Taking a break for meditation?
The 17-year study has been hailed as a landmark in the field of meditation, demonstrating the positive impact of widespread meditation on Americans.
Published in the World Science Journalthe study is the “longest and most comprehensive” of dozens of studies testing the benefits of meditation, also known as the Maharishi effect. Established Maharishi International University and Transcendental Meditation in Fairfield, Iowa, named after a yogi and where new research was conducted.
“What’s unique about this study is that the results are very visually striking and at a very large scale,” said lead author of the study, Dr. David Orme-Johnson. in a statement“At the time projected, we see a five-year reduction in stress on multiple indicators across the United States. Clearly the group was having an impact.”
To be able to measure the long-term effects of group meditation, researchers at Maharishi International needed to see baseline average stress levels in the United States for the period from 2000 to 2006, before group meditation began. had. For example, 15,440 murders, 93,428 rapes, and 86,348 accidental child and adolescent deaths.
From 2007 to 2011, researchers began tracking a group of 1,725 participants who meditated daily.
The last five years have brought amazing things. The data show that while stress-related events were significantly reduced overall, a small fraction of the United States (the square root of about 1% of the population) meditated together.
In the graph showing the study results (top), the prominent blue line represents the size of the meditation group in the study. Incidences of murders, rapes, assaults, robberies, etc. tended to decrease as group meditations began and continued.
As the five years ended and the study entered its ‘post’ period (2012-2016), the same stress-related incidents trended upward again, as before. When group participation plummeted in 2013, it took just a year or two for the beneficial effects to wear off, and stress-related tragedies surged.
“This study used state-of-the-art methods of time series regression analysis to eliminate potential alternative explanations due to inherent pre-existing trends and data variability,” said co-author Kenneth Kavanaugh, Ph.D. increase. “We carefully studied potential alternative explanations in terms of changing economic conditions, political leadership, demographics, and police strategy. None of these factors could explain the results.”
meditation Advertised as a way to reduce individuals stress, reduced anxiety, It reduces chronic pain and depression, reduces the risk of heart disease, and relieves sleep disturbances and headaches. app A class to guide people through meditation, this study shows, on a larger scale, that meditation does more than just lower your heart rate.
Researchers at Maharishi International believe meditation may be the key to quell crime and tragedy. To reduce more disasters, they called to create a “permanent” group of his 8,000 people who would use the program to meditate permanently. They believe this could bring benefits well beyond U.S. borders.
As a “safety factor,” researchers have advised world leaders to establish large meditation groups on all continents.
The researchers received a $75 million grant from the Howard and Alice Settle Foundation to conduct their research.
MIU’s Orme-Johnson concluded in a statement: “
