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THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MEDITATION AND MYSTICAL STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS JULIAN M. DAVIDSON* If the proper study of mankind is man, it is a paradox worth pondering that consciousness, the receptacle of all that is truly human, has not yet found a place in the life sciences. This is not to imply that neuroscientists are uninterested in physiological correlates and mechanisms of sleep and wakefulness, or that psychopharmacologists are not intensively investigating psychoactive drugs, and so forth. Rather, the experimentalist feels compelled to limit himself to considering physical or behavioral variables in order to comply with the dominant physicalistreductionist paradigm of modern science. As far as scientific practice is concerned, consciousness is still regarded, at best, as an epiphenomenon . Similarly, if we had a science of consciousness, biochemical, physiological, and behavioral data might appear to it to be epiphenomena, for we have not even an inkling of how physical phenomena are linked to the "subjectively" manifested activity of consciousness . There is no denying the very real philosophical and practical difficulties impeding the scientific investigation of psycho-physical interactions . But despite these difficulties and the past neglect of the subject , the current unprecedented public interest in the varieties of conscious experience is reflected in a number of research papers and theoretical analyses attempting to deal with physiological correlates of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). This survey is primarily concerned with one subset of this group: studies directed at physiological events during meditation. The specific questions on which I hope to shed some light are: (1) What conclusions can be drawn from existing physiological studies on meditating subjects? (2) How do these findings and other current concepts relate to mystical experience? (3) What, if *Department of Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305. I am grateful to my friend John Sundsten of the University of Washington Medical School for many discussions and helpful suggestions; to the Battelle Seattle Research Center for a year of study during which this paper was written; and to Richard J. Davidson and the members of an informal discussion group on consciousness which met in Seattle in 1975 for having read and discussed the manuscript. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine ยท Spring 1976 ] 345 any, reasonable approaches can be suggested for the future scientific study of these states of consciousness, given the currently available methodologies? Before engaging these issues, however, it is necessary to devote some attention to the nature and purposes of meditation and the claims of its proponents. The Psychology of Meditation "Meditation" is a term applied to a diverse group of practices having the common goal of producing in the short term desired mental states, and in the long term the promotion of personality growth and mental health (traditionally referred to as "enlightenment"). These practices extend far back in recorded history and were previously most often taught within the context of religious (but not necessarily theistic) disciplines , so that the expected benefits have often been described in terms of spiritual progress. In the last few years, there has been an explosive increase of interest in meditation in the Western world, spearheaded by a variety of organizations operating within, or derived from the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The most (numerically) successful of these is the (Students) International Meditation Society. While headed by a rather traditional Hindu guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and resting on ancient Vedic traditions, this organization disclaims any direct religious objective, preferring instead to represent its teachings as scientific [I]. Its professed aims are the transformation of man and the resulting solution of the world's problems [2]. Advocating a brand of meditation which it calls transcendental meditation (TM), it has had phenomenal success in many countries. Between 1968 and May 1974, 360,000 initiates were claimed in the United States alone [3, p. vi]. These include prominent public figures, including scientists, and resolutions of support have been introduced in Congress as well as in several state legislatures. Since, particularly in the Hindu tradition, the pursuit ofconsciousness alteration is sought through postural and breathing exercises as well as through the mental practice of meditation, and since experienced yogis have often claimed unusual physical powers, there have been several investigations of physiological events in meditating...

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