Dalai Lama's talk on empathy and compassion irks scientists.

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

We can have a fair idea of where "science" is headed if one takes a look at the response to HH The Dalai Lama's impending speech on "Neuroscience and Meditation" during his visit to the USA in November. He is to speak at the Society for Neuroscience.

 

Are they against the Dalai Lama's visit or against "empathy and compassion"? Both I guess.

 

We must be alarmed at the way science is being projected.

 

Regards,

Jagannath.

 

 

Disinformation Campaign Against Dalai Lama Speaking at Neurscience Conference -----------------------------

http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/08/1758498.phpI got the below unsolicited email to sign a petition against allowing the Dalai Lama to speak at the Society for Neuroscience conference this year (I've attended in previous years). The Dalai Lama's work that neuroscientists are interested in is based in the potential neurological and physiological changes that come about from meditation. The smear campaign being waged (primiarly by Chinese researchers and probably pro-war people) is painting it as a 'religious' event, essentially, and the petition organizers are using disinformation against researchers working with him. There was also an article in Nature on this issue which I'll include at the bottom. Mon, 08 Aug 2005 13:43:04 -0400 Concerned Neuroscientists <Neuroscientists Dalai Lama's

Lecture at the SfN2005 Annual Meeting Dear Colleague, While fully supporting the initiative to promote interaction between neuroscientists and the public, we are very concerned that the SfN has invited a prominent religious leader, the Dalai Lama, to lecture on "Neuroscience & Meditation", a topic with unsubstantiated scientific claims. It is worth noting that Dalai Lama's legitimacy relies on reincarnation, a religious doctrine against the very foundation of modern neuroscience. We invite you to visit our petition site where we outline compelling reasons to dispute SfN's decision. If you share the same concerns with us, you can sign the letter at http://www.petitiononline.com/sfn2005/petition.html Thank you in advance for your support! Sincerely, The Undersigned http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?sfn2005 (Please feel free to forward this petition to your colleagues, trainees and reseach staff) http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050725/full/436452b.html Nature 25 July 2005 Neuroscientists see red over Dalai Lama David Cyranoski Critics of meditation 'pseudoscience' say conference talk should be cancelled. Some say meditation focuses the mind - but others say the research behind such claims is limited. A growing number of neuroscientists are calling for the cancellation of a special lecture to be given by the Dalai Lama in November. The Buddhist leader is due to speak at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in Washington DC, but a petition against the talk has already gathered

some 50 signatures. The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since he fled Chinese troops in Tibet in 1959. Over the past decade he has increasingly encouraged researchers, sometimes at gatherings at his home, to study whether Tibetan Buddhist meditation can reshape the brain and increase mental well-being. It was during one of these meetings that he was asked by a member of the society's executive committee, to give an inaugural lecture on 'the study of empathy and compassion, and how meditation affects brain activity'. Some of the critics believe that the Dalai Lama's lecture should be ruled out because of his status as a political and religious figure. "One of the reasons for inviting him is that he has views on controlling negative emotions, which is a legitimate area for neuroscience research in the future," says Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at the Massachusetts Institute

of Technology. But "the SfN needs to distance itself as much as it can from the Dalai Lama and his beliefs", adds Desimone, who opposes the lecture but has not yet signed the petition. Many of the scientists who initiated the protest are of Chinese origin. But they insist that their concerns are purely scientific. Yi Rao a neuroscientist at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, helped to draft the petition, which says that the science of meditation is "a subject with hyperbolic claims, limited research and compromised scientific rigour". The letter singles out one of the key publications in the analysis of meditation, in which Richard Davidson, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his colleagues claim that neural networks are better coordinated in people who are practised in meditation. Rao says that the study is flawed, especially in terms of the controls it used, because it

compared practising monks in their thirties and forties with much younger university students. "Davidson is a respectable scientist," he says, "but he has put his respectability on the line with this." Davidson defends his work as the first step in a new field. "Meditation research is in its infancy," he says. He helped to arrange the Dalai Lama's talk at the SfN meeting, to be held on 12-16 November. He says that criticism of the lecture on scientific grounds is misplaced, because the Dalai Lama is not claiming to be a scientist. "He merely wants to increase scientific attention on the topics that he thinks are important for human welfare," Davidson says. The lecture is the first in a new series organized by the SfN, billed as "dialogues between neuroscience and society". The controversy has ensured that dialogue is already off to a rocky start. The SfN's president, Carol Barnes, says that she is trying to find a

resolution to the protest that will not involve cancelling the lecture. But one of the petition's organizers, Jianguo Gu of the University of Florida, says that he and several other scientists will cancel their lectures if the Dalai Lama's talk goes ahead.

 

 

FareChase - Search multiple travel sites in one click.