The Harvard Divinity School Augmented and Virtual Reality Collective hosted an event Thursday featuring a series of speakers and demonstrations examining the ways in which technology can influence neuroscience and meditation. <\/p>\n
At the event, speakers presented medical and scientific research related to the mind. Dr. Jeffrey D. Rediger, a Harvard Medical School professor and Medical Director at McLean Hospital, described studying a hundred cancer patients who had experienced spontaneous remission. <\/p>\n
He said the trends challenged his skepticism of spiritual and psychological healing methods. <\/p>\n
In medicine, were embarrassed by them, we call them flukes. After a while, after you talk to these people, you start to see this pattern, Rediger said. I think these things happen outside of what we understand about the physical laws of nature. <\/p>\n
MIT research scientist Andreas Mershin spoke about the importance of nurturing curiosity.<\/p>\n
If we sustain it, if we ask better questions, we start becoming a much more powerful community and much more powerful individuals, Mershin said. Questions are more powerful than answers. <\/p>\n
Also at the event, Baruti KMT-Sisouvong, director of Cambridges Transcendental Meditation Program, evaluated the role of transcendentalist thought on the individual and society. <\/p>\n
Technology demonstrations following the speaker portion of the event. They included demonstrations of When We Die, a virtual reality program designed to prompt contemplation of mortality, and Chi, an app designed to provide a virtual reality simulation of Tai Chi. <\/p>\n
The Virtual Reality Collective hosted the group Consciousness Hacking, a Cambridge-based association of thinkers at the event. Consciousness Hacking is a collective that aims to explore technology as a pathway towards psychological, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing, according to the groups website. Their research focuses on technology and neuroscience. <\/p>\n
This is hopefully a community that lives their questions, which is totally exciting and exactly what I hoped for, said Adam H. Horowitz, a leader of Consciousness Hacking and a co-organizer of the event. <\/p>\n
Those goals are similar to the work that the Augmented & Virtual Reality Collective hopes to tackle.<\/p>\n
I came to HDS essentially to ask the larger question of what kind of world we are building in this technological landscape, and how can we build for well-being and really the whole human being, said Tim L. Gallati, a student at the Divinity School and founder of the Augmented & Virtual Reality Collective. <\/p>\n
Staff writer Jordan E. Virtue can be reached at jordan.virtue@thecrimson.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n See the article here:<\/p>\n HDS Event Explores Overlap of Meditation, Technology, and Medicine - Harvard Crimson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Harvard Divinity School Augmented and Virtual Reality Collective hosted an event Thursday featuring a series of speakers and demonstrations examining the ways in which technology can influence neuroscience and meditation. Continue reading