All ‘Scientific Research’ posts

Lama Ole Nydahl – Buddhism and Science

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Lama Ole Nydahl teaching in 2009 (Photo: JR Petersen)

Lama Ole Nydahl teaching in 2009 (Photo: JR Petersen)

This teaching was published in 2005 in Issue 16 of the magazine “Buddhism Today”. The original can be seen at the BuddhaChannel portal.

Buddhism and Science – and interview with Lama Ole Nydahl

Conducted by Artur Przybyslawski at the Diamond Way Buddhist Center Vilnius, Lithuania, on September 25, 2004.

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Buddhist meditators make rational economic decisions

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
Nepali coins featuring the Buddha

Nepali coins featuring the Buddha

From the desk of Dr. Peter Malinowski, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the School of Natural Sciences & Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University and founding member of the Liverpool Diamond Way Buddhist Centre:

Buddhists make rational economic decisions

A recent study into human decision-making revealed that experienced Buddhist meditators act more rationally in social situations that are commonly experienced as unfair.

The study, carried out by researchers in the US and Canada, compared the decisions of experienced Buddhist meditators with that of control participants during the so-called Ultimatum Game. In a (simulated) two-person exchange the participants were offered a split of a certain amount of money ($20). If they decided to reject the offer, proposer and respondent got nothing; otherwise both received their respective share. Typically, participants tend to reject offers that are perceived as particularly unfair, i.e. when they would receive 20% or less. However, a more rational choice would be to accept every non-zero offer, as it would improve ones economic situation. The results showed that the Buddhist meditators accepted significantly more of the unfair offers ($2 / $18 and $1 / $19) than the control participants.

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Science Discovers Buddhism – Dr. Peter Malinowski in The Middle Way Journal

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
The Middle Way

The Middle Way

In the introduction to his recent article published in the Middle Way, the journal of the UK’s Buddhist Society (Volume 85, No.4 – February 2011), Dr. Peter Malinowski states:

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Rupert Sheldrake – “Telephone Telepathy” (video)

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

In Lama Ole Nydahl‘s lectures, including those given in London and Brighton last September, he mentions that sometimes we know who is calling before we lift up the receiver, to demonstrate that “space is information”. (more…)

Pim van Lommel on Consciousness Beyond Life

Monday, January 24th, 2011

Renowned cardiologist Pim van Lommel, author of Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience , discusses his research into the near-death experience. In this extensive interview, he describes the brain as a “transceiver” which receives information from consciousness, states that everything originates from consciousness – which he describes as “fundamental” and “non-local” – and discusses the profound implications of his research for Western science.

Scientists glimpse universe before the Big Bang

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

A very interesting article recently appeared on the Physorg.com science news website which supports the Buddha’s observation that Samsara or “cyclic existence” is beginningless…   

Scientists glimpse universe before the Big Bang 

November 23, 2010 by Lisa Zyga

Black hole encounters would have repeated themselves several times, with the center of each event remaining at almost exactly the same point in the CMB sky, even when occurring in different aeons. The huge amounts of energy released would appear as spherical, low-variance radiation bursts in the CMB. Image credit: Gurzadyan and Penrose

In general, asking what happened before the Big Bang is not really considered a science question. According to Big Bang theory, time did not even exist before this point roughly 13.7 billion years ago. But now, Oxford University physicist Roger Penrose and Vahe Gurzadyan from the Yerevan Physics Institute in Armenia have found an effect in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that allows them to “see through” the Big Bang into what came before.  

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Interview with Dr. Jim Tucker on past life memories

Friday, November 19th, 2010

Earlier this week our blog entry about the documentary “The Boy Who Lived Before” and the work of Dr. Jim Tucker of the University of Virginia attracted a lot of interest. As a follow-up we’re posting this video of an interview with Dr. Tucker in which he explains the characteristics of studies being carried out into past life memories. This is very interesting from the point of view of Buddhism as many of these cases strongly support the possibility of reincarnation.

The Boy Who Lived Before

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

This thought-provoking documentary first screened in 2005 was part of the television series “Extraordinary People” broadcast on Channel Five in the UK. The programme, entitled “The Boy Who Lived Before” featured the investigation of the case of Cameron Macaulay by Dr. Jim Tucker, medical director of the Child and Family Psychiatry Clinic, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. It raises an interesting challenge to common Western scientific notions of consciousness.

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