
New gadgets and apps are trying to make mindfulness meditation easier - prostoalex
http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-meditation-gadgets-help-you-reduce-your-stressand-find-happiness-1451585505
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tmd
I think that there might be huge value in neurobiofeedback but it's a mistake
to brand these devices as an aid to what essentially is a religious practice
for many people. Just studying the comments in this thread shows that the sole
idea of such a device seems blasphemous for some.

Perhaps it would be better to call it a concentration exercise or a brain
fitness trainer, especially since it's not even clear that these devices help
you with mindfulness (whatever it might be). I tried to find some reviews of
Muse done by experienced meditators (I haven't collected the links, sorry) and
the results seem mixed. Some claim perfect score on the first sitting, some
say they get the same bad results as everyone else starting out with the app.
That would suggest that either the device doesn't really do what it claims or
that meditation means so many different things to different people that it's
not a useful term to use in a scientific context.

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kafkaesq
The whole point of 'mindfulness' is that you don't need any gadgets or apps to
be able to access it. It doesn't require external resources of any kind; it's
freely available, at any time.

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proksoup
True.

Also, these devices can help by providing feedback that you might not yet be
attuned to receiving without the devices.

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robgibbons
Adding gadgetry to meditation is kind of self defeating if you ask me. Typical
modern approach to basically everything: add batteries and its automatically
better!

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dominotw
no.

We have spent last couple of centuries shoehorning every single problems into
scientific solution fanaticism. Ofcourse there is no denying science and tech
has paid us big dividends.But this single-groove thinking has failed us a in
solving more fundamental of human problems. People feel lost/purposeless,
people are joining ISIS/blackwater for adventurism, trying to give some
meaning to their existence.

People are lost/stressed/bored. We have replaced spirituality/religion/family
with a pictures of self-driving cars and missions to mars.

~~~
bchjam
But meditation is technology! We just don't think much of tech unless it
exists outside ourselves to be consumed anymore

~~~
visakanv
Interestingly, this actually gets closer to the original root meaning of the
word than what it tends to mean these days:

> TECHNOLOGY: 1610s, "a discourse or treatise on an art or the arts," from
> Greek tekhnologia "systematic treatment of an art, craft, or technique,"
> originally referring to grammar, from tekhno- (see techno-) + -logy. The
> meaning "study of mechanical and industrial arts" (Century Dictionary, 1902,
> gives examples of "spinning, metal-working, or brewing") is first recorded
> 1859.

Source:
[http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=technology](http://etymonline.com/index.php?term=technology)

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visakanv
Can News Organizations Ever Get Past Asking These Sort Of Simplistic Questions
In Thear Headlines?

The TL;DR of this article is, as it usually is with such questions, "Doesn't
really seem like it, results are inconclusive, but you gotta start somewhere
so why not."

You're better off skipping the read, honestly.

~~~
eivarv
Obligatory mention of Betteridge's law of headlines [0].

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

