Meditation has grown in popularity over the last several decades. For most, meditation is primarily a tool for managing stress, and many now turn to various forms of meditation, most commonly mindfulness meditation, to cope with the stressors of daily living and to improve their overall psychological well-being. It is clear that meditation is helpful for many; however, in an article written for Scientific American, Matthew Sacchet, PhD, Director of the Meditation Research Program at Mass General and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, argues that meditation can be so much more — what he and others view as a gateway to experiences facilitating deep psychological transformation.
Sacchet’s team has begun to use cutting-edge neuroimaging techniques to study the neural activity of practitioners in deep meditative states. In learning how meditation affects the structure and function of tne brain, researchers including Sacchet’s team can develop new models of mental health that incorporate concepts from advanced meditation, including self-transcendence and human flourishing.
Sacchet notes, “Our work in the new wave of advanced meditation research is not just about coping with the stress of modern living. It could improve our understanding of and approach to the mind, mental health and well-being, allowing each of us to lead a more fulfilled, compassionate and ‘enlightened’ life.”
Read the full article HERE on the Scientific American website.
Read More
Advanced Meditation Alters Consciousness and Our Basic Sense of Self (Scientific American)
A Closer Look into the New Wave of Research in Advanced Meditation (Mass General Research Institute)
Sacchet MD, Fava M, Garland EL. Modulating self-referential processing through meditation and psychedelics: is scientific investigation of self-transcendence clinically relevant? World Psychiatry. 2024 Jun;23(2):298-299.
Yang WFZ, Chowdhury A, Bianciardi M, van Lutterveld R, Sparby T, Sacchet MD. Intensive whole-brain 7T MRI case study of volitional control of brain activity in deep absorptive meditation states. Cereb Cortex. 2024 Jan 14;34(1):bhad408.
