PLoS ONE
November 7, 2018
Cassandra Vieten, Helané Wahbeh, B Rael Cahn et al.
124 citations
A survey of 1120 meditators found that most report having had anomalous and extraordinary experiences during meditation, such as mystical, transpersonal, or difficult phenomena. While meditation research has largely focused on clinical effectiveness and neural correlates, these less-studied experiences may be crucial for psychological and spiritual development, act as mediators of meditation's benefits, or be important outcomes themselves. A task force of researchers and teachers developed recommendations to expand research into these areas, which represent largely uncharted scientific terrain suitable for rigorous investigation.
Journal of Clinical Psychology
February 24, 2009
Melissa Tanner, Fred Travis, Carolyn Gaylord‐king et al.
58 citations
A 3-month randomized waitlist-controlled trial with 295 university students examined whether practicing the Transcendental Meditation program increases mindfulness, measured by the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills. Participants who learned TM showed greater increases in overall mindfulness scores over time compared to those on the waitlist. All mindfulness subscales were positively correlated at the start, and these correlations did not change over time or differ between groups. This suggests that previously reported positive correlations between observing and accepting-without-judgment skills only among meditators may stem from self-selection rather than a direct effect of meditation practice.
Heart Mind
September 18, 2023
Robert H. Schneider, Fred Travis, Tony Nader
9 citations
More than 50% of US physicians report at least one symptom of burnout, and 28% of cardiologists report mental health conditions. Burnout is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) through mechanisms like sympathetic nervous system activation and inflammation. The Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique has been studied in four recent trials among healthcare providers, showing reductions in burnout, stress, anxiety, and depression, and improvements in resilience. TM is also associated with reduced blood pressure and CVD risk. The authors propose a systems medicine model called the Square of Health, integrating spiritual, mental, physical, and environmental domains, with a unified field of consciousness as the foundation, to address burnout and CVD.