Drying Wet Towels On Naked Bodies At -25⁰ C:  g-tummo Meditation

The mind - body connection has been an enigma defying human understanding for millennia of years. So it conveniently became a fertile field of imagination for mendacious mendicants as well as serious minded philosophers. While everything connected with the body seems to have a definite physicality and solidity to it, the mind stuff persists to be vague, diaphanous and ungraspable by our senses. No wonder the ancient people of almost every school of thought hypothesized the existence of a mental world made up of mind-stuff situated beyond or interpenetrating the physical world. A few even placed the mind and mental activity inside the heart.

The Indian philosophers were no exception. They too believed in a mental world composed of material that was finer than that of the gross physical world. They extended the concept further postulating the existence of subtler bodies to the individual who was supposed to reside and move around in those bodies after the death of the physical body. The dream world is said to provide a glimpse of the way we live in and interact with others in the mental world.

The dream world and the mental world reinforced the mystery of each other and remained as unfathomable phenomena for centuries eluding any scientific investigations.  Both stayed outside the scope of any objective observation or  measurement until a few decades ago. Thanks to the latest scientific knowledge, we are able to tease out the complexity of mind - body connection by reframing it first in terms of mind - brain relationsip.

Brain is quite a unique organ in the sense that its actions are influenced by the very same electromagnetic and chemical force fields it creates through its activity!  Brain, thus, works both on feed-forward and feedback mechanisms. Unless we are able to discern and study the various components of its activity carefully at minute levels many of its functions appear to be mysterious and sometimes even other-worldly.

The Mind and Brain in Dreams:

Dreams, luckily, began to yield their secrets to science a handful of decades back. Scientists are now pretty confident that in a few more years, we will have gadgetry that can enable us to watch the dream escapades of a person on our computer screen .

In 2008, Dr. Y. Kamitani and his colleagues showed that they could “decode” a volunteer’s brain activity of visual  perception in terms of the actual objects seen by him (See Fig. 1).  Dr. B. Pasley of the University of Berkeley and his group demonstrated in the beginning of 2012 that the auditory pattern of waves from the temporal lobes of the brain could similarly be reconstructed into words heard by the volunteers.

In a unique study the Neuroscientists from a hospital in Paris could find that the rapid eye movement (REM) associated with dreams corresponded to the visualizations of dream objects by the dreamer during his dreaming. For example, if the dreaming person dreamt of kissing someone to the left, his eyes looked to the left. All other body parts usually get immobilized during the sleep of a normal person.  Some people having a certain sleep disorder, however, lack this natural paralysis and act out physically their dreams. The movements of their entire body while sleeping bears a close relation to their dream scenes. Here is an interesting record of a subject, "an ex-smoker, who dreamt of putting out a cigarette in an ashtray and mimed the motion with his hands and head while sleeping." 

The Link: http://bcove.me/o3t8q4sl

[Note: The glowing light near the fingers of the subject in the Video is not a cigarette, but an oxygen sensor.]

Dr. Jack Gallant and his team took advantage of the brute power of modern computing techniques to “compare the film trailers frame by frame with fMRI images recorded as those trailers were being watched inside the MRI scanner machine, and looked for correlations between the two. They then fed their computer 5,000 hours of clips from YouTube, and asked the computer to predict, based on the correlations they had discovered, what the matching fMRI pattern would look like.”

The Scientists then created new footage of brain wave pattern as recorded by fMRI by watching a fresh set of trailers. They used the computers to pick up YouTube footage which would match with their brain scans. Fig. 2 shows a few snap shots from the actual video clips that were watched and the matching images that were picked up by the computer. The pictures selected by the computer do show a recognizable simulacrum of the original. This study establishes clearly that the neuronal activity pattern in our brain is closely correlated to our perception and that we can 'train' a computer to interpret the brain waves in terms of related physical objects .

The scientists of the ATR Com­puta­t­ional Neu­ro­sci­ence Lab­o­r­a­to­ries in Kyo­to, Ja­pan, led by Y. Kamitani have taken these studies a step further to interpret the mental imagery taken while dreaming to visualize the dream scenarios experienced by the dreamer. 

As per their work reported a couple of weeks back, the researchers first asked “vol­un­teers to re­port their sleep im­age­ry dur­ing brief awak­en­ings. The sci­en­tists then com­piled large lists of im­age types and their ac­com­pa­nying brain ac­ti­vity, as read by a brain scan­ner.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tors next checked wheth­er the same brain ac­ti­vity oc­curred when peo­ple were view­ing im­ages from the same cat­e­gories while awake. It turned out this was largely true as they re­ported.

Next, the sci­en­tists “trained” a com­put­er us­ing ma­chine-learn­ing tech­nol­o­gy to match brain ac­ti­vity to im­age cat­e­gories.

Fi­nal­ly, the in­ves­ti­ga­tors trained the ma­chine on sleep­ing sub­jects again, and found out that they could pre­dict what the peo­ple had seen with 60 per­cent ac­cu­ra­cy.”

Rob­ert Stick­gold, a neu­ro­sci­ent­ist and dream ex­pert at Har­vard Med­i­cal School called this study “in­credibly ro­bust.” He also added, “this is probably the first real demon­stra­t­ion of the brain ba­sis of dream con­tent.”

From these studies it  is evident that “a means to un­cov­er the sub­jec­tive con­tents of dream­ing us­ing ob­jec­tive neu­ral mea­sure­ment” is not any more a speculation but a reality.

The Mind and Brain in g-tummo Meditation:

Ever since Dr. Herb Benson brought to the notice of the scientific world in the eighties, the amazing capacity of some of the Tibetan Buddhist Monks in drying up wet towels spread on their naked bodies in the sub-zero temperatures of the Himalayas, the scientific community was quite intrigued by this phenomenon. Some cursory research showed that slight increase in the extremities of limbs like finger tips could be achieved through meditational practices.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Maria Kozhevnikov from the Department of Psychology at the National University of Singapore recently investigated the technique of g-tummo meditation using which the Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns were able to raise their core body temperature.

g-tummo is a Tibetan word (transliterated in English) for a type of Yoga. g-tummo literally means ‘fierce’ and perhaps derived from Candi in Sanskrit. This Yogic practice aims at controlling the “inner energy.”

The g-tummo meditation  is considered to be “one of the most sacred spiritual practices in the Indo-Tibetan traditions of Vajrayana Buddhism and Bon. It is also called “psychic heat” practice since it is associated with descriptions of intense sensations of bodily heat in the spine. Monasteries maintaining an extensive practice of g-tummo are quite rare and located mostly in the remote Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan (the eastern Tibet).”

The researchers carried out two distinct studies. One study was done in the remote monasteries with expert meditators performing g-tummo practices while monitoring their body temperatures and electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in the brain. Because of the inherent difficulties in such studies as these, only ten meditators (7 of them ladies) could be recruited in the program. The meditators were able to raise their core body temperature and dry up wet sheets wrapped around their bodies in the cold Himalayan weather of -25 degree Celsius.  A second study was carried out with Western participants as a non-meditator control group.

The g-tummo practice has two  components – one, a specialized somatic breathing technique called ‘vase breathing’ and two, neurocognitive ‘visualization of flames at specific locations in the body accompanied by intense sensations of bodily heat in the spine.’  Vase breathing comprises ‘isometric muscle contractions, where after inhalation, during a period of holding their breath (apnea), the practitioners contract both abdominal and pelvic muscles so that the protruding lower belly takes the shape of a vase or pot’ (See Fig. 3).  

"Vase breath" causes thermogenesis, which is a process of heat production. The other technique, concentrative visualisation prevents heat losses. ‘Both techniques work in conjunction leading to elevated temperatures up to the moderate fever zone.’ It was found that the magnitude of the temperature increase significantly correlated with the increase in alpha power during the Vase breath meditation.

Assoc Prof. Kozhevnikov says, "Practicing vase breathing alone is a safe technique to regulate core body temperature in a normal range. The participants whom I taught this technique to were able to elevate their body temperature, within limits, and reported feeling more energised and focused. With further research, non-Tibetan meditators could use vase breathing to improve their health and regulate cognitive performance."

The researchers add that “the temperature increases during g-tummo meditation are neither solely a by-product of meditation nor its goal, but instead may be a means to facilitate the achievement of “deep meditative states”. The g-tummo meditators may use the Core Body Temperature increases as a vehicle to enhance their attention and focus their meditative performance (which may in turn facilitate a further increase in their temperature through meditative visualization).”

It's been over a hundred years since we have had any paradigm shifting new discoveries made by individual scientists. Even Nobels are getting awarded to Science that enjoys a strong technological backing having a group effort rather than a single man's thought process. We find these days, Bio-related fields of science are ruling supreme with exciting new findings just as Physics did during early 1900s. The eighties were the days of biotechnology. The nineties were the "Decade of the Brain." The present century started with the uncovering of the entire human genome. 

Neuroscience is receiving a fillip now. Having understood the basic blue print of man (from genetic studies) and the fundamentals of the human neurological processes (from the brain studies), Scientists are now more boldly entering totally uncharted territories - like 'emotions', 'self' and 'consciousness.'  Ambitious new projects are under way on either side of the Atlantic to comprehensively map the human brain. Recently The European Commission announced a program with a budget of over $ 640 million to build up infrastructure in neuroscience and the President of the USA declared a 100 million initiative for brain studies. 

Dr. Semir Zeki of the University College London believes that “It is only by understanding the neural laws that dictate human activity in all spheres — in law, morality, religion and even economics and politics, no less than in art — that we can ever hope to achieve a more proper understanding of the nature of man.”

But how do the scientists deal with abstract topics like morality, beauty, art etc.?

Dr. Steven Brown and his colleagues hold that “studies from neuroscience and evolutionary biology challenge the separation of art from non-art.” They assert that “As much as philosophers like to believe that our brains contain a specialized system for the appreciation of artworks, research suggests that our brain’s responses to a piece of cake and a piece of music are in fact quite similar.”

Prof. V. S. Ramachandran, the well known Neurologist in the USA tried to decipher the factors that define beauty. He talked of ten universal laws of art, which cut across cultural boundaries. The ten he identified were:

1. Peak shift
2. Grouping
3. Contrast
4. Isolation
5. Perception problem
6. Symmetry
7. Abhorrence of coincidence
8. Repetition, rhythm and orderliness
9. Balance
10. Metaphor. 

 He amplifies his idea using the famous Chola bronze figure of a graceful dancer (Fig. 1) as an example for what he means by ‘peak shift.’  He says: “There are some postures that are forbidden to a male. I can't stand like that even if I want to. But a woman can do it effortlessly. So what the artist does is he goes into an abstract space I call "posture  space", and then subtracts the average male posture from the female and then exaggerates the feminine posture - and then you get elegant triple flexion - or tribhanga - pose, where the head is tilted one way, the body is tilted exactly the opposite way, and the hips again the other way. And again you don't say, ‘My God, that's anatomically inappropriate. Nobody can stand like that.’  You say, ‘My God! It's gorgeous. It's beautiful! It's a celestial goddess.’  So the image is extremely evocative and it's an example of the peak shift principle in Indian art.” He has similar rationale developed with respect to the other nine factors also.

With many musically talented people specializing in Neuroscience, we are learning much about brain’s response to music. A few years ago Neuroscientists showed in a public demo in New York that a drummer’s thinking of a particular beat could be converted into sounds of playing drums without him actually playing.

Yet some of the Neuroscientists like Dr. Bevil Conway and musicologist Alexander Rehding point out that “it is an open question whether an analysis of artworks, no matter how celebrated, will yield universal principles of beauty” and that “rational reductionist approaches to the neural basis for beauty ... may well distill out the very thing one wants to understand”.

We have to wait and see how far the big new efforts announced in 2013 go to help us in tangibly improving our understanding of the human brain and if they take us any nearer to a “soul” that many religionists swear it exists.

Whatever it may be, we have to concede that it has become almost a fad these days to add a prefix of Neuro- to all sorts of scientific fields. Thus we have these days neurotheology, neuroethics, neurocriminology, neuromagic, neuroadvertising and so on competing with the main stream fields like neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, neurology, neurophysiology etc.

Neuroscientist Molly Crocket cautions us on how brains have become “ubiquitous in modern marketing” with headlines proclaiming that ‘cheese sandwiches help with decision-making’ and ‘neuro drinks reduce stress.’

Here is the Link to her 11 min talk:   http://www.ted.com/talks/molly_crockett_beware_neuro_bunk.html

*****

A Balanced Science and Spirituality Debate:

Two non-scientist entrepreneurs who host their own regular Interviews with Non-dual Teachers and mystics and other philosophers had a rendezvous this month. The result is a pleasing, refreshing and balanced assessment of the Science and Spirituality scene that exists today.

Rick Archer is “the creator and host of Buddha at the Gas Pump, a website and YouTube channel that features an amazing collection of interviews with all sorts of interesting thinkers, spiritual teachers, and enlightenment-seeking individuals.”

Alex Tsakiris is the host of Skeptiko, which has become the #1 podcast covering the science of human consciousness. Alex is well-known within the parapsychology research communities.

Here are a few sample conversations:

Rick Archer: I’m a long-time spiritual practitioner myself. I’ve been meditating regularly since the ‘60s so I have a genuine interest in this stuff.

We’re like lenses. We’re like peepholes, if you will, which can glimpse a certain perspective on the world but obviously can’t take into account the whole thing.

If we put you and a moth and a chameleon and a bat and a cat all in the same room, each being would be seeing something completely different according to their perceptual capabilities. Now, scientists tell us that if we boil it down deeper and deeper and deeper we get down to a ground state, a quantum field, a unified field as it’s sometimes called.

Human beings have the capacity to actually consciously become aware of that field, of that ground-state of existence. It turns out when that awareness dawns, you discover that’s what you are, essentially.

Alex Tsakiris: I think we always have to remind ourselves of that, that the science news we’re reading, the science reporting that we’re getting is built on this assumption that you are this biological robot. You are your brain. So how do we make that leap and get past that?

Rick Archer: By and large the mainstream culture is probably still in a Newtonian mindset whereas 100 years ago quantum physics dawned and the mainstream culture hasn’t caught up with that. Quantum physics tells us that essentially life, as that we see as apparently material stuff, is a quantum fluctuation in a field of all possibilities.

There are those who say that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of brain functioning and there are those who say that consciousness actually gives rise to the whole material universe including the brain, which is an interesting thing because it’s a bootstrap process whereby consciousness creates forms which eventually can recognize consciousness. So it’s a way of consciousness playing hide-and-seek with itself.

People sometimes say, “What good is meditation because you have an experience while you’re doing it and then you’ve got to go back to your regular life?” That’s like saying, “What good is eating a meal because you’ve got to stop eating after a while?” The meal stays with you. It goes to build tissue in your body and so on. The same with a spiritual practice. It has a cumulative influence over time.

I’m not a scientist but I like the principles of science. Things should be verifiable by direct experience, not only by one person but repeatedly by other people who choose to go through the same steps that that person went through. You can come in with a skeptical attitude, and many people do, and do a certain practice and if you follow the instructions and do it regularly you’ll begin to have the kinds of experiences that others have had. You may not have believed you would but you actually do; it just happens.

The question of whether we’re entering into a new age and there could be an age of enlightenment right around the corner and all, I think we should be more open to the possibility than many people might be despite the evidence of all the dire situations in the world. History has proven time and time again that things continue to change radically.

Alex Tsakiris: When we take action do we have to be careful about the action that we take? Any thoughts on that?

Rick Archer: Some stories from The Mahabharata come to mind. There are all sorts of stories in which Lord Krishna, who’s supposed to be the embodiment of God, cajoles the Pandavas—Arjuna and his brothers—into bending ethics in order to accomplish certain things. There was a point in the battle where this elephant named Ashwatthama had been killed and Yudhishtra, the head of the Pandavas, Krishna had him call out, “Ashwatthama is dead,…..”

So the Vedic literature is full of all of these paradoxical conundrums where right and wrong is no longer and black-and-white as we would like to think it is. It stretches you to read that stuff. So yeah, I hear what you’re saying. It can take a thorn to remove a thorn. Your story about Ram Dass and the medicine is the perfect example.

Alex Tsakiris:  It’s “Before enlightenment, fetch water and chop wood. After enlightenment, fetch water and chop wood.” What does that mean to you? Do you ascribe to that? How do you take that?

 Rick Archer: Yeah, it just means that the relative aspects of your life are not going to necessarily undergo an obvious transformation when enlightenment dawns. You might still be working in the same job and married to the same person and raising the same kids and everything else. But there’s an inner transformation which could be quite dramatic if somebody else were able to step into your shoes and see through your eyes. They would realize that something incredibly profound had taken place but it wouldn’t necessarily be apparent on the surface.

And here is the Link for their 80 min discussions: http://batgap.com/rick-archer-alex-tsakiris/