Parampreet Singh, Author at Science Meditations

Science of Meditation and Depression- Interview with Dr. Norm Farb

March 15, 2019 By Parampreet Singh

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Hand holding ice cream in cone and cherry on top.

In this episode I talk to Dr. Norm Farb who is researching the science of meditation at the University of Toronto with a focus on the effects of meditation on depression and relapse.

If you’d like to be a study participant in a science of meditation research study please visit Dr. Farb’s website at https://www.radlab.zone/

Dr. Farb and I had a wonderful discussion centered around the topics below.

What is contemplative science?

Contemplative science is a relatively new academic field that began in the early 2000’s. Now there are contemplative science research centers in universities across the world. The field of contemplative science is the scientific study of ancient meditation techniques with an eye to see what they do to our brains, to our thoughts, and to our behaviour.

What is narrative self?

I had never heard the term narrative self in relation to meditation before talking to Norm Farb. What I learnt was that the Narrative Self is at the heart of how we see ourselves in the world. It shapes what we think about ourselves when good happen to us and more importantly, when bad things happen to us. By learning to adjust the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves we can change the way we respond when faced with difficult circumstances.

What is a flexible self-reference?

We have a narrative self, which we create through our thoughts and feelings. The problem is that we often we end up identifying ourselves WITH our thoughts and feelings.

What most people’s perception of meditation is, and what Norm thought was likely the case, was that meditation silences our thoughts and feelings and thereby disengages our propensity to identify with our thoughts and feelings. We meditate, we have less thoughts, so we have less unhealthy thoughts, leading to a healthier sense of self.

But that’s not what was happening with the meditating subjects in Norms FMRI experiments. What he noticed was that the brain areas associated with body sensations were starting to become active. This meant that meditators were able to move from a mental sense of self to a physical sense of self. Meditators were switching to body mode, having option to change self-reference

These results hint at the idea “silencing” isn’t what’s important about meditation – flexibility in self-reference is.

The Effects of Meditation on Sadness, Depression, Rumination and Attention

We discuss the results of the various FMRI studies conducted at the Rad Lab where Norm’s research takes place. His work focuses on the benefits meditation may bring in reducing relapse of depressive episodes. The results indicate that meditation does help in developing a flexible self-reference and thereby reducing depressive relapse. But it’s not the only way. Another common technique is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

The Clear Skies of Meditation

March 12, 2019 By Parampreet Singh

Silhouette of birds flying across clouds and sun

Ancient meditation and mindfulness traditions invite us to view thought-feelings as clouds passing through the expansive sky of our mind.

Thoughts and feelings are to be seen as clouds that come and go, form and dissolve, appear and dissaappear. The mind is to be seen as sky, without shape, without boundries and constant.

It’s an analogy that helps us not get too attached to the temporary thought-clouds in our permanent sky-mind. It helps us take a few deep breaths in the midst of an upsetting experience and to remember our thought-feelings are transient and ephemeral. In a few moments they will be gone and soon enough a clear sky will take their place.

The idea of thought-feelings as clouds is a beautiful analogy. However, it’s not complete enough. Physical clouds are high above us in a faraway sky whereas we are immmersed deep in our thought-feelings.

Our thought-feelings are here and now, all around us. In times of turmoil or rage all we see are our thought clouds. All we experience are our feeling clouds. We can’t get past them or see around them. Their painful density hides the deeply desired, mind easing sky.

One way to make the thought-feelings as clouds analogy complete is to see ourselves as birds.

Birds can manouver above or below clouds at will. Birds can distance themselves from clouds at any moment. That’s the strategy we should take in moments of passion. We should fly like birds and regain a view of thought-feelings as clouds.

How do birds do it? How are they able to fly?

There are three crucial aspects of bird anatomy that allow them to soar across the skies:

Birds are light because their bones are hollow
The wings of birds are arc-shaped creating lift and thrust as the wind rushes across them
Birds have incredibly strong breast muscles allowing them to flap their wings with rapidity

That’s what we need meditation to do for us. It should make our insides lighter allowing us to empty the bones of contention that weigh us down.

It should strengthen our breast muscles allowing us to take deep breaths in intense moments of passion and fury

It should shape and form our behaviour, giving us thrust and lift, moving us forward and up, helping us get around the clouds of confusion that so often obscure our thinking and feeling.

A consistent meditation practice builds our flying muscles and allowing us to move away from thought-clouds, creating distance and bringing us to a view of clear skies.

The Sunny Side of Existence

March 8, 2019 By Parampreet Singh

The sun is an incredible source of bountiful energy. But very few organisms are able to convert sunlight into a reliable source of energy.

Bacteria, algae, and plants all take in sunlight and through photosynthesis convert it into oxygen and sugar. They use the sugar as food and release the oxygen as a by-product.

This gift of oxygen is a boon for many organisms including one of our favorites: human beings. Without the generosity of the oxygen making bacteria and plants, we oxygen addicted humans wouldn’t exist.

So thanks plants.

It would be great if we humans could get all our energy directly from the sun. Imagine spending all day luxuriating in the sun and feeling refreshed and energized without eating anything else? Imagine doing this not just on a beach holiday but every single day of our lives. Alas, we’re more likely to get sun stroke or skin cancer doing too much sun bathing. We’re not made of chlorophyll so getting energy from the sun is a no go.

Or is it?

Here’s the thing, by applying our scientific ingenuity and persistence we chlorophyll lacking humans have gotten energy from the sun. We’ve done this by using solar panels which are sunlight converting energy cells. The sun sends earthward thousands of times the energy humanity needs on any particular day. We’ve barely dipped our toes into this ocean of energy but we did the seemingly impossible. We used our imagination and intelligence in the form of science to do something that we couldn’t do biologically.

Like the chlorophyll containing bacteria and plants, we figured out a way of converting deadly sunlight into useful electricity.

Ideally that’s what meditation should do.

We have to apply all our ingenuity and our persistence and our imagination to our meditation practice. It’s a long, hard road. But the destination is worth it.

By learning the science behind ancient meditation techniques we can learn to convert the hardship of exisitence, the stress of responsibiities, the demands of our day to day living into something useful – energy to improve our own lives and perhaps make the world a little better.