I would like to get the input of non-believers on this site on the following: A while back I was watching the AAI 2007 Atheist Convention. Sam Harris was speaking and said that he is studying different forms of meditation to see if physiological or psychological benefits could be attained without getting involved with the “spiritual dogma” associated with some forms of meditation. Thoughts?
While forms of meditation may show up in some religions, meditation is really just training your brain. It’s like lifting weights for your muscles.
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There are many techniques and uses for meditation. I employ a number of them to help with pain management and insomnia.
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Does computer programming count as meditation, if you enter “the zone”? If I have an especially interesting or all-consuming task at hand, I sometimes forget time and space while coding, and suddenly – whoosh – hours go by in a time frame that feels like minutes.
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As a nurse, I believe that meditation carries tremendous mental and physical health benefits.
Meditation has been established (in peer-reviewed journals) to lower cortisol levels, and reduce the secretion of epinephrine.
My belief is that we are hunter-gathers that are out of context with our 500,000 year heritage of paleolithic existence.
This means–to me–that the pace and rhythm of the modern world can be overwhelming, and that it is healthy to completely disconnect once in a while, to allow your system to decompress and come back to your personal baseline.
Meditation accomplishes this, as does sitting on a sunny porch and reading a book, or even doing yoga. Even something simple like sitting in a hot tub and listening to mellow jazz can be very theraputic.
I would be laughed at if I suggested this at work . . . even though I do these things myself.
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For the past year I have taken up watercolouring and drawing. When completely immersed I also experience that disconnection with time. I don’t think of this meditative state as a religious moment although if you add an hallucigen into the mix all bets are off.
There is nothing about religion that’s necessary or even helpful to get benefits from focused attention practices. Meditation is no different than a lot of other things that the religious claim to be the inventors and protectors of.
Thank you for your responses folks. I have learned to practice Zazen meditation, not for any religious or spiritual experiences, but I find that calming the mind using Zazen is very relaxing and beneficial. As the late author Alan Watts has said about Zazen: “Sit…let your senses operate and be responsive to whatever may be around you…but don’t think about it!” That’s Zazen (pronounced zah-zen for those of you not familiar with Buddhist terminology). That’s my favorite form of meditation. I’ve also used TM, again not for spiritual reasons.
I’ve read somewhere that meditation increases the chances of depression. I don’t understand why it would do that, and I haven’t really investigated if there are many studies on this.
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A 2017 study published in PLOS ONE found that 25% of participants experienced negative effects from meditation, including increased anxiety and emotional distress.
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Another study in Translational Psychiatry suggested that intensive meditation retreats might trigger traumatic memories or psychological discomfort in some individuals.
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However, research also confirms that meditation reduces stress and enhances emotional regulation for most people, showing that individual experiences vary widely.
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If it’s true that meditation can increase or shift awareness, I can imagine it producing, shall we say, unwanted insights in people accustomed to living somewhat disassociated from reality. I see so many people who can’t stand silence, who must blast music or run their mouths or be “busy” every waking minute. My working hypothesis is that some of those people are avoiding the very things meditation encourages – self awareness, connection, reflection. I would absoultely expect it to make them uncomortable or bring them to hard realizations. I mean, just imagine a MAGA who somehow is convinced to take up meditation, and starts to question their life choices, lol.
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Yes but can it do magic, yes or no? 
OMG we’re in the Matrix…
I jest of course, many years ago now, I used to practise Aikido, and meditation was a large part of it, I never bought into the spiritual side of it, some of the claims seemed like woowoo then and still do now, but it certainly helps to relax and slow down, and simply focus on one thing. In Aikido this was your breathing, but for meditation pretty much anything works if you practise focusing on just one thing, as long as its not something that obviously raises your heart rate.
Meditating on the ex wife would be counter productive for example.
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As my body disintegrates it demands that I pay attention to a lot of things I didn’t formerly give the slightest attention to, so focusing on breathing of all things just doesn’t appeal to me personally. But you’re right, it can be anything, and it doesn’t have to be “within” – a random spot on the wall will suffice. Something to keep bringing your attention back to.
An alternative in the body is just focusing on releasing muscle tension and assuming a relaxed and comfortable position. I have a core strengthening regime that isn’t meditation per se but involves focusing on / getting the feel of certain deep internals so that you’re strengthening internal endurance muscle layers rather than external “burst strength” musculature. A lot of aches and pains come from that surface musculature trying to compensate for loss of tone further in.
Totally agree with the crowd here that you don’t need any of the supernatural baggage to get something out of it.
For me, secular mindfulness is basically just a hard reset button for an overstimulated brain. If I’m having a chaotic week, taking even ten minutes to just sit and focus on external sounds or physical sensations keeps me from completely burning out. It’s not magic, it’s just giving your nervous system a chance to catch up with reality.
If regular sitting feels too boring or frustrating, you can honestly get the exact same “reset” effect from anything that forces you entirely into the present moment, like distance running, sketch drawing, or even zone-coding. Anything that gets you out of your own head for a bit counts.
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