Meditation shopping? Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Yet millions of Americans are seeking tools to turn within. As a nation we've tried to fix our problems with everything from psychotherapy and Prozac to positive thinking and politics. Now people everywhere are ready to close their eyes and take a dive -- not to escape, but to more fully be.
Having lectured on meditation for 25 years, I find that audiences no longer need to be convinced of meditation's practical benefits. But people do often ask, "Aren't all meditation techniques basically the same?"
Experts in the venerated traditions of meditation have always marveled at the mind's subtlety, appreciating its keen responsiveness and sensitivity to different mental procedures. Great master teachers of meditation have recognized that the various techniques engage the mind in different ways and naturally produce different results. With advancements in neurophysiology, scientists are now identifying distinctions among varieties of meditation practices.
The Myth of the Relaxation Response
The old "scientific" myth that meditation practices all induce the same, general state of physiological rest -- called the "relaxation response" -- has been overturned. Though many practices provide relaxation, decades of research show that not all techniques produce the same physiological, psychological or behavioral effects.1
Recently a doctor came to me for meditation instruction. He had learned a "relaxation response" technique in a class on integrative medicine during his training at Harvard. He was attracted to meditation by the promise of deeper insight into consciousness -- access to the mind's hidden, transcendent potentialities. He enjoyed the relaxation technique but yearned for deeper experience and understanding.
Reviewing the science journals, the doctor arrived at the same conclusion reached by leading meditation researchers: the "relaxation" model was based on inconclusive evidence and had never been substantiated. Hundreds of published studies on meditation techniques show varying effects from different practices -- ranging from measures of rest much deeper than the "relaxation response" to physiological states no different from sliding back into your easy chair.
The emerging paradigm: three major categories of meditation
Meditation labs have sprung up at universities across the country--places such as Yale, UCLA, University of Oregon, UW Madison and Maharishi University of Management. Their contributions have helped researchers identify three major categories of techniques, classified according to EEG measurements and the type of cognitive processing or mental activity involved:
Some techniques may fall under more than one category: Guided meditation is controlled focus if the instruction is, "Hold attention on your breath." But if the instructor says, "Now just watch your thoughts, letting them come and go," then you're probably doing open monitoring--and your EEG would say for sure.
Different practices, different results
Without the scientific research (or until we have a cell phone app for measuring our EEG and biochemistry), meditative states and their effects remain subjective. Brain research, along with findings on psychological and behavioral effects, gives a more objective framework for health professionals or anyone to determine which meditation technique might be most beneficial for a given purpose.
For example, research suggests that concentration techniques may improve focusing ability. A study on advanced Buddhist monks--some of whom had logged more 10,000 hours of meditation -- found that concentrating on "loving kindness and compassion" increased those feelings and produced synchronous gamma activity in the left prefrontal cortex -- indicating more powerful focus.
The effect of open monitoring or non-judgmental observation is said to increase even-mindedness in daily life; studies on mindfulness-type practices indicate better pain management and reduction of "negative rumination."
For relief from stress, research suggests that an automatic self-transcending technique might serve you better than a practice that keeps the mind engaged in continuous mental effort. Because of the natural mind/body relationship, the more deeply settled the mind, the more deeply rested is the body. Studies show that the deep rest of "transcending" calms the sympathetic nervous system and restores physiological balance -- lowering high blood pressure, alleviating chronic anxiety and reducing stress hormones such as cortisol.
More research is needed to verify benefits of controlled focus, but there are numerous studies on mindfulness practices and automatic self-transcending, with over 600 studies on the Transcendental Meditation technique alone.
As meditation becomes a new frontier of scientific research, more and more people are becoming aware of the mind's enormous potential for impacting health and wellbeing. I find that most meditators are no longer concerned that a technique might come from the East or have roots in a spiritual tradition--their main concern is that the practice works, and science can help remove the guesswork.
Americans are opting for meditation to counterbalance a life that's been plugged in, outer directed and over stimulated, and we're turning to something as simple as our own inner silence.
Whether you're an athlete aiming for the "zone," an executive striving for peak performance or a harried mother needing some serenity, a reliable meditation practice can be your best friend.
1. Orme-Johnson, Walton, 1998. American Journal of Health Promotion 2(5), 297-299.
2. Lutz, Greischar, Rawlings, Ricard, Davidson, 2004. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101,16369-73.
3. Cahn, Delorme, & Polich, 2010. Cognitive Processing 2010 11(1):39-56.
4. Travis et al, 2010. Cognitive Processing 11(1), 21-30.
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i like this article's opening statement, which says a lot more than meets the eye: many people had so much hope for change, are now feed up with politics, have tried everything. then, nothin hugely transformational happens, so much resistance, and there's even a strong national will among many to go backwards, it seems, away from non-partisanship, to refuse to listen to others, etc., everybody just voicing all their extreme opinions and denouncing everybody else, and the news media goin along for the ride.
what's left to do but go within --- or, TRANSCEND as said here. and take care of oneself. cuz nobody else will do it for ya. yoga. meditation. health. spirituality.
i appreciate the way the transcendentals here (meaning, people fond of meditating ---- positive and hopeful about changing themselves and the world through meditation) are not rejecting those couple of people who come here and dis them. i like how they are open to discussing these deep issues and even the not-so-deep ones. they do not get riled but to my ear cooly & satisfyingly answer. which is rare these days and speaks for the goodness of the meditation. very different from the political articles, where everybody's denouncing.
meditation may be the only way to accomplish what everyone wants on the outside: peace, harmony, love.
first you gotta clean your own windows of perception.
At university I had friends practicing Zen meditation which they'd learned at Zen monasteries in Japan. I believed humans had more potential than they were using. I kept reading about creative people having transcendent or mystical experiences which gave them energy, creativity and deeper insight into life. I had made up my own ways to meditate. I would stare at something without blinking for a long time. It was amazing to see that there was an effect in my awareness, some stillness. So when my friends told me about mindfulness Zen, I learned. I practiced two years, going regularly to the Zendo on Manhatten's upper West Side. I was never sure exactly what I was supposed to do, but I "sat" and I "breathed" and I liked it and I felt something.
When my TM friends finally persuaded me to give TM a chance, in my first TM meditation it was immediately obvious that this experience was what I had been looking for. I can't explain it, but in the first meditation I experienced clear, silent wakefulness ... and it was absolutely easy, just like they said it would be. When I went outside after the first meditation, my perceptions were sharper / richer. I've been doing it ever since.
But it's obvious from the sincere, positive comments from meditators that the criticisms come only from the remote fringes...
TM movement publicizing mantras, sutras & other things ? These used to be guarded in secrecy. Are
we now able to learn advanced mantras on the internet? Why such generosity?
TM has survived all the negativity and criticism from the beginning, and it will continue to be kept in it's purity by the teachers and the altruistic organization, for everyone sincerely seeking to benefit from it. the most generous act i've ever heard of was Maharishi structuring, systematizing the personal instruction of TM so that teachers could be trained, allowing the technique to be taught properly to more and more people and give consistent results for everyone who learns, as the scientific research has born out.
you've done a good job of expressing yourself and making clear you feelings.
i also think it's important for people to know about the Internet effort by a few to discredit TM -- it's no secret -- so that people reading comments will know what they're dealing with and be on their toes and really use their discrimination.
people who slam others have probably been hurt at in the past. for many, TM brings hope and relief from the stress and negativity. anyone who really wants to find peace can find it, because it's within everyone. that is Maharishi's message, that is TM's message.
wishing you well, dear Jessica.
I agree that one person below keeps missing the whole point of the article and probably just doesn't get the innocence and simplicity of the TM technique. The article is about scientists establishing an objective parameter for determining the real, measurable effects of different meditation practices.
People can and will say anything that comes to mind. It's natural for people to have varying opinions, especially about something as subtle and subjective as meditation. The importance of science is that, regardless of what anyone claims, we have objectively verifiable knowledge about the positive effects of specific practices.The research takes it out of the field of personal opinion and subjective belief.
If someone doesn't value meditation enough to pay the course fees, it's always a personal choice not to pay. If others value a meditation program and appreciate the opportunity for advanced training, want to take the time to go through all the classes and retreats for more knowledge, gladly willing to pay for that educational expense, room and board for the retreats, etc then that's their choice. What I see in some of these negative "attack" comments is intolerance and disrespect for other people's views. Lighten up, man... go do your Chopra practice or something.
"sidhis" was @ least $4000. I spoke to Dr. S. Rector, a TM teacher and medical doctor. He suggested
that I use my credit card to charge the TM-sidhi fee. Perhaps you TM defenders work for this movement.
I said(I actually thought f u) but I said, you are greedy. In Fairfield I was given a slice of very white cake.
True TM altruism.
lightness of cotton fiber". They may have a "flavor of experience", but no more than that. Jessica, I visited
Fairfield, & I considered employment on staff in order to learn advanced TM techniques. I was disturbed
by a few things. Meditators claiming that "the money just comes when the time is right" to pay the various
TM fees. Is Guru Dev functioning in some astral dimension, telepathically influencing our financial com-
munity to deposit the requisite amounts of money to pay for sidhis, jyotish, yagyas, assemblies etcetera.
I think if you look at www.TM.org and see the quality of people speaking out in favor of TM — Russell Simmons, Dr. Oz, Paul McCartney, Clint Eastwood, etc — it completely defines the stereotype you're trying to project onto TM. Obviously your goal here is to try and make TM look bad in comments, but it's so easy to see through your agenda.
Yes, I have an agenda too: to enjoy life to the max and share the positivity and hope to leave a clear trance of understanding when I see someone distorting the truth about something important to me.
support the TM projects. I also use a meditation CD called Synchronicity which is terrific. There are also
other meditation CD's, some bi-naural, @ reasonable prices, for the many who can not afford TM. So please do not dispair. Reasonably priced meditation exists, i.e. such as "Natural Stress Relief".