Menu
Donate
SIGN IN
Email
Save
Tweet
Share

Aeon Video has a monthly newsletter!

Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.

‘Meditation without meditating’ might be possible. Can it also be made ethical?

Over the past several decades, studies examining the potential for meditation to curb mental anguish and increase wellbeing have yielded promising, if complicated, results. For patients, complications can arise when meditation is marketed as a ‘happy pill, with no side effects’. This commodification and oversimplification is at the root of a conundrum for Jay Sanguinetti and Shinzen Young, the co-directors of SEMA Lab (Sonication Enhanced Mindful Awareness) at the University of Arizona. In the early stages of developing a technology that they believe could lead to meditative states without the need to meditate – a Silicon Valley-ready concept if there ever was one – the duo now must navigate the intricate ethics of introducing such a powerful product to the world. This short film from The Guardian follows Sanguinetti and Shinzen in their quest to ‘democratise enlightenment’ via ultrasound technology, while also attempting to ensure that, when the time comes, it will be properly implemented as a therapeutic tool.

16 August 2021
Email
Save
Tweet
Share

Aeon is not-for-profit and free for everyone

Make a donation

Get Aeon straight to your inbox

Join our newsletter
Eliminative materialism | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

Do we have good reasons to believe in beliefs? A radical philosophy of mind says no

5 minutes

Drawings of my BF | Aeon
Save

video

Love and friendship

When drawing your muse hundreds of times becomes an exercise in love

7 minutes

Ndagukunda déjà (I love you, already) | Aeon
Save

video

Family life

In Rwanda, Sébastien finds traces of personal history in the wake of national tragedy

21 minutes

The diver | Aeon
Save

video

Love and friendship

A decade after his wife was swept away in a tsunami, Yasuo still searches the sea

9 minutes

Three ways to think about free will | Aeon
Save

video

Philosophy of mind

We may never settle the ‘free will’ debate, but tapping into it is still worthwhile

32 minutes

Ain’t no time for women | Aeon
Save

video

Politics and government

Join the spirited debate at a women’s hair salon before a pivotal election in Tunisia

19 minutes

The art of two-way art | Aeon
Save

video

Language and linguistics

A master palindromist spells out his 40-year ‘love affair with reversibility’

6 minutes

TV on Shetland | Aeon
Save

video

History of technology

The long-awaited arrival of TV to Shetland sparks debate in this vintage clip

9 minutes

Jelena’s song | Aeon
Save

video

Wellbeing

Through a poetic account of childhood trauma, one woman reclaims her past

28 minutes