The Reality Revolution Podcast

Guided Meditation: The Compassion Meditation

Episode Summary

Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman says the brainwaves of long-term meditators may look a lot different than the rest of ours. Goleman describes how neuroscientist Richard Davidson, his co-author on the book Altered Traits, measured the brainwaves of advanced meditators. Davidson found their brainwaves showed never-before-seen levels of gamma, one of the strongest types of brain waves, theorized to appear when the different regions of the brain harmonize. “We get [gamma] when we bite into an apple or imagine biting into an apple,” explains Goleman, “and for a brief period, a split second, inputs from taste, sound, smell, vision, all of that comes together in that imaged bite into the apple.” The typical person will have a gamma wave very briefly, for example when we’ve solved a problem we’ve been grappling with, and for a second all of our sensory inputs come together in harmony. The brainwaves of long-term meditators, however, show gamma all the time as a lasting trait, no matter what they are doing. “It’s their everyday state of mind,” says Goleman. “Science has never seen this before.” “The people that we’ve talked to in this Olympic level group say it’s very spacious and you’re wide open, you’re prepared for whatever may come, we just don’t know. But we do know it’s quite remarkable.” Interestingly, when these long-term meditators are studied while they are meditating on compassion, their level of gamma jumps 700 to 800 percent in a few seconds. This “awakeness” is a special state of consciousness that you only see in the highest-level meditators. In one study at Davidson’s lab, a group of volunteers underwent a two-week program of compassion meditation and had their brains scanned while they looked at images designed to evoke empathy. Then they played a game in which they had to decide how much assistance to give victims who had been cheated by a crooked “dictator.” In the end, the volunteers who had gone through compassion training donated twice as much money to the victims as the control group. And their brain scans showed increased activity in circuits for attention, perspective taking, and positive feelings. Similarly, other studies have found that compassion meditation strengthens the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the brain’s circuits for joy and happiness. I created this meditation to tap into this compassion vibration in order to help you to create a gamma wave level of brain coherence in you. This is a good way to change your emotions and helps out with all other manifestations, energy and emotional work. You will love the music.

Episode Notes

Compassion may be the most powerful form of meditation.

Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman says the brainwaves of long-term meditators may look a lot different than the rest of ours.

Goleman describes how neuroscientist Richard Davidson, his co-author on the book Altered Traits, measured the brainwaves of advanced meditators. Davidson found their brainwaves showed never-before-seen levels of gamma, one of the strongest types of brain waves, theorized to appear when the different regions of the brain harmonize.

“We get [gamma] when we bite into an apple or imagine biting into an apple,” explains Goleman, “and for a brief period, a split second, inputs from taste, sound, smell, vision, all of that comes together in that imaged bite into the apple.”

The typical person will have a gamma wave very briefly, for example when we’ve solved a problem we’ve been grappling with, and for a second all of our sensory inputs come together in harmony. The brainwaves of long-term meditators, however, show gamma all the time as a lasting trait, no matter what they are doing. “It’s their everyday state of mind,” says Goleman.

“Science has never seen this before.”
“The people that we’ve talked to in this Olympic level group say it’s very spacious and you’re wide open, you’re prepared for whatever may come, we just don’t know. But we do know it’s quite remarkable.”

Interestingly, when these long-term meditators are studied while they are meditating on compassion, their level of gamma jumps 700 to 800 percent in a few seconds.
This “awakeness” is a special state of consciousness that you only see in the highest-level meditators.

In one study at Davidson’s lab, a group of volunteers underwent a two-week program of compassion meditation and had their brains scanned while they looked at images designed to evoke empathy. Then they played a game in which they had to decide how much assistance to give victims who had been cheated by a crooked “dictator.” In the end, the volunteers who had gone through compassion training donated twice as much money to the victims as the control group. And their brain scans showed increased activity in circuits for attention, perspective taking, and positive feelings. Similarly, other studies have found that compassion meditation strengthens the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the brain’s circuits for joy and happiness.

I created this meditation to tap into this compassion vibration in order to help you to create a gamma wave level of brain coherence in you. This is a good way to change your emotions and helps out with all other manifestations, energy and emotional work.