During my years of practice using EEG neurofeedback, I have had my share of working on many of those who actively participate in meditation. Some of which have practiced for many years and considered themselves masters. Without exception these types would compare their experience of a LENS treatment to “feeling like a 2-3 hour meditation session.”
I know that one of the hallmarks of what I do with this LENS technology is to assist the body to reestablish a better set point for a parasympathetic response to take place.. Thus resulting in calming the body down. The use of brainwaves are the component for which the conversation is to take place. Brainwaves can sometimes be unpredictable or activate outside of what would be considered normal. Like in the case of ADD, depression, autism or epilepsy.
Brain entropy describes the predictability and random characteristics of brain activity. Studies have shown that people have an elevated brain entropy or (a greater capability of potential of brain states) when under the influence of the psychedelic drug, psilocybin.
Now a new study suggests that the chaotic brain activity of those during meditation are similar to those during a psychedelic experience. These findings show how meditation is associated with higher brain entropy were based upon data from the “Meditation Increases the Entropy of Brain Oscillatory Activity” study and published in the journal, Neuroscience.
Other research has indicated the higher entropy brain states in key brain regions were associated with advanced intelligence. Yet this phenomena has been observed in patients with schizophrenia as well.
One of the authors of the new study, Enzo Tagliazucchi a professor at the University of Buenos Aires and director of the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab said, “ We are currently witnessing a major psychedelic renaissance, both in science and society. Psychedelics are being reconsidered as comparatively safe tools to investigate the relationship between brain, mind and consciousness, as well as promising clinical alternatives to treat certain psychiatric disorders, such as depression. I became interested in certain overlaps between the phenomenology (i.e.’ what it feels like’) of some meditation traditions and the psychedelic state. For instance, both states have been consistently linked to collapse of self-boundaries and a merging of the subjective and objective sides of reality.”
Tagliazucci went on to say, “ my colleague Robin Carhart- Harris, one of the leading figures of the psychedelic renaissance, has put forth a theory of the psychedelic state as a brain state of increased entropy, and I became interested in finding out whether meditation could be associated with increases in the entropy of brain activity.”
What they did was record the brain activity and oscillation patterns of the participants to calculate their brain entropy during meditation. The participants included: 27 Himalayan Yoga meditators, 20 Vipassana meditators, 27 Isha Yoga meditators, and 30 individuals with no previous meditation experience.
The findings revealed those with the highest entropy increases were the Vipassana meditators. The brain activity increases showed up primarily in alpha and gamma brainwaves. Responsible for a relaxed yet concentrative state of being.
The activity of the brain, either in an excitatory state or a depressed one, can be felt by the person on the outside or physical state of things. And not as much in terms of the inside physical changes being made in real time by the brain.
“ The acute effects of psychedelics and some meditative practices both lead to states departing from the ordinary conscious wakefulness, and are experienced subjectively as richer in information and capable of sustaining an ample repertoire of contents. Because of this, we hypothesized that meditation would be associated with increased information content (in other words, increased entropy) of brain activity recordings, which was confirmed in the study.”
The puzzling reality of achieving a higher state of consciousness and bodily relaxation does come through meditation. But can only be established from the orchestration of chaotic brain activity into a unifying energy system. In other words, what may appear as calm and centered on the outside. Is dependent on a coordination of higher amounts of activity on the inside. The idea of “never letting them see you sweat” comes to mind or “There is always more going on than meets the eye”.
-A Balanced Brain is a Better Brain for a Happier Life-