January 26, 2006
With our thoughts, we make our world:
Wired magazine examines the recent interest in the neural basis of meditation and the political storm caused by the Dalai Lama's speech at the last Society for Neuroscience conference, in a recently published online article.
The Tibetan Buddhist leader's presentation was the subject of much protest and counter-protest even before it began, which guaranteed that it would be one of the hottest tickets at SfN 2005.
One accusation levelled at some of the scientists involved in this research is that they are being unduly influenced by the religious aspects of Buddhism and are losing their scientific objectivity.
The Wired article looks at both the research on meditation and the Dalai Lama's enthusiam for science and considers whether the science is indeed being affected.
Link to 'Buddha on the Brain'.
