Meditation Healing Process
The Validity of Meditation as a Healing Process according to Jovanov
Jovanov's (1995) study seeks to legitimize the role of meditation in the healing process by focusing on the activity of brain processes during meditation using special methodology and software. "Subtle EEG changes" are monitored and characterized according to behavioral patterns based on static and dynamic analysis (Jovanov, 1995). By using EEG as a window into "consciousness," the study opens up the door to the possibility of meditation acting as a healing process.
The history of EEG as a window onto altered states "is well established" according to Jovanov (1995), although subtle changes are less easy to detect. Nonetheless, subtleties do themselves register in EEG monitoring. Yet, while the relationship between altered states and physiological brain activity appears affirmative, understanding how the relationship works is still relatively unclear, as the exact process used by the brain to intercept information fragments produced by neurons to form cohesive thought perception.
Using the engineering approach with Self as "black box," perception acts as a conduit for sensory and extrasensory inputs, and action acts as the conduit for outputs such as thoughts, feelings, actions, etc. Consciousness serves as the central command between perception and action, processing the...
Because altered states generate different inputs and outputs, Jovanov indicates that either "internal signal generators" inside Consciousness acting as "control loops" or "extrasensory inputs" engaging with perception are a cause of altered action outputs.
The main focus of Jovanov's study is how meditation relates to healing processes, as the two signify input-consciousness and action respectively. This is done by monitoring alpha activity, alpha rhythm, theta waves, synchronization, sensory dissociation, transcendent signals, and fast wave activity. The results of this analysis showed that the brain activity of an individual meditating for healing shifted its power spectrum with slower frequencies and symmetrical spatial distribution. Alpha activity decreased and alpha frequency increased. Low-frequency changes that standard EEG analysis would fail to identify was seen by the software developed by Jovanov.
All of this indicates that there is a connection between altered states and the psycho-physiology of the healing process. Meditation affects the input (sensory and extrasensory) range of the perception block, and the Consciousness block employs signal generators that affect action-oriented outputs. The role of meditation as a facilitator of altered states is not directly explored in this study, but the affects of meditation are monitored in a…
