I’ve previously posted on a prominent skeptic, Sam Harris. Unknown to many who find his skeptical and philosophical writings to be interesting, Harris has also found that meditation makes a huge difference to his way of thinking and living; it has allowed him to experience a plane of experience previously unknown to him. Consider this description of how difficult it can be for those of us all caught up in the day to day rush of experience:

The initial instruction given on a vipassana retreat could not be more simple: when seated, pay attention to the sensation of breathing; when walking, notice the feeling of moving your feet; and whenever you find that your mind has wandered into thought, simply come back to the mere awareness of sensation. Once meditators have developed an ability to concentrate on the flow of physical sensations in this way, they are encouraged to pay attention to the entire range of their experience. The practice from then on is to be precisely aware, moment by moment, of the full tumult of consciousness and its contents: sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts, intentions, and emotions. Of critical importance for the purposes of science: there are no unjustified beliefs or metaphysics that need be adopted at all.

Many of the scientists found the experience grueling. Some said it was the hardest week of their lives. Indeed, many had not known that they would be consigned to total silence for the first six days of the retreat, and asked not to read, or to write, or to make eye-contact with the other retreatants. One neuroscientist reported that on the second day of the retreat he hit “a wall of grief,” in the face of which even the most trivial memories — of drinking a cup of tea, of shaving his face — precipitated profound feelings of sadness, simply because they testified to the inexorable passage of time. It is, of course, natural to brood about time when one suddenly has too much of it on hand. Heaven help the meditator who gets a song like “Cats in the Cradle and the Silver Spoon” stuck in his head. He will surely die by his own hand.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/a-contemplative-science_b_15024.html

One other thing, Lisa. I’m going to reveal you to the DI world as a highly interactive tech-savvy Twitterer, etc. Don’t you feel pulled in half by your needs to meditate and to (at other times) hook up your brain to the frenzy of the Internet?

See http://dangerousintersection.org/2008/12/30/how-is-high-speed-high-volume-inter-connectivity-affecting-our-brains/