Contemplative Neuroscience, “Like Valium Without the Side Effects”

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Scientific American‘s Gary Stix has posted links to two video lectures about meditation and its effects on the human mind. Ricard Matthieu, a Buddist monk with a doctorate in cell biology, talks about the art of meditation, and Richard J. Davidson lectures at Stanford University “about the emergence of the new field of contemplative neuroscience.”

Meditation, writes Stix, can bring about “changes to neural circuits” in ways that provide “a perfect drug—Prozac-like muting of depression symptoms” or a “prophylaxis against PTSD,” among other effects.

Like Valium and Oxycontin, without the Side Effects [Video] (Scientific American, October 15, 2014)

2 COMMENTS

  2. I’ve never tried Valium or Prozac, but I’ve tried antidepressants (tri cyclics) and they made no difference, so I stopped taking them after a while.

    The meditation did work though. It released me from my sadness. The Buddhist monks promised me nothing. They advised me to try it and see for myself.

    Nothing changed during the meditation. The effect was in my life outside meditation and the change was gradual.

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