Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body

by Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson

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Two pioneering researchers review over 6,000 scientific studies on meditation and select the 60 most rigorous to reveal what contemplative practice actually does to the brain. Goleman and Davidson distinguish temporary meditative states from lasting altered traits, showing that deep practitioners develop measurably different neural signatures, reduced stress reactivity, and increased compassion. The book provides the most comprehensive scientific assessment of meditation's real benefits to date.

Published:: 2017
Pages:: 336

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In the Conversation

In this collection, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body references 4 other books.

It draws on Emotional Intelligence, Focus and Waking Up.

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What This Book Draws On

The books Davidson references and why each one mattered to the argument.

Goleman builds directly on his own Emotional Intelligence framework, showing how meditation training enhances the very emotional regulation capacities he identified as central to human flourishing.

References

Emotional Intelligence

by Daniel Goleman

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The book extends the attention-training research Goleman explored in Focus, providing the neuroscientific evidence for how meditation reshapes the brain's attentional circuitry.

References

Focus

by Daniel Goleman

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Goleman and Davidson engage with Sam Harris's arguments in Waking Up about meditation's capacity to dissolve the illusion of self, subjecting Harris's phenomenological claims to empirical scrutiny.

References

Waking Up

by Sam Harris

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The research on meditation-induced flow states and neuroplasticity connects to Kotler's exploration in Stealing Fire of how altered states of consciousness can be systematically cultivated and measured.

References

Stealing Fire

by Steven Kotler

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Intellectual Lineage

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Builds on (2 layers deep)

Directly cites

Emotional Intelligence

2 steps back

Man's Search for Meaning

The Moral Animal

Blink

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Unexpected Connections

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