Doctoral Research Request

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I'll participate! I'm curious to know the results...

 

Research shows that meditation reduces stress, both physically and mentally. More and more Norwegians meditate to gain more energy and reduce daily stress. It is not supernatural or mysterious. Meditation initiate physiological processes in the body that makes us more balanced and more able to cope with the everyday hustle and bustle.

The heart beats slower
The studies of Solberg, showed that heart rate are both lower and more stable during meditation than during normal rest. Blood pressure goes down, and hormone production is affected. All in all, meditation helps the body to relax more than any other rest, and the effect is that we can cope better with both extreme and everyday stress.
Physician and heart specialist Erik Ekker Solberg is currently completing a doctoral dissertation on how meditation works on stress management. He has looked at the physiological changes that occur in the body when you meditate.

Stable heart rate
The conclusion is that meditation can be suitable to cope with stress better. People who meditated regularly work easier in situations with physical stress than non meditators. The effects of the positive physiological changes also appeared to persist for some time after you have meditated. The result is less stress.
The results in these studies is supported by international studies on the effects of meditation.
There is little research on the prevention of stress
There is much research on what causes stress, but little on what can prevent it, “Says Solberg. Solberg says we need to focus more on how we can better cope with stress.
- Most of the available research on stress is about what creates stress and how stress affects us. The lack of research on how to get out of stress. That’s what we’ve focused on in these studies, “Solberg says”.

Performance Stress
Solberg used performance-stress associated with sports as a model in the study, but believes the results can be transferred to the stress most of us can experience in business and everyday life.

Better Sleep
Sleep is also affected by regular meditation.Meditation may resemble a state between wakefulness and sleep. But it is an activity that has different physiological characteristics than the rest.
- When you sleep you dont have a clear consciousness, but when you meditate, you are aware, “Solberg. We need sleep, but studies also suggest that sleep is affected by meditation.

Melatonin
Solberg has found that the level of melatonin, a hormone that controls circadian rhythms and sleep changes with regular meditation. This makes the sleep function better in those who meditate.
- Other factors such as less muscle tension and less psychological stress as a result of meditation, also that you fall asleep easier, “says Solberg
Margit Hegna meditates 30 minutes every morning and evening.
Stress free meditation
- The day I do not meditate, I notice that “the tempo is turned up in the head,” said Marit Hegna. I have less to go on throughout the day. She has a hectic job as a product developer in Lilleborg and has meditated for 8 years.

http://www.meditativelearning.com/meditation-prevents-stress/

 

Any color you like,

You are welcome to the results of the study if you email me. When I have finished collecting responses and published my dissertation I would be happy to let you know!

Shoden,

Much research exists on the benefits of meditation and yet still there are people and health care professionals who do not believe in the power of meditation. My study will hopefully shed light on areas that meditation can help with and this can further more research. Thanks for the link! I always enjoy meditation articles!

 

I am a naturist, a yoga therapist and teacher, and a medical professional so qualify in all counts. One problem with your research is to define the word meditation. You will find debate in this very forum. What you mean by meditation and what others mean by meditation. Complex subject
Namaste!
Meditation and links to articles are on the Dru website (My tradition) hope it helps.http://www.druworldwide.com/

 

I very much agree with you about the importance of type of meditation. I have found there to be many different types. The problem I ran into when completing the study was that this was almost a mini study of its own. Since I am comparing meditators with non-meditators and then subsequent to that comparing how long meditators have meditated for with their survey scores, there wasn't any more room in my current study (according to the University).

One area I proposed for future research was trying to find the type of meditation that works the best for most people (something of an over-generalization). I know many professionals use MBCT and claim it as effective but I'm not sure it's meditation per say.

Out of curiosity, what type do you practice? Oh, and thanks for taking my survey!!!

 

Not very observant! I gave you my link in my original post. Dru yoga

Defining your tool is always a problem in any research. Meditation to me is a way to still the mind of its 'useless chatter' and allow one to concentrate on a job in process. By relaxing the body one relaxes the mind and vice versa.

Patanjali refers to Dhrana (concentration) Dhyana (contemplation) and Samadhi (Oneness). Confining the mind to the object / Uninterrupted flow of mind to the object / mind becomes one with the object.

I am here to learn and serve so if I can help in any way please ask.
Love and light and best wishes for the survey. More importantly the steps you are now taking will deepen your understanding of meditation. Now what is the next step?

Edit: reference Patanjali Yoga Sutras - 2.49-51. If you still the breath you still the mind and if you still the mind (meditation) you still the breath. When you work in one of the koshas you cause an effect in the other four. This would suggest that meditation (according to Patanjali) is Pranayama (stilling the breath) or stilling the mind. Rather a chicken and egg scenario!

 

Wow! I've never actually heard of that type of meditation! There are so many different types. I can see I've only scratched the surface.

I was having a discussion the other day about even 'defining' meditation. Can it be though? What if I meditate on eating? Do we just call that mindfulness?

Can you relax the body but not the mind and vice versa?

 

You have found that research always leads to more questions! Welcome to the club! Research is only a tool to a greater understanding but rarely satisfies one. It is the next step and then another comes after that. Eventually you retire from research due to age and disability but probably still seeking answers. Life is transient.

Koshas (5) Annamayakosha (physical) Pranamayakosha (energy) Manamayakosha (emotional mind) Vijnamayakosha (wisdom) Anandamayakosha (bliss). Any action in one of these koshas has effects in all the others. Yoga is often defined as the union of mind. body and spirit.

Patanjali infers that one follows the path to enlightenment by working on the 8 limbs of yoga.

You cite the example of meditating on food. Annamayakosha - Chomping the food Pranamayakosha - digesting the food gives you energy Manomayakosha - I love Cornish Pasties Vijnamayakosha - the wisdom to know that without food I will die Anandamayakosha - I have eaten to allow me to look forward to the next meal. The process of eating could be defined as Dhrana (concentrating on the meal). If while one is eating one considers the sacredness of food then one would be meditating on the food.

No you cannot relax the physical body without relaxing the mind they are firmly connected. Stilling the breath will still the mind and stilling the mind will still the breath. And it is fun!

Be careful with the idea of 'emptying the mind'. I feel the mind is emptied of 'useless chatter' but not emptied unless you are dead. Thoughts come into your mind. do not judge them but allow them to drift away into akasha. Same goes for pain as a therapeutic tool.

As a therapist if I relax a patients mind I will often induce a relaxation of the body. A nervous patient displays tension and anguish. I can treat this in two ways. Physical asanas to relax the physical body inducing calmness or I can try visualisations and positive affiirmations (like feeling the pain dissolving away like sugar in coffee) working on the brain to induce a calmness which relaxes the body. Chicken and egg syndrome again.

Keep scratching away but do it in a meditative way Is that itch in the physical body or the mental body? A scratch or plunging into cold water is a physical therapy. Imagining the itch is gone like an ant walking off your leg is a mental therapy.

I enjoy this video which one can meditate on in a mental way. The idea of creation and life-force energy.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8101989694941061600#

 

Just thinking one other thing that will alter the findings is the reason or purpose one meditates. Everything from healing, relaxation, gathering information from the other side or the Akashic records, opening awareness and such. The intent guides the one meditating.

 

That is a good point about the reason behind meditation. I know that some people who have taken the survey have given me feedback letting me know they don't practice compassion meditation and since that is one part of the survey, they felt that they were not able to accurately respond.

Can we say though (without the inclusion of compassion) that all types and all goals of meditation include increasing the amount of satisfaction with life and decreasing perceived stress? Is that too over generalized? Why?

 

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"""Can we say though (without the inclusion of compassion) that all types and all goals of meditation include increasing the amount of satisfaction with life and decreasing perceived stress? Is that too over generalized? Why?""""


Only if all leaves grow on trees.

Yes, this is way to generalized because again the intent will open the path the meditation takes. As much as there are different types of meditation the result is and must be based on why the person is choosing meditation.

I once talked to a person involved in black magic. Their reason for meditating was not for the greater good, but and I quote; "I use meditation to create chaos and strife as I send out the energy, I use the same energy and chaos when it comes back to me to continue what I do."

So as much as all leaves do not grow on trees, not all reasons for meditation are for the greater good. I know the above is an extreme example. But take psychic, mediums, remote viewers, channeler's, witch craft, voodoo practitioners, and a thousand other paths. All practice some form of meditation or entering a place of connection to the life force, Spirit or what ever name is used. Not all intent is for the greater good.

This reminds me of a prisoner who while on drugs did his mantra to enter meditation and felt like he was as he called it "Taken over" and ended up killing a couple, that was what landed him in prison.

I understand this is not the intent and reason most people choose meditation but would seem to me to understand how meditation in general affects and effects a persons life one must consider the whole picture.

anyway, just food for thought.

 

I never thought of meditation in a negative way before. I guess I can't say that what those people were doing was not meditation because it is undefined. What if I said all Tibetan meditation or all Buddhist meditation has the goal of satisfaction with life and less stress? Would that be an overgeneralization as well?

I agree your examples are extreme but still I see your point. If meditation can really be anything, how can it be defined? Scientists define it as a "mental state where the parasympathetic nervous system takes control." I suppose that could happen no matter what your actual thoughts are.

I'm curious about your example of the prisoner who meditated and felt he was "taken over." Perhaps because meditation can release subconscious feelings and thoughts by examination. Did he really want to kill and meditation just showed him how much?

 

How about meditation allows one to gain knowledge of the self. The self then has the ability to good or bad and is often empowered by said practice. Meditation has the ability to do great good but, according to the idea of balance, meditation also has the ability to do great harm. The 'self' may also be called the 'ego'.

 

Do you refer to the self as the ego in a Freudian way? If so, what are the consequences of meditation tapping into the ego, our very basic way of being?

What about Locke's tabula rasa and the idea we are born neither good nor bad but simply become what we become? It's hard for me to understand how meditation can be used in a negative way...since most of my understanding is based on developing a deeper sense of self.

 

This is all very interesting, but I would be curious to see scientific studies, etc. on what you call the idea of balance. I don't see the logical link between ''meditation causes great good'' so ''meditation also causes great harm''. I personnaly doubt that meditation can cause THAT much harm. I would guess that meditation creates MUCH more happiness than suffering... of course, this is only based on my personnal experience, wich is very limited.

 

I tend to agree with you. I have seen far more meditation studies and personal accounts about the positives than the negatives. In fact, this forum was the first time I heard of meditation used in a negative way. I don't want to say it is impossible to manipulate meditation into whatever you want it to be, but I just feel from my research that most people want to use it to better themselves.

 

When we know who we are, we will know what we are capable of. Answering this question within us is the core seed of meditation. Many will enter meditation for any number of reasons but when those reasons are followed to their orgin of beginnings you always come back to who you are and what you are capable of becoming within your own sacredness.

With that said, imagine you are on a long journey to grow and expand your own awareness. Knowing to stay where you are your awareness and growing will be limited, you choose to experience life beyond these limits. The way to experience this growing is to face the consequences of the choices and experiences that will draw you further into your intent and reason for wanting to stretch your knowing. In other words it is one thing to see a picture of someone being bitten by a deadly snake or trampled by a raging bull running through a field, and a very different awareness to be bitten and or be trampled.

When we are on the other side we have no consequences thus we have little understanding. We come here to grow and set the stage for this growth in the akashic records from one life time to the next.

On the other side, We Are. Here, we are trying to be that which we are. When you define meditation as...To Unite, to Still the chaos, to Become One, you begin to understand your power inside to imagine, create, and form your truths. In meditation the ego (a part of our awareness on this journey) becomes your ally, not your separation. In this place as one you get to choose the path you open too. On the other side we do no separate, or judge good and bad. Here we do because we make the experiences and lessons personal.

Here we have polar opposites. Yes, most enter meditation with purity of intent and for the purpose of tapping into oneness with our universal god self. This also means as we tap in, so to speak, we are moving beyond the limits we know and begin to experience and open to the universal expression of our breath and life force.

Here, we have the enabler, the victim, good and bad up and down etc.. What we do with this awareness within our thoughts begins to define the path we choose to walk. When one comes from a place of Love and for the greater good one grows along these lines. When one comes from a place of chaos and separation one also grows in those places. For example did you know Hitler in his early years meditated regularly, Then again so did Buddha.

On a personal level when we turn meditation against us depression and schizophrenic behavior often is the result. When we do not have a direction we are going in when entering meditation we can get lost in the astral fields. Spirits in the astral fields only have the power we give them and they can be very seductive in drawing someone in who gives away their power, platform, or stage away. That is what happened to the man who ended up in prison I mentioned earlier.

But when we come from a place of knowing what we are capable of and enter the universal Love, we enter the expression of peace and completion of our own wholeness. We know who we are so we do not come from a place of seduction and fear, but from strength within our own vulnerability. One of the first lessons in martial arts is defining your intent and who you are. Then we can begin to understand why we are here.

Meditation shows us these things from a place of vibrational energy. All things are born from energy or life force. Remember; 1. Everything is alive. 2. Everything has a purpose. 3. All things are connected. When we remember this the divine sacredness of our eternal breath grows as does the One Wholeness both in and around us. Our journeys help us remember and face our self so we will not forget we are one and we are not alone.

 

Here's a very interesting link on the dangers of meditation.

http://www.lorinroche.com/page8/page8.html

 

Does that mean then that we should be taught how to meditate by a formal teacher so that we have "direction?"