Okay, so there are about 4 levels of brain-wave frequencies.
Going from Highest to Lowest frequencies, they are: Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta.
Those Greek names correspond to 10+Hz, 8-10Hz, 4-8Hz, and 0-4Hz.
Aside from the hippie, crunchy-granola crowd stinking up the local dreadlocked-patchouli hoe-downs at Jack Johnson’s Honolulu Dookie Ranch,
And deliberately enjoying the smell of their own farts in San Francisco,
A few different groups of people, thanks largely to our Buddhist friends, have gotten involved in Meditation.
+And practiced it to their benefit in many different areas, like Chronic Pain Reduction.
So: This time around, MIT and Harvard researchers wanted to c**k-punch the skeptics once and for all check out this phenomenon with an experiment or two and add their own investigative rigor and sniff out some results.
They gave the non-control group some training, and some homework and checked in on them later.
Maddeningly, the researchers found very similar results to just about everything that’s been claimed since before 1966. (Indian c**k-lengthening Yogis, notwithstanding)
The Meditators were able to achieve the results, as displayed previously by guys like Buddhist Monks, Kwai Chang Kane, Neo, Yoda and Chuck Norris.
And the study results show they were able to increase the proportion of their brain’s signaling in the Alpha Range.
Note: the paper doesn’t say so, but I’d wager that, just like the action of performance-drugs taken by people like Classical Musicians, ie: “Beta Blockers”, -the proportion of Beta or Very-High-Frequency brainwaves was also lowered in-concert with the Alpha-Shift.
Fun Fact: When you’re sleeping, the stage when you’re producing the highest percent of Alpha is called REM.
Somehow, either Raising Alpha%, Lowering Beta%, OR Both, can help the Meditator consciously “turn down the volume” on all kinds of things like Fear, Anxiety, Chronic Pain, Stress, and also the Amount of Snooki or Kardashian currently in the News.
The researchers Did [not really] note that there is presently no cure for the presence of The Soul-Sucking Personality-Emptiness that is Jennifer Aniston; they also went on to [not] say that not even a +1000 Hit-Point Nietzsche-book-burning Dalai Lamai could quash her existence with anything short of a Full-Auto Saiga Shotgun.
Photo Credits: “Minding the Gap”, by Philip Jackson
Links:
• via: MITNews
• More Coverage: LifeHacker
• Source Study: Effects of mindfulness meditation training on anticipatory alpha modulation in primary somatosensory cortex
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