Ispectrum Magazine Ispectrum Magazine #04 | Page 10

Newberg and d’Aquili demonkey feature of this strated that meditation triggered first step is a shift two important changes in brain in brain activity activity from the left to the right hemisphere, as attention is predominately a right-hemisphere results function. The implications of this confirm that are discussed below. Secondly, the sustained attention elicits defined increase in activity in the frontal changes in the activity of the froncortex drives a decrease in activity tal cortex that trigger the unfolding in the parietal cortex. This houses of the meditative experience. Many two important association cortices; meditators also report a dissolvthe orientation association cortex ing of the boundary between self and the verbal-conceptual cortex. and non-self and an expansion of The former gives rise to our sense awareness that brings a sense of of orientation in space and time, unboundedness and transcendence. and contains the neural circuitry This so-called mystical experience that defines the boundary between can also be understood in terms of self and non-self, whereas the latter changes in brain activity, with mediconfers the ability to relay our expetation switching off the circuitry in rience in words. A decrease in activthe parietal lobe involved in genity in the parietal cortex therefore erating our perception of time and leads to a decreased awareness of space, and our position within it, as space and time, as well as an inabilwell as the self/non-self boundary. ity to describe the experience using Furthermore, the indescribability of language [3]. mystical experiences can also be explained by the reduced activity in the parietal lobe, as this part of the The findings of this research therefore brain also houses the neural circuitmirror our current subjective underry that confers the ability to express standing of the mystical experiencour experiences in language. es elicited by meditation. Sustained attention is pivotal to all types of meditation, and these experimental 9