Quieting the Monkey Mind. Enhancing Mindfulness Meditation by Incorporating the Cocktail Party Effect

Abstract

Mindful meditation is bedeviled by the tendency of the meditators mind to wander away from concentrating on the breath, or other focus, and wandering to random subjects stimulated by memories and distractions. The underling goal of meditation training is to learn how to silence the incessant chatter of the unfocused mind, Poetically referred to as the monkey mind, to enable being in the moment.

The Cocktail Party Effect is a well studied, but little understood, higher level characteristic of the human acoustic system. It allows a conversation between two speakers to function in the presence of the overwhelmingly loud background noise of a cocktail party or noisy Bar.

Consciously incorporating the Cocktail Party Effect into a meditation practice can enhance the ability to silence the bedeviling monkey mind chatter.