Why Meditate?

[scott snedeker]

September thirteenth 2010, I was reading A Simple Path, a translation of a book written by the Dalai Lama.

“I have asked scientists on several occasions whether the process [of thoughts giving rise to chemical changes in the brain] to begin with just pure thought and then secondly, thought processes occur which give rise to chemical changes which in turn trigger physiological effects. Most of the time their answers have indicated that since it is assumed that consciousness is contingent upon a physical base (the brain, for instance), every occurrence of thought must necessarily be accompanied or caused by chemical changes in the brain. To me, however that assumption seems to be based more on prejudice than experimental proof. I therefore think the question is still open and further research is needed, particularly involving practitioners who engage in profound meditation.”

This raises an age-old unanswerable question:

What is consciousness?

So instead of engageing in what in contemporary thought is a futile exercise of metaphysical discourse, I propose a different but similar question:

How can we measure and detect consciousness?

Hours later while I was receiving Reiki at The Inspired Heart, I felt my consciousness travel to Tibet, visiting remote monasteries. I was welcomed as an expected and anticipated traveler, assisted by the connection of the touch of the Reiki healer to some indefinable “ether” and then to the hands of the monks.

Once I returned to my chair from the Reiki table, My consciousness again traveled to the mind of a monk participating in neuroscience research using positron emission and magnetic resonance tomography. The scanner technician was struggling with interference on the scanner detector. It seemed that the positron emission kept multiplying at a rate that was not possible with the quantity of isotope used. It defied laws of quantum physics, as the emission output was several hundred times what equations predicted. With repeated scans on this monk the same phenomenon occurred again and again.

Then in a state of unusual calm he realized that there had to be another energy source as yet unidentified that could not be measured, that invalidated the results predicted by the quantum equations. After all, Quantum Mechanics have never before been measured using isotopes in a meditating Tibetan Monk!


The above experience is one which has inspired another short story that I will post here as it comes. Hope you like it!