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Opening Up Meditation for Science: The Development of a Meditation Classification System

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Meditation – Neuroscientific Approaches and Philosophical Implications

Part of the book series: Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality ((SNCS,volume 2))

Abstract

Defining meditation in order to conduct meditation research turns out to be close to impossible. This is, amongst others, related to the fact that the Western term “meditation” entails a wide range of different practices. From this perspective it does not make sense to use the term meditation or to perform research on such a generic concept without any further descriptions. So far contemplative science has taken a pragmatic approach towards this problem, mainly by referencing to certain spiritual traditions. More detailed descriptions of meditation practices are difficult to obtain since meditation is mainly about first person experiences and these experiences cannot be shared adequately. We try to overcome this problem here by developing a four dimensional modular descriptive system of meditation which draws only on behavioral and mental concepts of western psychology with the four dimensions (i) attention regulation, (ii) motivation (iii) attitude and (iv) practical context.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The use of the term ‘logic relaxation’ here refers to a practice without analyzing, judging or expecting anything from the process.

  2. 2.

    See the chapter of Edge (this volume) for a refined discussion of the epistemological status of such an assertion.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Robert Forman for help in clarifying the different Eastern notions referring to contemplative practices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

    Stefan Schmidt

  2. University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Stefan Schmidt

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  1. Stefan Schmidt
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Correspondence to Stefan Schmidt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Stefan Schmidt

  2. Institute for Transcultural Health Scien, European Universtiy Viadrina, Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Harald Walach

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Schmidt, S. (2014). Opening Up Meditation for Science: The Development of a Meditation Classification System. In: Schmidt, S., Walach, H. (eds) Meditation – Neuroscientific Approaches and Philosophical Implications. Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01634-4_8

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