Meditation Explained Scientifically

Dear All,

It has been quite sometime (maybe more than an year) since my last posting. I came across the following article in Times of India's "Speaking Tree" and thought it deserves a place in my blog. Though meditation is more to do with the experience but for those who love intellectual stimulation may find the following explanation of meditation and thereby the effects of practising meditation, to be quite an endearing read.

Bose-Einstein condensate and state of samadhi
30 Dec 2008, 0000 hrs IST, DEEPAK RANADE

Matter and energy are inter convertible. Matter is present in various energy states. These energy states were found to be temperature-dependent. The higher the temperature, the greater the energy. For example, water boils when it is heated to higher temperatures. This increases the disorder in the molecules as they are energised. This disorder is referred to as entropy. It represents the excitability and chaos of the molecules that constitute matter. Satyendra Bose proposed to Einstein that if matter was cooled to very low temperatures to Absolute Kelvin or minus 273 degrees Centigrade, then the entropy of that matter should decrease and matter should come down to a zero-energy state. This remained only in the realms of hypothetical speculation until it was proved much later on. This zero-energy state is now known in physics as the Bose-Einstein condensate. This state of matter is also called a super atom as the entire mass behaves as if it were a single atom. It loses all its characteristics of shape, charge and polarisation. It probably reverts to a shapeless, attribute less phenomenon in a de-evolution of matter, reverting back to just the potential to manifest as anything and everything. The human brain is an aggregate of nearly 100 billion neurons. Various thoughts that constantly crowd our minds are the sum total of simultaneous activity of different neurons. No wonder there is chaos in our waking state. The thoughts translate into various biological changes mediated by the hormonal apparatus at the pituitary interfacing system. The complex interconnections that abound in the nervous system ensure that even a small impulse rapidly spreads seismically via the dense network. Some individuals have innate higher entropy levels and so find it harder to concentrate. They are `distracted' easily. They have fleeting thoughts and are very restless. The sensory organs serve as an important pathway to increase the entropy as they stimulate various neuronal circuits adding to the entropy. Therefore, closing the eyes helps in the process of concentration. Continuous stimulation of the neural networks is what happens in the waking state. Hence sleep is necessary for minimising these constant excitatory inputs. Sleep deprivation leads to fatigue of the neural networks. When you concentrate, there is a resultant decrease in the disorder of the neural system. As concentration increases, the tendency of the mind to waver and scatter decreases. The mind is more sharply focused. We all have experienced the need to concentrate when we are studying or performing some important activity. So when we concentrate, we are increasing the synchronicity of a specific group of neurons and silencing unrelated neuronal activity. In scientific parlance, concentration decreases the entropy of the neuronal apparatus. Just as the entropy of matter drops to near-zero levels when we approach Absolute Kelvin, similarly, the neuronal disorder keeps waning as we concentrate. The neuronal firing decreases in amplitude as well as frequency. So would the propagation across various networks. In the waking state, when you consciously attempt to decrease the entropy of the nervous system, it is referred to as meditation. As the entropy of the neurons keeps decreasing, a state of calmness is perceived. As this progresses further, the neurons start becoming synchronous. That is, they neither modulate nor amplify any incoming signal. They just resonate in harmony. As this orchestra gets more in sync, you experience varying states of bliss and happiness. Till what is presumably the final state of zero-entropy, where all 100 billion neurons function in total unified quantum coherence. The Bose-Einstein condensate equivalent of the neuronal system is what may be termed as Samadhi.

Net Photo Album of Second Trip to Singapore

Hi,

Find the link to photographs taken during my second trip to Singapore...

Photographs of my Second Trip to Singapore:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anuragr2004/MySecondTripToSingapore?authkey=rERVOpIi7QY

The best way to view the photographs at leisure would be:
Step 1: Click on button "Slideshow".
Step 2: Click on the button for pause (One with 2 sticks)
Step 3: See the photographs using the Cursor Keys (Forward & Backward Keys)
Step 4: At any point if you want to hide or show the Captions, click on links "hide captions" or "show captions".

Net Photo Album of Trip to Amsterdam (Holland) via Munich (Germany)

Hi,

Find the link to photographs taken during my trip to Amsterdam via Munich...

Photographs of my Trip to Amsterdam:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anuragr2004/MyTripToHollandAmsterdam?authkey=Q8I6opjcqFE

The best way to view the photographs at leisure would be:
Step 1: Click on button "Slideshow".
Step 2: Click on the button for pause (One with 2 sticks).
Step 3: Now see the photographs using the Cursor Keys (Forward & Backward Keys).
Step 4: At any point if you want to hide or show the Captions, click on links "hide captions" or "show captions".

Net Photo Albums of Trips to Singapore & Malaysia

Hi,

Find the links to photographs taken during my recent trip to Singapore and Malaysia...

Photographs of my Trip To Singapore:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anuragr2004/MyTripToSingapore?authkey=1JQ60crujPg

Photographs of my Trip To Malaysia:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anuragr2004/MyTripToMalaysiaKualaLumpur?authkey=5yRFaj-l9j0

The best way to view the photographs at leisure would be:

Step 1: Click on button "Slideshow".

Step 2: Click on the button for pause (One with 2 sticks).

Step 3: Now see the photographs using the Cursor Keys (Forward & Backward Keys).

Step 4: At any point if you want to hide or show the Captions, click on links "hide captions" or "show captions".

The Day Designed to go Wrong...

Hi Everyone...

Today was my 5th day in Singapore and my 4th day at work. But the day started off with a sour note. I woke up late and realized soon that I was going to miss my meeting with the Asian Region Head (The senior most official who has sponsored my stay at Singapore!).

As expected, I was late by half-an-hour and was made to wait for another hour before meeting the person. The first thing he says "Your attitude needs to change!". I felt internally, "Oh Shit! Not this guy at the least - the person who would ultimately be writing my professional assessment for the project from the client's side." But apart from this incident, I like this person. He is a German and an authoritative figurehead who realizes the position he holds and wields his influence accordingly.

During the day after finishing my interviews with the four Singaporean Managers, I went back to my Singaporean colleague who is working with me, only to realize that we aren't getting appropriate responses from Japan and Korea because the cost center managers in these locations were too stubborn to accept a better point of view from others. So, Evina (my Singaporean colleague) and I decided to accept their less-than-efficient work (Japanese were much better than Koreans) in the interest of the mid-day deadline. If we were to argue or try and convince them, then the deadline would certainly be missed! A second set-back for this day, which had already begun with a sour note!

I thought that I might just grab a quick lunch and looked out for "Krishna", another Indian, who had recently been transferred from India and knew the Indian eating joints in the vicinity. He took me to a nearby restaurant serving North Indian food. Only after walking for 10 minutes to reach the place, we realized that the queue was so large that it would take us at least 15-20 minutes of standing in the queue before we even reached the food counter! I was already getting late for the deadline and so decided to dump the lunch for the day in interest of time and rushed back to the office leaving my colleague Krishna standing in the queue. So, no lunch for me today...Crap! My stomach had started growling and I had wasted about 20 minutes of my precious time...Another set-back! Now my mood too was becoming truly surly!

But anyways, after getting back to my desk, I decided that the remaining work of consolidating the 46 excel sheets of work into a single excel sheet should not take me more than 1/2 hour and that we should be able to miss the deadline by about 15 minutes, which was quite acceptable. But things on this day were not to be so easy! The job took me 1.5 hours and when Evina and I finally managed to finish off the deliverable by 3:30 pm and send it to Switzerland (headquarters of Clariant), we were about 1.5 hours later than what we had promised.

But luckily for us (thank god for small mercies), the late deliverable was not noticed at all since the team in Muttenz (Swiss Capital) was itself running late! So the deadline was extended by another half-a-day! Anyways, this did not help my mood, when I was informed that Evina was being given a compensatory day-off for having worked on the previous Sunday since she was an employee and was required to work only for 8 hours for 5 days a week and that there was NO compensation for me since I was a consultant and was expected to put in extra hours ! What bull-and-crap logic is that !

But the day was not finished yet...After office, I went to "Plaza Singapore" to get a SIM Card to call home with, but reached the place only to realize that the authorized shop of Singtel (the most popular telecommunications firm in Singapore) had run out of SIM Cards ! Wow ! How bad can a day get. But GOD is NOT so forgiving... I was hell bent upon buying a SIM Card today and so after dumping my luggage in my hotel room, went to "Mustafa Stores" (It is the Indian Supra Bazar, if there is any format of that kind of retailing, with everything from Gold Jewellery to toothpicks being sold at this one-stop shop for Indians!). Here I at last got my SIM Card. Though I had to shell out S$28 for it in cash, which I was already running short of, I was happy to have a local mobile number of my own. The shop keeper took the money and activated my card and then after I was going out of Mustafa, I realized that he had loaded the wrong calling card on my cell phone! I rushed back to the sales person only to be informed that the calling card that I was looking for was out-of-stock and so instead of informing me about the same, the person merrily loaded my cell phone with another Singtel card, which was much inferior to the one that I had initially planned to purchase! So, here I was stranded with S$28 less and with something I did not want!

But if you are thinking that my woes were over for the day, I would consider you to be an optimist! After I reached my hotel room after a good South Indian dinner thali meal, I called my home and talked at length knowing that the calls to India were quite reasonable even while using this "unwanted" calling card. But towards the end of the conversation of about 6 minutes, I realized that I had depleted about S$9 or approximately one third my limit! Oh Crap, how could I have let this happen? Well, I had forgotten to dial "019" in front of the India number, a requirement for utilizing the discounted charges for international calls. Instead I was charged at 8 times this charge per minute by the government of Singapore - I felt really cheated now!

This has happened a few minutes before I have started writing this blog...which I hope to end now and go to sleep, lest my saga of bad luck for the day continues...Bon Nieu (Good Night!)