You made me laugh about scientific citations, I think I've fallen in love with you, especially the post link about spitural drugs being bullshit, but there is the plesebo effect...I think psychiatric drugs are bullshit too. I'd rather shroom, I've tried both, I'm going to read your other paper about bullshit spiritual psychoactive drugs now.
I practice several types of Buddhist meditation and studied Buddhist philosophy with educated teachers that come from the Buddhist culture. The mindfulness movement and yoga have nothing to do with enlightenment, as they did in the past, but everything to do with "feel good right now" we all know feelings are transitory right? It is exhausting trying to grasp the feelgood moment or run from the feelbadmoment. It's how i react to momentary sense data that actually changes my world view...
I don't like anything that screws with my perception, which is crazy already being filtered through my conditioning and limited sense organs. So I only shroomed and smoked pot in the 70s. No permanent change in my conditioning either, there is no magic pill for that😏
Yeap, the neo-buddhist wave is heavily based on western ideas of feel good and just became popular a century ago. The mystical Ideas of yoga are just an expression of this bullshit.
Read this
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_spectator/2007/03/the_hostile_new_age_takeover_of_yoga.html