Dr Ramesh Manocha carried out a randomised controlled trial to assess the impact Sahaja Yoga meditation (SYM) has on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. The results of this trial program indicate that SYM has potential as an adjunctive therapy for children with ADHD when offered via a family treatment…
Two cases are described in a report by Xu (1994). The first involved a 22 year-old man who sought treatment for lumbago and experienced the onset of adverse effects while undertaking self-teaching of the Wu Qin Xi form of Qigong. He experienced anxiety, physical pain, psychosis and suicidal thoughts. Some…
I propose that one of the main reasons for the paucity of convincing evidence with regard to meditation is because Western scientists have failed to apprehend the key idea that underlies the meditation tradition: meditation is traditionally defined in Eastern cultures as the experience of mental silence. Modern Western understandings…
This data emerged from a small trial of Sahaja Yoga meditation (SYM) reported by Rai in New Delhi, India. In a randomised controlled trial, 18 female sufferers of severe asthma were allocated either to a SYM or a waiting list/standard treatment control group. The study was not published in the…
Lazarus (1976, 1984) described several cases in which psychiatric problems such as depression, agitation and schizophrenic de-compensation were observed. These included a 34 year old woman who became suicidal and a 24 year old woman who experienced severe de-personalisation, apparently as a result of transcendental meditation (TM). He also suggested…
Aftanas et al. (2001) conducted a well designed study of EEG on novice and advanced sahaja yoga meditation practitioners. During meditation substantial changes in midline alpha-theta power, rather than gamma power, distributed more or less symmetrically in the fronto-parietal parts of the brain, occurred in a pattern that was significantly…
The following is a summary of a study by Dusek et al. published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in 2008. Summary: compares the relaxation response method of meditation against educational classes on a sample with hypertension gathered from the community. The sole outcome measure was physiological blood…
