Is this the world's happiest man? Brain scans reveal French monk has 'abnormally large capacity' for joy - thanks to meditation

PUBLISHED: 10:41, 31 October 2012  

 By CLAIRE BATES

• Brain scans reveal Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard has largest capacity for happiness ever recorded
• Meditation 'completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are', says 66-year-old
• He says you can do it too by learning how to let your thoughts drift   
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  Ricard: 'Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree but it completely changes your brain'

  A French genetic scientist may seem like an unusual person to hold the title - but Matthieu Ricard is the world's happiest man, according to researchers.

  The 66-year-old turned his back on Parisian intellectual life 40 years ago and moved to India to study Buddhism. He is now a close confidante of the Dalai Lama and respected western scholar of religion.

  Now it seems daily meditation has had other benefits - enhancing Mr Ricard's capacity for joy.

  Neuroscientist Richard Davidson wired up the monk's skull with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin as part of research on hundreds of advanced practitioners of meditation.

  The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard's brain produces a level of gamma waves - those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory - 'never reported before in the neuroscience literature', Davidson said.

  The scans also showed excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness and a reduced propensity towards negativity, researchers believe.

  Research into the phenomenon, known as "neuroplasticity", is in its infancy and Ricard has been at the forefront of ground-breaking experiments along with other leading scientists across the world.

  'We have been looking for 12 years at the effect of short and long-term mind-training through meditation on attention, on compassion, on emotional balance,' he said.

  'We've found remarkable results with long-term practitioners who did 50,000 rounds of meditation, but also with three weeks of 20 minutes a day, which of course is more applicable to our modern times.'

• Full article:Is this the world's happiest man? Brain scans reveal French monk found to have 'abnormally large capacity' for joy, and it could be down to meditation | Mail Online