Reddit Reddit reviews Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body

We found 12 Reddit comments about Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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12 Reddit comments about Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body:

u/seshfan2 · 24 pointsr/TheMotte

Very cool article. As someone who's passionate about meditation and has studied it intensely I think it's important to realize that meditation is (1) not for everyone and (2) to be very cautious about what mindfulness has actually been able to help with. Mindfulness Based Stress Relief and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy have repeatedly been shown to be effective. However, these types of studies rarely have adequate controls so it is difficult to make the strong claim that mindfulness itself is the cause of these seen benefits. Likewise, claims that mindfulness can treat more extreme disorders like PTSD are often banded about, but the research on these claims is thin.

Two books on this I would recommend:

Mindlessness: The Corruption of Mindfulness in a Culture of Narcissism:

>Practicing mindfulness can be an effective adjunct in treating psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. But have we gone too far with mindfulness? Recent books on the topic reveal a troubling corruption of mindfulness practice for commercial gain, with self-help celebrities hawking mindfulness as the next "miracle drug." Furthermore, common misunderstanding of what mindfulness really is seems to be fueled by a widespread cultural trend toward narcissism, egocentricity, and self-absorption.

>Thomas Joiner's Mindlessness chronicles the promising rise of mindfulness and its perhaps inevitable degradation. Giving mindfulness its full due, both as a useful philosophical vantage point and as a means to address various life challenges, Joiner mercilessly charts how narcissism has intertwined with and co-opted the practice to create a Frankenstein's monster of cultural solipsism and self-importance. He examines the dispiriting consequences for many sectors of society (e.g., mental health, education, politics) and ponders ways to mitigate, if not undo, them. Mining a rich body of research, Joiner also makes use of material from popular culture, literature, social media, and personal experience in order to expose the misuse of mindfulness and to consider how we as a society can back away from the brink, salvaging a potentially valuable technique for improving mental and physical wellbeing.

Joiner is one of, if not the most famous researcher on suicide in the world. One of the things he talks about, for example, he talks about how many depressed individuals struggle greatly with rumination, and not much has been done about the fact that meditation tends to make rumination worse for many people.

I also greatly enjoy Daniel Goleman's Altered Traits. Many are quick to point out that "thousands" of research articles have been published on mindfulness meditation. These guys are upfront and critical of the fact that, well, most of these studies are absolute trash with either biased experimenters, poorly defined definitons, and lack of proper controls (They're extremely critical of their own somewhat sloppy mindfulness research in the 70's - a refreshing moment of humbleness). They review over 1,000 studies and do a literature review of the 50 or so highest quality ones.

There really does seem to be an effect at work here with mindfulness. However, people often fail to differentiate between state effects and trait effects. For many beginners, Mindfulness is no different than a drug - you get a bump of relaxation and positive feeling when you're meditating, and then no difference when you resume your life. Real, permanent, lasting change is seemingly, but only after long, continued practice - not just glancing at a 10-minute mindfulness app on your phone three times a week.

They also mention how easy the news media and other snake oil salesmen can misrepresent research: a famous finding like meditation can increase the length of telomeres, a process related to cellular aging is reported as "Mindfulness is going to make you live much longer!!" And of course there's always companies trying to make a quick buck: A related example is the company Luminosity, a company that vaguely throws around the word "neuroplasticity" as proof playing their games will make you smarter, a claim not supported by much evidence.

Above all I think it helps to have a skeptical eye. Mindfulness has become an extremely hot topic in the past 15 years. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a self selection effect where most researchers really, really want mindfulness to be scientifically valid, and so they aren't really as critical of the research as they should be. Combine that with the fact that science journalism generally isn't great at actually reporting science, and marketing companies even less so, and that leads to a lot of misinformation floating around.

u/weirds3xstuff · 12 pointsr/DebateReligion

This is literally an empirical question, in two parts: Can we measure suffering? and Do Buddhists suffer less than non-Buddhists?

The answer to both is "yes". One of the better books about that is here. If you would rather access a free paper on the subject, here's one of many. You shouldn't need rigorous scientific research to know that this is true. An indelible image in popular consciousness is that of a self-immolating Buddhist monk (NSFW). How is it that he is able to have his entire body on fire, yet he is sitting there calmly? It's because pain doesn't cause him to suffer.

A Buddhist saying is that "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." Imagine you cut yourself while cooking. Your nerves send a "pain" signal to the brain, which all people receive. Then, non-Buddhists process that pain in consciousness, which basically means modules of the brain other than the "touch" module access it and dwell on it. It is that rumination on the pain that is suffering. fMRI scans show that Buddhists do not process that pain in consciousness in that way. They do not suffer.

To reiterate: whether or not following the Eightfold Path can end suffering is a testable, empirical question. When we test it, we see that following the path reduces suffering in all who practice it and eliminates suffering entirely in masters.

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Finally, a note about suicide. Suicide causes harm, and a practitioner is obligated to minimize harm, so they are obligated to not kill themselves. Also, enlightened Buddhists are some of the happiest people on earth, so why would they want to kill themselves, anyway?

u/hlinha · 7 pointsr/TheMindIlluminated

Two suggestions:

- Most of the science behind meditation, including effects in long-term practitioners - some of whom, presumably have attained stream entry - has been very well researched and reviewed in the book Altered Traits.

- Musings on awakening is a nice essay by pragmatic Dharma, TMI teacher Tucker Peck that includes his views on the "real life" effects of stream entry and 2nd path.

u/ivres1 · 7 pointsr/Nootropics

I'd suggest reading Altered Trait. It's a great book really going deep on the science of meditation and how it affect specific area of the brain. It's a complicated subject and those guys are not just shooting words out of there ass like here, they are pretty much the guys that when in retreats in the east during the '70 and brought it back in university to study it.


Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson have made a colossal contribution to meditation research and cannot praise this book enough. Fascinating how much junk studies there is on meditation, they go over that a lot and gave me a greater appreciation for quality science.



u/autognome · 2 pointsr/Meditation

https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Traits-Science-Reveals-Meditation/dp/0399184384

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Altered Traits discusses many studies that were performed. It is not a academic book but its the most cutting edge research and discusses who and which studies were performed. It might be very useful. They also talk about protocols and the lack of protocols in many studies.

u/battleship_hussar · 2 pointsr/Meditation

Please do link it, I read some interesting stuff about gamma waves and their relation to meditation, especially long term meditation in this book https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Traits-Science-Reveals-Meditation/dp/0399184384#reader_0399184384

Basically they found that long term mediators experience gamma waves on the regular compared to non-meditators

u/poorbadger0 · 2 pointsr/askphilosophy

I'm unfamiliar with Schopenhauer's work, especially as it relates to Buddhism, but I have read a few books on Buddhism, the best of which was Rupert Gethin's The Foundations of Buddhism, which I highly recommend as an introduction to Buddhism.

It is worth noting that some Buddhists reject rebirth, and have a more "non-magical" take of the Buddha's teachings. Interestingly the truth of karma and rebirth is said to be discoverable when one is developed enough in their meditative practices, and indeed that is how the Buddha is supposed to have discovered it, along with everything else he taught.

Buddhism has some very interesting things to say about the human condition, much of which I can see manifesting itself in my own life, and in some ways many of those truths are being discovered by modern science. See here and here.

u/Awfki · 1 pointr/Meditation

The scientists are Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson, they have a book, Altered Traits

u/Jrcohan · 1 pointr/Buddhism

-Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Buddhism-True-Philosophy-Enlightenment/dp/1439195463

-Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor

https://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Without-Beliefs-Contemporary-Awakening/dp/1573226564

There also are pretty extensive peer reviewed journals and statistics on meditation. Check out Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman.

-Altered Traits by Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman

https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Traits-Science-Reveals-Meditation/dp/0399184384

Hope some of that is of help.

Best of luck!

u/squizzlebizzle · 1 pointr/Meditation

the best book on the research on meditation is Altered Traits.

https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Traits-Science-Reveals-Meditation/dp/0399184384

u/AlwaysEndingWithADot · 1 pointr/Meditation

A good book by Goldman/Donaldsson: Altered Traits. Also talks about effects on really experienced meditators:
https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Traits-Science-Reveals-Meditation/dp/0399184384

u/raggamuffin1357 · -1 pointsr/DebateReligion

Here's a good book about some of the results of meditation:

https://smile.amazon.com/Altered-Traits-Science-Reveals-Meditation/dp/0399184384?sa-no-redirect=1

They're not information about objective reality. That's the point. They're information about the subjective nature of reality and how to change our mind/experience in a way that we enjoy.