ffldn.ky*(rlln#credenceBuddhist-stylemeditai as analternative to conventional medicine, Kathy Phillips meets the converts for whon the silenttreatment has had startling effects, lllustration by Brett Ryder

A traditional Sussex GP maintains that it is the future; medicine sparkedexactly that response- its supportersare a committed Christian nursefrom Somersetnow thinks nothing pointing to a growing body of researchin its favour. of a week-long silent retreat; a diabetic former City whiz-kid Scientistsare using brain imaging and blood tests to study found it changedhis life. Meditation, with its roots in ancient the biological effects of meditation. Quantum physicistshave Buddhisttraditions, is emergingfrom the alternativefringe and publishedmeasurements of the increaseof gammawaves in the beingtaken increasingly seriously in somequarters of the medi- frontal lobe of long-term Buddhistmeditators in comparison cal establishment. with thoseof novicemeditation students - gammawaves are at Peopleused to think that a life of conternplation- along with the frequencywe needto make new conn@tionsin the brain. In meditation and rhythmic chanting and the whole of Eastern some caseschanges in both physical and psychologicalhealth philosophyin general- was a lot of mysticalmumbo jumbo. appearwithin daysof first starting the practice. In somecases, apart from seemingrisible and somewhatpagan, The resultsof a study carried out last year at Massachusetts meditation was equatedwith suppressionand paisivity, simply General Hospital suggestthat people who meditate regularly a religiousritual for the flock. But thereis nothing sheeplikein appearto undergochanges in parts of the brain that handle today'sinterest in the subject.Meditation is now usedto treat perceptionand attentiveness.The study samplewas small, and everything from chronic ailments, stressand skin disorders to it is unclear what the changesmay mean, but researcherssaid depression,cancer and degenerativediseases that when they comparedMRI scansof peoplewho meditated Although somescientists still dismissthe surprisingresults with thoseof peoplewho did not, they found mor€ greymatter of healing meditation as 'placebo effects' - the Prince of in the frontal corticesof thosewho meditate- which means, Wales'sspeech to the World Health Assanbly last month effectively,that they had grown bigger brains calling for the integration of conventional and alternative Candace Pert, the eminent neuroscientistwho proved how emotionscause biological changes in the body whichin turn can ,SIMPLYBY LETTINGGO,YOU CAN causedisease, took up meditation and yogaherself as a result of her studies.'Every motion of your digestion is coloured by the RECONFIGURETHE SOFTWARE PART OF moleculesof your emotions,'she says 'It's not just psychologi- THE PACKAGEOF YOURBODY' cal, it's biochemical.'Thismeans that feelingsof ange4desire and addiction, for examplg set off a habitual reaction in the brain which in turn sets off a cascadeof biochemical events, someof which resultin changesto the nucleusof the cells Cur- rently working on a pharmaceuticalway to cut off the habitual reactionat the receptorsites in the brain, Dr Pert worked out that cutting off the emotions through detachment,relaxation, concentrationand mindfulnesswould be beneficialto her orvn health.The obviousways to do that?Meditation and yoga. Guy Burgs is a meditation teacherwho trained in Asia for 12 yearsunder severalvenerable spiritual teachergincluding three yearsas an ordainedmonk in Burma. He now works in the UK and in Bali where he has built a specialisedrctreat and clinic. 'People are more informed than wer but they are sicker than ever,'he says 'In the spaceof only six yearg I'm seeingpeople with more chronic ailments and more toxicity in the blood, morc cirnoerand moredepression.'His meditation @ursesare basedon the Buddhist conceptof liv- ing in the.moment,aware and focused,but without judgement.But he also teachesa specific'healing' meditation taught to him from old Balinese 'that Sanskrittexts 'Thereis a point,'he says, the meditation engageswith the sicknessactively rather than passively.' Our generalresponse to illness is a mental one - stress,worry and tension combined with a tight chest,bad breathingand constrictionof the heart. 'Meditation healingis a parasympatheticresponse through good breathing,' Burgs explaing'focused on the "out" breath,which in turn affectsthe auto- nomic rcsponsein the body, which kicks in and healsitself A sort of internal alchemy.' Echoing Dr Pert's observationqBurgs main- 'the tains that quality of your consciousness affectsthe biorhythmsof your body.'Put another ,I way, you can reconfigurethe software part of the MEDITATEEVERY DAY AND packageof your body and reorganisethe energy MY SYMPTOMSGO AWAY. by simply letting go. IT'SANECDOTAL EVIDENCE, Justto sit and'be'is not that easy.It takesprac- BUTIT'S DIFFICULT FOR ME AS tice and a good teachersimply to learn how to sit up straight without strain for periodsof 40 min- A SCIENTISTTO IGNORE' utes at a timg and to brcatheevenly and well. But it is this attentivenessand quietnessthat can lead to the deeperand transformationalquality of the process.karning to tame what the Buddhistscall our'monkey mind'- the internalchaos that keeps us flitting back and forwards,obsessing about the minutiaeof life - can be frustratingand elusive. Beginnersto meditation will notice their mind regularly wanderingback to the past and forward 'My to the future: 'I'll neverbe able to do this'; 'What hips arc killing me'; 'How much longer?'; 'You am I going to cook for dinner?'and so on. --* must allow for the transienceof eachthought like 6**q3$ff$[*+e* bubbles forming in a pot of water or weather 'social 'meaningful patterns in the sky. It's an important part of the anxietydisorder'to take pauses' meditation course and I put my chemo off for a learning procesg' says Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn, who throughout the day as a way to monitor their fean weekto do it. It was hard work and if anyonehad has developed a technique called mindfulness- and doubts and gain inner control. In another said I'd be meditatingat any time I would have basedstress reduction (MBSR). study in Indiana women with obesity problems laughed.'Thecancer had sprcadout of the colon Sometimesmercly turning up knowing nothing found that meditation, including special eating and into the lymph nodes The docton had offered can lead to surprisesAlex Coombe,30, went to a meditations(slowly savouring the flavour of a piece palliative care after chemotherapybut said that Burgscourse just becausehis life was in a messand of cheesg for example), helped to reduce binge was all they could do. it through a friend of a friend. tendenciesJohn Ti;asdalefrom Oxford Univenity Strachan's scans have been clear since last he had heard about 'I was diabeticwas not what he was and Mark Williams at Cambridge,working with Christmaq and shefeels incredibly well. hesitate The fact that he 'but therc for. He had beenon insulin sincethe age of Zindel S€gal, a professor of psychiatry at the to say I sailedthrough the chemo,'shesays, thrce. However,after two days of meditation he University of Toronto, have been teaching mind- the meditation and chi kung classesas part of - was ableto lower his normal dose"After a weekhe fulnesstechniques along with conrtentionalcogni- Burgs's course helped tremendously and I'm was finding that he could go for severaldays with- tive therapy to patientssuffering from depression. a committedChristian.'Chi kung is quite simply 'chi'or out insulin at all. For him it was a surprisingby- They havefound that a large percentagetaught to the cultivation of the life-forcewithin the product of the process. ob,servesadness or happinesswithout judgement body. It was first practised by Chinese doctors 'Any doctor under 40 who traind at the British rccoveredfrom a depressiveperiod and remained as far back as 200sc and is still used in Chinese medical school has coveredholistic approachesto stablg without rclapsefor more than a year. hospitalstoday as a slow exercisesystem, palng medicing including meditation,'says Susan Horse- The biological impact of meditation is the next attention to each muscle movement and using wood LBe an tGPworkinginChelsea. frontier in scientificresearch. In a study published the breath rhythmically to reactivate the energy 'They are woveninto fhe syilabus But meditation severalyears ago, Dr Y.abat-Zinn, using MBSR systemsof the body naturally and without force. can be a tricky one to initiate. It is not something for a randomisedclinical trial, found that when Incidentally, Strachan'soncologist volunteered a patient can do longdistance or by reading a patientswith psoriasislistened to meditation tapes no opinion on her treatment and gavethe OK to book, and if you're from a small mining town in during ultraviolet-light therapy they healedabout the ancient Oriental gold-based medicine that the Midlands say,your doctor can discussit as an four times faster than a control Soup. Hopefully, Burgs usesfor some patients during their treat- 'His option but may not know wherc to sendyou.' according to Guy Burgg people will realise that ment. attitude was that the damagenas done Those already on the meditation path need no this too! can also be a way of prwenting illness and that no diet would make any difference,'says 'Essentially equipment other than selfdiscipline. Ultimately the body has all the right information,' Strachan, who also cut out dairy, red meat and 'although 'The the practice of good breathing and meditation he says, sadly in many cases people acidic foods such as tomato and citrus fruits becomesa way of life and a daily occurrence. ignore it.until they becomereally sick and then doctors wertn't so much negative as indifferent. 'Every exhalation brinp you down to quiet and turn to meditation as a last resort.' Eighteen montbs on, I get the feeling from my 'When rootednesg' Mary Stewart, a yoga teacher with illness occurs, it's a wake-up call, I consultant that he doesn't dare to acknowledge 'It morc than 40 ycars'experiencgsays showsyou suppose,'says Louise Strachan, a retired nurse what has happened.' 'I how to be in the moment.' from Somerset,who was diagnosedwith colon was completelythrown by meditation,'says 'You At Stanford University in C.alifomia, the psy- cancerin August 200/,. either respondor you the SussexGP John Simmong who has already chologistPhilippe Goldin encouragespatients with don't. My son persuadedme to do the healing integrated complementary treatments such as .THEDIFFICULTY WITH MEDITATION IS THAT IT ISN'TINSTANT GRATIFICATION. YOU CAN'T SEE IMMEDIATELYHOW GOOD IT IS FORYOU' acupunctureinto his practiceand is the 650,000thoughts we havea day involved in the Prince of Wales's just constantlyplaying like a frlm Foundation for Integrated Health. that hasno end.Taking the time out 'I had nevermeditated before I met to sit, closemy eyesand go inwardq 'I'd Burgsbut I fell ill,'he says. used allows me to createa distancefrom acupuncturefor things like tennis this chatter.Now I not only teacha elbow, frozen shoulder and osteo- weeklyclass, I incorporateit into my arthritis with good results,so I was daily practice.' interestedin the idea of meditation Controversialas it may seem,pan as another complementaryoption. of the processof healing,according Obviouslywhen I got ill, I pursued to Burgs's techniqug is to take the conventionalroute first.' accountabilityfor the situation you With symptoms of dizzinesq are in, to understandthe role you blurred vision in the right eye,head- haveplayed in beingill. This is simi- ache, fatigue and jelly legs, Dr lar to the conceptof self-responsibil- 'This Simmons eventually went for an ity in cognitive therapy. is a MRI scan, which diagnoseda pri- diflicult ong' Dr Horsewood Lee 'I mary inflammatory brain disorder. says think it's simplerfor someone 'It wasn'tmultiple sclerosis,'hesayq to accept taking responsibility for 'but therewere all the signsof it and their healingthan to feel blame for I knew,as a doctor,that therewas no whathas happened.' 'You medical treatment available.I had a haveto put the pain into the 'and statisticalindication of the prognosis equation,'Burgssays, then you of my illnessand in someways it was haveto let it go.Then the meditation nice to have a label to it. But that will reorganisethe energiesBasically, didn't help me understandwhy, with it's like defragging the hard drive. everythingin my life going for me, How can we ignore the impact of this had happened.A combination the mind?It is,after all, runningthe of meditation,acupuncturg chi kung show.The difliculty with meditation and looking at my diet has changed is that it isn't instant gratifrcation. my life. It's just unbelievable.For the You can't seeimmediately how good hrst three days of the week-long it is for you.And in orderto pull out coursewith Burgq I neverthought I sicknessor the propensityfor sick- would make it. My back hurt from nessat a deeperthan cellular level the sitting,my legshurt, it wasexcru- you haveto havea deepfoundation ciating.I went not knowinganything of serenity.People usually leaveit about Buddhismbut at everyoppor- too long. But I haveseen people in tunity and at every level Burgs hospital on morphine on demand answeredall my questionsCrucially that have got better. And I've seen my symptomsgot 80 to 90 per cent real positive energy changesin a betteqand six monthsdown the line week.With meditation,you're either I meditatefor 40 to 45 minutesevery going to do it or you're not. It's day and my symptomsgo away.It's degeneration or enlightenment. anecdotalevidence, yes, but it's difli- Your teacherwill giveyou the tools cult for me as a scientistto ignoreit.' and thenit's up to you.' Many people get to meditation through yoga; they want to go Meditation and healing wtth Burgs further. For the yoga teacher Katy in the UK and Bali(one-day Appleton, the radical experience-at workshop,175, June 18, at Columbia a full-on Indian ashramwas also life- Hotel,London W2): justletgo.org changing.'I was taken ill in India lGty Appleton 020-87888892; and couldn't make it to the Iyengar appleyoga.com Institute as planned,' she says. Jon Kabat-Znnis inviting'baders 'I found myself in Pune, southern andinnovators in businessand India, and went to another ashram, non-proffiorganisations' to takepart OSHO, instead. After five weeks in a meetingftom October 27 I was absolutely amazed at how to November1 at MeniaMountain transformedI was.I had beenreally Retreat,three hours nofih of sick with a stomach bug and was NewYork, Center for Mindfulness generally exhaustedafter a stressful at [email protected] year working in London. After the or00 1 508856 1097. meditation course I felt abundant OSHOin Pune,India, where with a real senseof serenityand joy,' lGty Appletondid the vipassanasilent shesays. 'In termsof beinga teacher, meditationfor threedays and it has made me feel in a far better thendaily meditations: osho.com. position to passthat on. What has Bdtish Society of Behavioural amazed me is that often I would and Cognitive Psycfioffierapies makevital decisionsin life basedon babcp.com; 01 254 -87 527 7