Relationships were investigated between home practice of mindfulness meditation exercises and levels of mindfulness, medical and psychological symptoms, perceived stress, and psychological well-being in a sample of 174 adults in a clinical Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. This is an 8- session group program for individuals dealing with stress-related problems, illness, anxiety, and chronic pain. Participants completed measures of mindfulness, perceived stress, symptoms, and well-being at pre- and post-MBSR, and monitored their home practice time throughout the intervention. Results showed increases in mindfulness and well-being, and decreases in stress and symptoms, from pre- to post-MBSR. Time spent engaging in home practice of formal meditation exercises (body scan, yoga, sitting meditation) was significantly related to extent of improvement in most facets of mindfulness and several measures of symptoms and well-being. Increases in mindfulness were found to mediate the relationships between formal mindfulness practice and improvements in psychological functioning, suggesting that the practice of mindfulness meditation leads to increases in mindfulness, which in turn leads to symptom reduction and improved well-being.

J Behav Med. 2007 Sep 25 Carmody J, Baer RA. Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Shaw Building, Room 214, 55 Lake Ave North, Worcester, MA, 01655, USA, james.carmody@umassmed.edu.

by Jonathan D. Cowan, Ph.D.

(This is an abstract from an article which appeared in Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine Volume Seventeen, Number Two)

This paper proposes a new understanding of the relationship between brain, mind and other biofields based in the emergent properties of the brain's parallel structure, which creates a brain "laser." Several thalamocoritical rhythms, including a 40 cycle per second oscillation associated with event scanning and a faster EEG rhythm found in healers and others, are hypothesized to give rise to coherent electromagnetic radiation, as well as multifaceted coherent radiation in the additional dimensions posited by string theory. These rhythms cause repetitive excitation of the sugar/protein coatings of the parallel axons of the thalamocoratical columns. The synchronous excitation of these glycocalyxes of the parallel columns will cause similar chemical bonds to resonate and entrain one another, giving rise to coherent radiation. This electromagnetic/multifaceted radiation forms highly complex interference patterns (termed "mentaholomorphic fields") when they interact with each other and the electromagnetic/multifaceted activity in the cortical layers. The resulting mentaholomorphic fields may be related to thought, mind and particular sates of consciousness.

Jonathan D. Cowan, Ph.D. Peak Achievement Training 1103 Hollendale Way. Goshen, KY 40026 jon@peakachievement.com