Last Updated on November 26, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
Richard Davidson flew for a PNAS paper which was published in 2004 around 17 long-term meditation practitioners to his lab and studied their brain waves. This study was performed on request of the Dalai Lama the 14.:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407401101
The measured gamma waves in the brains of long-term practitioners where so strong that Richard Davidsons group first thought that these where artifacts, but they where not.
In 2017 Richard Davidson published the book «Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body»together with Daniel Goleman:
One of the key messages of this book is that even a daily practice of meditation of 20 min leads to objectively measurable changes in the brain. But is this not first studying the brains of world champions and then studying the brains of «hobby meditators»?
Matthieu Richard who participated in the PNAS study of 2004 said in this video that this paper might be revolutionary:
But did this revolution happen? Has someone shown that people who suffer from anxiety and depression can train their brains in the way Matthieu Ricard describes and become happy persons who are feeling well? And if someone could show that mental health can be trained would this not revolutionary and a Nobel Prize topic? But are 20 min of daily practice sufficient for a revolution and a Nobel Prize?
The causes of mental suffering and how to end it are described in the Buddhist teachings. But we are dealing here with an approach to this topic which has been done with brain scanners and not with Buddhist teachings. And if someone finds out on a scientific way what are the causes of mental suffering and how to end it, would he not deserve a Nobel Prize, since it is a topic the whole humanity is affected by it? The effect of 20 min daily meditation practice onto the brain is a step into this direction, but many more steps are required.