WEBVTT

NOTE Machine-generated transcript; not human-reviewed.
NOTE Canonical transcript: https://opentheory.net/transcripts/neuroscience-of-meditation/

1
00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:19.320
Next time you should stay with us. I should? Yeah. All I did was ride my motorbike home and ride it back again. Really? Yeah. So that was something for your lunch? Yeah, that was my lunch break. Wow. That was for your motorbike. I take it out and come back just to taste it.

2
00:00:21.060 --> 00:00:43.780
Okay. So I hope you feel like your animal is satisfied and that there is no needs that need to be fulfilled, except the need for and craving for the knowledge, scientific knowledge, that we're going to hopefully get, but no expectations.

3
00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:49.300
So what we did in the morning was looking at meditation through meditation.

4
00:00:51.100 --> 00:01:13.640
So I want to thank you, Anthony, for being with us and sharing your experience. Each time, even though we see each other often, I attended two of your retreats, which is not so many, but still, it's always like a new seat there, always something wise that you can take and actually apply in your everyday life.

5
00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.620
So did you feel something similar? That's what I felt.

6
00:01:19.320 --> 00:01:20.780
A lot of seeds.

7
00:01:22.740 --> 00:01:23.600
A lot of seeds.

8
00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:24.080
A lot of fruits.

9
00:01:24.660 --> 00:01:26.680
One for you, one for us.

10
00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:28.120
It was really special.

11
00:01:29.010 --> 00:01:29.420
Yeah.

12
00:01:31.050 --> 00:01:39.540
So, and now we'll continue with uncovering the truth and reality about meditation.

13
00:01:39.960 --> 00:01:47.680
And this afternoon we will devote it to the scientific part of meditation

14
00:01:49.320 --> 00:01:51.120
and now Mike Johnson will see that.

15
00:01:51.340 --> 00:01:55.620
Because it was so amazing.

16
00:01:56.020 --> 00:02:02.520
After only seven day retreat, he came out with mind blowing ideas.

17
00:02:02.660 --> 00:02:05.560
What was actually going on during meditation.

18
00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:13.200
Not in our mind, because the Buddhism is more about the mind and practical thing.

19
00:02:13.320 --> 00:02:15.120
But what was going on in the brain.

20
00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:17.060
So yes.

21
00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:21.360
Yes, and then after Mike will tell us the theory,

22
00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:25.680
we will discuss a little bit my experience

23
00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:27.840
in Chong Tong Monastery,

24
00:02:28.200 --> 00:02:32.980
and Mike will try to uncover what people,

25
00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:36.420
what the teachers were trying to do with me there,

26
00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:38.060
because one of the girls thought

27
00:02:38.060 --> 00:02:40.440
that it's actually a human experiment,

28
00:02:40.760 --> 00:02:43.700
that something is, she's like a genie pig there,

29
00:02:43.700 --> 00:02:50.620
but thanks to what Mike wrote and what thoughts he has,

30
00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:52.880
it was very clear that it's not the experiment.

31
00:02:53.540 --> 00:02:55.540
There is something, there is an order,

32
00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:59.260
and this order he will help us to understand.

33
00:03:04.260 --> 00:03:06.720
So, thank you for the lovely introduction.

34
00:03:09.980 --> 00:03:13.240
So, one frame in all of this is

35
00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:14.800
why does it matter?

36
00:04:26.420 --> 00:04:29.560
perhaps most relevantly for us,

37
00:04:43.780 --> 00:04:46.220
if you follow the recipe,

38
00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:50.260
then in a fairly reliable way,

39
00:04:50.440 --> 00:04:52.380
great things happen to you.

40
00:04:53.700 --> 00:04:56.400
And this is really important.

41
00:04:56.420 --> 00:04:57.020
It's an impressive technology.

42
00:04:57.300 --> 00:05:00.000
We think of technology as things in

43
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:07.260
We our iPhones or TVs or whatnot, but Buddhism is high tech.

44
00:05:07.880 --> 00:05:13.820
And it's a form of technology that has not been equaled yet.

45
00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:22.920
And so, Buddha was an amazing innovator in this space.

46
00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:27.860
And he made this amazing thing that we call Buddhism, that we call meditation.

47
00:05:28.260 --> 00:05:33.560
I mean, he didn't come up with the idea of meditation, but this was kind of in the water supply earlier.

48
00:05:34.440 --> 00:05:37.740
But he arguably perfected it.

49
00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:49.860
And so, this recipe for having amazing things happen to you if you follow it has been passed down through several traditions.

50
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.740
And it's mutated and changed.

51
00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:57.660
Maybe some of the realities got knocked off.

52
00:05:57.880 --> 00:06:02.180
But at the same time, it's gotten down to us.

53
00:06:04.020 --> 00:06:11.020
But it feels like a lot of traditions have sort of forgotten how to cook.

54
00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:19.800
That they have this recipe, they have these tips or tricks or mental hats or whatnot.

55
00:06:21.340 --> 00:06:22.740
And there's...

56
00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:29.060
There's kind of, I would say, confusion about why these things work.

57
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:39.060
And Ivana will be discussing some of the things that her retreat leaders had to do.

58
00:06:39.440 --> 00:06:42.560
But it feels...

59
00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:48.800
I mean, I don't mind following recipes.

60
00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:51.920
But I really want to know how to cook.

61
00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:55.140
Because sometimes you want to change the recipe.

62
00:06:55.400 --> 00:06:56.660
You want to add some more...

63
00:06:56.660 --> 00:07:00.020
You want to make it bigger, smaller, add some more spices, whatever.

64
00:07:00.580 --> 00:07:03.060
And this...

65
00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:14.500
I would say that the concept of applying neuroscience to meditation is let's really make this technology ours.

66
00:07:14.980 --> 00:07:20.020
Let's really figure out how it works.

67
00:07:20.100 --> 00:07:21.100
How to improve it.

68
00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:21.880
How to change it.

69
00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:24.320
How to adapt it to different people's needs.

70
00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:28.100
So that's what I think is really at stake here.

71
00:07:28.340 --> 00:07:30.060
And I think it's very important.

72
00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:38.820
Finally, of course, there are lots of technologies on the horizon.

73
00:07:39.260 --> 00:07:50.500
And it's not outside the bounds of reality to think that we can start to use neurotechnology

74
00:07:50.500 --> 00:07:53.120
to actually improve meditation as well.

75
00:07:53.280 --> 00:07:56.760
But again, we have to know how meditation works to improve it.

76
00:08:02.500 --> 00:08:12.040
So before I discuss this, does anyone want to take a crack at how they think the neuroscience of meditation works?

77
00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:16.820
Works or interconnects, correlates?

78
00:08:17.380 --> 00:08:18.220
I'm not sure.

79
00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:20.480
How a neuroscientist...

80
00:08:20.500 --> 00:08:23.400
A neuroscientist, in your mind, would explain how meditation works?

81
00:08:24.280 --> 00:08:26.440
Or why it makes sense?

82
00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:30.860
It's like training certain parts of your brain.

83
00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:36.280
Yeah, it's basically like training and causing effects.

84
00:08:36.760 --> 00:08:40.720
Well, discovering or exploring or unlocking more potential.

85
00:08:40.940 --> 00:08:47.640
Because I don't remember now exactly the number, but we're using like 1% of our abilities, right?

86
00:08:47.760 --> 00:08:50.340
And then there is like 99% which is unlocked.

87
00:08:50.500 --> 00:09:00.340
So my understanding is that neuroscience explains how meditation can unlock this, well, a part of this other 99%.

88
00:09:02.300 --> 00:09:07.400
I would say that the 1%, 99% figure is a little...

89
00:09:07.400 --> 00:09:08.620
Yeah.

90
00:09:09.780 --> 00:09:12.160
But it is true that we...

91
00:09:12.860 --> 00:09:20.420
Perhaps one could phrase it that we spend almost all of our time in a little corner of the possible space of human experience.

92
00:09:20.500 --> 00:09:24.760
And meditation unlocks a much wider, wider area.

93
00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:27.680
So, yeah.

94
00:09:27.860 --> 00:09:28.340
I...

95
00:09:28.340 --> 00:09:36.060
So, I've listed some ways that neuroscience tries to explain what's going on in meditation.

96
00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:39.140
And I like yours better than any of these.

97
00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:40.840
So, yes.

98
00:09:40.920 --> 00:09:41.100
Right.

99
00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:50.480
Generally speaking, neuroscientists might try to explain what's happening in the brain.

100
00:09:50.500 --> 00:10:00.000
I think the term brain urges that it down-regulates the glagata or increases the cical cortex or who knows.

101
00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:49.880
The neuroscience of meditation is a very important part of the brain. It's a very important part of the brain. It's a very important part of the brain. It's a very important part of the brain. It's a very important part of the brain. It's a very important part of the brain. It's a very important part of the brain. activity in the brain near the surface and then we can kind of see these brain waves put labels on them alpha data gamma delta and finally there's this way of understanding the brain through mirror transmitters well

102
00:10:49.880 --> 00:10:53.460
Well, depression is a shortage of serotonin,

103
00:10:53.460 --> 00:10:57.560
so you just add some serotonin, and you're good.

104
00:10:57.860 --> 00:11:02.400
Or meditation increases endorphins,

105
00:11:02.400 --> 00:11:05.320
or decreases something.

106
00:11:06.940 --> 00:11:14.220
So I would say that all of these explanations generally

107
00:11:14.220 --> 00:11:17.820
hide or obscure more than they actually explain.

108
00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:22.720
Put another way, they don't actually let us build anything.

109
00:11:23.980 --> 00:11:27.360
They're stories, but they're not predictions.

110
00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:30.940
They're correlations that we've observed,

111
00:11:31.260 --> 00:11:35.220
but not causal sort of gears to level explanations.

112
00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:40.740
So that's to say that there's a lot of bad neuroscience

113
00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:42.000
out there about meditation.

114
00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:47.860
Feels like this bad part we'll explain tomorrow.

115
00:11:48.280 --> 00:11:50.000
No, this session was nice.

116
00:11:51.200 --> 00:11:53.440
I'm actually looking forward to hear what's next.

117
00:11:54.680 --> 00:11:55.240
Okay.

118
00:11:55.700 --> 00:11:57.500
We'll still have time to change the session.

119
00:11:57.840 --> 00:11:58.200
Yeah.

120
00:12:00.280 --> 00:12:01.440
Or to have fun.

121
00:12:01.920 --> 00:12:02.480
Quick update.

122
00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:03.500
Thank you, Mike.

123
00:12:04.980 --> 00:12:06.100
Team member.

124
00:12:06.580 --> 00:12:07.960
Yes, teamwork, right?

125
00:12:08.460 --> 00:12:09.240
You're welcome.

126
00:12:14.540 --> 00:12:15.980
All that, sir.

127
00:12:16.500 --> 00:12:18.740
What a bad viewer, sorry.

128
00:12:19.780 --> 00:12:20.340
Sorry.

129
00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:23.740
It's too bright for me.

130
00:12:25.560 --> 00:12:38.840
So what's the alternative? And I think the alternative is to look at concepts of information and especially self-organization.

131
00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:48.500
The brain built itself, evolutionists built it to sort of self-organize along certain principles.

132
00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:54.640
And it's absolutely true that the brain is horrifically complicated.

133
00:12:55.460 --> 00:13:06.460
And I think in these other stories, the problem is they don't have good ways of cutting through the complexity to something simple.

134
00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:18.100
And so I think the path forward is to reverse engineer the core,

135
00:13:18.100 --> 00:13:18.480
the core of the brain,

136
00:13:24.520 --> 00:13:37.700
And this lets us, if we can do that, then we can understand the how and the why of, okay, how does the brain do what it does?

137
00:13:45.420 --> 00:13:50.520
And I think this is going to be enormously productive.

138
00:14:01.920 --> 00:14:21.040
And to give the punchline first, I think the brain already has incredibly powerful and elegant algorithms that can be triggered to heal itself, to purify itself, to basically improve itself.

139
00:14:21.760 --> 00:14:24.940
And it's not something external that you need to hack.

140
00:14:25.140 --> 00:14:28.800
Your brain already has a bunch of cool technology built in.

141
00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:30.960
Evolution has done that for us.

142
00:14:32.440 --> 00:14:46.280
And then meditation is a clever way, we can call it a hack, to trigger some of this technology that we just have in us by virtue of reading.

143
00:15:51.420 --> 00:16:03.380
And it's this idea that first of all the brain's core job, if the brain has one job to do, it's to minimize surprise.

144
00:16:05.580 --> 00:16:14.080
Because if you can predict what's going to happen, then you can sort of behave in an intelligent manner.

145
00:16:37.340 --> 00:16:47.280
And so there's this process that there are two things, two actors in this play, you could say.

146
00:16:48.200 --> 00:16:51.980
And the first actor is bottom-ups in the sense data.

147
00:16:52.920 --> 00:16:56.860
Just the raw information that we get from our senses.

148
00:17:00.020 --> 00:17:05.940
And then we have these stories about what this data means.

149
00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:14.560
And we need the stories because just the raw data can get very overwhelming and confusing very fast.

150
00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:17.980
And basically,

151
00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:25.140
if we can, if our stories, if our predictions can predict the sense data coming in,

152
00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:26.840
we ignore the sense data.

153
00:17:27.580 --> 00:17:33.700
So right now I'm getting information from a lot of nerves all over my body.

154
00:17:33.940 --> 00:17:45.740
I mean, you're all sitting down, you're not, but you're getting just this flood of information from your thighs

155
00:17:45.740 --> 00:17:53.600
and from your skin that's covered with clothes and from every part of your body, really.

156
00:17:53.860 --> 00:17:58.700
And you just ignore it because you're successfully predicting it.

157
00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:04.680
It's not surprising that you're getting data from your thigh that you're sitting down.

158
00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:13.760
It's not surprising that you're getting a little bit of the sense of weight from your hair or something.

159
00:18:15.980 --> 00:18:22.480
So your consciousness basically only pays attention to surprising things.

160
00:18:24.060 --> 00:18:26.960
So if you get bit by a snake, that's surprising.

161
00:18:28.060 --> 00:18:32.220
If there's pressure on your feet when you're standing up, not surprising.

162
00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:38.540
So this is a very basic organizational principle about how the brain works.

163
00:18:40.510 --> 00:18:40.820
And

164
00:18:43.280 --> 00:18:47.060
there's something about this story that is very interesting.

165
00:18:47.760 --> 00:18:55.360
That the data coming in drives brain activity.

166
00:18:55.540 --> 00:18:56.980
It makes the brain more active.

167
00:18:57.660 --> 00:19:05.160
And then the stories, if you have a story that can predict what sense data that you're getting,

168
00:19:06.120 --> 00:19:09.300
that basically tunes activity in the brain down.

169
00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:11.560
So

170
00:19:11.820 --> 00:19:15.520
it's kind of this war that, or battle,

171
00:19:16.380 --> 00:19:20.240
between the bottom-up stuff that is adding energy to the brain

172
00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:26.760
and the top-down predictions that are sort of, they act, I guess, I would call them energy sinks.

173
00:19:27.080 --> 00:19:30.280
But basically they just kind of soak up the energy.

174
00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:37.840
And one thing that I would also mention is that modern life tends to

175
00:19:39.020 --> 00:19:41.800
reward us for focusing on our brain.

176
00:19:41.820 --> 00:19:42.600
Our top-down stories.

177
00:19:42.800 --> 00:19:43.320
For thinking.

178
00:19:44.300 --> 00:19:45.100
Not feeling.

179
00:19:46.340 --> 00:19:49.820
So we were just talking about this before the talk.

180
00:19:53.320 --> 00:19:56.760
That this system can basically get out of balance.

181
00:19:57.540 --> 00:20:00.000
And we can come to live

182
00:20:00.060 --> 00:20:04.880
in our stories and basically ignore our sense data.

183
00:20:05.320 --> 00:20:11.920
And that's kind of too bad because the stories are just hallucinations and sense data is what's real.

184
00:20:12.420 --> 00:20:14.160
So we can kind of get disconnected.

185
00:20:18.760 --> 00:20:33.660
The story that I'm going to tell about this, about meditation, is that meditation is basically a tool to shift the balance in this battle between bottom-up stuff and top-down stuff.

186
00:20:35.540 --> 00:20:39.180
And it does that by sort of turning off the stories.

187
00:20:39.800 --> 00:20:44.140
And sort of by focusing effortfully on the stories.

188
00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:46.360
And we can get a little tension on our sense data.

189
00:20:46.940 --> 00:20:50.800
We feed that and we get more energy into the brain.

190
00:20:52.540 --> 00:20:54.420
So it's kind of...

191
00:20:55.460 --> 00:21:04.820
Meditation is a way to cause the brain to enter a higher energy state.

192
00:21:06.140 --> 00:21:07.520
And this is...

193
00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:12.680
It feels odd to say, but meditation takes a lot of effort.

194
00:21:14.600 --> 00:21:17.140
There is this sort of build-up of something.

195
00:21:18.140 --> 00:21:21.160
And I would say that's this...

196
00:21:21.160 --> 00:21:26.120
This is the mechanism by which the build-up happens.

197
00:21:28.900 --> 00:21:31.280
So, first story, predictive coding.

198
00:21:32.360 --> 00:21:33.960
The brain tries to minimize surprise.

199
00:21:35.540 --> 00:21:39.360
There's predictive models that try and figure out the future.

200
00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:43.420
And there's bottom-up sense data, what actually exists.

201
00:21:44.340 --> 00:21:49.160
And meditation, by focusing on the bottom-up sense data,

202
00:21:49.800 --> 00:21:51.880
it allows energy to build up.

203
00:21:53.180 --> 00:21:56.820
Because the stories soak up the energy.

204
00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:01.640
And so if we turn off the stories, more energy can be created.

205
00:22:03.060 --> 00:22:04.140
Maybe someone...

206
00:22:04.140 --> 00:22:07.800
Should we stop and if someone has a question of clarification,

207
00:22:08.260 --> 00:22:11.060
for example, what is bottom-up stories and...

208
00:22:11.680 --> 00:22:13.900
Because I think that might not be clear.

209
00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:15.140
Yeah, yeah.

210
00:22:16.040 --> 00:22:17.900
So do you mean real energy?

211
00:22:18.080 --> 00:22:22.560
I mean, so more blood goes to our brain?

212
00:22:22.560 --> 00:22:23.260
What do you mean by energy?

213
00:22:23.560 --> 00:22:24.680
Right, right.

214
00:22:24.840 --> 00:22:29.360
So this is not literal energy in the form of heat,

215
00:22:29.460 --> 00:22:34.240
but energy in the form of more neural activity.

216
00:22:36.120 --> 00:22:40.480
So waves of inhibition and expectation, I would say.

217
00:22:40.620 --> 00:22:43.120
Which is neurons are more active.

218
00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:45.340
They're firing a little bit.

219
00:22:45.480 --> 00:22:46.360
They're firing faster.

220
00:22:50.340 --> 00:22:51.060
Just...

221
00:22:52.860 --> 00:22:57.540
I know that our brain tries always to save energy.

222
00:22:57.700 --> 00:23:03.100
To just behave somehow, to save it.

223
00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:04.360
Is it...

224
00:23:05.240 --> 00:23:06.340
Makes sense?

225
00:23:06.900 --> 00:23:10.560
Or just that energy that you mentioned,

226
00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:15.020
Right, right.

227
00:23:15.100 --> 00:23:17.660
I mean, I would say meditation takes calories.

228
00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:22.560
It's not a low-cost process.

229
00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:23.200
Yeah.

230
00:23:23.340 --> 00:23:23.680
Okay.

231
00:23:23.840 --> 00:23:26.500
I think I will be able to explain,

232
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:29.180
because I have kind of a different understanding

233
00:23:29.180 --> 00:23:32.400
of the similar predictive coding system,

234
00:23:32.700 --> 00:23:36.220
which might help you as well with your understanding.

235
00:23:36.500 --> 00:23:38.520
So from what I have read,

236
00:23:38.700 --> 00:23:42.540
which is basically a different model of the same predictive coding,

237
00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:46.000
the sensitive data which comes in,

238
00:23:46.040 --> 00:23:50.180
in whatever form, through neurons to the brain,

239
00:23:50.320 --> 00:23:52.180
has, let's say, 100%.

240
00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:57.020
And 95% of that, our brain has predicted.

241
00:23:57.380 --> 00:23:59.780
So it's not surprising for the brain.

242
00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:04.700
So it's only 5%, which is kind of surprising for the brain,

243
00:24:04.860 --> 00:24:08.180
and that's what he puts forward to our conscious.

244
00:24:08.420 --> 00:24:10.120
And that's what we are processing

245
00:24:10.120 --> 00:24:14.140
as our actual understanding of the brain.

246
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:15.980
So in reality, that's 5%, right?

247
00:24:16.100 --> 00:24:20.000
So let's say if Ilya stands up now,

248
00:24:20.180 --> 00:24:22.400
that would be a sudden thing, right?

249
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:24.160
So the brain will actually...

250
00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:25.100
React on that.

251
00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:28.080
...react on it and push it.

252
00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:30.020
Even though all this time,

253
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.160
the brain also saw that everybody else is sitting.

254
00:24:32.360 --> 00:24:33.900
But it doesn't give me that information.

255
00:24:34.340 --> 00:24:41.540
So basically, what the top-down stories are

256
00:24:41.540 --> 00:24:43.780
is basically us,

257
00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:47.100
using this 5% and exaggerating it

258
00:24:47.100 --> 00:24:50.900
into these big stories and explanations and so on, right?

259
00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:58.300
And when Mike is saying that meditation kind of refocuses your mind

260
00:24:58.300 --> 00:24:59.400
into

261
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:05.120
neuroscience of meditation is the process of creating the stories out of 5% of the 95% of the data that is coming in.

262
00:25:05.860 --> 00:25:15.760
That's what takes the energy away from creating the stories out of 5% into trying to focus on the 95%.

263
00:25:16.860 --> 00:25:24.240
However, from what I understand, from what I have read, at all times the brain activity is actually the same.

264
00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:28.440
At all times the brain consumes 25% of your energy.

265
00:25:28.940 --> 00:25:35.540
Even when you are sleeping, even when you are relaxing, even when you are working on something and composing I don't know what, right?

266
00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:46.220
It all takes the same energy. It's just normally it's all focused on creating the story, but now through meditation it's just focused on understanding the reality a little bit better.

267
00:25:46.280 --> 00:25:48.460
So it's a bit of a balance. So where it goes?

268
00:25:48.460 --> 00:25:50.440
Or even refocusing, yeah.

269
00:25:50.640 --> 00:25:54.220
Yeah, the thing is, the problem is that these stories usually are not real.

270
00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:54.700
They are not positive.

271
00:25:55.020 --> 00:26:00.620
So this is negative stories because surprise is usually something that brain doesn't like.

272
00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:03.020
There is something I haven't predicted.

273
00:26:03.360 --> 00:26:13.420
So that's why predictive coding and meditation as a tool helps to calm down and tell you, okay, this is not such a big surprise.

274
00:26:13.800 --> 00:26:20.480
This is not so bad for you, even though it's different from what you used to receive from external data.

275
00:26:21.120 --> 00:26:24.220
And I would say that that's kind of how it works.

276
00:26:24.920 --> 00:26:32.760
Meditation works by sort of getting ahead of sense data before it has to be a part of our stories.

277
00:26:33.800 --> 00:26:37.720
That if I feel a twinge in my leg, my leg is not going to fall off.

278
00:26:37.900 --> 00:26:41.100
I can just say, okay brain, don't worry, everything is fine.

279
00:26:41.660 --> 00:26:47.920
You don't need to be working this into some sort of big story where I have cancer or something.

280
00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:02.200
It always uses a lot of energy.

281
00:27:04.040 --> 00:27:08.620
And perhaps the best way to frame this then is where the energy goes.

282
00:28:23.720 --> 00:28:34.100
So, it's the exact same equations that you use to figure out what frequencies resonate in a guitar if you plug a certain string.

283
00:29:10.460 --> 00:29:14.380
you should see higher harmonic peaks,

284
00:29:14.940 --> 00:29:16.200
higher sort of...

285
00:29:18.300 --> 00:29:22.840
a lot of energy concentrated in the brain's natural resonant components

286
00:29:31.260 --> 00:29:38.080
So, the first story basically concluded that meditation adds energy to the brain.

287
00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:43.180
And this story about connectome harmonics

288
00:29:44.620 --> 00:29:48.380
tells the story of where this energy goes.

289
00:29:49.280 --> 00:29:53.580
That if you just have more background energy,

290
00:29:54.680 --> 00:29:59.780
it should naturally gather in the

291
00:30:07.600 --> 00:30:08.640
What's going on there?

292
00:30:09.720 --> 00:30:10.740
Why is it hard?

293
00:30:30.140 --> 00:30:35.540
It's like if your brain is a bell, it's mud splatters on the bell.

294
00:30:36.340 --> 00:30:43.780
And so the hard part of meditation is sort of trying to scrape off the mud from the bell

295
00:31:28.700 --> 00:31:31.780
This tells the story about what happens to the energy.

296
00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:39.700
That, okay, you have all this energy kind of doing its thing in the brain and it'll

297
00:31:39.700 --> 00:31:48.120
naturally make its way into the brain's natural resonant moments if you do it right, if you

298
00:31:48.120 --> 00:31:50.120
sort of successfully enter a force state.

299
00:31:51.340 --> 00:31:54.320
And successfully build up this natural resonance.

300
00:32:23.060 --> 00:32:26.740
So, this tends to increase harmony in the brain.

301
00:32:35.560 --> 00:32:42.480
So, just, I would like to read this article about, just, this other soil article.

302
00:32:42.760 --> 00:32:50.960
So, but, which experiments they did, I mean, maybe main experiments that proved that, you

303
00:32:51.340 --> 00:32:58.980
know, this hypothesis and just what they measured and in which situation.

304
00:32:59.480 --> 00:33:01.300
Just maybe in brief.

305
00:33:01.480 --> 00:33:01.880
Yeah.

306
00:33:02.020 --> 00:33:02.440
Sure.

307
00:33:03.100 --> 00:33:09.900
So, this paradigm came out just over two years ago, in 2016.

308
00:33:11.780 --> 00:33:16.960
And so far it's been used to study the effects of various psychedelics on the brain.

309
00:33:17.820 --> 00:33:21.320
They, so I have to say, I believe, studied the effects of psychedelics.

310
00:33:24.760 --> 00:33:30.500
I had some interesting results, like more energy in the harmonics in general,

311
00:34:30.100 --> 00:34:38.720
So what is the main difference with just what you mentioned in the first slide

312
00:34:38.720 --> 00:34:45.200
when it was how it was old methods, like alpha, beta, gamma, waves, yeah?

313
00:34:45.340 --> 00:34:46.880
And it's also waves.

314
00:34:47.480 --> 00:34:49.280
But it's not.

315
00:34:49.300 --> 00:34:49.860
It's some other wave.

316
00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:50.620
Right, right.

317
00:34:50.680 --> 00:34:51.720
It's a good question.

318
00:34:52.260 --> 00:34:59.780
So the old way, the sort of measuring brain waves with

319
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:06.140
EEG just gives a slice of the wave itself.

320
00:35:06.920 --> 00:35:16.320
You can see, okay, there's a lot of neurons firing in this electrode, and then there are fewer neurons firing in this specific electrode.

321
00:35:18.860 --> 00:35:31.540
This adds another dimension to the analysis in that you can not only measure the waves, but you can measure the medium in which the wave is resonating.

322
00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:44.820
And if you can do that, then you can calculate the natural harmonics of the system, which lets you do all sorts of cool stuff.

323
00:37:27.140 --> 00:37:28.100
I think so.

324
00:37:33.480 --> 00:37:39.860
I guess this is a static picture, but you can just imagine waves traveling in the brain.

325
00:37:40.640 --> 00:37:49.120
The blue is lower than average activity and the red is higher than average activity.

326
00:37:49.820 --> 00:37:56.200
And I can show you guys a video of this, which definitely looks better in motion.

327
00:38:03.200 --> 00:38:06.800
So, guys, this is where the magic happens.

328
00:38:13.340 --> 00:38:15.960
Can you explain what is annealing before...

329
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:16.440
What is...

330
00:38:16.440 --> 00:38:17.320
Yeah, he will go...

331
00:38:17.320 --> 00:38:17.720
He will...

332
00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:18.940
He will...

333
00:38:30.040 --> 00:38:33.900
Let's Mike explain and if you still have questions then we'll explain in Russian.

334
00:38:37.080 --> 00:38:43.660
So there's this, if you're a blacksmith and you're working on metal, maybe somebody brings

335
00:39:55.380 --> 00:39:59.660
to restore the natural form, or rather the

336
00:39:59.700 --> 00:40:26.140
order of crystals, the structure of the molecules of crystals of a certain metal, It is heated to the melting temperature until it accepts the previous structure of the molecule. The same thing happens during meditation with the brain. Now she will tell us about it.

337
00:40:32.220 --> 00:40:54.280
So, the core insight that I would share is that brains work like this too. And brains can sort of... So, when a metal is bent a lot, it's stresses build up in the material. That's called cold working.

338
00:40:54.280 --> 00:41:00.640
And if a metal is cold worked too much, then it becomes very hard and brittle.

339
00:41:02.800 --> 00:41:10.500
And so, I think brains... that happens to brains too. And we can talk about it in terms of stress.

340
00:41:11.840 --> 00:41:20.120
But I think this is a more precise way to... or perhaps more generative way to talk about that.

341
00:41:22.400 --> 00:41:29.020
Emotionally intense experiences act as kind of a turning up the heat of the brain.

342
00:41:30.640 --> 00:41:40.340
And then the brain can sort of self-organize into new, fresh, healthy equilibrium or balances.

343
00:41:42.960 --> 00:41:49.100
So, this is studied in the context of neuroscience under entropic disintegration.

344
00:41:50.120 --> 00:41:54.120
Robin Carhart-Harris has a paper in the Entropic Brain about this.

345
00:41:54.860 --> 00:42:04.260
And basically, adding energy to the system makes existing patterns, existing attractors, break down.

346
00:42:04.960 --> 00:42:15.760
And then the system finds new patterns that make more sense, that are more sustainable, that release the pressure that's sort of built up into the system.

347
00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:25.680
And then as the system cools down, as the brain leaves a high energy state, then these new patterns sort of crystallize.

348
00:42:26.120 --> 00:42:31.800
And these new patterns become more durable, more permanent.

349
00:42:35.320 --> 00:42:43.220
And emotionally intense experiences, like what could cause this high energy state and stuff.

350
00:42:43.620 --> 00:42:45.740
And I think you see this in...

351
00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:57.040
For example, the birth of a child, or a really bad breakup, or really good sex, or your running day, or even crying.

352
00:42:57.600 --> 00:43:01.760
So, the...

353
00:43:01.760 --> 00:43:04.640
I guess I'll slide in here.

354
00:43:07.100 --> 00:43:11.080
This is a very healthy thing to have happen to your brain.

355
00:43:12.520 --> 00:43:15.740
Obviously, you want good things to happen.

356
00:43:15.760 --> 00:43:17.480
To push you into these states.

357
00:43:17.940 --> 00:43:21.020
Into these more changeable, high energy states.

358
00:43:22.460 --> 00:43:30.940
That's a lot more healthy if you're pushed into this by good things happening versus bad things.

359
00:43:31.220 --> 00:43:44.860
But this process, this raising the energy level of the brain, and then letting the brain sort of self-organize around...

360
00:43:45.760 --> 00:43:46.820
New patterns.

361
00:43:48.160 --> 00:43:56.760
I would argue that it's the basic mechanism by which the brain heals itself and updates what's important.

362
00:43:58.400 --> 00:43:59.240
So...

363
00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:08.440
I would say that to bring all this back home, so to speak...

364
00:44:09.560 --> 00:44:15.180
Meditation is a very clever technology to basically...

365
00:44:15.760 --> 00:44:18.100
Trigger these states at will.

366
00:44:19.860 --> 00:44:27.940
And that's not to say that you can sit down and in 15 minutes you can trigger one of these states.

367
00:44:28.120 --> 00:44:28.960
And kneel yourself.

368
00:44:29.620 --> 00:44:30.220
Right.

369
00:44:31.880 --> 00:44:38.640
But after a 21-day retreat, this is what's happening.

370
00:44:38.960 --> 00:44:39.580
I think.

371
00:44:40.860 --> 00:44:43.860
You're basically building up this...

372
00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:46.940
This Heath-Brander.

373
00:44:49.600 --> 00:44:50.900
And I think the...

374
00:44:52.160 --> 00:44:55.240
So, a lot of things can push the brain into a higher state.

375
00:44:55.540 --> 00:44:59.780
They can push us into this very emotional state.

376
00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:27.800
But there's always tends to be some object of focus. I mean if you're in a hierarchy state because it's your wedding day, then that's going to be your focus. And if you're in this hierarchy state because of a breakup, that's going to be your focus. If you're in this hierarchy state because you just had a child, that's going to be your focus.

377
00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:41.240
Meditation is different because it doesn't have a focus. And I believe that allows the scope of this annealing process to be larger, to be more general.

378
00:45:42.340 --> 00:45:54.220
And specifically, this energy should flow into the brain's natural harmonics, its natural resonances, or eigenvalues is the fancy word for it.

379
00:45:56.060 --> 00:46:10.480
And so, one way of thinking about this is by entering into meditation, the brain is basically retuning itself toward more harmony, toward more resonance.

380
00:46:12.020 --> 00:46:16.540
And then as it cools, it saves some of these new patterns.

381
00:46:16.540 --> 00:46:27.320
And it changes the default activity profile of your brain. It shifts it more toward harmony.

382
00:46:30.680 --> 00:46:34.160
Questions? Yeah?

383
00:46:34.360 --> 00:46:44.600
So, from what I understand, you're talking about changes in the brain after meditation.

384
00:46:46.540 --> 00:46:54.280
And this is not connected to any external event, and it's your self-driven kind of activity, right?

385
00:46:55.720 --> 00:47:01.680
To me, this is not equivalent of an intense event, right?

386
00:47:01.820 --> 00:47:06.680
Which does it in a matter of maybe minutes or hours, right? Or a day.

387
00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:16.520
It's rather more to do with neuroplasticity, which is a very long process, which takes a much longer time than a normal process.

388
00:47:16.540 --> 00:47:17.820
So, I think that's why I put the 21-day retreat.

389
00:47:18.060 --> 00:47:23.500
And where I put the 21-day retreat, it's more under intensive event.

390
00:47:23.760 --> 00:47:27.160
Because as it is, it's unlike your regular life.

391
00:47:27.400 --> 00:47:30.260
And things were completely different.

392
00:47:30.520 --> 00:47:34.700
And that's why it might happen after that intensive event.

393
00:47:35.600 --> 00:47:41.320
As well as if you spend 21 days in any other challenge, right?

394
00:47:41.700 --> 00:47:46.520
You can maybe go for, I don't know, a TV radio.

395
00:47:46.540 --> 00:47:47.780
And your life shows for 21 days.

396
00:47:48.060 --> 00:47:52.280
And it might bring the same unhealing in the way, right?

397
00:47:52.460 --> 00:47:57.720
I do understand what you're saying in terms of it's much more healthy with this meditation.

398
00:47:58.360 --> 00:48:02.640
And it drives the brain into the harmony system.

399
00:48:03.040 --> 00:48:12.060
But I just think that the 21-day retreat is more of an intensive event rather than because of that the brain changed.

400
00:48:12.300 --> 00:48:12.720
Right.

401
00:48:13.300 --> 00:48:15.560
Well, one frame.

402
00:48:16.540 --> 00:48:20.280
One of the things that I think is really important to this is it's not necessarily the time involved.

403
00:48:21.180 --> 00:48:23.160
But it's the intensity.

404
00:48:24.540 --> 00:48:29.740
And also the time the system spends above some critical threshold.

405
00:48:30.460 --> 00:48:34.560
I mean, you can make it.

406
00:48:34.600 --> 00:48:37.240
You can wave a fork in the sun all day long.

407
00:48:37.400 --> 00:48:38.360
But it's not going to melt.

408
00:48:38.540 --> 00:48:41.680
It's not going to get above the recrystallization temperature.

409
00:48:42.800 --> 00:48:45.080
And it's only once it.

410
00:48:46.540 --> 00:48:52.860
It breaks that threshold and stays there for a while that it can sort of self-organize.

411
00:48:52.880 --> 00:48:53.160
Right.

412
00:48:53.400 --> 00:48:55.660
And so in a 21-day.

413
00:48:55.660 --> 00:49:00.280
And you can't cause this meditation you can do to yourself every day.

414
00:49:00.500 --> 00:49:01.100
Exactly.

415
00:49:01.340 --> 00:49:02.480
It's not like a fork in the sun.

416
00:49:02.620 --> 00:49:03.920
This crazy experiment.

417
00:49:05.280 --> 00:49:10.600
You can't break up every day or make a wedding every day.

418
00:49:10.740 --> 00:49:11.340
Right.

419
00:49:11.420 --> 00:49:12.020
Yeah.

420
00:49:14.460 --> 00:49:17.960
And I'll get to this in a couple slides.

421
00:49:18.340 --> 00:49:25.080
But one could think of the different cases of meditation.

422
00:49:25.960 --> 00:49:29.840
If you meditate 20 minutes a day what's that doing?

423
00:49:30.040 --> 00:49:31.580
Is that doing a dealing?

424
00:49:32.720 --> 00:49:33.620
Probably not.

425
00:49:34.670 --> 00:49:42.420
At the same time it's letting you basically clean the mud off the belt.

426
00:49:43.360 --> 00:49:52.420
it's letting you fix the hurdles to residence that you're kind of stuck with.

427
00:49:52.740 --> 00:49:59.500
And it's a very effortful process, it's a very unpleasant process sometimes, and it's also necessary.

428
00:50:00.320 --> 00:50:16.860
But yeah, it's also, you know, 20 minutes a day that's waving the fork in the sun. An hour every day, two hours every day, then you're good. A 21-day retreat, then now you're good.

429
00:50:18.260 --> 00:50:25.960
The important thing is maybe not the annealing. Yeah, annealing process by itself is of huge importance.

430
00:50:26.540 --> 00:50:34.500
At the same time, the big importance is what you anneal. What is going to happen during the annealing process?

431
00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:41.520
Are you going to anneal something positive and healthy for your future life?

432
00:50:41.520 --> 00:50:51.300
Or you're going to anneal something that actually will make you feel unconfident and unsafe for the rest of your life?

433
00:50:51.500 --> 00:50:56.380
So that's why that matters, I think.

434
00:50:56.860 --> 00:51:02.660
So you mean that our brain updates what's important and he can update what is important and what is not?

435
00:51:03.580 --> 00:51:05.620
Yes, yes, definitely.

436
00:51:06.060 --> 00:51:11.500
And for example, I think PTSD is a form of annealing.

437
00:51:11.520 --> 00:51:12.080
Annealing gone wrong.

438
00:51:13.140 --> 00:51:15.200
A post-traumatic stress disorder.

439
00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:23.180
The brain gets pushed into a high-energy state and then it's in the presence of trauma.

440
00:51:23.860 --> 00:51:27.060
And you basically crystallize those patterns.

441
00:51:29.840 --> 00:51:32.060
So how do you fix that?

442
00:51:32.260 --> 00:51:35.320
Well, you might have to re-anneal, so to speak.

443
00:51:37.140 --> 00:51:40.400
And likewise, I mean, something like ayahuasca could.

444
00:51:46.800 --> 00:51:55.700
So if we take like drug experience as well, ayahuasca or LSD, is it like a shortcut to the annealing process?

445
00:51:56.280 --> 00:51:57.300
I would say so.

446
00:51:57.460 --> 00:52:10.240
It's going to not be quite as pure in that it sort of, I mean, different substances work in different ways.

447
00:52:10.240 --> 00:52:20.420
One could say that they, some add energy to the brain, some disable the brain's energy sinks that kind of soak up extra energy.

448
00:52:21.560 --> 00:52:27.800
And just based on the details of how each substance works, it will produce slightly different things.

449
00:52:28.620 --> 00:52:34.120
I think meditation is going to be the healthiest, safest.

450
00:52:37.260 --> 00:52:39.160
It's not that I think the drugs eat away.

451
00:52:41.240 --> 00:52:42.440
It's the similar effect.

452
00:52:42.760 --> 00:52:43.860
But it seems that the.

453
00:52:43.980 --> 00:52:44.460
Yes.

454
00:52:44.540 --> 00:52:44.820
Yeah.

455
00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:49.960
It's, isn't it rather a short change?

456
00:52:50.380 --> 00:52:53.340
And then you're back to your patterns?

457
00:52:53.700 --> 00:52:55.020
It depends on the.

458
00:52:55.360 --> 00:52:56.200
On the drug?

459
00:52:56.420 --> 00:52:56.600
Yeah.

460
00:52:58.220 --> 00:53:00.380
We can, we can talk about this.

461
00:53:00.380 --> 00:53:02.980
And then you can't control what you get into, right?

462
00:53:03.220 --> 00:53:04.540
Like what you anneal it into.

463
00:53:04.920 --> 00:53:05.440
Yes, yes.

464
00:53:05.580 --> 00:53:06.120
With the drugs.

465
00:53:06.420 --> 00:53:07.040
Yeah, yeah.

466
00:53:07.660 --> 00:53:10.000
There's, there's this phenomenon with certain.

467
00:53:11.240 --> 00:53:13.460
Psychological drugs called imprinting.

468
00:53:14.080 --> 00:53:22.980
Where the stuff that you're thinking about during the trip very terribly sticks with you.

469
00:53:23.320 --> 00:53:24.860
Potentially for years afterwards.

470
00:53:25.300 --> 00:53:32.820
And I've had stories from some people I know that this is not.

471
00:53:32.880 --> 00:53:32.940
Not going to go away.

472
00:53:33.020 --> 00:53:35.400
Yeah, this is not necessarily a positive thing.

473
00:53:35.560 --> 00:53:36.960
So it's.

474
00:53:37.700 --> 00:53:38.640
Kind of intriguing.

475
00:53:39.180 --> 00:53:40.580
When you find yourself.

476
00:53:41.240 --> 00:53:42.720
In a high energy brain state.

477
00:53:43.260 --> 00:53:48.260
It's very important to take good care of yourself.

478
00:53:48.520 --> 00:53:51.900
To be especially kind to your future self.

479
00:54:25.300 --> 00:54:28.140
So the part of D is better than the part of A?

480
00:54:30.360 --> 00:54:32.880
I mean this is a material science thing.

481
00:54:33.020 --> 00:54:34.640
But in the brain.

482
00:54:37.860 --> 00:54:39.520
The build up of stress.

483
00:54:41.240 --> 00:54:42.200
It causes a lot of suffering.

484
00:54:43.180 --> 00:54:47.460
And the brain becomes less plastic.

485
00:54:47.860 --> 00:54:48.780
Less ductile.

486
00:54:48.920 --> 00:54:52.140
There's less sort of elasticity.

487
00:54:52.740 --> 00:54:55.520
Or just a default background neuro-elasticity.

488
00:54:57.980 --> 00:55:00.000
It kind of beats into the reserve

489
00:55:00.560 --> 00:55:02.380
of flexibility of the brain.

490
00:55:02.940 --> 00:55:11.460
So if you can sort of turn up the heat parameter and let this sort itself out, self-organize

491
00:55:11.460 --> 00:55:18.660
around new patterns, new attractors, then it'll be, it's basically a way to heal the

492
00:56:18.460 --> 00:56:27.040
And predictive coding describes the mechanism Buddhism uses to build up what I would call

493
00:56:27.040 --> 00:56:29.660
neutral energy, semantically neutral energy.

494
00:56:39.800 --> 00:56:45.620
Tools to ring the bell and also to scrape the mud off the bell, too.

495
00:57:44.520 --> 00:57:49.860
And then the three things, the four things given a sequence of noting, but then the

496
00:57:49.880 --> 00:57:50.320
continuously

497
00:57:58.460 --> 00:58:06.140
Until it's spinning so quickly. Yeah, you're getting into a high energy state and then maybe some!

498
00:59:17.280 --> 00:59:19.600
so it's easier to go back into the

499
00:59:19.880 --> 00:59:20.540
Yes

500
00:59:20.540 --> 00:59:24.160
And I'll get to that part too

501
00:59:30.700 --> 00:59:35.500
Where existing patterns break down and then self-organization?

502
00:59:36.120 --> 00:59:38.680
based on the minimization of