Monks in the Lab
Original title: Des Moines en Laboratoire
Duration: 52’
Producer: Delphine Morel
Director: Delphine Morel
Participant: Delphine Morel
Company: Delphine Morel
Scientific field: Exact Sciences / Health
Year: 2006
Country: France
Monks in the Lab is a story of human and scientific adventure. Why is contemporary science
interested in meditation?
Why are Buddhist monks allowing Western researchers to use technology to probe their
brains and bodies?
Buddhists have been studying the human mind and spirit with no technological tools at all for
2500 years. They have developed meditation techniques that increase mindful attention and
transform the emotions and these techniques have been long unknown or ignored in the
West.
But today’s scientific researchers have more and more to deal with the nagging and universal
questions of the nature of the emotions and the mind. Buddhist experience and knowledge
are of increasing interest. Just what are “emotions”? What do we mean by “mind”?
The scientists of the project “Mind and life” who are studying the meditative states are
pioneers in their field. They try to understand the mechanisms by which the mind influences
the body and explore the extraordinary plasticity of the brain.
Monks in the Lab 
