Meditation

How does meditation work?

And what is it doing to you?

Meditation can cause altered states — that isn’t news

Meditators have been talking about altered states of mind for centuries. More recently, doctors and scientists have been joining the conversation with their brain scans of meditators in hand. They aren’t out to debunk it. They’re trying to prove the benefits with hard science so meditation can become an approved therapy. One of those benefits: People who meditate often have more, denser gray matter — the part of your brain packed with neurons. Let’s take a closer look at what those neurons are doing — in the form of brainwaves.

What are brainwaves?

Brainwaves are measureable, electrical rhythmic patterns generated by neurons firing. There are five bands:

Gamma
The brainwave of memory, concentration, and acquiring knowledge.

Beta
The brainwave of alertness, attention, and logical thinking.

Alpha
The brainwave of quiet, calm, and mental coordination and consolidation.

Theta
The brainwave of daydreaming, feeling, and creativity.

Delta
The brainwave of deep, dreamless sleep and recovery.

Focused attention meditation

Focused attention is how well you can concentrate on one thing while ignoring everything else. When you meditate on an object — it could be your breathing, a mantra, a physical object, even a feeling — you train focused attention by returning to the object whenever your mind wanders. How do scientists know? They see bursts of beta and gamma activity in brain scans when people refocus.

Open monitoring

You might know open monitoring as open awareness or mindfulness. It’s how well you can observe your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. Every time you let your thoughts and emotions come and go without attaching a story to them, you’re working on open monitoring and showing more theta activity.

To work on open monitoring:
• Vipassana • Zen • Sahaja Yoga • Qigong

Self-transcendence

Self-transcendence is when you stop trying to focus, control, or quiet your mind. People who’ve experienced self-transcendence describe feeling connected to something bigger than themselves. Everyone’s experience is different, but for most people, self-transcendence happens when they’re relaxed in alpha mode.

To experience self-transcendence:
• Transcendental meditation • Natural stress relief