umop_3pisdn
Member
Yeah, that's definitely a big part of it. I'm definitely aware that I'm going to have some bias against it because it sounds "mystical" or whatever. And I do see a lot of data coming out that purports to be scientific evidence for the benefits of meditation. I'm still not totally convinced, but I'm looking for more to read.
For example, a common one I see pointed out is the thing about "meditation leads to thickening of this part of your brain and shrinking in this part" and they list all the good things the growing part does and all the bad things the shrinking part does. The conclusion is supposed to be that meditating makes the good things happen more often by growing that bit of the brain, and it makes the bad things happen less often by shrinking that bit. But I don't know enough about neuroscience to know if that's true. Like, I'm willing to believe the amygdala shrinks when you meditate, and I'm willing to believe it's associated with fight-or-flight or stress or whatever. But does shrinking that section mean anything? Does it actually make a difference with how I behave? I dunno. But I'd love to believe it, and it sounds plausible. So I'm going to keep looking into this stuff.
Why I don't like the public discourse about meditation being dominated by neuropsychological studies, is they say nothing about why people practice meditation. The question is how did it feel to adopt this practice, and did you like it? What effect did it have for you in your daily life? Cortical thickening means practically nothing, just like we know exercise and good posture confers a lot of benefits, those benefits are only compelling insofar as they motivate people to exercise. Practically no one is going to exercise because it increases their cardio capacity or whatever, but they'll do it because they find enjoyment in it and it improves their perceived quality of life. That's the sort of thing we should be talking about with meditation and its benefits. The provisional studies are just to 'legitimize' it in the view of science, but the far more meaningful questions can be answered far easier just by trying it out for like a week.