Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain,… (edició 2018)

In the last twenty years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it.

Sweeping away common misconceptions and neuromythology to open readers' eyes to the ways data has been distorted to sell mind-training methods, the authors demonstrate that beyond the pleasant states mental exercises can produce, the real payoffs are the lasting personality traits that can result. But short daily doses will not get us to the highest level of lasting positive change--even if we continue for years--without specific additions. More than sheer hours, we need smart practice, including crucial ingredients such as targeted feedback from a master teacher and a more spacious, less attached view of the self, all of which are missing in widespread versions of mind training. The authors also reveal the latest data from Davidson's own lab that point to a new methodology for developing a broader array of mind-training methods with larger implications for how we can derive the greatest benefits from the practice.

Exciting, compelling, and grounded in new research, this is one of those rare books that has the power to change us at the deepest level.

While I found the book highly informative and authoritative, considering the authors first-hand experience with both research on meditation and meditation as such, I simply cannot force myself to rate it higher then 3/5 stars because of the form.

Its a common habit of many authors of popular science books today to puff up ideas worth 100 pages to 300 pages by various means of repetition, useless anecdotes and interviews and what not instead of filling the book with more information / coming up with their unique views etc. This book unfortunately follows the same pattern - about 100 pages is really good, informative, you learn a lot about state of research on meditation, issues with devising experiments in a highly subjective field, various kinds of meditation and benefits that science could prove, but the rest 200 is simply.. dispensable.

Its possible that many readers will not agree with me and I guess that really depends on expectation - I have personally expected more focus on raw information and less / no focus on stuff like personal paths of authors, their meetings with various monks and dalai lama, their dying friend etc. and I am sure that if not 100/200 split then it is at least 150/150 split between those two sides.

Even though my review is rather harsh, I still recommend this book to all readers interested in meditation who would like to get a clear picture of what it actually is about and what benefits it can provide - its just that you will often feel like speed reading certain parts or even skipping them.
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Goleman and Davidson have spent years meditating and, as scientists, wanted to research the effects of meditation on the mind, brain and body. They were discouraged as young academicians from pursuing this topic, being told that it would kill their careers, but with the emergence of neuroscience they have been able to show that “experiences shape our brains, a platform supporting our theory that as meditation trains the minds, it reshapes the brain”...At the outset, mere minutes a day of practice have surprising benefits (though not all those that are claimed). Beyond such payoffs at the beginning, we can now show that the more hours you practice, the greater the benefits you reap. And at the highest levels of practice we find true altered traits - changes in the brain that science has never observed before, but which we proposed decades ago.” (p17)

Goleman and Davidson were founding board members of the Mind and Life Institute, which was formed in 1987 by the Dalai Lama and others and whose mission was to “alleviate suffering and promote flourishing by integrating science with contemplative practice.” (15)
As the Dalai Lama said, “The true mark of a meditator is that he has disciplined his mind by freeing it from negative emotions.” (p 45)

If you are interested in how meditation effects the mind, brain, and body, this book goes into detail on their research, results and how it applies to helping us have a healthier mind, brain, and body.

Submitted by MK

A scientific account of meditation research. Makes for slightly dry reading, because it is meticulously accurate on facts. Pretty much all the interesting stuff is listed in the final section ‘in a bit shell’. ( )

I received an ARC of this book last year via the Early Reviewers program. This is only the second nonfiction I've completed this year, my pace being much slower than my usual one a month for some reason this year. It was a good summary and critique of the research done to date on meditation. Although technical, it was readable large in due part to the authors folding in some of their own life experiences with the practice. Recommended to anyone interested in meditation, with the caveat that it is not, and not intended to be, a how-to. ( )