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I think I can explain the mystery to you: You have a skewed view of the scientific evidence. The evidence for mindfulness and meditation is questionable at bes
by hannob 10y ago
I think I can explain the mystery to you: You have a skewed view of the scientific evidence.
The evidence for mindfulness and meditation is questionable at best. There's a lot of bad science, undeclared conflicts of interest and weak studies in that space.
> For example, I was just reading one about how meditation can reduce pain perception by 40% and that measurement was backed up by MRI imaging of reduced brain activity in pain centers.
This is a completely meaningless statement. What kind of study is that based on? An RCT or observational data? How many participants? A single study or a metaanalysis? Has it been replicated? Was it preregistered? All of that matters to decide whether that's just "a study" or reliable science.
There are plenty of studies showing that brain games work, too. They're just of low quality.
- gf263 10y agoHave you ever meditated?
- CoryG89 10y agoI guess it depends on your definition of meditation, since it's not an actual physical or mental state someone can be definitively in or not in. I might say that I meditate every night when I sleep for 5-8 hours.
- smallnamespace 10y ago> since it's not an actual physical or mental state someone can be definitively in or not in How do you know that?
- CoryG89 10y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability I cannot know that, and neither can anyone else. The reasons being that meditation does not have a good scientific definition and is not falsifiable. We shouldn't consider it as science until both of those reasons change.
- smallnamespace 10y agoI don't understand why rigorous science is required to answer a simple question like 'Are you meditating?', as long as someone has provided you with a common-sense definition. Science hasn't unraveled all the mysteries of consciousness, or ethics, or economics either, but that doesn't force us to remain silent on those topics. You might think that meditation is a bunch of hocus-pocus and isn't real, but science hasn't decided either way.
- corecoder 10y agoIf he had, would the points he made be stronger or weaker? Do meditation today improve the reliability of past studies conducted by other people?
- gf263 10y agoI was just wondering.
- tonystubblebine 10y agoI was quoting from this Atlantic article, which easily could have misinterpreted the science (I admit this is common): http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/treating-chronic-pain-with-meditation/284182/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/treating-c... Here's the original paper: http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/seminar/jofpain2009.pdf http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/seminar/jofpain2009.pdf Most of the confidence in my post comes from personal observation. I don't claim that should be convincing to you--but it is convincing to me.
- smallnamespace 10y ago(warning, violent imagery) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwQTsCiguHc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwQTsCiguHc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c#Day_of_the_act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%9... He doesn't move or make a single sound as he's being burned alive. Sure, it's anecdotal, but it certainly seems like there's something to meditation that strengthens conscious control over the body.
- summarite 10y agoYou'll always find studies both ways, and in a field as big you'll also always find junk, but i think you make rather bold claims (undeclared conflicts of interest, etc) which seem unlikely to hold true for a significant portion of the large number of studies (eg meditation is really not a big business, certainly something that anyone can learn for free). Can you point to any meta-analysis or other evidence to back up your viewpoint/claims?