Explore
2016
Seung‐ho Jang, Seung-Yeon Kang, Hye-Jin Lee et al.
Mindfulness-based art therapy (MBAT) induces emotional relaxation in cancer patients and is a treatment known to improve psychological stability. The objective of this research was to evaluate the treatment effects of MBAT for breast cancer patients. Overall, 24 breast cancer patients were selected as subjects of the study. Two groups, the MBAT group and control group with 12 patients each,...
Explore
2016
Roxane Raffin Chan, Rebecca H Lehto
Persons with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exhibit high levels of comorbid anxiety that severely worsens their sensation of dyspnea and is associated with high levels of avoidance of essential activities resulting in an increase morbidity and mortality. Increasing meditation and mind/body practices have been shown to decrease anxiety, and improve intrapersonal and interpersonal...
Explore
2016
Olivier Brabant
Commonly accepted models of human consciousness have substantial shortcomings, in the sense that they cannot account for the entire scope of human experiences. The goal of this article is to describe a model with higher explanatory power, by integrating ideas from psychology and quantum mechanics. In the first part, the need for a paradigm change will be justified by presenting three types of...
Explore
2016
Teresa Maria Dos Santos, Elisa Harumi Kozasa, Isabel Sampaio Carmagnani et al.
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to effectively mitigate the negative effects of stress among nursing professionals, but in countries like Brazil, these practices are relatively unexplored. To evaluate the effects of a Stress Reduction Program (SRP) including mindfulness and loving kindness meditation among nursing professionals working in a Brazilian hospital setting. Pilot study with a...
Explore
2016
Gioacchino Pagliaro, Paolo Pandolfi, Natalina Collina et al.
Tong Len meditation is an important therapeutic tool in the Tibetan medicine, and it can be used for self-healing and/or to heal others. Currently, in the West, there is no scientific study concerning the efficacy of a Tong Len distant healing effect on psychological disorders in cancer patients. To evaluate a distant healing effect of Tong Len meditation on stress, anxiety, depression,...
Explore
April 28, 2015
Frederic A Alling
Shamans and other healing practitioners have used placebos from earliest recorded history to treat those who were ill. As modern scientific theories of disease developed, the use of placebos was considered to be an ineffective and deceptive practice. Later, medical researchers used placebos primarily as an inactive treatment standard against which scientifically based ("real") medicines could...
Explore
April 28, 2015
Kim D Jones, Scott D Mist, Marie A Casselberry et al.
Context and objective: A growing body of literature suggests that mindfulness techniques may be beneficial in fibromyalgia. A recent systematic review and meta-analysis of six trials indicated improvement in depressive symptoms and quality of life, calling for increased rigor and use of standardized measures in future trials. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between...
Explore
2015
Jamie Marich, Terra Howell
24 citations
An extensive review of both quantitative and qualitative literature reveals numerous connections between mindfulness practice and psychological well-being. Dancing Mindfulness, as a holistic wellness practice, is a creative approach to mindfulness meditation that draws on dance as the vehicle for engaging in the ancient practice characterized by non-judgment, loving kindness, and...
Explore
2015
Kathi J Kemper, Daniel Powell, Christine Carlisle Helms et al.
Meditation is associated with lower blood pressure, but little is known about how loving-kindness meditation affects nitric oxide (NO) metabolism, a key mediator of cardiovascular physiology associated with vasodilation. We studied seven inexperienced and five experienced healthy meditators at one study visit, after they refrained from eating nitrate-rich foods for at least 12h. Participants...
Explore
2015
Vernon M. Neppe, Edward R. Close
We argue that "non-local" events require further descriptors for us to understand the degree of non-locality, what the framework of the observer describing it is, and where we humans are located relative to the ostensible non-locality. This suggests three critical factors: Relative to, from the framework of, and a hierarchy of "to what degree?" "Non-locality" without the prefix "relative"...
Explore
May 1, 2014
F. Bottaccioli, A. Carosella, R. Cardone et al.
CONTEXT Meditation is proposed as an anti-stress practice lowering allostatic load and promoting well-being, with brief formats providing some of the benefits of longer interventions. OBJECTIVES PsychoNeuroEndocrinoImmunology-based meditation (PNEIMED) combines the teaching of philosophy and practice of Buddhist meditation with a grounding in human physiology from a systemic and integrative...
Explore
2014
Varun Sharma, Amit Sood, Kavita Prasad et al.
Interventions to decrease stress and enhance resiliency and mindfulness are more likely to be widely implemented if they can be offered without the need for in-person training. The purpose of this study was to assess effectiveness of a self-directed Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) program delivered using only written material for improving stress, resiliency, and mindfulness....
Explore
2013
David Cumes
Sangomas or inyangas are shamans, healers, priests, and prophets that have been the backbone of Bantu communities, especially in the rural areas of Southern Africa for eons. However, with rapid Westernization and the increasing allure of the commodity market, the old ways are rapidly eroding. Indigenous knowledge has always been transmitted orally, and there is little written down about the...
Explore
2013
Rupert Sheldrake
Contemporary science is based on the claim that all reality is material or physical. There is no reality but material reality. Consciousness is a by-product of the physical activity of the brain. Matter is unconscious. Evolution is purposeless. This view is now undergoing a credibility crunch. The biggest problem of all for materialism is the existence of consciousness. Panpsychism provides a...
Explore
2013
Amit Sood, David T Jones
Human attention selectively focuses on aspects of experience that are threatening, pleasant, or novel. The physical threats of the ancient times have largely been replaced by chronic psychological worries and hurts. The mind gets drawn to these worries and hurts, mostly in the domain of the past and future, leading to mind wandering. In the brain, a network of neurons called the default mode...
Explore
2013
Yung-Jong Shiah, Dean Radin
This study explored whether drinking tea "treated" with good intentions would enhance mood more than drinking ordinary tea, under double-blind, randomized conditions. Each evening, for seven days in a row, volunteers recorded their mood using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire. On days three, four, and five of the test, each participant drank 600 mL of oolong tea in the morning and...
Explore
2012
Adam Burke
A significant number of studies have been published examining the mind-body effects of meditation and its clinical efficacy. There are very few studies, however, which directly compare different meditation methods with each other to explore potentially distinct mechanisms and effects, and no studies comparing individual preferences for different methods. As preference is seen as an important...
Explore
2012
Kenneth Kushner
The old Zen saying, "You cannot wash off blood with blood," refers to the conviction that it is difficult to control thoughts with other thoughts. This saying implies that the way to control the mind is through the body. In Zen meditation (zazen), this is accomplished through the regulation of breathing and posture. The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between breathing,...
Explore
July 1, 2011
Robert S Bobrow
Recently described social network phenomena show that emotionally connected people come to share certain traits, including obesity, happiness, and loneliness. These do not appear to be mediated by face-to-face contact. Other examples of groups with a common connection that act in unison are mass hysteria, menstrual synchrony, and the ability of a group to guess the number of jelly beans in a...
Explore
2011
Jeff Levin
47 citations
This paper surveys the landscape of energy healing, offering a taxonomy and conceptual overview of the work of practitioners. First, systems of energy healing are classified under four categories: an East Asian tradition, a Western professional tradition, a bioenergy tradition, and a contemporary metaphysical tradition. Examples of each are provided. Second, the possibility of core concepts in...
Explore
2011
Susanne M Cutshall, Laura J Wentworth, Dietlind L Wahner-Roedler et al.
To assess whether a self-directed, computer-guided meditation training program is useful for stress reduction in hospital nurses. We prospectively evaluated participants before and after a month-long meditation program. The meditation program consisted of 15 computer sessions that used biofeedback to reinforce training. Participants were instructed to practice the intervention for 30 minutes...
Explore
2011
Dean Radin, Cassandra Vieten, Leena Michel et al.
Advanced meditators occasionally report experiences of timelessness, or states of awareness that seem to transcend the usual boundaries of the subjective present. This type of experience was investigated in eight experienced meditators and eight matched controls by measuring 32 channels of EEG before, during, and after exposure to unpredictable light and sound stimuli. The experiment postulated...
Explore
2011
Gary E. Schwartz
Research investigating the potential of detecting the purported presence of spirit (POS) has been hampered by the necessity of employing a human being to collect the data. To infer the presence of alleged spirit, it is essential to remove the simultaneous presence of an experimenter (POE), thereby eliminating his or her physical energy as well as accompanying conscious intentions and...
Explore
2011
Cynthia R Gross, Mary Jo Kreitzer, Maryanne Reilly-Spong et al.
The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a treatment for chronic primary insomnia. A randomized controlled trial was conducted. The study was conducted at a university health center. Thirty adults with primary chronic insomnia based on criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Text Revision, 4th Edition...
Explore
2011
Kyung-Eun Choi, Thomas Rampp, Felix J Saha et al.
Although acupuncture and meditation are widely utilized in the clinical treatment of pain, trials to evaluate their efficacy and modes of action under experimental conditions have yielded equivocal results. This feasibility study investigated whether electroacupuncture (EA) and meditation effectively relieve pain within a well-established ischemic pain paradigm (submaximum effort tourniquet...