COMPARISON OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE TO V ARlO US RELAXATION PROCEDURES

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1 PAPER 123 COMPARISON OF THE TRACENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE TO V ARlO US RELAXATION OCEDURES DENVER DANIELS Department of Psychology, Washington Singer Laboratories, University of Exeter Exeter, England Research completed March Subjects practising the Transcendental Meditation technique showed greater autonomic stability and a greater ability to process information at speed than practitioners of various relaxation procedures and a no-practice control group.-editors In 17 individuals practising the Transcendental Meditation () technique or simple relaxation techniques (progressive relaxation, hatha yoga, simulated meditation, or no technique) the electrodermal activity ( GSR) was measured while they were exposed to disturbing noises. practitioners as a whole showed significantly less GSR changes as compared to the other groups, indicating an increase in autonomic nervous system stability and control. Long-term practitioners revealed a greater degree of this stability and control, indicating a cumulative effect of the benefits of the technique. In the second part of the study-a dichotic listening test-5 subjects were required to pick out target words from separate texts fed into each ear. All subjects were tested before and after practising their own technique. The practitioners showed significantly fewer errors on this task and a significantly greater 864

2 DANIELS PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFICIENCY AND STABILITY: COMPARISON -PAPER 123 improvement after the relaxation I meditation period than the' other groups, indicating an improved auditory I perceptual discrimination through the practice of the technique as compared to the relaxation techniques. Both experiments show that the technique produces beneficial changes on both physiological and psychophysical levels. INTRODUCTION TABLE 1 NUMBER OF SUBJECTS IN EVERY MAIN AND SUBGROUP It has been thought by a number of researchers that the Transcendental Meditation () technique is just another form of relaxation. This study was designed to detect psychological and psychophysical differences between those practising the Transcendental Meditation technique and those practising other simple relaxation techniques. The study was divided into two parts. In the first it was hypothesied that those practising the technique would be better able to cope with stressful stimuli, as indicated by fluctuations in electrodermal activity {GSR), than those not practising the Transcendental Meditation technique. During the course of this part of the study it was found that long-term participants in the programme performed significantly better than short-term participants. In response to this the experiment was redesigned to also compare long-term participants in the programme to the other groups. The second part of the study involved measuring performance in a dichotic listening test. METHODS In the first part of the study EDA (GSR) was measured whilst the subjects were exposed to disturbing noises, e.g. the sound of teeth grinding or. the sound of a finger nail being drawn down a blackboard. This experiment involved 17 subjects consisting of six main groups. Each of these groups was divided into three subgroups, an experimental (E) group and two control groups Nand I (see table 1). The experimental (E) groups were told before the experiment what noises they would hear. The N groups were not told what the noises were and the I groups were asked to imagine a particular noise, e.g. the sound of a finger nail being drawn down a blackboard. The E and N groups were exposed to the noise for 2 seconds in stereo. EDA (GSR) was measured using a Withers Psycho- EXPERIMENTAL (E) NOISE (N) IMAGINE (I) NM HY ,: more than 3 yean of practice of the technique.: between 6 weeks to 2 1 / yean of practice of the technique : Progressive relaxation group NM: Group doing nothing additional HY: Hatha yoga group : Simulated meditation group galvanometer at 3KQ sensitivity attached to a George Washington pen recorder for permanent analogue recording. The dependent variable throughout the EDA experiment was 'decay to baseline', i.e. the time taken for EDA to return to prestimulation levels. The first of the six subgroups (3) was comprised of subjects who had been practising the technique for more than 3 continual years. Group 2 (t) was comprised of subjects who had been practising the technique for between 6 weeks to years with a mean of about 1 year. Group 3 () consisted of subjects who had been practising progressive relaxation for at least 6 weeks. Group 4 (NM) contained subjects who did not add anything to their daily routine. Group 5 (HY) was comprised of subjects from a hatha yoga class with at least 3 years regular practice of hatha yoga postures, and group 6 () contained subjects practising a simulated meditation for at least 6 weeks using nonsense syllables thought up by the experimenter. In the second part of the study, measuring performance in a dichotic listening test, 5 additional subjects were used. These were divided into five groups of equal sie: 1. Subjects practising the technique with at least two years experience () 2. Subjects who were practising the technique also with at least two years experience, but were told beforehand that subjects 865

3 SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON THE TRACENDENTAL MEDITATION AND -SIDHI OGRAMME, VOL. 2 perform poorly at this particular task (demoti vated) (D) 3. Subjects practising a simulated meditation with the use of a nonsense syllable for at least six weeks () 4. Subjects practising progressive relaxation for at least six weeks () 5. Subjects who relaxed in their own special way, e.g. listening to a favourite piece of music and/or drinking alcoholic beverages (Pers R) The subjects were required to pick out target words embedded randomly in a piece of text. Separate texts were fed into each ear and each was presented at a rate of 18 words per minute. Thus the subjects were required to identify with a button-push the target words (colours) in a matrix of other words being presented at a total of 36 words per minute. All subjects were tested before and after practising their chosen technique for 2 minutes. The difference score in the number of correct hits (positives) on the target words was derived by subtracting the mean of the scores of the first test (pre), i.e. before practising any technique, from the mean of the scores of the second test (post), i.e. after practising their technique. Also measured were responses made when no target was presented (false positives). Statistical analysis of the data was done at Lawes Agricultural Trust, Rothamstead Experimental Station using computer programme GETAT v Mark 4.1. For the first part of the study an independent measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used, and for the second part a repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS The data are presented in tables 2 and 3 with the significance values found in inter-group comparisons which included a Transcendental Meditation group. The results of the first part of the study (EDA measurement) indicated that while all groups showed a comparable initial change in EDA the long-term participants in the programme (3) showed a significantly faster return to pre-stimulation levels indicating almost total control of EDA. The second group (1) showed significantly faster return to pre-stimulation levels during the test period than the progressive relaxation () group, TABLE 2 ELECTRODERMAL ACTIVITY - MEA TIME TAKEN TO RETURN TO E-STIMULATION LEVEL IN SECONDS STANDARD DEVIATIO 3 t NM HY Experimental (E) Noise (N) Imagine Experimental (E) Noise (N) Imagine (I) EXPERIMENTAL (E) CONDITION p.5 NM HY p.ool p.1 p.1 p.5 p.1 p.1 p.1 NOISE (N) CONDmON p.5 NM HY p.1 p.1 p.1 p.5 p.1 p.1 p.ool IMAGINE (I) CONDITION J t, NM HY p.5 866

4 DANIELS PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFICIENCY AND STABILITY: COMPARISON -PAPER 123 U>6 -g ;:;;5 :::; w (/) ID 4 ::> 3 u. i 1 1- w ::::; t= NON- SIMULATED OGRESSIVE HATHA SHOAT-TEAM LONG-TEAM MEDITATORS MEDITATION RELAXATION YOGA (8 -k yeara)(> 3 years) the simulated meditation () and the non-meditating (NM) groups. Lastly the hatha yoga (HY) were also superior to the progressive relaxation, simulated meditation and non-meditation groups. Under the 'imagine' condition there was a trend towards a greater EDA response to the imagined stimulus in the 3 and t groups than in the other groups. This became statistically significant between the 3 and groups. In the second part of the study it was found that both groups practising the technique (no. 1 () and no. 2 ()) showed significantly better performance on this task than the other three groups. PIG. 1. BLBCfRODERMAL ACfiVITY-TIME TAKEN TO RETURN TO E-STIMULATION LEVEL (NOISE CONDITION). TABLE 3 DICHOTIC LISTENING TEST POSITIVES FALSE POSITIVES ( tarset words correctly identified) ( of false responses) Pre Post Difference Score Pre Post PersR p values - POSffiVES Pre to Post (two-tailed) FIG. 2. DICHOTIC LISTENING TEST POSITIVES. D Pen R p.1 p.1 p.1 p.1 p.1 p.1 3 D D p values - POSITIVES Post (two-tailed) p.1 p.1 p.1 p.1 FALSE POSffiVES p values - Pre (two-tailed) p.1 p.1 p.1 p.1 FALSE POSITIVES p values - Post (two-tailed) Pers R p.1 p.1 Pers R p.1 p.1 ll:l 2 ll:l...:i I E-o 1 p.1 p.1 Pen R p.1 The perfect score of the group on False Positives in the post-test obviated the statistical computation_ E POST E POSf E POST E POST E POST PERS R FIG. 3. DICHOTIC LISTENING TEST FALSE POSITIVES. 867

5 SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON THE TRACENDENTAL MEDITATION AND -SIDHI OGRAMME, VOL. 2 In group 5 (subjects relaxing in their own way) there was a slight trend towards deterioration in performance after their period of relaxation. Significantly, the analysis of false positives indicated that groups 1 and 2 (the two groups) performed at a more efficient level before the period of the Transcendental Meditation technique than all the other groups before they practised their form of relaxation. There was no significant difference between the and (demotivated) groups. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The results of the first study show that the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique increases the stability of the autonomic nervous system. This further replicates and extends the study of Orme-Johnson (1973). The very rapid return to baseline of the 3 group indicates that long-term participants in the programme show. more of this stability and control than other groups. This suggests that continued practice of the technique markedly enhances the ability to cope with stressful stimuli. The trend towards increased re- sponse of the meditators to the imagined stimulus indicates that the programme enhances internal control processes at the psychological and physiological levels. The results of the second part of the study show that the practice of the technique increases the ability to process information at speed. It was also shown that this improvement was not due to a high motivational factor in those who practised the technique (a criticism sometimes levelled at experiments on the technique) but resulted, in fact, from the regular, daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Both these experiments taken together show that the technique produces beneficial changes at both psychological and _psychophysical levels and these changes are reflected in human performance. REFERENCE RME-JOHON, D. W Autonomic stability and Transcendental Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine 35: