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I have enjoyed the semester. As a post-bac student I have come from a slightly different perspective than most of my classmates. As an undergrad, I focused on classics and history. More recently I did graduate work with a focus on the history of science and medicine. From these experiences, I walked away with a strong sense of the ever changing nature of science. Indeed, it is one of the reasons I strongly believe that anyone pursuing scientific research or a career in medicine makes an effort to become familiar with the history of science. Even a cursory examination reveals that knowledge is constantly being re-negotiated and redefined.

What has surprised me in this course is not the fact that the brain does not work in a simplistic input-output loop, nor the fact that the brain makes things up, but the beliefs of some of my fellow classmates who seem firmly attached to the scientific tenets only recently learned. Indeed, it has occasionally been discouraging. If young scientists are already firmly fixed in their opinions about the nature of “how things work”, how will we develop creative and new ideas? Mastering the basics of any science necessarily demands oversimplification initially. However, flexibility and creativity and a willingness to think outside the box are necessary prerequisites, I think, for good science.

Like A.Kyan I also have a vested interest in integrative medicine and have become more interested in the neurology as a result of this course. Initially, I was slightly uncomfortable with the reductionistic view that the mind=brain. Yet after this course, I have begun to share more common ground with biologists who do not fear that the mind will be trivialized by understanding the brain as series of specific molecules and cellular processes. Indeed, this course has emphasized the versatile and creative and long lasting effects that a knowledgeable manipulation of the nervous system can perform. Thus it makes perfect sense to me on a molecular level why meditation is not only beneficial but can result in long lasting and beneficial physiological changes.