News About Enlightenment From Around The World

4 scientific studies on the brain reveal our progress towards enlightenment

For years, meditation fans have said that the practice keeps them healthy. But a new study, published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes in November 2012, actually tested this. For the study, 201 people with coronary heart disease were asked to either (a) take a health education class promoting better diet and exercise or (b) take a class on transcendental meditation. Researchers followed up with participants for the next five years and found that those who took the meditation class had a 48% reduction in their overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death. It’s an initial study, but a promising one. [Time]

Is meditating a good way to increase creativity? Maybe, but it depends on what kind. Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands looked at the way two types of meditation — focused-attention (for example, focusing on your breath) and open-monitoring (where participants focus on the both the internal and external) — affected two types of creative thinking — the ability to generate new ideas and solutions to problems. In a study published in April 2012 in Frontiers in Cognition, they revealed that the participants who practiced focused-attention meditation did not show improved results in the two creativity tasks. However, those who practiced open-monitoring meditation did perform better at task related to coming up with new ideas. [Meditation Research] 

Scientific research here

Top Spiritual 100 influencers have been named for 2014

Watkins Magazine, published by the oldest spiritual bookstore in the world, dating back to the 1890’s, published their annual list of the biggest influencer’s in the world. This year the list is topped by the Dali Lama, followed by Echart Tolle in second place, and the brand new Pope, Francis in third place.

You can read the whole post here

 21 day Meditation Series of  sessions with Oprah and Deepak Chopra

There were over ½ a million people from all over the world gathered to participate. The course   called Finding Your Flow ended on May 4. Each day was a different topic, and the topics included expressing love, wisdom, power, security, and global peace. The series is still available to listen to and participate in at any time on the computer or mobile device. The link is here.

Disaster on Everest and Enlightenment

Mount Everest was the scene of a massive disaster among climbers and Sherpa’s.  .As I have worked as a guide on Everest I have seen first hand how the  heightened opportunity for enlightenment is there and the opportunity for misery and suffering is right in your face also. High risk situations inherently provide sharp contrast not jut about “life or death” but also about “Enlightenment or Suffering.”  The whole story is here

The Pop song “Happy” goes viral and elicits a huge global response of joy and bliss. 

What is remarkable about this story is the outpouring of happy expression from around the world, and the intent of the people in the song to remain happy no matter what. See the rest of the story here and the video too.

The Pope names Pope John Paul II as a Saint- objections pour in

With the Catholic Church recognizing a Pope who presided over the largest cover up of child abuse in the world, there has been an outpouring of concern from around the world, and it begs the question of what is a saint? Read my comments here: