/sci/ - Science & Math

It tends to induce small improvements upon executive functioning and working under stringently timed conditions. It doesn't really improve "intelligence" per se.

It does seem to have a big affect upon mood and psychological stability.

Read about neuroplasticity From what I can surmise about neurology and epigenetics, mental outlook and stress levels can alter gene expression, altering protein expression, thus physiology.
Meditation isn't necessarily about belief, but peace of mind I suppose, or mental clarity. I imagine the stress relief would certainly be beneficial.

Tags; neuroplasticity, epigenetics, stress (there's a decent documentary about stress on netflix as well)

I haven't tried meditation myself, but here's how I see it.

Any kind of mental discipline leads to some level of control over one's mind. I can't see why meditation wouldn't provide that benefit.

> Don't expect it to make you a physics major, though.

breathing exercises can alter mental function

Neuroscientist Sam Harris talking about meditation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8U5J_LV3UI

>>4433637
it can help, if you really want to be a physics major.

just chanting and shit doesn't work, of course, but if you do this while you're studying, it's widely known to help.

Here's another good talk. Kind of long, but worth listening to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peA6vy0D5Bg

Meditation is good for you because it is the opposite of anxiety.

I don't know about improving cognitive abilities, but meditation can basically make you happier and more able to cope with life, and junk.

If meditation causes people to stop doing stupid bullshit and just reflect on all the stupid bullshit they've already done, then it's a good thing.

>>4433756

That's not how it works. Basically the idea is that the default state of the human mind is to be constantly thinking. This thinking is excessive and largely automatic, and it is bad for two reasons.

Firstly if we're contantly lost in thought it distracts us from our present moment experience, and what is actually going on in reality.

Secondly, most of this excessive thinking that we do is rumination on things that have already happened, or worrying about things that haven't happened yet. Without realising that we're doing it, we automatically overthink about things which make us unhappy or stressed out.

The idea of meditation is to train yourself to avoid this excessive, automatic thinking. By doing so, the goal is that you become more aware of your present moment experience, and eliminate the psychological suffering caused by automatically overanalysing past or possible future events.