What is the summary of Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org about 20 years of meditation research?

Last Updated on July 3, 2025 by pg@petergamma.org

If the people of mBrainTrain are brain scan meditators or not:

Is also the mBrainTrain team from Serbia a group of people who meditate in a brain scanner?

So what now? But what is the summary of Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org about 20 years of meditation research?

20 years of meditation research he was observing with great interest? Did Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk with a PhD. in Cellular Genetics not rise high expectations 20 years ago?

Results from which he was hoping that they where published in the journal „Nature“ 20 years ago? But where do we stand 20 years later? We have the book „Altered Traits“:

But do we have follow up meditation research studies published in „Nature“ and Science? Follow up papers to the PNAS paper of 2004?

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0407401101

We do not know of such. The PNAS paper from 2004 has been cited 2261 times to this date, which is very often. But the criticism of Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org is, that 20 years after this papers has been studied, we have „Altered Traits“. Yes, is this book basically not what the Dalai Lama the 14 was looking for 30 years ago? And a great review book about meditation research?
We have summarized the knowledge about meditation research in a book, which can be bought at „Orell Fuessli“ in Switzerland. But is „Altered Traits“ really a scientific revolution? Not for Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org. Scientific revolutions are published in „Nature“ and „Science“, and not in a popular scientific books. And if these Buddhist monks which where investigated 20 years ago in a PNAS paper would have really that revolutionary brain waves Daniel Goleman was talking about:

would we not have many other research institutes around the world picked up this topic? But we do not know of such.

But at least, we are now on solid ground, and not in the clouds of the Himalayas. And was Matthieu Ricard not in these clouds of the Himalaya 20 years ago? And do we not have a clearer sight on meditation research 20 years later? What is your opinion about this topic? Write it in the comments below.