As we move into the final quarter of the year, it is a time to reflect on three very important things: the happenings over the past year, where we currently stand on the research, and what we have to look forward to immediately…Orlando is just around the corner as I write this! As always, our team at UC San Diego is so grateful for your support. We could not have done the immense amount of data analysis this past year without you! With your continued support, we can boldly look ahead to transform the role of meditation in healthcare and for our future research to develop deep insights into the mind-body connection.

“Publish or perish”. This phrase is learned early in academic training. It often describes the pressure researchers and academics face to continually produce and publish their work in reputable journals or other scholarly outlets to advance their careers. The concept reflects that in academia, the quantity and quality of a researcher’s publications play a crucial role in their reputation, career progression, tenure decisions, and overall success.

If you’ve been a subject in any of our recent studies, or you’ve seen one of our research presentations at an event, then you probably heard about FLIP. We are using the FLIP app to record a daily “video diary” of the research subjects’ experiences during the week-long events. The roughly 6-7 recordings from thousands of subjects serve as a unique record of the evolution of the human experience. Many describe these events as transformative, and our research aims to quantify transformation using this library as a unique way to inform and evolve the meditative practice.