COG SCI 180: FINAL

Integration of Body and Mind

- A number of modern-day teachers have emphasized that inclusion of some sort of practice that integrates the physical body with the mind, such as various types of yoga, critical for mindfulness to be effective for modern day people who do not have the luxury of spending 12 hours a day meditating - To a large extent, becoming more mindful or aware of one's thoughts and emotions means becoming more aware of one's body Meditation can help us "physicalize the mind" so that when we have a negative thought, we can actually feel it almost as something physically pulling us off center This can make it vastly easier to control negative thoughts and emotions in daily life - As mentioned earlier, a meta-analysis of 78 fMRI studies of meditation found that one of the main commonalities among various different styles of meditation was changes in activity of the insula The insula specializes in body awareness - Some yogis have demonstrated quite remarkable control over body functions, such as breathing, heart rate, body temperature, and other vital function ( Tummo practice )

Nonduality

- According to Buddhist contemplative tradition, if one is able to understand the true nature of the self and realize its impermanence, one is able to be completely present with the dynamic flow of experience and to rest in pure awareness or direct awareness This awareness is called non dual consciousness because there is no separation between subject and object It has been variously called Big Mind, the mind ground, the nature of mind, or Buddha nature by different schools of Buddhism Some have argued that this consciousness reintroduces a kind of "self" back into Buddhism though this would not be a self in any ordinary sense of the word - It is similar in many ways to the experience Jill Bolte Taylor associated with her "right brain self" during her "stroke of insight" - Also more generally, finding this "true self" or merging with this larger consciousness was a main point of ancient philosophy, both in the East and West It was supposedly your ticket to something good, whether that meant experiencing great bliss or just leading a good life

Western science is primarily based on sensory perception and logical reasoning However, in the contemplative view, both ordinary perception and reasoning reveal only relative truths

- According to the Buddhist theory of perception, this is because, as soon as we perceive an object, memories and habitual patterns of thinking about the object are superimposed on the mental image which then gives rise to judgements about it - Other examples of this process at work When we are smiling, the whole world smiles with us, but when we are depressed or angry, even if we are looking at beautiful scenery, it is hard to see its beauty This effect is perhaps most pronounced in our perception of other people Currently, depressed people recall their parents as rejecting, punitive, and guilt promoting, whereas formerly depressed people describe their parents much as do those who have never suffered depression

Brain Stimulation or Neurofeedback as Possible Shortcuts?

- All of the above instructions and descriptions might make it seem quite cumbersome and time consuming to learn mindfulness meditation Given how difficult it seems to be to access direct awareness and a more expansive sense of self through mindfulness practice, one might well ask whether there may be an easier way to achieve similar results For instance, might it be possible to use direct brain stimulation or a procedure like neurofeedback?

As mentioned, the aim of contemplative practice is to alleviate human suffering

- An understanding of co-dependent arising can supposedly assist in this process because it reduces the compulsive attraction and repulsion that leads to afflictive emotions and problematic actions - The methods of science belong to what Buddhism would call the "coarse aspect of consciousness" For most purposes of functioning in the world, that is sufficient However, more subtle levels of awareness are required to gain a real understanding of the nature of the self - Ordinary perception and reasoning involve use of the judging, categorizing, conceptual mind, which prevents us from being able to see the self clearly It's likely trying to see a clear picture of reality by looking at a funhouse mirror - That ordinary thinking, judging mind in fact creates a sense of self that is an illusion (Gazzaniga's split brain patient) Real understanding of the self can only be attained through stabilizing and clarifying the mind, thereby bypassing the usual mind distortions that ordinarily prevent us from contacting reality directly

Epistemology

(Western) Science vs (Eastern) Contemplation - Science: Uses sensory perception and logical reasoning (ex. Scientific method) - Contemplation: Uses techniques to cultivate a clear and stable mind so one can directly perceive the truth

Other schools of Hinduism emphasize that there is an essential self or atman that is one with a broader consciousness

- "For the one who perceives all beings as the Self, there will be no more delusion or grief" (The Upanishads) - Early Indian philosophers, much like the ancient Greeks, were primarily concerned with the question of what is the real self and how do we merge with that - They believed that atman is the spiritual life principle of the universe and is inherent in the real self of an individual - Eastern contemplative traditions maintain that it is always beneficial to act in accordance with one's inner self (which may be conceptualized as a true self or a no self). However, what if one's inner self is moral? The contemplative traditions in general hold that a person's true nature is never immoral Sometimes though, an individual may not be able to access that true nature at all because their mind is covered over by bad habits and what Western psychologists would call projections That is, they are seeing things that actually aren't there. Much of that may take the form of believing that other people are attacking them on one level or another and that they need to defend themselves Ex. s of that might include mass murderers

Nondualist philosophers of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism similarly maintain that there is an underlying unindividuated consciousness that is witness to all experiences - not just yours or mine

- "I am not the mind, the intellect, the ego or the memory, I am not the ears, the skin, the nose or the eyes, ... I am the eternal Shiva" - Adi Shankara - Elisabeth Haich's experience: Asked to sit under a palm tree and meditate on it week after week - Three stages of concentration: intellectual, emotional, spiritual 1st stage: you think about what this object actually is 2nd stage: "with every never and every drop of your blood," you feel the object of concentration and what it is like 3rd stage: you become identical with the object of concentration - Ex. no longer looking at the tree from the outside, but from the inside. To see it, to experience it, TO BE IT! The palm tree is in me and I in it - I myself am the palm tree.

Recent research indicates that psilocybin is also effective in treating major depression

- 24 participants underwent two 5 hour psilocybin sessions - Results: - The magnitude of the effect was about 4 times larger than for traditional antidepressants - Effects were immediate whereas most other depression treatments take weeks or months to work and may have undesirable effects This could be a "game changer" if these findings hold up in future gold-standard placebo-controlled clinical trials The published findings covered only a 4-week follow-up period

What the meditation practitioners themselves reported experiencing during this state:

- A change in the quality of moment-to-moment awareness, bringing with it a vast panorama of perceptual clarity - Monks who had spent the most years meditating generated the highest levels of gamma waves Increased gamma activity and neural synchrony were evident in the long-term practitioners even when they were not meditating

As discussed earlier, according to Buddhist contemplative traditions:

- A mistaken belief in an enduring, separate self leads to afflictive emotions and problematic actions - On the other hand, letting go of this small sense of self results in experiences of nonduality and great bliss - Contemplative traditions have developed special techniques to let go of the small sense of self Ricard emphasizes that meditation/contemplative practice is necessary to really know what no self means - a mere theoretical understanding will not work Over time, repetition of these practices leads to a slow remodeling of one's way of being, which in modern terms is correlated with a remodeling of one's brain - There are many different meditation techniques In Buddhism alone, it is said that there are 84,000 gates to the path of liberation What matters is which method actually works for the particular individual, according to their own mental dispositions, life circumstances, & capacities It has been said that the optimal meditation program, like the optimal physical exercise program, will differ for everyone - However, there are some meditation practices that are considered standard, including: Mindfulness practice Compassion practice or lovingkindness meditation Practices to access non duality or "nature of mind" directly Practices focused on the development of integrity

Compassion Practice and Interdependence

- There is a common misconception that cultivating inner peace and equanimity through meditation practice means that You cease to experience things with depth and brilliance As a result, there will be a reduction in the quality of your love, affection, vivid openness to others One is focused on working with one's own mind and not helping others - As Ricard points out, the reverse is actually true Meditation practice allows you to be more present to others and to the world because you are remaining in the freshness of the present moment instead of being "in your head," carried away by wandering thoughts In addition, compassion and altruistic love is the natural consequence of an understanding of the fundamental nature of the self (i.e. no self) and the interdependence of oneself and others which results from meditation practice In particular, compassion practice or loving kindness meditation (LKM) is specifically designed to foster a deep sense of interconnection with others and help the practitioners to let go of the small ego self

Contemplative answer to objection:

- There is an important distinction between contemplation and introspection: contemplation first requires extensive training of the mind to become stable and clear using specific techniques - Ricard points out that introspection was discredited because the participants who had originally been asked to engage in it in laboratory studies did so with minds that were distracted most of the time - It "feels" different when the mind is agitated, distracted, and murky vs when it is stable and crystal clear - These various mental states and associated effects are delineated precisely within contemplative traditions

Schizophrenia and No-Self: Similarities and Differences

- There seem to be some overlap between the expanded states of consciousness experienced by contemplatives and certain psychotic experiences German psychiatrist Karl Jaspers maintained that the core symptoms of the schizophrenia all have something to do with a disturbance of the boundary between the self and other, the self and the outside world Laurie's description of her psychosis in "The Man Who Wasn't There" "I thought my whole self disintegrated and dissolved; I didn't have one" - The difference though is that schizophrenia seems to be associated with a stronger involvement of the ego self and a need to protect it and/or a sense of self-importance Sophie perceived "the world as insubstantial; where solid boundaries melted away into an amorphous whole... Suddenly, it was as if my entire interior life was exposed to everyone." And this induced fear

Mental elaborations

- Another factor that prevents us from experiencing direct awareness (i.e. the "right brain self") is mental elaborations - Most of the negative emotions we feel do not come from actual aversive events, but from our reactions to them, which largely takes the form of mental elaborations Suppose you're walking through a dark room at night and stub your toe on a chair Right after the first step of pain comes "Who moved that darn chair?" This then continues to elaborate, maybe moving to the person whom you think moved the chair and all the evil things they have done to you - As discussed earlier though, when we are fully present in the here and now, times allows down This allows you to immediately recognize a negative mental state like grasping or fear when it starts to arise and thus to defuse chain reaction of memories, judgments, emotions, etc, that usually occurs That is you can choose not to let the mental elaborations proliferate - Note that this instantaneous seeing into the source of afflictive mental states is not the same as reasoning away your angry, sad, or fearful thoughts - meditation is not about thinking your way out of problems Rather it's about accessing a different kind of mind that is naturally able to catch those afflictive thoughts more quickly and stop them more effectively

Neurological Research on compassion practice

- As discussed earlier, loving kindness meditation activates gamma waves more powerfully than any other meditation practice - Increased gamma wave activity is correlated with enhanced attention, working memory, learning and conscious perception - Psychological research on compassion practice Study on effects of loving kindness meditation on emotions Participants engaged in compassion meditation for 30 min per day for 6-8 weeks Results: compared with waitlisted controls, participants showed Increase in positive emotions Increase in one's degree of satisfaction with existence In addition, the longer their training was, the more marked were the positive effects - These findings are in line with notion that Aim of investigation of the self in Buddhist contemplative training is not just knowledge for its own sake, but to alleviate human suffering Contemplative practice can stabilize and clarify the mind

Nonduality and Transpersonal States of Consciousness

- As discussed earlier, the concept of no-self in Buddhism is not so much a philosophical concept as it is a description of experiences that arise in meditation - Experiences of nonduality or "direct awareness" in which one no longer experiences oneself as an entity separate from objects of perception have been reported in other contexts as well - In particular, transpersonal states of consciousness have been associated with ecstatic seizures and the use of psychedelic drugs

Attachment, aversion, and no preference

- As mentioned earlier, one main factor that prevents us from being able to be fully present - and hence to experience direct awareness - is attachments tied to our belief in a permanent autonomous self (e.g. fear of losing objects that belong to us or a desire to maintain a positive view of ourselves) - An understanding of no self can thus enhance our ability to be fully present and to be willing to stay with the dynamic flow of experience

Ultimately, it is Step One which sets the stage for Step Two and makes the latter possible because...

- As mentioned earlier, we have a natural tendency to dissociate from our body because we do not want to experience unpleasant sensations and emotions - However, calm-abiding practice connects us with the suchness of things and with the direct awareness that imbues all things with a sense of "Okness" This causes the sense of judgment to naturally drop away, and the understanding arises that everything is exactly as it should be Whatever is felt is meant to be felt, and whatever is thought is meant to be thought - All of this makes it possible to be fully present with experience - And being fully present in turn deepens our experience of direct awareness, allowing us to let go of the "left-brain self" and experience the "right-brain self"

Good Trips, Bad Trips

- Context plays a huge role in determining whether one has a good trip or a bad trip - Odds of the former are increased by: A natural environment Feeling you are in a safe space Presence of a facilitator, who may be a shaman or a specially trained therapist - Several preparatory sessions in which: Guide helps you set an intention Ex. "I want to quit smoking" "I want to confront my mortality" Guide gives you "flight instructions" They'll talk to you about what to do if the experience becomes frightening - which often happens - and how to navigate that Ex. If you see a staircase, go up it; if you see a door, open it If you see a monster, don't run away; step right up and ask"What are you doing in my head?" "What do you have to teach me" - Integration session afterward You tell a story of your trip, try to make sense of it, apply the lessons to your life

Direct Awareness

- Direct awareness, awareness of a basic quality of mind that is in each of us goes in hand with letting go of the ego self - It is the Big Key to getting meditation to really "work" but what that actually means can't really be explained in words - There are also techniques for accessing this awareness directly - According to Ricard, "The mastery of this... eventually leads to people who have an extraordinary emotional balance, inner strength, inner peace, and freedom" - It is sometimes called the "luminous" aspect of mind because it allows the practitioner to be fully aware of both the external world and their internal world It is described as vivid and fully aware, as having a quality of peace Thoughts arise from the space of awareness and dissolve back into it, "like waves that surge from and dissolve back into the ocean" - Unfortunately though, direct awareness cannot be understood by the conceptual ("left-brain") mind; it is a type of insight into the nature of reality that is beyond language and reasoning So unless you have a direct experience of this direct awareness, the words are meaningless

Having No Head

- Douglas Harding's "Headlessness" technique is another possible entryway into nonduality/no-self The technique stems from an experience Harding had in the Himalayas in 1943 "I had for several months been absorbed in the question: what am I? The fact that I happened to be walking in the Himalayas at the time probably had little to do with it; though in that country unusual states of mind are said to come more easily... What actually happened was something absurdly simple and unspectacular: just for the moment I stopped thinking... - Experiment to explore who you are (from Richard Lang): Who are you really? Not who you are in other people's eyes, or in the mirror, or according to your beliefs and unexamined assumptions, but in your own direct experience.

Ayahuasca (psychoactive brew)

- Drug Action: DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca binds to DMT receptors in the brain. In addition, MAO-inhibiting beta-carbolines prevent enzymes in the gut from breaking down DMT, rendering it orally active - Positive Effects: Research has found potential antidepressant and anxiolytic effects; may cause production of new neurons in hippocampus May induce mystical visions and spiritual experiences People have reported having spiritual revelations regarding their purpose on earth and the true nature of the universe - Adverse Effects: May cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, autonomic instability, and interactions with other drugs can cause death

MDMA ("Ecstasy")

- Drug Action: causes release of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, and blocks their reabsorption - Positive Effects: Emotional elevation, disinhibition, feelings of connectedness w/ everyone Research has indicated that MDMA may be effective for treating PTSD - Adverse Effects: Dehydration, overheating, and increase in blood pressure can cause death, especially when combined with dancing at raves "Ecstasy" pills may be cut with dangerous chemicals Potential damage to serotonin producing neurons, leading to increased risk of depression and sleep problems Memory impairments

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) (acid)

- Drug Action: stimulated serotonergic and dopaminergic receptors - Positive Effects: Cause perceptual distortions and hallucinations: "altered states of consciousness" ( emotions can vary from euphoria to detachment or panic) Sense of self may dissolve, as does border between oneself & the external world Research has indicated that LSD may be effective for treating anxiety due to terminal illness, alcoholism, and cluster headaches - Adverse Effects: No documented fatalities from pharmacological action of LSD, but behavioral fatalities and suicides can occur May trigger panic attacks and extreme anxiety ("bad trips"); flashbacks May trigger psychotic break, especially in those with a family history of schizophrenia

Psilocybin ("Magic Mushrooms")

- Drug Action: stimulates serotonin receptors - Positive Effects: Causes euphoria, perceptual distortions, hallucinations May induce spiritual experiences - Marsh Chapel Experiment on Harvard Divinity School students in 1962 Participants reported profound religious experiences In a 25-year follow up, all of the participants described experience as having elements of "a genuine mystical nature and characterized it as one of the high points of their spiritual life" Single administration of psilocybin induced significant increase in personality dimension of openness to experience that persisted for over a year ( Roland Griffiths ) - Adverse Effects: May cause nausea, panic attacks, confusion, and psychotic episodes, leading to accidents and suicide attempts

Lastly, Zach's seizure-induced experiences of nonduality and expanded consciousness/sense of self clearly shows strong parallels with what has been described by Eastern contemplatives, as well as Western mystics

- Zach had grown up an atheist and didn't equate his experiences with the existence of anything supernatural - In addition, the same sort of heightened awareness, slowing of time, certainty that everything is as it should be that is characteristic of the seizure-induced experiences underpin accounts of the experiences of the direct awareness that occur during deep states of meditation - Neurologist Fabienne Picard did extensive interviews of patients who had experienced ecstatic seizures and found their sensations were characterized by Heightened self-awareness: "During the seizure it is as if I were very, very conscious, more aware, and the sensations, everything, seems bigger, overwhelming me" Sense of physical well-being: "a sensation of velvet, as if I were sheltered from anything negative" Intense positive emotions: "The immense joy that fills me is above physical sensations. It is a feeling of total presence, an absolute integration of myself, a feeling of unbelievable harmony of my whole body and myself with life, with the world, with the 'All"

Neuropsychological Research on Long-Term Meditators

- EEG studies by Richard Davidson found that mediation practice is associated with increased left prefrontal activity Left prefrontal activity is known to be associated with optimism and feelings of happiness and well-being Early on, Davidson noticed that an elderly Tibetan monk in one of his studies showed much greater predominance of activity in the left prefrontal than any of the other participants he had previously tested Research on other long-term meditators provided further confirmatory evidence For instance, one meditation adept, Matthieu Ricard, showed increased left prefrontal cortical activity that was 4.5 standard deviations outside the standard bell curve - Paul Ekman also found enhanced ability to identify microexpression in meditators A series of faces displaying various expression was shown in very quick succession The target expression remained onscreen for one thirtieth of a second Participants were asked to identify that expression - The two experienced Western meditators who Ekamn tested achieved results that were far better than those of 5000 participants previously tested The ability to recognize such fleeting facial expressions has been associated with a capacity for empathy and insight, as well as openness to new experiences, intellectual curiosity, and general reliability and efficiency

Psychedelic therapy for the treatment of addiction

- Early study by Abram Hoffer study in the 1960's Gave alcoholics a small dose of mescaline, then deliberately induced peak experiences by means of music, poetry, painting - whatever used to produce peak experiences before the person became alcoholic 50% were supposedly permanently cured - More recent research has indicated that psilocybin (mushrooms) may be effective for treatment of addiction to drugs ranging from alcohol and harder drugs to nicotine Smoking cessation study in which participants were given 2-3 psilocybin sessions resulted in an 80% success rate, compared with the 35% typically observed in patients taking the leading conventional anti-smoking drug Chantix After a 5-hour psychedelic therapy session, one participant said, "Now, I understand why I smoked, and I don't need to do that anymore"... and she hasn't touched a cigarette since - Some studies have found that ketamine may also be effective for treatment of addiction, but effects tend to wear off relatively quickly, so patient may need repeated infusions and ketamine has the potential to become a drug of abuse

Other techniques for letting go of the self that are often coupled with mindfulness:

- Let go of the face: much of our "self" is carried in the contractions of our facial muscle Much of what we think of as physical appearance is actually just habitual facial muscle movements that get "frozen" on the face Study found that married couples look more and more similar over time, probably as a result of motor mimicry - Spend time in nature: see the wonder in the world, lie in a way that is open to the larger scope of things - that will "reduce" the self to reasonable size Retreats are generally heal in natural settings, even today, and there is a reason for that Connecting deeply with nature allows us to connect with ourselves In natural settings, it's easier to relax and not use the self - we're able to let go of the references that usually bind us, the cognitive habits that create what we believe to be a self This is depicted in Daoist paintings in which you see giant mountains and bodies of water next to these tiny men

This ability to stop mental elaborations is probably one reason why meditations is associated with reduced DMN activity

- Longtime meditators across many traditions show reduced activity in the main nodes of the Default Mode Network (DMN) when meditating, as well as when they are not meditating - The DMN or "task negative network" Includes the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and angular gyrus Is active when we are not focused on a particular task Is involved in self-reference, recognition of emotions in others, remembering the past, and imagining the future Is associated with ruminating about the past, worrying about the future, thinking about what other people are thinking about you

Attentional blink study in which participants were tested before and after they completed a 3-month mindfulness retreat at Insight Meditation Society (METHOD)

- Non Judgemental awareness was measured using attentional blink paradigm - Based on idea that if one stimulus hijacks our attention we won't notice other stimuli that occur just a fraction of a second later - A stream of letters are flashed onto a screen, one after another, ten per second: C, P, Q, D, K, L, T, B, X, V, etc - But every now and then a number appears as in, C, P, Q, D, K, L, T, B, X, - The task is to indicate when a number interrupts the stream of letters - If the second number follows the first within about half a second or less, most people notice the first number (3) but don't see the second (7) - The reason seems to be that when a number shows up, the excitement they feel causes their attention to blink - The extent to which people are ale to minimize this "blinking" reflects a quality of emotional balance and equanimity

Is letting go of the self easier in Eastern collectivistic cultures than in Western individualistic cultures?

- Not necessarily - Regardless of culture, letting go of the ego self and finding one's true identity is about having the courage to do what you know deep down to be right and not caring so much about what other people will think or do or say In individualist cultures, the primary obstacle is generally concern about what society will think In collectivist cultures, the primary obstacle is generally concern about what one's own family thinks and wants you to do - But ultimately, it boils down to the same thing - are you able to stand your ground and do what you know in your heart of hearts to be right

Does that mean that if someone goes around not only calling you stupid, but telling other people how stupid you are, you should simply ignore the person and not do anything?

- Not necessarily. It's not so much about what you do, but your perception of the situation If you believe that the other person is harming you in some real way (maybe in part because you buy into their criticisms), you are likely to react in a less-than-ideal manner If, on the other hand, you are able to see all the factors involved in the situation and recognize that your true nature, what you are at center, remains unharmed, you are likely to respond in a much more effective way - However, it generally takes a good deal meditation practice to be able to do that in these types of situations

Attachment vs Desire

- Note that this does not mean we should have no preferences or desires - Desires are only problematic if they are excessive and take the form of strong attachments that destabilize us Ex. "I'm going to die if I don't get those shoes!" - These attachments are associated with a deluded attempt to try to freeze reality in various ways, rather than to be present with the dynamic flow of experience When we cling strongly to something, assuming that it will last, that it is truly ours, and that it is in and of itself desirable, we are at odds with reality - How do you distinguish between desire and attachment? One litmus test: Is the "object" you desire something you think you HAVE to have to feel good about yourself, at least on some level? Oftentimes, this happens because we think the object will make us look good in the eyes of others If you know that your feeling good about yourself does not depend on your having that object (and this is where finding no self or your true self can be helpful) you will be able to view the situation in a much more objective way

Taoist Emptiness and No-Self

- One famous story within this tradition is Hundun, also known as the Taoist "Humpty Dumpty" story Hundun had a perfect and permanent life at the center of the world, but was devoid of personal features - he had no face. The kings from the periphery decided to come to the center and do Hundun a favor by giving him a facial shape. They drilled seven holes into his body - the facial openings - and he immediately perished - Hundun represents the private and faceless identity that lies at the center of your being - The kings from the periphery represent all the people in your world who want you to identify with your public appearance, to believe that you are at center what you look like from a distance. The outcome, of course, is the immediate death of your central identity. - What you are at the dentere of your being is awareness itself, a faceless embrace of all things. Others see your face. That is your public identity, your appearance to others. To accept that as your central identity is tantamount to death, the death of your true view of yourself

Entropic Brain Theory

- Ordinarily waking consciousness is characterized by entropic suppression - Highly organized neural circuits in the DMN act as selective filtering mechanisms that sort things according to a limited number of variables or categories out of which we construct our world ( e.g. warm, unpleasant, green ) - These brain processes normally Constrain neural systems central to perception, emotion, cognition, and sense of self Imbues normal waking consciousness w/ a constrained quality but allows for the operation of certain metacognitive functions (ex. Reality testing, self-awareness) - Psychedelic drugs perturb these brain processes - The Entropic Brain Hypothesis: - High Entropy, High Disorder, Flexible States Psychedelic state, infant consciousness, REM sleep/dreaming, early psychosis, sensory deprivation, near death experience, magical thinking, dreamy states of temporal lobe epilepsy, divergent-thinking/creativity - Low Entropy, Low Disorder, Rigid States Coma, anesthesia, sedation, deep sleep, seizure, depression, OCD, addictions, rigid/narrow thinking

Psychedelics and the Self

- Psychedelics may similarly induce experiences of expanded consciousness characterized by non duality, enhanced awareness, time dilation, and blissful sensations Ex. Aldous Huxley's experience with mescaline n 1953 A vase of brightly hued flowers which he had found distasteful just hours before he popped the pill, morphed in his perception "I was seeing what Adam had seen on the morning of his creation - the miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence He also found that his perception of space and time altered - N.B.: Psychedelics/hallucinogens are a specific subclass known to induce distortion of perception/altered state of consciousness Not all street drugs are psychedelics - cocaine and heroin, for instance are not known to induce expanded states of consciousness CAUTION: psychedelics are illegal and pose risks to mental health

Reproducibility

- Reproducibility figures as a criterion in the contemplative approach, just as in the scientific approach - There is interindividual consensus among trained contemplatives with regard to conclusions arrived at, which is not the case for untrained subjects - This may be compared to the process followed by mathematicians who, having undergone common training, can understand each other as they discuss the subject, using the same language, and reach similar insights - Unless you are trained in mathematics though, it would be hard to grasp those concepts and follow those discussions - In addition, the results can be reproduced by a particular investigator at different points in time, as well as by other investigators - That is, the insights into the nature of reality and the mind are directly perceived when one stabilizes and clarifies the mind can be experienced again and again in meditation

Gamma waves: type of very high-frequency brain wave (25-42+ Hz)

- Research has linked neural synchrony of high frequency brain waves to enhanced attention, working memory, learning and conscious perception - Size of the gamma wave is related to the number of neurons firing in sync Greater synchrony between various sections of the brain indicates greater integration of cognitive and affective functions and less dissociation Compartmentalization of brain functions, on the other hand, is associated with aging and cognitive decline

Attentional blink study in which participants were tested before and after they completed a 3-month mindfulness retreat at Insight Meditation Society (RESULTS)

- Retreatants, unlike controls, showed a marked decrease in attentional blink and a 33% greater detection of second targets - Furthermore, follow-up study found Significant improvements in attentional performance that correlated with alterations in brain activity were maintained 3 months after the end of formal mediation practice Mental training can result in durable neuropsychological changes - The ability to focus attention in a calm, abiding manner without too much arousal or excitement (which is developed through mediation practice) is supposedly what allows practitioners to "see" subtle aspects of the self

The problem of the ego bubble

- Ricard defines the ego bubble as a narrow mental space in which everything gravitates around the "I" - We actually form that bubble in the illusory hope that it will be easier to protect ourselves within a confined space that constitutes a kind of refuge for the ego - In fact though, when we do that, we build an inner jail: self-centered thoughts, hope, and fears keep bouncing back and forth on the bubble's walls Brooding "me, me, me" all the time, going on and on about how other people did this and that to you, preoccupied by praise and criticism The problem is that within such a bubble, everything gets blown out of proportion: the smallest upheaval will upset us greatly - The ego bubble involves a contraction of self, but we can only truly be at home within the freedom of a more expansive kind of pure awareness or direct awareness, not within the narrow confines of the ego bubble

Accompanying this is a flood of meaningfulness and awe - everything seems infinitely meaningful

- Asked what Zen training leads to, a Western student in Japan answered, "No paranormal experiences that I can detect. But you wake up in the morning and the world seems so beautiful you can hardly stand it." - According to contemplative literature, this flood if meaning arises in these moments of expanded consciousness because of a recognition of something we truly are, something that is not reducible to the self Everything and every moment is sensed to be an expression of a larger reality that is free and somehow right Arriving at the real is intrinsically meaningful, whereas being distracted from that makes everything pall and seem somewhat meaningless - N.B.: There have been tons of research in recent years on awe, in part because it is supposedly the emotion that confers the greatest health benefits - Perceived slowing of time "It felt like time was being stretched out. Like you were experiencing more every second than you normally do." Similarly, one of the characters in Dostoevsky's novels states, "I feel then as if I understood those amazing words - "There shall be no more time." This slowing of time is probably related to stopping of the conceptual mind - what Niebauer calls the left-brain self "I felt like I knew everything about my environment so directly that there was no inference going on" - Non Judgemental awareness with acceptance - which is by definition what mindfulness is One can try to be non judgemental, but that is very different from when the kind of non judgemental and total unconditional acceptance that arises spontaneously in direct awareness states The sense of judgment just naturally drop away, and there is a cognition that everything is exactly as it should be... Whatever is felt is meant to be felt, and whatever is thought is meant to be thought

In sum, our primary perceptions, mediated by sensory experience, appear to us as evident, but what we perceive, what we think we know, depends on the sensory apparatus and cognitive functions we have acquired through evolution and thus do not necessarily reflect "objective Truth"

- Both science and buddhism seem to concur that the consciousness associated with sensory experiences never directly perceives reality as it is - On the other hand, ideas that on the surface seem counterintuitive - such as the contemplative notion that the permanent, autonomous self we generally believe we have does not really exist - may in fact be true, in much the same way that the ideas of quantum mechanics are true despite their being counterintuitive

Rebirth

- Buddhism does not accept the existence of an eternal soul that incarnates, so some Buddhists actually object to the term reincarnation That is, it is not what we would think of as our ordinary personality that transmigrates However, Buddhism does hold that there is a stream of consciousness that gets transferred from one birth to the next The analogy that is often used is that of a flame being passed from candle to candle Note: Concept of rebirth in Buddhism is supposedly not based on metaphysical speculation - supposedly, in certain advanced meditation states, it is possible to directly see what happens after death without dying - There is really no way to prove or disprove the notion of past lives, but there have been some intriguing cases... Englishman who knew a "baffling" number of details about the ancient city of Petra in Jordan though he had never traveled there. Many bits of information that he gave were in fact unknown at the time he reported them and was only verified by later excavations Little girl in India who insisted that her father take her to a village some distance away. There she identified all of her relatives by name, showed her father around her house, and asked for all her personal belongings that had been hers, e.g. particular books and clothing items - In most cases of spontaneous past life recall, the person in the previous life had met with a violent death - Reincarnation stories are much more common in the East where they are consonant with cultural beliefs - Stories most commonly surface when the child is between 2 - 4 years old, then fade

Mindfulness Meditation

- Common misconceptions about meditation: - Ricard points out that there is a naive belief in the West that meditation is sitting somewhere to empty your mind and relax or to only "think good thoughts" In fact though, meditation is not about putting problems to sleep for a while or trying to forcibly suppress strong emotions (which would be like setting a time bomb) Neither is it about making the mind "blank" Instead, meditation is a much richer state of vivid awareness - In meditation practice, one does not try to prevent thoughts from arising, which is not possible, nor simply allow them to drift Rather one allows them to liberate as they arise To be able to do that generally requires long hours of practice to stabilize the mind When you develop the ability to preserve a clear state of "direct awareness" and rest within the space You are able to see thoughts arise and allow them to pass through your mind, without blocking or encouraging them As a result, they vanish without creating many waves When disturbing emotions arise, they dissolve as they appear Resting in direct awareness allows for "the immediate identification of an angry thought as it arises and for its deconstruction the next instant, the way a picture drawn on the surface of water melts away as it is sketched" - Ricard The afflictive thoughts thus no longer have the power to afflict you because they undo themselves the moment they arise You neither let the anger explode nor do you merely suppress it

Letting go of the go self and cultivating an understanding of interdependence can have powerful effects on interpersonal relationships

- Compassion involves not only letting go of the ego self but also expanding our sense of self to include others - Rejoice with Others: take delight in the windfalls and successes of friends and family Research has shown that what distinguishes good and poor relationships is not how partners respond to each other's disappointments and reversals, but how they respond to good news - Conflict resolution study: can meditation training enable one to defuse conflict and hostility in others? Ricard was asked to discuss a controversial topic with two different scientists: one who was affable and another who was ornery Topic was why biologist like Ricard, who did research in a prestigious lab at Pasteur Institute, would ever choose not only to become a Buddhist monk but to believe in crazy things like reincarnation Participants were fitted with sensors monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, skin conductivity, body movement, and facial expressions

The Buddhist contemplative view that mental elaborations and mind wandering - which prevents us from being fully present - lead to negative mental states is brought home by research on mind wandering

- Study in which 1000 people were texted at random times throughout the day As soon as participants received text, they had to answer 3 questions? What are you doing right now? Where is your mind right now? Is it focused on what you're doing or is it focused elsewhere? How happy or unhappy are you right at this very moment? - Results: Average American adult spends 47% of waking life not paying attention to what they're doing When they were not paying attention, they were significantly less happy

Ecstatic Seizures

- Ecstatic seizures associated with temporal lobe epilepsy beget a condition where One is fully present here and now, with enhanced awareness of one's own being, yet paradoxically at the same time There is a blurring of the boundaries between one's self and the world, leading to a feeling of transcendental oneness - Ananthaswamy's "The Man Who Wasn't There" describes the case of Zach, whose seizures mostly brought on severe depression, but sometimes turned in the opposite direction to produce ecstatic mystical experiences - Similarly, the Russian novelist Dostoevsky reportedly suffered from epilepsy, and while most of his seizures left him feeling a dark dread, there were also others that produced "A happiness unthinkable in the normal state and unimaginable for anyone who hasn't experienced it... I am then in perfect harmony with myself and the entire universe... The sensation is so strong and so pleasant that one would give ten years of life, perhaps even one's whole life in exchange for a few seconds of such felicity." - Descriptions of ecstatic seizures in the Ananthaswamy book provide a good illustration of some of the characteristics of transpersonal states of consciousness - which seem to parallel those of the direct awareness of pure awareness states experienced by contemplatives, as described by people like Ricard There is a sudden clarity. All objects of perception become much more immediate, vivid, and real.

Brain Stimulation

- Expanded states of consciousness in which one drops the ego self, such as the direct awareness described in contemplative literature, are associated with feelings of bliss - Similar types of positive emotions may be induced through brain stimulation, specifically via stimulation of the reward centers of the brain in the ventral striatum, such as the nucleus accumbens - Unfortunately though, in experiments in which rats learn to press a bar to receive jolts of stimulation to their nucleus accumbens: The pleasure is so intense that they soon abandon all other activities, including food and sex They eventually die of exhaustion A rat will press a lever 7000 times an hour to get a jolt of stimulation to its nucleus accumbens A monkey will press a lever 12000 times for one jolt of stimulation Use of a shortcut like brain stimulation is likely to simply result in a state of addiction It will also likely leave you feeling completely dependent and powerless once the stimulation has ceased

These findings are in agreement w/ other recent work that has indicated that, during flow

- Fronto-insular cortex may initiate control signals that disengage activity of task irrelevant DMN regions - This shift in engagement is accompanied by a shift from internally to externally focused attention - Lastly, description of the flow experience as a merging of actions and awareness seem to parallel deep meditative states experienced by long-term meditation practitioners that are associated with high levels of gamma-wave activity

Research on the effectiveness of ketamine in treating depression is more mixed

- Good News: Research indicates that, for those with treatment resistant depression, ketamine may result in improved mood within 4 hours and peaked at 24 hours - Bad News: Effect is significantly diminished by 7 days and most people relapse within 10 days Data obtained by the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System indicated that use of ketamine/esketamine (nasal spray) increases risk of dissociation, sedation, "feeling drunk", suicidal ideation, and completed suicide - Microdosing on psilocybin or ketamine Very difficult to study because of huge placebo effect of psychedelics

Study on effect of mindfulness and compassion practice on helping behavior

- Group 1: trained in loving kindness meditation - Group 2: trained in mindfulness - Group 3: control group - After 8 weeks, participants' altruistic behavior was tested Participant is seated on a bench in waiting room next to two people (confederates) An individual with crutches enters and stands against the wall, showing signs of discomfort The two confederates don't show the least bit of interest in the standing patient (accentuating the "bystander effect" that is known to inhibit helping behavior) - Results: On average, the meditators offered their seat 5 times more often than the non-meditators Suggests that LKM does indeed foster increased sense of empathy/interdependence

Keys to Finding Flow

- Have a clear set of goals - Structure tasks so that they are challenging but not too challenging - Choose activities that are active, rather than passive - Engage in social interactions: the moods that people with chronic depression or eating disorders experience are indistinguishable from those of healthy people as long as they are in company and doing something that requires concentration

Moratorium on research in on psychedelics form early 1970s to early 2000s due to sociopolitical factors

- However, resurgence of interest and research in this area in recent years, in particular with regard to use of hallucinogens - especially MDMA and LSD - to treat substance abuse, PTSD, OCD, depression, cluster headaches, and emotional suffering associated with terminal illness - UCB launched the campus's first Center for the Science of Psychedelics and public education in 2020 - Will conduct research using psychedelics to investigate Cognition, perception, emotion and their biological bases in the human brain ( initial studies will focus on psilocybin ) Integration of psychedelics with psychotherapy to treat psychological disorders and brain mechanism involved Ability of these compounds to improve cognitive flexibility, alter visual perception, engender feelings of awe and change patterns of brain activity - Center also plans to collaborate with the Graduate Theological Union ad eventually train guides or facilitators, in the cultural, contemplative and spiritual care dimensions of psychedelics

David Hume (1711 - 1776)

- Hume was an empiricist Empiricism: theory that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience - Promoted modern scientific perspective with its grounding in observation We should just examine the data, rather than speculating about things like whether there is an immaterial soul that is separate from the body - David Hume's "bundle theory" If we examine the self, we just find a series of constantly changing thoughts and perceptions The so-called "self" is just a bundle of impressions, consisting of one's body, mind, emotions, preferences, memories, etc - If having a certain identity means possessing the same set of properties, then we clearly have no such identity - there is no permanent persistent self There's no single underlying core substances that holds it all together - Note that the main point here isn't that there are "bundles of perception" but rather than there is in fact nothing holding together all of these perceptions What we think of as the self are just random percepts that are constantly changing

Defending the Ego

- In additions, the ego self - that is, the narrow, self-centered part of our self - needs continuous reassurance, reconfirmation, and efforts to make it appears the way one wants it to - Matthieu Ricard Ex. If I shout in front of a cliff, "Hey, Matthieu, you are such a damned stupid fellow!" when the echo of these words come back to me, I laugh and don't get upset. But if someone next to me shouts the same words directly at me, with the same tone of voice and same intensity, I get annoyed, What's the difference? In the first case my ego wasn't targeted, but in the second case it was, which made the exact same words suddenly upsetting to hear - However, there is actually no self to defend - just a continuous stream of consciousness What we think of as the self is like the Rhine River There is no such thing as a "Rhine" entity - "Rhine" is nothing more than a convenient designation attached to an ever-changing set of phenomena - According to Buddhism, our belief in a permanent self that needs to be defended gives rise to all sorts of negative mental states and problematic behaviors We feel aversion to anything that threatens the self and attraction to whatever pleases and reinforces it These two basic impulses of attraction and repulsion give birth to a whole sea of negative emotions, including anger, craving, arrogance, jealousy Of course, its natural and desirable to protect one's life and avoid suffering, but the dysfunctional drive to protect the ego is different

Koans

- In the Rinzai school, koans are used to test a student's progress in Zen practice - they are "riddles" that a student has to solve - Ex. What is the sound of one hand clapping? What was the appearance of your face before your ancestors were born? - The obscure riddles, bewildering dialogues, and flagrant contradictions that form the koans help the student ground their thinking in reality and break free of the conceptual mind, i.e. the categorizing, analyzing ordinary thinking mind - This is related to the idea raised in the last lecture about potential limitations of the "left-brain" logical self that suppresses more expansive right-brain consciousness - All koans must be answered from within the realm of one's own personal experience

In general, cognitive expansion" or "wide-angle vision" (i.e. broader association of ideas) is associated with negative affect

- Inducing faster reading by manipulating pace reading makes participants feel more positively Reading causes the activation of concepts, and presumably, faster reading activates more concepts, which could be seen as analogous to a massive increase in broad associative activation - In contrast, "rumination", which involves dwelling on a narrow theme, is associated with depression

"Relativity" of Truth: The Scientific View

- Interestingly, there is also evidence from science that what is revealed by our sensory apparatus and cognitive functions is only relatively true - If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Is there an objective reality independent of our perceptions - that is, our particular sensory and neural apparatus? "Sound" involves an observer and a particular kind of apparatus for hearing All organisms have developed sensors that respond only to a narrow range of available signals - those that are most relevant for their survival and reproduction - We know today that we only perceive a narrow spectrum of the physical and chemical properties of this world, and we use those few signals to construct our perception of the world Our native intuition is that our perceptions provide us with a complete and accurate view of the world, but that is not in fact the case Our perceptions would be very different if we had different sensory apparatus

Again, the purpose of cultivating an understanding of no-self in Buddhism was to end suffering - at an individual, as well as societal, level

- Just wanting to help others may not be very effective Ricard points out that the main problems that plague the world of humanitarian activities - corruption, clashes of ego, weak empathy, discouragement - stem in large from a lack of understanding of illusory ego self - In addition, an understanding of no-self may be critical in that... "It would not be a stretch to say that many of society's ills can be attributed to an unbridled conceptual self, which wants too much or fights to preserve reified identities..." - Recognizing the self's mostly fictitious nature may thus help solve many problems - It is important to note though mere intellectual understanding will probably not suffice The concept of no-self in Buddhism is not as an intellectual position, but rather a description of experiences that arise from meditation practice that have "profound transformative effects, in terms of diminishing self-centeredness, making oneself more open to others, and so on"

Koans Purpose

- Koans are meant to be pondered in mediation practice and throughout the day til the answer opens the true heart of the question - Traditionally, answers could not be found in books nor are the koans discussed with other mediation practitioners - Even if you somehow managed to find a "correct answer" sheathing is not really possible, because each koan has many answers, both in terms of the actual verbal response and the effects it produces on one's mind and emotions - The answer to the koan is not in fact in the verbal response, but in how you are responding - Even the wisest Zen teacher cannot predict the right answer for a particular student (though they can "see" if the student has the answer) - You must find the answer for yourself, and it will not be an answer that your conceptual mind can deduce - Once experienced, the answer is often a life-changing experience, and comes with a force that is self-validating - it needs no confirmation from anyone else

Meditation Masters

- Lastly, people within contemplative traditions generally agree on the point of which meditation masters have achieved the highest levels of realization - This is similar to how there is generally conscience among the scientific community regarding who the experts are - It could be argued that these contemplatives are all deceiving themselves - However, as Ricard says "It would be a bit strange if the whole cohort of people with sharp acumen who have refined their introspective faculties to such an extent deluded themselves in exactly the same way at various times in history and in various places" - In addition, the contemplative approach supposedly works because it results in a clear and stable mind - Finding that long-term "super-meditators" are neurologically, as well as psychologically, off-the-charts on measures of traits like attention, empathy, and optimism would appear to support that claim

To give you an idea of how powerful gamma waves can be in promoting neurocognitive health and cognitive functioning

- MIT neuroscientist found that exposing mice to strobe lights and clicking sounds at frequencies that stimulate gamma waves reduced levels of beta-amyloid associated with Alzheimer's and improved cognitive function - Study #1 Mice were engineered to exhibit Alzheimer's-like qualities Exposed to clicking sounds at 40 Hz for an hour a day for a week - Results: Induced synchronized gamma-wave oscillations in the brain Gamma waves are disrupted in patients with Alzheimer's Reduced levels of amyloid-beta and tau-proteins in the auditory cortex and nearby hippocampus Increased activation of microglia, which is important in clearing harmful debris, as well as improved functioning of the blood vessels Mice performed better on memory tasks, including recognizing objects and navigating a water maze to find a hidden platform - Study #2 Mice were exposed to a combination of light and sound stimulation - Results: Expanded effects to prefrontal cortex Resulted in clustering of microglia around amyloid deposits and reduced amyloid pathology Effects were short-lived, however, diminishing a week after stimulation - Study #3 Longer-term follow-up study on mice with more advanced Alzheimer's disease Mice given 6 weeks of gamma entrainment using strobe lights - Results Increased gamma brain waves in the visual cortex, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex Reduced neuronal and synaptic loss in these brain regions Reduced inflammation Improved performance on memory tasks Findings point to an overall neuroprotective effect, even in the later stages of neurodegeneration

Study on compassion meditation in long-term Tibetan meditation practitioners who had had logged in 10,000-50,000 hours of practice

- Meditators were asked to engage in compassion meditation during EEG study - Controls were undergraduates who had been given a crash course in compassion meditation and had practiced for an hour - Results Long-term practitioners showed high levels of activity in gamma-band frequencies - "of a sort never before reported in the literature" - and increased neural synchrony This involves large regions of the brain pulsing in synchrony 30-80 times a second As they went deeper into meditation (jhana states), there appeared to be both a spreading and strengthening of gamma wave activity When novice meditators (controls) engaged in compassion meditation, they also showed an increase in gamma activity, but the increase was slight

Related Concept in Psychological Research: Flow

- Mindfulness is similar in certain ways to Csikszentmihalyi's concept of flow Csikszentmihalyi, a leading researcher in subjective well-being (self-reported happiness), found that happiness depends on the ability to immerse oneself in the flow of focused activity (similar to Maslow's notion of peak experiences) - Flow: a state devoid of emotional static, save for a highly motivating feeling of mild ecstasy. This feeling seems to be a by-product of the attentional focus that is a prerequisite of flow and is associated with a lessening of cortical arousal Flow is about being so fully focused on the task at hand that you forget your sense of self - Csikszentmihalyi studied real time happiness using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) Pager goes off at random times within each two-hour segment of the day Participants write down in a booklet what they are doing and what they are thinking about, then rate their state of consciousness on various numerical scales

Daniel Dennett (1942- )

- More recently, Dennett proposed a modified version of bundle theory - Dennett maintains that the self is like a center of gravity, "an abstraction that is tightly coupled to the physical world" Any physical system has a center of gravity, but gravity is not a thing, but rather a property of the system - More specifically, the self is the center of narrative gravity: a "fiction, posited in order to unify and make sense of an otherwise bafflingly complex collection of actions, utterances, fidgets, complaints, promises, and so forth, that make up a person" Bundle theory is similar in certain ways to the no-self concept in Buddhism

No-Self in Buddhist Contemplative Traditions

- Much like the Western bundle theorists, Buddhist contemplatives hold that The self, as some kind of unchanging permanent thing, does not exist What we ordinarily think of as the self is in fact just an aggregate or heap (skandhas) of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, etc - We talk about "my" body, "my" mind, "my" feelings, "my" memory as if there were some kind of underlying thing that holds all of those things together However, there is in fact no self that exists independently of these psychophysical constituents There is just a continuous, dynamic stream of experience

Controversies Regarding No-Self in Buddhism

- N.B.: With regard to the concept of no-self in Buddhism, it has been argued that the Buddha never in fact said that there is no self What he actually said was that there is no self to be found in the things that people ordinarily associate with the self, e.g. our sensations, perceptions, emotions, etc - There were in fact early Buddhist schools that believed in the existence of a self, in particular, the Pudgalavada, which was one of the most popular mainstream Buddhist sects in India for more than a thousand years - In fact, denial of the existence of any kind of self would sort of create a problem in the sense that that would seem to negate the possibility of rebirth, in which Buddhists believe

Neuroimaging Research on Flow

- Neuroimaging studies on flow typically use a paradigm in which participants are asked to work on some task, such as mental arithmetic, while in an fMRI The demands of the tasks are automatically and continuously adjusted to the individual's skill level - Research has found that: Subjective ratings of flow experience are significantly associated with: Increased activation in: Inferior frontal gyrus: deeper sense of cognitive control Putamen: motor planning Decreased activation of multiple regions of frontal cortex, in particular, the medial prefrontal cortex (self-referential processing) Decreased activation of the amygdala (negative arousal) Increased electrodermal activity: increased overall sympathetic arousal - despite decreased emotional arousal This seems to indicate that, during flow experiences, the subjective feeling of effortlessness dissociates from objective measure of sympathetic arousal, as has been found in other studies

Similarly, what we think, what we know, is limited by the cognitive abilities of our brains because they constrain what and how we perceive,, imagine, and reason

- Our cognitive functions have only been adapted by evolution to cope with certain aspects of the world that were relevant for survival at the time when our cognitive evolved - this imposes certain limitations - Ex. 1: Our inability to develop an intuition about the phenomena that quantum physics postulates The conditions of this microcosmos are difficult for us to imagine It is quite difficult to imagine something that appears as either a wave, which is not localized, or a particle, which is localized, depending on the way you look at it - Ex. 2: The butterfly effect: butterflies as cataclysmic agents of destruction We tend to perceive highly nonlinear dynamics of complex systems as "chaotic" In a linear system, changing an input by multiplying it by a specific amount will yield a directly proportional change - an output that also increases by that amount In a nonlinear system, even a tiny of infinitesimal change in the input may result in an output that's wildly different That is, its exceptionally "sensitive" to even the tiniest changes in input Because we can't track those changes, to us, the nonlinear system seems crazy, even though it may in fact be a fully lawlike deterministic system In addition what looks to us like the "same" inputs may actually be slightly different, resulting in dramatically different results that appear chaotic

Most of our perceptions are the result of recalling things in the past. This perception has nothing to do with the real object in the here and now

- Our preconceived notions prevent us from seeing the real person in front of us - In Buddhist contemplative literature, this notion that the perceiver and the object of perception are interdependent is known as co-dependent arising This is the meaning of the famous phrase "form is emptiness" All things are empty of self-nature because they are interdependent - This also means that any ideas we have or concepts we believe - including our perceptions of ourselves - are only conditionally true because they are largely constructed from mental factors that skew our perceptions in one direction then another One moment you may feel great about yourself, but the next you may feel awful But clearly your "self" hasn't changes that dramatically within that short frame of time

Other philosophers associated with pantheism include Plotinus and Ralph Waldo Emerson

- Plotinus (205-270 CE): "You can only apprehend the Infinite [nonduality]... by entering into a state in which you are your finite self no longer... This is ecstasy. It is liberation of your mind from its finite consciousness. Like only can apprehend like; when you thus cease to be finite, you become one with the Infinite" - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): "Standing on the bare ground - my head bathed by the blither air, and uplifted into infinite space - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God"

Lovingkindness Meditation (LKM)

- Preliminary practice Start by giving loving kindness to yourself because without loving yourself, it is almost impossible to love others Practice this regularly for some days to establish a strong sense of loving kindness for yourself - Main Practice Visualize a love that someone gave you that really moved you, perhaps in your childhood Now let that feeling arise again in your heart and infuse you with gratitude. As you do so, your love will go out naturally to that person who evoked it. Let your heart open now, and let love flow from it; then extend this love to all beings. Begin with those who are closest to you, then extend your love to friends and to acquaintances, then to neighbors, to strangers, then even to those whom you don't like or have difficulties with - Compassion practice must be done without a sense of self Can be problematic if the self becomes the owner of this loving feeling and starts thinking... "If people knew, they would look at me and think, 'Oh, she's really nice, she's so compassionate!" - Repetition and perseverance are important

Neurological Correlates of DIED (Drug-Induced Ego Dissolution)

- Psychedelics in general bind to a particular type of serotonin receptor, 5-HT2A Serotonin is a "feel good" neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the regulation of mood, sleep, memory, and many other functions There are receptors in your brain that are configured to receive serotonin Other ligands apart from serotonin (such as psychedelics) can also bind to these receptors Drugs that bind to receptors can either facilitate or inhibit action: psychedelics facilitate or enhance serotonergic activity - This triggers a cascade effect: this cascade results in the default mode network being downregulated Again, the DMN is a tightly linked set of structure connecting the prefrontal to other parts of the cortex and to older, deeper structures As discussed earlier, this network is a center of self-reflection and is strongly tied to the narrative self, that it, it knits together the story of who we are Michael Pollan has claimed that if the ego has an address, it's in the default mode network In experiences of DIED (as is the case with meditation) the DMN goes offline This means there is a collapse of the highly organized neural circuits within the DMN and in connections between the DMN and other regions of the brain As a result, other networks in the brain that normally would only communicate through this hub, start communicating directly to each other For instance, the visual cortex might start talking to the auditory cortex or the somatosensory cortex, and suddenly you're seeing music or feeling it

Why don't serotonin/SSRIs cause hallucinogenic effects?

- Psychedelics like LSD fit into 5HT2A receptors even more tightly than serotonin itself - the particular ligand that binds to a receptor matters - Also, LSD binds to glutamate receptor as well as to 5HT2A Each psychedelic drug has effects on a range o neurotransmitter systems that results in its characteristic effects on neuronal activity and on consciousness - Dopamine and serotonin activation and NMDAR blockage all potentially play a role in psychedelics' disruption of the brain's basic filtering processes - In addition, psychedelics can also cause a dramatic short-term increase in neuroplasticity ( the mechanism by which this happens is unclear at this point ) - Is brain activity in schizophrenia similar to that of someone using psychedelics? There is disinhibition of inhibitory neural circuits in both cases However, whereas psychedelics involves increased neural connections and associations overall, schizophrenia is characterized by fewer associations in large due to neural loss, especially in the frontal lobe ( hypofrontality ) - Is depersonalization similar to DIED? Depersonalization disorder involves a dissociation from the self whereas ego dissolution is more about letting go of the problematic ego self, that is, the selfish, self-centered self

Integrated Information Theory: in the early 2000s, Guilio Tononi pioneered a technique called zap and zip to probe whether someone is conscious or not

- Scalp of patient was "zapped" with an intense pulse of magnetic energy using TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) - This induced a brief electric current in the neurons underneath, which would reverberate across the cortex, exciting and inhibiting other neurons - A network of EEG sensors recorded those electrical signals, and as they unfolded over time, yielded a movie - The data from the movie was compressed using an algorithm commonly used to "zip" computer files - Zipping yielded an estimate of the complexity of the brain's response - Research Findings from Zap and Zip: Volunteers who were awake had a "perturbational complexity index" significantly higher than when deeply asleep or anesthetized Method was subsequently able to correctly determine whether patients were conscious or in a vegetative state This suggests that the more info that is shared and processed between many different components of the brain in response to a single experience, the higher the level of consciousness - Finally, neuroimaging studies of people on psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and ayahuasca have shown increased activity in the insular cortex - similar to what was found with other types of consciousness expanding experiences described earlier

Neurobiology of Ecstatic Seizures

- Seizures in general can be subdivided into two groups - Generalized: Electrical discharges overwhelm the entire cortex Often lead to loss of consciousness - Focal or Partial: Electrical storm is confined to a small region of the brain Patient often remains conscious - Temporal lobe epilepsy Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common type of focal seizure However, ecstatic seizures, which generally only occur in cases of temporal lobe epilepsy, are uncommon One or both temporal lobes may be implicated - Possible Causes: Include head injury, stroke, brain infections, structural lesions in the brain, and brain tumors However, often etiology is unknown - Treatment: Anticonvulsant medications Surgery Brain stimulation techniques

Drug-Induced Ego Dissolution

- Short-term effects: psychedelic drugs in the short run are known to produce dramatic effects on self-consciousness, especially at higher doses This phenomenon has been called "drug-induced ego dissolution" (DIED) It is described as a loss of one's sense of self and self-world boundaries, together with a concomitant oceanic feeling of "oneness" or "unity" Phenomenologically, this is similar in many ways to the dissolving of the sense of self in meditation - Long-term effects: - May permanently transform one's view of reality - or not That is, the experience may produce "state" changes or "trait" changes - The latter can happen in large because the insights gained during these experiences tend to take on a special authority It's like a revealed truth, absolute knowledge, rather than just an opinion Mystical experiences commonly also have this quality, which William James called "the noetic quality" - Also, even though the consciousness expanding effects tend to be short-lived and then ego is back in control The individual has had a taste of another way of being that is more open, less defensive, and they have that memory and can cultivate that - through meditation for instance Meditation can help keep alive the psychedelic experience Repeatedly taking high doses of psychedelics is unlikely to work due to development of tolerance

Koan Example

- So what is the sound of one hand clapping? - Correct answer may be "Depends on what the hand is clapping against!" demonstrating insight into yin and yang, the Gestalt, figure and ground - Or it might be to face the questioner, assume an appropriate Buddhist posture, and without a word, thrust one hand forward - And how would you know when you've arrived at the right answer? - The correct answer will induce an experience of kensho, a sudden flash of insight or awakening, i.e. non dual consciousness, usually accompanied by bliss - this is in fact the main purpose of koans - Can conclusions drawn by contemplatives be verified by a third party? - Only if the person has had training - A similar process exists in science If you don't know much about physics and mathematics, then you being by trusting the experts because you assume that they are reliable You trust them because they agree among themselves after having carefully verified each other's findings However, you also know that if you were to train properly in their discipline then you would be able to check all of this yourself

The key to being able to allow afflictive emotions (and associated thoughts) to "liberate and dissolve as they arise" is to stabilize and clarify the mind In mindfulness this is done in two steps

- Step One: Engage in focused meditation, i.e. "calming abiding practice because" It is very difficult to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings if we are afflicted by "monkey mind" Focused meditation allows us to calm monkey mind Focused meditation ultimately enables us to connect with the "suchness" of experience & the direct awareness that underlies all phenomena & produces a sense of general "Okness" This is what allows us to be fully present with negative thoughts & emotions, rather than dissociating from them - Step Two: Awareness of the present moment with acceptance or "open monitoring" In terms of technical instructions, this means first developing greater awareness of sensations, emotions, and thoughts as they arise - Focused meditation is just calmly abiding, with the object of concentration - not obsessive glomming There should be a relaxed connection with the object The aim is to "be present with the object" not to lock onto it and grip it like a dog, or to concentrate on it the way you might concentrate on memorizing the details of an image As the meditation develops, you allow your perception of the object to change as you are present with the object on more and more subtle levels... The focus becomes just stillness itself, rather than the physical object You find that there is something in you that is imperturbable and open, fundamentally calm Developing one-pointedness of concentration enable you to find one-pointedness in yourself, the non moving mind, which resolves all things

Healing Effects of Nature

- Study comparing participants who took 90 min stroll along quiet, tree-lined paths with controls who walked along a city highway found that the former showed Greater reduction in "morbid rumination" Reduced activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex (associated with brooding) - In addition, effects of green areas on mental health may be enduring - Long term study on people who moved to greener areas Part of the British Household Panel Survey that tracked mental health data for 5 consecutive years Participants in this sub-study relocated to a different residential area between the 2nd and 3rd years - Results Relative to matched controls, individuals who moved to greener areas experienced an immediate improvement in mental health and less mental distress The boost in mental health was also long lasting, maintaining its effects even 3 years post-move

One of the key effects of ecstatic seizure, as well as psychedelic experiences is time dilation. Bud Craig has created a model of neurological model of this.

- The anterior insula integrates interoceptive, exteroceptive, and the body's state of action to create a "global emotional moment" once every 125 milliseconds - These global emotional moments strung together is what gives us a continuous sense of a (narrative) self, even though the moments themselves are discrete It's like watching a movie - even though the screen is displaying discrete frames, we perceive a seamless continuum - A hyperactive anterior insula could potentially generate these global emotional moments faster and faster, leading to a subjective sense of time dilation This is like a high-speed camera shooting hundreds or thousands of frames per second - when played back at normal speed (slow motion) - But perhaps the more important question is why does this hyperactivity of the insula/hyperawareness only happen in cases involving temporal lobe epilepsy or meditation if it confers an advantage in terms of cognitive processing - According to contemplatives who practice mindfulness, this is because we normally have a tendency to suppress part of what our body is experiencing, unpleasant sensations, such as those associated with negative emotions ( kinda like dissociation ) This prevents the kind of focused attention on present experience necessary for the hyperawareness to take place - In time dilation states, what would happen if one is grieving? Would there not be negative emotions in that case? In time dilation states, negative emotions are fully experienced. They just don't feel "bad". Hence there is no real suffering.

"No self" or anatta (also translated as "non-self" or "not-self") is one of the most fundamental tenets of Buddhism, which holds that

- The belief in the self as a permanent separate entity carries with is negative consequences - So... an understanding that that sort of self does not in fact exist is essential for liberation, that is, to be able to experience true inner peace and freedom - Developing full awareness of that so that one is able to perceive the nature of no-self directly - as opposed to merely understanding that point intellectually - is associated with experiences of great bliss - Example of how a mistaken belief in the self causes problems If I am at a watch store an another person there who is looking at the watches drops one on the ground and it breaks, I experience no pain If, on the other hand, I drop my own watch on the ground and it breaks, I experience pain Why should I react so differently to fundamentally identical events - The reason is that, in the second instance, I have generated the concept "mine" about this watch - However, if we examine this imputation, we discover that there is actually nothing inside or outside the watch that is a "mine": "mine" isn't anywhere

Psychedelic Therapy

- The expanded states of consciousness associated with psychedelics and the increased cognitive flexibility that they often seem to confer may be particularly helpful in treating disorders that are a product of "a stuck brain, a brain that is locked in loops, a mind that is telling itself destructive stories" - For instance, many people who have experienced severe trauma are unable to process the trauma bc those experiences seem so terrible that the are unable to force themselves to look at the events and the emotions they elicit They may even be convinced that the fact that they experienced the trauma makes them a terrible person, illogical as that may seem - Psychedelic therapy - and mindfulness meditation - may work by allowing people to see that that sense of "awfulness" is largely just a cognitive construct - The therapy allows them to see past those constructs and thus to fully re-experience the trauma, thereby releasing it - Other psychological disorders that may be a product of rigid, fixed thought that psychedelics appear to treat well include addition, obsessive thinking, or depression

Nonduality and No-self in Western Philosophy

- The idea of letting go of one's small sense of self and merging with a larger consciousness also appears at various points in Western philosophy - It is associated, for instance, with a number of philosophers who espoused what is considered a pantheistic viewpoint - Pantheism: the belief that reality is identical to divinity - was originally formalized based on the work of the philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) who proposed that God is identical with the universe, an idea which he encapsulated in the phrase "Deus sive Nature" or "God or Nature" "All things in nature proceed from certain [definite] necessity and with the utmost perfection"

The Insula as Seat of the Sentient Self?

- The insula may play a particularly important role in ecstatic seizures, as well as in transpersonal states of consciousness generally - Neurobiologist Bud Craig believes that the insula, particularly the anterior insula, is the key to human awareness and may even be the seat of the "sentient self" "It seems to provide the anatomical basis for emotional awareness" Has been implicated in depersonalization disorder and the doppelganger effect, and possible in dissociative identity disorder and Cotard's All of these conditions involve distortions in one's perception of body states and emotions People with depersonalization disorder, who tend to have insula that are underactive, describe the world as being drained of sensory and perceptual reality On the other hand, the opposite effect seems to be produced by a hyperactive insula during ecstatic seizures - Last but not least, neuropsychological research has found that it is one of the primarily areas affected by meditation practice There is evidence that it may be associated with meditation-induced experiences of nonduality

The anterior vs posterior insula

- The processing of signals seems to get progressively more sophisticated as one moves from the posterior to the anterior part of the insula - While the posterior insula represents objective properties, such as body temperature, the anterior insula produces the subjective feeling of the body states and emotions - For instance, The posterior insula is responsible for representing temperature objectively The anterior insula is correlated with the subjective perception of temperature When you drink a glass of cold water, The posterior insula is representing the actual temperature of the water The anterior insula represents the subjective feelings about the glass of water (pleasant on a hot day, undesirable on a cold one) - The anterior insula and ecstatic seizures SPECT imaging in patients has revealed that it is often the right anterior insula that is most active during ecstatic seizures SPECT ("poor man's PET") involves injecting a radioactive tracer, which is absorbed by brain regions with greater blood flow during the target event In addition, one patient with ecstatic seizures had electrodes implanted deep inside her brain to hone in on the focal point of the seizure so it could be surgically removed "Stimulation of the anterior insula triggered a pleasant sensation of floating and chills", which resembled the sensations experienced during ecstatic seizures

Neurofeedback Training

- This is a less invasive than brain stimulation and can be very helpful in cultivating a particular skill, such as enhancing attention or perhaps even empathy - Neurofeedback: a form of operant conditioning that presents real-time feedback from brain activity in order to reinforce particular types of brain function Brain activity is collected using EEG Feedback is provided in the form of a tone or light or video game reward that is presented whenever the desirable neurological activation occurs - Technique has been successfully used to increase focus of attention in those with ADHD and to treat chronic pain - However, neurofeedback may not be all that helpful in achieving the kind of results seen with mindfulness practice because Neurofeedback focuses on developing one particular skill Learning meditation requires the simultaneous development of a number of different skills, such as attention, emotional control, empathy Perhaps even more importantly, learning meditation requires development of a deep understanding of the way one's mind works and of the nature of reality (as being impermanent, interdependent, etc ) The expanded states associated with meditation practice are a byproduct of having developed an entire cluster of human qualities Neurologically speaking, this means that those experience involve activation of many different areas of the brain that aren't so easy to identify and to activate simultaneously and exclusively - For those reasons, neurofeedback probably would not be all that effective

"No preference" - the willingness to fully experience what is there, rather than trying to freeze reality so that the self will feel or look a certain way - is an idea that is emphasized in Zen and other Eastern contemplative traditions

- This is necessary to experience the kind of open, nonjudgmental awareness (direct awareness) discussed above and requires that one lets go or excessive attachment of aversion - This can be a doorway to great meditation experiences - Example: Premise: If you're feeling unhappy in some way, the real reason you're unhappy is because you're trying to be happy So instead, allow yourself to experience the unhappiness Ask yourself, "What am I unhappy about?" Then become aware of the feelings around that thing, including the associated physical sensations As you do so, you realize that they are just feelings, sensations - If you allow yourself to be fully aware of the sensations and feelings associated with the "unhappy" thought, you may suddenly experience an incredibly positive feeling in the center of your body

This means it is very difficult to discuss this material because what is important is not intellectual understanding but experiential understanding that integrates physical, emotional, and mental awareness and cannot really be described with words

- This makes the conceptual mind, the "left brain interpreter" very unhappy - There is a type of meditation practice aimed at directly accessing "nature of mind" or direct awareness, which is called Mahamudra or dzogchen - Mahamudra: Refers to ultimate reality, which is also known in Buddhist contemplative literature as the nature of mind Things simply are known by this mind there is no perceiver perceiving an object separate from oneself - Also refers to the practice aimed at accessing that mind Instructions: When a thought arises, try to see where it came from; when it disappears, ask yourself where it went In that brief moment when your mind is not encumbered by discursive thoughts, contemplate its nature In that instant when past thoughts have fallen silent and future ones have yet to emerge, you can perceive a pure and luminous consciousness

As discussed earlier, research suggests that simultaneous activation of brain networks that are normally mutually exclusive, perhaps through deactivation of inhibitory neural circuits, is responsible for the expansion in "consciousness" associated with drug-induced ego dissolution

- This may be analogous to the dramatic increase in gamma wave activity seen in some long-term meditation practitioners (remember that gamma wave activity is associated with neural synchrony) - In addition, this is in line with Susan Greenfield's theory that consciousness results from the coordinated activity of populations of neurons, as proposed by Integrated Information Theory (IIT) - Bottom line: consciousness may arise from neural integration and complexity

How do you train and how do you know that you are progressing in your training?

- Training involves applying specific techniques to stabilize and clarify the mind, and progress is indicated by the extent to which you can apply the instructions - In addition, during training there are structured dialogues between the student and an expert (teacher) to monitor the student's progress - The teacher leads the dialogue, asking appropriate questions and allowing the subject to describe his or her experience in detail - In the Zen and in Tibetan Buddhist traditions, for instance, the student will from time to time report about their meditative experiences to their teacher - On the basis of these experiences, a qualified teacher will be able to appraise the quality of the student's meditative practice and see whether it reflects genuine progress or mere self-deceptions - and guide the student

The ability to see mental elaborations more clearly enables us to have insight into the narrative we have about ourselves

- When we experience a negative emotion, we can instantaneously see the various factors that caused the emotion to arise - Rather than holding beliefs to be a true description of who we are, we see the narrative as a constellation of thoughts - This can foster more breathing room and lead to increased well being - It's not so much about changing the narrative, but rather about changing our relationship to the narrative - Again, note that ideally, this would be done with the ordinary thinking mind When we think, we just stay caught in our own conceptual systems, our own habitual ways of looking at things Meditation accesses a deeper mind (the direct awareness mind) that is able to see thoughts and emotions much more directly and clearly We can try to distance ourselves from thoughts and try to see thought as just a thought, just as we can try to be nonjudgmental, but it is much more effective when those things arise spontaneously

Ego Trap

- When you experience some great insight during meditation, it is not that you had the insight, it's just that for a moment you were able to drop your small sense of self and become one with everything, with Big Mind, and that is what had the insight - This also means that trying to reproduce a great meditation experience actually prevents you from re-experiencing that state because that type of thinking is bound up with the small sense of self and with time - meaning you are looking in the wrong direction Meditation is not about trying to make yourself feel better or to get enlightened - rather it's about fully relaxing into what is so

Neurological research on mediation suggests that these states of nonduality are associated with (1)

1. Modulation of activity in the insula, which is important in body awareness - A meta-analysis of 78 fMRI studies of meditation found that one main commonality was changes in activity of the insula, primarily increased volume and/or activation - The finding that mediation practice tends to enhance body awareness is in line with subjective reports by meditators, as well as the instructions associated with meditation practices In mindfulness practice, for instance, one is encouraged to pay mindful attention to physical, emotional, and cognitive components of one's own experience and to develop greater awareness of the connections between thoughts, emotions., and their physical correlates Supposedly, this is necessary because we are all constantly dissociating to some extent because we don't want to experience negative emotions, particularly negative emotions about ourselves The dissociation prevents us from being fully present with experience, and as such, prevents experience of nondual consciousness

Neurological research on mediation suggests that these states of nonduality are associated with (2)

2. Reduction in activity of the default mode network of DMN - As discussed earlier, mediation is associated with decreased activity in the DMN and medial prefrontal, areas of the brain that are important in self-reflection and rumination and are strongly tied to the narrative self Although standard mindfulness instructions emphasize awareness of body-emotion-mind, they also include directions to relax the sense of self This involves letting go of the sense of a separate self doing the meditation and just experiencing what is happening Rather than saying, I am seeing this or I am noticing this, the experience is reframed as Seeing is happening. There is sensation. Thoughts arise. Similarly, the "drug-induced ego dissolution" induced by certain psychedelic drugs is associated with reduced activity within the DMN, as well as in connections between the DMN and other regions of the brain

Neurological research on mediation suggests that these states of nonduality are associated with (3)

3. High levels of gamma-waves, which is correlated with neural synchrony and enhanced cognitive functioning - As mentioned earlier, EEG studies examining brain waves of expert meditators have found that At the moments when the meditators experience high levels of gamma activity, they themselves report a change in the quality of moment-to-moment awareness, bringing with it a vast panorama of perceptual clarity - In a related way, psychedelics seems to cause simultaneous activation of brain networks that are normally mutually exclusive, perhaps through deactivation of inhibitory neural circuits in the default mode network

Scientific vs Contemplative Approaches

Similarities: - Both are empirically-based, i.e. not based on blind adherence to belief or what authorities say - Conclusions must be verified through consensual agreement of investigators who are highly trained to be considered valid Differences - Science: Operates from a 3rd person perspective - Contemplation: Operates from a 1st person perspective

Common Criticism of Contemplative Approach by Science

The introspection objection - One criticism of the contemplative approach is that is sounds a lot like introspection, which is highly subjective and unreliable - Introspection: observing and reporting one's mental and emotional processes as objectively as possible - Introspection was used in early psychological experiments in the 19th century but has been discredited and is not considered a valid method of investigation