The Tibetan Monk Experiment The market today is flooded with CDs that entrain the brain towards

Gamm a wave generation. As is well known, Gamma waves vibrate at a frequency level of between 26Hz and 100Hz, which is like a blizzard on the terra firma of the brai n. Usually, gamma waves are associated with intense mental activity, while solvi ng problems, while handling emotions such as fear, learning, conscious perceptio n, and the like. The motivation behind this sudden interest in Gamma entrainment has been a research paper published in 2004 by Dr. Richard Davidson and his colleagues f rom the Wisconsin-based Waisman Center for Brain Imaging and Behavior, in associ ation with Dr. Matthieu Ricard of Kathmandu, Nepal-based Sechen Monastery. The p aper reported an experiment conducted on a team of eight Buddhist practitioners, aged between thirty-four and sixty-four. The chief qualification of the subject s? Every one of them had been practicing Tibetan Nyingmapa and Kagyupa style med itation for anywhere between fifteen and forty years. Had they maintained a logb ook a la air pilots, it would have showed a huge chunk of ten to fifty thousand hours of their life spent in meditation. On the bald scalp of each of the subjects was attached a web of electrod es. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was taken at three stages. The initial baseline E EG was collected by asking the subjects to relax and be neutral (no specific tho ughts). Next, the participants were asked to meditate, and allow the mind to be in a state of "unconditional loving-kindness and compassion". The Tibetans call this the dmigs med snying rje state of mind. The second EEG was taken in this st ate. The final EEG was recorded after the meditative session was over. When the EEG machine crunched data collected from each of the electrodes for each subject, and assimilated them into one holistic sheet giving comparati ve and absolute results, jaws must have dropped in the EEG room. For, the result s showed very high-amplitude gamma rhythms - between 25 to 42Hz - in the parieto -temporal and mid-frontal cortex of brain of the meditators when they were in th e state of meditation. Their brain seemed to function as a single unit, as if th e neurons of almost the entire cortex held each others' hands, and synchronized and danced at such high frequencies. The transition from the relaxed, low-freque ncy state (pre-meditation) to this high-frequency state was attained with total ease by the veteran practitioners. Conclusions From This Experiment This research clearly linked meditation - more specifically objectless m editation - to the incidence of high gamma oscillations detected in the cerebral cortex of the practitioners. Besides the eight monks, there was another batch o f ten young lads, still wet behind the ears in matters of meditation, which acte d as a control group. This control group too showed increased oscillations on th e cortex, but not as intense and abundant as that of the senior group. (The full research may be read here.) As compared to meditation techniques where the practitioner focuses on a n object (such as a mantra or one's breath), in objectless meditation, the focus is not on one single entity but on the essence of meditation itself. What this means is that when the meditators brought the thought of compa ssion, the dmigs med snying rje in their mind, it must have automatically been f ollowed by the mind preparing itself to act on the thought - to do something, to be the vehicle of bringing about compassion. As if the brain was responding to a call to _action_. (emphasis mine).

Another research, ignored by the media [it didn't involve celebrities, y ou see :)], involves studying the very same gamma oscillations, on two epileptic patients. The subjects here were required to identify items that were presented to them a while ago. [The capability to remember things some time after you see / read / hear / sense them, is known as "working memory". Remember the time whe n you were verbally told about three to four totally things that were new to you and which you were to buy from some shop? Remember the slight tingling in the h ead as you grappled with this new information that you were presented with? That was your brain shifting into higher gear, ensuring that it remembered them all. That is working memory! :) ] The very same electrodes were suctioned on their scalp. The two patients showed a peak of 38Hz when they were presented with the items they were to reme mber; this peak level was sustained throughout the period when it was required t o remember them, and then this level fell abruptly when the time came to identif y that which had been retained. The researchers concluded there is a sudden gush of blood to very specif ic neurons on the cortex when you are trying to remember things. This gush is as sociated (follows or precedes?) with gamma wave generation. (emphasis mine). Gamma Entrainment CDs Fortified with all the information that we have collected thus far, we c ome to the crucial question. What end do we wish to achieve with Gamma Entrainme nt CDs? When we listen to these CDs, what is supposed to happen to us? When the Tibetan monks meditate on the thought of dmigs med snying rje, their brain generates Gamma oscillations. When the two young patients try to rem ember things that they know they will have to identify later, their brain genera tes Gamma oscillations. When we listen to a Gamma entrainment CD, will we begin to harbor thoughts of dmigs med snying rje ourselves? Or will our meditative pow ers increase? Or will we be able to remember and retain more? If A, then B. But if B, then A? The researchers themselves state very clearly (in both the papers I have discussed here) that their work on the subject is incomplete. Logically speakin g, therefore, isn't it premature for marketers to rush to the market with these CDs? Isn't it premature for users to gullibly buy them, just because the labels "meditation" and "Tibetan monks" are incidentally connected to the concept? In a few forums where people discuss their experience with these CDs, th e general observation that I have come away with is one of confusion. What I exp erienced: was it good or bad? Huh? Final Word In contrast to the high haemodynamic response (blood gushing to the neur on cells) that the brain gives in association with gamma waves, binaural beats a nd relaxation CDs are associated with alpha (7-13Hz) and theta (4-7Hz) waves. Th is is the level of brain activity when you are actually relaxing or deeply medit ating. If self-development is your objective, then I would suggest going for CDs that work at these frequencies. As for Gamma entrainment, let the scientists and researchers figure out how they could be helpful to us, if at all.