i love meditating. im 18 years old and i've been doing it for about half my life. i have always felt refreshed and understood what's happening in my life more which i like to correlate with my world line and correlating back out of the monkey brain and into the universe
Many if not most of the meditation methods incorporate focusing on your breathing. That function (breathing) is one of the few functions of our bodies that is beeing controlled both by our conscious mind ( holding your breath) and our automatic part of our brains. There is a theory stating that through focusing on this function we guide our conscious mind in to the unconscious and automated part of our brains and in time we can make changes in a conscious way to these autonomous functions like pain sensing, digestion, temperature control ( homeostasis), heart beat, you name it we might be able to do it. In support of this, like the good doctor said, there's a notable pfisical change in the pre frontal cortex, that might just be the additional neuropathways, connections and additional neurons for consciously processing all those signals involving the "hoodoo" we are doing with our bodies and minds! Great episode!
I'm in my 30's and growing up I had never really heard or understood anxiety. I was much like Neil in the aspects of logically piecing things together. However, recently I experienced it. It's something you don't understand until you experience it. Exercise has helped. Meditation was on the list to try next. This video helped.
I wish I could tell Dr Tyson : "If you want to be happier, you can just smile all day, every day." Because, I walked around with a smile, saying "There is no reason not to smile." That makes me feel like the happiest person in the world! I constantly think of things that I am glad about. Please try to keep a smile on your face for days. 😃
If your mind is worried, jumping around, reacting to everything and anything without a filter and making no effort to really think consistently about anything, you can't function normally. Meditation can help you to control your moods, mind, and your life.
@@seyaresmati7320 ironic that they’re worried about you more than you are worried about you. There’s nothing to worry about, except worry itself. Anything I’ve ever worried about was born out of a society bent on creating unnecessary anxiety pertaining to issues that are ultimately irrelevant. Am I doing my job well enough? What if I get fired for oversleeping? For being late due to a previous car accident? Am I going to succeed in life? What if I don’t? As you can see, most of my personal worries revolve around money. But not so much money, as being able to eat, stay warm and dry, and be safe. Basic Maslows hierarchy of needs stuff. What a shame.
Life is to short to worry about anything! Hug and kiss the people you love every day and let them know you love them. Then meditate. When i first started i got frustrated with myself because my brain was having 40 thoughts a second. The secret is breath deeply and slowly. Let your brain have the thoughts dont worry about them just let them flow past you, if you find yourself caught up in a thought its ok just come back to your breathing and concentrate on the in and out this will train your brain. It takes practice but when you get the hang of it you will never think or feel the same again. Love for yourself and others is heightened. Your focus, energy. I could go on but trust me when your in the zone its like a different reality to what your used to, your thoughts are so clear its the best thing i ever tought myself. And think it should be taught in schools
@@Sammasambuddha You are correct. Sometimes I will begin to write one thought and then change it without changing some of the words to reflect the new thought. This is the case. I have edited it. Thank you for catching it.
I had that same experience as Neil at the funeral when I was very young. Even now, I get annoyed when movies/ads/etc. are intentionally trying to force emotions onto the audience...to the point of cynicism. Makes it hard to maintain intimate relationships, sadly. I cant stop myself from thinking logically about others emotional responses and judging if they are sincere or valid. Has served me well though!
Wouldve been awesome if Neil also added at the end not only keep looking up, but this time thematically also keep looking IN! Apart from that, this was one of the most interesting episodes for me. Big THANK YOU for that!
When Niel talked about how we as a species used to think to ourselves how we would never be able to understand space but now we have facts, truths that can't be debated. I immediately thought about how not that long ago we would take the lives of (probably) good people just because they were misunderstood and called witches... this is a good example of "it has to get messier before it gets clean". Right now there are people breaking down the brain so we can in the future build it better than ever!
Heather Berlin and Janna Levin are by far my fave guests. My ASD brain has a pre-existing special interest in psychology and Sagan's Cosmos, an impulse buy online as the DVDs were going cheap, drove me to a place of curiosity about all things space and science communication. Thanks for the continuation of Cosmos btw, I just recently started Possible worlds on Disney+. Neuroscience and black holes... things that inspire genuine awe in me.
I’ve said this for years: the true currency in this world today is our attention. I struggle so much with this and I want to be more intentional to give my mind regular pauses throughout the day.
Thanks for this one guys. I wasn't previously too familiar with Dan. Thanks to this video I bought his book and it unexpectedly set me on a new journey.
When I combine meditation with deep breathing I feel my body settle down and if I place a pulse oximeter on my finger I can watch my pulse come down. If I place a blood pressure cuff on my arm I can bring my blood pressure come down. With meditation and deep breathing, my mind stops jumping around, my breathing settles and afterwards I feel relaxed and at peace with myself. "Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still." Lesson 221, ACIM
Heather Berlin is the one and only reason I opted to listen to Neil explain the Grandfather Paradox for what is quite likely the 38th time. Add Janna Levin into the mix, and I'll gladly watch it 50 times more. put Chuck in a cute little sundress and who knows how many times I'll sit through it. 😁
At 39.51 the answer mr Tyson is every persons brain and ability are so different that they go in the machine, it then creates a new trauma, or only deals with one.certain conditions are traumatic all the time for many many reasons not just one. Sometimes an horrific or grief event should never be fixed it’s part of who we as humans are. Keep bringing us complex yet attainable info on us, the stars and beyond.
Thank you for this episode. Very interesting and good to hear! I want to push back on Neil's characterization of psychology as being young and immature as a field. The modern, western approach is relatively young. Sorry to be so long-winded! The topic here was meditation, which has a long history of investigation and documentation going back thousands of years. Buddhist practice goes back 2,500 years, and Buddhism evolved from already very established traditions of investigations into the nature of mind, the relationship between the mind and the body, and the relationship between individual mental/physical states and society. Of course, meditation teachers of 500 BCE couldn't know about cortisol or neurotransmitters, just as Galileo didn't know about the Higgs field. But just as pervious generations of physicists made discoveries that were powerful and useful, the Indian investigators of the mind also made discoveries, documented them, and developed training regimens that predictably and reproducibly had certain effects. For example, they developed physical and mental (yogic) practices that allowed one to be calmer and exert control over things like heart rate, breathing, pain (as Heather Berlin described). They found that, after a certain amount of training, you could teach visualizations that would allow most people to control their skin temperature (tummo yoga). They found particular practices for enhancing compassion and kindness. I'm thinking here of a meditative practice where you progressively imagine people more and more distant from you as being the in role of your loving mother (if you have a problem with your mother, you can pick someone else). There are entire curricula on how to develop your mental control, emotional stability, and how to interact more thoughtfully and kindly with others, and many of those practices don't need any particular religious grounding. The Dalai Lama has been pushing to have non-religious versions of these practices taught in schools so that children can learn to have better emotional control and be happier (maybe even more than 10% happier :-). We have already seen that mindfulness-based stress reduction (mindfulness meditation practice taken out of any religious context) can result in measurable improvements in people's lives. The combination of the traditional observations and trainings with modern neuroscience is very exciting! I hope that what the ancient mystics discovered through lots of trial and error and often mixed with various other cultural and philosophical views, can be understood and expanded more quickly with modern tools like FMRI and modern understanding of neurochemistry! Again, I'm sorry for the long note. Take as a sign of my enthusiasm for this topic --- thank you so much, and I hope there will be more!
I’m not gonna lie I love all the episodes I really love the show but I have to say I like the longer videos far better it gives you more time to explain what your talking about for the less educated such as myself I wish they were longer than an hour too I think from what you said on the joe rogan show you underestimate people’s attention span when it comes to learning stuff we never knew We wanted or needed to know and not just learning it but learning it in a fun way the comedy and just relatable atmosphere that you produce on the show it makes us constantly want to learn more because we aren’t just learning we are being entertained and not often enough do we get to do both at the same time it makes learning almost addictive I get genuinely disappointed when there isnt a show or is only a short show because when I come home from work I have to learn something to complete my daily checklist and I don’t feel like I learn Enough in a 15 minute video to give me something to ponder on later Amd I don’t feel I retain as much information from the shorter videos I’m sorry for the rant and thank you guys for the show and the knowledge 🍀🧑🚀🖖
I come back to check the list, Review what I've forgotten & go back over things of which I'm not sure I remember. I have a deep appreciation for the long-form as well thanks to these tools!
this really crazy bc I was just thinking about this a few weeks ago. I’m 23 and have been meditating for since I was in middle school. and to try to give my answer to neil’s question of is their meditation for comedians; I’ve been thinking about this topic for a minute and I’ve concluded that it HAS to be improv. improvisation and the “flow state” in general are areas of studies that I think are HIGHLY underrated
I’m live commenting and I just got to where neil was talking about how meditation related to him, it sounds like neil has very high mental fortitude. meditation allows you to understand WHY that is and how it has shaped you and pushed you into a certain direction. is that good direction? what it is a good direction??.. and the rabbit whole continues lol
also I think that we haven’t made any headway on consciousness bc we already have the answers. it’s art! it’s language! improv! improv exercises your ability to connect with consciousness. and of course we know how to control people. that’s why propaganda, music, movies, etc work! some ppl are really good and making you feel a certain way. of course they do, bc we are all the same, just different flavors 🤷🏽♂️
Just try to be happy, set the goals aside and practice compassion, everyone is fighting a harder battle. No need to hate anything, and do not abandon the physical, we are here to help each other to enjoy the physical ☮️
My Grandfather on my father's side of the family passed away and I was 13 and I was an emotional wreck focused on the loss. My Grandfather on my mother's side of the family passed away and I was 30 and I felt content and happy that my grandfather lived and now I too get to live a life. I was not challenging my emotions nor did I let them control. I accepted what was and did not focus on what I could not control.
At 36:00, It's important to point out that not only are different dosages of different drugs tried, but each try takes time, often around a month or more. So, it's rarely immediately noticeable once you start getting better. And then, one day you react completely differently to something than you would have prior to treatment, and it hits you: Holy Crap, this stuff actually WORKS.
Excellent episode Neil, Marcia, Dan and Heather. Have always used a form of meditation to relax and go to sleep at night or when traveling on airplanes. Sometimes the monkey mind wins though and that makes for a long trip or sleepless night. Thank you all.
Yessss its happening, i've wanted this video for ages. Conversations that count, keep this conversation going, so good. Symbiotic lifestyles and a scientific and psychological approach. all good stuff. ty Neil and co, never disappoint.
just have to clarify, i love physics talks from you all but i personally walk a path between objective truths and subjective truths since many in my circle act based on subjective truths. its so important to understand context and which of the two any given situation falls under. I've found meditation to have many objective benefits and with it being somewhat objective, a scientific approach can more easily be used to study it. Sadly again my circle to a very airy fairy approach to it and this conversation is what I've been waiting for xD
58:00 I stopped meditating consistently when I learned how to discharge neural firings. I get the same result without the stretches, poses or introspection.
I once memorized a 100 random digit number using a memory palace, and I have memory problems. It was mind blowing watching the numbers line up side by side in my mind as I recited them. It stuck for about a week unattended. The mind is vastly powerful and plastic.
@@loveandaffection4743 In my case it didn't seem to help my memory. I focused on the specific task of memorizing the numbers to see how far a memory palace could actually go because it was obvious at that time that it could remember things that I couldn't in a normal manner. It's like a memory workaround or hack, but the more complex it is the more more often you need to go back and tend to it, but if you do you can create some astonishing things. I've heard of people that run simple code or machines because each component is an intentional memory marker. I've never gone that deep, just the number thing one time. But you have to remember to tend your memory palace, that's my problem lol.
@@loveandaffection4743 You can create a mind palace for literally anything. You can create infinite number of them, each representing different things you would like to remember. :)
Case in point about playing through things.......I literally destroyed my last year of playing hockey the first game in after someone landed on my leg in the butterfly position(goalie, down on knees with legs spread outwards) and hearing a pop. I had torn my MCL and it might not have been as bad, had I just left the game. Although it was painful, I still played through it and just couldn't go down on my knees again without taking a bit to get up. The worst part, is the recovery, in the winter time, on any part of your leg. You slip'n'slide in snow and as much as I love to slide on purpose(you'll never fall when you know you're going to slide), but not with this injury. Literally every step with that leg was painful, probably making it worse to boot. That was through a metal brace to keep my leg as straight as possible. Oh yeah, then I broke my leg ankle a year after recovering from the left MCL tear. Oh, those were the days! My pain tolerance has shot way up though! lol
When I was a small child i would wonder why I couldn't choose to like foods that my parents enjoyed (asparagus, broccoli, ext...). When i started experimenting with meditation as a teenager i noticed a disconnect between my conscious and unconscious mind that could explain the things in my mind that I couldn't change (like and dislike of foods, ect...). As an adult while experimenting with mind altering drugs I noticed my subconscious solving high level math that my conscious self had no idea how to solve. My experience with meditation has shown me a part of myself that is separate from my conscious mind and controls variable assignment and calculations, whether it be pure math or more meta calculations (King - man + woman = queen)
Neil you should have Ajahn Brahm a former Theoretical Physicist from Cambridge turned Monk on the show ...can't wait for the second edition on meditation ..Ajahn Brahm is a master of Jhanas ...deep states of Bliss in meditation.
Oh, I know lots of meditations! Ways of explaining them, and practicing them. Meditating with music is to relax your body, stimulate the brain. Listen to something without words, to help carry focus on whatever it is that has you meditating. I use it to write, among other things ALSO reading is a form of meditation. So is sleep. Anything that makes you "time fly" can be considered meditative.
"You can't do meditation, you can become meditative. It's a quality not an act. And to put it very simply of what meditation is. It's being a little away between you and your mind between you and your body" ~ Sadhguru
You can feel sorry for someone, but it doesn't mean that you have to be sad because of their problems, sickness, etc; unless if it's a relative or close friend.
I like this subject. I majored in college physics and star gazing and i have the basics pretty well secured. But when there is something new with a little science (and does not require spelling), i am quick to absorb the info. In other words i scan the "explainers" listen more intently to the beyond "explainers". If lord chuck hears this, i use his reactions to better adapt my explanations to freinds & family.
Loved it! I wonder what would Neil’s reaction be at the same funeral at this point of his life… ? Does he feel a little bad or guilty? When I meditate I feel more compassionate, I 🤔
Instead of making me laugh the movie Don't Look Up made me cry and then gave me a panic attack at the end. Edit and no I'm not joking I was hyperventilating. The sad semi reality of it all really sent me into a downward spiral.
15:40 The name you're all struggling to remember is *Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.* His branded style meditation is called *Transcendental Meditation.* You're welcome.
so not really a missconception, but a lot of people has the mental image that Meditation is just Sitting on the floor & deep breathing, but there are other ways to make your brain stop thinking actively to reach a meditative state, from things like Zen gardens & origami to straight up just playing Pac-Man & getting in the Zone.
For me ,playing piano works greatly as well as little repetitive tasks like washing dishes or using a vacuum cleaner that allows you to focus on little things.
wow the way he put it on how mediating works is out of this world. The whole point is to see how chaotic your mind is and to learn how your mind thinks!!wow great guest!!!
I think his desire for adversity during a challenge and the reward for it comes from the influence of such writers as Fyodor Dostoyevsky because a lot of such work will convey that those struggles often bear brighter fruits if I can use that as an analogy. In much the way as a physical obstacle coarse can be fun, it's just a cognitive obstacle coarse instead.
quite interesting about the crying at funerals thing, I've never cried at a funeral, felt sad, obviously, but crying itself seemed pointless, the deceased in question wouldn't want people to cry, they'd want everyone to keep on with their lives and remember them fondly
You do not need meditation if you know your place in the universe and keep your mind always connected to that thought. But for some meditation is the path to get there.
[ 13:43 ] I loved this definition of Meditation. I think this is THEE definition; to get your mind to work on ONE THING. I like it, and he's right-- it is an exercise/ trainning, and the more you do it--the more your mind/ you get better at it. : ]
The main goal of meditation is not to improve oneself. Although it has a lot of benefits. The more important thing in meditation is that it is a tool to recognize that there is no meditator by breaking the illusion of self and not identifying with thought. Because ego is an illusion based on some feelings and thoughts. For example you can not know what your next thought is going to be. Thoughts are also a happening just like objects you see or sounds you hear. People who suffered, best understand how meditation works if you are one of lucky persons in world like Neil which says he never gets anxious, you might not find meditation interesting. And it is much likely you will misunderstand it. Sitting down and thinking is not meditation.
I find my inner chatter something that I like, I like to be critic of my self, still I will try meditation just to gain control of it more than anything because I know how horrible it can be when you lose control of it
All this advice from psychiatrists are coherent with Orthodox Christianity beliefs. A mean like: be calm, polite, help others, don't be lazy, envious, judgemental, don't focus on material stuff. I am not that religious, but I was in my high school years and I learned so much during that period. So I think religion has emancipatory role that can help you so much, while you don't have to be superstitious about anything.
It is such a shame that this show has not improved its format. Neil has 14.6M followers on twitter but only 1.76M here, I wonder why.... He could reach so many more people & help the world so much more. You can tell from this channel that there is a specific audience they are going for.
SUN TSU from 544 wrote the art of war, while it is not the beginnings of psychology etymologically his writings show that the art of understanding the mind has been around a long time.
Meditation is a practice of developing uninterrupted awareness of truth as it is.. not as you would like it to be, but as it is. This way we train our perceptive and reactive part of the mind. We train it to first see things as they really are, before reacting on the basis of false perception. You can imagine how this would be beneficial to an individual and hence to humanity :). The actual task of what to do when meditating is simple, yet very difficult to persist that simple practice. It helps us to see how truly out of control we really are of ourselves. :) In my opinion any meditation practice which utilizes truth as it's basis or tool, instead of imagination, is most beneficial.
@@AbishekAmbrose Any scientific proof is derived from what is “observable”. Meditation is a practice of observing yourself, no one else can do that for you. If you are looking for proof of the benifits of meditation, then don’t look for it from a random guy named Anand Naik on the internet :). You have to try it and see for yourself.
What have your experiences with meditation been like?
I like forest bathing.
i love meditating. im 18 years old and i've been doing it for about half my life. i have always felt refreshed and understood what's happening in my life more which i like to correlate with my world line and correlating back out of the monkey brain and into the universe
Many if not most of the meditation methods incorporate focusing on your breathing. That function (breathing) is one of the few functions of our bodies that is beeing controlled both by our conscious mind ( holding your breath) and our automatic part of our brains.
There is a theory stating that through focusing on this function we guide our conscious mind in to the unconscious and automated part of our brains and in time we can make changes in a conscious way to these autonomous functions like pain sensing, digestion, temperature control ( homeostasis), heart beat, you name it we might be able to do it.
In support of this, like the good doctor said, there's a notable pfisical change in the pre frontal cortex, that might just be the additional neuropathways, connections and additional neurons for consciously processing all those signals involving the "hoodoo" we are doing with our bodies and minds!
Great episode!
Meditation has been a primary solution to my depression. Also improves many unexpected areas of your life, so I suggest it for everyone.
If Neil would quit bringing 1 percenters on to his show I’d be a lot happier…
I'm in my 30's and growing up I had never really heard or understood anxiety. I was much like Neil in the aspects of logically piecing things together. However, recently I experienced it. It's something you don't understand until you experience it.
Exercise has helped. Meditation was on the list to try next. This video helped.
I wish I could tell Dr Tyson : "If you want to be happier, you can just smile all day, every day." Because, I walked around with a smile, saying "There is no reason not to smile." That makes me feel like the happiest person in the world! I constantly think of things that I am glad about. Please try to keep a smile on your face for days. 😃
This is how i got committed,
To a mental hospital
If your mind is worried, jumping around, reacting to everything and anything without a filter and making no effort to really think consistently about anything, you can't function normally. Meditation can help you to control your moods, mind, and your life.
I have this problem, people tell me I don't care enough but I cant help it I'm never really worried about life..
@@seyaresmati7320 ironic that they’re worried about you more than you are worried about you. There’s nothing to worry about, except worry itself.
Anything I’ve ever worried about was born out of a society bent on creating unnecessary anxiety pertaining to issues that are ultimately irrelevant. Am I doing my job well enough? What if I get fired for oversleeping? For being late due to a previous car accident? Am I going to succeed in life? What if I don’t? As you can see, most of my personal worries revolve around money. But not so much money, as being able to eat, stay warm and dry, and be safe. Basic Maslows hierarchy of needs stuff.
What a shame.
Life is to short to worry about anything! Hug and kiss the people you love every day and let them know you love them. Then meditate. When i first started i got frustrated with myself because my brain was having 40 thoughts a second. The secret is breath deeply and slowly. Let your brain have the thoughts dont worry about them just let them flow past you, if you find yourself caught up in a thought its ok just come back to your breathing and concentrate on the in and out this will train your brain. It takes practice but when you get the hang of it you will never think or feel the same again. Love for yourself and others is heightened. Your focus, energy. I could go on but trust me when your in the zone its like a different reality to what your used to, your thoughts are so clear its the best thing i ever tought myself. And think it should be taught in schools
Did you mean...
If your mind IS worried...
?
@@Sammasambuddha You are correct. Sometimes I will begin to write one thought and then change it without changing some of the words to reflect the new thought. This is the case. I have edited it. Thank you for catching it.
I've read 10% Happier and it's a great book. I have much respect for Dan. Great guest (have him back).
my uncle passed away last night and this is a beautiful topic to hear. weird/beautiful how things work
My deepest condolences
I know it's been a year, but i'm very sorry for your loss
I had that same experience as Neil at the funeral when I was very young. Even now, I get annoyed when movies/ads/etc. are intentionally trying to force emotions onto the audience...to the point of cynicism. Makes it hard to maintain intimate relationships, sadly. I cant stop myself from thinking logically about others emotional responses and judging if they are sincere or valid. Has served me well though!
It is always a joy to see Dr. Berlin.
Wouldve been awesome if Neil also added at the end not only keep looking up, but this time thematically also keep looking IN! Apart from that, this was one of the most interesting episodes for me. Big THANK YOU for that!
Decided to join my kids at the library today and saw this book on the shelf!
Serendipity and perfect timing. Have just read a few chapters.
I'm really glad you guys did this episode. Wow did not expect Neil to bring up Maha Raji. Sorry if I misspelled his name.
When Niel talked about how we as a species used to think to ourselves how we would never be able to understand space but now we have facts, truths that can't be debated. I immediately thought about how not that long ago we would take the lives of (probably) good people just because they were misunderstood and called witches... this is a good example of "it has to get messier before it gets clean". Right now there are people breaking down the brain so we can in the future build it better than ever!
Are you familiar with Robert Sapolsky's work?? If not, take a look.. and a listen! There's a gazillion podcasts and lectures on youtube
Heather is my all time favorite guest/correspondent
Heather Berlin and Janna Levin are by far my fave guests. My ASD brain has a pre-existing special interest in psychology and Sagan's Cosmos, an impulse buy online as the DVDs were going cheap, drove me to a place of curiosity about all things space and science communication.
Thanks for the continuation of Cosmos btw, I just recently started Possible worlds on Disney+.
Neuroscience and black holes... things that inspire genuine awe in me.
I’ve said this for years: the true currency in this world today is our attention. I struggle so much with this and I want to be more intentional to give my mind regular pauses throughout the day.
Simply put, this was very enlightening. I hope you will produce a Part 2 to this topic. Thanks so much.
Thanks for this one guys. I wasn't previously too familiar with Dan. Thanks to this video I bought his book and it unexpectedly set me on a new journey.
When I combine meditation with deep breathing I feel my body settle down and if I place a pulse oximeter on my finger I can watch my pulse come down. If I place a blood pressure cuff on my arm I can bring my blood pressure come down. With meditation and deep breathing, my mind stops jumping around, my breathing settles and afterwards I feel relaxed and at peace with myself.
"Peace to my mind. Let all my thoughts be still." Lesson 221, ACIM
Learning every day, thanks for more one episode (now about the mind). This was wonderful to think about!
All right!
Heather Berlin is ALWAYS a good guest.
Well done Startalk!
They always have a good comedic guests. Love Chuck as well - he is AWESOME !
Excellent educative interactive talk. I meditate 5 times a day in my Islamic compulsory collective prayers.
Heather Berlin is the one and only reason I opted to listen to Neil explain the Grandfather Paradox for what is quite likely the 38th time. Add Janna Levin into the mix, and I'll gladly watch it 50 times more. put Chuck in a cute little sundress and who knows how many times I'll sit through it. 😁
At 39.51 the answer mr Tyson is every persons brain and ability are so different that they go in the machine, it then creates a new trauma, or only deals with one.certain conditions are traumatic all the time for many many reasons not just one. Sometimes an horrific or grief event should never be fixed it’s part of who we as humans are. Keep bringing us complex yet attainable info on us, the stars and beyond.
I come to Neil when I want to learn. I ALWAYS want to learn.
Thank you for this episode. Very interesting and good to hear!
I want to push back on Neil's characterization of psychology as being young and immature as a field. The modern, western approach is relatively young. Sorry to be so long-winded!
The topic here was meditation, which has a long history of investigation and documentation going back thousands of years. Buddhist practice goes back 2,500 years, and Buddhism evolved from already very established traditions of investigations into the nature of mind, the relationship between the mind and the body, and the relationship between individual mental/physical states and society.
Of course, meditation teachers of 500 BCE couldn't know about cortisol or neurotransmitters, just as Galileo didn't know about the Higgs field. But just as pervious generations of physicists made discoveries that were powerful and useful, the Indian investigators of the mind also made discoveries, documented them, and developed training regimens that predictably and reproducibly had certain effects. For example, they developed physical and mental (yogic) practices that allowed one to be calmer and exert control over things like heart rate, breathing, pain (as Heather Berlin described). They found that, after a certain amount of training, you could teach visualizations that would allow most people to control their skin temperature (tummo yoga). They found particular practices for enhancing compassion and kindness. I'm thinking here of a meditative practice where you progressively imagine people more and more distant from you as being the in role of your loving mother (if you have a problem with your mother, you can pick someone else).
There are entire curricula on how to develop your mental control, emotional stability, and how to interact more thoughtfully and kindly with others, and many of those practices don't need any particular religious grounding. The Dalai Lama has been pushing to have non-religious versions of these practices taught in schools so that children can learn to have better emotional control and be happier (maybe even more than 10% happier :-). We have already seen that mindfulness-based stress reduction (mindfulness meditation practice taken out of any religious context) can result in measurable improvements in people's lives.
The combination of the traditional observations and trainings with modern neuroscience is very exciting! I hope that what the ancient mystics discovered through lots of trial and error and often mixed with various other cultural and philosophical views, can be understood and expanded more quickly with modern tools like FMRI and modern understanding of neurochemistry!
Again, I'm sorry for the long note. Take as a sign of my enthusiasm for this topic --- thank you so much, and I hope there will be more!
Interesting
I’m not gonna lie I love all the episodes I really love the show but I have to say I like the longer videos far better it gives you more time to explain what your talking about for the less educated such as myself I wish they were longer than an hour too I think from what you said on the joe rogan show you underestimate people’s attention span when it comes to learning stuff we never knew We wanted or needed to know and not just learning it but learning it in a fun way the comedy and just relatable atmosphere that you produce on the show it makes us constantly want to learn more because we aren’t just learning we are being entertained and not often enough do we get to do both at the same time it makes learning almost addictive I get genuinely disappointed when there isnt a show or is only a short show because when I come home from work I have to learn something to complete my daily checklist and I don’t feel like I learn Enough in a 15 minute video to give me something to ponder on later Amd I don’t feel I retain as much information from the shorter videos I’m sorry for the rant and thank you guys for the show and the knowledge 🍀🧑🚀🖖
I come back to check the list, Review what I've forgotten & go back over things of which I'm not sure I remember. I have a deep appreciation for the long-form as well thanks to these tools!
Scientifically, indicates that at LEAST fourteen people agree with you!
Love the broad scale of topics that yall talk about.. Keep up the great work Startalk peeps!
Amazing episode! Thank you, Dr. Neil, Marcia, and Dr. Berlin.
this really crazy bc I was just thinking about this a few weeks ago. I’m 23 and have been meditating for since I was in middle school. and to try to give my answer to neil’s question of is their meditation for comedians; I’ve been thinking about this topic for a minute and I’ve concluded that it HAS to be improv. improvisation and the “flow state” in general are areas of studies that I think are HIGHLY underrated
I’m live commenting and I just got to where neil was talking about how meditation related to him, it sounds like neil has very high mental fortitude. meditation allows you to understand WHY that is and how it has shaped you and pushed you into a certain direction. is that good direction? what it is a good direction??.. and the rabbit whole continues lol
also I think that we haven’t made any headway on consciousness bc we already have the answers. it’s art! it’s language! improv! improv exercises your ability to connect with consciousness. and of course we know how to control people. that’s why propaganda, music, movies, etc work! some ppl are really good and making you feel a certain way. of course they do, bc we are all the same, just different flavors 🤷🏽♂️
Just try to be happy, set the goals aside and practice compassion, everyone is fighting a harder battle. No need to hate anything, and do not abandon the physical, we are here to help each other to enjoy the physical ☮️
I practice meditation. To me it means to simply Be present. & observe my thoughts 💭. ❤️ it! Would love to read Dan’s book!
His follow up book Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics is even better.
Marcia feeling angry with chill Tyson is our absolute spirit. D:
Great episode. Loved every second.
My Grandfather on my father's side of the family passed away and I was 13 and I was an emotional wreck focused on the loss. My Grandfather on my mother's side of the family passed away and I was 30 and I felt content and happy that my grandfather lived and now I too get to live a life. I was not challenging my emotions nor did I let them control. I accepted what was and did not focus on what I could not control.
Good on you.You now have good control of your mind.
I’m so jealous of your anxiety free mind. Great episode!
Love it. The less we know about this the more interesting it is. Can’t wait for next talk about this.
At 36:00,
It's important to point out that not only are different dosages of different drugs tried, but each try takes time, often around a month or more. So, it's rarely immediately noticeable once you start getting better. And then, one day you react completely differently to something than you would have prior to treatment, and it hits you: Holy Crap, this stuff actually WORKS.
Heather’s hair is always great.
Excellent episode Neil, Marcia, Dan and Heather. Have always used a form of meditation to relax and go to sleep at night or when traveling on airplanes. Sometimes the monkey mind wins though and that makes for a long trip or sleepless night. Thank you all.
Yessss its happening, i've wanted this video for ages. Conversations that count, keep this conversation going, so good. Symbiotic lifestyles and a scientific and psychological approach. all good stuff. ty Neil and co, never disappoint.
just have to clarify, i love physics talks from you all but i personally walk a path between objective truths and subjective truths since many in my circle act based on subjective truths. its so important to understand context and which of the two any given situation falls under. I've found meditation to have many objective benefits and with it being somewhat objective, a scientific approach can more easily be used to study it. Sadly again my circle to a very airy fairy approach to it and this conversation is what I've been waiting for xD
58:00 I stopped meditating consistently when I learned how to discharge neural firings. I get the same result without the stretches, poses or introspection.
Such a great episode
This video is so helpful Neil I was unhappy before I watched this thank you
Just watching this. Could this be brought back on again. With Sadghuru and others?
Always a great day for startalk!
I just get restless...I tried a 5 min meditation which helps me slow down my thinking.
I once memorized a 100 random digit number using a memory palace, and I have memory problems. It was mind blowing watching the numbers line up side by side in my mind as I recited them. It stuck for about a week unattended. The mind is vastly powerful and plastic.
That’s really cool.
Did you notice an improvement in your memory or is it good for specific things like random numbers?
@@loveandaffection4743 In my case it didn't seem to help my memory. I focused on the specific task of memorizing the numbers to see how far a memory palace could actually go because it was obvious at that time that it could remember things that I couldn't in a normal manner. It's like a memory workaround or hack, but the more complex it is the more more often you need to go back and tend to it, but if you do you can create some astonishing things. I've heard of people that run simple code or machines because each component is an intentional memory marker. I've never gone that deep, just the number thing one time. But you have to remember to tend your memory palace, that's my problem lol.
@@loveandaffection4743 You can create a mind palace for literally anything. You can create infinite number of them, each representing different things you would like to remember. :)
Case in point about playing through things.......I literally destroyed my last year of playing hockey the first game in after someone landed on my leg in the butterfly position(goalie, down on knees with legs spread outwards) and hearing a pop. I had torn my MCL and it might not have been as bad, had I just left the game. Although it was painful, I still played through it and just couldn't go down on my knees again without taking a bit to get up. The worst part, is the recovery, in the winter time, on any part of your leg. You slip'n'slide in snow and as much as I love to slide on purpose(you'll never fall when you know you're going to slide), but not with this injury. Literally every step with that leg was painful, probably making it worse to boot. That was through a metal brace to keep my leg as straight as possible. Oh yeah, then I broke my leg ankle a year after recovering from the left MCL tear. Oh, those were the days! My pain tolerance has shot way up though! lol
Awsome guests, funny and new perspectives. Marcia is funny af
When I was a small child i would wonder why I couldn't choose to like foods that my parents enjoyed (asparagus, broccoli, ext...). When i started experimenting with meditation as a teenager i noticed a disconnect between my conscious and unconscious mind that could explain the things in my mind that I couldn't change (like and dislike of foods, ect...). As an adult while experimenting with mind altering drugs I noticed my subconscious solving high level math that my conscious self had no idea how to solve. My experience with meditation has shown me a part of myself that is separate from my conscious mind and controls variable assignment and calculations, whether it be pure math or more meta calculations (King - man + woman = queen)
Thanks mr Tyson amazing video wish you were more into the idea about looking inwards to help unlock human Potential
Awesome segment. Thanks!
I don’t meditate but I’m absolutely sure it helps.
Marcia is back !!!☺️
Neil you should have Ajahn Brahm a former Theoretical Physicist from Cambridge turned Monk on the show ...can't wait for the second edition on meditation ..Ajahn Brahm is a master of Jhanas ...deep states of Bliss in meditation.
Super interesting! Neil, would you please consider having Ruper Spira on your show? That'd be the most amazing conversation I can imagine...
Oh, I know lots of meditations! Ways of explaining them, and practicing them. Meditating with music is to relax your body, stimulate the brain. Listen to something without words, to help carry focus on whatever it is that has you meditating. I use it to write, among other things
ALSO reading is a form of meditation. So is sleep. Anything that makes you "time fly" can be considered meditative.
"You can't do meditation, you can become meditative. It's a quality not an act. And to put it very simply of what meditation is. It's being a little away between you and your mind between you and your body" ~ Sadhguru
👌
Mind over matter
If You don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
🙏🏻
I liked the new guests.
So far I dont see any " where is Chuck, it's not the same without him" comments, you guys finally understand :)
You can feel sorry for someone, but it doesn't mean that you have to be sad because of their problems, sickness, etc; unless if it's a relative or close friend.
Thanks!
I like this subject. I majored in college physics and star gazing and i have the basics pretty well secured. But when there is something new with a little science (and does not require spelling), i am quick to absorb the info. In other words i scan the "explainers" listen more intently to the beyond "explainers".
If lord chuck hears this, i use his reactions to better adapt my explanations to freinds & family.
Best show ever.🤟❤️
Loved it! I wonder what would Neil’s reaction be at the same funeral at this point of his life… ? Does he feel a little bad or guilty? When I meditate I feel more compassionate, I 🤔
Instead of making me laugh the movie Don't Look Up made me cry and then gave me a panic attack at the end.
Edit and no I'm not joking I was hyperventilating. The sad semi reality of it all really sent me into a downward spiral.
15:40 The name you're all struggling to remember is *Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.* His branded style meditation is called *Transcendental Meditation.* You're welcome.
so not really a missconception, but a lot of people has the mental image that Meditation is just Sitting on the floor & deep breathing, but there are other ways to make your brain stop thinking actively to reach a meditative state, from things like Zen gardens & origami to straight up just playing Pac-Man & getting in the Zone.
For me ,playing piano works greatly as well as little repetitive tasks like washing dishes or using a vacuum cleaner that allows you to focus on little things.
wow the way he put it on how mediating works is out of this world. The whole point is to see how chaotic your mind is and to learn how your mind thinks!!wow great guest!!!
I think his desire for adversity during a challenge and the reward for it comes from the influence of such writers as Fyodor Dostoyevsky because a lot of such work will convey that those struggles often bear brighter fruits if I can use that as an analogy. In much the way as a physical obstacle coarse can be fun, it's just a cognitive obstacle coarse instead.
quite interesting about the crying at funerals thing, I've never cried at a funeral, felt sad, obviously, but crying itself seemed pointless, the deceased in question wouldn't want people to cry, they'd want everyone to keep on with their lives and remember them fondly
You do not need meditation if you know your place in the universe and keep your mind always connected to that thought. But for some meditation is the path to get there.
[ 13:43 ] I loved this definition of Meditation. I think this is THEE definition; to get your mind to work on ONE THING. I like it, and he's right-- it is an exercise/ trainning, and the more you do it--the more your mind/ you get better at it. : ]
good job everybody
Thx for this
I was already a fan of the show and this was terrific
Any thoughts about dialectic thinking or DBT
Neal's flavor of meditation is science.
I love how Niel called him out on being ahead of the meditation 🧘♂️ trend! Lmao 🤣
Dan could easily get his own TedX presentation.
check for sleep apnea if you fall asleep anywhere and anytime.
lOVE YOU GUYS
The main goal of meditation is not to improve oneself. Although it has a lot of benefits. The more important thing in meditation is that it is a tool to recognize that there is no meditator by breaking the illusion of self and not identifying with thought. Because ego is an illusion based on some feelings and thoughts. For example you can not know what your next thought is going to be. Thoughts are also a happening just like objects you see or sounds you hear.
People who suffered, best understand how meditation works if you are one of lucky persons in world like Neil which says he never gets anxious, you might not find meditation interesting. And it is much likely you will misunderstand it. Sitting down and thinking is not meditation.
yup not everybody needs this but some do
Thank you neil
I'm excited about this topic🌹❤️🌹❤️
I find my inner chatter something that I like, I like to be critic of my self, still I will try meditation just to gain control of it more than anything because I know how horrible it can be when you lose control of it
Very Nice!
22:21 Very relatable.
Just when I was about to disregard this as a total promotional event, things got real at 29:00
All this advice from psychiatrists are coherent with Orthodox Christianity beliefs. A mean like: be calm, polite, help others, don't be lazy, envious, judgemental, don't focus on material stuff. I am not that religious, but I was in my high school years and I learned so much during that period. So I think religion has emancipatory role that can help you so much, while you don't have to be superstitious about anything.
May the syth be with you
It is such a shame that this show has not improved its format.
Neil has 14.6M followers on twitter but only 1.76M here, I wonder why....
He could reach so many more people & help the world so much more.
You can tell from this channel that there is a specific audience they are going for.
Not everyone has a mind for discussion
Some people do
@@letmewatchmyshows yup not everybody wants receive info
I watch every single episode.
I enjoy the format.
Not everything needs to be condensed into 3 second clips.
Awesome episode... What flavour of issue do you have? Find out right here, honest.
I just want Neil to talk... seriously Neil's word are enough for meditation.. I mean ponder over the truth and that's meditation
Great video
I legit am zen like all the time except with alcohol a few times but some … “me time” fixes everything and made me ambidextrous
Thank you so much for this session - appreciate the info
SUN TSU from 544 wrote the art of war, while it is not the beginnings of psychology etymologically his writings show that the art of understanding the mind has been around a long time.
Whats the difference between jogging and deep sleep vs meditation ?
Meditation is a practice of developing uninterrupted awareness of truth as it is.. not as you would like it to be, but as it is. This way we train our perceptive and reactive part of the mind. We train it to first see things as they really are, before reacting on the basis of false perception. You can imagine how this would be beneficial to an individual and hence to humanity :). The actual task of what to do when meditating is simple, yet very difficult to persist that simple practice. It helps us to see how truly out of control we really are of ourselves. :) In my opinion any meditation practice which utilizes truth as it's basis or tool, instead of imagination, is most beneficial.
@@anand_naik is this your imagination or scientific proof?
@@AbishekAmbrose Any scientific proof is derived from what is “observable”. Meditation is a practice of observing yourself, no one else can do that for you. If you are looking for proof of the benifits of meditation, then don’t look for it from a random guy named Anand Naik on the internet :). You have to try it and see for yourself.
Love as a skill🦋🐝