David W. Orme-Johnson

Autonomic stability and Transcendental Meditation

&NA; Physiological indices of stress were found to be lower in people who regularly practiced Transcendental Meditation (N=14) than in nonmeditating control subjects (N=16). During normal waking (eyes open) a noxious loud tone (100 db, 0.5 sec, 3000 Hz) was presented to subjects a mean of once every 53 sec at irregular intervals. The stress reaction to each tone, as indicated by the galvanic skin response (GSR), was compared for the two groups. Habituation of the GSR to tones was faster for meditators than for controls, and meditators made fewer multiple responses during habituation, indicating greater stability in response to stress. In two other experiments, meditators were found to make fewer spontaneous GSRs than control subjects, both during meditation, as compared with rest (eyes closed), and while out of meditation with eyes open. Thus meditators were found to be more stable than controls on three autonomic indices: rate of GSR habituation, multiple responses, and spontaneous GSR.

Medical care utilization and the transcendental meditation program.

&NA; This field study compared 5 years of medical insurance utilization statistics of approximately 2000 regular participants in the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program with a normative data base of approximately 600,000 members of the same insurance carrier. The benefits, deductible, coinsurance terms, and distribution by gender of the TM group were very similar to the norm, yet the TM group had lower medical utilization rates in all categories. Inpatient days per 1000 by age category were 50.2% fewer than the norm for children (0–18), 50.1% fewer for young adults (19–39), and 69.4% fewer for older adults (40+). Outpatient visits per 1000 for the same age categories were, respectively, 46.8%, 54.7%, and 73.7% fewer. When compared with five other health insurance groups of similar size and professional membership, the TM group had 53.3% fewer inpatient admissions per 1000 and 44.4% fewer outpatient visits per 1000. Admissions per 1000 were lower for the TM group than the norm for all of 17 major medical treatment categories, including ‐55.4% for benign and malignant tumors ‐87.3% for heart disease, ‐30.4% for all infectious diseases, ‐30.6% for all mental disorders, and ‐87.3% for diseases of the nervous system. However, the TM groups admission rates for childbirth were similar to the norm. The issue of self‐selection is addressed in terms of previous medical research in this area.

Three randomized experiments on the longitudinal effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition

Abstract Three studies on 362 high school students at three different schools in Taiwan tested the hypothesis that regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique for 15–20 min twice a day for 6 to 12 months would improve cognitive ability. The same seven variables were used in all studies: Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP); Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI); Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT); State and Trait Anxiety (STAI); Inspection Time (IT); and Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT). Univariate testing showed that TM practice produced significant effects on all variables compared to no-treatment controls (Ps ranged from .035 to

Transcendental meditation and improved performance on intelligence-related measures: A longitudinal study

This two-year longitudinal study investigated the effect of participation in a special university curriculum, whose principal innovative feature is twice-daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi program, on performance on Cattells Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT) and Hicks reaction time. These measures are known to be correlated with general intelligence. One hundred college men and women were the subjects—45 from Maharishi International University (MIU) and 55 from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). The experimental group (MIU) improved significantly on the CFIT (t=2.79, P<0.005); choice reaction time (t=9.10, P<0.0001); SD of choice reaction time (t=11.39, P<0.0001), and simple reaction time (t=2.11, P<0.025) over two years compared to the control group, which showed no improvement. Possible confounds of subjects age, education level, level of interest in meditation, fathers education level, and fathers annual income were controlled for using analysis of covariance and stepwise regression. The results replicate the findings of previous longitudinal studies on intelligence test scores at MIU, and indicate that participation in the MIU curriculum results in improvements in measures related to general intelligence.

Electrophysiologic characteristics of respiratory suspension periods occurring during the practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program.

&NA; In a study designed to identify the electrophysiologic characteristics of the Transcendental Meditation Program, 52 periods of spontaneous respiratory suspension (RS) were observed in 18 subjects during the practice of this program. These periods were correlated with some but not all the subjective experiences of pure consciousness. Nineteen RS periods (belonging to 11 subjects) free from any artifact were selected for EEG analysis. The mean total EEG coherence over all frequencies and over nine derivations for TM subjects showed a significant increase during the RS periods as compared to pre‐ and post‐RS control periods. There was no significant change in mean total EEG coherence in a control group of 30 subjects voluntarily holding their breath. The heart rate showed a significant decrease during the RS periods in both the experimental and control groups, whereas there was no significant change in EEG alpha power in either group. These findings extend those of previous studies and help characterize the physiologic correlates of the state of pure consciousness during the TM program.

The Effects of the Transcendental Mediation Technique and Progressive Muscle Relaxation on Eeg Coherence, Stress Reactivity, and Mental Health in Black Adults

Eighty-three black college students, staff and adults were pretested on EEG coherence, skin potential (SP) habituation to a series of loud tones, psychometric measures of mental health (Tennessee Self-Concept Empirical Scales and Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and IQ. They were then randomly assigned to one of the three treatment groups: the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM); Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PR); or cognitive-behavioral strategies (C). Approximately one year later, they were posttested. TM and PR increased significantly on an overall mental health factor (p less than .036) and anxiety (p less than .0006). TM showed a greater reduction in neuroticism than PR and C (p less than .032). TM also showed global increases in alpha and theta coherence among frontal and central leads during the TM period compared to eyes closed (p less than .016), whereas PR and C did not show EEG state changes. The coherence increases during TM were most marked in the right hemisphere (F4C4). TM showed faster SP habituation at posttest compared to pretest (p less than .047) whereas PR did not (data was missing for C). None of the groups showed longitudinal changes in EEG, perhaps due to lack of regularity of participation in the treatment programs.

Effectiveness of the Transcendental Meditation program in preventing and treating substance misuse: a review.

This article reviews 24 studies on the benefits of Transcendental Meditation (TM) in treating and preventing misuse of chemical substances. Studies cover noninstitutionalized users, participants in treatment programs, and prisoners with histories of heavy use. All the studies showed positive effects of the TM program. Some of the survey-type studies were unable to exclude the possibility of self-selection or responder biases. However, longitudinal, random-assignment studies with objective measures also showed positive results. Taken together, these and other studies indicate the program simultaneously addresses several factors underlying chemical dependence, providing not only immediate relief from distress but also long-range improvements in well-being, self-esteem, personal empowerment, and other areas of psychophysiological health.

International Peace Project in the Middle East

This prospective social experiment tests a new theory and technology for alleviating violent conflict through reducing societal stress in an underlying field of “collective consciousness.” It was predicted that group practice of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field (the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program) during August and September, 1983, in Jerusalem, would reduce stress in the collective consciousness and behavior of Israel and Lebanon. Box-Jenkins Arima impact assessment, cross-correlation, and transfer function analyses were used to study the effects of changes in the size of the group on several variables and composite indices reflecting (a) the quality of life in Jerusalem (automobile accidents, fires, and crime), (b) the quality of life in Israel (crime, stock market, and national mood, derived from news content analysis), and (c) the war in Lebanon (war deaths of all factions and war intensity, derived from news content analysis). Increases in the size of the group had a statistically significant effect in the predicted direction on the individual variables and on all composite quality-of-life indices. The effects of holidays, temperature, weekends, and other forms of seasonality were explicitly controlled and could not account for these results. Cross-correlations and transfer functions indicated that the group had a leading relationship to change on the quality-of-life indicators, supporting a causal interpretation.

Frontal EEG Coherence, H-Reflex Recovery, Concept Learning, and the TM-Sidhi Program

This study investigated the relationship between frontal bilateral EEG coherence, H-reflex recovery (an index of CNS flexibility), and solution of a concept learning problem on which the correct concept is reversed during the task. It also assessed the longitudinal effect of the TM-Sidhi program on concept learning among the same sample of college students. Frontal EEG coherence and H-reflex recovery were significantly correlated with flexible performance on the concept learning task following the reversal. Instruction in the TM-Sidhi program significantly improved efficiency of concept-learning performance before the concept was reversed, although not afterward.

Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June--July 1993

This paper reports the results of a prospective experiment in which a group of approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi assembled in Washington, D.C., from June 7 to July 30, 1993. It was hypothesized that levels of violent crime in the District of Columbia would fall substantially during the Demonstration Project, as a result of the groups effect of increasing coherence and reducing stress in the collective consciousness of the District. A 27-member Project Review Board comprising independent scientists and leading citizens approved the research protocol and monitored the research process. Weekly crime data was derived from database records provided by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (DCMPD), which are used in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Statistical analysis considered the effect of weather variables, daylight, historical crime trends and annual patterns in the District of Columbia, as well as trends in neighboring cities. Consistent with previous research, levels of homicides, rapes and assaults (HRA crimes) correlated with average weekly temperature. Robberies approximately followed an annually recurring cycle. Time series analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, showed that HRA crimes dropped significantly during the Demonstration Project, corresponding with increases in the size of the group; the maximum decrease was 23.3% (p < 2 × 10−9) [24.6% using a longer baseline, with 1988--1993 data (p < 3 × 10−5)], coincident with the peak number of participants in the group during the final week of the assembly. When the same period in each of the five previous years was examined, no significant decreases in HRA crimes were found. Robberies did not decrease significantly. However, a model that jointly estimated the effect of the Demonstration Project on both HRA crimes and robberies showed a significant reduction in violent crimes overall of 15.6% (p = 0.0008). Further analysis showed that the effect of the coherence-creating group on reducing HRA crimes could not be accounted for by additional police staffing. The time series analysis for HRA crimes gave results that are highly robust to alternative model specifications, and showed that the effect of the group size was cumulative and persisted after the Demonstration Project ended. Also, calculation of the steady state gain based on the time series model predicted that a permanent group of 4,000 coherence-creating experts in the District would have a long-term effect of reducing HRA crimes by 48%.