Meditation or Morphine

Latest scientific research from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Duke University suggests that we can free ourselves from chronic pain by meditation. Meditation reduced pain more than morphine or other pain-reducing drugs. Participants in the study were taught to focus their attention on the breath and to let go of distracting thoughts and emotions. (See Pranayama breathing practices.)

Jonah Lehrer, in his article,  “Thinking Away Pain” in The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2011 issue, writes:

“A brain scanner showed how the intervention worked. Learning to meditate altered brain activity in the very same regions, such as the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, that are targeted by next-generation pain medications. It’s as if the subjects were administering their own painkillers.”