Relieving social suffering

- [Narrator] This was a study done at Stanford University, and they looked at the effects of practicing loving kindness meditation for a stranger. They recruited people with no meditation experience and then led them through the following exercise. They had participants close their eyes and take a few deep breaths, and then they asked participants to imagine two loved ones standing on either side of you, sending you their love. Now, while they were we're doing this with their eyes closed, the researchers put a photograph of a stranger on the desk in front of the participants. And after four minutes of the participants imagining their own loved ones sending them love, the participants were told, "Open your eyes and redirect "these feelings of love and compassion "toward the stranger in the photograph." They were also asked to repeat a series of phrases wishing the stranger health, and happiness, and freedom from…