Fascinating article. If one can harness the power of the mind and use mediation to control the way information is transferred back and forth, they should have an advantage. I have been interested in using mediation as a method to tap into creativity and have more control over it. I have bursts of creativity, but it disappears when I need it most. Meditation, I hope, will give me more control over that. Mediation might also be helpful in controlling stress and anxiety instead of using drugs to deaden those negative feelings.

In Tibet Tummo meditation was and possibly still is practiced which trains an individual to endure cold temperatures. I read an article about this in a book several years ago - apparently the practitioners start with meditating out of doors in cool then colder weather. Eventually they sit in cold weather and have wet blankets placed over their bodies. The practitioners learn to generate heat which is said to dry the blankets. I have never seen this practiced, but I believe that humans can teach the body to endure many things. In the fall I usually attempt to train myself to endure the winter weather by NOT going for warmer clothes at the first sign of cool weather. I continue to wear short sleeves and shorts till the weather is cold. By that time I am used to the nip in the air and the winter cold doesn't bother me as much. Humans are remarkable creatures and I don't think we use more that a fraction of our abilities.

Doctors will never credit meditation and being able to activate the dormant areas of the mind to heal the body with any validity. It would eat into their livelihood too much.

The prescription drug lobby wouuld be hounding lawmakers to criminalize anyone trying to teach meditation in the the U.S. to control pain and illness, and would be funding huge ad campaigns to discredit such claims.

We will all just ignore the thousands of years these monks, many Orienals, and even Native Americans, have managed to do without pharmaceuticals.