3 8 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 9 ments belonging to these domains therefore have the status different from my extrapolations from science, although they are subject to errors and illusions too. Yet the fact that some source of knowledge is subject to errors is consistent with the possibility of knowledge and perception based on this source, like in science, so also in spirituality. Research, I am going to present and discuss, comes from the field of cognitive sciences, which studies human cognitive capacities. It can be interesting or inspiring to those who are interested in spirituality and mysticism. Let us start with the theme of meditation, which has an important place in spirituality. Meditation is now studied in cognitive sciences by using of scientific methods and various brain-scanning techniques. Lutz et al. (2004, 16369), for example, found that “long-term Buddhist practitioners self-induce sustained electroencephalographic high-amplitude gamma-band oscillations and phase-synchrony during meditation. These electroencephalogram patterns differ from those of controls, in particular over lateral frontoparietal electrodes.” The meditation training seems to be quite a powerful tool for changing the brain and its processes, as we can see from the fact that “the high-amplitude gamma activity found in some of these practitioners are, to our knowledge, the highest reported in the literature in a nonpathological context.” (Lutz et al. 2004, 16372). Synchrony of the oscillations of neural activity is sometimes connected with the presence of consciousness. Moreover, ancient Buddhist texts of the Pāli Canon state that through the practice of meditation, unification of mind can be achieved. Can there be some relation between this and another observation of Lutz et al. (2004, 16372), which mentions broad synchronization across neural networks of the brain? “Assuming that the amplitude of the gamma oscillation is related to the size of the oscillating neural population and the degree of precision with which cells oscillate, these data suggest that massive distributed neural assemblies are synchronized with a high temporal precision in the fast frequencies during this state.” We can also say that in some sense we can now objectively observe some aspects of the process of meditation in the brain and state that it is somehow connected to the specific forms of brain processes, because “[t]he endogenous gamma-band synchrony found here could reflect a change in the quality of moment-to-moment awareness, as claimed by the Buddhist practitioners and as postulated by many models of consciousness.” (Lutz et al. 2004, 16373). Lutz et al. (2004, 16373) also report, that “in addition to the meditation-induced effects, we found a difference in the normative EEG spectral profile between the two populations during the resting state before meditation. It is not unexpected that such differences would be detected during a resting baseline, because the goal of meditation practice is to transform the baseline state and to diminish the distinction between formal meditation practice and everyday life.” In other words, the practice of meditation changes the processes in the brain long-term, as is also an explicit goal of many meditators and spiritual traditions. The practice should lead to inner change that perseveres after it and thus changes the whole life of the person, including its everyday aspects. Attention, which is one of the core goals of contemplative life, can be deepened. This is not a mere subjective belief; there are some changes that can be objectively measured in the brain, and which seem to be connected to the quality of attention: “Our study is consistent with the idea that attention and affective processes, which gamma-band EEG synchronization may reflect, are flexible skills that can be trained.” (Lutz et al. 2004, 16373) Lazar et al. (2005) did not focused on the long-term changes in brain processes but studied more “material” aspect of brain regions – their thickness. Thickness of a certain brain region suggests its more frequent use and greater development. Lazar et al. (2005, 1893) observed that “brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula.” Note that the regions that were thicker are those connected with abilities meditation practice seeks to develop: attention, perception of stimuli from the outside world (sensory processing) and from body itself (interoception). Lazar et al. (2005, 1893) also found that thickness of said brain regions correlates with the length of practice, because “between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants”. They were also able to determine two brain regions whose thickness correlated with meditation experience. Moreover, they found that regular meditation practice may slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex. We can summarize that the practice of meditation develops some parts of the brain to such extent that the results manifest in the thickness of these brain regions, indicating significant measure of development. Other interesting results from the study of human mind concern the paradigmatic form of suffering, pain. In ordinary experience, intensity and unpleasantness of the pain seem to be inseparable, to be essentially connected or even to be the same aspect of it: you cannot have pain without suffering, or at least without unpleasantness in the case of not so intense
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