There are several good reasons for the surge in interest in meditation as mental medicine. One is the recent progress in understanding how the brain can change over the course of a lifetime, a process called neuroplasticity. Our brains, we now know, are to a surprising extent what we make of them. Violinists, cab drivers, and jugglers have been shown to have gray matter adapted to their specific behaviors. And recent evidence suggests that people who train themselves simply to concentrate may achieve a similar effect. A study at Massachusetts General Hospital, for instance, found that parts of the cerebral cortex were thicker in people who had practiced 40 minutes of daily meditation for a year or more.

The Shamatha Project's findings will be culled from 18 different cognitive and emotion-based tests performed during two 3-month retreats, in addition to more than 200 hours of personal interviews and the molecular analysis of all that blood and saliva. "It's like building a skyscraper with your bare hands," says the spectacled, bearded Saron.

Collaborations with cutting-edge researchers, including celebrated UCSF molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, heighten the project's news-making potential. In Saron's temporary lab at the Shambhala Center, I watched a researcher prepare a vial of white blood cells for Blackburn's team, who will analyze whether sustained meditation may affect telomerase, an enzyme that has been shown to build up telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres can be worn down by psychological stress, a process implicated in several debilitating diseases as well as in aging. "We have good reason to believe that a sustained practice of stress reduction, such as meditation, can actually change the housekeeping activities of the immune cells," says Elissa Epel, Blackburn's research partner.

What relevance does this have for the working stiff who can't find a free half-hour, never mind three months, to sit around and breathe? "We're not expecting everyone to drop everything and meditate for three months," Wallace assured me. "But we do think we can show that when people really devote themselves, meditation has big benefits. You can look to these people for models and inspiration, just like we look to our Olympic athletes in the world of sports."

Katherine Ellison is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist based in the Bay Area. She has authored three books, most recentlyThe Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter and is the mother of two boys.

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