PEOPLE LOVE peace of mind and relaxed body amid the ever-growing clutter and cutthroat competitions around the globe. In a determined bid to accomplish the twin objective, many resorts to meditation while scientists are trying to unravel the scientific rationale behind it. There are varied types of mediation, And various preachers practice different techniques.
More researches are needed, say experts, before meditation can be advocated as a sure-fire method for healthy body and mind. A latest study, published by Lancet, Says Transcendental meditation – the effortless thinking of a mantra, without concentration or contemplation, to produce a settled, psychophysiological state of restful alertness – might help decrease the severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a randomized controlled trial of 203 US veterans with PTSD published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
More researches are needed, say experts, before meditation can be advocated as a sure-fire method for healthy body and mind. A latest study, published by Lancet, Says Transcendental meditation – the effortless thinking of a mantra, without concentration or contemplation, to produce a settled, psychophysiological state of restful alertness – might help decrease the severity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a randomized controlled trial of 203 US veterans with PTSD published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
Another study on mediation a few months back had found that regular meditation sessions can have a long-lasting effect on a person’s attention span and other cognitive abilities, says an extensive study.
The findings might offer a new non-trauma focused treatment for veterans that may be a helpful addition to other available treatments such as medication, although longer-term follow up, and larger, multi-site trials are needed to confirm these findings.
After three months of treatment, the trial found meditation to be just as effective in reducing symptoms as prolonged exposure therapy (the most commonly used psychotherapy), and better than health education classes. Drop-out rates were not significantly different among the three groups
Most participants included in the trial had very severe PTSD symptoms, predominantly from combat-related trauma, with high rates of comorbid conditions. Importantly, more than two-thirds (68%) of the participants continued taking medication for PTSD during the trial.
“PTSD is a serious and disabling condition, affecting an estimated 14% of US veterans deployed in or returning from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq,” says Dr. Sanford Nidich, Maharishi University of Management Research Institute, USA.
After three months of treatment, the trial found meditation to be just as effective in reducing symptoms as prolonged exposure therapy (the most commonly used psychotherapy), and better than health education classes. Drop-out rates were not significantly different among the three groups
Most participants included in the trial had very severe PTSD symptoms, predominantly from combat-related trauma, with high rates of comorbid conditions. Importantly, more than two-thirds (68%) of the participants continued taking medication for PTSD during the trial.
“PTSD is a serious and disabling condition, affecting an estimated 14% of US veterans deployed in or returning from combat in Afghanistan and Iraq,” says Dr. Sanford Nidich, Maharishi University of Management Research Institute, USA.
“PTSD harms veterans’ mental, physical, and financial well-being, and there is also growing evidence of links between PTSD and cardiovascular health, occupational functioning, metabolic function, and possibly even dementia risk. Our findings indicate the feasibility and efficacy of transcendental meditation as a potential therapy for veterans with PTSD and encourage future research to explore the durability of the benefits and applications to other populations with PTSD.”
The study was conducted by researchers from Maharishi University of Management Research Institute, VA San Diego Healthcare System, University of California, San Diego, and Georgetown University Medical School.
One of the most commonly used treatments for PTSD is prolonged exposure psychotherapy, which focuses on re-experiencing the traumatic event through remembering and engaging with reminders of the trauma, as opposed to avoiding them.
While prolonged exposure psychotherapy is beneficial for many, 30-50% of veterans participating do not show clinically significant improvements, and drop-out rates can be high (ranging from 30-44%). Therefore, new treatments, including options not involving exposure to the traumatic experience, are needed for veterans who do not respond to treatment or drop-out due to discomfort.
Transcendental meditation is thought to lessen hypervigilance and an exaggerated startle response, as well as reducing anxiety, blood pressure, and being therapeutic in stressful situations. It has previously shown promising results against anxiety and PTSD symptoms in military veterans and active personnel, but the studies have been uncontrolled or with small numbers.
The new study is the first to compare transcendental meditation with prolonged exposure therapy.
In the study, 203 veterans with a current diagnosis of PTSD resulting from active military service were randomly assigned to receive transcendental meditation (68 veterans), prolonged exposure therapy (68 veterans), or a control condition of PTSD health education classes (67 veterans).
Participants were included if their service-related traumatic event had happened three or more months prior to study enrolment, and they were not receiving other psychotherapy or meditation therapy for PTSD. Veterans with psychotic symptoms, mania, bipolar disorder, current suicidal or homicidal ideation or cognitive impairment were not included in the study. Participants receiving medication for their PTSD could take part in the trial as long as their prescription (drug and dosage) had remained the same for at least two months prior to enrolment.
Each treatment involved 12 90-minute sessions over 12 weeks, with daily home practice. The transcendental meditation and health education classes were given in group sessions while prolonged exposure therapy was delivered one-to-one.
The severity of the veterans’ PTSD symptoms was measured through an interview with the clinician (the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale [CAPS] interview) at the start of the trial and after three months.
All three treatments were well-attended (91% of participants [62/68 people] attended transcendental meditation, all participants [68 participants] attended prolonged exposure therapy, 94% [63/67 participants] took part in health education classes) and the majority of participants’ who received treatment attended eight or more sessions (82%, 51/62 transcendental meditation participants; 62%, 42/68 prolonged exposure therapy participants; 68%, 43/63 health education class participants).
Transcendental meditation was just as effective as prolonged exposure therapy, showing similar reductions in PTSD symptoms, and both of the therapies were more effective than health education classes.
At baseline, 68% of participants were taking at least one PTSD-related medication – 78% of participants in the transcendental meditation group, 66% receiving prolonged exposure therapy and 61% receiving health education classes. In the statistical analysis controlling for medication use, the authors found that transcendental meditation still reduced PTSD symptoms compared to health education, and was just as effective as prolonged exposure therapy.
While fewer people in the transcendental meditation group exhibited treatment drop-out (attending less than eight sessions) than in the prolonged exposure therapy group (25% [17/68 people] vs 38% [26/68 people]), this difference was not statistically significant.
Dr Nidich continues: “Our findings provide further evidence that PTSD treatments can be effective without an exposure component. Historically, the benefit of exposing people with PTSD to traumatic memories has been seen as an important part of the therapeutic process. However, evidence is increasingly supportive of non-exposure treatments also being beneficial. Because trauma exposure can be difficult for patients, similarly effective treatments that do not require exposure such as transcendental meditation could be appealing to veterans and other groups with PTSD.”
The authors note some limitations, including that they were unable to recruit a substantial sample of women to enable comparisons by gender. In addition, the study did not include a follow-up period so long-term effects could not be evaluated.
Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Vernon Anthony Barnes, Augusta University, USA, notes that future studies are needed to assess the economic effect of transcendental meditation on PTSD and related medical expenses. But since patients with PTSD have high and lifelong medical costs, it is likely that it could lead to some savings.
He says: “More than a third of patients with PTSD do not recover even after many years, showing PTSD to be a chronic and costly illness to service members, their families, and society as a whole. Traditional treatment of PTSD has not been uniformly successful because of comorbidities, side-effects of drug therapy, and time and energy needed for psychotherapy. Pharmacotherapy has shown insufficient benefit in the treatment of PTSD, while adherence and the treatment success of various psychotherapies have been disappointing.
One of the most commonly used treatments for PTSD is prolonged exposure psychotherapy, which focuses on re-experiencing the traumatic event through remembering and engaging with reminders of the trauma, as opposed to avoiding them.
While prolonged exposure psychotherapy is beneficial for many, 30-50% of veterans participating do not show clinically significant improvements, and drop-out rates can be high (ranging from 30-44%). Therefore, new treatments, including options not involving exposure to the traumatic experience, are needed for veterans who do not respond to treatment or drop-out due to discomfort.
Transcendental meditation is thought to lessen hypervigilance and an exaggerated startle response, as well as reducing anxiety, blood pressure, and being therapeutic in stressful situations. It has previously shown promising results against anxiety and PTSD symptoms in military veterans and active personnel, but the studies have been uncontrolled or with small numbers.
The new study is the first to compare transcendental meditation with prolonged exposure therapy.
In the study, 203 veterans with a current diagnosis of PTSD resulting from active military service were randomly assigned to receive transcendental meditation (68 veterans), prolonged exposure therapy (68 veterans), or a control condition of PTSD health education classes (67 veterans).
Participants were included if their service-related traumatic event had happened three or more months prior to study enrolment, and they were not receiving other psychotherapy or meditation therapy for PTSD. Veterans with psychotic symptoms, mania, bipolar disorder, current suicidal or homicidal ideation or cognitive impairment were not included in the study. Participants receiving medication for their PTSD could take part in the trial as long as their prescription (drug and dosage) had remained the same for at least two months prior to enrolment.
Each treatment involved 12 90-minute sessions over 12 weeks, with daily home practice. The transcendental meditation and health education classes were given in group sessions while prolonged exposure therapy was delivered one-to-one.
The severity of the veterans’ PTSD symptoms was measured through an interview with the clinician (the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale [CAPS] interview) at the start of the trial and after three months.
All three treatments were well-attended (91% of participants [62/68 people] attended transcendental meditation, all participants [68 participants] attended prolonged exposure therapy, 94% [63/67 participants] took part in health education classes) and the majority of participants’ who received treatment attended eight or more sessions (82%, 51/62 transcendental meditation participants; 62%, 42/68 prolonged exposure therapy participants; 68%, 43/63 health education class participants).
Transcendental meditation was just as effective as prolonged exposure therapy, showing similar reductions in PTSD symptoms, and both of the therapies were more effective than health education classes.
At baseline, 68% of participants were taking at least one PTSD-related medication – 78% of participants in the transcendental meditation group, 66% receiving prolonged exposure therapy and 61% receiving health education classes. In the statistical analysis controlling for medication use, the authors found that transcendental meditation still reduced PTSD symptoms compared to health education, and was just as effective as prolonged exposure therapy.
While fewer people in the transcendental meditation group exhibited treatment drop-out (attending less than eight sessions) than in the prolonged exposure therapy group (25% [17/68 people] vs 38% [26/68 people]), this difference was not statistically significant.
Dr Nidich continues: “Our findings provide further evidence that PTSD treatments can be effective without an exposure component. Historically, the benefit of exposing people with PTSD to traumatic memories has been seen as an important part of the therapeutic process. However, evidence is increasingly supportive of non-exposure treatments also being beneficial. Because trauma exposure can be difficult for patients, similarly effective treatments that do not require exposure such as transcendental meditation could be appealing to veterans and other groups with PTSD.”
The authors note some limitations, including that they were unable to recruit a substantial sample of women to enable comparisons by gender. In addition, the study did not include a follow-up period so long-term effects could not be evaluated.
Writing in a linked Comment, Dr Vernon Anthony Barnes, Augusta University, USA, notes that future studies are needed to assess the economic effect of transcendental meditation on PTSD and related medical expenses. But since patients with PTSD have high and lifelong medical costs, it is likely that it could lead to some savings.
He says: “More than a third of patients with PTSD do not recover even after many years, showing PTSD to be a chronic and costly illness to service members, their families, and society as a whole. Traditional treatment of PTSD has not been uniformly successful because of comorbidities, side-effects of drug therapy, and time and energy needed for psychotherapy. Pharmacotherapy has shown insufficient benefit in the treatment of PTSD, while adherence and the treatment success of various psychotherapies have been disappointing.
When patients with PTSD do not respond to traditional treatment, new approaches should be considered… Consistent with military culture, transcendental meditation is self-administered, self-empowering, completely transportable, and inconspicuous. The technique can be practiced anywhere at any time, without specialized equipment or the need for personal support. The US military has already included transcendental meditation as an adjunct to the PTSD recovery program in some facilities.”
Another study had found that regular meditation sessions can have a long-lasting effect on a person’s attention span and other cognitive abilities. This was according to the most extensive longitudinal study to date examining a group of meditation practitioners. Published in Springer’sJournal of Cognitive Enhancement, the research evaluates the benefits that people gained after three months of full-time meditation training and whether these benefits are maintained seven years later.
Lead author Anthony Zanesco, now at the University of Miami in the US, however, cautions that further research is needed before meditation can be advocated as a sure-fire method for countering the effects of aging on the brain.
This study follows up on previous work by the same group of researchers at the University of California, Davis in 2011, which assessed the cognitive abilities of 30 people who regularly meditated before and after they went on a three-month-long retreat at the Shambhala Mountain meditation center in the US. At the center, they meditated daily using techniques designed to foster calm sustained attention on a chosen object and to generate aspirations such as compassion, loving-kindness, emphatic joy and equanimity among participants, for others and themselves.
During this time, another group of 30 people who regularly meditated were also monitored. Other than traveling to the meditation center for a week-long assessment period, they carried on with their lives as normal. After the first group’s initial retreat was over, the second group received similar intensive training at the Shambhala Mountain Center.
As part of this study, follow-up assessments were conducted six months, eighteen months and seven years after completion of the retreats. During the last appraisal, participants were asked to estimate how much time over the course of seven years they had spent meditating outside of formal retreat settings, such as through daily or non-intensive practice. The forty participants who had remained in the study all reported some form of continued meditation practice: 85 percent attended at least one meditation retreat, and they practiced amounts on average that was comparable to an hour a day for seven years.
The participants again completed assessments designed to measure their reaction time and ability to pay attention to a task. Although these did not improve, the cognitive gains accrued after the 2011 training and assessment were partially maintained many years later. This was especially true for older participants who practiced a lot of meditation over the seven years. Compared to those who practiced less, they maintained cognitive gains and did not show typical patterns of age-related decline in sustained attention.
“This study is the first to offer evidence that intensive and continued meditation practice is associated with enduring improvements in sustained attention and response inhibition, with the potential to alter longitudinal trajectories of cognitive change across a person’s life,” says Zanesco.
He is aware that the participants’ lifestyle or personality might have contributed to the observations. Zanesco, therefore, calls for further research into meditation as an intervention to improve brain functioning among older people.
He says the current findings also provide a sobering appraisal of whether short-term or non-intensive mindfulness interventions are helpful to improve sustained attention in a lasting manner. Participants practiced far more meditation than is feasible for shorter-term programs that might aim to help with cognitive aging, and despite practicing that much meditation, participants did not generally improve over years; these benefits instead plateaued.
Zanesco believes this has broad implications for meditation and mindfulness-based approaches to cognitive training and raises important questions regarding how much meditation can, in fact, influence human cognition and the workings of the brain.
Likewise, The Sahaj Marg’s current head Kamlesh Patel who practices heartfulness programme internationally for deep meditation, Says The nutritional needs of human body differ for our physical body (sthul sharir), our mind (sukshma sharir), and our soul (karan sharir).
While the physical body needs nourishment through vitamins and minerals contained in the daily food. At a higher or subtle level, we enrich our minds and educate ourselves through different education systems like books etc.
But what about the soul, and what is the feed for that? Upanishads say that one has to nourish one’s own prana with Divine energy. Due to grossness in thoughts and actions, we spoil our sense of discrimination and right cognition, but when one meditates, the clouds of confusion disappear and one feels lightness. This way, the soul is fed.
On the scientific rationale, he says a study was conducted at Harvard. An electroencephalogram test was carried out on some Buddhist monks, who had meditated for more than 20,000 hours, and entered the ‘delta’ stage (fourth level) of consciousness.
''As we move higher and higher, the need to be recognized becomes less and less, until we become one with infinity and dissolve in infinity and become infinity. So in the material world, there is ego fulfillment within but in the spiritual world, there is the absolute dissolution of personal ego. That is the beauty of the spiritual path. (Kamlesh Patel is widely heard at the international fora and radio waves of various FM channels/ TV channels etc.
According to him, as a first step, try Heartfulness Meditation on your own and see how you feel. Start with a simple meditation. Sit in any easy posture in a natural way, close your eyes and think that Divine light is illuminating your heart from within. The process will be without guidance, so go ahead at your own pace for 10 minutes.
A trainer can then guide you further on relaxation methods and help you to feel more relaxed. You can feel the movement of energy upward from the toes to the head, releasing stress from every part of your body. Heartfulness uses the system of transmission and focuses on the heart along with a method of cleaning taking care of an overall process of purity that weaves destiny through meditation. Heartfulness refers to being ‘full of heart’. It is the practice of Sahaj Marg. It has come out of the teachings and university of U-connect and the concept that masters in the Sahaj Marg have been teaching since years.
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