a mind-wandering control state with 83% accuracy. The model identified 10 EEG features associated with increased power and coherence of high-frequency brain oscillations during meditation relative to mind-wandering. The findings help characterize the complex, systemic oscillatory activity underlying meditation states.
Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition
April 3, 2023
Helané Wahbeh, Arnaud Delorme, Dean Radin
A survey of 442 academic professionals found that most believe in some form of afterlife, with confidence in survival and paranormal belief strongly correlated. Women reported higher confidence and belief than men. The most persuasive proposed experiments for testing survival of consciousness were a controlled prospective study of veridical out-of-body perceptions during a near-death experience, a mediumship experiment, and a reincarnation experiment. The least persuasive was survival as computer-based artificial intelligence. The findings suggest that well-designed experiments could influence skeptics' beliefs, though academics hold a wide range of views on the topic.
Brain Imaging and Behavior
October 1, 2021
Cyril R Pernet, Nikolai Belov, Arnaud Delorme et al.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 25 MRI studies found that mindfulness meditation is associated with grey matter changes, with the right anterior ventral insula showing a consistent effect across studies. Additional functional connectivity analysis suggests the left and right insulae and the anterior cingulate gyrus are also relevant. Effect sizes ranged from Cohen's d ~0.8 in the right insula to ~1 across the whole brain. The review identified methodological issues including selection, information, attrition, and confirmation biases, as well as weak statistical power. The authors conclude that mindfulness meditation induces grey matter changes but that improved methodology is needed to establish it as a therapeutic intervention.
Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
January 1, 2021
Tracy Brandmeyer, Arnaud Delorme
Mind wandering during meditation is common, but it also offers a chance to study the wandering mind with awareness and equanimity. This theoretical article presents a neurocognitive framework explaining how contemplative practices affect spontaneous thought. The model emphasizes meta-awareness, which increases moment-to-moment awareness of thought processes; changes in brain structures supporting top-down cognitive control and bottom-up sensory processing; and alterations in neural substrates of perception and perceptual decoupling. Together, these mechanisms suggest meditation can transform the experience and neural basis of spontaneous thought.
PLoS One
January 1, 2017
Claire Braboszcz, B Rael Cahn, Jonathan Levy et al.
Meditators from three traditions (Vipassana, Himalayan Yoga, Isha Shoonya) show higher gamma brainwave amplitude in the parieto-occipital region (60-110 Hz) compared to non-meditators, both during meditation and during instructed mind-wandering. This gamma activity increases with more meditation experience and is not due to eye or muscle artifacts. Vipassana practitioners also show higher alpha activity (7-11 Hz) than all other groups, while Himalayan Yoga practitioners show lower alpha activity (10-11 Hz) specifically during meditation. The findings indicate that meditation practice is associated with changes in gamma frequency EEG activity common across different meditation styles.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2013
Claire Braboszcz, B Rael Cahn, Bhavani Balakrishnan et al.
After a 3-month intensive meditation retreat, 82 Isha yoga practitioners showed increased correct responses to incongruent stimuli in the Stroop task and a reduction of the attentional blink. A positive correlation between previous meditation experience and accuracy to incongruent Stroop stimuli was observed at baseline, while a negative correlation between previous meditation experience and attentional blink performance was also found. Participants showed a bias toward local processing in the global-local letter task, with only slight performance differences pre- vs. post-retreat. The results do not clearly support or reject the hypothesis of meditation-driven neuronal plasticity in the attentional system for Isha yoga practice, given small effect sizes and no control group.