Last Updated on July 10, 2026 by pg@petergamma.org
According to the Buddhist teachings, we are only completely mentally healthy if we are completely enlightened. And how can we become enlightened without a brain scanner? We can learn this from Yogi Bhajan, Yongey Mingyour Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Yogi Bhajan taught us, that the ultimate source of life is the breath:
And Sadhana gives you intuition:
And Yogi Bhajan teaches also, that meditation gives you intuition. And does this not also mean meditation gives you gamma waves?
And is this not quiet easy to understand? Gamma waves in the left prefrontal lobe, this is what happy people have, large highly synchronized gamma waves, as Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche had those in a brain scanner.
So what to conclude from that? A Yogi first has to gain control over his breath to become a master of his destiny. Also this is a quote of Yogi Bhajan. What does all of that mean? Does this not basically mean, with for instance breath meditation, we become intuitive, we trigger gamma waves in our brains, and we can become enlightened on this path, and free from suffering?
And does this not mean a simple device to measure the breath rate is enough to do physiology and research about meditation? At rest the normal physiological range of our breath rate is 12 -20 breath per minute. And by practicing breath meditation, sooner or later we should have gamma waves in our brains, which is life in our brain, if we follow the instructions of Yogi Bhajan.
A simple smartwatch as a Garmin Forerunner 220 does also do the job. Just program it to vibrate every 60 seconds. And then count the number of breath per minute, This is very simple. And then you have your breath rate at rest. And according to this instruction from Yogi Bhajan, we should become intuitive, we should induce gamma waves in our brain. And if we can perceive these gamma waves, this high level of life in our brain, do we need a brain scanner to measure those? Do we have to mount 256 EEG electrodes to measure those every day?
A brain scanner is a very complicated device. But many spiritual teachers are self-experienced. They do not use brain scanners. And if someone becomes enlightened on this path, is he not able to teach this to others finally, even if there is no scientific proof for this, just by teaching this self-experience he made? Since what else did Siddhartha Gautama 2 500 years ago, and was very successful up to the present day?
It is just a human experience which can be taught to others. But a human experience which was not yet investigated scientifically. And also the instruction of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche to free ourselves from suffering is very simple: just practice breath meditation, this is his teaching. And is this not basically the same as what Yogi Bhajan teaches to us in his teachings?
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche did a full-time training of 13 years to become enlightened:
And are there not psychiatrists who are not able to cure their patients? But what about the instructions we mentioned here? They where not yet in depth investigated scientifically. But they are taught since Milarepa who lived 1 000 years ago, and since Buddha who lived 2 500 years ago. If these teachings survive for 2500 years , is there not something very extraordinary in it?