The conscious-aging perspective may have something to contribute to gerontology on matters such as health care, intergenerational relations, and adult education. For example, research over the past two decades has documented the tangible benefits of meditation for physical and mental health. What happens in meditation has long been familiar to medical and psychological researchers under the name of autogenic training, or self-induced modification of lower brain centers. More than two decades ago, Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School published his groundbreaking article on the “relaxation response,” which explained altered states of consciousness in yoga and Zen in terms of the central nervous system. Since then, extensive research on biofeedback and alpha waves in the brain has confirmed the feasibility of studying consciousness.
There has also been some interesting experimental confirmation of strategies of conscious aging as a means of overcoming what psychologist Robert Kastenbaum (1984) calls habituation. In Kastenbaum’s view, the essence of aging is a process of becoming gradually deadened or more mechanical in our response to life because of the power of habits. By contrast, meditation can be viewed as a progressive growth in powers of attention to overcome habituation in old stimulus–response patterns.
Conscious aging is a struggle to establish new cognitive structures, new ways of looking at the world. Researcher Arthur Deikman (1966/1990) has described how the process of deautomatization can come from practicing meditative disciplines such as yoga or Zen. Deikman, for instance, conducted a procedure of “experimental meditation,” after which subjects reported sensory experience that was more vivid and luminous. Deikman’s work and other experiments like it suggest that deliberate concentration and meditation can modify the selectivity of sensory input to the brain.
These findings could have implications for an aging society. For example, a controlled study in a geriatric population found that meditation-relaxation techniques can have a major impact in reducing anxiety and depression, an impact superior to conventional cognitive-behavioral techniques (DeBerry, Davis, & Reinhard, 1989). Another study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, looked at the impact of transcendental meditation to see whether it can have benefits beyond simple relaxation. That study confirmed the point that cultivation of mindfulness, a state of consciousness free of content but alert, does have measurable consequences for learning, cognitive flexibility, and overall mental health. These positive results remained with the participants years later (Alexander et al., 1989).
Conscious aging is trying to apply these lessons from research and practice to a growing older population. Interest in health promotion, productive aging, and lifelong learning is likely to make conscious aging a subject of continuing importance as the United States becomes an aging society in the 21st century. It may prove an intriguing glimpse of things to come.
Questions for Writing, Reflection, and Debate
1 Some critics have argued that disengagement theory may have accurately characterized the behavior of the older population in the 1950s, but that it was a mistake to infer that this pattern was universal. According to these critics, activity theory or continuity theory might well be a better description of how older people live today. If the critics’ view is correct, does it mean that any theories of aging simply express the way aging appears at a certain time in history? If so, how would it be possible to develop an account that is more general and not limited to a certain time and place?
2 The United States as a society tends to place a high value on success and achievement. Does that fact suggest that the goal of successful aging is an appropriate approach to thinking about growing old in the United States? Are there aspects of growing older that could present a problem for the goal of successful aging?
3 Psychologist Carl Jung believed that the psychological goal of later life is to become more and more oneself as an individual. What does this goal mean in practice? What drawbacks to this idea can you think of? If we adopt Jung’s approach, how would we evaluate older people who remain very much as they have always been, in contrast to older people who dramatically change their lives, say, after the point of retirement or widowhood?
4 Imagine that you are now 80 years old and have discovered that you may not have long to live. Your grandchildren have asked you to write about what you’ve learned about the meaning of life, especially in the last few years. In your statement, contrast what you believe now (as a future 80-year-old) with what you believed in the past (at what is your present age).
5 Assume that you are the activities director of a church-affiliated nursing home that prides itself on promoting the residents’ quality of life. Write a memo for the nursing home director outlining a range of activities that would help enhance the residents’ sense of the meaning of life in the long-term care facility.
6 Is the idea of meaning in life something purely personal and private, or does it have some wider social importance? Does discussing the question of meaning give us an understanding of older people’s behavior, or is it simply confusing? In addressing this question, consider other issues discussed in this book, such as assisted suicide, work and leisure, and the allocation of health care resources for life prolongation. How would the idea of a meaning for old age affect one’s view of these questions?
7 Consider carefully Lars Tornstam’s concept of gerotranscendence. Using only the simplest and most everyday language, try to give an explanation of gerotranscendence to a friend or relative who knows nothing about gerontology and is not particularly sympathetic to religion.
Suggested Readings
Atchley, R., Spirituality and Aging, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
Bateson, M. C., Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom, New York: Vintage, 2011.
Frankl, V., Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logo Therapy (I. Lasch, Trans.), New York: Pocket Books, 1973.
Haight, B. K., and Haight, B. S., The Handbook of Structured Life Review, Baltimore: Health Professions Press, 2007.
Kimble, M. A., McFadden, S. H., Ellor, J. W., and Seeber, J. J. (Eds.), Aging, Spirituality and Religion: A Handbook, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2003.
Richmond, L., Aging as a Spiritual Practice: A Contemplative Guide to Growing Older and Wiser, New York: Gotham Books, 2012.
Controversy 2 Why Do Our Bodies Grow Old?
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1858/1891), in his poem “The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay,” invokes a memorable image of longevity and mortality, the example of a wooden horse cart, or shay, that was designed to be long-lasting:
Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,
That was built in such a logical way,
It ran a hundred years to a day …?
This wonderful “one-hoss shay,” we learn, was carefully built so that every part of it aged at the same rate and didn’t wear out until the whole thing fell apart all at once. Exactly a century after the carriage was produced, the village parson was driving this marvelous machine down the street, when
What do you think the parson found,
When he got up and stared around?
The poor old chaise in a heap or mound,
As if it had been to the mill and ground!
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