Reception and criticism

          Various scholars have criticized how mindfulness has been defined or represented in recent western psychology publications. B. Alan Wallace has stated that an influential definition of mindfulness in the psychology literature (by Bishop et al.) differs in significant ways from how mindfulness was defined by the Buddha himself, and by much of Buddhist tradition. Wallace concludes that "The modern description and practice of mindfulness are certainly valuable, as thousands of people have discovered for themselves through their own practice. But this doesn’t take away from the fact that the modern understanding departs significantly from the Buddha’s own account of sati, and from those of the most authoritative commentators in the Theravada and Indian Mahayana traditions."

      Eleanor Rosch has stated that contemporary "therapeutic systems that include mindfulness" "could as much be called wisdom-based as mindfulness-based." In these therapeutic approaches

Mindfulness would seem to play two roles: as a part of the therapy itself and as an umbrella justification ("empirical") for the inclusion of other aspects of wisdom that may be beyond our present cultural assumptions. Where in this is mindfulness in its original sense of the mind adhering to an object of consciousness with a clear mental focus?

          William Mikulas, in the Journal of Consciousness Studies, stated that "In Western psychology, mindfulness and concentration are often confused and confounded because, although in the last few years there has been a moderate interest in mindfulness, there has not been a corresponding interest in concentration. Hence, many mindfulness-based programs are actually cultivating both concentration and mindfulness, but all results are attributed to mindfulness."

Future directions

              The research leaves many questions still unanswered. Much of the terminology used in such research has no cohesive definition. For example, there is a lack of differentiation between "attention" and "awareness" and an interchangeable use of the two in modern descriptions. Buddhist contemplative psychology however, differentiates more clearly, as "attention" in that context signifies an ever-changing factor of consciousness, while "awareness" refers to a stable and specific state of consciousness.

Mindfulness meditation as cross-modal adaptation

                 Bedford (2012) proposed a novel psychological theory of how mindfulness meditation leads to healing based in the field of perception. According to the theory, mindful meditation along with guided imagery creates a conflict between a visual image and the immune system, the latter of which is argued to be a sensory modality. This cross-modal visual-immune system conflict now acts like any cross-modal conflict in perception: one of the modalities must change to realign the two modalities. When the immune system is the modality that changes, healing can occur. In this view, there is no “mind” over “matter”; what appears as the mind influencing the body is actually just low level interaction of multiple perceptual modalities/senses, which they evolved to do to maintain perceptual accuracy.

Elevation of positive emotions and outcomes

             While much research centered on mindfulness seeks to reduce stress, another large body of research has examined mindfulness as a tool to elevate and sustain "positive" emotional states as well and their related outcomes:

• Fredrickson (2008) studied the building of personal resources through increased daily experiences of positive emotions due to meditation. She found that meditation practice showed increases over time in purpose in life, social support, and decreased illness symptoms.
• Davidson (2003)found that mindfulness meditation increased brain and immune function in positive ways, but highlighted the need for additional research.
• Brown (2009) investigated subjective well-being and financial desire. He found that a large discrepancy between financial desires and financial reality correlated with low subjective well-being but that the accumulation of wealth did not tend to close the gap. Mindfulness however was associated with a lower financial-desire discrepancy and thus a higher subjective well-being, so mindfulness may promote the perception of “having enough”.
• Shao (2009) used a randomised controlled study to illuminate the correlation between MBA candidates subjected to a mindfulness intervention and increased academic performance. He found mindfulness was positively related to performance for women.
• Davidson et al. showed that mindfulness practice improves the immune system and alters activation symmetries in the prefrontal cortex, a change previously associated with an increase in positive affect and a faster recovery time from exposure to a negative experience. These changes in subjects persisted even after periods they were done meditating.

Stress reduction

            Human response to stressors in the environment produces emotional and physiological changes in individual human bodies in order to cope with that stress. This process most likely evolved to help us attend to immediate concerns in our environment to better our chances of survival, but in modern society, much of the stress felt is not beneficial in this way. Stress has been shown to have several negative effects on health, happiness, and overall wellbeing (see stress (biology)). One field of psychological inquiry into mindfulness is Mindfulness-based stress reduction or MBSR. Several studies have produced relevant findings:

• Jain and Shapiro (2007) conducted a study to show that mindfulness meditation may be specific in its ability to “reduce distractive and ruminative thoughts and behaviours”, which may provide a “unique mechanism by which mindfulness meditation reduces distress”.
• Arch (2006) found emotional regulation following focused breathing. A breathing group provided moderately positive responses to emotionally neutral visual slides, while "unfocused attention and worry" groups both responded significantly more negatively to neutral slides.
• Brown (2003) found declines in mood disturbance and stress following mindfulness interventions.
• Jha (2010)found that a sufficient meditation training practice may protect against functional impairments associated with high-stress contexts.
• Garland (2009) found declines in stress after mindfulness interventions, which are potentially due to the positive re-appraisals of what were at first appraised as stressors.

Mindfulness scales

           Mindfulness is often used synonymously with the traditional Buddhist processes of cultivating awareness as described above, but more recently has been studied as a psychological tool capable of stress reduction and the elevation of several positive emotions or traits. In this relatively new field of western psychological mindfulness, researchers attempt to define and measure the results of mindfulness primarily through controlled, randomised studies of mindfulness intervention on various dependent variables. The participants in mindfulness interventions measure many of the outcomes of such interventions subjectively. For this reason, several mindfulness inventories or scales (a set of questions posed to a subject whose answers output the subject's aggregate answers in the form of a rating or category) have arisen. Twelve such methods are detailed at Mindfulness Research Guide. The most prominent include:

• the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
• the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory
• the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills
• the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale.

               Through the use of these scales - which can illuminate self-reported changes in levels of mindfulness, the measurement of other correlated inventories in fields such as subjective well-being, and the measurement of other correlated variables such as health and performance - researchers have produced studies that investigate the nature and effects of mindfulness. The research on the outcomes of mindfulness falls into two main categories: stress reduction and positive-state elevation.

Scientific research{Mindfulness}

             Over the past 30 years there has been an increase in the number of published studies on mindfulness. The current body of scientific literature on the effects of mindfulness practices is promising despite the presence of methodological weaknesses. The current research does suggest that mindfulness practices are useful in the treatment of pain, stress, anxiety, depressive relapse, disordered eating,and addiction, among others. Mindfulness has been investigated for its potential benefit for individuals who do not experience these disorders, as well, with positive results. Mindfulness practice improves the immune system and alters activation symmetries in the prefrontal cortex, a change previously associated with an increase in positive affect and a faster recovery from a negative experience.

Historical development(Mindfulness)

      In 1979 Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program at the University of Massachusetts to treat the chronically ill, which sparked a growing interest and application of mindfulness ideas and practices in the medical world for the treatment of a variety of conditions in people both healthy and unhealthy.

        Much of this was inspired by teachings from the East, and particularly from the Buddhist traditions, where mindfulness is the 7th step of the Noble Eightfold Path taught by Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha, who founded Buddhism almost 2,500 years ago. Although originally articulated as a part of what is known in the West as Buddhism, there is nothing inherently religious about mindfulness, and it is often taught independent of religious or cultural connotation.

         Thich Nhat Hanh has brought mindfulness to the attention of Westerners. It was on a retreat he led in the United States that an American doctor, Jon Kabat-Zinn, first realised the appropriateness of mindfulness in the treatment of chronic medical conditions. And, later Kabat-Zinn adapted Hanh’s teachings on mindfulness into the structured eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course, which has since spread throughout the western World.Mindfulness and other Buddhist meditation techniques receive support in the West from figures such as the scientist Jon Kabat-Zinn, the teacher Jack Kornfield, the teacher Joseph Goldstein, the psychologist Tara Brach, the writer Alan Clements, and the teacher Sharon Salzberg, who have been widely attributed with playing a significant role in integrating the healing aspects of Buddhist meditation practices with the concept of psychological awareness and healing. Psychotherapists have adapted and developed mindfulness techniques into a promising cognitive behavioral therapies vis. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, pronounced act) ACT was recently reviewed by SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices

Mindfulness (psychology)

Definitions

Several definitions of mindfulness have been used in modern psychology. According to various prominent psychological definitions, Mindfulness refers to a psychological quality that involves

bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis,

or involves

paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally,

or involves

a kind of nonelaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is

Bishop, Lau, and colleagues (2004) offered a two-component model of mindfulness:

The first component [of mindfulness] involves the self-regulation of attention so that it is maintained on immediate experience, thereby allowing for increased recognition of mental events in the present moment. The second component involves adopting a particular orientation toward one’s experiences in the present moment, an orientation that is characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance.

In this two-component model, self-regulated attention (the first component) involves conscious awareness of one's current thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, which can result in metacognitive skills for controlling concentration. Orientation to experience (the second component) involves accepting one's mindstream, maintaining open and curious attitudes, and thinking in alternative categories (developing upon Ellen Langer's research on decision-making). Training in mindfulness and mindfulness-based practices, oftentimes as part of a quiet meditation session, results in the development of a Beginner's mind, or, looking at experiences as if for the first time.

Practicing mindfulness can help people to begin to recognise their habitual patterns of mind, which have developed out of awareness over time  and this allows practitioners to respond in new rather than habitual ways to their life.

Potential adverse effects of meditating

 

           The following is an official statement from the US government-run National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine:

Meditation is considered to be safe for healthy people. There have been rare reports that meditation could cause or worsen symptoms in people who have certain psychiatric problems, but this question has not been fully researched. People with physical limitations may not be able to participate in certain meditative practices involving physical movement. Individuals with existing mental or physical health conditions should speak with their health care providers prior to starting a meditative practice and make their meditation instructor aware of their condition.

         Both positive rewards and potential benefits of meditation have been noted in academic literature. Adverse effects have been reported, and may, in some cases, be the result of "improper use of meditation". The NIH advises prospective meditators to "ask about the training and experience of the meditation instructor... [they] are considering."

Kundalini syndrome is a claimed adverse effect from practicing Kundalini Yoga.

         As with any practice, meditation may also be used to avoid facing ongoing problems or emerging crises in the meditator's life. In such situations, it may be helpful to apply mindful attitudes acquired in meditation while actively engaging with current problems. According to the NIH, meditation should not be used as a replacement for conventional health care or as a reason to postpone seeing a doctor.

Meditation and perception

Studies have shown that meditation has both short-term and long-term effects on various perceptual faculties.

In 1984, Brown et al. conducted a study that measured the absolute threshold of perception for light stimulus duration in practitioners and non-practitioners of mindfulness meditation. The results showed that meditators have a significantly lower detection threshold for light stimuli of short duration.

In 2000, Tloczynski et al. studied the perception of visual illusions (the Müller-Lyer Illusion and the Poggendorff Illusion) by zen masters, novice meditators, and non-meditators. There were no statistically significant effects found for the Müller-Lyer illusion, however, there were for the Poggendorff. The zen masters experienced a statistically significant reduction in initial illusion (measured as error in millimeters) and a lower decrement in illusion for subsequent trials.

The theory of mechanism behind the changes in perception that accompany mindfulness meditation is described thus by Tloczynski:

“A person who meditates consequently perceives objects more as directly experienced stimuli and less as concepts… With the removal or minimization of cognitive stimuli and generally increasing awareness, meditation can therefore influence both the quality (accuracy) and quantity (detection) of perception.”

Brown also points to this as a possible explanation of the phenomenon: “[the higher rate of detection of single light flashes] involves quieting some of the higher mental processes which normally obstruct the perception of subtle events.” In other words, the practice may temporarily or permanently alter some of the top-down processing involved in filtering subtle events usually deemed noise by the perceptual filters.

Brain waves during meditation

During meditation there is a modest increase in slow alpha or theta wave EEG activity.

Chang and Lo found different results, explicable perhaps by the fact they show no sign of even having tested for gamma.First they classify five patterns in meditation based on the normal four frequency ranges (delta < 4 Hz, theta 4 to <8 Hz, alpha 8 to 13 Hz, and beta >13 Hz). The five patterns they found were:

1) delta

2) delta + theta

3) theta + slow alpha

4) high-amplitude alpha

5) amplitude suppressed ("silent and almost flat")

They found pattern No. 5 unique and characterized by:

1) extremely low power (significant suppression of EEG amplitude)

2) corresponding temporal patterns with no particular EEG rhythm

3) no dominating peak in the spectral distribution

They had collected EEG patterns from more than 50 meditators over the prior five years. Five meditation EEG scenarios are then described. They further state that most meditation is dominated by alpha waves. They found delta and theta waves occurred occasionally, sometimes while people fell asleep and sometimes not. In particular they found the amplitude suppressed pattern correlated with "the feeling of blessings."

O Nuallain,Sean (2009)  in Cognitive Sciences 4(2), is the first to interrelate the work on synchronized gamma in consciousness with the well-attested work on gamma in meditation in an experimental context. It adduces experimental and simulated data to show that what both have in common is the ability to put the brain into a state in which it is maximally sensitive and consumes power at a lower (or even zero) rate, briefly. It is argued that this may correspond to a “selfless” state and the more typical non-zero state, in which gamma is not so prominent, corresponds to a state of empirical self. Thus, the “zero power” in the title refers not only to the power spectrum of the brain as measured by the Hilbert transform, but also to a psychological state of personal renunciation.

Mental Silence

Prior to 2006, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defined meditation as “a conscious mental process that induces a set of integrated physiological changes termed the relaxation response”. The NCCAM reviewed its definition of meditation to include a new central feature: “In meditation, a person learns to focus his attention and suspend the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind”. This definition is more in line with the traditional eastern understanding of meditation as inner silence.Some recent studies have used this definition of meditation to compare the experience of mental silence with simple relaxation and found some significant physiological differences between the two.

Theoria & Non-referential compassion meditation

Theoria

Fifteen Carmelite nuns came from the monastery to the laboratory to enter a fMRI machine whilst meditating, allowing scientists there to scan their brains using fMRI while they were in a state known as Unio Mystica (and also Theoria). The results showed that far-flung parts of the brain were recruited in the sustaining of this mystical union with God.

Non-referential compassion meditation

Electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings of skilled meditators showed a significant rise in gamma wave activity during meditation, somewhere in the 80 to 120 Hz range. There was also a rise in the range of 25 to 42 Hz. These meditators had 10 to 40 years of training in compassion meditation training and were engaging in non-referential compassion meditation during the study. The experienced meditators also showed increased gamma activity while at rest and not meditating. Several controls who hadn't practiced meditation before were compared to the highly-trained monks and showed significantly less rise in gamma activity during meditation.