Story by Tom Furey
Photo by Ashley Pennington
With a name that means “one source” and “principles in nature and human beings,” Yi-Yuan Tang was predestined to become a great teacher and a brilliant researcher.
Tang started the art of meditation at a young age. Taught by his grandfather, he has continued to study meditation with more than 20 teachers. He studied at China’s Dalian University where he received his doctorate. For 21 years, he has worked at various universities in China and the United States. His research regarding brain cognition using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is internationally known. With more than 150 research papers and eight published books, his brilliance has been acknowledged.
While attending medical school in the 1990s, Tang developed a revolutionary training method called IBMT, or Integrative Body-Mind Training.
Based on traditional Chinese methods, IBMT is meditation with a twist. It includes four parts: body relaxation, breath adjustment, mental imagery, and mindfulness. Its effects have been studied since 1995, and recent results indicate that it’s an easy, effective way to improve self-regulation in cognition, emotion, and social behavior.
Currently, Tang and his partner, Michael Possner, a retired University of Oregon psychology professor, are researching IBMT on students at the UO.
When and how did you start meditating?
We have a family tradition and I started very young. Usually my grandfather just taught me the beginning stage and then I had lots of teachers growing up. I can’t tell you the exact age other than it was very young.
How did you decide to come to the University of Oregon?
In the 1990s when I was working in medical school, I did lots of community-size experiments, but we did not have the opportunity to run the subjects through an fMRI using advanced techniques.
In 2001, I met Professor Michael Possner who was a professor [at UO]. He was running an institute in Cornell [and] I was running another institute in China, so we could not work together. After 2002, he retired and moved back to the UO. Then I found time around 2007 to come here to work together.
How would you describe meditation?
Meditation includes two parts: one part is called physical training, another part mental training. In recent years people in the U.S. and European countries think about only mental training, but it’s actually both.
Would you say they’re equal?
Body and mind cannot separate. If a person separates their body and mind, actually that person will die.
Why do you think it has taken so long for the benefits of meditation to be researched?
We are very familiar with physical training, [such as] running or swimming, but for meditation, the style and training method really are far from our common sense. I think it’s hard to conduct very serious research about meditation. The reason being that meditation usually takes a long time—many years, each day [for] a long time. It’s hard to get a consistent group to commit to do it on time.
Another reason I will say is we still lack a very good technique to conduct research about meditation because of all the mental change and training that influences the body.
How would you describe the Integrative Body-Mind Training that you and your team developed?
This method was developed in the 1990s when I was working at medical school. The Integrative Body-Mind Training actually is from traditional Chinese medicine and it includes four parts. One is body relaxation, then breath adjustment, then mental imagery, then mindfulness. So we integrate four parts together to help a person.
Another thing is that the IBMT puts the body first, which means we strengthen, or emphasize the bodily process at the beginning stage to facilitate the person practicing to get in the meditation state.
So the IBMT helps you get into a deeper state faster?
Exactly, from our results the farthest training, maybe 20 or 30 minutes it really works. Usually, in America they need a couple minutes or a couple years. For example, when several studies recruit a group they have more than ten thousand to forty thousand hours training and then they do the study. It means that forty thousand hours of training is almost a total life job.
How have the subjects for the study responded to the IBMT training?
Actually, we receive very good feedback. It was very good for [the students] to reduce stress. They feel more relaxed [and] have more room in the mind. It means they have more emotional and cognitive capacity to handle daily school life.
Another thing we find is when the subjects have a balanced body-mind state, usually they have a clear mind … and then they make the right decision. When they have this ability to make the right decision, it will be very helpful in their future life. So, from behavior, emotion, body, or immune activity, we got very good results and feedback.
What challenges have you faced showing the Western scientific community that meditation is effective in improving the brain’s performance, along with all of its other benefits?
I think that usually the Americans, or scientific society, they pay more attention about the real world, or the material world—things they can see and things they can touch, then they say it’s real.
The first challenge is how to convince the scientific community. So we use very rigorous techniques and methods us[ing] a random assignment and double-blind [study] and then get the results.
What are the most significant findings your study has found?
In 2007, we had a study with several findings. The first one, after five days [of] training for 20 minutes a day, [the subjects] significantly improved their attention ability, so they could concentrate and focus for a long time. We improved their positive moods and decreased negative moods.
Then we conducted an immune function study where we found that five days of training can dramatically reduce one stress hormone called Cortisol. People feel more relaxed and less stressed. It also improved one immune function index called SIgA, which means a person is at a much better healthy level.
Then we find when a person gets deeper into a meditation state, for example, IBMT, their body and their mind coordinate each other. In other words, the central nervous system and the autonomic nervous system interact and help them to get deeper, then change the body, change the mood, change the immune function.
Also, we find that the physiological measures—their heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance response—all had very good shape. That means the person had very good physical and mental conditions. They can handle stress, and [have] better performances in life and work.
So, has the fMRI machine helped your research abilities?
Yeah, the fMRI machine is a new advanced brain-imaging machine. Actually, they just opened a window for the brain so they can look at the change, but … we cannot have real-time fMRI when we are practicing. But I think [it] really works.
What do you hope to accomplish after your current study is over?
I will study the short term—just five days—then we start a month’s training, then we will follow up after three months, [and] after six months to see if the effect still remains. I think after this study ends, we will work with a different group, maybe children for example.
I already started to teach meditation in the South Eugene High School [and] I will try to work with aging people, and also with some of the high-risk population.
Do you think that meditation could become a widespread practice in America?
I think it’s a very big cultural difference. In America, recent years, it looks like meditation got hot. Lots of people started to understand and approach this method, but people still think of meditation, of mindfulness, of spirituality, [as] a little bit … from maybe a religious group.
I will say, in addition to the modern medicine, meditation could be a very important complement. I am not sure if meditation will get popular in the future. But I will say it’s a balanced life and style between the outside world and the inner world. It’s time for people to combine the physical training and the meditation training. Then they will have a much better life.