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Victor Chan |
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The Dalai Lama and Mind Science Date Recorded: Jan 19th, 2005
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Topic Background |
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| Applications of meditation are now common in the treatment of stress, pain, and a range of chronic diseases in both medicine and psychiatry. Non-invasive technologies have also allowed us to begin to explore the interfaces between mind, brain, and body, and the impact forms of meditation have on potentially promoting rehabilitation and healing, as well as greater overall health and well-being.
Recent studies are showing that meditation can result in stable brain patterns and changes over both short and long-term intervals that have not been seen before in human beings. These investigations may offer opportunities for understanding the basic unifying mechanisms of the brain, mind and body that underlie awareness and our capacity for effective adaptation to stressful and uncertain conditions. In this talk, Victor Chan discusses the latest advances from the two-decades-long collaboration between the Dalai Lama and top neuro-scientists and implications for our mental and physical well-being. |
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Speaker Biography |
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| Victor Chan is co-author, with the Dalai Lama, of The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys, a look into the life and mind of the Dalai Lama. He is also the author of Tibet Handbook: A Pilgrimage Guide.
He was the first ethnic Chinese to be granted an audience with the Dalai Lama, and has devoted his life to helping build a bridge between Tibet and China. In 1999, Victor asked the Dalai Lama if he would collaborate with him on a book about his life and teachings, and the Dalai Lama agreed. For the next three years, Mr. Chan traveled extensively with the Dalai Lama on four continents. His access was privileged and unprecedented—He flew with him to Portugal, Hungary, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Germany, Norway and the Arctic Circle. Chan is currently a professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, and is a research associate at the Institute of Asian Research in Vancouver. Chan grew up in Hong Kong before moving to Canada to finish his degree in Physics. |
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