Previous blood flow measurements in this laboratory have indicated increased nonrenal nonhepatic blood flow during behaviorally induced rest states, especially during the stylized mental technique of transcendental meditation (TM). We have hypothesized that increased cerebral blood flow (CBF) may account for most of the increased nonrenal nonhepatic blood flow during TM. In this report we...
This study evaluated whether governmental medical payments in Quebec were affected by the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique. This retrospective study used a pre- and postintervention design in which government payments for physicians' services were reviewed for 3 years before and up to 7 years after subjects started the technique. Payment data were adjusted for aging and year-specific...
To test the hypothesis that stress reducing techniques such as meditation alter immune responses after strenous physical stress. The hypothesis was tested by studying six meditating and six non-meditating male runners in a concurrent, controlled design. After a period of six months with meditation for the experimental group, blood samples were taken immediately before and after a maximum oxygen...
This comment on Persinger's paper published in this journal in 1994 includes 4 studies not cited by Persinger. Each supports the inference of better health of those who practice Transcendental Meditation.
Laughter is a very special phenomenon. Unfortunately, its (psycho)therapeutic value is underestimated and its transforming force is not used to its full extent. Next to spontaneous laughter, there is also a laughing meditation, a structured exercise of 15 min with 3 stages: stretching, laughing (and/or crying), silence. The laughing meditation can be used as 'adjuvans' in all kinds of therapy...
The relations between three hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, beta-endorphin (beta-EP), corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and cortisol, and mood change were examined in 11 elite runners and 12 highly trained mediators matched in age, sex, and personality. Despite metabolic differences between running and meditation, we predicted that mood change after these...
Transcendental mediation (TM) is a stylized form of physical and mental relaxation which is associated with changes in the secretion and release of several pituitary hormones. The hormonal changes induced by TM mimic the effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA). It is hypothesized that TM produces changes in pituitary hormone secretion by enhancing hypothalamic...
This study investigated the impact that meditation has on Fordyce's (1977, 1983) Personal Happiness Enhancement Program (PHEP). Experimental subjects were divided into two groups, both of which received instruction on the PHEP. Subjects in one experimental group were taught a meditation exercise in addition to the PHEP. A control group received no instruction. The Happiness Measure, Psychap...
*Jon Kabat-Zinn whose latest book, 'Wherever You Go There You Are", has become a best seller and which teaches stress reduction through meditation and Yoga. *When I came across Eleanor Criswell's book I had already been a yoga devotee for many years, and more recently a student of somatic education, Naturally, I was interested in Dr. Criswell's "somatic" perspective on yoga, and how it was...