Last Updated on July 5, 2026 by pg@petergamma.org
Richard R. Davidson used brain scanners to study the brains of meditators:
But brain scanners are too expensive for our home lab. Alternatives are the Schiller CS 200:
g.Nautilus Multi-Purpose EEG Headset
I studied physiolologal multi-sensor devices for meditation for around 20 years. And what is my conclusion? These devices are too little subtile for meditators. And there is not even a sustainable community of scientists who do research about meditation.
Swiss champions in Mind Training such as Lama Pema Wangyal, Loten Dahortsang and Rita Riniker do not even use such devices. And Swiss Pharmacologist and Meditation Expert Diego Hangartner who participated in brain scan studies about meditation for around 20 years says „we do not have any devices“:
We have brain scanners at the University Hospital in Zurich, we have the CS 200 and the g.Nautilus Multi-Purpose EEG Headset. But is it worth to buy those expensive devices for meditators?
One of the problems is that Swiss champions in meditation such as Lama Pema Wangyal, Loten Dahortsang and Rita Riniker are very rare in Switzerland. And are people like those ready to spend 100 000 USD for a lab for meditators?
Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org is on a lifetime journey to answer questions like these. My hypothesis is: these devices can be helpful. But they are not as subtile as our own personal experience.
And furthermore, these devices are very expensive. If we look at the hardware costs, we expect that costs for these devices will drop.
The hardware costs to build a Schiller CS 200 treadmill around 5 000 USD. Whereas the CS 200 is offered for around 25 000 USD in the Dr. Toys Store. And we where offered on Aliexpress a 32 channel EEG board based on the ADS1299 chip from Texas Instruments for around 1200 USD. This is about the same costs of a device based on 32 TGAM modules and InfluxDB. And this is an evidence that someone wanted to find out if we are interested to build a device based on the ADS1299 chip from Texas Instruments. We are not. Since this architecture is outdated. But to buy a g.tec headset for 50 000 USD? Or to build a 32 channel EEG device based on TGAM and InfluxDB?
We currenlty did not find any arguments to do something like this, or to buy something like this. But Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org is interested in these devices. And he will also review those as a lifetime journey. And we expect that the costs for these devices will drop. But since the community who builds and develops such devices is very small, costs for these devices will only drop slowly.