Marieke Van Vugt – Finding Balance

In this episode, Wendy speaks with cognitive scientist, contemplative practitioner, and ballet dancer Marieke Van Vugt. Marieke is a pioneer in studying mind wandering and meditation through computer modeling, and is also advancing participatory research through her collaborations with Tibetan monastics. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• her braided interests in meditation, dance, and cognitive science;

• computer modeling of mind and meditation;

• exploring distraction, mind wandering, and becoming aware;

• how thoughts can get "stuck" in our minds;

• creating a meditating computer;

• the relevance of stuck thoughts to various mental disorders;

• trauma through the lens of predictive models of mind;

• analytical meditation and Tibetan monastic debate;

• collaborating with monastics in research;

• humility and fluidity of mind;

• re-thinking the tasks used in cognitive science;

• the phenomenon of brain synchrony;

• dance and embodiment;

• the roots of thinking in the body;

• problems with abstraction in science;

• curiosity vs. the critical mind in ballet;

• flow, responsiveness, and compassion;

• and advice to young scholars.

Full show notes and resources (podcast.mindandlife.org/marieke-van-vugt)