In the last decade, the scientific study of meditation has brought two important insights.
First, researchers no longer treat meditation as a unitary phenomenon, but realize that different practices lead to different results. Second, the role of mind wandering and the brain’s default mode network in meditation has emerged as a blooming research field.
The Power of the Wandering Mind reflects these two trends. Its fifteen chapters focus on one major type of meditative practice, nondirective meditation. This type allows thoughts to come and go of their own accord, usually while a meditation sound or mantra is effortlessly repeated in the mind. Typical examples include Acem Meditation, Clinically Standardized Meditation, the Relaxation Response, and Transcendental Meditation.
The book approaches nondirective meditation from a number of angles: the quantitative measurements of neuroscience and medicine, the self-reports and case studies of psychology, the analytic reasoning of modern philosophy, and the historical and cultural text studies of the humanities. The result is a multifaceted view of how nondirective meditation affects brain and body, mind and culture.
Many of the scientific studies presented here had not yet been published when the book Fighting Stress: Reviews of Meditation Research appeared a decade ago, with contributions by many of the same authors. In particular, the study of mind wandering and default mode network activity during meditation had barely started. Fighting Stress is now out of print.
The Power of the Wandering Mind is the product of a collaborative effort. Each chapter has its own author(s), but all chapters have been thoroughly reworked on the basis of intensive discussions in an editorial group consisting of Turid Suzanne Berg-Nielsen, Svend Davanger, Halvor Eifring, Øyvind Ellingsen, Anne Grete Hersoug, and Eirik Jensen. Morten Wærsted and Bjørn Lau have contributed to one of the chapters. In addition to being a co-author of the first chapter of the book, Acem’s founder Are Holen has been a constant source of inspiration. The authors have a research background within their respective fields, as well as ample experience with Acem Meditation. All authors are responsible for the content of their individual chapters.
We are particularly grateful for Tongtos Mahasuwan’s creative book design and Ann Kunish’s painstaking copy-editing work.
Oslo, March 1, 2019
Halvor Eifring