Succes for LIBC symposium 'Imag(in)ing the Buddhist Brain'

The first symposium of The Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition was a success. 250 people have been visiting the LIBC symposium  'Imag(in)ing the Buddhist Brain', organized by Prof. Lisa Cheng, Prof. Jonathan Silk, and dr. Lorenza Colzato.


Is brain research beginning to produce concrete evidence for something that Buddhist practitioners of meditation have maintained for centuries, namely that mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow people to achieve different levels of awareness? Such transformed states have traditionally been understood in transcendent terms, as something outside the world of physical measurement and objective evaluation. But over the past few years, researchers working with Tibetan monks have been working toward translating those mental experiences into the scientific language of high-frequency gamma waves and brain synchrony, or coordination.

The Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) organized on 20 March 2009 the symposium “Imag(in)ing the Buddist Brain” to address recent developments in this area, among them the question:

What claims do meditation traditions make, and are the results of meditation measurable? 


Photo: Professor Deleanu of the Tokyo University

More information on the LIBC-symposium

Web editor Psychology
Last Modified: 26-03-2009