World-class Mind Centre to open soon in Phuket
Alan Wallace: Not just for Tibetan Buddhists - all kinds of people can make use of meditation.
It used to be that meditation was mostly for pop stars and hippies. But that was then. This is now, and meditation these days is a highly respected tool used by top athletes, business people and others from all walks of life to raise attention levels and monitor emotions.
From next year, Phuket will have, it is hoped, one of the world’s premier centres for meditation and studies of the mind – the Mind Centre at Phuket International Academy, just north of Thalang.
Heading the Mind Centre will be Alan Wallace, who was in Phuket recently. Wallace became interested in Tibetan Buddhism nearly 40 years ago. In 1975 he was ordained as a monk by the Dalai Lama, and lived as a monk for 14 years.
He was involved in the beginnings of the Mind and Life Institute in 1987, acting as interpreter between the Dalai Lama and the philosophers and scientists who were involved. In 2003 he founded the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, a non-profit organization dedicated to synthesizing scientific and contemplative inquiry into the nature and potential of the human consciousness. He is also a prolific writer, having authored more than 30 books.
He stresses the name of the new project. “It’s called the Mind Centre – as opposed to a meditation centre,” so that there are no religious connotations. “Even though the meditations I teach are pretty much all drawn from the Buddhist traditions, the types of meditation that I emphasise are types that are … transformative, beneficial, essential and also universal.” He believes that this will make the Mind Centre unique in Southeast Asia.
One aspect that will set the Mind Centre apart from famed meditation centres such as Wat Phra Nanachart in Ubon Ratchatani, or Suan Mok in Surat Thani will be the scientific aspect – the studies that will be conducted into how meditation works and what changes it makes in the brain.
One topic that is particularly under the scientific spotlight now, he says, is the “plasticity of attention”. Wallace explains: “This is your ability to maintain focus on conversation, on playing music, working on a business plan, scientific research, athletics, attending to your children, being a teacher or a student – every walk of life.”
Architect's CG image of the Mind Centre, in the foreground, with the existing PIA school top right and the Sports, Art and Wellness Centre top left.
There are two quantifiable, measurable aspects to attention, he says – stability and vividness. “These are very non-mystical aspects of meditation, which lend themselves to scientific research. The scientists have developed very clever methods of measuring attention.”
People can, of course, judge for themselves how effective meditation has been in raising attention levels, he says. “But we also have a huge capacity for deluding ourselves – ‘I’ve spent a thousand dollars on raising my attention levels, so it must be working.’ You’re just saying that because you don’t want to be a fool.” Hence the need for quantitative research.
One very serious aim of this research will be to tackle Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which he says is becoming “endemic” among children worldwide, possibly due to lifestyle changes, particularly the huge amount of time children spend in front of screens – TVs, video games consoles and cellphones.
“If we can do things that are therapeutic for treating ADHD, depression, insomnia or general anxiety, then excellent.”
Boosting attention skills is also a significant tool for sports – developing exceptional mental abilities to go with the exceptional physical skills.
Even for people who do not suffer from debilitating mental conditions, the ability to develop meta-cognition – what Wallace calls a “dashboard for the mind” , a way of monitoring one’s mental state is a significant personal asset.
“The practical applications are enormous. Like in my car, I want to know that what I cannot see is operating well. For example, am I feeling small minded? If so, that’s not a time when I should be engaging with other people or making big decisions.”
Emotion, too, will be studied by the scientists who will be involved with the Mind Centre. They have developed, for example, sophisticated software attached to video cameras, allowing them to analyze very subtle facial expressions and the emotions they indicate.
“We have world-class teams coming in from Finland, Spain, Los Angeles, Brazil and possibly Singapore and others. We are not here to preserve a tradition. We’re really exploring what are the internal resources of the human mind and heart, how we can draw those forth, how we can know that it’s working and – enormously important – how we can apply this in the real world.”
The Mind Centre is currently under construction and will open, it is hoped, in April. Apart from the research aspect, it will offer both short courses in meditation and longer, live-in courses. For more information, see here.
