Meditation and Brain Function

"The Earth is but one country, and mankind it's citizens." --Baha'u'llah

In my blog post of July 16 we discussed scientific proof of the beneficial effects of meditation on our bodies and our minds. Meditation lowers blood pressure and relieves stress. Our immune system will function better and our feelings of well being will increase. Meditation will also improve our attention span, learning ability, and creativity.

We also know that meditation can alter brain function. Meditation can even have an affect on our DNA. The following are excerpts form an article written in the July 2008 edition of the Readers Digest: "The Plastic Brain" by Sarah Scott:

"University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson demonstrated this very theory with his experiment on meditation --a prime example of "mental sit-ups." He measured the brain activity of novices and highly practised Buddhist monks, and found that, unlike the novices, when the monks meditated on "unconditional loving-kindness and compassion," they generated powerful gamma waves-the type involved in higher brain processes like perception and consciousness. Thus, the repeated mental activity of meditation altered brain functioning."

"How, exactly, can repeated thoughts or activities alter the brain? For one, they can affect DNA. Research, mostly done in the 1980's and 1990's shows that thinking, learning and acting can turn our genes on or off. No one knows for sure how this occurs, but, Doidge states, "when you think thoughts repeatedly, you turn on genes to make proteins that change the structure of the neurons and increase the number of connections between brain cells." In essence, neurons become better communicators."

Please visit my RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY GUIDE for more information on spiritual transformation. Thank you for your time and have a wonderful day! --Larry