In a study designed to identify the electrophysiologic characteristics of the Transcendental Meditation Program, 52 periods of spontaneous respiratory suspension (RS) were observed in 18 subjects during the practice of this program. These periods were correlated with some but not all the subjective experiences of pure consciousness. Nineteen RS periods (belonging to 11 subjects) free from any...
We studied the effect of transcendental meditation (TM) on breathing using 16 experienced meditators and 16 control subjects. In controls, there was no significant difference in minute ventilation (VE), respiratory pattern, or hypercapnic response, whether breathing with eyes open-awake (CA), or with eyes closed-relaxing (CR). In meditators, VE decreased significantly during quiet breathing...
Transient, focal, epileptic-like electrical changes in the temporal lobe, without convulsions, have been hypothesized to be primary correlates of religious experiences. Given these properties, direct measurement of these phenomena within the laboratory should be rare. However, two illustrated instances have been recorded. The first case involved the occurrence of a delta-wave-dominant...
A critique is given of Sallis's article "meditation and self-actualization: a theoretical comparison".The main argument of the critique is that Sallis failed to differentiate between the various levels of meditation practice in his article.This led him to postulate apparently contradictory goals for meditation.It is suggested that the understanding of linguistic formulations of meditation is...
This paper examines Buddhist meditation techniques as they apply to Pure Land visions and deathbed visions, particularly with their parallelism to modern American near-death and deathbed visions.
1Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01605 USA 2Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01605 USA 3Department of Anesthesiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, 01605 USA
Undergraduate volunteers (16 men, 19 women) were randomly assigned to either a meditation or a control condition balanced for expectancy to compare the function of these treatments in the alleviation of test anxiety. Self-report, performance, and physiological indices were assessed as moderated by gender, Scholastic Aptitude Test score, frequency of practice, repression, and expectancy of...
Tested the hypothesis that inconsistencies found in research on the relationship between Zen meditation and self-actualization were due in part to the existence of a learning period for Zen meditation. It was hypothesized that increases in self-actualization would be observed only after the completion of the learning period. The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) was given to 36 students of...
A survey of 122 subjects was conducted to investigate the differences in the phenomenological quality of the experiences engendered by three types of awareness discipline: self-hypnosis (21 subjects), waking dreaming (49 subjects) and mindfulness meditation (25 subjects from a 2-week retreat, and another group of twenty-seven subjects from a 2-day weekend retreat). A questionnaire, the Profile...
Twenty males with a strong right hand preference underwent 120 simple reaction time trials to a 500 hz auditory stimulus presented to right, left and both ears. Ten Transcendental Meditators served as their own controls in twenty minute meditation and relaxation conditions and were also compared to a ten Non-Meditator control group who relaxed only in two 20-minute conditions. The reaction time...