Source of Happiness
Scientists Find the True Source of Happiness, New Study Claims
A new study by Wataru Sato and his team at Kyoto University in Japan published in the
recent journal, Scientific Reports claims to have found the key to happiness, which is an
area in the brain called the Precuneus.
The study led by Wataru Sato found out that happy emotions and satisfaction in life lie in
having more grey matter mass in a region of the brain called precuneus, which is a part in
the medial parietal lobe.
“Several studies have shown that meditation increases grey matter mass in the
precuneus,” said Wataru Sato (via Eurekalert), lead author of the study about the key to
happiness. “This new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for
developing happiness programs based on scientific research.”
The study took into account the brains of participants scanned using Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI). The participants were then surveyed to assess their general levels of
happiness, their life satisfaction and their intensity of feeling emotions. Those who scored
high in the happiness survey had brain scans that revealed a greater mass of grey matter in
the precuneus. Also found in the study is that people with larger precuneus tend to feel
sadness less intensely and feel happiness more intensely. “Our results show that structural
neuro imaging may serve as a complementary objective measure of subjective happiness,”
the authors noted.
The region in the brain called precuneus, according to the results of the new study,
becomes energetic when experiencing consciousness. Thus people with larger precuneus
tend to have higher positive emotional intensity and tend to feel more happiness. The
reason the precuneus is larger, according to Wataru Sato and his team, is because it has
more circulation of neurons. “Over history, many eminent scholars like Aristotle have
contemplated what happiness is,” Sato said. “I’m very happy that we now know more about
what it means to be happy.”
“Several studies have shown that meditation increases grey matter mass in the precuneus.
This new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for developing
happiness programs based on scientific research,” he said. The concluding point is that
most people believe that happiness depends on favourable situations or amenities of life.
Now only science says we are experiencing the world or life in our brain. World remains the
same for all.
But Spiritual Science always taught that true happiness is within.
Jesus said Kingdom of heaven is within-Luke 17: 20-21
Baha I faith taught the kingdom of God is a state of individual being.
Advaita Vedanta and other religious scriptures also taught us the same.