In 2004, Richard Davidson group tested the brainwaves of mind training practitioners who spent years training their mind:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407401101
David Goleman called those olympic level meditators:
Matthieu Ricard, who also participated in the experiments, spoke of olympic champions in mind training:
They reached the highest Gamma wave values in the left prefrontal cortex ever measured in humans, which correlates with user reports of how happy a person is. A newspaper gave Matthieu Ricard the title «the happiest man in the world». But was Matthieu really the happiest, the winner, or was Mingyur Rinpoche the winner? His Gamma waves could be seen by naked eye:
We could not find a ranking in Richard Davidsons paper. In other disciplines, like running, swimming, biking, there is a worldchampionship to find out who is the olympic champion. Why is there no worldchampionship for mind training?
Richard Davidsons studies with mind training practictioners have been discontinued, as far as we know. But why do other labs with fMRI and EEG equipement not take over Richard Davidsons experiments, a global research iniative? Whould this not be a small step for the international community, but a big step for man kind, to find out on a regular basis, who currently is the happiest man in the world? Would this not be a convincing breakthrough for the research in this field, a breakthrough on which whe are still waiting? A single PNAS paper is not enough, or even a second study. For a convincing break through, a continuity of research is required in this field, a research which has practical applications, a research which triggers a growth of scientific studies, not only a growth in meditation research, but a growth of scientific studies investigating this specific topic, which has started with the research of Richard Davidsons with mind training practitioners and fMRI and EEG. This research has to be continued for a real break through.