http://www.psychologytomorrowmagazine.com/inscapes-enlightenment-and-science/
more from the same guy: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/the-anxiety-of-the-long-distance-meditator/

More for my own reference than for posting to y’all. I keep running into this stuff, mindblowing (literally) stories with some kind of brain imaging, same characters (Shinzen Young, Daniel Ingram), a pretty reasonable story for why it’s not more widespread (we’re just getting into the age of really understanding things in the west that Buddhists have known for a while, appropriating them into our own language and culture). Then I go read Dharma Overground for a while, and then I get fed up because it’s all so much talk.

Wow, when I put it like that, it sounds like crazy talk. Well, I’m not sure it all isn’t. But it seems like the most reasonable conception of spiritual experiences that I’ve got going, so I’m half-skeptically running with it for now. Speaking of which, I’m going on a retreat the week after next (March 10-16) at Bhavana Society so maybe I’ll have more direct experience to report then. But based on past experiences, don’t count on it :P