NEWS

Hyderabad, India — What happens in the brain during seven days of silent meditation?

All Here meditation researcher Monika Stasytytė and special projects manager Rodrigo Elizalde recently spent time exploring this with participants of the Tower of Silence, a ten-day Brahma Kumaris meditation retreat in India where experienced practitioners and teachers gathered to deepen their knowledge and meditation practice.

The name reflects the nature of the retreat: for seven days, no one speaks, allowing participants to deepen their practice without disturbance and experience the deeper knowledge that can emerge through silence.

Respecting the retreat’s silence, Monika and Rodrigo conducted Quantified Meditation (QM) sessions, using high-density EEG to study brain activity during meditation.

The two All Here team members also spent seven days in silence. Rodrigo reflected on the experience:

“As the days went by, I began to understand that silence does not necessarily mean isolation. It can also become another form of presence, of observation, and of connection with those around us.”

Monika observed that rigorous scientific recordings can be possible even in silence:

“It was a great experience in learning how to adapt. We discovered that with clear preparation, we can communicate very well even without saying anything.”

The latest research builds on an ongoing collaboration between All Here and Brahma Kumaris. In addition to helping advance the science of meditation, Brahma Kumaris seeks to better understand the scientific blueprint of their meditation practice, while All Here provides the neuroscientific expertise and technology to support that objective.