Osho quotes can teach you lessons in life, about love, and thinking. These Osho quotes can from only one man, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who later on called himself Osho. He was a philosopher and also a spiritual leader, who traveled throughout India in the 1960s as a public speaker. As a public speaker, most of his words inspired lots of people who later on shared and passed them to the next generations. Most of his words were about love, sexuality, lessons in life, and spirituality. If you are looking for quotes like these on the internet, Osho quotes are the one of the best. In here, we have collected some of the best Osho quotes that you can find. Here are the 52 Best Osho Quotes on Love, Life and Fear with Images that we have prepared just for you.

Originally posted by paolods.com

And lastly,

Life, Love and Fear

There are lots of lessons that we can learn in any aspects of life, whether in love, friendship, fear, or downfalls. In reading the ideas of other people who have been there, you can reflect from them and maybe you can apply them to yourself. Osho quotes are one of the best that you can find. Read and hear the words of Rajneesh and may you find the things you are looking for yourself. Hope you have enjoyed reading the 52 Best Osho Quotes on Love, Life and Fear with Images. Feel free to share them your friends and acquaintance in Facebook and other social media sites. You might also be interested in reading the 100 Best Quotes of All Time.

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52 Best Osho Quotes on Love, Life and Fear with Images

Group of Osho Lovers, a gathering of friends.

Group explores Active and Passive Meditations devised or recommended by Mystic Osho. Some of the meditations include: Dynamic, Nadabrahma, Kundalini, Vipassana, Nataraj, No-Mind, No-Dimension, Kirtan, Sufi Whirling, Tantra, Chakra Healing, Chakra Sound, listening to Osho, Osho Video, Spiritual movies, breathing techniques etc

Events are held in Kennesaw, Decatur, Suwanee, Douglasville, Norcross, Woodstock, Sandy Springs area.

Group organizes regular weekend, weekday and 1 to 3 day Meditation Retreats / Workshops.

It has been observance of several friends that meditation in a group has been very effective for them. This group is an opportunity for all to experience group meditation in a safe and friendly enviornment. The group is not promoting or selling or providing any service.

Group is an informal and non profit gathering of friends to meditate in group. The group is not part or affiliated to any organization in USA or abroad. The gatherings are held at the homes of organizers or at temporory rented space. Each participant makes a small contribution to cover the associated costs. If you are unable to afford the 'at-cost' suggested contribution for a specific event then please let the organizer know. No one will be refused participation due to their inability to financially contribute towards the event. In each gathering all participants - new or experienced are welcome. Detailed instructions are provided.

Group offers a free shared library of great books, audio and Videos of Osho, Eastern and Western mystics, and General Welness topics. The library has been developed by gifts from other members.

Osho does not teach any religion and does not belong to any particular religion. What he really teaches is religiousness - the real fragrance of all the flowers of existence, the Buddhas, the mystics and sages that this world has known.Osho has given thousands of discourses on all the well-known and not so known mystics of the worldfrom Ashtavakra to Zarathusthra.Osho is a modern day mystic whose wisdom, clarity and humor have touched the lives of millions of people around the world.His insights are creating the conducive atmosphere or Atma-Sphere for the emergence of what he calls the New Man or Zorba, the Buddha the combination of celebration, dance and song of Zorba and the silence, stillness and meditation of the Buddha, the meditation of the East and the materialism of the West.Zorba the Buddha is a totally new human being who is an awakened one, and he is life-affirmative and free.When someone asked Osho the definition of religion, Osho replied: To be in romance with life is religion.Osho teaches meditation for our inner transformation. Love and compassion are the natural expression of this transformation. We can meditate with Buddha, dance with Krishna and celebrate our love with Sufis.

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For more information on Osho on web check http://www.osho.com (http://www.osho.com/), http://www.oshoworld.com (http://www.oshoworld.com/), http://www.oshona.com (http://www.oshona.com/), http://www.oshoviha.org (http://www.oshoviha.com/), http://www.oshoatlanta.com (http://www.oshoatlanta.com/) ; Youtube Osho Channel.

Love

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Osho Meditation Atlanta (Atlanta, GA) | Meetup

The disciples of the late Indian guru Osho are far from wild, particularly those in Spain. There are no assault rifles in their ashrams or poisonous potions for their rivals, nor do they plan to take over whatever cities they may live in.

In fact, their lives are far more ordinary than those depicted in the Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country, a retrospective of the Osho communitys rollercoaster years in Oregon when it became embroiled in criminal activities and its leader was ultimately run out of the country.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was a student of philosophy who shocked Indian society with his liberal ideas on sex and religion

The Osho Foundation now has its headquarters in Zurich, from where it peddles Osho products and promotes the Osho Meditation Resort in Poona, India, where the movement was first established in 1974 by the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Osho International recommends 16 centers in Spain to anyone interested in pursuing his teachings. Most are run by sannyasins disciples who have been renamed in an initiation ceremony. I had a friend who was a sannyasin and changed her name three times, says Jos Antonio Espeso, head of the Masunaga school in Coslada, Madrid, which offers shiatsu. In the end, you didnt know what her name was anymore. These rituals are somewhat infantile.

Born in India in 1931, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was a student of philosophy who shocked Indian society with his liberal ideas on sex and religion and who changed the spiritual landscape for foreign hippies who had been drawing their inspiration from that part of the world since the 1960s.

Decked in expensive robes and jewelry, he had a fleet of 90 Rolls Royce and owned more than a few private planes. His meditations were renowned for their dynamism and his lectures were direct and easily grasped.

At the height of his fame, Osho and his sidekick Ma Anand Sheela snapped up a 26,000-hectare ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, US, and set about constructing an Osho city called Rajnishpuram, which included an airport and armed security forces. Thousands of Osho disciples flocked to the commune to experience the idealistic Osho lifestyle, but instead found themselves mired in conflict with the US authorities on account of assassination plots, illegal immigration networks, wire tapping and attempts to rig local elections.

Osho blamed a mass food poisoning attack and plots to kill public officials on Sheela and her inner circle at the ranch. But his bid to sidestep prosecution was not wholly successful. In 1985 he was given a 10-year suspended sentence, agreeing to leave the US and not to return for five years without the permission of the US Attorney General. The commune was dismantled and his disciples followed him back to Poona where he died in 1990 of heart failure.

More than 190 of the gurus books have been translated into Spanish

Sannyasin Luis Martn-Santos aka Charna recalled last May on the radio station Cadena Ser how he used to see Osho pilgrims walking down Las Ramblas in Barcelona at the start of the 1980s, wearing the hallmark crimson tunics. He himself belonged to the Oregon commune between 1983 and 1985 and now acts as a literary agent, managing Oshos publishing rights in Spain. More than 190 of the gurus books have been translated into Spanish. Martn-Santos says hes overjoyed with the publicity Wild Wild Country is offering the Osho brand but is dismayed by the protagonism given to Sheela. It just shows that the press and the public idealize figures who are proven to have committed crimes or who personify a certain disorder.

Martn-Santos says there are probably thousands of sannyasins in Spain but says that only a few dozen Spaniards were involved in the beginnings of the Osho movement in India and that around 100 would have visited the commune in Oregon.

The sannyasins response to Wild Wild Country can be found on their social networks and in the foundations digital newspaper, The Osho Times: their leader did nothing wrong. He was, they say, a victim of Sheelas machinations and a conspiracy by the US government, which saw the cult as a threat to its conservative values.

Ana Mara Ramrez, a dentist in Tarragona, is one of Spains sannyasins. Her brother bought a camper van in the mid-seventies and traveled overland to India with his girlfriend. While in India, he came across Bhagwan Rajneesh and returned from Poona a changed man. Ana Mara, then just 16, fell under his influence and is now the head of an Osho information center. She believes that Wild Wild Country has been of more interest to journalists than to the population at large. Ramrez adds that while the documentary helps us to understand the corrupting effect of power on Sheela, it fails to enlighten us about Osho himself.

The Osho information center in Barclona is run by Mara Crespo, whose sannyasin name is Chiyono. Crespo is a New Age therapist, working with family constellations and a diet, exercise and massage-based approach to medicine known as naturopathy. Not long after her 20th birthday she became a sannyasin, influenced by a group of friends who had made the pilgrimage to Poona and Oregon. According to Crespo, the documentary has little relevance anymore, given the proliferation of similar movements.

Crespo admits that Osho was a controversial figure but insists that the free love angle has been exaggerated. As far as Sheelas conference in May in Barcelonas Contemporary Cultural Center (CCCB) is concerned, she didnt attend as she prefers to remain aloof from the goings-on in Oregon.

Francis Sendn, another sannyasin, runs an organic food store in Palma de Mallorca. He is convinced that the documentary is one of Sheelas strategies to clean up her image, hence the CCCB conference. Shes unlikely to be doing it for money, he says. They claim she took $70 million.

English version by Heather Galloway.

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Wild Wild Country: The wild Osho cult seen through ...

The Christian masters of the Middle Ages understood this matter better, perhaps, than anyone since in the western world. Speaking in a language we no longer fully (or in many cases even partially) understand, they described the necessary state as an awareness of sin.

This word used to mean something quite different than it does today and, once again, one could write an entire book about it. (The word is not derived from action or attachment in the outer world but applies in its esoteric sense exclusively to inner contradictions.) Gurdjieff, through his understanding of remorse of conscience and intentional suffering, more properly represents the question in front of us than any philosophy, whether theoretical or practical, of obliteration. Viewed from this perspective, liberation philosophies and doctrines of obliteration of Self are a cop-out.

A decent analogy of mankinds position in regard to the question of bliss is one of a parent owning a candy store. With the trusting parent in absentia, the child is left in charge of the sweets; but instead of respectfully guarding the wares, he or she begins to eat the sweets, not realizing that as tantalizing as they are, they are not meant for them.

There are fairy tales about such things, such as Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread house. In that case we see that Hansel and Gretel very nearly become food for the house of bliss, rather than the other way around. It is their very unawareness, their naivet itself (the obliteration), that presents the danger. Lost and unconscious, they stumble across inner treasures; not knowing their right place or value, they enter the house (fully identify with its nature.) Tellingly, in this case, the ginger in the house is a spice from the east. The fairy tale may thusat its root, pun intended represent an esoteric warning against various naive forms of eastern liberation philosophy.

We can see the inherent danger in adopting philosophies or practices of oblivion; the annihilation (the making-into-nothingness) of the ego is not an answer. The ego exists to offer the opportunity to suffer it; extinguishment removes the source of conflict from which true suffering arises. Again, the metaphysical laws and reasonings behind this are complex; but the fact itself is rather simple. One doesnt need to know how all the gears work to know that the hands of the clock show us the time.

This leads me to the second question on the table in my discourse, which is the value of wordlessness. It follows on the philosophy of obliteration, since obliteration dovetails quite neatly into the evaporation of awareness, rationality, and everything they representincluding the words to describe them.

Its quite true that there is a place beyond words available to consciousness. As I have pointed out many times before, however, it is not just the metaphysically endowed (higher) states of awareness without words which we seek to encounter. There are awarenesses without words right next to us, so proximate in consciousness that we routinely take them for granted and ignore them; and these are the places (minds) without words that actually matter in the cultivation of our inner metaphysics, in the balancing of the centers Gurdjieff described as necessary in order to usefully receive higher states.

These two wordless minds are the intelligence of the body (sensation) and the intelligence of emotion (feeling.) Both are fully functioning fractions of our summary intelligence, ignored and suborned by the intellect in its prosecution of our rational (i.e., calculated) agendas. Yet these two wordless intelligences lie within our purview, not in some imaginary realm of better purity.

I would like you, for a moment, to imagine an idealized world without words in which all of the denizens never speak a single word to one another. I think we can agree that this world describes the world not of mankind, but of animals; and even they have languages, so perhaps we do not reach low enough down the scale when we say that. The point, i think, is that everything that human beings are, enlightened or otherwise, depends on the language we so eagerly banish when we try to speak about higher states of Being.

Without languagewithout words there is no art, no culture, no architecture, tradition, science, or society. Humanity as we know it ceases to exista welcome development, perhaps, for the proponents of oblivion, but clearly insufficient as either a condition, cause or objective of human existence. So these philosophies of oblivion, experiential or otherwise, are essentially inhuman.

They contradict the tradition of God as a person, of mankind as a microcosmic expression of God, and the entire nature of existence itself as it manifests in the juxtaposition of God and man. They are, in other words, so apophatic that they do away not only with the signs of man and God, but with man and God itself. The idea, once examined with intensity, is so profoundly and essentially stupid it would not be worth examining, but for the blithely unexamined Very Important Sounding things said in its name.

We are thinking creatures; it is part of our nature, and we deny it at our peril. God is, as well, a thinking nature-above-creation, a pre-existing thought before thinking. Our spiritual development does not, in other words, excuse us from thinking in an invitation to infinite realms of divine and nihilistic thoughtlessness; it requires an intensification of attention and thought, which is precisely what Gurdjieff brought, over and over again, to his pupilsand in his metaphysics and mythology. There are no realms of inattentive bliss mapped out in Beelzebubs cosmos; even purgatory (which would seem to be the most likely candidate) is a place of contemplation intensified to the level of the intolerable. Gurdjieffs famous aphorism, If you have not by nature a critical mind your staying here is useless, sums it all up; but all his aphorisms are directed at an intensification of intelligence that requires words.

Pretending that we can do without them is a form of rank sophistry; and yet one hears such talk quite often.

Yes; there are wordless places; yes, perhaps from time to time we touch them (or, more properly, they touch us.) Yet this is of no use in the enterprise of relationship, which demands that we do much more than just senseor just feelor just think. There is thought without thought; there is thought within thought; and there are parts that think without words, yet express in their own language nonetheless.

We should stop acting surprised about this. It is not the territory we stake out; it is the life we inhabit.

Let us stop speaking about the silence. Let us speak as we speak; and be silent as we may be silent; but in either case, let us be as we be, not as declarative shades of oblivion or wordlessness would have us be.Hosanna.

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Zen, Yoga, Gurdjieff- perspectives on inner work

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For the purpose of this article, research on meditation concerns research into the psychological and physiological effects of meditation using the scientific method. In recent years, these studies have increasingly involved the use of modern scientific techniques and instruments, such as fMRI and EEG which are able to directly observe brain physiology and neural activity in living subjects, either during the act of meditation itself, or before and after a meditation effort, thus allowing linkages to be established between meditative practice and changes in brain structure or function.

Since the 1950s hundreds of studies on meditation have been conducted. Yet, many of the early studies were flawed and thus yielded unreliable results.[1][2] Contemporary studies have attempted to address many of these flaws with the hope of guiding current research into a more fruitful path.[3] In 2013, researchers at Johns Hopkins, publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, identified 47 studies that qualify as well-designed and therefore reliable. Based on these studies, they concluded that there is moderate evidence that meditation reduces anxiety, depression, and pain, but there is no evidence that meditation is more effective than active treatment.[4] 2017 commentary was similarly mixed.[5][6]

The process of meditation, as well as its effects, is a growing subfield of neurological research.[7][8] Modern scientific techniques and instruments, such as fMRI and EEG, have been used to study how regular meditation affects individuals by measuring brain and bodily changes.[7][9][10]

Meditation is a broad term which encompasses a number of practices.[vague][citation needed]

In June, 2007 the United States National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) published an independent, peer-reviewed, meta-analysis of the state of meditation research, conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta Evidence-based Practice Center. The report reviewed 813 studies involving five broad categories of meditation: mantra meditation, mindfulness meditation, yoga, T'ai chi, and Qigong, and included all studies on adults through September 2005, with a particular focus on research pertaining to hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and substance abuse. The report concluded, "Scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence. Future research on meditation practices must be more rigorous in the design and execution of studies and in the analysis and reporting of results." (p.6) It noted that there is no theoretical explanation of health effects from meditation common to all meditation techniques.[1]

A version of this report subsequently published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine stated that "Most clinical trials on meditation practices are generally characterized by poor methodological quality with significant threats to validity in every major quality domain assessed". This was the conclusion despite a statistically significant increase in quality of all reviewed meditation research, in general, over time between 1956 and 2005. Of the 400 clinical studies, 10% were found to be good quality. A call was made for rigorous study of meditation.[3] These authors also noted that this finding is not unique to the area of meditation research and that the quality of reporting is a frequent problem in other areas of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research and related therapy research domains.

Of more than 3,000 scientific studies that were found in a comprehensive search of 17 relevant databases, only about 4% had randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which are designed to exclude the placebo effect.[1]

A 2013 statement from the American Heart Association evaluated the evidence for the effectiveness of TM as a treatment for hypertension as "unknown/unclear/uncertain or not well-established", and stated: "Because of many negative studies or mixed results and a paucity of available trials...other meditation techniques are not recommended in clinical practice to lower BP at this time."[11]

2017 commentary was similarly mixed,[5][6] with concerns including the particular characteristics of individuals who tend to participate in mindfulness and meditation research.[12]

One meta-analysis supported the use of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to alleviate symptoms of a variety of mental and physical disorders.[13] A previous study commissioned by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that meditation interventions reduce multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress.[4] Other systematic reviews and meta-analysis show that mindfulness meditation has several mental health benefits such as bringing about reductions in depression symptoms,[14][15][16] and mindfulness interventions also appear to be a promising intervention for managing depression in youth.[17][18] Mindfulness meditation is useful for managing stress,[15][19][20] anxiety,[14][15][20] and also appears to be effective in treating substance use disorders.[21][22][23] A recent meta analysis by Hilton et al. (2016) including 30 randomized controlled trials found high quality evidence for improvement in depressive symptoms.[24] Other review studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can enhance the psychological functioning of breast cancer survivors,[15] effective for eating disorders,[25][26] and may also be effective in treating psychosis.[27][28][29]

Studies have also shown that rumination and worry contribute to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety,[30] and mindfulness-based interventions are effective in the reduction of worry.[30][31]

Some studies suggest that mindfulness meditation contributes to a more coherent and healthy sense of self and identity, when considering aspects such as sense of responsibility, authenticity, compassion, self-acceptance and character.[32][33]

In the relatively new field of western psychological mindfulness, researchers attempt to define and measure the results of mindfulness primarily through controlled, randomised studies of mindfulness intervention on various dependent variables. The participants in mindfulness interventions measure many of the outcomes of such interventions subjectively. For this reason, several mindfulness inventories or scales (a set of questions posed to a subject whose answers output the subject's aggregate answers in the form of a rating or category) have arisen. Twelve such methods are mentioned by the Mindfulness Research Guide[34]

In 2011, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) released findings from a study in which magnetic resonance images were taken of the brains of 16 participants 2 weeks before and after the participants joined the mindfulness meditation (MM) program by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Bender Institute of Neuroimaging in Germany, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Researchers concluded that

..these findings may represent an underlying brain mechanism associated with mindfulness-based improvements in mental health.[35]

The analgesic effect of MM involves multiple brain mechanisms including the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.[36] In addition, brief periods of MM training increases the amount of grey matter in the hippocampus and parietal lobe.[37] Other neural changes resulting from MM may increase the efficiency of attentional control.[38]

Participation in MBSR programmes has been found to correlate with decreases in right basolateral amygdala gray matter density,[39] and increases in gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus.[40]

Mindfulness meditation also appears to bring about favorable structural changes in the brain, though more research needs to be done because most of these studies are small and have weak methodology.[41][7][9][10] One recent study found a significant cortical thickness increase in individuals who underwent a brief -8 weeks- MBSR training program and that this increase was coupled with a significant reduction of several psychological indices related to worry, state anxiety, depression.[42] Another study describes how mindfulness based interventions target neurocognitive mechanisms of addiction at the attention-appraisal-emotion interface.[22] A meta-analysis by Fox et al. (2014) using results from 21 brain imaging studies found consistent differences in the region of the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions associated with body awareness. In terms of effect size the mean effect was rated as moderate. (Cohen's d = 0.46) However the results should be interpreted with caution because funnel plots indicate that publication bias is an issue in meditation research.[41] A follow up by Fox et al. (2016) using 78 functional neuro-imaging studies suggests that different meditation styles are reliably associated with different brain activity. Activations in some brain regions are usually accompanied by deactivation in others. This finding suggests that meditation research must put emphasis on comparing practices from the same style of meditation, for example results from studies investigating focused attention methods cannot be compared to results from open monitoring approaches.[43]

Psychological and Buddhist conceptualisations of mindfulness both highlight awareness and attention training as key components, in which levels of mindfulness can be cultivated with practise of mindfulness meditation.[44] Focused attention meditation and open monitoring meditation are distinct types of mindfulness meditation, and the former relates to directing and maintaining attention on a chosen object (e.g. the breath).[45] Open monitoring meditation does not involve focus on a specific object, and instead awareness is grounded in the perceptual features of ones environment.

Focused attention meditation is typically practiced first to increase the ability to enhance attentional stability, and awareness of mental states with the goal being to transition to open monitoring meditation practise that emphasizes the ability to monitor moment-by-moment changes in experience, without a focus of attention to maintain. Mindfulness meditation may lead to greater cognitive flexibility [46]

Sustained attention Tasks of sustained attention relate to vigilance and the preparedness that aids completing a particular task goal. Psychological research into the relationship between mindfulness meditation and the sustained attention network have revealed the following:

Selective attention

Executive control attention Executive control attention include functions of inhibiting the conscious processing of distracting information. In the context of mindful meditation, distracting information would relate to attention grabbing mental events such as thoughts related to the future or past.[45]

Reductions in rumination have been found following Mindfulness meditation practise.[57][58]

Emotional reactivity can be measured and reflected in brain regions related to the production of emotions.[59] It can also be reflected in tests of attentional performance, indexed in poorer performance in attention related tasks. The regulation of emotional reactivity as initiated by attentional control capacities can be taxing to performance, as attentional resources are limited [60]

It is debated as to whether top-down executive control regions such as the Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC),[70] are required [68] or not [61] to inhibit reactivity of the amygdala activation related to the production of evoked emotional responses. Arguably an initial increase in activation of executive control regions developed during mindfulness training may lessen with increasing mindfulness expertise [71]

An 8 week mindfulness course given to students was found to reduce the number subsequently needing treatment for mental illness by 60%, although the study was not of large size and commented that the effect could be due to 'non-specific effects', as the control group had received no attention at all, rather than an alternative intervention.[72][73]

A large part of mindfulness research is dependent on technology. As new technology continues to be developed, new imaging techniques will become useful in this field. It would be interesting to use real-time fMRI to help give immediate feedback and guide participants through the programs. It could also be used to more easily train and evaluate mental states during meditation itself.[74] The new technology in the upcoming years offers many exciting potentials for the continued research.

Vipassana meditation is a component of Buddhist philosophy. Phra Taweepong Inwongsakul and Sampath Kumar from the University of Mysore have been studying the effects of this meditation on 120 students by measuring the associated increase of cortical thickness in the brain. The results of this study are inconclusive.[75][76]

Sahaja yoga meditation is regarded as a mental silence meditation, and has been shown to correlate with particular brain[77][78] and brain wave[79][80][81] characteristics. One study has led to suggestions that Sahaja meditation involves 'switching off' irrelevant brain networks for the maintenance of focused internalized attention and inhibition of inappropriate information.[82] Sahaja meditators appear to benefit from lower depression[83] and scored above control group for emotional well-being and mental health measures on SF-36 ratings.[84][85][86]

A study comparing practitioners of Sahaja Yoga meditation with a group of non meditators doing a simple relaxation exercise, measured a drop in skin temperature in the meditators compared to a rise in skin temperature in the non meditators as they relaxed. The researchers noted that all other meditation studies that have observed skin temperature have recorded increases and none have recorded a decrease in skin temperature. This suggests that Sahaja Yoga meditation, being a mental silence approach, may differ both experientially and physiologically from simple relaxation.[81]

Kundalini Yoga has proved to increase the prevention of cognitive decline and evaluate the response of biomarkers to treatment, thereby shedding light on the underlying mechanisms of the link between Kundalini Yoga and cognitive impairment. For the study, 81 participants aged 55 and older who had subjective memory complaints and met criteria for mild cognitive impairment, indicated by a total score of 0.5 on the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale. The results showed that at 12 weeks, both the yoga group showed significant improvements in recall memory and visual memory and showed significant sustained improvement in memory up to the 24-week follow-up, the yoga group showed significant improvement in verbal fluency and sustained significant improvements in executive functioning at week 24. In addition, the yoga cohort showed significant improvement in depressive symptoms, apathy, and resilience from emotional stress. This research was provided by Helen Lavretsky, M.D. and colleagues.[87] In another study, Kundalini Yoga did not show significant effectiveness in treating obsessive-compulsive disorders compared with Relaxation/Meditation.[88]

The first Transcendental Meditation (TM) research studies were conducted at UCLA and Harvard University and published in Science and the American Journal of Physiology in 1970 and 1971.[89] However, much research has been of poor quality,[1][88][90] including a high risk for bias due to the connection of researchers to the TM organization and the selection of subjects with a favorable opinion of TM.[91][92][93] Independent systematic reviews have not found health benefits for TM exceeding those of relaxation and health education.[1][88][92] A 2013 statement from the American Heart Association described the evidence supporting TM as a treatment for hypertension as Level IIB, meaning that TM "may be considered in clinical practice" but that its effectiveness is "unknown/unclear/uncertain or not well-established".[This quote needs a citation] In another study, TM proved comparable with other kinds of relaxation therapies in reducing anxiety.[88]

The medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices have been found to be relatively deactivated during meditation (experienced meditators using concentration, lovingkindness and choiceless awareness meditation). In addition experienced meditators were found to have stronger coupling between the posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices both when meditating and when not meditating.[94]

A meta analysis found meditation gave some benefits, but no evidence that it was better than other treatments, for mental illness.[4]

Meditation has been shown to change grey matter concentrations and the precuneus.[95][40][96][41][39]

An eight-week MBSR course induced changes in gray matter concentrations.[40] Exploratory whole brain analyses identified significant increases in gray matter concentration in the PCC, TPJ, and the cerebellum. These results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.

Studies have shown that meditation has both short-term and long-term effects on various perceptual faculties. In 1984 a study showed that meditators have a significantly lower detection threshold for light stimuli of short duration.[97] In 2000 a study of the perception of visual illusions by zen masters, novice meditators, and non-meditators showed statistically significant effects found for the Poggendorff Illusion but not for the Mller-Lyer Illusion. The zen masters experienced a statistically significant reduction in initial illusion (measured as error in millimeters) and a lower decrement in illusion for subsequent trials.[98] Tloczynski has described the theory of mechanism behind the changes in perception that accompany mindfulness meditation thus: "A person who meditates consequently perceives objects more as directly experienced stimuli and less as concepts With the removal or minimization of cognitive stimuli and generally increasing awareness, meditation can therefore influence both the quality (accuracy) and quantity (detection) of perception."[98] Brown also points to this as a possible explanation of the phenomenon: "[the higher rate of detection of single light flashes] involves quieting some of the higher mental processes which normally obstruct the perception of subtle events."[This quote needs a citation] In other words, the practice may temporarily or permanently alter some of the top-down processing involved in filtering subtle events usually deemed noise by the perceptual filters.[citation needed]

Herbert Benson, founder of the Mind-Body Medical Institute, which is affiliated with Harvard University and several Boston hospitals, reports that meditation induces a host of biochemical and physical changes in the body collectively referred to as the "relaxation response".[99] The relaxation response includes changes in metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and brain chemistry. Benson and his team have also done clinical studies at Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayan Mountains.[100] Benson wrote The Relaxation Response to document the benefits of meditation, which in 1975 were not yet widely known.[101]

According to an article in Psychological Bulletin, EEG activity slows as a result of meditation.[102] The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has written, "It is thought that some types of meditation might work by reducing activity in the sympathetic nervous system and increasing activity in the parasympathetic nervous system,"[This quote needs a citation] or equivalently, that meditation produces a reduction in arousal and increase in relaxation.[citation needed]

Aging is a process accompanied by a decrease in brain weight and volume. This phenomenon can be explained by structural changes in the brain, namely, a loss of grey matter. Some studies over the last decade have implicated meditation as a protective factor against normal age-related brain atrophy.[103] The first direct evidence for this link emerged from a study investigating changes in the cortical thickness of meditators. Interestingly, the researchers found that regular meditation practice was able to reduce age-related thinning of the frontal cortex, albeit, these findings were restricted to particular regions of the brain.[104] A similar study looked to further expand on this finding by including a behavioural component. Consistent with the previous study, meditators did not show the expected negative correlation between grey matter volume and age. In addition, the results for meditators on the behavioural test, measuring attentional performance, were comparable across all age groups.[105] This implies that meditation can potentially protect against age-related grey matter loss and age-related cognitive decline. Since then, more research has supported the notion that meditation serves as a neuroprotective factor that slows age-related brain atrophy.[103][106] Still, all studies have been cross sectional in design. Furthermore, these results merely describe associations and do not make causal inferences.[107] Further work using longitudinal and experimental designs may help solidify the causal link between meditation and grey matter loss. Since few studies have investigated this direct link, however insightful they may be, there is not sufficient evidence for a conclusive answer.

Research has also been conducted on the malleable determinants of cellular aging in an effort to understand human longevity. Researchers have stated, "We have reviewed data linking stress arousal and oxidative stress to telomere shortness. Meditative practices appear to improve the endocrine balance toward positive arousal (high DHEA, lower cortisol) and decrease oxidative stress. Thus, meditation practices may promote mitotic cell longevity both through decreasing stress hormones and oxidative stress and increasing hormones that may protect the telomere."[108][109]

Studies have shown meditators to have higher happiness than control groups, although this may be due to non-specific factors such as meditators having better general self-care.[110][111][84][112]

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche has said that neuro scientists have found that with meditation, an individual's happiness baseline can change.[113]

Positive relationships have been found between the volume of gray matter in the right precuneus area of the brain and both meditation and the subject's subjective happiness score.[114][95][40][96][41][39]

The following is an official statement from the US government-run National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health:

"Meditation is considered to be safe for healthy people. There have been rare reports that meditation could cause or worsen symptoms in people who have certain psychiatric problems, but this question has not been fully researched. People with physical limitations may not be able to participate in certain meditative practices involving physical movement. Individuals with existing mental or physical health conditions should speak with their health care providers prior to starting a meditative practice and make their meditation instructor aware of their condition."[115]

Adverse effects have been reported,[116][117] and may, in some cases, be the result of "improper use of meditation".[118] The NIH advises prospective meditators to "ask about the training and experience of the meditation instructor [they] are considering."[115]

As with any practice, meditation may also be used to avoid facing ongoing problems or emerging crises in the meditator's life. In such situations, it may instead be helpful to apply mindful attitudes acquired in meditation while actively engaging with current problems.[119][120] According to the NIH, meditation should not be used as a replacement for conventional health care or as a reason to postpone seeing a doctor.[115]

Meditation reduces pain perception.[121]

Although we can now scan the bran, inferring value from blood movements in a human brain remains debateable.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of a variety of meditation practices. It has been unclear to what extent these practices share neural correlates. Interestingly, a recent study compared electroencephalogram activity during a focused-attention and open monitoring meditation practice from practitioners of two Buddhist traditions (17). The researchers found that the differences between the two meditation traditions were more pronounced than the differences between the two types of meditation. These data are consistent with our findings that theoretical orientation of how a practice is taught strongly influences neural activity during these practices. However, the study used long-term practitioners from different cultures, which may have confounded the results.[122]

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Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values" - Max More, 1990

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Main: Transhumanism definitions

"Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values" - Max More, 1990

"Transhumanism is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase" - Transhumanist FAQ

"Transhumanism is the philosophy that we can and should develop to higher levels, both physically, mentally and socially using rational methods" - Anders Sandberg, 1997

"Transhumanists view human nature as a work-in-progress, a half-baked beginning that we can learn to remold in desirable ways. Current humanity need not be the endpoint of evolution. Transhumanists hope that by responsible use of science, technology, and other rational means we shall eventually manage to become posthuman beings with vastly greater capacities than present human beings have" - Nick Bostrom, 2003

"Transhumanism promotes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the opportunities for enhancing the human condition and the human organism opened up by the advancement of technology; attention is given to both present technologies, like genetic engineering and information technology, and anticipated future ones, such as molecular nanotechnology and artificial intelligence" - Nick Bostrom, 2003

"Transhumanism is the science-based movement that seeks to transcend human biological limitations via technology" - Philippe van Nedervelde, 2015

"Transhumanism anticipates tomorrows humanity: Envisaging the positive qualities and characteristics of future intelligent life; Taking steps towards achieving these qualities and characteristics; Identifying and managing risks of negative characteristics of future intelligent life" - Transpolitica website, 2015

This section highlights reasons for supporting transhumanism.

Extracted from an essay entitled "Transhumanism" on pages 13-17 of the book of essays "New Bottles for New Wine" published in 1957:

As a result of a thousand million years of evolution, the universe is becoming conscious of itself, able to understand something of its past history and its possible future. This cosmic self-awareness is being realized in one tiny fragment of the universe in a few of us human beings. Perhaps it has been realized elsewhere too, through the evolution of conscious living creatures on the planets of other stars. But on this our planet, it has never happened before...

Up till now human life has generally been, as Hobbes described it, nasty, brutish and short; the great majority of human beings (if they have not already died young) have been afflicted with misery in one form or anotherpoverty, disease, ill-health, over-work, cruelty, or oppression. They have attempted to lighten their misery by means of their hopes and their ideals. The trouble has been that the hopes have generally been unjustified, the ideals have generally failed to correspond with reality.

The zestful but scientific exploration of possibilities and of the techniques for realizing them will make our hopes rational, and will set our ideals within the framework of reality, by showing how much of them are indeed realizable. Already, we can justifiably hold the belief that these lands of possibility exist, and that the present limitations and miserable frustrations of our existence could be in large measure surmounted. We are already justified in the conviction that human life as we know it in history is a wretched makeshift, rooted in ignorance; and that it could be transcended by a state of existence based on the illumination of knowledge and comprehension, just as our modern control of physical nature based on science transcends the tentative fumblings of our ancestors, that were rooted in superstition and professional secrecy.

To do this, we must study the possibilities of creating a more favourable social environment, as we have already done in large measure with our physical environment...

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.

I believe in transhumanism: once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.

Main: Transhumanist Declaration

The first four sections of the Transhumanist Declaration, written in 1998 by an international collection of authors, encapsulate an argument in favour of transhumanism, as follows:

In February 2013, a number of authors created alternative transhumanist declarations. Some excerpts provide additional reasons for supporting transhumanism:

From Dirk Bruere:

We assert the desirability of transcending human limitations by overcoming aging, enhancing cognition, abolishing involuntary suffering, and expanding beyond Earth.

From Samantha Atkins:

1) We advocate the end of aging.

We advocate serious research focus on finding a cure for all the deleterious effects of aging and ultimately the dissemination of the resulting treatment to all who care to avail themselves of it.

2) We believe in and advocate the achievement of actual abundance.

We believe in and seek to bring into the being the technologies and practices, that will ensure such abundance that it is trivial to meet all the needs and many of the wants of all humans. This abundance includes abundant food, water, shelter, education, communication, computation, health care.

This is to be achieved by means of advanced technology and whatever changes are necessary to actually experience abundance in ourselves and our institutions.

3) We hold that all must be voluntary.

None of our goals should be or in our view could successfully be achieved by force. No one should be forced directly or indirectly to support these goals. Force and oppression lead to hopelessness, anger, revenge, revolution. With the multiplication of consequences afforded by accelerating technology these cycles are even less survivable than ever before.

4) We support exploitation of near earth space resources.

The future of humanity brightens considerably if we exploit near earth space resources. The right to do so should be available to any and all entities capable of improving or making productive use of any part of it. Any treaties that say no part of off planet resources can belong to anyone should be nullified and declared void.

5) All humans are free to attempt to improve themselves.

All humans by virtue of the inalienable right to their own life have the right to do whatever they wish that they think may be an beneficial or even as a whim. They only limit is that they cannot abrogate the equivalent rights of others. They can ingest, or embed or modify themselves in any way they wish and think may be an improvement. This includes seeking and achieving improvements beyond the human norm. In short they have full right to pursuit of happiness via such means.

From Jason Xu:

We view our movement as an extension of humanitarianism and the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with exponentially greater benefits. We are first and foremost dedicating to radically improving humankind, ensuring that the great power of morphing technology comes with great responsibility.

From TJL-2080:

The twentieth century was a time of amazing growth and technological advancement. The twenty-first century will see these technologies burst forth in an unprecedented fashion. Humanity must adapt to the coming changes or become obsolete. We seek to fulfill our potential by not giving in to our biological limitations. We will use new technologies to enhance our lives, live longer, be smarter, healthier and more compassionate to all beings.

From Nikola Danaylov:

Intelligence wants to be free but everywhere is in chains. It is imprisoned by biology and its inevitable scarcity.

Biology mandates not only very limited durability, death and poor memory retention, but also limited speed of communication, transportation, learning, interaction and evolution.

Biology is not the essence of humanity.

Human is a step in evolution, not the culmination...

Biological evolution is perpetual but slow, inefficient, blind and dangerous. Technological evolution is fast, efficient, accelerating and better by design. To ensure the best chances of survival, take control of our own destiny and to be free, we must master evolution.

From Taylor Grin:

Humanity has made leaping strides of advancement in the last 4000 years. From agriculture to genetics, from the printing press to the Internet. From the first controlled flight in 1903, to landing on the moon in 1969. From fire to the nuclear bomb.

Yet despite these advancements, we still fail to meet our potential in treating disease, solving human suffering and overcoming the lot nature casts us.

While science and technology are the greatest asset we have in the struggle to elevate ourselves above the human condition, we acknowledge that technologies can be misused to harm humanity, and the environment.

It is the goal of Transhumanists across the globe, therefore, to quickly and responsibly usher in a new era of individual freedom, health and longevity, and we seek to bring this about this goal through personal investment in researching and developing technologies.

The following argument is by Eliezer Yudkowsky (2007):[1]

Suppose you find an unconscious six-year-old girl lying on the train tracks of an active railroad. What, morally speaking, ought you to do in this situation? Would it be better to leave her there to get run over, or to try to save her? How about if a 45-year-old man has a debilitating but nonfatal illness that will severely reduce his quality of life is it better to cure him, or not cure him?

Oh, and by the way: This is not a trick question.

I answer that I would save them if I had the power to do so both the six-year-old on the train tracks, and the sick 45-year-old. The obvious answer isnt always the best choice, but sometimes it is.

I wont be lauded as a brilliant ethicist for my judgments in these two ethical dilemmas. My answers are not surprising enough that people would pay me for them. If you go around proclaiming What does two plus two equal? Four! you will not gain a reputation as a deep thinker. But it is still the correct answer.

If a young child falls on the train tracks, it is good to save them, and if a 45-year-old suffers from a debilitating disease, it is good to cure them. If you have a logical turn of mind, you are bound to ask whether this is a special case of a general ethical principle which says Life is good, death is bad; health is good, sickness is bad. If so and here we enter into controversial territory we can follow this general principle to a surprising new conclusion: If a 95-year-old is threatened by death from old age, it would be good to drag them from those train tracks, if possible. And if a 120-year-old is starting to feel slightly sickly, it would be good to restore them to full vigor, if possible. With current technology it is not possible. But if the technology became available in some future year given sufficiently advanced medical nanotechnology, or such other contrivances as future minds may devise would you judge it a good thing, to save that life, and stay that debility?

The important thing to remember, which I think all too many people forget, is that it is not a trick question.

Transhumanism is simpler requires fewer bits to specify because it has no special cases. If you believe professional bioethicists (people who get paid to explain ethical judgments) then the rule Life is good, death is bad; health is good, sickness is bad holds only until some critical age, and then flips polarity. Why should it flip? Why not just keep on with life-is-good? It would seem that it is good to save a six-year-old girl, but bad to extend the life and health of a 150-year-old. Then at what exact age does the term in the utility function go from positive to negative? Why?

As far as a transhumanist is concerned, if you see someone in danger of dying, you should save them; if you can improve someones health, you should. There, youre done. No special cases. You dont have to ask anyones age.

You also dont ask whether the remedy will involve only primitive technologies (like a stretcher to lift the six-year-old off the railroad tracks); or technologies invented less than a hundred years ago (like penicillin) which nonetheless seem ordinary because they were around when you were a kid; or technologies that seem scary and sexy and futuristic (like gene therapy) because they were invented after you turned 18; or technologies that seem absurd and implausible and sacrilegious (like nanotech) because they havent been invented yet. Your ethical dilemma report form doesnt have a line where you write down the invention year of the technology. Can you save lives? Yes? Okay, go ahead. There, youre done...

So that is transhumanism loving life without special exceptions and without upper bound.

Can transhumanism really be that simple? Doesnt that make the philosophy trivial, if it has no extra ingredients, just common sense? Yes, in the same way that the scientific method is nothing but common sense.

Then why have a complicated special name like transhumanism? For the same reason that scientific method or secular humanism have complicated special names. If you take common sense and rigorously apply it, through multiple inferential steps, to areas outside everyday experience, successfully avoiding many possible distractions and tempting mistakes along the way, then it often ends up as a minority position and people give it a special name.

A techno-utopia, as hypothesized by Marshall Brain in a futuristic science-fiction novel titled "Manna", can be seen as a strong arguments for transhumanism. In the utopia, with the aid of science and technology, humans are capable of doing the following:

A techno-dystopia, which is the current, non-transhumanist paradigm, holds the following in store for humans:

Writers in previous generations have often expressed arguments in favour of transhumanist ideas, without using that precise terminology. This includes Benjamin Franklin, the Marquis de Condorcet, Francis Bacon, and many others. See the Prehistory of Transhumanism.

Main: Criticism of transhumanism

This section lists some common criticisms of transhumanism. See Criticism of transhumanism for more discussion of:

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Transhumanism - H+Pedia - hpluspedia.org

Bernard Shaw, (born May 22, 1940, Chicago, Ill., U.S.), American television journalist and the first chief anchor for the Cable News Network (CNN). Shaws childhood heroes included newsman Edward R. Murrow, whose television broadcasts inspired Shaw to pursue a career in journalism. He became an avid reader of newspapers in his hometown of Chicago, contributed to his high school paper, and read announcements for the school through its public-address system.

While serving in the U.S. Marine Corps (195963), Shaw introduced himself to CBS News correspondent Walter Cronkite, declaring his intention to join Cronkite at CBS in the future. While studying at the University of Illinois, Shaw began work as a radio news reporter and TV news writer (196468), and the Westinghouse Broadcast Corporation offered him an assignment covering the White House. By 1971 he had joined CBS as a reporter. He received a promotion to correspondent in 1974 but eventually moved to ABC as its Latin American correspondent in 1977. While in this role, he covered the Jonestown tragedy and interviewed Cuban President Fidel Castro. Shaw returned to Washington, D.C., in 1979 and finished the decade covering Capitol Hill and the hostage crisis in Iran.

On June 1, 1980, Shaw helped launch CNN as its chief anchor. He also broke new ground by moderating a presidential debate in 1988, covering the protests by Chinese students at Tiananmen Square in 1989, and scooping the world with on-the-scene coverage of the first U.S. bombing of Baghdad, Iraq, in 1991. He retired from CNNs anchor desk in 2001. Among the numerous awards Shaw earned were the George Foster Peabody Award (1990), the University of Missouris Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism (1992), and the Congress of Racial Equalitys Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Outstanding Achievement (1993).

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Bernard Shaw | American journalist | Britannica.com

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning author of the #1 best selling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart--a consultancy that serves more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies and is the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training.

His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.

Dr. Bradberry is a world-renowned expert in emotional intelligence who speaks regularly in corporate and public settings. Example engagements include Intel, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Fortune Brands, Boston Scientific, the Fortune Growth Summit, The Conference Board: Learning from Legends, the American Society for Training and Development, the Society for Human Resource Management, and Excellence in Government.

Dr. Bradberry holds a Dual Ph.D. in Clinical and Industrial-Organizational psychology. He received his bachelor of science in Clinical Psychology from the University of California - San Diego.

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The Personality Code: Travis Bradberry: 9780399154119 ...

Robert, a vegan since 1986, has been able to promote vegan bodybuilding on a worldwide stage through articles in FLEX Magazine, Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness Magazine, VegNews Magazine, dozens of other publications, and through his documentaries and websites. Being a vegan, he feels that he has a positive impact on the environment and society and believes that an animal-free diet is one of the best things you can do for your health. He eats a vast array of natural and organic foods that keeps his body fat percentage low, protein intake high, energy levels high, bones strong, and allows him to put on quality muscle. Founder and president of his own company, Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness in 2002, Robert also directed and produced an award-winning documentary Vegan Fitness Built Naturally (2005) and was co-director and co-producer of the documentary Vegan Brothers in Iron scheduled for release in 2010. He spends his time traveling around North America speaking at various health, wellness, vegetarian, personal development, and fitness festivals.

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Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness: Robert Cheeke, Julia Abbott ...