Measuring the Mind: How MedTech Is Unraveling the Biology of Meditation

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The room of 1,500+ people was absolutely still, with only the soft breathing of participants and Joe Dispenza’s voice guiding us through the meditation live through a microphone. This was one of the many intense 1-week meditation retreats that Joe Dispenza holds around the world. Before arriving at the retreat, I had heard unbelievable stories shared by participants: accounts of long-term improvements following serious illness, pain management, and profound reductions in anxiety, among others, that individuals attributed to meditation practice. While many of these reports are anecdotal and not independently verified, experiencing the retreat firsthand challenged my prior view of meditation as beyond just a stress-relieving tool and instead an altered state of consciousness that seemed to activate both the mind and the body

With minimal meditation experience, I was amazed by the surprising physical responses to meditation. Participants had slowed their brain waves down and entered “flow state”, which is a state in which a person is present, not thinking about the past or future: a state in which time flies or stands still – time perspective blurs. It is similar to how, before you fall asleep, you are in this flowy in-between state where you just feel free. Some participants even went so far as to achieve transcendence; they were rocking back and forth and even shaking from the energy release when cerebrospinal fluid hits the pineal gland in the brain, activating tiny calcite crystals, leading to a “mystical feeling,” as described by Joe Dispenza and participants who experienced it. I had never seen people in that transcendent state before, and the sight is something I will never forget. It was truly something magical. I wanted to learn more about the scientific explanation for these bodily responses, so I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Hemal Patel, one of the lead researchers on this project and a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego. Dr. Patel’s research was driven by the question: How is the mind connected to the body? Are they the same thing or separate? Dr. Patel explains these retreats in three categories: Reconceptualization, Deep Meditation, and Open-Label Placebo.

1. Reconceptualization: Each day of the retreat included a lecture portion in which participants were taught new information with scientific backing that can challenge how they understand themselves, their beliefs, and how they exist in the world. This cognitive disruption primes the brain for neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to change, adapt, and reorganize itself in response to new experiences.

2. Deep Meditation: After the lectures comes the intense meditation portion. Participants are taught to let go and bring themselves to the present moment, forgetting the past and not focusing on the future. This practice slows brain waves from the busy beta state to more relaxed, creative states of alpha and theta. Simultaneously, participants practice breathwork techniques involving a slow inhalation while contracting the intrinsic abdominal muscles. Within Joe Dispenza’s framework, this breathwork is believed to redirect cerebrospinal fluid toward the pineal gland and stimulate transcendental or mystical experiences; however, these proposed mechanisms remain speculative and are not currently supported by empirical biological evidence. This combination of shifting brainwaves and the breathwork is intended to lead to a "biological upgrade," a state of heart and brain coherence that enables people to shift toward greater emotional balance, clearer intention, and a heightened sense of awareness. When people reach this state, they often report feeling more connected, more resilient, and more capable of creating meaningful change in their lives.

3. Open-Labeled Placebo: After the retreat, participants are expecting some sort of change. When they know something is supposed to shift, that expectation becomes biologically activated. Patel calls this activating the “internal pharmacy.” When the mind anticipates transformation, the body begins to respond.

Medtech To Study Mind-Body Connectedness

To measure the mind-body changes during the retreats and explore the question of mind-body connectedness, Dr. Patel’s team utilized technology that collected almost every biological signal imaginable from the brain to the biochemical to the microbial. 

In one of Dr. Patel's earliest studies, they used Garmin watches, which enabled continuous heart rate and beat-to-beat interval monitoring (for assessment of heart rate variability), sleep cycles, collective physiological pattern data during meditation together, and more. Although early studies of 1,000 participants proved challenging, with a capture rate of 25%, they can now capture more than 90% of the data from all participants at the retreat and have collected data from 7,000 participants to date to study more than 60 diseases. In addition to Garmins, they used a lot of EEG devices that measure the electrical activity of the brain, revealing shifts in brainwave patterns from beta to alpha & theta and even gamma. fMRI scans were also used to map how different brain regions communicate before and after the retreat. 

Dr. Patel’s team also pursued multi-omic research using patient-derived biological samples, such as blood and stool. These biological samples allowed for microbiome analysis, transcriptomics, epigenetics, genomics, metabolomics, and proteomics. The main goal was to get a deep sense of how a person is evolving and changing from the inside out, from the level of mind to body, at every level you can think of.

Facial expressions, along with words, were also studied throughout the retreat. The team uses 1-3-minute video diaries, in which participants record on their phones and answer prompted questions. Patel’s team collaborates with many groups to carry this out and analyze facial expressions, vocal tone, word choice, and emotion.

The Findings

Dr. Patel’s published papers already include many groundbreaking findings. Patel mentions that in his first paper, they found that meditators exhibit elevated levels of proteins such as SERPINA5 that reduce SARS-CoV-2 infectivity, suggesting that immune-related pathways may be altered through meditation. In another paper, they did a twin study revealing that genetically identical individuals can diverge significantly in metabolomic profiles, gene expression, and cytokine levels during and after the retreat, demonstrating rapid environment-driven biological change. Upcoming fMRI papers explore synchronized shifts in brain structure and body chemistry. Together, Dr. Patel's research supports the idea that, within just one week of the retreat, large-scale biological changes occur. Namely, altered metabolites, shifts in immune markers, changes in gut bacterial composition, differences in breast milk chemistry in lactating mothers, the reorganization of brain connectivity patterns, and more.

Closing Thoughts

While talking to Dr. Patel, it was interesting to see that entering “flow state” isn’t just reserved for meditation. He experiences it while driving, working on grants, or writing papers. Time stretches or collapses. Meditation is simply a tool to achieve this state. Moreover, in addition to “flow state”, with correct technique, transcendence is achievable. When I first walked into that silent room of 1,500 people, I thought meditation was mainly about relaxation or stress relief. But after witnessing the physical responses at the retreat, hearing incredible healing stories, and learning about the extensive research on meditation done by Dr. Patel’s team, I realized meditation is much bigger. It's a tool for entering the present moment, a way to activate the body's internal chemistry, and a method of shifting biology from inside out. With researchers like Dr. Patel, we can see the mind-body connection from brain waves to molecules. †

Written by Editor and Staff Writer Lana Chuang (lachuang@ucsd.edu)

Work Cited:

Jinich-Diamant, Alex, et al. “Neural and Molecular Changes during a Mind-Body Reconceptualization, Meditation, and Open Label Placebo Healing Intervention.” Communications Biology, vol. 8, no. 1, 6 Nov. 2025, www.nature.com/articles/s42003- 025-09088-3, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09088-3.

Zuniga-Hertz, Juan P, et al. “Multidimensional Analysis of Twin Sets during an Intensive Week-Long Meditation Retreat: A Pilot Study.” Mindfulness, vol. 16, no. 6, 7 May 2025, pp. 1634–1655, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-025-02584-x. Accessed 11 Sept. 2025.

Zuniga-Hertz, Juan P., et al. “Meditation-Induced Bloodborne Factors as an Adjuvant Treatment to COVID-19 Disease.” Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health, vol. 32, 1 Oct. 2023, p. 100675, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666354623000893, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbih.2023.100675. Accessed 27 Aug. 2023.

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