Olga Louchakova Research
I am interested in how various meditation styles, concentrative meditation practice, Prayer of the Heart and spiritual development change the phenomenological constitution of the human self, including such aspects as the intra-psychic ontopoiesis, hyletic (embodied) ordering of the experience, and egological and non-egological conditions. I am also interested in how the experience of the non-dual consciousness affects our development, and how the experience of natural spiritually active substances (entheogens) influence our attention and cognition. I work on developing the meditation–based models of consciousness useful in neurophenomenological experiments, and apply these models in the first-person-based dense array electroencephalography, and cognitive science research.
These models help us to understand how to enhance attention, improve cognitive functions and optimize emotional functions. I am interested in trans-disciplinary studies of brain mechanisms underlying phenomena not yet explored by science but known to spiritual practitioners, such as Kundalini rising, or internal experiences of light (photisms) and synesthesia (light-sound), which accompany concentrative meditation. I believe that these spirituality-related phenomena enhance human cognitive and attention capacities, optimize emotions, and apply effects that I find in developing methods of training and clinical interventions.
I work within the following research themes and approaches:
Meditation and Self-Regulation in Tantra Yoga
Clinical Studies of Adult Spiritual Development
A Scientific Study of the Prayer of the Heart using Anthropological, Cognitive and Textual Methods
2009 - ITP faculty mini-grant (3k) for research of the effects of imagery in meditation styles.
2009 - Additional 10k award from the Spitzer Family Foundation for the development of Neurophenomenology Center.
2008–2010 - Award from the Spitzer Family Foundation for Development of the Neurophenomenology Center at ITP (120k)
1986-1992 - Development of ELISA diagnostic kit for identification of anti-galactocerebroside auto-antibodies. Major biotechnology grants from the Shemyakin National Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia.
Project 1: Meditation and Self-Regulation in Tantra Yoga
Based on the results of depth phenomenological, textual, cross-cultural anthropological and psychological analysis of the Tantra Yoga, most effective practices were selected and arranged into the intense training course. Training improves self-reported health, capacity of emotional self-monitoring, enhanced goal setting and decision-making, and quality of well-being. Particular practices were phenomenologically studied for their specific effects. For example, practices centering attention on the somatic sense of self cause the improvement of memory, and we started using them as mnemonic tools in higher education. Awareness and concentration practices with the focus on specific zones of the chest (known in the tradition as the spiritual heart center) improve the learning of the topics of high complexity, such as cultural psychology. Other practices have the distinct clinical effects, such as the visualizations of light is helpful in depression, or the central practice of tantra, the microcosmic orbit, is helpful in the development of creativity and removal of the writer’s block. Most importantly, analysis of the first person accounts shows developed capacities of self-regulation in the areas of emotional self-control, sleep self-control, and the ability of disciplined thinking.
The current round of the study (2007-2008) will scientifically evaluate cognitive, personality-related, and visual memory related effects. Preliminary data (obtained in collaboration with prof. M. Kozhevnikov, George Mason University in Washington) show the improvement in the spatial rotation and navigation tests. We are also examining the instruments to assess the positive emotional transformation, IQ and emotional self-regulation, and EEG measurement in the process of practice.
We are also developing collaboration with the school of Tibetan Tantra, Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, to examine effects of traditional practice. The deeper understanding of cognitive, perceptual, and emotional mechanisms of change leads us to building theories of the construction of the human self. In future we are hoping to find ways to collaborate on the study of the brain mechanisms involved in tantra meditation, as it is related to the consciousness theories, theories of self-representation, and the health related compensatory capacities of the brain.
Project 2: Clinical studies of the adult spiritual development
This is the depth-psychological study of spiritual development in adults. It has several focus areas (somatic aspects of development, stages of self-concept development, and analysis of archetypes, and analysis of the influences of spontaneous spiritual experiences (SSE), leading to the new model of the adult spiritual development, consistent with developmental sensibilities of Kundalini Yoga. Research is based on the phenomenological analysis of the accounts of people in the spirituality focus groups, and people having spontaneous spiritual experiences over a period of 20 years. More than 500 informants participated in this study. Research shows that conventional ego-development may shift to spiritual development, accompanied by the advanced forms of cognitive functioning. SSE cause developmental changes (so called ontopoiesis) in the structure of the self.
Project 3: A scientific study of the Prayer of the Heart using the anthropological, cognitive and phenomenological psychological and textual methods
Prayer of the Heart is the original psychosomatic spiritual practice in Christian mysticism, Sufism and Shakta- Vedanta. Our phenomenological analysis uncovered new data regarding ego-transcendence, ontopoiesis (development of the self) and development of direct intuition, enhancement of self-knowledge and improvement of character. The goal of the current research (with Prof. M. Kozhevnikov, George Mason University) will be to investigate the effects of the Prayer of the Heart on four aspects related to personal transformation: 1) Cognitive changes, in particular in the area of visualization and creative imagination, 2) positive emotional transformations, 3) neurological correlates of the discovered functional changes and 4) changes in self-representations and perception of self.This project is supported by the Mercy Center (Burlingame, CA).
Project 4: Meditation in Advaita Vedanta
This introspective research project focuses on the phenomenological analysis of the psychological effects of in traditional Advaita Vedanta (non-duality) training. The particular focus of the study will be on the changes of awareness of the self due to the use of Vedantic means of self-realization (Vedantic sadhana).
Project 5: Esotericism of the Heart
This is the comparative religious, historical and theological phenomenological study of the esoteric practices and perspectives in various traditions, centered around self-knowledge and the notion of the Spiritual Heart. This project is supported by the Mercy Center (Burlingame, CA).
Our collaborative research with Maria Kozhevnikov received rapid recognition in US and international media from various fields, including scientific, art and health news and blogs, as well as resources for meditation practitioners and sport physiologists.
Olga is developing a collaborative project with Professor Maria Koshevnikov, director of the laboratory of applied cognitive neuropsychology at George Mason University, Ontogenesis of the Ultimate Reality in the Prayer of the Heart and Rigpa: Integration of Cognitive Neuroscience Approach with the Phenomenological Investigations of Mystical Experience.
