Today, I had my first chance to meet with some of the academics working in the Psychology faculty here at the University of Tasmania, and to take a tour of the facilities under the care of the wonderful Professor Jeff Summers—including a stop-over in the EEG lab and hence the silly looking cap I am wearing. Professor Summers was so kind as to lead me through the department, to introduce some of the staff, and most interestingly discuss some of their most recent research. It was only yesterday, in fact, that his research team got some unexpected results from a recent series of tests on attentional skills involving older Australians. While I cannot go into details for obvious reasons, from what I could tell there will be some interesting papers published as a result of this research.
In the Lab
Suffice to say, I was buoyed by the fact that the staff were open and willing to engage. In fact, we spoke openly about working together on meditation related research—both now and also into the future—and I even got to give a little impromptu Meditation 101 class.
Thus far at least, I have not found any obstacles we have met too large as to stop us from moving forward. I believe this is because most people intuitively get the importance of a collaborative approach to research into consciousness, and its related fields of study. For it is by combining the 3rd person objectiveness of rigorous science, and the phenomenologically rich and sophisticated contemplative traditions such as Buddhism, that will, in the end, benefit all of us. And so, AICS has today taken another tiny step towards a bigger future.
