Let us slow down a little and not jump to wild conclusions and break out the champaign.
The first prerequisite of scientific process is skepticism........... This is why scientific claims are carefully checked, replicated, and verified before they are accepted as valid.
A statement of the obvious. So no comments.
So, just slow down a little. I am not saying this research is fraud, it could very well turn to be absolutely on the money, but we are not there yet. These statistical studies must be replicated by independent scientists before it can be accepted as scientifically proven.
If "Harvard scientists" are not scientists who else is this group of high priests of science whose certificate will be acceptable?
Leaving all this aside, what does the article actually say? The main point of the research, as reported in the cited article, can be summed up by this single quote, "The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.” Dah! In as much as much of the bodily functions are controlled by the brain it is not surprising that meditation, a mental activity, will have effect throughout the body. One may call these changes in brain waves "spiritual", but that is nevertheless a physical phenomenon, nothing other worldly about it. Many ancient cultures have their own special "spiritual" (but physical nevertheless) practices that are seen to have tangible beneficial bodily effect. The cited article itself quotes the researcher's experience in China.
No comments. I do not know whether any of the Harvard scientists have claimed the physical phenomenon to be an otherworldly event.
The article also mentions a previous study by these researchers in which they found, "how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function." That is it, there is no mention of genes undergoing mutations and these mutations mutations getting passed down to the next generation and the passed down mutated genes getting selected by endowing survival and reproductive advantage to the offsprings -- nothing.
If switching on and switching off genes is an ability acquired (not natural) to human beings then passing on this ability to offsprings can not be far off. Mutation is just one step away. Any advantage in survival has a fair chance of getting passed on to the offsprings.
Leaving this aside, earlier when I pointed out the inherited lactose tolerance among a certain tribes and how it was interpreted by anthropologists as culture having its impact on genes in a fundamental way, my words were drowned in a deluge of inane outpourings. There it was a much better case as the results were observable physically (they were carefully observed in fact) and could be traced to a certain specific cultural practice of ancestors through generations.
The self-appointed high priests would always like to have the final say which help them go to bed that day happy that their kingdom of knowledge is intact-that no desperadoes planting any thing new which they can not understand.
Yet, our jAti supremacist friends are so eager to jump to மொழங்கால்/மொட்டத்தலை type of conclusion and crow -- "nails have been driven in the coffins of naysayers." LOL!!!
LOL. This supremacist fighter, knight in shining armour on horseback, got another opportunity to shoot from his hips. Personally I do not want any nails to be driven in any coffins. I want all the fighters here to live long and keep fighting to their heart's content and if they want they can get out of their coffins to come here and fight too Dracula style. LOL
