
How Understanding the Process of Enlightenment Could Change Science - rikibro
http://www.psychologytomorrowmagazine.com/inscapes-enlightenment-and-science/
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jostmey
I am not sure how this will be received by others. I don't want to experience
a cessation of ideas and thoughts. Being able to quell my brain activity so
that no thoughts or ideas remain is the opposite of enlightenment to me. I am
proud that I am an intellectual, self-aware being. It separates me from the
rest of the organisms in Nature. So why would I want to turn it all off?

~~~
cratermoon
It's not "cessation of ideas and thoughts", and the fact that the story gets
it wrong could mean that science gets it wrong, which suggest science will
never figure it out.

~~~
jostmey
The language in the article is not clear. Perhaps this post in lifehacker
better explains what happens to the brain during meditation.

[http://lifehacker.com/what-happens-to-the-brain-when-you-
med...](http://lifehacker.com/what-happens-to-the-brain-when-you-meditate-and-
how-it-1202533314)

So why would I want to shut off my brain?

~~~
cratermoon
Have you considered the possibility that beta waves are not the best indicator
of brain activity? A couple of pretty graphics with colors demonstrates only
an interpretation of a certain signal -- whether or not a low signal means the
brain is "shut off" is entirely up to interpretation.

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pallandt
This is only vaguely scientific and that only in the beginning of the article.
It then progressively reads more like some excited, clueless retelling of
other people's psychotic-like experiences. I can't even begin to understand
the parallel to set theory mentioned in the piece.

~~~
trekky1700
Yeah, the set theory bit was kinda bull shit. It's really nothing like set
theory other than the word "contains". And the "Mathematicians have seen that
far" sounds like typical snake oil selling.

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mping
Enlightenment is beyond words. It's not to be intellectualized. So I believe
science will never truly understand enlightenment, because science is
intellectualization. Besides there are several grades of enlightenment, don't
think you meditate a few years and you get it.

As for meditation, although it is the best path for enlightenment, turns out
there's alot of benefits for common people. When you bring your thoughts to a
halt, your true mind manifests. The true mind is unimpeded - it is effortless
- and this true mind allows you to solve your daily problems more easily. You
shut off your "stupid" brain, and the true wisdom starts to manifest. You
won't become a zombie; you will _naturally_ discard your stupid habits and
become better focused at whatever is that you do.

What this means is that throughout the day we are able to gain a better
understanding of ourselves and our environment; we will become gradually less
scattered (due to the meditation process) and we will focus on what is
important to us, wheter its programming or science or anything else. This is
just the tip of the iceberg, but I think it's a good basic description.

~~~
PeterWhittaker
If science works the way we believe it does, then nothing is beyond
intellectualization.

Either the world and everything in it is accessible to empirical observation
and the formation and validation of models (i.e., hypothesis formulation and
testing, theory development) or it is not.

If there are things that are inaccessible to this process, then there is magic
beyond the veil.

Where is the veil?

Given accessibility as described above, then there are those things that we
have learned to measure and those things we have to learn to measure.
Neuroscience is busily taking things from the latter set and placing them,
slowly in the former.

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ChuckFrank
My family knows Har-Prakash Khalsa well, and while this work appears to rely
heavily on anecdotal descriptions of this condition called 'cessation', his
photographic work that he develops in tandem to his meditation practice is
pretty impressive. I'm not sure if that ads anything to the discussion, but
the pictures are nice to look at.

[http://art.harprakashkhalsa.com/exhibitions/true-
nature.php](http://art.harprakashkhalsa.com/exhibitions/true-nature.php)

If people are interested in his meditation practice, he has some youtube
videos up.

Steps to meditation
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAUR0DNDnj8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAUR0DNDnj8)

Nature of the intellect
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPrm7YaaU1Y](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPrm7YaaU1Y)

~~~
ChuckFrank
I do want to add that one of the frustrations that I've had with this type
meditation work, specifically the Kundalini meditation practice that is the
basis for this study, and that is that there's always a heavily structured
pseudo-scientific process instructing a participant in the right ways of
meditation.

There will be the different stages of the mind, or the different parts of the
brain, all of which is simply taxonomic and not in any way related to anything
scientific. So the learning of the 'ancient' or 'revered' system becomes the
method to which true meditation can be achieved. Naturally this process, this
method is nothing but fiction. Compelling perhaps, but still fiction.

~~~
ph4
So? Why does do you need science's permission to do anything?

~~~
trekky1700
I would say you need the laws of science's permission to do anything.

~~~
byjazz
Actually, you need the Laws of Nature's permission. Science is a human attempt
to get at them. Showing that you can do something in spite of the current laws
of science is how you make them evolve and progress.

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TrainedMonkey
I am somewhat not sure how altering brain to achieve disassociation from ones
senses could change science.

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jonstewart
I thought HN stood for Hacker News, not Hokum News? What's up with meditation
crapola today? Moar space rocket stories, plz.

~~~
rikibro
The biggest Hack is hacking yourself

