Hello everybody!
My inner voice gave me the idea of starting to write a blog about everything interesting in life. I have no idea how this blog is eventually going to develop, but I have an integral vision about everything so this is to say that you can expect everything between quarks and the universum here 
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
By Dr. Lon Kilgore Midwestern State University January 2010
The solution that needs to be provided by our study should be a defined means of improving fitness levels. The discipline of exercise physiology should provide us with an understanding of how the body adapts to exercise to make us more fit. We can begin that quest with a look at the work of one individual, Hans Selye, MD.
Who Is Hans Selye and Why Do I Care?
Adaptation is not a new concept. Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger,” is a famous adage used in reference to the many challenges we face in life. The fact that it’s from the 1800s means we have known for hundreds of years that the human body, when presented with a sub-lethal physical, psychological or chemical stress, can adapt to the source of stress, allowing the body to tolerate incrementally larger similar stresses.
Numerous and earlier historical writings in science and medicine provide observations that mirror Nietzsche’s. But none of these writings provided us with anything other than anecdotes—nice observations of the end results of adaptation. It was not until the 1936 synthesis of the general adaptation syndrome by Seyle that we had our first understanding of how the adaptation occurred. Selye, an endocrinologist and professor at McGill University in Montreal, Que., spent a lifetime pursuing a goal of understanding how humans responded and adapted to all types of stress. His work in this area forms the essential foundation of exercise physiology. The entirety of the discipline exists as extensions of Selye’s theory of biological adaptation.
Through Selye’s own works and his analysis of other scientists’ discoveries, he was able to develop a gener- alized pattern of organismic responses and adapta- tions to a variety of stressors. The general adaptation syndrome outlines a series of stages through which the body passes as it successfully adapts, or the stages that lead to a failure to adapt.
Selye’s 1936 paper was titled A Syndrome Produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents and examined structural and functional changes in organisms, single-cell to human, after exposure to “nocuous” (harmful) stresses such as injury, cold exposure, intoxication, drugs and—most important for our purposes—exercise.
Seyle proposed that all organisms mount an acute response, then a chronic adaptation after surviving exposure to stress. The final adaptation enables the organism to tolerate a subsequent and more intensely stressful exposure to the same type of stress—a physiological expression of Nietzsche’s popular quote.
The general adaptation syndrome has three basic stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion. The former two are quite useful and represent a positive adaptation leading to survival. The latter stage represents a failure to adapt to an overwhelming stress and might result in death of the organism. Let’s look at each stage individually and examine what occurs and why.
In the alarm stage, the body experiences a novel stress or novel level of magnitude or frequency of a previously experienced stress. That the magnitude or frequency of stress application exceeds the levels previously experi- enced is very important. It takes such a level of stress to disrupt the internal equilibrium of the cell, tissue or organism and induce the alarm stage.
Once the cascade of events is triggered, we see the physiologic intent of this stage is survival at all costs. The stressed cell or tissue diverts all available resources—energy, metabolic resources and architec- tural substrates—from carrying out normal functions to the maintenance of cell-structure integrity. Making new and replacing normal cellular chemicals and structures slow to a crawl while creation of cell-stabilizing stress proteins, acute-phase proteins and beneficial inflammatory mediators increases. This selective increase in production acts like basic life support, keeping the cell from being damaged further in the presence of the stress.
Once the stress is removed, there is a fairly rapid return of homeostasis, within six to 48 hours (Selye’s propo- sition). It must be understood that the alarm stage is the stimulus for adaptation, and for us it is the stimulus for improved fitness. If this is understood, it should also be understood that if exercise is to drive adaptation (fitness gain), the work done in training must continually progress in load. No increased load leads to no improvement in fitness.
The idea of progression, just like the concept of adaptation, is not new. Its origin is often credited to the Greek Olympian Milo of Croton (circa 400 B.C.), who became the strongest of all of the original Olympians by reputedly lifting a bull each day of its life, from calf to full-grown bull. So the idea of progression as a training reality has been accepted for a couple of millennia. Selye simply provided us with a lucid physiological explanation for how and why it occurred.
The second phase of the syndrome is the resistance stage. During this stage, the organism starts producing more metabolic and structural elements that are required to enhance its ability to withstand another exposure to the damaging stress. That makes sense: resistance to stress is developed. While the alarm stage is absolutely crucial to initiating fitness gains, the resistance stage is where fitness gains actually occur. I would propose that a better name for this stage would be the “adaptation phase.”
The duration of this phase is greatly variable from days to months, depending on a number of issues including the magnitude of homeostatic disruption. Was the workload a little or a lot more than normal? Was it a single or cumulative overload? Is the trainee fit or unfit? The end result is always the same: an enhanced physiological ability to tolerate a specific stress.
Here is a good place to introduce the basic premise of specificity. While the stages of the general adaptation syndrome follow the same pattern regardless of stress type, a specific stress such as running 10 kilometers for the first time will produce a set of physiologic adaptations intended to make the trainee able to run the distance again with a lower degree of perceived stress as well as less, if any, homeostatic disruption. Running 10 kilometers generally will not improve sprint speed or squat strength to any appreciable extent because long, slow distance running cannot induce the specific set of adaptations required to do so effectively.
The third stage is known as the exhaustion stage. Selye envisioned it as a stage where the organism’s adaptive capacity was overwhelmed, or exhausted. Homeostasis has been disrupted, and the magnitude of disruption is so profound that recovery is impossible. The repercus- sions of this stage can be quite dire, with death being among the possibilities.
We all know exercise can kill you—Selye considered it a nocuous stress—but deaths among healthy exercising individuals are rare. This means the third stage, relative to exercise, is usually manifested as something less dire. We will call it “overtraining.”
We will look at Stage 3, or overtraining, as being induced by excessive volume (duration, frequency or both) or intensity (level of exertion relative to maximal ability) of exercise—or a combination of both. The physiological results of overtraining are quite diverse, individual and destructive, but in general they are marked by an inability to compete or train at expected levels. Fitness has decayed.
When we disrupt homeostasis, a series of events affects our physiology at the most molecular of levels. We affect the operation of our genes, little segments of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) sequestered in the nuclei of our cells. Our genes control pretty much everything about our anatomy and our physiology through a handy-dandy little informational flow: DNA makes RNA (ribonucleic acid) makes protein makes function.
Initially a novel exercise stress shuts down, represses or down-regulates the activity of many normally active genes in favor of activating, promoting or upregulating the activity of other survival genes. This is Selye’s first stage. The up-regulation of survival genes and down- regulation of normally active genes leads to a different profile of proteins produced by the cell and changes the nature of the functions of the cell, tissue or organism. In this instance, normal cell metabolism and function are repressed in favor of producing transient architectural proteins and other emergency proteins that aid in cellular survival.
After the exercise stress has been removed, the survival status of the cell is not immediately altered. Many of the emergency proteins and their related functions remain present and function for some time. But over the days following a single exercise stress, during the resistance stage, the normally active genes become un-repressed and begin amping up their production and function again. But this time either more copies of them will be activated or they will experience an increased efficiency in function. We can also see previously inactive genes become active in order to augment function.
As survival-gene activity and their products’ activities abate, the new and enhanced set of genes now active will produce new architectural proteins (things like actin and myosin) and metabolic proteins (such as enzymes controlling energy production) that set up improved performance. The magnitude of change following a single exercise bout is not truly large and may in fact be immeasurable in practice, but the cumulative result of a series of homeostatically disruptive training sessions will be measurable in terms of strength or endurance depending on the type of training done.
Realize here that the body will arm itself for survival by activating specific genes that contribute to its ability to survive (physical fitness in our example), a further demonstration of the relevance of the concept of specificity.
During Stage 1 of the general adaptation syndrome, we commonly see a depression in physical capacity: our performances in training or competition are less than our best. We feel tired, a little sore, or maybe sluggish. This is normal, expected and even desired as these sensory phenoma tell us that we have indeed disrupted homeostasis, our training goal at this point.
But how do we turn a homeostatic disruption and reduction in physical ability into a positive, fitness- enhancing result? It’s fairly simple but also extremely complex. The idea of super-compensation is fairly well known and elementary. When we train, we become fatigued. Fatigue exists not just as the feeling of tiredness we get after training hard but also as a set of biochemical and architectural phenomena occurring in cells, tissues and systems. We can consider it the opposite of fitness, the ability to do work. In fact, fatigue is defined as a reduction in the ability to do work. The balance and timing of the physiological processes of both fitness and fatigue can produce fitness gains through super- compensation. Think of it as the disruption of homeostasis and the occurrence of Stage 1 of the general adaptation syndrome events that induce fatigue, metabolically and structurally.
Also occurring during Stage 1 is the reduction of normal function. Fitness, or the ability to do work, will have been compromised as a protective device to prevent further damage. Over time, the results of Stage 1 will diminish,or fatigue will diminish and the emergency proteins and processes will return to their low baseline: “normal” or absent levels of production or activity.
Right after the withdrawal of stress (the end of the training session or series of cumulative sessions), anabolic processes kick in to restore function (fitness) to the system as rapidly as possible. The magnitude of activity is very large in the time shortly after the end of training but decays in the hours and days following cessation of training. The decay will at some point return back to the original level of function existing prior to the training stimulus. The return of fatigue or the return of fitness back to baseline is not remarkable and does not lead to fitness gain. It is the timing of decay in both that leads to fitness gain.
If the rate of fatigue reduction (recovery) is slower than the rate of fitness restoration, then the net effect is either no fitness gain or possibly even a retention of Stage 1 levels of reduced performance ability. If however, the rate of fatigue reduction is faster than the decay of fitness restoration processes, we will experience super-compensation and enhanced fitness, an increased ability to do work. Super-compensation represents the successful entry and completion of Stage 2 of the general adaptation syndrome.
At this point, recovery methodologies become relevant. Adequate nutritional support and sleep provide the body with the elements necessary for maximizing the magnitude of fitness-restoration processes while also facilitating more rapid fatigue reduction. Not only can poor nutritional habits and inadequate sleep duration reduce the degree of super-compensation produced by a training session or program, but such neglect can also move a trainee toward our application of Selye’s third stage: overtraining.
The general adaptation syndrome and the concept of super-compensation are important to researchers and practitioners alike. They are important to the former as these two entities provide a conceptual basis for the study of the human during exercise, with the intent of improving physical fitness. They are important to the latter because the practitioner must, through the delivery of training, elicit these physiological phenomena in a controllable, reliable and repeatable manner.
Unfortunately, the practitioner is largely left to his own devices in this task as relevant experimental scientific literature regarding such programming is sparse and often questionable in content. It is advisable for aspiring coaches and trainers to not only become knowledgeable about anatomy and physiology of the human body and how its structure and function dictate exercise programming, but also to apprentice under successful professionals in order to learn how to apply that knowledge toward effective professional exercise practice.
About the Author
Lon Kilgore is a professor at Midwestern State University, where he teaches applied physiology and anatomy. He has also held faculty appointments at Kansas State University and Warnborough University (IE). He graduated from Lincoln University with a bachelor of science in biology and earned a PhD in anatomy and physiology from Kansas State University. He has competed in weightlifting to the national level since 1972 and coached his first athletes to national championship event medals in 1974. He has worked in the trenches, as a coach or scientific consultant, with athletes from rank novices to professionals and the Olympic elite, and as a collegiate strength coach. He has been a certifying instructor for U.S.A. Weightlifting for more than a decade and a frequent lecturer at events at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. His illustration and authorship efforts include books, magazine columns and research journal publications.
Posted in Physiology, Science, Sports | Leave a Comment »
I haven’t been blogging for a while since I needed to clean my head and body from all the work, thinking, doing, competing and the usual stuff going on while not being on a vacation. And now after just being, sleeping and doing whatever comes to my mind the past two weeks of my vacation I am on a flow, literally. Going to sleep when I’m tired, waking up when I feel refreshed, eating when hungry, exercising whenever, wherever and how often feeling like it I couldn’t feel more wonderful. But…. yes, there usually is a but, the city life makes me sometimes feel hectic even though my life isn’t that. It’s the rush everybody else have, the noises, restlessness of the traffic, all the surrounding sounds…
All this made me decide to go off to our summer cottage, alone. To a perfect quietness, to a place where there is no traffic, just nature and animals without a slightest sense of psychological time.
Wood-heated sauna is probably the greatest invention ever. And that is also one of the biggest reasons I always enjoy coming here knowing that soon I will feel the soft but hot steam of the sauna on my body.
I took a good steam in the sauna and literally ran across the pier and jumped off to the lake. It was midnight, the lake was totally calm, clear blue sky with a hint of moon lighting the sky. While swimming in the water I was overwhelmed with a sense of perfect stillness, a perfect harmony and balance… and coming off the lake just made me stop, totally. My mind stopped, there was no “me”, no ego present. Just this, always already ever-present eternal moment of nowness. I could hear every tiny single sound of the nature without analyzing any of them, just letting them flow through my consciousness soothing my senses… I watched the sky, just staring right at it with an empty mind, without any process going in my head realizing that the cosmic space and consciousness is eternal. It is always there, always. Has been and will be. And the power of it was so great that it made me stop, totally. I haven’t felt such peace in a long time, not even while meditating which has sometimes seemed too much of an obligation rather than giving space to my consciousness to expand.
At the moment I’m feeling peace, love, happiness… no attachments to anything. There is just this moment.
Posted in Meditation, Spirituality | Tagged eternity, moment, now | 2 Comments »
Like three sides of a prism, the Good, the Beautiful, and the True refract the white light of consciousness into the entire spectrum of human experience: art, morals, and science; self, culture, and nature; I, We, and It. How odd, then, that many contemporary forms of spirituality seem to only extend Spirit to one or two of these dimensions. This has often been the case with Beauty throughout history, and is even true today. For example, many see it as “anti-spiritual” for a person to care about his or her physical appearance, as though an emphasis upon appearance is vain and superficial—and the real God does not concern Him/Herself with such trivial adornments as physical beauty. But really, what doesn’t Spirit touch? And why is Beauty often associated with superficiality? If the mind and the environment around us are not-two, then isn’t our very capacity to perceive Beauty a tribute to the perfection of existence?
Posted in Art, Integral, Spirituality | Tagged beauty, ken wilber, spirit | 3 Comments »
I just finished (finally) reading a 400-page ”Integral Life Practice” book that inspired me to write this blog post. The book is not just a new approach to self-development and higher awareness, but a way or making sense of – and making best use of – the existing treasure trove of insights, methods, and practices for cultivating a more enlightened life. This highly flexible system will help to develop physical health, spiritual awareness, emotional balance, mental clarity, relational joy, and energy level, within a framework that integrates all aspects of life. Sounds plausible, huh?!
But that’s just what it is. That’s why I can sincerely recommend the book for everyone capable of opening one’s awareness and willing to develop oneself. This was just a short introduction to the topic of this post, the affirmations.
Affirmations are a powerful practice of directed intentionality. They are useful when you are ready to make a real commitment to bring about a change in your life – whether it is a new behaviour or a specific goal in your work or personal life or wherever! The practice of using affirmations involves regularly repeating one or more statements of positive intentions. They act as powerful attractors that work behind the scenes to call attention to life’s unscheduled practice moments. While repeating an affirmation it revels the message: remember, remember, remember. What makes an affirmation so powerful is that it resonates with the different levels of your own psyche and begins to reprogram alternative distractive voices and reoccurring thought loops, for example: “I will always fail on whatever I do” or “I have no self-discipline”. Instead you have now created an affirmation where you have decided to let things come to you as they are and accept them positively: “I will enjoy whatever I do and thus succeed”. I have previously written how you can silence your repetitive mind with meditation, but this approach with an affirmation is different. But you can still combine both of them! Let’s continue, shall we…
An affirmation practice begins with a clear decision that a new reality will come to be. It is a powerful tool for transformation. Essentially, you draw a line in the sand and declare, “This will be.” By embodying that in an affirmation, and repeating it daily, you generate an alignment of all the levels of your being with your intention, and you keep broadcasting that resonance into your world. I’m not talking here about the “law of attraction” but this is how it goes. You vibrate certain energy to the surroundings and it responses exactly the same way back to you… What once seemed painfully difficult eventually becomes easy and natural.
When you create an affirmation, it may be helpful to choose an area in life where you have difficulty recognizing practice opportunities. Practice involves finding a way to phrase an affirmation and relate to it, so that you believe in what you are affirming. You must care about it and speak it with certainty, more than just belief – a commitment of your whole being.
Some leading experts, including Michael Murphy, author of the “Future of the Body”, believe they’re among the most powerful tools for developing supernormal abilities. I recently bought a copy of this tremendous piece of literature and it waits to be read; two weeks in and I’m on my summer vacation for a month meaning that I have plenty of time to finish the many books that I’ve recently started reading.
Here is a step-by-step guideline for Affirmation practice from “Integral Life Practice” book:
Sample Affirmations
- I love myself unconditionally.
- I trust myself, and I trust Life.
- I keep my commitments to others and myself.
- I choose what I eat to optimize my health, beauty, energy, and free attention. (This one I have been using for ages now; even before I even knew of affirmations in the first place 
)
- I enjoy a profound empathy with others.
- I feel oneness with all existence.
For an example I have had problems on getting to bed early enough to get the adequate 8.5hours of sleep, which is the amount of sleep that is optimal for me. Usually on workdays the amount of sleep is more like 7 hours or less. That is why I created an affirmation for improving this part of my life: “I will go to bed at 21.30 and wake up refreshed every morning being ready for a new day.” Now I have thought whether this phrase is too long but I will anyhow give it a try. Let’s see how it goes, my motivation and commitment to the affirmation is with certainty.
I would love to hear what kind of affirmations you possibly have decided to try after reading this!
Posted in Integral, Philosophy, Psychology | Tagged affirmations, change, habit, tool | 8 Comments »
”Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without relationship you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence”. -
J. Krishnamurti
This is how Krishnamurti describes human relationship in his direct and maybe slightly laconic style of writing. Relationships in human societies have been intriguing my mind lately when I have been thinking how I see myself and how others see me. Surely this is a ”thing” that is not permanent, it is a form which is constantly changing. Anyhow, without relationship to things, people, thoughts, gestures, I am not. Let’s take an example: I meet a nice person for the first time and we connect. We create a mutual ”we space” which is essential that we understand us. We get to know each other and that other person is now in my life, in other words exists to me. Before we met, he or she didn’t exist to me. We weren’t related to each other before that and that means we didn’t exist in the same world. This is how relationship creates existence and how every single person has his or her OWN REALITY, own world. We create our worlds. Nothing is the same, we perceive things and other people independently, so we possibly couldn’t say or see how other persons perceive this world. It wasn’t until mankind had developed enough to invent mutual language was there really the possibility of seeing oneself in relation to the other. This happened roughly 10000-20000 years ago while typhonic-magic stage developed to agrarian-mythic stage. Concepts and mental realms developed with symbols and images. People began to differentiate from bodymind to body and mind, they didn’t anymore see themselves as only existence with nature but as separate human beings. This was an inevitable developmental phase, which created it’s own problems. Only after the rational stage developed to the trans-rational and integrated pre-rational mythic stage to rational stage was the separateness able to be integrated; transcending and including our separate selves and integrating our selves to the great web of life. Now this wasn’t the original purpose of this text but you see how sometimes my mind goes a little faster than I write. Let’s get back to the original topic.
Life is experience in relationship. There is no such thing as living in isolation. To me life is relationship, which is expressed through contact with things, with people and with ideas. In understanding relationship we shall have a capacity to meet life fully, adequately. Usually we use relationship as a means of furthering achievement, furthering transformation, furthering becoming. But really, relationship is a means of self-discovery, because relationship is TO BE; it is existence. Relationship is a mirror in which I can see myself. It can bring unconscious shadows into existence and into your consciousness, which can cause anxiety. You see yourself as a mirror, as a reflection of the other, which is really you watching in the mirror. But most of us see in relationship, in that mirror, things we would rather see; we do not see what is. We would rather idealize, escape, we would rather live in the future than understand that relationship in the immediate present.
I have in some of my texts mentioned of Spiral Dynamics, which is a great developmental psychology model. And why I am briefly writing about it here is simply because of the importance of it in relationships and how people at different stages see themselves in relation to other. People at first tier, for example at orange or green vMeme can see only their point of view in that particular stage or wave. This also reflects to the relationships they are in: Relationship with another is often a process of isolation. We are really not concerned with another; though we talk a great deal about it, actually we are not concerned. We are related to someone only so long as that relationship gratifies us, so long as it gives us a refuge, so long as it satisfies us. Put it bluntly and maybe a little sarcastically: If I do not please you, you get rid of me; if I please you, you accept me either as your wife or as your neighbour or as your friend. This is true for most of the 1st tier relationships, which are based on Maslow’s hierarchy’s “wanting needs”. When people evolve and they develop to second tier, now opening them to the spiritual realm, realizing the universal oneness in all, only then can relationship shift from “wanting needs” to “being needs”.
If there is real relationship between two people, which means there is communion between them, then the implications are enormous. Then there is no isolation; there is love and not responsibility or duty. So very often relationship is sought where there is mutual satisfaction, gratification. When you do not find that satisfaction you change relationship. We talk about love, we talk about responsibility, duty, but is there really love when relationship is based in gratification? Now this might become as a shock, but there is no relationship in love. It is only when you love something and expect a return of your love that there is a relationship. When you love, that is when you give yourself over to something entirely, wholly, and then there is no relationship. Only love. Only being in the mutual inter-subjective we space in perfect harmony.
Relationship is self-revelation and love exists only when there is self-forgetfulness, when there is complete communion. After all, we are all one, there is no separateness.
Posted in Integral, Philosophy, Psychology | Tagged existence, love, relationship | 2 Comments »
A new gig recording from last weekend. It was a rather rainy saturday but the feeling was hot at the terrace. Mixxed is by far the greatest summer terrace disco in Finland 
My set is a true warming up for the night, last hour the floor was packed!
check out the facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=334238001795&ref=ts
TRACKLIST:
—
01. Dolle Jolle : Balearic Incarnation (Todd Terje’s Extradoll Mix) [Permanent Vacation]
02. Franz Ferdinand : Ulysses (Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve Re-animation) [Azuli]
03. Ilja Rudman : Ocean Colour [Azuli]
04. Tensnake : Congolal [Azuli]
05. Studio : Life’s A Beach (Todd Terje Beach House Mix) [Permanent Vacation]
06. Hector : Orale (SIS Remix) [Phonica]
07. Dennis Ferrer : Sinfonia Della Notte [Strictly Rhythm]
08. Danny Howells : Psychotic Bump [Dig Deeper]
09. Ame : Fiori (Dixon Beat Edit) [Innervisions]
10. Tracey Thorn : Why Does The Wind? (Andre Lodemann Remix) [Buzzin’ Fly]
11. Culoe De Song : The Bright Forest [Innervisions]
12. Raudive : Slave [Klang Electronic]
13. Lusine : Two Dots (Nic Fanciulli Remix) [Saved]
14. Star You Star Me : A Place In My Heart (Jori Hulkkonen Remix) [Soundz]
15. Kenny Hawkes & Louise Carver : Play The Game (Joris Voorn Remix) [U-Boot]
16. Nalin & Kane : Beachball (Joris Voorn Remix) [Superfly]
17. Joris Voorn : Sweep The Floor [Rejected Music]
18. Danny Howells : Right Off [Dig Deeper]
19. Harry ´Choo Choo`Romero : Phuture (Joris Voorn Remix) [Ovum]
20. Tom Middleton : Teleporter [Toolroom]
21. Nic Fanciulli : Feed The Freezer [Rejected]
22. Joris Voorn : The Secret [Cocoon]
23. Pitto : Feelin’ (District One Remix) [Rejected]
24. Robert Babicz : Dark Flower (Joris Voorn Magnolia Remix) [Audiomatique]
d/l: http://miksaukset.koshiyoka.com/ollis/OlliS_-_Live@Mixxed_19062010.mp3
Posted in Music | Tagged discotheque, dj, live, mixxed, OlliS | Leave a Comment »
Quantum teleportation has achieved a new milestone or, should we say, a new ten-milestone: scientists have recently had success teleporting information between photons over a free space distance of nearly ten miles, an unprecedented length. The researchers who have accomplished this feat note that this brings us closer to communicating information without needing a traditional signal, and that the ten miles they have reached could span the distance between the surface of the earth and space.
As we’ve explained before, “quantum teleportation” is quite different from how many people imagine teleportation to work. Rather than picking one thing up and placing it somewhere else, quantum teleportation involves entangling two things, like photons or ions, so their states are dependent on one another and each can be affected by the measurement of the other’s state.
When one of the items is sent a distance away, entanglement ensures that changing the state of one causes the other to change as well, allowing the teleportation of quantum information, if not matter. However, the distance particles can be from each other has been limited so far to a number of meters.
Teleportation over distances of a few hundred meters has previously only been accomplished with the photons traveling in fiber channels to help preserve their state. In this particular experiment, researchers maximally entangled two photons using both spatial and polarization modes and sent the one with higher energy through a ten-mile-long free space channel. They found that the distant photon was still able to respond to changes in state of the photon they held onto even at this unprecedented distance.
However, the long-distance teleportation of a photon is only a small step towards developing applications for the procedure. While photons are good at transmitting information, they are not as good as ions at allowing manipulation, an advancement we’d need for encryption. Researchers were also able to maintain the fidelity of the long-distance teleportation at 89 percent— decent enough for information, but still dangerous for the whole-body human teleportation that we’re all looking forward to.
Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1038/NPHOTON.2010.87
More about quantum teleportation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_teleportation
Posted in Science | Tagged quantum, teleportation | 2 Comments »
As very often ideas and inspirations come to my head after meditation or a longer intensive moment of creativeness after a hard workout. And probably as important factor on in-spiration (in-spire = “breathed upon” or breathing in the spirit) to me is literature and reading whether being scientific or spiritual books, texts, blogs or whatnot. I have always wondered the power of art, but not really ever went any deeper than that thinking or analyzing it. One of my favorite pieces of art is Helene Schjerfbeck’s “Toipilas” (Convalescent) of which there has been a copy at my parents (and mine too that time) home as long as I can remember. I recall staring at it so many times and countless hours, that it is always somehow sketched into my retina and brain cortex. In the painting there is a little girl who is sitting on a chair softened with a pillow in front of a desk. She has a sprout in her hand which can be seen as a symbol of beating the disease she had. Luminous light glowing from two directions is highlighting her white clothes and reflects from glass objects… (see pic below)
This piece of art is full of life and it touches my true self very deeply; there are no words for it… nowadays I have it at my home next to the couch I’m often sitting at reminding me the amazing capability of healing, not least through art. This is what I’m going write about at the moment. I would love to hear comments of your artistic favorites and certain pieces of art that have touched you so deeply that you were overtaken bythe feeling… I’m sure everyone who can feel, have had those moments. Where there is life, there is art.
Renaissance art has affected me tremendously past ten years and not the least because of the artwork on Renaissance Recordings (a magical electronic music label: http://www.renaissanceuk.com/) and the epic and melancholic music nested to the artwork. Since then I became familiar with Michelangelo and Raphael, without forgetting Leonardo da Vinci whose Vitruvian Man hung as a poster on my wall for many years.
A passage from Roman architect Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio), describing the perfect human form in geometrical terms, was the source of inspiration for numerous renaissance artists. Only one of these, the incomparable Leonardo da Vinci, was successful in correctly illustrating the proportions outlined in Vitruvius’ work De Architectura, and the result went on to become the most recognized drawings in the world, and came to represent the standard of human physical beauty. It was the version produced by Leonardo da Vinci, whose vast knowledge of both anatomy and geometry made him uniquely suited to the task. (more information and analysis here: http://www.aiwaz.net/vitruvian-man/a6)
Michelangelo was a true genius of the time, capturing the Spirit in his art works. He believed that true artistic inspiration is not derived from the material world, but has value only in reflecting the divine idea. As a teenager, Michelangelo hung out at the Medici Gardens where he absorbed the teachings of Marsilio Ficino, the great translator and interpreter of Plato‘s works. Ficino’s philosophy held that the soul was the center of the universe, midway between the world of appearances and the realm of ideal archetypes.
Above is Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, which is my ultimate favorite of his artwork. There is so much mystic and magic in the coalescence of the fingers in the middle of the painting. Viewing this particular painting has been one of those moments when having an aesthetic perception, I have been “artfully intoxicated” and in a state of aesthetic ecstasy. At that moment we wish or desire nothing, only to remain in the state of aesthetic fusion or contemplation. Samvega is a Buddhist term for the aesthetic shock that overcomes the serious viewer of art. It is a feeling of fear, awe, and delight.
If you can see, you have nothing else to do, because in that seeing there is all discipline, all virtue, which is attention… Then where you are, you have heaven: then all seeking comes to an end… Real seeing brings with it this extraordinary elimination of time and space.
- KRISHNAMURTI
Last year while digging deeper and deeper into the Integral Theory (http://www.integralinstitute.org/) and ascending to Integral Spirituality I came across with a mind-blowing visionary transcendental artist called Alex Grey (http://www.alexgrey.com/). His paintings and artwork immediately catched my attention and not only catched it, but rather attached it into my soul so tightly that Grey is at the moment my favorite artist, no doubt about it. As Ken Wilber put it, Alex Grey might be the most significant artist alive. His work is not merely symbolic or imaginary: it is a direct invitation to recognize and realize a deeper dimension of our very own being. In the eternal trinity of the good, the true, and the beautiful, art, while it can be good and true, has always staked out the domain of the beautiful. Alex’s art is all that and more. A good test for great art is this: when you first look at it, it simply takes your breath away. While showing Alex’s art to other people for the first time they usually always gasp, wonderfully.
Perhaps there is more to reality, and to myself, than I thought…
After seeing Grey’s The World Spirit DVD and enjoying his artwork on Transfigurations and Sacred Mirrors I immediately knew my home needed one exact piece of Alex’s art which has been favorite for two of my friends for a while now and I didn’t even know it before! Yes, it is the Theologue.
The Union of Human and Divine Consciousness Weaving the Fabric of Space and Time in Which the Self and Its Surroundings are Embedded.
Alex describes in his book “The Mission of Art” the creative process of an artist. I don’t paint, but I compose music with Miika Kuisma and create atmospheric surroundings by sound through the vision of dj’ing and mixtapes with stories. I can easily agree with what Alex suggests here:
1. Formulation: discovery of the artist’s subject or problem.
2. Saturation: a period of intense research on the subject or problem.
3. Incubation: letting the unconscious sift the information and develop a response.
4. Inspiration: a flash of one’s own unique solution to the problem.
5. Translation: bringing the internal solution to outer form.
6. Integration: sharing the creative answer with the world and getting feedback.
Alex talks about visionary inventions and describes that many inventors have claimed that they received their designs or had a breakthroughs in their research as visions. Nikola Tesla was renowned for his designs by building his machines in his head, turning them on, and checking them in a week for wear and tear or other flaws. Paul Laffoley elucidated numerous inventions and fantastic architectural plans in his unique paintings. His Levogyre, a levitating gyroscope, is an example of his unusual genius.
Art is a natural expression of each artist’s unique life force. Our most meaningful creative work comes from deep inside and is an affirmation of the energy and flow of life. Art that affirms life seeds the unconscious of both artist and audience with the positive message: “Life is worth preserving and encouraging to achieve its highest potential.” Artist reflect their mental states at the time of creation. Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s most powerful art was inspired by his most negative states. He experienced and expressed transpersonal pain, collective torment. He sought help from a sanitorium for his mental distress and was hospitalized for six months. After his release his paintings grew brighter, looser, and more conventional, reflecting the present mental state. On of his posthospitalization period works is a true masterpiece, The Sun. Munch made his choice to turn toward life and light.
Art can act as a healer as well. Our health often depends on harmonizing the complex demands of mind and body. Stress can trigger illness in people. Illness can come as a wake-up call to slow down and examine whether we are on the right track with our life’s purpose. Art can serve the alignment of soul and “smaller” self through creative expression and thereby play a role in the healing process. An image of wellness and wholeness, the “picture of health” that a sick person aspires to, is an important aspect of getting better. Visualizing and imagery can powerfully affect our nervous and immune systems. The arts are a way to externalize this healing imagery. In the twentieth century the field of expressive arts has gained widespread use in psychotherapy. Patients have been asked to make art as a means of diagnosing their mental condition, and the healing potential of creativity is well-recognized.
The transformative potential inherent in each person allows art to be a path of self-knowledge and self-transcendence. To me encompassing and embracing art has always been as important as sleep, or food; art is food for our souls.
A picture may be worth of thousand words, but a sacred picture is beyond words. - Alex Grey
Posted in Art, Spirituality | Tagged alex grey, art, integral, michelangelo, power, renaissance, spiritual, transcendental, transpersonal | 8 Comments »
This article is in Finnish. I wrote this for a web portal keho.net (http://www.keho.net). Past 2-3 years the research on vitamin D has increased so much that during the last 5 years 95% of the research on vitamin D has been published.
Käännetty ja referoitu sekä muokattu artikkelista ”Levels of vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis.” Parker J. et al., Maturitas 2010 Mar;65(3):225-36.
D-vitamiinitasot ja sydän-verisuonisairaudet: systemaattinen tarkastelu ja meta-analyysi
Sydän-verisuonisairaudet (CVD) yhdessä tyypin 2 diabeteksen (DM2) sekä metabolisen oireyhtymän kanssa ovat maailmanlaajuisesti merkittäviä sairastavuuden ja kuolleisuuden aiheuttajia [1,2]. Lisäksi tiedetään, että korkea verenpaine, dyslipidemia, keskivartalolihavuus sekä sokeriaineenvaihdunnan häiriöt ovat tärkeitä riskitekijöitä sydän-verisuonisairauksille [2,3].
D-vitamiinin puutos on hyvin yleistä koko maapallon väestössä. Arvioidaan että 30-50% aikuisväestöstä kärsii d-vitamiinin puutteesta [4,5]. Erityisesti vanhempi väestö on tälle altis, sillä ikääntymisen myötä ihon kyky syntetisoida auringonvalosta d-vitamiinia vähenee [6]. D-vitamiinin tiedetään olevan tärkeä säätelijä luun mineraalitasapainossa ja se on yhdistetty myös lukuisiin muihin patofysiologisiin mekanismeihin. Onkin arvioitu, että d-vitamiinireseptoreita löytyy yli 36 kudostyypistä [7]. Lisäksi uusimmat tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet matalien d-vitamiinipitoisuuksien ja sydän-verisuonitautien sekä diabeteksen olevan yhteydessä toisiinsa [4, 8-10]. Näiden osalta kuitenkin tutkimukset eroavat toisistaan niin metodologisesti, populaation osalta kuin tulosten esittämisen kannalta. Tämä systemaattinen tarkastelu ja meta-analyysi arvioi d-vitamiinitasojen merkitystä kardiometabolisten sairauksien riskitekijänä.
Metodit:
Tutkijaryhmä suoritti systemaattisen kirjallisuushaun d-vitamiinin (25-hydroxy vitamin D (25OHD)) ja kardiometabolisten häiriöiden suhteesta aikuisväestössä. Haku tehtiin PubMed:stä sekä Web Of Knowledge -tietokannoista kokonaisuudessaan. Hakutermeinä käytettiin lukuisia MESH-termistöön kuuluvia termejä kuten “diabetes mellitus”, “metabolic syndrome X”, “cardiovascular diseases” sekä d-vitamiinin osalta “vitamin D”, “cholecalcif*” ja “vit d”.
Tutkimus hyväksyttiin, mikäli se täytti seuraavat kriteerit:
1) “poikkileikkaus-tutkimukset” (cross-sectional), tapaus-verrokki (case-control), joukkotutkimus tai satunnaistettu kontrolloitu tutkimus (RCT)
2) d-vitamiinin mittauksessa käytetty seerumin 25OHD-pitoisuutta
3) tutkimukset, joissa on arvioitu 25OHD-pitoisuuksien suhdetta kardiometabolisiin häiriöihin (kts. edellä)
4) julkaisu millä tahansa kielellä
Tutkimus hylättiin mikäli:
1) kohderyhmä oli alle 18-vuotiaita
2) kohderyhmänä oli raskaana olevat naiset
3) tutkittava sairasti tyypin I diabetesta
4) potilaalla oli lisäkilpirauhasen sairaus tai muut d-vitamiinin aineenvaihduntaan vaikuttava sairaus
5) tutkimus oli tehty eläimillä
Tutkimuksessa vertailtiin korkeimman seerumin 25OHD -ryhmää matalimman ryhmän kanssa, jossa matalin ryhmä oli viitearvona. Ne, joissa data esitettiin käänteisesti korkeimman 25OHD arvon ollessa viitearvona, laskettiin näille vetosuhteet (odds ratios) sekä 95% luottamusvälit. Tekijät suorittivat kumulatiivisen meta-analyysin kronologisessa järjestyksessä julkaistuista tutkimuksista (tarkempien tilastollisten analyysien osalta kts. alkuperäinen tutkimus).
Tulokset:
Arvioitavia tutkimuksia seulomisen jälkeen jäi 6049:stä jäljelle 81 tutkimusta (full text studies). Vielä tarkemman tarkastelun jälkeen tästä poistettiin 46 tutkimusta tutkimusmetodiikan puutteiden vuoksi. Tästä vielä 16 tutkimusta jätettiin pois puutteellisten päätetapahtumien tai muun metodiikan puutoksen osalta. Lopullisessa tarkastelussa oli 33 odds ratio:ta 28:sta itsenäisestä tutkimuksesta (kts. alkuperäinen tutkimus).
Tutkimuksissa oli mukana yhteensä 99745 osallistujaa. Kaikki tutkimukset on julkaistu vuosina 1990-2009, joista suurin osa (89%) vuosina 2004-2009. Tutkimuksissa oli sekä kaupunki- että maaseutuväestöä, tutkittavien keski-ikä vaihteli 40.5 – 74.5 vuoden välillä ja 89%:ssa tutkimuksista oli mukana molempia sukupuolia. Yli puolessa tutkimuksista päätetapahtumana oli sydän-verisuonisairaudet (57%), metabolinen oireyhtymä oli 25%:ssa tutkimuksista ja DM2 raportoitiin 18%:ssa tutkimuksista.
Riskin kannalta:
Yli 85% tutkimuksista (29/33 OR) raportoivat korkeiden d-vitamiinitasojen olevan yhteydessä matalaan kardiometabolisten sairauksien esiintyvyyteen. Kolmessa tutkimuksessa oli päinvastainen tulos ja yhdessä tutkimuksessa ei havaittu yhteyttä näiden välillä. Järjestettäessä odds ratio:t kronologisesti julkaisujärjestykseen havaittiin johdonmukainen kehitys korkeiden d-vitamiinitasojen ja vähentyneen kardiometabolisten sairauksien riskissä.
Tutkimustyylin kannalta:
Kaikissa joukkotutkimuksissa löytyi selvä yhteys korkeiden d-vitamiinitasojen ja vähentyneen kardiometabolisten sairauksien välillä yhdistetyn odds ration ollessa 0.42 (95% luottamusväli (CI) 0.28 – 0.65). Poikkileikkaustutkimuksissa 83%:ssa havaittiin vähentynyt sairastavuus kardiometabolisiin tauteihin korkeilla d-vitamiinitasoilla.
Päätetapahtuman kannalta:
Korkea d-vitamiinipitoisuus on yhteydessä vähentyneeseen kardiometabolisten sairauksien esiintyvyyteen kolmea tutkimusta lukuun ottamatta (yhdistetty OR 0.67, CI 0.55 – 0.81). Kaikki kahdeksan tutkimusta, joissa päätetapahtumana oli metabolinen oireyhtymä (MBO) havaittiin selvä MBO:n väheneminen korkeilla d-vitamiinitasoilla (yhdistetty OR 0.49, CI 0.38 – 0.64). Diabeteksen ollessa päätetapahtumana korkea d-vitamiinipitoisuus oli yhteydessä alentuneeseen sokeritaudin sairastavuuteen seitsemässä tutkimuksessa yhdeksästä (yhdistetty OR 0.57, CI 0.43 – 0.74).
Tutkimukset olivat hyvin heterogeenisia ja siksi tilastollisessa analyysissä käytettiin satunnaistetun mallin sijaan kiinteää mallia (kts. tarkempi analyysi alkuperäisestä tutkimuksesta).
Keskustelu:
Kyseessä on ensimmäinen systemaattinen tarkastelu ja meta-analyysi d-vitamiinin ja kardiometabolisten oireyhtymien välisestä yhteydestä.
Yleisesti havaittiin (85% tutkimuksista), että korkea d-vitamiinipitoisuus on yhteydessä 43% vähenemiseen karidiometabolisissa sairauksissa arvioitaessa kaikkia päätetapahtumia (CVD, DM2, MBO) ja tämä oli riippumaton tutkimusasetelmasta. Yksilötasolla arvioitaessa havaittiin korkeiden d-vitamiinitasojen vähentävän riskiä saada sydän-verisuonisairaus (33% vs. matala d-vit. taso), tyypin 2 diabetes (55% matalampi) ja metabolinen oireyhtymä (51% matalampi). Lisäksi havaittiin käänteinen suhde d-vitamiinipitoisuuden ja liikalihavuuden, lipidiprofiilin ja verenpaineen osalta (mitä matalampi d-vitamiinipitoisuus, sitä lihavampi henkilö, sitä korkeammat veren rasva-arvot ja sitä korkeampi verenpaine) [11-15]. Mekanismit, mitkä selittävät nämä muutokset, eivät kuitenkaan ole täysin selvillä. D-vitamiini voi vaikuttaa geenien suoraan ilmentymiseen tai d-vitamiinireseptorien tai solunsisäisen ja -ulkoisen kalsiumin säätelyn kautta; mahdollisesti kaikkien näiden mekanismien välityksellä. Zittermann ym. [16] esittävät matalien d-vitamiinitasojen liittyvän lisääntyneeseen sydän-verisuonitautien esiintymiseen. Zittermann kuvaa erilaisia mekanismeja, jotka voisivat olla tämän taustalla: verisuonien seinämän kalkkeutumista estävien matriksin proteiinien lisääntyminen d-vitamiinin avulla; d-vitamiinin funktio tulehdusta välittävien sytokiinien estäjänä; matalan d-vitamiinipitoisuuden yhteys lisääntyneeseen reniini-angiotensiini-systeemin aktivaatioon, mikä johtaa kohonneeseen verenpaineeseen [17]. Nämä ovat siis toistaiseksi vielä vain hypoteeseja mahdollisesta mekanismista.
Yhdessä tutkimuksesta havaittiin korkeiden d-vitamiinipitoisuuksien olevan yhteydessä lisääntyneeseen tyypin 2 sokeritaudin esiintyvyyteen. Tämä tutkimus oli tehty pelkästään tummaihoisella väestöllä ja viittaa siihen, että d-vitamiinin vaikutukset voivat olla erilaisia tässä etnisessä ryhmässä. Lisätutkimuksia tämän suhteen kuitenkin tarvitaan.
Johtopäätökset:
Kyseessä on ensimmäinen meta-analyysi aiheesta, missä osoitetaan mahdollisen korkean d-vitamiinipitoisuuden hyöty kardiometabolisten sairauksien ehkäisyssä ja hoidossa. Yhteys oli merkittävä kaikkien päätetapahtumien osalta ja kaikissa tutkimusasetelmissa yhteensä 28 tutkimuksessa, joissa oli 99745 ihmistä, sekä miehiä että naisia eri etnisistä rymistä. Tutkimuksen rajoituksina on ainoastaan poikkileikkaustutkimusten tai havainnointitutkimusten käyttö datana ja siksi syy-seuraussuhteen osoittamiseen tarvitaan lisätutkimuksia. Erityisesti tarvitaan kontrolloituja tutkimuksia d-vitamiinilisän käytön ja kardiometabolisten sairauksien vähenemisen syy-seuraus-suhteen osalta.
Kommentti:
D-vitamiinitutkimuksen käydessä kuumana ja tutkimustulosten tukiessa toinen tosiaan näyttäisi siltä, että d-vitamiinipitoisuudet vaikuttavat positiivisesti ihmisen terveyteen lukuisella eri tavalla. Siksi päivittäinen d-vitamiinilisä alueilla, joissa auringonvaloa ei saada tarpeeksi tulisi olla riittävän suuri terveyshyötyjen saavuttamiseksi. Nykyinen suositusannos 20mikrog/vrk Suomessa on mielestäni edelleen auttamattomasti liian alhainen. Itse henkilökohtaisesti suosittelen potilailleni iästä ja sukupuolesta sekä muusta terveydentilasta riippuen 75-125mikrog/vrk annoksia. Jopa tätä suuremmat annokset voivat olla hyödyllisiä eikä merkittäviä placeboa suurempia haittavaikutuksia ole raportoitu massiivisillakaan annoksilla.
Viitteet:
[1] J.P. Despres, P. Poirier, J. Bergeron, A. Tremblay, I. Lemieux and N. Almeras, From individual risk factors and the metabolic syndrome to global cardiometabolic risk, Eur Heart J Suppl 10 (B) (2008), pp. B24–B33.
[2] S.M. Grundy, A changing paradigm for prevention of cardiovascular disease: emergence of the metabolic syndrome as a multiplex risk factor, Eur Heart J Suppl 10 (B) (2008), pp. B16–B23.
[3] M. Fisher, Cardiometabolic disease: the new challenge?, Pract Diabetes Int 23 (3) (2006), pp. 95–97.
[4] J.H. Lee, J.H. O’Keefe, D. Bell, D.D. Hensrud and M.F. Holick, Vitamin D deficiency an important, common, and easily treatable cardiovascular risk factor?, J Am Coll Cardiol 52 (December (24)) (2008), pp. 1949–1956.
[5] V. Tangpricha, E.N. Pearce, T.C. Chen and M.F. Holick, Vitamin D insufficiency among free-living healthy young adults, Am J Med 112 (June (8)) (2002), pp. 659–662.
[6] M.F. Holick, L.Y. Matsuoka and J. Wortsman, Age, vitamin-D and solar ultraviolet light, Lancet 2 (8671) (1989), pp. 1104–1105.
[7] M.L. McCullough, R.M. Bostick and T.L. Mayo, Vitamin D gene pathway polymorphisms and risk of colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer, Annu Rev Nutr 29 (2009), pp. 111–132.
[8] X. Palomer, J.M. Gonzalez-Clemente, F. Blanco-Vaca and D. Mauricio, Role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus, Diabetes Obes Metab 10 (March (3)) (2008), pp. 185–197.
[9] D.E. Wallis, S. Penckofer and G.W. Sizemore, The “sunshine deficit” and cardiovascular disease, Circulation 118 (September (14)) (2008), pp. 1476–1485.
[10] L. Lu, Z. Yu and A. Pan et al., Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and metabolic syndrome among middle-aged and elderly Chinese individuals, Diabetes Care 32 (July (7)) (2009), pp. 1278–1283.
[11] M.F. Holick, Vitamin D deficiency, N Engl J Med 357 (July (3)) (2007), pp. 266–281.
[12] R. Scragg, M. Sowers and C. Bell, Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, diabetes, and ethnicity in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Diabetes Care 27 (December (12)) (2004), pp. 2813–2818
[13] K.C. Chiu, A. Chu, V.L. Go and M.F. Saad, Hypovitaminosis D is associated with insulin resistance and beta cell dysfunction, Am J Clin Nutr 79 (May (5)) (2004), pp. 820–825.
[14] E. Hypponen, B.J. Boucher, D.J. Berry and C. Power, 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, IGF-1, and metabolic syndrome at 45 years of age: a cross-sectional study in the 1958 British Birth Cohort, Diabetes 57 (February (2)) (2008), pp. 298–305.
[15] A.G Pittas, J. Lau, F.B. Hu and B. Dawson-Hughes, The role of vitamin D and calcium in type 2 diabetes. A systematic review and meta-analysis, J Clin Endocrinol Metab 92 (June (6)) (2007), pp. 2017–2029.
[16] A. Zittermann, S.S. Schleithoff and R. Koerfer, Putting cardiovascular disease and vitamin D insufficiency into perspective, Br J Nutr 94 (October (4)) (2005), pp. 483–492.
[17] E. Giovannucci, Vitamin D and cardiovascular disease, Curr Atheroscler Rep 11 (November (6)) (2009), pp. 456–461 [article].
Posted in Science | Tagged blood pressure, d3, hear, metabolic syndrome, vitamind | 5 Comments »
This text was originally written and posted by Eric Thompson at iAwake blog, full article to be found here:
http://www.i-awake.net/2010/06/meditation-related-brain-research-and.html
Since this is a really hot topic at the moment and the research on meditation via neuroscientific methods is increasing I thought I could share this text slightly referated with you.
Tibetan Buddhist Loving Kindness Meditation
Antoine Lutz and colleagues studied eight long-term Tibetan Buddhist meditators who had engaged in contemplative practice for periods of time ranging from 15 to 40 years, with anywhere from approximately 10,000 to 50,000 hours logged in meditation (2004). A control group consisted of 10 students averaging 20 years of age, each of whom had only ten hours of training in meditation. The meditation technique studied in this case, a Buddhist loving kindness meditation, evokes a state of objectless compassion that is allowed to pervade the meditator’s mind.
All meditators exhibited atypically large amounts of synchronized gamma activity 5 to 15 seconds after beginning the meditation, with significant asymmetrical gamma synchrony appearing in the left midfrontal areas. Analysis revealed that the long-term meditators showed greater such synchrony than controls, as well as higher baseline levels of gamma activity. Likewise, even among the long-term meditators, the ones with the most hours of meditative practice logged also exhibited the highest levels of gamma activity. Long-distance synchronization between frontal and parietal lobes also increased in all meditators, with the highest degrees of synchronization again being found to positively correlate with the number of hours logged in meditative practice. Using fMRI, there was also discovered significant activity in the thalamus, caudate and putamen, right insula, and anterior cingulate.
Buddhist Mindfulness Meditation
According to the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS: Baer, et al, 2004), mindfulness consists of nonreactivity to inner experience, attending to sensations and feelings, actions with awareness, labeling sensations and feeling states with words, and a non-judgmental attitude toward experience.
Sara W. Lazar and cohorts discovered this meditative practice to be correlated with increased cortical thickness in the middle prefrontal areas, as well as enlarged right insulas, in experienced practitioners (2005). Additional studies have revealed mindfulness practice and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) to animate neural structures involved in attention (Lazar, et al, 2000), serve as a viable treatment modality for ADHD (Zylowska, et al, 2008), counter the tendency toward diminished left-frontal activity in severe depression (Barnhofer, et al, 2007), and significantly reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms in bipolar affective disorder (Williams, et al, 2008). And according to Siegel, “[m]indfulness meditationappears to produce a left shift in frontal activation” (2007, p. 220).
Gamma Activity Implications
The increased gamma wave synchrony generated during Tibetan Buddhist loving kindnessmeditation may have applications in the treatment of disorders where feature binding has been found to be deficient. Because gamma activity has been repeatedly observed as active in perception and implicated in associative learning (Miltner, et al, 1999), it has been theorized that gamma wave synchrony may play a significant role in binding the disparate information conveyed by the central nervous system into coherent perception (Singer, 2001).
The lack of gamma wave activity during perception in schizophrenia in left and frontal sites (Haig, et al, 2000) has been postulated as being due to a shift in the binding of synchronous and divided activity, preventing neural integration of various areas of the brain (Bob, 2007). Moreover, attention has been decisively shown to be central to 40 Hz gamma activity, so that when external stimuli are not consciously attended to, gamma activity is not registered (Sokolov, 1999). Attentional training using techniques like the loving kindness meditation, which seem to systematically drive and educate the brain toward producing more gamma wave activity, may offer a new set of developmental tools with which to treat schizophrenia. Moreover, the fact that long-term meditators exhibited higher baseline gamma activity than controls attests to the intention in long-term Buddhist meditation to slowly but consistently integrate meditative temporal states into permanent traits. According to Lutz and co-workers (2004), their research findings are “consistent with the idea that attention and affective processes, which gamma-band EEG synchronization may reflect, are flexible skills that can be trained (Posner, et al, 1997)” (p. 16373).
Taken together, these data could point to meditative training as a means of highly unifying sensory information to the point of producing unitary-that is, harmonious-interpersonal perceptions and relations.
Left Frontal Asymmetrical Activation Implications
Heather Urry and colleagues (2004) correlated left prefrontal asymmetry, as evidenced in both the mindfulness and loving kindness forms of meditation, with eudaimonic well-being, defined by Siegel (2007) as enveloping “the psychological qualities of autonomy, mastery of the environment, positive relationships, personal growth, self-acceptance, and meaning and purpose in life” (p. 216). This left anterior activity has also been correlated with resilience, the capacity to rebound after particularly negative experiences (Davidson, et al, 2003), which would make mindfulness meditation a viable modality in the treatment of bipolar affective disorder, sufferers of which can experience great difficulty in rebounding after difficult depressive periods.
Conclusion
Many of our core mental processes such as awareness and attention and emotion regulation, including our very capacity for happiness and compassion, should best be conceptualized as trainable skills. The meditative traditions provide a compelling example of strategies and techniques that have evolved over time to enhance and optimize human potential and well-being. The neuroscientific study of these traditions is still in its infancy but the early findings promise to both reveal the mechanisms by which such training may exert its effects as well as underscore the plasticity of the brain circuits that underlie complex mental functions.
Posted in Science, Spirituality | Tagged brain, implications, meditation, research | Leave a Comment »
"When you know that you are dreaming, you are awake within the dream."
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