Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, looked into the idea that meditation might help us cope with outside disturbances. He found that when he tried to startle two groups of people — one that was meditating and one that was not — with a sudden interruption like a loud noise, the meditators were far less perturbed than the people who weren’t meditating. Those results were true regardless of whether the participants were new or experienced at the practice.That benefit of meditation could have proved hugely helpful to the Thai players, who were cold, scared, and alone more than 2 1/2 miles deep into a labyrinthine cave network.
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