الگوهای EEG خودکار و تمایز فراتر از تجارب دیگر در طول عمل متعالی مدیتیشن

This study compared EEG and autonomic patterns during transcending to ‘other’ experiences during Transcendental Meditation (TM) practice. To correlate specific meditation experiences with physiological measures, the experimenter rang a bell three times during the TM session. Subjects categorized their experiences around each bell ring. Transcending, in comparison to ‘other’ experiences during TM practice, was marked by: (1) significantly lower breath rates; (2) higher respiratory sinus arrhythmia amplitudes; (3) higher EEG alpha amplitude; and (4) higher alpha coherence. In addition, skin conductance responses to the experimenter-initiated bell rings were larger during transcending. These findings suggest that monitoring patterns of physiological variables may index dynamically changing inner experiences during meditation practice. This could allow a more precise investigation into the nature of meditation experiences and a more accurate comparison of meditation states with other eyes-closed conditions.

Basic and clinical research has documented the effectiveness of practice of the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) technique1 in decreasing anxiety (Eppley et al., 1989), decreasing hypertension (Alexander et al., 1994a and Schneider et al., 1995), decreasing atherosclerosis (Castillo-Richmond et al., 2000), decreasing substance abuse (Alexander et al., 1994b), and enhancing self-actualization (Alexander et al., 1991). To understand how TM practice positively impacts mental and physical health, the constellation of psychophysiological patterns during TM practice needs to be understood. Travis and Wallace (1997) compared physiological patterns during two main experience-categories during TM practice: transcending, described as: ‘…taking the mind from the experience of a thought to finer states of the thought’ (Maharishi, 1969, p. 470) and Transcendental Consciousness, described as: ‘…silence and full awareness of pure consciousness, where the experiencer is left all by himself.’ (Maharishi, 1963, p. 288) (see also Travis and Pearson, 2000). In this study, transcendental consciousness was distinguished by autonomic orienting at the onset of 10–40-s-long apneustic breathing periods (slow, continuous inhalation). Constrained by the subjects’ spontaneous experiences, this prior research was only able to compare physiological patterns between these two experience categories during TM practice — transcending and Transcendental Consciousness. The current study extends these earlier findings by comparing autonomic and EEG patterns during transcending to physiological patterns during ‘other’ experiences occurring within a TM session. This ‘other’ category comprises a range of possible experiences when the mind is out of the process of transcending, primarily characterized by an increase in mental and physical activity. Delineating physiological patterns during ‘other’ experiences will complete our characterization of sub-states within TM practice.