ShamathaProject

The Shamatha Project 1.0:

A Year of Intensive Contemplative Science Research 

In Silence Opening New Frontiers of the Mind-Sciences and Extra-Ordinary Human Potential

The lead scientist on the project is Gen Lamrimpa, a Tibetan Lama, rigorously trained in the most respected monastic universities of Tibet. Revered by his peers as an impeccable inner scientist he is a teacher and close colleague of His Holiness the Dalai Lama who has sent him to America as a guide and advisor to a group of westerners in a year long expedition into the depths of inner space.   The Shamatha Project is to Western “mind-sciences” what the first moon shot was for Western science. This project has drawn the attention of many western scientists from many research centers including Dr. Ken Pelletier from UCSF Medical Center, and Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Daniel Brown of Harvard. (Gen Lamrimpa had been one of their research subjects in India, after he had been selected by a distinguished panel of senior Lama’s as a high skilled and knowledgeable practitioner of the applied inner science traditions.)

Leaving his home in Himalayas where he had been in contemplative retreat for nearly 17 years, coming to America and arriving in Seattle has been like taking rebirth in a strange and far away land.   He had come to train and guide a team of western students and inner scientist through the labyrinth of the mind to a state of peace and power touched by few people in the course of human history.

Having planned the expedition and directed its research efforts we were fortunate to been part of the small team embarking on this historic expedition. Thousands of people around the globe were anxiously waiting to see what would happen and if everyone would return safely from this period of isolation and deep inquiry.   After the first ten days, there is no group interaction. We live and practice alone together. Everyone is on their own, practiced intensively on their own 8’x10’ room. I have room 7, Michelle has room 8. In order to minimize distraction and optimize the inner work, silence is the rule.   We can however meet with our guide, Gen Lamrimpa whenever we wish to discus our progress, or “check our maps” so that we can stay on course and not wander off into unproductive or dangerous territory.

What a remarkable laboratory we have created here. Nestled in the foothill near Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helen’s this five acre haven will be our world for the next year. We are cooked for and our laundry is done on Tuesdays. Our days are devoted entirely to the deep and systematic cultivation of the mind’s full potentials. The normal “work day” is 15 to 22 hours of intensive, solitary practice. Some people would call this lifestyle hell. Others heaven.   It is will be what we make of it, moment to moment. To me this is a rare and unreasonable opportunity. Perhaps the greatest miracle of the year will be that we have actually succeeded in putting our busy and successful life on hold to step out for a whole year. I have negotiated a sabbatical leave of absence from the firm and I am out one point hoping to bring a wealth of insight back to share with my colleagues in many fields.   Our phone message will be a surprise to some callers who will hear, “You have reached Joel & Michelle Leveys number. During the entire year of 1988 we will be involved in an intensive research project and will be unavailable to return your call. We hope to return with much to share. Keep us warmly in your thoughts and call us back in 1989.”

Trust. Commitment.   Standing here on the threshold of 365 days in silence exploring the nature and potential of the mind is a leap of faith.   I feel somewhat like I’m standing on a diving board poised above an infinitely deep. and mysteriously welcoming abyss. If you find this difficult to imagine, then you have the right idea. Yet simply and strangely this adventure is merely a variation on a familiar and recurring theme that is an integral part of the larger picture that weaves together our work in laboratory research, clinical practice, work with the Army, with business and sports all together into a single story of many interrelated dimensions.

After all, teaching mental fitness training for the Special Forces for six months is a hard act to follow. The Shamatha Project seems the right next chapter for this learning journey of a life-time!

Retrospective:

Following our pioneering and historic year-long, silent retreat a wave of later Shamatha Project retreats were offered, that were far less lengthy or intensive, and lacked the profound guidance of a master teacher like the Venerable Get Lamrimpa.   These retreats were however extremely significant in that they generate a treasure trove of data that has confirmed the great efficacy of intensive contemplative practice for developing extraordinary human potentials.

Here are some excerpts from the research conducted on the later Shamatha Project retreats by Cliff Saron, from U.C. Davis, who stepped into the role of Research Director for the Project after we moved on to other endeavors:

 “The Shamatha Project is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive longitudinal studies of meditation ever conducted. Investigators are studying how intensive contemplative training benefits mental and physical health.”

The Effects of Intensive Meditation:

“Researchers are investigating the psychological and physiological processes that contribute to possible mental and physical health benefits of meditation. More than 40 scientists from universities throughout the United States and Europe are collaborating in the project and its offshoots, using methods ranging from molecular biology, health psychology and cognitive neuroscience to anthropology and network science.”

 Cognitive Training:

“Using cognitive and perceptual tasks, emotional provocation, questionnaires, and physiological and biochemical monitoring, we assess study participants’ skills and behavior before, during and after long-term, intensive meditative practice. Initial results show that intensive contemplative training sharpens and sustains attention, enhances well-being, and leads to less judgmental, more empathic emotional responding to the suffering of others. Additionally, the training was linked with pro-social emotional behavior and important physiological markers of health.”

Measurement of Biomarkers:

“One channel of our research assesses health-relevant biomarkers in which medication training may induce change. Telomerase, an enzyme that protects genetic material during cell division and enhances cellular viability, often is suppressed in response to psychological distress. Blood samples obtained from study participants following extensive meditation reveals that telomerase activity increases significantly among retreat participants in comparison to people who do not participate in meditation, and that telomerase activity appears to be related to meditation-induced changes in well-being.”

Also, following our initial year-long retreat, we returned to traveling, teaching, and consulting with organizations and universities around the globe, where our work has integrated the deep insights from this intensive research into helping to promote deeper wisdom, compassion, creativity, resilience, and courageous compassion in the live of thousands of people in hundreds of organizations around the globe.  The tangible and enduring results of our participation in this retreat are with us to this day, decades after our immersion in this time of intensive practice.

Our dear teacher and guide on this journey, the Venerable Get Lamrimpa, returned to Dharmasala and later to Sikkim where he devoted the rest of his life to intensive contemplative practice, in retreat in the Himalayas for another 15 years before his passing from this world.

Joel & Michelle Levey, Organizers and Directors of Research, The Shamatha Project