Towards mindfulness, meditation and creative visualisation

Kambiz Naficy, Persian poet and meditation master will be visiting Sri Lanka for the seventh time to conduct his advanced and beginners Joy of Life meditation seminars at the Taj Samudra from October 23 to 28. Kambiz will also be speaking about neuroplasticity and other psychological/spiritual topics on the Good Morning Sri Lanka (MTV) shows on October 15, 17, 23, and 25.

In this interview with Radhika Wakharkar he outlines some of his main themes.

Q: During your previous visits, you had introduced useful psychological and spiritual topics; what is your main message this time?

KN: One of the reasons I am here is to tell my friends about the brain’s ability to regenerate and renew itself through mental exercises such as meditation, solving puzzles, and creative visualization. As recently as 20 years ago, the unanimously accepted doctrine was that the adult human’s brain could not generate new neurons and that each part of the brain was only devoted to serving fixed bodily functions (such as moving an index finger).

The brain’s ability to renew and regenerate itself and for certain parts of the brain to switch functions, even during old age, is a recent discovery called neuroplasticity.

Q: When was this discovered and who were the scientists behind these discoveries?

KN: A group of about a dozen top western scientists, many of whom are neurological researchers, have gathered around the Dalai Lama, and formed the Mind and Life Institute in the U.S. One of the leading scientists behind these discoveries is Chilean born Francisco J. Varela. What they have now proven beyond a doubt and through dozens of scientific experiments is that certain mental exercises such as the Buddhist mindfulness, meditation and creative visualization actually strengthen certain parts of the brain by generating fresh brain cells, neurons, and synapses (connections between neurons). For example, repeated experiments show that simply visualizing that you are playing the piano, leads to a detectable and measurable change in the motor cortex of the brain.

The scientific discovery that mere thought can alter physical brain matter is in line with the ancient Buddhist and Vedantic philosophies of mind over matter.

Q: Are you saying that our thoughts and the mental environment that we place ourselves in physically changes us?

KN: Exactly. The ancient Buddhist and Vedantic philosophies teach that there is no fixed YOU. Not only can you generate neurons and form new synapses (connections between neurons) through mental exercises like mindfulness meditation, personality-wise you also become who you think you are through repetitious thoughts and visualizations. Psychological studies assert that such activity programmes your subconscious mind to create a new you. Finally, quantum physics experiments now prove that you can physically manifest in your life whatever you persistently think about. Your thoughts influence the dance of the atom and therefore, your thoughts create matter.

Who you are and the life you live are in a constant state of flux and the energy behind this constant change are your thoughts. As a matter of fact, in many of India’s Vedic texts, the sages teach that this whole world is made of thoughts.

Q: What about mental and physical diseases; can mental exercises such as meditation and visualization, cure such diseases?

KN: Buddhism and Yoga have known this fact for thousands of years, and over the last twenty five years, scientific evidence leads to the same conclusion. I want to cite two particular mental disorders, amongst many, that patients can cure through meditation and creative visualization—obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and depression.

OCD is a state of mind whereby the patient experiences an uncontrollable bombardment of distressing thoughts. Brain imaging studies show that it is the brain’s Orbital Frontal Cortex that fires thoughts that, something is wrong. OCD patients then respond to this mental agitation by obsessively engaging in rituals such as washing hands, checking the burner on the stove, or repeatedly cleaning the floor tiles. On a different front, depression has for decades frustrated psychologists and psychiatrists because of its tendency to reoccur despite repeated treatment involving anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft.

In the early1990’s, UCLA’s Jeffery Schwartz and University of Massachusetts’ Jon Kabat-Zinn conducted experiments with OCD and depressed patients practising mindfulness meditation. The volunteers were taught to simply witness and objectively observe their mental states like movie-watchers, without physically responding to their thoughts.

After successive trials, volunteers learnt to view their obsessive and depressive thoughts as random mis-firings of their brains rather than objective reality. By mindfully and objectively witnessing negative thoughts without reacting, both groups of volunteers showed significant and long-lasting improvement.

KN: Yes, and also knowledge about eliminating childhood roots of low-self confidence, various meditation techniques, creative visualization, healthy breathing through Kriya Yoga, and finally, how to manifest your own destiny.

For more information, contact The Joy of Life Organization in Colombo. Email: joyoflifesrilanka@gmail.com or call 0775-735842.