During Brahma Kumaris Rajyoga meditation—a practice done with open eyes—long-term meditators show reduced delta and increased low alpha brain activity compared to resting. Source localization of EEG from 52 experienced meditators reveals that the meditation alters activation in the central executive, mirroring, task-positive, and task-negative networks. These changes correspond to attention modulation, self-related processing, visual imagery, and an extra-corporeal sense of being a soul in communion with a Supreme Soul. The findings suggest that seed-stage meditation involves distinct cognitive and affective processes, and future work should differentiate its stages.
During Transcendental Meditation, two distinct phases—transcending and undirected mentation—show different patterns of brain electrical activity compared to ordinary rest. EEG microstate analysis of 20 TM practitioners revealed that resting and transcending both showed less prominence of Class A microstates and more prominence of Class D microstates than undirected mentation. Transcending also showed less prominence of Class C microstates than undirected mentation. These patterns suggest that during resting and transcending, there is increased reference to reality and decreased visualization, while transcending involves less saliency of internally generated thoughts, reflecting more detached and less evaluative processing. The cycling between these phases during TM may train flexible modulation of microstate parameters relevant to psychiatric disorders.
During Zazen meditation, experienced practitioners show increased alpha-1 and alpha-2 brain wave activity in a right-lateralized cluster spanning prefrontal areas, insula, somatosensory, motor, and temporal cortices compared to resting without a task. Decreased alpha and beta-2 activity occurs in the left angular gyrus, and decreased beta-1 and beta-2 activity in a large bilateral posterior cluster including visual cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and parietal cortex. These patterns involve parts of the default mode network and suggest enhanced automatic memory and emotion processing alongside reduced conceptual thinking and self-reference, supporting a more detached moment-to-moment awareness during Zazen.
Long-term meditation practice may change the brain in ways that persist even when not meditating. Comparing Qigong meditators with non-meditators using EEG during rest, the meditators showed reduced activity in brain regions involved in judging or appraising, and increased activity in areas that process sensory information from inside and outside the body. These differences in delta brain waves suggest that the subjective experiences of greater awareness and detachment reported by experienced meditators are supported by lasting neuroplastic changes that carry over into everyday life.