Superhumans: The remarkable brain waves of high-level meditators | Daniel Goleman | Big Think

Superhumans: The remarkable brain waves of high-level meditators
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People who have meditated for thousands of hours exhibit a remarkable difference in their brainwaves. Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman says we can actually see what happens in the heads of those who have achieved "enlightenment" and the results are unprecedented in science.
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DANIEL GOLEMAN:

Daniel Goleman is a psychologist, lecturer, and science journalist who has reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times for many years. His 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books) was on The New York Times bestseller list for a year and a half.

Goleman is also the author of Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything. The book argues that new information technologies will create “radical transparency,” allowing us to know the environmental, health, and social consequences of what we buy. As shoppers use point-of-purchase ecological comparisons to guide their purchases, market share will shift to support steady, incremental upgrades in how products are made – changing every thing for the better.

His latest book is Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body, which he has co-authored with Richard Davidson reveals the science of what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Daniel Goleman: My co-author of the book Altered Traits is a neuroscientist, Richard Davidson. He has a lab at the University of Wisconsin. It’s a very large lab, he has dedicated scanners, he has about 100 people working there, and he was able to do some remarkable research where he flew Olympic level meditators—who live in Nepal or India typically, some in France—he flew them over to the lab and put them through a protocol in his brain scanners and did state-of-the-art tests and the results were just astounding. We found, for example, or he found that their brain waves are really different.

Perhaps the most remarkable findings in the Olympic level meditators has to do with what’s called a gamma wave. All of us get gamma for a very short period when we solve a problem we’ve been grappling with, even if it’s something that’s vexed us for months. We get about half second of gamma; it’s the strongest wave in the EEG spectrum. We get it when we bite into an apple or imagine biting into an apple, and for a brief period, a split-second, inputs from taste, sound, smell, vision, all of that come together in that imagined bite into the apple. But that lasts very short period in an ordinary EEG.

What was stunning was that the Olympic level meditators, these are people who have done up to 62,000 lifetime hours of meditation, their brainwave shows gamma very strong all the time as a lasting trait just no matter what they’re doing. It’s not a state effect, it’s not during their meditation alone, but it’s just their every day state of mind. We actually have no idea what that means experientially. Science has never seen it before.

We also find that in these Olympic level meditators when we asked them, for example, to do a meditation on compassion their level of gamma jumps 700 to 800 percent in a few seconds. This has also never been seen by science. So we have to assume that the special state of consciousness that you see in the highest level meditators is a lot like something described in the classical meditation literatures centuries ago, which is that there is a state of being which is not like our ordinary state. Sometimes it’s called liberation, enlightenment, awake, whatever the word may be we suspect there’s really no vocabulary that captures what that might be. The people that we’ve talked to in this Olympic level group say it’s very spacious and you’re wide open, you’re prepared for whatever may come, we just don’t know. But we do know it’s quite remarkable.

[soulreaperichig]

Yep, it's true. As a psychologist, I was always a bit sceptical about meditation. I read a lot of research papers and our college conducted a few experiments on a few participants. The results were remarkable. In just 90 days, the grey matter area had literally become denser. I couldn't believe my eyes. We believe further research in this field could lead to a break through in dementia.

[universalhologram]

Guy's I've been meditating for about a year now and I am just able to feel those gamma waves. It happens while meditating I feel an immense amount of joy, it's so hard to put into words.

[coollary]

Ive spent over 10k hours playing video games in the past 10yrs. Imagine if i meditated instead...

[glynemartin]

_"Late to the party you are."_ - Yoda.

[Zenkka]

"Olympic level meditators" I should put that on my LinkedIn bio

[nooffence]

Meditation isn't only sitting down quietly and closing your eyes, it is about being meditative all the time... It is about being at peace and Harmony with everything!

[Leto]

I meditate an hour in the morning as a minimum. I do it since around a year ago. I've read somewhere that the participant will gain results in two years, but to be honest I have gained the positive results much sooner and with 1 year down the line I'm only halfway there! I really recommend meditation to everyone. It's an ancient practice that still works.

[abhinavr]

That higher state of being is called “Samadhi” - described extensively in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras - the Vedic text that first described Yoga & Meditation. It has been explained really well in English by Swami Vivekananda in his book Raja Yoga

[subratvishwas]

When i meditate i feel some sort of happiness. This happiness doesn't relate to any thought or anything it is indescribable it is just happiness without any reason.

[Brainstorm]

This is fascinating if you think about it. And I really appreciate the willingness and openness of those OLYMPIC LEVEL mediators to be put into MRI scanners. Exciting to be alive at such a time in history were ancient meditation practices and science meet.

Edited for clarity

[thebrainwavehub]

Sign me up for the Meditation Olympics

[shreeyamd]

62, 000 hours meditating, man. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, determined the necessary prerequisite hours of practice required for becoming World Class at any skill to be 10, 000 hours (approx.). This is like 6 times the amount. No wonder you turn into The Hulk. (That was the "Gamma" wave joke, btw)

[Enso.]

This is the kind of content I subbed for.

[capthook]

I’ve got 274 hours so far, here’s to staying on track!!!

[Shmyrk]

So I can either meditate for 62, 000 hrs, or just constantly imagine I’m biting into an apple for the rest of my life?

[jero]

Don't make spirituality a competition now I know what you're saying by stating Olympic level meditators but it's not a competition it is a journey.

[gokuafrica]

Take a shot whenever he says Olympic level meditators

[haveagudday]

I've once feel these "spacious" feelings in my mind while i'm meditating. I've feel it multiple time, but not at every meditation session i do. It feels truly peaceful.

[janehughart]

I’ve been meditating every morning now for the past few months and I have already noticed my outlook on life is beginning to change. I feel generally more calm, focused and find it easier to get into a “flow state” if you will.

[thedude]

would be really interesting to do the same tests with people who used psychedelics such as lsd, psilocybin, dmt or mescaline to know wether they are long-term "enlightened" or "awake" just like these high-level meditators, or if they're only "enlightened" during the trip itself - if you can even compare it to the mental states of meditators/if there's similar gamma-wave activity in the brain (if at all).