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Meditation as a Voluntary Hypometabolic State of Biological Estivation

John Ding-E Young and Eugene Taylor

J. D.-E Young is Adjunct Professor, Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Immunology, Rockefeller University, and President of Inteplast Corp., Livingston, NJ, USA. E. Taylor is Lecturer on Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Core Faculty member, Saybrook Graduate School.
Meditation, a wakeful hypometabolic state of parasympathetic dominance, is compared with other hypometabolic conditions, such as sleep, hypnosis, and the torpor of hibernation. We conclude that there are many analogies between the physiology of long-term meditators and hibernators across the phylogenetic scale. These analogies further reinforce the idea that plasticity of consciousness remains a key factor in successful biological adaptation.

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				Y.-Y. Tang, Y. Ma, Y. Fan, H. Feng, J. Wang, S. Feng, Q. Lu, B. Hu, Y. Lin, J. Li, et al. Central and autonomic nervous system interaction is altered by short-term meditation PNAS, June 2, 2009; 106(22): 8865 - 8870. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]