Did you hear about this one, guys? It’s an insightful bit of meditation trivia which you can share with friends at your next party. According to the magazine New Scientist, in 2003, The Dalai Lama challenged a scientist named Stephen Kosslyn to test the visual memories of experienced Buddhist monks in Nepal. Kosslyn agreed and his colleage Maria Kozhevnikov set out for Nepal to undertake this bold project. The results of the study were just published on April 19th in Psychological Science journal.
At Sechen Monastery in Kathmandu, Kozhevnikov conducted scientific tests on the visual memories of the monks in residence there. Her findings were quite interesting. She found that practitioners of a specific type of meditation called deity yoga (a style that emphasizes visual imagery) displayed excellent visual memory within minutes after meditating. But the improved memory skills were only in effect immediately following meditation. After time had elapsed, the enhanced memory factor disappeared. And Buddhist monks who did not practice deity yoga did not exhibit the improved memory trend.
To summarize, The Dalai Lama was correct! Highly-trained Buddhist monks (albeit only those who practice deity yoga, and of course only immediately after meditating) clearly display improved visual memories. Most excellent!
P.S. The Dalai Lama visited Santa Barbara last Friday!! Were any of you SB peeps there?
