Reminder: Our Next Live Ask Me Anything (#7) with Richie and Cort will be on March 11th at 8pm ET (live from the Himalayas!). Please send questions in advance! (in comments, chat, or reply to this email)
Why Listen to This Session?
In our 6th wide-ranging AMA, Richie and Cort explore:
Are memories permanent — or can we lose them / can they change?
A deep dive into memory reconsolidation: why memories are not fixed like photographs, how retrieving a memory makes it temporarily editable, and how meditation can update the emotional “tags” stored with past experiences.
Can meditation unlock forgotten memories — and why anxiety sometimes increases at first:
When awareness increases, previously inhibited material can surface. The neuroscience behind why early practice can temporarily heighten anxiety — and how to work skillfully with what emerges.
What does meditation actually do to the body and brain? (And why it’s hard to make sweeping claims)
From blood pressure research to psychological outcomes, Richie and Cort explain why meditation studies often show mixed results, and how simple generalizations are often misleading. This includes nuanced discussion of potential adverse effects.
First Arrow vs. Second Arrow (Pain vs. Suffering):
Groundbreaking fMRI research separating physical pain from the mental-emotional overlay that creates suffering — and why retreat practice appears to specifically reduce the “second arrow.”
Control vs. Acceptance — or “Bringing It Onto the Path”:
Instead of merely tolerating difficult experiences, Buddhist psychology speaks of “bringing it onto the path” — using whatever arises as fuel for awareness, compassion, and insight. The neuroscience behind shifting from prediction-and-planning mode to a more flexible, receptive mode of being.
Can trauma cause brain damage — and can the brain heal?
Evidence from Romanian orphanage studies, epigenetics, and intensive contemplative interventions — and what we truly know (and don’t know) about neuroplastic recovery.
Detailed Chapter Guide
00:00 - Welcome, New Book & Trauma AMA Theme
Cort and Richie introduce the session, reflect on releasing their new book, and explain why trauma and memory reconsolidation have sparked so many community questions.
02:10 - Opening Intention Practice
A brief guided pause to set a shared aspiration: may this conversation reduce suffering and support flourishing.
03:24 - Flourishing in Action: Lessons from a Tibetan Master
Reflections from spending time with an advanced meditator whose kindness is present in even the smallest moments — a living example of what long-term mental training can cultivate.
06:16 - Do Memories Stay in the Brain Forever?
Q: Once a memory forms, is it stored permanently, or can it disappear?
Richie explains animal research on “memory deletion,” why memories are dynamic rather than static, and the science of reconsolidation.
08:13 - Can Meditation Increase Access to Memory?
Q: Do meditators have access to more memories?
Why relaxation can surface previously inhibited material, and why some people experience increased anxiety early in practice.
13:07 - The Gift of Awareness: How Reconsolidation Works
When a memory is retrieved, it becomes temporarily fluid. Awareness allows emotional associations (“tags”) to be modified before the memory is stored again.
14:12 - Two Ways of Working with Difficult Memories
Actively reframing and updating meaning
Holding spacious awareness and allowing the emotional charge to dissolve
Can some memories actually weaken through non-engagement?
18:48 - First Arrow vs. Second Arrow
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Richie shares fMRI research showing that the neural networks for physical pain differ from the networks responsible for mental-emotional reactivity.
21:40 - The Body Keeps the Score (Retreat Experience)
Cort describes intensive body-based practice and the visceral experience of stored tension releasing through awareness alone.
23:56 - Does Meditation Lower Blood Pressure?
Q: What does the science actually show?
Why results are inconsistent, the importance of study design, and how meditation research is often oversimplified publicly.
28:25 - Can Meditation Have Negative Effects?
When practice increases anxiety.
Risk factors, psychiatric vulnerability, so-called “Dark Night of the Soul” effects, and research showing that for most beginners, certain practices are psychologically protective.
30:39 - If We Soften Trauma, Do We Lose Protection?
Q: Could reconsolidation make us vulnerable?
Richie emphasizes the importance of working with trauma alongside trained professionals. Cort explains why balance between compassion and discernment is essential.
33:01 - The Four Pillars of a Healthy Mind
Awareness, Connection, Insight, Purpose.
Why privileging one pillar without the others can create imbalance — individually and historically.
36:21 - How Do We Increase Acceptance Instead of Control?
Q: What happens in the brain when we shift from striving to allowing?
The difference between “doing mode” and “being mode,” and how meditation may reduce predictive processing in the prefrontal cortex.
39:17 - Acceptance vs. “Bringing It Onto the Path”
A Buddhist framing: instead of merely tolerating experience, we actively use difficulty as fuel for practice.
41:58 - Can Trauma Cause Brain Damage?
Evidence from studies of children raised in severely deprived orphanages.
Persistent neural differences — and what “damage” really means scientifically.
44:46 - Can the Brain Heal?
Neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, sensitive periods, and why intensity of healing may need to match intensity of trauma.
46:53 - Intensive Interventions & Epigenetic Change
A 24/7 contemplative-based summer camp for traumatized youth in Colombia showed measurable gene-expression shifts. What this suggests about immersive healing.
49:27 - Trauma, Plasticity & Room to Grow
Why people starting from a lower baseline often show the largest gains — and why adversity can sometimes increase neuroplastic opportunity.
