Dalai Lama, top scientists to discuss science & clinical applications of meditation

Main Category: Complementary Medicine / Alternative Medicine
Article Date: 27 Oct 2005 - 14:00 PDT

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Conference addresses western medicine & society's embrace of meditation, press meeting with Dalai Lama, Hopkins Medical Dean Edward Miller, and Georgetown University Professor Aviad Haramati at 8am on Nov. 8

With Western medicine's increasing interest in meditation's affect on mental and physical well-being, the Mind & Life Institute, in partnership with the Georgetown University Medical Center, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will host "Mind & Life XIII: The Science and Clinical Applications of Meditation," November 8-10, 2005 at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. The historic conference on meditation, a convergence of Eastern and Western thinkers, will feature acclaimed speakers from scientific and contemplative communities, among them, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. A pre-event press meeting with the Dalai Lama, Johns Hopkins Medical Dean Edward Miller, and Georgetown University Professor Aviad Haramati will be held 8:00 - 9:00 am on Tuesday, November 8 on the "C" Street lobby level of DAR Constitution Hall.

The upcoming conference, on the cutting-edge of science and meditation, will be only the second public dialogue on this topic with the Dalai Lama, the internationally recognized Nobel laureate and Tibetan spiritual leader. In 2003, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT co-sponsored the first public conference on how the mind works, involving Buddhist leaders, including the Dalai Lama, and neuroscientists. That meeting received international media coverage and was included in a cover story on meditation in TIME Magazine. The Mind & Life conference offers science and medical professionals a rare opportunity to learn about the intersection of meditation and medicine. The conference, which will be held in dialogue format, will feature sessions on meditation-based clinical interventions: science, practice, and implementation, possible biological substrates of meditation, clinical research on meditation and mental Health, and clinical research on meditation and physical health. Following the conference the Dalai Lama will participate in two other historic events in Washington, DC. First, he will address the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, which expects 30,000 attendees on Saturday, November 12, from 4:15 PM - 5:15 PM in the Washington Convention Center, Hall D. SfN is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians dedicated to understanding the brain and the nervous system. On Sunday, November 13, the Dalai Lama will also speak at the public Global Peace through Compassion event at 3:00 pm at the MCI Center. This public event is co-sponsored by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and the Mind and Life Institute.

The first Mind & Life Conference took place in October 1987 in India and was followed by other private meetings in India and the United States that have made enormous contributions to the field of research about affects of meditation on mind and body. Dozens of books have been published as a result of these conferences. The Institute has been a driving force in the new and widespread acceptance of meditation in the West.

Adam Engle, Chairman and co-founder with the Dalai Lama of the Mind & Life Institute, said, "Various applications of meditation have already made their way into the mainstream of medicine and psychiatry in the treatment of stress, pain, and a large range of chronic diseases. The Mind and Life conference is an opportunity to review some of the recent work that has been unfolding in these areas, and to map out the potential for both broadening and deepening these investigations."

"The meeting will provide an opportunity for scientists whose research is focused on basic mind-brain-body interactions to learn more about meditation and to contribute to an ongoing dialogue about the mechanisms by which meditation may influence physical and mental health," Engle added.

This event also provides medical professionals the opportunity to earn Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits.

The Dalai Lama, Edward D. Miller, M.D., C.E.O. of Johns Hopkins Medicine and Dean of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Avid Haramati, Ph.D., professor and Director of Education in the Departments of Physiology & Biophysics and Medicine at Georgetown University's School of Medicine; and Adam Engle, Chairman and co-founder of the Mind & Life Institute, will participate in a press meeting on Tuesday, November 8 at 8:00 am on the "C" Street lobby level of DAR Constitution Hall.

Journalists are invited to apply for credentials. Press must register to attend the Mind & Life meeting and the press conference at investigatingthemind.org/press.media.accreditation.

More information on the Mind & Life XIII public meeting is available at mindandlife.organd investigatingthemind.org.

Carly Lindauer
carly@rabinowitz-dorf.com
Mind and Life Institute
mindandlife.org

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