Self-transcending meditation is good for mental health: why this should be the case

Abstract

A simple theory of health has recently been proposed: while poor quality regulation corresponds to poor quality health so that improving regulation should improve health, optimal regulation optimizes function and optimizes health. Examining the term ‘optimal regulation’ in biological systems leads to a straightforward definition in terms of ‘criticality’ in complexity biology, a concept that seems to apply universally throughout biology. Criticality maximizes information processing and sensitivity of response to external stimuli, and for these reasons may be held to optimize regulation. In this way a definition of health has been given in terms of regulation, a scientific concept, which ties into detailed properties of complex systems, including brain cortices, and mental health. Models of experience and meditation built on complexity also point to criticality: it represents the condition making self-awareness possible, and is strengthened by meditation practices leading to the state of pure consciousness—the content-free state of mind in deep meditation. From this it follows that healthy function of the brain cortex, its sensitivity,y and consistency of response to external challenges should improve by practicing techniques leading to content-free awareness—transcending the original focus introduced during practice. Evidence for this is reviewed.     

Abortion and the struggle to be good in the 1970s

OBJECTIVE: This study used social science methodology to illuminate an important clinical question that had been inaccessible to researchers until the 1970s. The question was what effect did an abortion have on normally rule abiding women. Abortion had been presumed to be illegal until a judicial decision in 1969. In 1972 Australia's first abortion clinic was established, and the participants in this study were the women who attended it in 1974. This study was the first of its kind in Australia. METHOD: Interviews were conducted with 32 women who had a lawful termination of pregnancy and who agreed to be interviewed one year later. 84% of women agreed to follow-up contact, and 34 were contacted. Social science theory about deviance, social stigma and norm violation was used to inform the study. RESULTS: Single, nulliparous women, were troubled by the potential exposure of their rule breaking sexual activity. The abortion was in part an action taken to preserve their persona as competent, moral beings capable of taking care of themselves. The abortion was the sensible next step in managing a missed menstrual period, the back up when contraception or plans for love and marriage failed. These women took mothering seriously and had an abortion to avoid becoming inadequate mothers. Abortion was a challenge to the married women's sense of themselves as good mothers, and their motives related to good mothering. The working class women had histories of managing tough and challenging life events, and they used the strengths, skills and networks they had established and applied those to the abortion decision. CONCLUSION: The most important and frequent effect of abortion was to make women feel more competent in managing their lives. The skills required to locate and access an abortion clinic against a backdrop of general social disapproval, expanded their sense of themselves as actors in their own lives. Their stories, as well as networks of support, enabled them to integrate abortion into their sense of themselves as good women.     

On letting go: the patient, haemodialysis and opting out

The title of this article refers not only to the patient who decides to let go of life, the quality of which on dialysis is such that death is preferable, but also to the family and the renal unit staff who have to let go of the patient who makes this decision. One such case is described in detail since the problem is not one restricted to the treatment of end-stage renal failure alone, but occurs more and more frequently in other branches of medicine and surgery.     

Sleeping with the enemy: clock monitoring in the maintenance of insomnia

Two experiments that aimed to investigate the association between clock monitoring, pre-sleep worry and sleep are presented. In Experiment 1, 30 good and 30 poor sleepers were instructed either to monitor or not to monitor a clock as they were trying to get to sleep. Worry was indexed by self-rating. Sleep was measured by self-report and actigraphy. Compared to non-monitors, clock-monitors reported more pre-sleep worry and they experienced longer sleep onset latency (SOL). These findings held true for both good and poor sleepers. In Experiment 2, following one night of baseline measurement, 38 individuals diagnosed with primary insomnia were instructed to monitor either a clock or a digit display unit (a control monitoring task) as they were trying to get to sleep. The clock-monitoring task was rated to be more worry provoking and sleep interfering than the display unit-monitoring task. Whilst display unit-monitors experienced less pre-sleep worry, the clock-monitors experienced more pre-sleep worry and reported a longer SOL on the experimental night, relative to baseline. Further, compared to the display unit-monitors, the clock-monitors overestimated their SOL more on the experimental night. Together, these findings suggest that clock monitoring may trigger pre-sleep worry and serve to maintain insomnia by fuelling pre-sleep worry and exacerbating misperception of sleep.     

Oxidative stress: the old enemy in Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology

The complex nature and genesis of oxidative damage in Alzheimer disease can be partly answered by mitochondrial and redox-active metal abnormalities. By releasing high levels of hydrogen peroxide, dysfunctional mitochondria propagate a series of interactions between redox-active metals and oxidative response elements. In the initial phase of disease development, amyloid-beta deposition and hyperphosphorylated tau may function as compensatory responses and downstream adaptations to ensure that neuronal cells do not succumb to oxidative injuries. However, during the progression of the disease, the antioxidant activity of both agents evolves into pro-oxidant activity representing a typical gain-of-function transformation, which can result from an increase in reactive species and a decrease in clearance mechanisms.     

Protective autoimmunity against the enemy within: fighting glutamate toxicity

Glutamate, a key neurotransmitter, is pivotal to CNS function. Alterations in its concentration can be dangerous, as seen for example in acute injuries of the CNS, chronic neurodegenerative disorders and mental disorders. Its homeostasis is attributed to the efficient removal of glutamate from the extracellular milieu by reuptake via local transport mechanisms. Our recent studies suggest that glutamate, either directly or indirectly, elicits a purposeful systemic T-cell-mediated immune response directed against immunodominant self-antigens that reside at the site of glutamate-induced damage. We suggest that the harnessed autoimmunity (which we have termed 'protective autoimmunity') helps the resident microglia in their dual function as antigen-presenting cells (serving the immune system) and as cells that clear the damaged site of potentially harmful material (serving the nervous system). The interplay between glutamate and an adaptive immune response illustrates the bidirectional dialog between the immune and nervous systems, under both physiological and pathological conditions. These results point to the possible development of a therapeutic vaccination with self-antigens, or with antigens cross-reactive with self-antigens, as a way to augment autoimmunity without inducing an autoimmune disease, thus providing a safe method of limiting degeneration. This approach, which boosts a physiological mechanism for the regulation of glutamate, and possibly also that of other self-compounds, might prove to be a feasible strategy for therapeutic protection against glutamate-associated neurodegenerative or mental disorders.     

Geographic information has to be spatialized to be neglected: a representational neglect case

A patient with unilateral neglect had to evoke mentally the map of France in two different conditions. In the first condition, he was asked to build an iconic representation of the map of France and to list all the towns that he could 'see' on this mental image within two minutes. In the second condition, he had to remember and name as many French towns as possible within two minutes, without being instructed to form a mental image. Left representational neglect was observed in the first condition only, i.e., when an iconic representation was required. These findings, which were replicated four months later, suggest a dual mode of coding, retrieval, or both, of geographic information and show that, although topographic, geographic data has to be spatialized to be neglected.