Join the Mind & Life Institute online for two special free Livestream events from Dharamsala, India. On October 30th and November 1st, we will host two unique conversations between Pumla Goboda-Madikizela, David Sloan Wilson, and the Dalai Lama. Livestream video replays are available.
Topic Archives:
Contemplative Arts Evening Performance
The Contemplative Arts Evening will feature improvisatory collaborations among artists from wide-ranging creative, disciplinary, and cultural backgrounds in celebration of the age-old connection between music, creative arts, and the interior dimensions of human consciousness. Sitarist Srinivas Reddy draws upon his virtuosic grounding in the intricate raga/tala system of Hindustani classical music and opens the evening …
A meditation intervention for repetitive subconcussive head impact exposure in youth sports
The goal of this project is to attempt to create a safe “non-invasive” intervention for adolescents that counteract changes in blood flow seen in the brain that are associated with cumulative and repetitive non-concussive head impacts after participating in a year of American football. There is concern that accumulation of a lifetime of participation could …
VOICES: Vocalizing Oppression and Interconnection in Contemplation and Embodiment Spaces
We propose a research study that partners with community leaders to give a platform to racial/ethnic minorities to speak about their experience with contemplative and healing practices such as meditation, prayer, movement, storytelling, and others. This will be community-based participatory qualitative research and is motivated by 1) the underrepresentation of racial/ethnic minority people in existing …
Liyan: Contemplation, well-being and ethical action in Australian Indigenous wisdom traditions
This research project aims to explore the concept of Liyan, a very important concept for Nyikina people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Nyikina collaborators have described it as a feeling in the chest area that is linked with a sense of connection, intuition, and general well-being. They have also described contemplative practices that …
Is knowing the body knowing the mind? Mind-body coherence, interoception, and contemplative training
Imagine feeling intense stress: palms sweaty, heart racing, breathing shallow. Sensations of the body often come to the forefront when describing experiences of emotion or stress, yet these physiological changes are separate from the subjective ‘feeling’ of these states that we experience mentally. My previous work has shown that individuals whose subjective experience tracks strongly …
Intracranial circuits underlying Deep Slow Breathing and its palliative effects
Francisco Varela believed that the present moment of experience coincided with transient patterns of synchronous oscillations between different neuronal populations. Our findings suggest that these transient patterns of synchronous oscillations throughout the brain are modulated by breathing (e.g., breathing as an organizing principle for neuronal oscillations). While current neuroscientific methods of brain stimulation are limited, …
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Voluntarily regulated breathing practices and their effects on self-regulation, cognition, and problem solving under stress
Conscious breathing is an aspect of all forms of meditation and yoga. Emerging research indicates that the effects of controlled breathing on the mind-body system and concomitant mental states warrants further investigation. We propose a two-phase investigation of breathing practices during which we will: (1) systematically review the literature on reported effects of voluntarily regulated …
Rhythm induced trance: Using repetitive auditory stimulation to facilitate states of absorption and promote insight
This project seeks to understand the neural underpinnings of rhythm-induced trance. Rhythmic drumming has been used, throughout history and across cultures, to induce trance and promote insight, but little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms. Following up on my earlier fMRI study of rhythm-induced trance, this project uses EEG to assess brain network activity …
What is it about yoga? Isolating the effect of structured movement sequences on cognition, interoception, and stress markers
Yoga-based practices (YBP) typically involve a combination of movement sequences, conscious regulation of the breath, and techniques to engage attention. However, little is known about whether effects of YBP result from the synergistic combination of these components, or whether a subset may yield similar effects. In this study we compared the effect of two 8-week …
