The present invention includes systems and methods of using real-time neurofeedback to improve the correspondence between first-person experience and specific brain activation patterns in a manner that minimally affects the experience itself. The present invention provides meditators the ability to enhance their control over their own brain activity, such as posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) activation. The present invention also provides methods for treating a disease or disorder of a subject by measuring the subjects brain activity via fMRI, presenting a representation of the measured brain activity to the subject, and instructing the subject to reduce the represented brain activity by altering their meditative state. The present invention also provides a system and method of using fMRI neurofeedback to directly correlate subjective experience with neural activation.
