Many praise meditation for enhancing wellbeing. Separately, many praise psychedelics for the same. Aside from everyone’s subjective experience and opinion, what does science say? According to the full weight and rigor of universities such as Yale and Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins, both are means of inducing measurably decreased activity in the default mode network. Evidence below:
What is the default mode network (DMN) exactly? Two answers:
1) Physically speaking, the DMN is the medial temporal lobe, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the posterior cingulate cortex, as well as the ventral precuneus and parts of the parietal cortex.
2) Psychologically speaking and more meaningfully to us non-neuroscientists, the DMN seems responsible for our self-narrative, rumination, and preoccupation with the past and future.
What would it be like to shut this thing off, then? To look through a window into your own life, without being entirely entangled in your cravings, your regrets, your wishes, and your anxiety? Might it be possible to recognize that life is insanely precious and beautiful, right now? I say yes.
Full youtube clip here. Hours of enlightening conversation with Roland Griffiths with various thinkers can be found easily via google search.
