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This book argues for the central role played by absorption in the functioning of the human mind. The importance of absorption makes itself felt in different ways; the two studies combined in this book concentrate on two of them. The first study, 'The Symbolic Mind', argues that, largely as a result of language acquisition, humans have two levels of cognition, which in normal circumstances are simultaneously active. Absorption is a (or the) means to circumvent some, perhaps all, of the associations that characterize one of these two levels of cognition, resulting in what is sometimes referred to as mysitcal experience, but which is not confined to mysticism and plays a role in various "religious" phenomena, and elsewhere. In the second st...
Publisher description: As David White explains in the Introduction to Tantra in Practice, Tantra is an Asian body of beliefs and practices that seeks to channel the divine energy that grounds the universe, in creative and liberating ways. The subsequent chapters reflect the wide geographical and temporal scope of Tantra by examining thirty-six texts from China, India, Japan, Nepal, and Tibet, ranging from the seventh century to the present day, and representing the full range of Tantric experience--Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and even Islamic. Each text has been chosen and translated, often for the first time, by an international expert in the field who also provides detailed background material. Students of Asian religions and general reader...
The human voice is one of the principal conveyers of social and affective communication. Yet relatively little is known about the neural circuitry that supports the recognition of different vocally expressed emotions. We conducted an FMRI study to examine the brain responses to vocal expressions of anger and happiness, and to test whether specific brain regions showed preferential engagement in the processing of one emotion over the other. We also tested the extent to which simultaneously presented facial expressions of the same or different emotions would enhance brain responses, and to what degree such responses depend on attention towards the vocal expression. Forty healthy individuals were scanned while listening to vocal expressions...
Contemplative/emotion training reduces negative emotional behavior and promotes prosocial responses. (20111212, Journal Article)
Contemplative/emotion training reduces negative emotional behavior and promotes prosocial responses. (20111212, Journal Article)
Mindfulness and its relationship to emotional regulation. (20111212, Journal Article)
Research on the effectiveness and mechanisms of mindfulness training applied in psychotherapy is still in its infancy (Erisman & Roemer, 2010). For instance, little is known about the extent and processes through which mindfulness practice improves emotion regulation. This experience sampling study assessed the relationship between mindfulness, emotion differentiation, emotion lability, and emotional difficulties. Young adult participants reported their current emotional experiences 6 times per day during 1 week on a PalmPilot device. Based on these reports of emotions, indices of emotional differentiation and emotion lability were composed for negative and positive emotions. Mindfulness was associated with greater emotion differentiation and less emotional difficulties (i.e., emotion lability and self-reported emotion dysregulation). Mediational models indicated that the relationship between mindfulness and emotion lability was mediated by emotion differentiation. Furthermore, emotion regulation mediated the relationship between mindfulness and both negative emotion lability and positive emotion differentiation. This experience sampling study indicates that self-reported levels of mindfulness are related to higher levels of differentiation of one's discrete emotional experiences in a manner reflective of effective emotion regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
PsycNET
Development of an empathy scale. (19690101, Journal Article)
Longchenpa's Advice from the Heart (Submitted, Book)
Mobile applications (apps) to improve health are proliferating, but before healthcare providers or organizations can recommend an app to the patients they serve, they need to be confident the app will be user-friendly and helpful for the target disease or behavior. This paper summarizes seven strategies for evaluating and selecting health-related apps: (1) Review the scientific literature, (2) Search app clearinghouse websites, (3) Search app stores, (4) Review app descriptions, user ratings, and reviews, (5) Conduct a social media query within professional and, if available, patient networks, (6) Pilot the apps, and (7) Elicit feedback from patients. The paper concludes with an illustrative case example. Because of the enormous range of quality among apps, strategies for evaluating them will be necessary for adoption to occur in a way that aligns with core values in healthcare, such as the Hippocratic principles of nonmaleficence and beneficence.
Bhikkhu Analayo: The Satipatthana Sutta (Submitted, Website)
The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities (Submitted, Book)
Although media studies and digital humanities are established fields, their overlaps have not been examined in depth. This comprehensive collection fills that
What is Neurofeedback? (Submitted, Website)
The activity in your brain determines everything you feel and do. While most people have normal brain function, they still have brain imbalances or chronic emotions that affect their day to day life. This is where neurofeedback can help. Neurofeedback is a way to train brain activity; it is biofeedback for the brain. To understand neurofeedback, first we need to understand a little about brainwaves.Brainwaves are the electrical impulses produced as your brain cells communicate with one another. Brainwaves tell us a great deal about how you feel and function; your thought habits, stress levels, underlying mood and overall brain function. Using sensors on the scalp, we can measure and monitor this activity. With brain analysis software (QEEG brain map), we can identify what specific activity is giving rise to your symptoms. Once we know the areas of concern, we can create a training plan to help draw your brain into a comfortable, efficient state. That brings us to neurofeedback.
During a neurofeedback session, we compare what your brain is actually doing to what you'd like it to be doing. When your brain is nearing a more comfortable state, you are rewarded with a positive response on a computer screen. Usually this ‘neuro-feedback’ is in the form of a video game, music, or movie. The sounds and images tell you immediately when your brain approaches a more efficient place and when not. When the movie plays, it is because your brain is approaching the desired state. When the movie stops, it is because your brain is heading the other way.
Much like physical exercises develop specific muscles, the more your brain is exercised into reaching a more comfortable, more efficient position, the better it gets at it (see neuroplasticity). As with learning any new skill, it simply requires time and repetition.
What Is Biofeedback and Neurofeedback? (Submitted, Website)
Biofeedback and EEG neurofeedback have been documented as successful treatment modalities for MTBI. EEG biofeedback has been shown as an effective intervention for treating auditory memory problems in TBI. And quantitative EEG is a highly sensitive diagnostic tool in identifying post concussion syndrome. Currently, there are numerous biofeedback and neurofeedback training programs for optimal performance that have shown good preliminary results in reducing or eliminating symptoms of TBI and PTSD. Biofeedback/neurofeedback was also studied by Dr. Eugene Peniston for the treatment of combat-related, post traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.Biofeedback is the use of sensitive instruments to measure physical responses in the body and feed them back to you in order to help alter your body’s responses. You can observe the feedback on a computer screen or listen to sound feedback.
The Pros and Cons of 4 Meditation Gadgets (Submitted, Magazine Article)
This article presents four popular meditation devices: Spire, Thync, Melomind, and Muse, along with a brief operating description of each gadget.
Suggested Reading (Submitted, Website)
This article provides an informative selection of biofeedback and neurofeedback based books.
Objective Versus Subjective Outcome Measures of Biofeedback: What Really Matters? (Submitted, Journal Article)
ObjectiveClinical epidemiologic studies suggest that once established, voiding dysfunction can become a lifelong condition if not treated correctly early on in life. Biofeedback is one component of a voiding retraining program to help children with voiding dysfunction. Our goal was to compare objective non-invasive urodynamic data obtained during office biofeedback sessions with patient reported voiding symptom scores.
Methods
Charts of 55 children referred in 2010 for pelvic floor muscle biofeedback therapy for urinary incontinence were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with any anatomic diagnoses were excluded. Forty-seven (86%) females and eight males (14%) with a mean age of 8.2 years made up the cohort. Uroflow curves, voided volumes, and post-void residuals were recorded at each visit and served as objective data. Volumes were normalized as a percentage of expected bladder capacity according to age. The patient reported symptom score and patient reported outcome (improved, no change or worse) served as subjective measures of intervention.
Results
The primary referral diagnoses were day and night wetting in 37 (67%) and daytime incontinence in 18 (33%) children. A history of urinary tract infection (UTI) was noted in 32 (64%) patients, and 25% were maintained on antibiotic prophylaxis during the study period. Twenty-nine percent were maintained on anticholinergic medication. Patients attended an average of 2.5 biofeedback sessions. Voided volumes and post void residual volumes were unchanged, 50% of the abnormal uroflow curves normalized over the course of treatment (p
Neurofeedback (Submitted, Website)
According to Dr. Andrew Hill, neurofeedback is a form of Biofeedback in the brain. It was invented about 50 years ago. Neurofeedback was developed through the work of Dr. Joe Kamiya at the University of Chicago in the 1950s. It was eventually followed by Dr. Barry Sterman’s work at UCLA in the 1960s. Primarily, neurofeedback trains the brain to efficiently function. It is also known as EEG Biofeedback based on the EEG or electroencephalogram. The EEG is a test to monitor the electrical activity of the brain. This podcast also discusses the techniques of neurofeedback; related interventions; and the role of diet and nutrition.
Neuro Meditation: The New Way of the West (Submitted, Website)
Neuro Mediation combines traditional meditation techniques with modern technology. With the use of brainwave training equipment as well as other biofeedback modalities individuals can learn to meditate more quickly and easily than in the past.These modern techniques grew out of decades of scientific research and the clinical use of EEG biofeedback (also know as neurofeedback or brainwave training) to train deep states. More recently groundbreaking research through brainmapping, such as Richard Davidson’s work at Keck Labs, University of Wisconsin, has added valuable information that is guiding efforts internationally to better understand and implement these new technologies.
The staff at New Mind Centers has been studying both traditional and modern technologies regarding meditation and other altered states for decades and teaching hundreds how to use these technologies together for transformation and transcendance. We believe that the way westerners will fully come to embrace meditation is through the use of modern technology.
Come join our workshops and lets us teach you how to meditate the new modern way using scientifically based methods and equipment. The New Way of the West is dawning.
Mindfulness and Biofeedback (Submitted, Website)
Mindfulness is a meditative or therapeutic technique that engages the individual in his or her awareness of the present moment. It is particularly relevant in terms of their ability to recognize their own present feelings and reactions to events around them. When considering biofeedback and its goal of building awareness of an individual’s own psychophysiological reactions, via breathing, heart rate, muscle tension, temperature and sweating, it is not surprising that mindfulness and biofeedback are two fields that “marry” well together. Mindfulness and biofeedback both offer individuals helpful ways to respond to difficult emotions and physical pain. When asked about the benefits of combining the two methods, Dr. Inna Khazan explained, “Mindfulness enables us to pause long enough to make a choice of response. Skills learned through biofeedback are a large part of that chosen response.”
Interactive Biofeedback Sensors May be the Future of Treating Chronic Pain (Submitted, Audiovisual)
For those with chronic pain, the most basic movements can be unbearable. Some patients even develop kinesiophobia – a fear of, or aversion to, movement. Using interactive digital interfaces, the chronic pain sufferer Diane Gromala, professor of interactive arts and technology at Simon Fraser University in Canada, is developing new ways to help alleviate symptoms that could serve as a supplement or alternative to pharmaceuticals. Through a biofeedback system, Gromala’s interfaces track users’ physiological responses to different movements and mental states.
How Biofeedback Supports Mindfulness in Stress & Anxiety Management (Submitted, Magazine Article)
Mindfulness is an increasingly popular tool for training the mind, and specifically, attention. Research shows it helps reduce stress, anxiety and depression, and improves focus and other aspects of cognitive and executive function.But if you want to realize these benefits for yourself, you have to commit to consistent (roughly daily) practice, for the longer term. The problem is, that's not easy.
You can take a six or eight week course in mindfulness - there are lots around these days - but what happens after the course has finished? In my experience, a lot of people don't persist with a regular mindfulness practice (and some research bears this out), even when they experienced benefits.
This article looks at why not, and how supporting mindfulness with biofeedback might help.
Biofeedback (Submitted, Website)
This podcast hosts John G. Arena, Ph.D., President of the Association for Applied PsychoPhysiology and Biofeedback. Dr. Arena is also the Lead Psychologist at the Veterans Hospital in Augusta, Georgia and Professor of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia. The practice of biofeedback is discussed along with potential health benefits.
Biofeedback (Submitted, Magazine Article)
Biofeedback is a mind-body technique that helps teach patients how to influence their autonomic nervous systems – the part of the body that controls involuntary physical functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and brainwave frequency. This is done by attaching an electronic “cue” (usually a “beep,” tone or visual image on a screen) to a measurable physiologic process. A person can thus monitor his or her internal responses and develop a sense of how to move them in positive ways. Biofeedback machines can detect internal bodily functions with sensitivity and precision, and allow involuntary physical functions to be translated in ways that can be understood. The information, or “feedback,” that the “cue” provides is used to monitor these functions and facilitate treatment for a variety of disorders, while moving the patient toward a more balanced internal state. In this article, healthcare concerns, practitioner expectations, and supplementary modalities are also discussed.
American Academy of Pediatrics Recognizes Neurofeedback (Submitted, Website)
In October of 2012 the American Academy of Pediatrics gave neurofeedback their top rating in application to the behavioral symptoms of ADHD. This means that neurofeedback has met the highest standards currently being applied to the appraisal of psychosocial interventions. In order to be ranked as a “Level 1 Best Support” treatment, neurofeedback had to be evaluated in at least two controlled studies of sufficient size, conducted by two independent groups. The method had to show itself to be superior to placebo, and to be equivalent in outcome to another level 1 or level 2 treatment. The clinical approach had to be manualizable.Two fairly recent studies carried the burden. The first study compared frequency-based training with slow-cortical-potential or SCP-based training. The comparison group got computerized attention skills training. Neurofeedback yielded the better outcomes in this relatively large study that involved some 102 children (Gevensleben et al., 2009).
The second study was much smaller in size, involving some 20 children in two groups (15 actives, five controls). The distinguishing feature here was that fMRI data were acquired to document the changes induced with the neurofeedback training. These measurements yielded the expected confirming findings, manifesting localized changes in activation that were not seen in the control group. fMRI data were also taken during a continuous performance test, leading to the observation of additional features in the fMRI that discriminated between the experimental and control groups (Beauregard & Levesque, 2006; Levesque, Beauregard & Mensour, 2006).
Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future (Submitted, Book)
For millennia the world’s indigenous peoples have acted as guardians of the web of life for the next seven generations. They’ve successfully managed complex reciprocal relationships between biological and cultural diversity. Awareness of indigenous knowledge is reemerging at the eleventh hour to help avert global ecological and social collapse. Indigenous cultural wisdom shows us how to live in peace--with the earth and one another.Original Instructions evokes the rich indigenous storytelling tradition in this collection of presentations gathered from the annual Bioneers conference. It depicts how the world’s native leaders and scholars are safeguarding the original instructions, reminding us about gratitude, kinship, and a reverence for community and creation. Included are more than 20 contemporary indigenous leaders--such as Chief Oren Lyons, John Mohawk, Winona LaDuke, and John Trudell. These beautiful, wise voices remind us where hope lies.
The Dalai Lama on the Environment (Submitted, Book)
Articles and messages relating to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's concern for the protection of our natural environment
The Land Ethic (Submitted, Book Chapter)
Goethe's Way of Science: A Phenomenology of Nature (Submitted, Book)
Examines Goethe's neglected but sizable body of scientific work, considers the philosophical foundations of his approach, and applies his method to the real world of nature.Though best known for his superlative poetry and plays, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) also produced a sizable body of scientific work that focused on such diverse topics as plants, color, clouds, weather, and geology. Goethe's way of science is highly unusual because it seeks to draw together the intuitive awareness of art with the rigorous observation and thinking of science. Written by major scholars and practitioners of Goethean science today, this book considers the philosophical foundations of Goethe's approach and applies the method to the real world of nature, including studies of plants, animals, and the movement of water.
Psychological Benefits of Nature: Research Findings for Wilderness Therapists (Submitted, Journal Article)
The target of this outline is psychological research which specifically examines theeffects of contact with nature. This is only one aspect of the work of the School of Lost
Borders, but direct contact with the wild natural world is a core of our approach.
Ecotherapy (Submitted, Book)
Louie Schwartzberg: Nature is our greatest spiritual teacher (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
Award-winning nature cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg discusses his breahtaking time-lapse photography and his viral video "Gratitude". He tells Oprah why he believes focusing on nature's beauty helps us experience a truer spiritual connection to the world around us and to the deepest parts of our souls. Louie says that the awe of nature can make us more present and mindful, and that it can help a person listen to his or her inner voice.
Towards a Theory of Tantra-Ecology (Submitted, Book Chapter)
5 Ways to Reconnect With Nature (Submitted, Magazine Article)
The Deep Contemplation of Nature (Submitted, Website)
Exploring Inner and Outer Nature (Part 3 of 3) (Submitted, Website)
In this talk, Mark Coleman explores insights from notions including time, transience, and the birth and death life cycle. The annual migration of wild salmon in Alaska illustrates the naturalness of the birth and death cycle and the transience of life.
Exploring Inner and Outer Nature (Part 2 of 3) (Submitted, Website)
In this talk, Mark Coleman recounts the times in which nature is found in Buddhist accounts. Buddha practiced in the woods, and most of his discourses took place in groves of trees. Mark also continues to discuss the way in which we can best attune to nature. “The outer and the inner are not different. When we attune to the outer space, we feel space within us; we’re not separate from it.”
Exploring Inner and Outer Nature (Submitted, Website)
In this talk, Mark Coleman discusses the relationship of silence to attunement. He explains how silence is a “portal” to everything. This includes the inner experience, it includes understanding one’s place in the “matrix of life,” and it includes developing an understanding of ourselves as being from the earth as opposed to simply living on it.
Ethics of Science and Experience in the Age of the Anthropocene (Submitted, Website)
In his talk entitled, “Ethics of Science and Experience in the Age of the Anthropocene,” Dr. Evan Thompson explores the relationship between science and contemplative practice in the context of our current geological age of human impact on planet Earth. Using the concept of the “lifeworld” originated by the German Phenomenologist Edmund Husserl, Dr. Thompson explores how the natural sciences arose from an attempt to bypass their origin in our subjective lived experience. The global crises we now face demand that science adopt a new ethics and culture arising out of an “indigenous” world view that is cosmopolitan in the true sense of the word: We must all learn to see ourselves as citizens of a single global community.
Mindfulness Practice for Preschoolers: Be Like Nature (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
A
Trailblazing in Academia, David Germano on the Contemplative Sciences (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
Art is Resonance: The Ambient Internal Landscape of Musician and Ecopsychologist Russell James Pyle (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
This podcast covers a lot of ground, Russell's shift into a more contemplative way of being, the appearance of ecopsychology on TV, the joy of hiking alone, how the internal landscape is in relationship to the external and how Russell expresses that through music
The Priest of the Woods and the Fullness of the Earth with Stephen Blackmer (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
"How can being a priest deepen my work to conserve the Earth? What does the Christian tradition have to offer to this work? How can the Christian tradition be re-understood and re-imagined in a time of need? How can the conservation movement recover its understanding of the Earth as holy ground?
Shaped by the Dance Between Landscape & Consciousness with Gail Straub (Author of The Ashokan Way) (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
The Story and Languages of Home: A Conversation with Robin Kimmerer (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
Rewilding and Reptiles: A Conversation with Naturalist Harry Greene (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
The Wild Bunch: A Conversation with Curt Meine and Gavin Van Horn (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
Satish Kumar: Spiritual Ecology (In Conversation) (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
Amy Livingstone, Sacred Art and Spiritual Ecology (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
Spiritual Ecology with Special Guest Andrew Fritz (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
Towards a Theory of Tantra-Ecology (Submitted, Journal Article)
A Plea for the Animals (Submitted, Book)
Every cow just wants to be happy. Every chicken just wants to be free. Every bear, dog, or mouse experiences sorrow and feels pain as intensely as any of us humans do. In a compelling appeal to reason and human kindness, Matthieu Ricard here takes the arguments from his best-sellers Altruism and Happiness to their logical conclusion: that compassion toward all beings, including our fellow animals, is a moral obligation and the direction toward which any enlightened society must aspire. He chronicles the appalling sufferings of the animals we eat, wear, and use for adornment or “entertainment,” and submits every traditional justification for their exploitation to scientific evidence and moral scrutiny. What arises is an unambiguous and powerful ethical imperative for treating all of the animals with whom we share this planet with respect and compassion.
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge (Submitted, Book)
This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald “a Copernican revolution for the life sciences,” leads the reader through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge.In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent reveals how startlingly different the world around us appears when we open our minds to it.
ResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferences. All for free.
Ecology, Ethics, and Interdependence | Wisdom Publications (Submitted, Book)
Engage with leading scientists, academics, ethicists, and activists, as well as His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness the Karmapa, who gathered in Dharamsala, India, for the twenty-third Mind and Life conference to discuss arguably the most urgent questions facing humanity today: What is happening to our planet? What can we do about it? How do we balance the concerns of people against the rights of animals and against the needs of an ecosystem? What is the most skillful way to enact change? And how do we fight on, even when our efforts seem to bear no fruit? Inspiring, edifying, and transformative, this should be required reading for any citizen of the world.
Ecodharma | Wisdom Publications (Submitted, Book)
This landmark work is simultaneously a manifesto, a blueprint, a call to action, and a deep comfort for troubling times. David R. Loy masterfully lays out the principles and perspectives of Ecodharma—a Buddhist response to our ecological predicament, introducing a new term for a new development of the Buddhist tradition. This book emphasizes the three aspects of Ecodharma: practicing in the natural world, exploring the ecological implications of Buddhist teachings embodying that understanding in the eco-activism that is needed today. Within these pages, you’ll discover the powerful ways Buddhism can inspire us to heal the world we share. Offering a compelling framework and practical spiritual resources, Loy outlines the Ecosattva Path, a path of liberation and salvation for all beings and the world itself. “Ecodharma lays an invaluable foundation for Buddhist environmental analysis and activism. Anyone concerned about the future of sentient beings and living systems on this planet should read this book.” —Christopher Ives, author of Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage “David Loy is the most significant and inspiring advocate for the meeting of Eastern wisdom and Western social reform writing today. This book offers a timely and urgently needed voice, based on deep experience in the Zen tradition and on thorough scholarship—and is immensely readable and enjoyable too. A true guiding star in our firmament.” —Henry Shukman, Zen teacher, poet, and author of One Blade of Grass
Environmental Protection: Cultivating New Feelings for the Earth (Submitted, Book Chapter)
Education, Cultural Myths, and the Ecological Crisis (Submitted, Book)
Pawnbrokers in Victorian London (Submitted, Website)
The History of the Pawnbroker (Submitted, Website)
In Britain in the late 19th century and early 20th century there were nearly as many pawnbrokers as public houses…
72: Yoga for Depression & Anxiety (Submitted, Miscellaneous)
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