About the Science of Meditation

About the Science of Meditation and Mindfulness

Welcome to the Science of Meditation and Mindfulness, a website created to record, discuss and share knowledge about meditation. Not just the behaviours that are known as meditation methods, but also the measurable effects of the practices on individuals. At the heart of the Science of Meditation project is a growing research database highlighting formal academic and scientific studies, historical perspectives and practitioner-based knowledge. The goals of which are to:

• embrace an epistemologically plural approach
• consider meditation without privileging any Eastern or Western scholarly understandings
• increase interdisciplinary dialogue
• avoid limitations of dualistic perspectives
•  acknowledge the qualitative differences and similarities in intellectual and experiential understandings of the mind

Traditional meditation can be thought of as an experiential system; engaging in behaviours that facilitate an experience in the meditator. The role of formal meditation research can be seen in this context, as an attempt to reliably understand what effect the meditate process has on the individual. By attempting to understand the actual experience of meditation, alongside the scientific result of that experience, a comprehensive exposition of meditation may be developed. Understanding traditional meditation methods and the organisations (both spiritual and temporal) that reliably employ them is an integral part of this project. Not in opposition to a scientific approach but as part of the rich human experience of meditation which is at least as old as recorded human history.

All material is featured in accordance with the appropriate copyright protocols, where copy is provided by third parties it is published in good faith. The Science of Meditation project is nor responsible for content published on other websites and comments contributed to this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the project. If you have concerns about any aspect of the material published here please let us know.

Any advertising that appears within this website reflects an attempt to recover the costs of the domain and hosting fees, any surplus invested to ensure the continuation of the project. Our contact details can be found here.

Disclaimer

All the research summaries are the original work of this website and therefore can be regarded as our own copyright material. Some of the featured research papers are at the cutting edge of work in the field and it is possible that our summaries do not reflect the full range of the research in every detail. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the material published on this website which has been shared in good faith. For the full details of the research findings, users must visit the websites holding the original research papers. The Science Of Meditation website can accept no liability for any error or omission in the content published here, however, we undertake to make corrections and alterations when our attention is drawn to factual errors.

Material from this website should not be reproduced without citation.