What is Digg?61 Comments
- Fantt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Meditation is just sitting still and counting your breaths. Don't start with 40 minutes a day. It's amazing the difference just 5 or 10 minutes a days can make. Try it for 10 days.
- chosenone-, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It's a shame there's those who scorn meditation and refuse to try exploring inner space. Don't try to pin the practice on a religion or belief, such as Buddhism, since the practice goes waaaay beyond any ideological names Westerners might attach to it.
It's your loss, not theirs. Don't ridicule something you don't understand. - DDarkfire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Wow.
I am surprised at how much people are misinformed about meditation. It's not a weird hippie practice where you rub a Buddha's belly. Meditation appears in many different forms, and studies by Dr. Alan Wallace @ Santa Barbara (among others) have proved that meditation really does help increase awareness and concentration span.
@EliGottlieb: I assume you are making your comment from a biased point of view. While it is usually thought that meditation is just thinking, it goes beyond that. And even if it were only thinking, how many people just stop and "think" because they want to? If you think about it, thinking does make you smarter (pardon the pun, no insult meant), so even if meditation was only thinking, what's wrong with it?
By the way, people practicing other religions such as Catholicism, Christianity, Judaism also can meditate, because meditation is in no way related to any "gods", as most uninformed people think..
Just my 2 cents. - allenu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Meditation is hard, so I have much respect for people who can do it and do it regularly. Although I only really tried it a few times, I can see how it is beneficial as it allows you to just focus on being. I remember watching a program where they were doing a test to find the happiest person in the world. According to their tests, it was a Buddhist monk. If I recall correctly, they determined happiness based on brain activity.
- cthulhu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5My brother's been meditating for years. He'd go on these "retreats" where they would do nothing but meditate for 3 solid months. Somewhere along the way, he totally went schizoid. You can barely hold a conversation with him now.
If you ask me, you can get the same relaxing benefit from an intense hobby, like coding or painting, and be a lot more productive while you're at it. Leave the transcendental crap for the hippies. - GiggleStick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2How come I never hear people like vuke69 talk about how stupid all those Budhhists and Hindus are. How about so called Wiccans, or Native American Religions. Is the Christian religion the only one where faith = stupidty for you?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Tex, http://digg.com/users/chakra/news/myone has a collection of meditation diggs that prove how wrong you are!
- NoeticNick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can vouch for the benefits of mediation because I meditate. It keeps me happier, it improves my concentration, and when I talk to people, I can look them in the eyes and listen to what they're saying, instead of jumping to my next thought about what I want to say.
Just pay attention to your breath. When you find yourself thinking, gently and silently say to yourself "thinking" and bring your attention back to the breath. You can do this waiting in line, or driving your car. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I found that http://www.meditation-mantra.org has a collection of meditation mantras for speeding up the process
- dracula7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"My brother's been meditating for years. He'd go on these "retreats" where they would do nothing but meditate for 3 solid months. Somewhere along the way, he totally went schizoid. You can barely hold a conversation with him now."
really? (lol) - KrispyKringle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can't vouch for this article just because you meditate.
I think misunderstanding the scientific method is why we have idiots running around spouting Creationism. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1IF That extra time makes you 10% smarter, then 40 minutes is worth it!
- DjOverEZ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Haha, I think making up a fake word was the point. I got a good laugh out of it and an even bigger laugh out of the long comment on how it's not a word.
- tidejwe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sadly THIS article doesn't divulge details. It says "every day" but not every day for how long. Had these people been doing it all their lives? Years? Months or just every day for a few weeks and the scans showed their brains "Thickening"? What was the age range? Can you even change the physical brain "structure" once it's "fully mature"? It kept saying "Appear" and "may" but didn't explain how the researchers came to these conclusions, only that the author makes these conclusions.
"changing [the brain] in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory."
The "brain scans" only showed a CORRELATION (hardly evidence) with "thicker brains" (we don't know what a thick brain means anyway) not really anything else, physically speaking (except that sometimes . The only conclusive evidence that shows ANY of this has nothing to do with the "Brain scans" and all to do with behaviorism. The attention span test for example was obvious. If you sleep you'll be groggy and slower reactions. Watch TV and you're brain dead (incidentally TV has been shown to cause changes in brain functioning too, but everyone assumes it is bad while meditation is good? We don't really know enough to judge good structure changes from bad yet). Meditate and you're ready for anything. It's behaviorism, not physically making you smarter. That is the only documented change they've noticed, that it helps attention span, which is a key to learning, so they put 1 & 1 together and say it makes you smarter, but that's somewhat misleading. As for the "Gamma Rays" found during meditation, that is "linked" (aka not even quite correlation) to increased "awareness" which is almost the same thing as attention span.
It is somewhat misleading to say that meditation alters the function of the brain...because honestly, almost anything can/does. If you do ANYTHING repetatively (or for long periods of time) especially consistently it will alter the way your brain functions, and probably the "structure" (if that's even possible) too in similar ways.
Basically, Meditation increases attention span which is key to learning, so you could say it makes you smarter. They've also found a correlation to having a thicker brain. Those are the only facts in the article. Draw your own interpretation from the facts, not believing everything you read in every biased article.
FYI, I like meditation, and fully support it and practice it to. I do it occassionally and highly recommend it. I will not allow my bias for it let myself believe a bunch of unsubstantiated nonsense though. There is no proof it PHYSICALLY does anything. My comments are unbiased and realistic. So don't misunderstand me because I am not just bashing something I don't understand. I practice it, I love it, I just like to think for myself. If you really practice meditation and claim it makes you smarter, you shouldn't believe every interpretation in that article as "fact". - NidStyles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I practice Taoistic meditation, which is similar, except it's standing and there's movement involved. I couldn't tell you if it helps me, but I know it's helped with my relaxing portion of the day, I can usually just tell myself to go to sleep where before I had to lay there and wait to fall asleep. As for stress aids, well I've always had a high stress occupation, and being able to sleep some nights can be hard. Now it's nothing for me. I lay my head down, and wake up the next morning.
**just smoke pot.**
Yeah, just what we need a bunch idiotic pot heads running around. I thought we had enough of that ***** with the damn hippies already. - yukevster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I pray to Jesus and my stress reduces also"
@ texastig - Praying is a form of meditation, though a less effective form in the benefits described.
"Meditation is daydreaming, and Jesus is a one way conversation."
@optimuscrime - Have you tried it? Daydreaming is letting your mind escape to imaginary places (like dreaming). In meditation you are very focused and very much awake.
Talking to 'Jesus' is indeed a one-way conversation - when you prey you are effectively speaking to yourself, and talking to yourself positively like this (and relaxing) is where the benefits come from preying. - zwilliams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time - Time Magazine"
"How to Get Smater, One Breath at a Time"
If I'm the only person getting a giggle out of the title alone, that is disappointing. - vuke69, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"I pray to Jesus and my stress reduces also." ~texastig
"It is the reason why most do." ~xutopia
So if having and imaginary friend is a sign of insanity for anyone over the age of 8, what does praying to an imaginary friend mean??? - FullMetalMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Souds interesting, but I don't have 40 mins to meditate in the morning or night.
- oroson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I practice Zen Meditation I find it quite useful in everyday life. Nice Digg.
- yukevster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:i0PtLddAyuoJ:www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_30/b3843076.htm+Google+offers+meditation+classes+to+workers&hl=en&client=opera
- matsiescruff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wow. that's really interesting. i might try that out.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0word @ vuke & cthulhu...
- fuzzycasserole, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, medication can definitely do that too...
- xutopia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0[quote]I pray to Jesus and my stress reduces also.[/quote]
It is the reason why most do. - Sithlrd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Zazen for the win
- LooterMcBeer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Never tried it but it makes sense
- EliGottlieb, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2No matter how much you call it meditation and pretend it's some kind of mystical practice or Buddhist secret, it's still just thinking. That's all you do is think existentially (about Your Life In General) rather than about coding.
Have they studied the statistical correlation between being happy and having time for crap like meditation? - silentauthority, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"I don't meditate and I'm WAY smarterest than everyone!"
From google:
"No definitions were found for smarterest.
Suggestions:
- Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
- Search the Web for documents that contain " smarterest" "
You sure show it, blizaine! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Reshapes? Yeah, looks like its making yours swell. Thanks, smacktard.
- Blizaine, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I don't meditate and I'm WAY smarterest than everyone!
- eschatonik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@silentauthority
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3Asarcasm&btnG=Google+Search - TeamATi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0for a second there I thought it said medication, not meditation....ha.
- mc1123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0well DUH!!!!!
have you ever seen those old Indian people on the discovery channel? Their brains can not be a normal shape. - yukevster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ tidejwe - I self-studied (books,papers etc.) and practiced meditation for several years and you can rest assured that a large deal of research has been done on meditation and it's effects (both physically and mentally). What you read in this article (which lets face it is from a magazine where space is limited to go into details you require - "Sadly THIS article doesn't divulge details.") are commonly accepted facts in neurology, psychology and other scientific Fields related to meditation.
If you find it difficult to believe/accept I suggest you do a little of your own research through books, Internet and papers etc. As like you said 'you shouldn't believe every interpretation in that article as "fact".' [I rec commend 'The Mind and the Brain : Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force' by J. Schwartz.
"It is somewhat misleading to say that meditation alters the function of the brain...because honestly, almost anything can/does. If you do ANYTHING repetitively (or for long periods of time) especially consistently it will alter the way your brain functions, and probably the "structure" (if that's even possible) too in similar ways."
You are right various repeated activities do affect the brain, the question is 'how' the brain is affected. We know for instance that professional musicians have advanced hearing abilities and the area which corresponds to hearing in the brain is noticeably larger than that in other people etc.
I have to say I was rather surprised when I read you are a regular meditator - for most serious practitioners of meditation the changes in 'feelings' and 'behavior' e.g. calmness, concentration etc. are universal and very easily recognizable. Have you not noticed any changes in yourself correlating with this article at all?! - tection99, on 02/19/2009, -0/+0Try http://www.dayspaforthemind.com, it's online meditation and hypnosis
- Rjx_, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0meditation should be taught in schools instead of math. math is just a theory, not a fact.
- anagami, on 07/02/2008, -0/+0old news, by at least 3500 years.
- werns, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've managed to hypnotise myself once or twice (the instructions seem very similar to meditating to me, up to the bit where you start telling yourself stuff). Trippy.
- rabidchipmnk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Mmm, I meditate in the shower. It's relaxing and it helps clear my mind. I don't really feel any smarter after meditation though. Interesting article nonetheless.
- xxaphius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0A little extra...it has been scientifically demonstrated that regular meditation also increases subjective reports of happiness, and increases the function of the immune system. I don't have a ready link, but I read about this in National Geographic- I imagine it's not too hard for the curious to track it down. Furthermore, there have been numerous studies performed on other health benefits derived from regular meditation. Go to pubmed.com to look at some of the results for yourself. If looking or sounding foolish is a concern for you, may I suggest getting over yourself?
- yukevster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ "bshock"
I would be interested to know how you were meditating and for how long (overall). Any tangible benefits (other than relaxation) take months of regular practice. It sounds like you were more like day-dreaming...."I also felt that the calm I felt during meditation was simplifying my mental activity, remaking my brain in the unthinking manner of an animal."....Remember there are only a few kinds of thinking patterns; problem solving, creative thinking etc. and mental chatter (which is mostly useless to human function - and mostly a hindrance). The feelings of feeling like an unthinking animal may be relevant at an early stage of practice since your mental chatter is quieting down allowing more useful processes to function.
BTW; Your condition OCD was one of the initial areas of research into neuroplasticity (see "The Mind and the Brain : Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060988479/qid=1136934442/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5250017-7741631?n=507846&s=books&v=glance).
How is your condition now? And what effect did awareness practice have? - tonage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think misunderstanding the scientific method is why we have idiots running around spouting Creationism.
Or, the scientific method has created a bunch of idiots like you. This digg was about meditating. Take your Creationismphobia somewhere else. Idiot. - dimatt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i actually already knew this, but a digg anyways :p
- Inbal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The structure of the brain can definitely change, at any age, although it gets harder and harder as you grow older. To cause significant change in your brain structure, you simply have to force it to operate differently, until it eventually does.
As yukevster said, musicians can understand music better not just because they have more knowledge, but because they listen to music to the point that music and the understanding of music becomes a normal function to their brain, and it physically becomes more musical. The same with personality traits - anger management, for example, isn't just getting used to reacting differently, it's teaching the brain how it can react differently.
If you learn the techniques of meditation and show your brain how it can be more relaxed and focused, it will do it on it's own when you'll really need it to. - tonage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0when you prey you are effectively speaking to yourself.
So you have no respect at all for the fact that people who are religious do not believe they are talking to themselves? Just because you are some atheist or whatever you are, does not mean when people pray they are talking to themselves. I know it may seem hard to believe to someone as selfish as you, but people who pray do not think they are just meditating. Nor are they. - bshock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Since we're throwing around anecdotal evidence so flagrantly, let me give it a shot.
As a life-long victim of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, I finally found what appeared to be help from a behavioral therapist. Meditation was one of the minor avenues I explored through this therapist, and I seemed to have a natural aptitude for it. However, teaching me to focus more effectively did not seem to make me any "smarter." In some ways it seemed to have the opposite effect. I found that I tended to over-focus on particular solutions to intellectual problems, rather than exploring various useful possibilities. As I continued meditating, I began to overlook things that were previously obvious to me. I felt as though I became less creative, less flexible, and generally less intelligent. In general, I also felt that the calm I felt during meditation was simplifying my mental activity, remaking my brain in the unthinking manner of an animal.
Perhaps I became better at fetching sticks or playing dead, but I doubt if meditation made me "smarter" in human terms. - sedgemonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Uh oh, the only thing fiestier than a Linux/Windows/Mac debate is a MyGod/YourGod/NoGod debate.
Brilliant caption on this digg... "I meditate so I can attest that I'm smarter" - SoniaGallagher, on 05/20/2009, -0/+0Great post. I meditate for 10 minutes a day and just doing that, Ive felt really good changes in myself and my life. For those of you who would like to learn more about meditating, you can get a free meditation course at http://www.mymeditationgarden.com/articles
- neozeed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0reshapes the brain? puhleeze, hirez catscans, or stfu!
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