MIND AS MEDICINE The Radical New Science of Meditation

PRESIDENT - INSTITUTE FOR RELIGION AND HEALTH

James Duffy MD FANPA FAAHPMProfessor of Psychiatry

University of Texas at M D Anderson Cancer CenterAdjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine

Fellow, McGovern Center for Health, Healing and the Human Spirit

August 2009

SYSTEM TECHNIQUE TYPEBHAKTI JAPA C

KABBALAH KAVVANAH CSUFI ZIKR C,T

RAJA YOGA SAMADHI CTM TM C

ZEN ZAZEN I -C

CHRISTIAN Prayer of Heart C

THERAVADA VIPASSANA I - CTIBETAN VAJRAYAN

AI - T-

CTYPOLOGY OF MEDITATION TRADITIONS AND TECHNIQUES

ŅThis is the psychology everyone will bestudying in twenty-five yearsÓ Harvard 1904

William James

Dharamapala Anagarika

Contemplative Model of

Health and Disease

Harmony (Homeostasis)

Disharmony(Allostasis)

Dysregulation(Allostatic load)

Disease

Disintegration

ATTENTION

“It is not the strongest of thespecies that survives, but rathere one most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

Hormesis

“The faculty of bringing back a wandering attention oveand over again is the very root of judgement, characterand will. Any education which should improve this would be an education par excellence. “William James

TYPES OF MEDITATION

• CONCENTRATIVE - Samatha

Aims to stabilize attention to object (PERCEPTION)

• INSIGHT-ORIENTED - Vipassana

Aims to stabilize subjective experience

(CONCEPTION)

• CYBERNETIC (Transformative)

Perception Conception

100ms

Samatha Vipassana

Primary/Unimodal Association

Sensory Cortices

Hetermodal Association

Cybernetic

“Exteroceptive” “Interoceptive”

EIGTH JHANA - Neither perception nor nonperception. Equanimity and one-pointedness.

SEVENTH JHANA- Awareness of no thing-ness

SIXTH JHANA - Objectless infinite consciousness. Equanimity and one-pointedness

FIFTH JHANA - Consciousness of infinite space. Equanimity and one-pointedness.

FOURTH JHANA - Equanimity. All feelings of bodily pleasure cease.

THIRD JHANA - Feelings of bliss and equanimity. Rapture ceases

SECOND JHANA - NO THOUGHTS OF PRIMARY OBJECT > Feelings of bliss/rapture

FIRST JHANA - SUSTAINED ATTENTION ON OBJECT: Feelings of bliss/rapture

ACCESS STATEWANDERING THOUGHTS OVERCOME, PRIMARY OBJECT

DOMINATES CONSCIOUSNESS, BRIEF RAPTURE-LIKE FEELINGS

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Is Meditation Simply Relaxation?

Zazen and Cardiac Variability

Lehrer P. et al, Psychosomatics 1999

Effects of meditation on frontal alpha-asymmetry in previously suicidal

individuals.Barnhoger T et al Neuoreport 2007

Creating Right Intention

Gamma Synchrony with non-referential compassion meditation (transformational meditation practice) - Lutz, Davidson et al. PNAS 2004

LUTZ et al.2004. Long-term meditators self-induced high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. PNAS, 101, 16369-16373.

Cross-hemisphere gamma synchrony

Gamma activity

Raw EEG data

Alterations in Brain and

Immune Function Produced

by Mindfulness MeditationRichard J. Davidson, PhD,

Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, et al.

Psychosomatics 2002

Increased left- sided activation to both positive

and negative affect induction C3/4 p<0.05

Greater rise in antibody titers response to influenza vaccine p<0.05

One year pre-post intervention follow-up of psychological, immune, endocrine and blood pressure outcomes of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in breast and prostate cancer outpatients.Carlson LE, Speca M, Patel KD, Faris P.

Brain, Behavior, Immunity May 2007

Effect of compassion meditation on neuroendocrine, innate immune and behavioral responses to psychosocial stressT. Pace at al. 2008

(T Pace et al.)Thaddeus W.W. Pacea, Psychoneuroendocrinology Volume 34, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 87-98

Effect of Mindfulness based stress reduction on immune function,quality of life and coping in women with newly-diagnosed breast

cancer.Witek-Janusek L 2008, Brain, Behavior and Immunity

Total Quality of Life Score(Ferranus)

Psychological and SpiritualQOL Subscale

Family Quality of Life Subscale

Genomic counter-stress changes induced by the relaxation response. Dusek J. PLoS July 2008

Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thicknessLazar S. et al. NeuroReport 2005, 1893-1897

20 long-term Insight meditators (9.1+/-7.1 years; 6.2+/- hours per week) - 15 controls

Overall cortical thickness between groups not significantly different

Statistically increased thickness in the

Most significant difference in older subjects I.e. aging protection

Increased thickness correlates with experience I.e. dose effect

Right prefrontal cortex right anterior insula cortex

Meditation Reduces Self-

Referential Executive Cognition

AFFECTIVE LABELING >>> Activation of MesioFrontalPreFrontal Cortex >>> Activation of of RVL Prefrontal

Cortex >>> Inhibition of Amygdala Responsei.e. Diminished Self-Referential Reactivity

- Moving from Reactivity to Reflexivity -Cresswell JD, et al. Psychosomatic Medicine 69:560-564; 2007

Copyright restrictions may apply.

Farb, N. A. S. et al. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2007 2:313-322

Experiential vs Narrative focus conditions following 8 weeks of MT

Modulation of Neural Response to PainOrme-Johnson DW, et al. 2006. Neuroimaging of meditation’s effect on brain reactivity to pain. Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology. 17:1359-1363.

No difference between LTM and controls on measures of subjective pain experience with stimulus

Compared to controls - LTM exhibit significantly less activation (i.e. < 50%) of thalamus (p<0.02) and total brain (p<0.02) but not in the anterior cingulate (p<0.28) or the prefrontal cortex (p<0.2).

When controls learned TM for 5 months - they reacted in a similar fashion to long-term meditators.

? Pain without suffering ?

“The Dark Times will be a time when human beings no

longer have any space between his thoughts”

Tibetan Prophecy