The Buddha Pill Can Meditation Actually Change You? edition by Miguel Farias Catherine Wikholm Health Fitness Dieting eBooks
Download As PDF : The Buddha Pill Can Meditation Actually Change You? edition by Miguel Farias Catherine Wikholm Health Fitness Dieting eBooks 
Millions of people meditate daily. Many believe it affects how we feel and behave. But can we actually change through meditation? Does it work like a pill to alleviate stress? Can it put us on the path to personal transformation? Psychologists Dr Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm explore the human ambition for personal change and its possible illusions, with a focus on yoga and meditation. They examine the psychological and biological evidence, from early research on Transcendental Meditation to recent brain-imaging studies on mindfulness. They also include personal accounts from practitioners, as well as recounting their own experiences of testing the effects of meditation and yoga on incarcerated criminals.
This isn't simply another book about the route to enlightenment and happiness, nor is it a 'how to'. Farias and Wikholm challenge assumptions about the uses and effects of meditation and yoga. Controversially, The Buddha Pill argues that personal change effected by these spiritual practices can vary widely from one individual to another, and that peace and compassion may not always be the end result.
Combining insights from decades of scientific research with fascinating accounts from gurus and prisoners, The Buddha Pill weaves together a unique story about the science and the delusions of personal change.
The Buddha Pill Can Meditation Actually Change You? edition by Miguel Farias Catherine Wikholm Health Fitness Dieting eBooks
I highly recommend this book! I found it through a short article by the authors in New Scientist magazine. I loved this book for multiple reasons. The authors write in a clear style and they make the subject matter very interesting. They take a skeptical approach to meditation and yoga that is sorely lacking these days. The authors seem to take a fair and balanced approach to the topic of meditation. They clearly show a personal interest in the topic, but they also show an interest in being critical and scientific in their thinking. They mention their own experiences, they ask others about their experiences, they speak with meditation teachers and they also review the scientific literature on meditation.I found it particularly helpful that the authors review some of the history of the "Western" interest in meditation and scientific study of it. They start with Transcendental Meditation (TM), because the interest in TM and the claims made about its use were very similar to the current claims made about mindfulness meditation, meditation generally and yoga. People tried to argue that TM could help with a large number of problems and TM could make you a better person. The research on TM lacked decent methodology, though. When the methodology was good, the results that were unfavorable were not publicized. One of the few studies of TM with decent methodology failed to show it was better than placebo meditation (most research on meditation, almost ALL of it, lacks a decent control group or useful placebo even though it is possible to develop a good placebo for it). Similar problems can be seen with mindfulness meditation research. The authors exhaustively reviewed the mindfulness research prior to writing the book and they summarize their findings in the book. Basically, the research has overwhelmingly had poor methodology and there is also a poor description of how mindfulness is supposedly working. However, neuroscientists, psychologists, therapists, journalists, etc rave about mindfulness meditation (as well as mindfulness generally) and yoga (has a meditation component).
Some people make claims that meditation is like a form of mental hygiene, wherein you can cleanse your mind. However, meditation does not work for everyone, it mainly just helps with reducing stress, you could probably reduce stress in other ways and the authors show how meditation can actually be harmful to some people (leading to depression, anxiety, psychotic symptoms and even mania). So it is quite different from other forms of hygiene. There is no good evidence that anybody needs to do it as opposed to, say, exercising, distracting yourself with calming stuff or using relaxation techniques The authors also address a widely circulated claim that people can become more empathic, more compassionate and less violent by meditating. The authors point out multiple examples of violent Buddhists (not just the Zen Buddhists during World War II that many of us might already know about) and even examples of people who became MORE violent after intensely training in meditation. In addition, research they did on yoga that had a meditation component used on prisoners showed no effect on aggressive behavior. They also point out how Buddhism is so much like other religions in terms of conversions, extremism, war, etc. I especially liked this part as Buddhism has been considered a "philosophy" instead of a religion by many people and many people also seem to be ignorant to how similar Buddhists are to people in other religions. Basically, Buddhism will not save the world, at least not for the reasons many people have claimed. It is not that different, coherent or more rational from many other religions. I am glad somebody wrote about it.
They also call attention to the fact that there is no logical connection between meditation and being nicer. Even some devout Buddhists they interview and quote are bothered that meditation has been divorced from the other aspects of Buddhism as they do not think it would be helpful to change a person in a signficant positive way without the other teachings of Buddhism. I especially liked that the authors argue people should take into account the bias many meditators could have going into meditation for the first time. For instance, they could have been taught beforehand by researchers, people they met, an article or in general that meditation makes you more compassionate. They then could have become more compassionate because of said expectation (this is a well known psychological effect). So, in such a case, the meditation operates like a placebo and the real thing that makes a change in the person is the belief that it is 1) important to be compassionate, 2) they are going to become more compassionate if they do this thing. There are thoughts about meditation that could be the real active ingredient, in which case mindfulness meditation is not "thoughts without a thinker" and getting in touch with "pure awareness," but instead is being indoctrinated to believe certain assumptions about the mind, self and experience.
There is much more I could say and I definitely do not do the book justice. I did not cover everything that is in the book and reading it is a good experience. Again, it is a much needed book and I recommend it to anybody! I especially recommend it to people who are not religious, care about the scientific method, think critically and think meditation might help them transform themselves in a positive way.
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The Buddha Pill Can Meditation Actually Change You? edition by Miguel Farias Catherine Wikholm Health Fitness Dieting eBooks Reviews
The book has a lot of great information and research. Sadly, the authors seem to have only a passing knowledge about critical parts of the Buddhist doctrine, its different strands and how they relate to meditation. The Buddhist literature is voluminous, and if you take all layers at face value, then you will find contradictions, and gross errors.
Three examples might perhaps give some idea of what I'm talking about. Bikkhu Bodhi is a pre-eminent Buddhist scholar. He was ordained in Sri Lanka, which follows the Theravada tradition; in the book, he is said to be a Tibetan Buddhist. It's a bit like confusing a Protestant for an Orthodox. The book goes on to define bodhisattva as an enlightened being. Quite the contrary, they are beings prior to their enlightenment. On a more subtle level, it is reported in the book that enlightened beings can somehow perform unethical acts. This is contrary to the theory that enlightenment is an irreversible state, whereby all fetters (causes for such acts) have been abandoned (at least in Theravada Buddhism).
At a high level, I would recommend the eager reader to supplement their knowledge with the classical notion of Sila (ethical conduct), Samadhi (loosely, meditation), Panna (wisdom). All three support each other and should be developed simultaneously. The book touches on it but, in my view, does not make it clear.
THE BUDDHA PILL turns out to be a reasonably well balanced analysis of meditation.
The author erroneously quotes The Buddha – Buddhism lived in verbal tradition for hundreds of years so we really to don’t know what The Buddha said.
From the last chapter (which I read first)
Guy C. Lamunyon MSN, RN
Nursing Research Instructor
======================================================
Myth 1 Meditation never has adverse or negative effects. It will change you for the better (and only the better)
Fact 1 It’s easy to see why this myth might spring up. After all, sitting in silence and focusing on your breathing would seem like a fairly innocuous activity with little potential for harm. But when you consider how many of us, when worried or facing difficult circumstances, cope by keeping ourselves very busy and with little time to think, it isn’t that much of a surprise to find that sitting without distractions, with only ourselves, might lead to disturbing emotions rising to the surface.
However, many scientists have turned a blind eye to the potential unexpected or harmful consequences of meditation. With Transcendental Meditation, this is probably because many of those who have researched it have also been personally involved in the movement; with mindfulness, the reasons are less clear, because it is presented as a secular technique. Nevertheless, there is emerging scientific evidence from case studies, surveys of meditators’ experience and historical studies to show that meditation can be associated with stress, negative effectsand mental health problems. For example, one study found that mindfulness meditation led to increased cortisol, a biological marker of stress, despite the fact that participants subjectively reported feeling less stressed.
Myth 2 Meditation can benefit everyone
Fact 2 The idea that meditation is a cure-all for all lacks scientific basis. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison,” the psychologist Arnold Lazarus reminded us in his writings about meditation. Although there has been relatively little research into how individual circumstances – such as age, gender, or personality type – might play a role in the value of meditation, there is a growing awareness that meditation works differently for each individual.
For example, it may provide an effective stress-relief technique for individuals facing serious problems (such as being unemployed), but have little value for low-stressed individuals. Or it may benefit depressed individuals who suffered trauma and abuse in their childhood, but not other depressed people. There is also some evidence that – along with yoga – it can be of particular use to prisoners, for whom it improves psychological wellbeing and, perhaps more importantly, encourages better control over impulsivity. We shouldn’t be surprised about meditation having variable benefits from person to person. After all, the practice wasn’t intended to make us happier or less stressed, but to assist us in diving deep within and challenging who we believe we are.
One man's meat is another man's poison
Arnold Lazarus
Myth 3 If everyone meditated the world would be a much better place
Fact 3 All global religions share the belief that following their particular practices and ideals will make us better individuals. So far, there is no clear scientific evidence that meditation is more effective at making us, for example, more compassionate than other spiritual or psychological practices. Research on this topic has serious methodological and theoretical limitations and biases. Most of the studies have no adequate control groups and generally fail to assess the expectations of participants (ie, if we expect to benefit from something, we may be more likely to report benefits).
Myth 4 If you’re seeking personal change and growth, meditating is as efficient – or more – than having therapy
Fact 4 There is very little evidence that an eight-week mindfulness-based group programme has the same benefits as of being in conventional psychological therapy – most studies compare mindfulness to “treatment as usual” (such as seeing your GP), rather than one-to-one therapy. Although mindfulness interventions are group-based and most psychological therapy is conducted on a one-to-one basis, both approaches involve developing an increased awareness of our thoughts, emotions and way of relating to others. But the levels of awareness probably differ. A therapist can encourage us to examine conscious or unconscious patterns within ourselves, whereas these might be difficult to access in a one-size-fits-all group course, or if we were meditating on our own.
Myth 5 Meditation produces a unique state of consciousness that we can measure scientifically
Fact 5 Meditation produces states of consciousness that we can indeed measure using various scientific instruments. However, the overall evidence is that these states are not physiologically unique. Furthermore, although different kinds of meditation may have diverse effects on consciousness (and on the brain), there is no scientific consensus about what these effects are.
Myth 6 We can practise meditation as a purely scientific technique with no religious or spiritual leanings
Fact 6 In principle, it’s perfectly possible to meditate and be uninterested in the spiritual background to the practice. However, research shows that meditation leads us to become more spiritual, and that this increase in spirituality is partly responsible for the practice’s positive effects. So, even if we set out to ignore meditation’s spiritual roots, those roots may nonetheless envelop us, to a greater or lesser degree. Overall, it is unclear whether secular models of mindfulness meditation are fully secular.
Myth 7 Science has unequivocally shown how meditation can change us and why
Fact 7 Meta-analyses show there is moderate evidence that meditation affects us in various ways, such as increasing positive emotions and reducing anxiety. However, it is less clear how powerful and long-lasting these changes are.
Some studies show that meditating can have a greater impact than physical relaxation, although other research using a placebo meditation contradicts this finding. We need better studies but, perhaps as important, we also need models that explain how meditation works. For example, with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), we still can’t be sure of the “active” ingredient. Is it the meditation itself that causes positive effects, or is it the fact that the participant learns to step back and become aware of his or her thoughts and feelings in a supportive group environment?
There simply is no cohesive, overarching attempt to describe the various psychobiological processes that meditation sets in motion. Unless we can clearly map the effects of meditation – both the positive and the negative – and identify the processes underpinning the practice, our scientific understanding of meditation is precarious and can easily lead to exaggeration and misinterpretation.
As a psychologist and researcher, I appreciate the very balanced and empirically driven path this book led me through. While scientific, the author also has a unique and entertaining voice. I will likely require the students in my lab to read this book going forward, both as an intro to mindfulness and as an example of a truly scientific thought and data gathering process.
I highly recommend this book! I found it through a short article by the authors in New Scientist magazine. I loved this book for multiple reasons. The authors write in a clear style and they make the subject matter very interesting. They take a skeptical approach to meditation and yoga that is sorely lacking these days. The authors seem to take a fair and balanced approach to the topic of meditation. They clearly show a personal interest in the topic, but they also show an interest in being critical and scientific in their thinking. They mention their own experiences, they ask others about their experiences, they speak with meditation teachers and they also review the scientific literature on meditation.
I found it particularly helpful that the authors review some of the history of the "Western" interest in meditation and scientific study of it. They start with Transcendental Meditation (TM), because the interest in TM and the claims made about its use were very similar to the current claims made about mindfulness meditation, meditation generally and yoga. People tried to argue that TM could help with a large number of problems and TM could make you a better person. The research on TM lacked decent methodology, though. When the methodology was good, the results that were unfavorable were not publicized. One of the few studies of TM with decent methodology failed to show it was better than placebo meditation (most research on meditation, almost ALL of it, lacks a decent control group or useful placebo even though it is possible to develop a good placebo for it). Similar problems can be seen with mindfulness meditation research. The authors exhaustively reviewed the mindfulness research prior to writing the book and they summarize their findings in the book. Basically, the research has overwhelmingly had poor methodology and there is also a poor description of how mindfulness is supposedly working. However, neuroscientists, psychologists, therapists, journalists, etc rave about mindfulness meditation (as well as mindfulness generally) and yoga (has a meditation component).
Some people make claims that meditation is like a form of mental hygiene, wherein you can cleanse your mind. However, meditation does not work for everyone, it mainly just helps with reducing stress, you could probably reduce stress in other ways and the authors show how meditation can actually be harmful to some people (leading to depression, anxiety, psychotic symptoms and even mania). So it is quite different from other forms of hygiene. There is no good evidence that anybody needs to do it as opposed to, say, exercising, distracting yourself with calming stuff or using relaxation techniques The authors also address a widely circulated claim that people can become more empathic, more compassionate and less violent by meditating. The authors point out multiple examples of violent Buddhists (not just the Zen Buddhists during World War II that many of us might already know about) and even examples of people who became MORE violent after intensely training in meditation. In addition, research they did on yoga that had a meditation component used on prisoners showed no effect on aggressive behavior. They also point out how Buddhism is so much like other religions in terms of conversions, extremism, war, etc. I especially liked this part as Buddhism has been considered a "philosophy" instead of a religion by many people and many people also seem to be ignorant to how similar Buddhists are to people in other religions. Basically, Buddhism will not save the world, at least not for the reasons many people have claimed. It is not that different, coherent or more rational from many other religions. I am glad somebody wrote about it.
They also call attention to the fact that there is no logical connection between meditation and being nicer. Even some devout Buddhists they interview and quote are bothered that meditation has been divorced from the other aspects of Buddhism as they do not think it would be helpful to change a person in a signficant positive way without the other teachings of Buddhism. I especially liked that the authors argue people should take into account the bias many meditators could have going into meditation for the first time. For instance, they could have been taught beforehand by researchers, people they met, an article or in general that meditation makes you more compassionate. They then could have become more compassionate because of said expectation (this is a well known psychological effect). So, in such a case, the meditation operates like a placebo and the real thing that makes a change in the person is the belief that it is 1) important to be compassionate, 2) they are going to become more compassionate if they do this thing. There are thoughts about meditation that could be the real active ingredient, in which case mindfulness meditation is not "thoughts without a thinker" and getting in touch with "pure awareness," but instead is being indoctrinated to believe certain assumptions about the mind, self and experience.
There is much more I could say and I definitely do not do the book justice. I did not cover everything that is in the book and reading it is a good experience. Again, it is a much needed book and I recommend it to anybody! I especially recommend it to people who are not religious, care about the scientific method, think critically and think meditation might help them transform themselves in a positive way.
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