Meditation's secular benefits—lower blood pressure, reduced cortisol, cortical thickening, and brain changes linked to attention and emotion regulation—are secondary to its primary spiritual aim of transformation. This review contrasts the relaxation response model with mindfulness research emphasizing attention and alertness, showing how Buddhist texts can guide scientific questions. It proposes triangulating spiritual texts, first-person neurophenomenological accounts, and physiological/cognitive measures to understand meditation in both health and spiritual contexts.
Bufotenine, a serotonin-derived alkaloid structurally similar to LSD and psilocin, inhibits rabies virus infection in lab and animal models, increasing survival. In mice treated daily for 21 days with 0.63, 1.05, or 2.1 mg/animal, mild behavioral changes occurred in a dose-dependent manner, but physiological functions remained normal and no organ damage was seen. High doses caused local injection-site inflammation without cellular damage. The alkaloid distributed to heart and kidney at all doses, and to lungs and brain at higher doses. The effective dose (0.63 mg/day) appears safe, causing no significant central nervous system effects, suggesting bufotenine as a drug prototype for rabies, an incurable disease.