Eleven adults suffering from drug-resistant epilepsies were given meditation practice, while another nine adults acted as waiting list controls. All patients were on antiepileptic drugs and their serum drug levels were monitored regularly. Patients in the intervention group were given training in meditation, and they practiced meditation 20 minutes a day for one year. They showed a significant...
The present study investigated the effects of three centrally acting drugs on the significant increase in the intermediate alpha frequency of the electroencephalogram (EEG) that accompanied meditation in a male volunteer. When compared to the EEG recorded before each of the three drugs was administered, naloxone tended to enhance the increase in the power of the intermediate alpha EEG (9.4-10.4...
An analogue study involving two experiments was conducted to test the initial carryover effects of hypnosis, meditation, and relaxation upon self-reports of awareness. In the first experiment, concentrative meditators reported fewer nonsensorial events than controls. In the second experiment, concentrative meditators again reported fewer nonsensorial events, but covariate analysis and...
Forty nonmeditators and 12 experienced transcendental meditators were randomly assigned to four experimental cells devised to control for order and expectation effects. All 52 (female) subjects were continuously monitored on seven physiological measures during both meditation and rest. Each subject was her own control in an abab experimental paradigm comparing meditation to rest. Analyses of...
Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the psychophysiological changes reported to occur during the practice of transcendental meditation. In Experiment I, 47 volunteers solicited from the community were randomly assigned to transcendental meditation (TM), Benson's relaxation response (BRR), or no treatment (NT) instruction. Respiration rate, heart rate, electromyogram,...
Forty-eight male subjects with no previous meditative experience engaged in either progressive relaxation (PR), a meditative treatment designed to induce the relaxation response (RR), or a no-treatment control experience (C) during four sessions on consecutive days. Negative expectations regarding the effectiveness of each technique for reducing physiological responses to stress were induced...
Three experiments investigated the effects of transcendental meditation (TM) on iconic memory. The task involved reporting of digits shown tachistoscopically, using Sperling's partial-report technique. Experiment 1 was a pilot study involving a meditation group and a nonmeditation gropu. All subjects were run in a pretest/treatment/posttest design. During the treatment phase the meditation...
This study reports two experiments investigating the effects of transcendental meditation on right hemispheric functioning. The task used in both experiments was the Seashore Tonal Memory Test. In the first experiment a non-meditator group and an experienced meditator group were run. The design involved three periods: a pretest, a meditation or rest period, and then a posttest. The results...