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Shamatha Project
Under the direction of CMB principle investigator Dr. Clifford Saron, the Shamatha project is the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the effects of meditation practice on the brain.
In partnership with meditation teacher and Buddhist scholar Alan Wallace, Ph.D. and a team of over 30 investigators and consulting scientists, the Shamatha Project is exploring how three months of intensive training in the practice of meditation affects behavior, physiology and emotion regulation.
The project first recruited 60 volunteers and divided them into two
groups of 30. The two groups were balanced on factors such as age,
gender, ethnicity and experience with meditation. The first group
attended a 3-month retreat, while the second served as the control
group. The second group later attended a second 3-month retreat.
The retreats were held at the Shambala Mountain Center in Colorado. During each retreat, the volunteers participated in intensive daily meditation practice. Throughout the retreats, the attendees and control groups were assessed using a variety of state-or-the-art measures including electrophysiological testing using EEG/ERP, physiological testing of blood and hormone factors such as cytokine IL-6 and oxytocin, and several standard psychological assessment tests.
The volunteers will continue to be monitored in follow-up testing at 5 and 16 months after the retreats to determine whether changes observed during the retreats persist over time.
To date, both retreats have been completed, and the 5-month follow-up for the first retreat group has been conducted. The first paper resulting from this project is currently in press and will be available from this website when it is published.
Analysis of the physiological and emotion-related data is still underway, with many additional papers and findings to come.
Additional information regarding the Shamatha Project is available at the following website:
http://www.shambhalamountain.org/shamatha/
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