Cognitive Domain
Changes reported in this domain pertain to mental functioning, including the frequency, quality and content of thoughts, as well as other cognitive processes, such as planning, decision-making and memory. Three cognitive changes associated with concentration—mental stillness (periods of few or no thoughts), clarity (whether of cognitive processing or of awareness more generally), and meta-cognition (monitoring of cognitive processes)—were given various positive and negative associations depending upon their intensity and how they intersected with other changes in perceptual, somatic, affective, or sense of self domains.
Scrupulosity, or obsessive and repetitive thoughts about ethical behavior, was primarily a concern for practitioners in a monastic context where adherence to ethical norms and regulations was considered integral to meditation practice.
Changes in worldview pertained to shifts in ways of thinking about the nature of self or reality, including confusion about such views.
The principal impairments in the cognitive domain were problems with executive functioning (inability to concentrate for extended periods, or problems with memory) and the dis-integration of conceptual meaning structures, where percepts and concepts became disconnected. Increased cognitive processing speed, colloquially described as “mind racing,” also tended to be reported as unpleasant, and vivid imagery was given positive or negative valence depending on the content or intensity.
The category that the research team had the greatest difficulty operationalizing was delusional, irrational, or paranormal beliefs, in part because a particular belief could be appraised in multiple ways depending on the practitioner and his or her social context. In addition to beliefs described by the practitioner in retrospect as delusional or irrational in nature (e.g., disconfirmed by objective evidence), this category also included beliefs that seemed unusual or concerning to either an authority in their culture or subculture, such as a meditation teacher or family member. When transient, delusional beliefs tended to have little impact; however, when enduring and coupled with a loss of reality testing, delusional beliefs had a much greater impact and tended to lead to functional impairment and changes in the social domain.
Excerpt from:
In their own words…
Meditators describe their experiences in the cognitive domain
Vivid Imagery
I started getting these meditative states that were like seeing a curtain of light, so even in a dark room meditating at night there would be a sense of – as if there were lights on in the room, and when I opened my eyes there wouldn’t be, but…there was often a curtain, this internal curtain of light. I began to have very luminous imaginations where…if I pictured something it was as if I was actually there, so when I pulled back a memory or a fantasy of being on a beach my mind became so bright it was as if I was actually there, I could see all the details of all the trees and hear the birds calling and…it was as if I was actually standing at the beach. So this very luminous mind…was coming a lot also when I was sleeping; I was getting incredibly vivid dreams…I would be walking around my cabin, and after ten-fifteen minutes of this I realized I was still dreaming, but it was so incredibly vivid as a first-hand experience. This is all talked about in the developing of concentration.
-- Jared Lindahl, Chris Kaplan, Evan Winget, and Willoughby Britton. 2014. A Phenomenology of Meditation-Induced Light Experiences: Traditional Buddhist and Neurobiological Perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology: Consciousness Research Vol. 4:973: What Can Neuroscience Learn from Contemplative Practices?Religions 8(8), 153
Bill
Bill is a sixty-one-year-old male who for many years considered himself a “program practitioner” who would do most of his practice in the context of weekend long to multi-week retreats. But after a significant life change, he decided to start “practicing like my hair was on fire” and began working on his sngon ’gro in the context of self-directed daily practice. Bill also started working with Vajrasattva practice, a process he characterized as “a basic purification practice” in which “you’re continually purifying all your habitual patterns, all your karmic tendencies, all the samskāras.” While engaged in Vajrasattva practice—a mantra recitation with a corresponding visualization—he experienced a prolonged and involuntary upwelling of emotionally charged content that was accompanied by intense mental imagery.
So I’m doing the Vajrasattva mantra practice and right around the 20,000th mantra, something opened up—wherever, in my brain or in my consciousness—and it was like all this bizarre, unconscious, psychological material started to surface. It was the most bizarre, hell-realm, bizarre sexuality, animal…just the most bizarre stuff. Like everything you could possibly think of that might freak you out. And having grown up as a middle-class white Catholic boy, it doesn’t take much. Just about everything is taboo. Anything that you can imagine that was possibly culturally taboo was arising—just the most horrific display. Like a Fellini movie on steroids. And it was like this was being blown into the side of my brain with a fire hose.
He describes the content arising as “very clear visual images and thoughts” and says it was “completely involuntary; I couldn’t stop it at all. And I was just living with it.” Bill described how “throughout the day, the intensity varied, but it was always present and, at times, was one of the more frightening experiences I’ve ever been through.” This went on from the 20,000th to around the 80,000th mantra, and then after more than a month, “it just ended one day.” Although he didn’t have close contact with his teacher during this time, he was able to heed some of his advice, in particular his instruction to “hold your seat.” Bill explained that this teaching this means “just don’t freak out, just stay with it. […] Not only did I know I had to hold my seat, but I knew I had to keep practicing. So I just kept practicing and just stayed with it.” He said he knew allowing these images to arise without reactivity would be “an incredible purification process if I can allow that and stay with it. If I freak out, I could go crazy.”
