Neurophenomenology Center Under Construction at ITP:
Studying the Effects of Meditation
What is meditation really doing?
How do religious images emerge in the brain?
Is the experience of non-dual consciousness the same for everyone, or is it different for different personality types?
Do spiritual and social ego-transcendence relate to the same areas in the brain?
Can thinking, attention, memory and intuition be improved by meditation?
What are the long term effects of meditation on the brain?
When mystics see internal light and feel Kundalini energy, what is happening in their brains? When ancient esoteric practices, such as Prayer of the Heart, cause deep personal transformation, does it affect the foundational mechanisms by which the brain constructs our identity?
These are just some of the questions Dr. Olga Louchakova seeks to answer. She has teamed up with Dr. Maria Kozhevnikov, a neuroscientist at George Mason University in Washington D.C., in a collaborative research project that connects transpersonal psychology with "hard core" neuroscience to measure what happens to the brain during various forms of meditation.
When Merlin Lucas, Ph.D. student and long-term practicing yogi, joined the research team, he brought his interest and expertise in Samadhi, the high spiritual state of the experience of Ultimate Reality, that is shared by both "self"- centered traditions as Advaita Vedanta, and "no-self " centered traditions as Buddhism. For transpersonal psychologists, the study of Samadhi is especially interesting because it leads to understanding the positive transformations that can happen in the areas of the brain connected with the unconscious, such as the limbic system, as well as the dynamic conscious transformations that often occur as the result of embodied spirituality.
These studies will contribute to the understanding of meditation, religious cognition, and the biological mechanism(s) at work in the brain. While more traditional theories suggest that areas of the brain are specialized, this research suggests that all areas of the brain are involved in meditation, even the most mundane. "This research into extraordinary experience is not about extraordinary experience per se; it's about improving the ordinary brain function," explains Dr. Louchakova. "Meditation targets all brain functions, including thinking and feeling, and with meditation all levels of brain functioning improve. It's not so much about relaxing, but about sharpening the senses and improving overall performance in daily life.
It's also about self regulation. Ultimately some forms of meditation are even likely to prolong the lifespan. Our research subjects are not only exhalted yogis or enlightened Buddhists, but Western lay people who benefit from spiritual practice.
Louchakova and Lucas won a generous grant from the Spitzer Foundation, which allows them to start a Neurophenomenology Center at ITP. The Center will carry both phenomenological investigations of spiritual experience, and dense array EEG measurements capable of source localization and evaluation of neural assemblies. In collaboration with Dr. Kozhevnikov, they will study cognitive functioning of the brain.
Experiments will involve approaches developed by Dr. Kozhevnikov to measure visual memory, spatial navigation, IQ/intelligence and changes in attention and creativity as a result of meditation. In general, the work pertains to that which is measurable beyond simple observation or psychological testing.
Dr. Louchakova is envisioning a long-term transpersonal psychology-neuroscience program, investigating the effects of spiritual practices oin the traditions of Kundalini Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, and western spirituality. Research will answer how the mind transforms with these practices, and how the "Kundalini" experience improves the mental capacities and the awareness of the body. Interestingly, in the current studies, the emphasis in brain research was mainly on the practices of mindfulness and intercessory prayer. Our focus will be on meditation practices which involve embodiment, such as Samadhi, Tantra or Prayer of the Heart.
Overall, Louchakova and her research partners seek to understand how the meditative experiences of the subtle body involve the brain correlates of attention, visual memory, cognition, self-representation, and affect. Involving the body in meditation practice automatically provides a direct link to emotions, which can have a more direct therapeutic effect.
The researchers hypothesize that different meditations have different effects and work on different areas of the brain. "If we can demonstrate this," says Dr. Kozhevnikov, "I believe it will further contribute to knowledge of the process and help to organize the experiment as it progresses."
The hope is that these research results can ultimately serve as tools for therapy. Therapists may be able to teach their clients meditation techniques through "sets of exercises" that will evoke specific changes in the brain. "Calling these techniques 'sets of exercises' rather than 'meditation techniques' makes it more accessible and removes the sense of it being hidden and esoteric," explains Dr. Louchakova.
The first round of comparative meditations research has been completed and researchers have started publishing the data. The first article authored by Louchakova and Lucas, titled "Self as a transpersonal clinical category," will appear in the spring issue of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. The second article, co-authored by Kozhevnikov, Jocipovic (ITP global Mentor), and Louchakova, titled "Comparative study of visual memory in Rigpa and Deity meditation," will be the first ITP publication done in collaboration with mainstream neuroscience.
How You Can Support this Research: To make an online gift to the ITP Neurophenomenology Center please go to: www.itp.edu/about/donations.php. Checks should be made payable to: Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and mailed to: For more information about ways to give to ITP's Neurophenomenology Center, please contact Tracy Byars at tbyars@itp.edu or 650-493-4430 x 267. Thank you! |
