Original article here.
I admit I’m a cynic (somewhat less so after reading that article). However one problem with looking at the health benefits of this sort of stuff is that the lifestyle which goes along with it is likely to be healthier (ie those people who want to be healthy may be inclined to eat more veg as well as investigate meditation - particularly when religion gets involved). Yet another case of correlation does not imply causation.
I suspect a true double-blind study would be extraordinarily complex to set up.
Powers &8^]
As a practicing (secular) Buddhist (Therevada-style), I would like to posit that the premise of the question is incorrect. The writer says, “Zen is little more than a way of training yourself to not think — to stop the internal verbal monologue”.
The purpose of meditation (at least Zen, Therevadan, etc) is not to stop discursive thinking, but rather to realize experientially that “we” are not our thoughts. To see that the sense of self, the perception of identity, is misleading – there is no permanent thing that is “the self”, but rather “the self” is an ongoing, fluid process. A verb rather than a noun. By seeing this, although thinking still happens as always, we no longer get “caught” by thoughts – no longer identify with them. Therefore thoughts lose to lesser or greater degree their ability to cause suffering.
So it would be fruitless to try to measure a “lack of thinking”. Instead, researchers are doing fMRI studies of novice and experienced meditators to investigate differences in how they process sensory experience. One teacher collaborating with these sorts of studies is Shinzen Young, and there are others as well. But Shinzen would tell you that all this is in it’s infancy. He’d probably agree with Cecil that the studies suck – the methodology and tools available at the moment are very crude.
An observation about “meditation” (Whatever that may be to whomsoever may practice it in whatever method they are most comfortable with) and its possibly beneficial effects- there are many millions of people living according to 12-step program principles that, fairly universally, enjoin their members to “seek through prayer and meditation to increase their conscious contact with God as they understood him…” Leave the “God” part out, lest the conversation get bogged down in discussions about faith, agnosticism, or atheism. Does meditation produce positive changes? Ahhhh…Yeah. Apparently. Can the changes be directly attributed to the practice of meditation? As already noted, obtaining double-blind level of evidence is most likely outside the realm of the possible. But a difference in difference analysis, quantifying intensity of meditation practice and success in recovery…(in the best Straight Dope Fashion, let’s just assume that’s measurable)- there might be a means to assess.
More pragmatically, here we see a very large group of people who, however haphazardly, try to practice meditation to the best of their ability, usually with no systematic guidance, but rather through seemingly talking around an essentially ineffable experience.
Are they better off? Are they different? Does it do them any good?
Not a question any of us who’ve seen an alcoholic once deep in their cups who finds recovery needs to ask twice. Interestingly, many members remain agnostic or distinctly atheistic, but report assiduously practicing meditation. As observational studies go, the extended duration of success and the large n involved seems, at the least, supportive of the benefit of meditation. And long before the levitation races started!
Of course, an appropriate control group for 12th steppers might be individuals striking themselves repeatedly in the head with a a hammer. Would meditation and ceasing the self-abuse enhance their health status? You betcha. Something led to them stopping with the hammer thing, somehow. Is this due to meditation? Who knows? (Can’t help noting such a study certainly would make for an interesting informed consent statement).
Nevertheless, full consideration of the question as asked may need to include evaluation of the 12 step phenomena, as well. It would certainly eliminate the “healthy lifestyle” bias-
MDH
Sure enough. It is easy to dismiss science about meditation, especially if you are skeptical about it from the outset. This is where science becomes important. Peer review, i.e. the chance for credentialed people to carefully examine science, becomes important. I find your review of research to be sketchy and dare I say, unscientific.
No scientific study is perfect and scientific studies don’t prove anything. However, quite a lot of peer reviewed scientific evidence has accumulated to suggest that meditation, specifically Transcendental Meditation, changes things we didn’t think were changeable. Over 20 years, the NIH funded non-meditating institutes and experts in the heart and stress around the US to study the effects of TM on heart and health. NIH scientists commented on the exemplary science and stunning results. The American Heart Association just stated that Transcendental Meditation can be used to lower high blood pressure and no other meditation or behavioral approach has this same effect.
Using Transcendental Meditation human beings can transform the neuro-endocrine system enough to eliminate raging levels of plasma Cortisol and become unstuck. Several meta-analyses have found that humans practicing this particular technique lower anxiety several times more effectively than with any other approach.
These results say a lot about human potential and our capacity to refine our physiologies to eliminate harrowing levels of stress.
It may seem OK to diss research (51) studies showing that groups practicing the advanced TM-Sidhi program reduce crime and violence and increases quality of life indicators. Skepticism is understandable. The research suggests otherwise. A Yale Jrnl of Conflict Resolution study published in 1988 describes 45% reduction war intensity and a 75% reduction in war deaths when a sufficiently large group was practicing the TM-Sidhi program in East Jerusalem in ’82-83, when Israel and Lebanon were at war.
A scientific attitude toward this body of research might reserve judgment long enough to examine the evidence. After all, if these studies are valid, we are talking about a solution to crippling problems in our cities.
Recently, California educators have found that application of the Transcendental Meditation program in schools has resulted in breath-taking reduction in behavioral problems and dramatic increases in performance among students living in violent neighborhoods. Reduction in raging levels of stress, i.e. plasma Cortisol, allowed those students to become unstuck and allowed an environment for learning with measurable changes in attendance, academic achievement, and promotion to the best high schools in the city.
LINK TO COLUMN IN QUESTION: Does meditation make your brain work differently? - The Straight Dope
Then the remainder of your post is moot.
What peer-reviewed scientific journals were these studies published in?
Just a wild guess, but maybe the Yale Jrnl of Conflict Resolution?
Can’t seem to find it. There’s a Journal of Conflict Resolution published by Sage out of the University of Maryland, though.
Found it.The study in question is at the top of the page, including a summary and a pdf of the full report.
edited to add: Sorry-the actual report is pay-per-view.
I couldn’t find the text either.
From discussions, it appears to be a scientifically valid study. But that’s as far as we can go. TM advocates cite this and say, “see, we told you so.” That’s actually a point against them. No one study, especially a limited study like this, can be used as proof of anything. Only a great many studies, each independently verifying this and a multitude of other results, is real science. That pile of studies doesn’t seem to exist, since they are still citing this one after 25 years.
I’ve never heard of an abstract being written by anyone other than the authors of a paper.
Then why follow that with…
Funny. You provided no links to these studies (the ones you say prove nothing), and we are having a hard time finding them. Why so obscure?
TM, unlike some phenomena studied by science, is hard to quantify. This means that results have to be subjected to more rigorous analysis and repeated testing than many other fields. Not only do you need to provide those, but they have to be of exceptional quality and statistically significant if you want to prove your beliefs. Otherwise, that’s all you’ve got – unsubstantiated beliefs.
How can you show that A causes/influences B if it cannot be shown that A is happening in the first place?
There’s also a critique of that article about midway down the page of that link:
A Methodological Critique of a Test of the Effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field by Philip A. Schrodt. The Abstract is below:
To be fair, the authors Orme-Johnson et al reply to that critique, in the second article at your link. Abstract below:
To be fair, without access to the original study, this
still stands.
Don’t bitch at me about that.