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diff --git a/stanzione/mm1.tex b/stanzione/mm1.tex index a03d49d..545b80b 100644 --- a/stanzione/mm1.tex +++ b/stanzione/mm1.tex @@ -9,17 +9,17 @@ % \raggedright % \language255 % no hyphenation \parindent=.5in -\linespread{1.85} +\linespread{1.89} -\shorttitle{Mastery Mailing 1} +\shorttitle{Meditation and Your Second Self} \addbibresource{sources.bib} \leftheader{Rohrer} \begin{document} +\centerline{\textbf{Mastery Mailing 1: Meditation and Your Second Self}} Hi Nana! -\medskip I'm learning about meditation in psychology class, and I think you'd be interested in the subjective effects of ``open monitoring'' meditation. @@ -35,9 +35,9 @@ conflated with so many different subjective experiences, news articles and new studies can't reliably mean 20-minute open-monitoring sessions or a global change in perception/awareness \autocite{doubt}. -My textbook says that ``meditation involves using a mental or physical -technique to induce a state of focused attention and heightened -awereness'' \autocite[145]{textbook}. +My textbook says that meditation is a general category for hundreds of +different practices that focus attention or make you more aware of +internal and external sensations \autocite[145]{textbook}. You're probably already familiar with some techniques of meditation, either from a religious (probably Buddhist) perspective or a secular perspective, but I'll examine a couple of techniques to see what @@ -47,15 +47,16 @@ Focused attention empties the mind of intrusive thoughts by thinking only about an object or your breathing or even movement (like in Tai Chi). Open monitoring is often transitioned to after focusing on breathing, -but experts eventually can reach this state through ``effortless -concentration'' \autocite{lutz} +but experts eventually can reach this state through effortless +concentration \autocite{lutz} Open monitoring is acting as a passive observer of your own thoughts and external sensations. \begin{figure}[ht] \begin{center} \includegraphics[height=2.5in]{yang} - \par\emph{A Practioner of Tai Chi. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons} + \par\emph{A Practioner of Tai Chi. Unknown author, Public domain, + via Wikimedia Commons} \end{center} \end{figure} @@ -73,8 +74,10 @@ businesspeople) who all experienced depersonalization. They report feeling mildly content and entirely lack strong emotions, and many are totally accustomed to work happening outside of their ``self.'' -However, as one Mr. A said, ``I don't want to leave the thing sounding -better than it is, because it's not bad, but it's not wonderful.'' +However, the interviewees included in this study didn't revere +dissociation as much as religious texts on the subject do. +Except for the initial distress, none reported sadness at the state, but +they weren't ecstatic either. They describe what Yoga psychology calls enlightenment, especially the less persistent experience of derealization. Some meditators said they saw every object as being conscious, having |