This report presents the changes in various autonomic and respiratory variables during the practice of Brahmakumaris Raja yoga meditation. This practice requires considerable commitment and involves concentrated thinking. 18 males in the age range of 20 to 52 years (mean 34.1 +/- 8.1), with 5-25 years experience in mediation (mean 10.1 +/- 6.2), participated in the study. Each subject was...
A study was conducted to compare the efficacy of meditation with that of imipramine and chlordiazepoxide in the treatment of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. At the end of five weeks, meditation was found to be as effective as pharmacotherapy in controlling symptoms of anxiety. It was superior in altering trait anxiety (TMAS Scores). Meditation is an easy to learn and cost effective therapy. It...
The Personal Philosophy Inventories of 221 university students who had learned to meditate (about 65% to 70% Transcendental Meditation) were compared to 860 nonmeditators. Meditators displayed a significantly wider range of complex partial epileptic-like signs. Experiences of vibrations, hearing one's name called, paranormal phenomena, profound meaning from reading poetry/prose, and religious...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional state of the cerebral cortex during Qigong meditation with flash visual evoked potentials (F-VEPs) recorded from the occipital scalp in four groups of adults. The first group included 14 subjects who had exercised in Neiyang Gong for 0.5-5.5 years. The second group was composed of 12 subjects who had practiced Neiyang Gong for only...
We taught isometric squeeze relaxation (a variant of progressive relaxation) or meditation to 52 anxious subjects (16 men, 36 women). For meditation, pretreatment high absorption correlated with reductions in state cognitive and somatic anxiety as well as increments in state focusing. For isometric squeeze relaxation, pretreatment low state focusing correlated with reductions in somatic anxiety...
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...
Serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) levels were measured in 270 men and 153 women who were experienced practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi programs, mental techniques practiced twice daily, sitting quietly with the eyes closed. These were compared according to sex and 5-year age grouping to 799 male and 453 female nonmeditators. The mean DHEA-S levels in...
OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of a group stress reduction program based on mindfulness meditation for patients with anxiety disorders. METHOD: The 22 study participants were screened with a structured clinical interview and found to meet the DSM-III-R criteria for generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Assessments,...
One of the major aims of school guidance and counselling programmes is to promote personal growth. A practice which is enjoying continuing attention and is claimed as being a valuable tool for personal growth, is meditation. Could meditation be used profitably in the school situation? This case study reports on the experiences of a high school girl who participated in a three-month Vipassana...
Mantra is a word or a short saying, a short prayer repeated in order to fix the distractions of the mind. Under mantra meditation I mean the repetitive prayer, the aim of which is meeting with God, and involving the whole person at prayer. (I do not speak about the simplified techniques aiming only at healing or success and using only parts of the capacity inherent in this meditation...