Cortical plasticity, contingent negative variation, and transcendent experiences during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique.
Biological Psychology November 1, 2000 F Travis, J J Tecce, J Guttman
People who report having transcendent experiences daily show larger late contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitudes in simple reaction-time tasks and smaller distraction effects when a memory task is added, compared with people who have such experiences only a few times per year. Those with intermediate frequency (10–20 per year) fall in the middle. The pattern suggests that repeated transcendent experiences may cumulatively heighten cortical preparatory responses and improve executive control.