Meditation as behavior originating from defensive freezing in Homo sapiens: A phylogenic theory

The biological origins of meditation in humans remain largely unexplored, despite extensive studies on its effects at the individual level. I propose a phylogenetic account, suggesting that meditation may have evolved from the defensive freezing response, an inherited response observed across multiple species. Defensive freezing, characterized by immobility, non-reactivity, hypervigilance, attention orienting, and a slowed heart rate, provides a repertoire of basic behavioral units that could have been shaped into the complex practice of meditation through ontogenic selection within verbal communities, which reinforced both the specific and general features of freezing. By tracing meditation back to an evolutionary process, we gain a new perspective on understanding its behavioral topography stemming from a process of phylogenic and ontogenic selection by reinforcement, while emphasizing the role of ancient survival response repertoires in its early development. This proposal connects meditation to biological origins and highlights the selection process still at play in modern verbal communities that reinforce rule-based instruction comprising meditation traditions.