The New Scientist reports on a study which indicates that Zen Buddhists are able to calm down their minds more quickly than normal people:

Though neuroscience will never peer inside of Luke Skywalker or Yoda’s head to find the brain region responsible for feeling the Force, a new study comes close.

Trained Zen Buddhists return to a state of inner calm faster than people who don’t practice meditation, according to neuroscientist Giuseppe Pagnoni and his colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta.

The researchers scanned the brains of 12 Buddhists, who were experienced in Zen meditation, and 12 controls, while the subjects focused on breathing. Unlike other forms of mediation that focus on withdrawal, Zen meditation calls for vigilance and attention.

Interestingly enough, the researchers were able to determine this “inner calm” through MRI scans, indicating that this isn’t merely a subjective observation–the techniques of Zen Buddhism with respect to keeping calm and focused do appear to work.

I’m always fascinated by this type of study because I’d like to see where we can go if we strip traditional practices of the centuries of mysticism that surround them and reduce them to a pure, practical form. Zen meditation isn’t the only useful possibility. For example, acupuncture is actually a useful treatment for easing lower back pain–but as it turns out the traditional methods of acupuncture–putting the needles in particular places at particular depths–are irrelevant. Placing needles randomly gave the same result. So the interesting thing we learn here is that “acupuncture” is useful, but the centuries of tradition surrounding it don’t actually matter at all. I’m interested to see where these fields of study will go next.

Image Credit: alq666’s photostream