The accuracy of the subjective perception of our own body widely differs between people.
According to a research conducted in Canada, people who meditate have a more accurate perception of the signals coming from their body.
For this study they recruited two groups of people: with and without experience of Vipassana meditation, the same at the base of Mindfulness, where it is important to remain silent, quiet, observing what happens in your body without judging. This practice, if conducted for a certain period, helps have a more accurate picture of our body.
After a meditation session, the participants were asked to indicate the tactile sensations perceived in 20 different parts of their body specifically stimulated: they could choose an answer on a scale from 1 (confused feeling, very weak) to 9 (clear feeling, intense).
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[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row no_margin=”true” padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px” border=”none”][vc_column width=”1/1″]People with a longer experience of meditation were more accurate and their answers coincided more precisely with the objective measure of the sensation. In other words, introspection (measurement of subjective assessments of tactile experiences) seems to become more accurate with increasing experience meditative.
Fox, K.C.R., Zakarauskas, P., Dixon, M., Ellamin, M., Thompson, E., Christoff, K. (2012). Meditation Experience Predicts Introspective Accuracy. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e45370, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045370.
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