I would like to see more of the research and I m open to it. let's burst a box!

if you did not have such a lovely wife-I would come after you :)

That's funny...

Hello DrEdwardHudgins,
I believe Rand's immediate response would be to object to the mystical aspects of the practice. Now meditation, or quiet contemplation used to clear and focus the mind without the mystic mumbo-jumbo sounds like a good thing. I fail to see how practiced in that fashion it would be objectionable to an Objectivist.
Just hold the Om... :)
Respectfully,
O.A.

Thanks for your thoughtful comments MikeMarotta and khalling! We need, of course, to separate "What would Rand think?" from "What is true and useful?" Obviously, I think the scientific evidence is overwhelming concerning the benefits of self-reflection in various forms. (I used to get more centered and clear-headed from jogging!) As I say in the piece, "Let’s grant that there is still a lot of psycho-babble and mystic mumbo-jumbo that gets in the way." Indeed, a dose of skepticism is always in order. But rationality, which means being open to facts, is an Objectivist virtue. So whatever Rand would have thought, we must do our own thinking and I'm pleased with the progress in understanding the brain, the mind, and their optimal use!

interesting points. I admit I have a bias. I grew up next to the meditation university-funded by the Beach Boys and George Harrison, Maharishi University. here is a link: https://www.mum.edu/
I once asked one of the students there about the idea of transcendental meditation and how one could meditate until they physically could raise themselves from the ground. She enthusiastically replied, "yes! yes! we are at the hopping stage!" I have ever since equated meditation with "the hopping stage" :)

Perhaps if Ed Hudgins met Ayn Rand from 1947 today, he could make his point to her. Ayn Rand of 1967 was a different person. Note, also, that in Atlas Shrugged the villian Ivy Starnes practiced meditation. Ivy Starnes also caused starvation in Louisiana by lobbying for soy beans over wheat. "Who has conquered reality" Galt asked. "The man who sleeps on a bed of nails or the man who sleeps on an inner spring mattress?" Rand called yoga "contorting the body." On an even deeper level, it should be obvious by inspection that Ayn Rand was perhaps a Myer-Briggs INTJ (an introvered "mastermind" - Keirsey Temperment Sorter here: http://www.keirsey.com/4temps/masterm... ). All of her writing is extroverted: she gloried in the wonders of the external world.

In all of her fiction, she seldom has a character who reflects. Bad guys such as Jim Taggart never let themselves face facts of external reality. Although... there is one scene in The Fountainhead where Ellsworth Toohey discovers about himself that he is physically attracted to Howard Roark... But that stands out as an exception. In fact, it occurs just after an empty-headed socialite says that she loves being psycho-analyzed.

In Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, the first two pages of Chapter 4, "Concepts of Consciousness" speak against the validity of introspection. To Rand, it is impossible to be aware of your Self.

All of that being true, on the Objectivist site Rebirth of Reason, one writer did disparage meditation and yoga and two others joined me in pointing out the benefits of them. One of those, Steve Wolfer, was a practicing psychologist at one time. Steve is not my friend. He says that I have no character. And in his writing on RoR he never, ever strays from the Objectivism of 1967. That aside, we both claimed to benefit from meditation.

So, Dr. Hudgins' point has merit. Ayn Rand might not have found value in meditation, but you can.

As in a discussion on crime here in the Gulch (https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...) I pointed out that common criminals have no sense of self. Moral Reconation Therapy is a method to teach them to be self-aware. It does produce positive results of reduced recidivism.