Prof. Richard J. Davidson of the University of Wisconsin - Madison is famous for his work with the Dalai Lama’s monks. He showed that their years of meditation and mental training produced different sorts of brain scans than less trained and experienced people do.
Dr. Herbert Benson, author of “The Relaxation Response” and quite a few other books, described the procedure where Buddhist monks, men and women, stand out in the Himalayan cold and wrap wet sheets around themselves and stay there until the sheets have dried without ill effects. I read recently that people who tell themselves that the winter cold is warm can stand cold weather with less trouble than those who fear the cold.
Dr. Michael Merzenich performed experiments that showed that paying attention to actions and particular tasks being learned produced different brain maps and layouts than doing the actions without paying attention. He was accused by other neuroscientists of falsifying his data, since they didn’t believe a mental phenomenon, such as paying attention, could possibly affect the physical layout of the brain.
Mental vs. physical is an old mine field. The stage magician James Randi revealed that the supposedly mental effects on physical objects by the mental acts of Uri Geller were not abnormal but tricks. The Randi Foundation offers $1 million for anyone who can demonstrate paranormal results under fair conditions. The money has grown to that million since the fund was founded 40 years ago. Years ago, and maybe now, too, those who had lost a loved one would hold seances to communicate with them after death. I see there are YouTubes that explain how to conduct a seance.
I suspect that what can and can’t be done by the average adult mind will be clearer over the next century or so. I am interested in the connections between Western science and approaches and the principles of Buddhism. That religion (“practice” might be a better term for American English users) is famous, even to an outsider like me, for its Four Noble Truths, the first of which is “life is suffering”, meaning suffering is inevitable in life. I have heard of a Christian concept of “offering your suffering to God”, meaning that it may help to endure suffering if the sufferer thinks of his pain as an offering to God, something endured and shaped and now offered up.
I am not a Buddhist nor a Christian but I respect the power of practice, belief and instruction. Having a mantra (phrase or proverb) handy to repeat to myself when feeling pain or frustration definitely moves my attention from the “Woe is me, not again, why now? Why me?” category to “Oh, good, a chance to suffer honorably!”, a chance to practice suffering less and to carry the irritant, the pain, the bother more nobly. Stay tuned to see if I can manage to do some of that all the way to death. With some things, it seems to help me laugh at my problem, to feel it less severely, to appreciate the chance to practice being better.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
