I love Sam Harris, but I cringe every time he says something about Buddhism, meditation, or that feudal dictator known as the Dalai Lama.
Going through his blog, I ran into two guided meditations Harris posted, along with this:
There is nothing spooky or irrational about mindfulness, and the literature on its psychological benefits is now substantial.
[…]
Developing this quality of mind has been shown to reduce pain, anxiety, and depression; improve cognitive function; and even produce changes in gray matter density in regions of the brain related to learning and memory, emotional regulation, and self-awareness.
Wow, that sounds a lot like… quackery.
Despite Harris saying there’s “substantial (scientific) literature”, and that these effects “have been shown”, he fails to link to a single peer-reviewed paper, published by a magazine with extensive background to support his claims. I know he says he’ll cover all the science (!) on his book, but a single link wouldn’t kill him, right?
And then it comes the “changes in gray matter density in regions of the brain” claim. As far as I know, what have been linked to meditation is having thicker cortical areas, but those studies fail to define meditation in an objectively measurable way, and they established a correlation; and as we all know, correlation doesn’t imply causation.
By the way, we know for fact, with peer-reviewed papers, that meditation is dangerous. I hope I am misunderstanding Harris and he will provide evidence for his claims.
