Ornstein (1972) describes two major types of meditation- concentrative and ‘opening-up’ meditations. The first type he sees as developing ‘one-pointedness’ of mind. An example is the technique of Zen breath counting that involves counting the breaths from one to ten and then repeating the process. The ‘opening-up’ type allows the practitioner to use the experience from everyday life in the training of consciousness.
The psychological research in meditation dates back in 1950-s and 1960-s, when psychologists observed different practitioners- yogis and Zen Buddhist monks, and found unusual patterns of brain wave activity during meditation. In 1970, Keith Wallace studied the physiological changes occurring during the practice of transcendental meditation. The evidence suggested an existence of a fourth state of consciousness, which was characterized by very low level of physiological arousal. There was an early interest in the possible use of meditation in psychotherapy. Studies have measured dependant variables starting from heart rate, brain wave patterns, oxygen consumption and continuing with much more complex changes in behaviour, such as personality change. However, there were many difficulties of research in this area. The emphasis on short –term effect of meditation was significant. Most physiological studies have examined changes only during meditation, rather than long term changes outside meditation. Personality changes lasted over periods as short as three or four weeks and similar criticism applied to studies of meditation in therapy. Furthermore, the researchers goal was to popularise rather than theorise their studies. They relied exclusively upon the experience of relatively short-term practitioners and vast majority of them were practicing one technique- TM. It was almost impossible to find a long- term practitioners of different technique than TM.
Meditation originates from the formalised environment of religion. In both, Hindu and Buddhist religion, meditation plays a central role in the process of achieving spiritual goals. Although prayer occurs in some ‘meditative mood’, there are differences to be found. The act of prayer has been described as ‘the socially endorsed form of meditation’ (Maupin, 1968). One important difference between prayer and meditation is that prayer is usually goal-directed from behaviour. The act of prayer is in form of dialogue by using inner speech in order to achieve particular goal. Lama Surya (1997) emphasizes that meditation ‘exists in the absence of striving and is framed within relatively goalless absorption.’’(Roberts & Groom, 2001,p. 121). It seems that meditation could be more like goal aware than goal directed.
Moreover, meditation and self-hypnosis as altered experiences share the same state of trance. However, there are important differences between them. During self-hypnotic practice, the observable behaviour is directed by goals of the person itself or of another person. That is unlike meditation where behaviour is not goal-directed. ‘ In some sense the repetition of mantra would seem to be a form of striving, but importantly the mantra is claimed to be used as a stepping stone towards release from focused behaviour, unlike the functional trance state of hypnosis’ (Norbu, 1996). Physiological states during meditation and hypnosis are significantly different. Meditation indices a lowering of metabolism, whereas self-hypnosis tend to raise it.
Many researchers were fascinated by the ability of long-term meditators to control their autonomic nervous system. An example is a 46-year-old Hindu, an expert in meditation, who survived in a sealed metal box for over five hours, when the oxygen in the box was enough for the survival of normal fit person for no longer than two hours. Possible explanation was that the meditator had a control over physiological factors such as body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate, which were, internally regulated by physiological processes. Further studies were designed to measure habituation, which is fundamental to the maintenance of selective attention as the autonomic nervous system is to the maintenance of homeostasis. Researchers studied habituation during meditation and found some significant results. Anand et al.(1961) recorded the brain waves of four yogis. During normal resting state their responses to external stimuli was normal; characterised first by alpha waves and when the stimuli occurs there was a blocking of the alpha waves and an emergence of more alert pattern which would probably explain the processing of the stimuli. During deep meditation, the evidenced showed that the yogis were completely unaware of external or internal stimuli. They were in a state of an absolute insensibility, yet the readings showed that their brains to be active.
Processes of attention are central in any understanding of meditation. Washburn (1978) describes concentrative meditation as sustained attention with specific focus, and receptive meditation as sustained attention without such focus. The consequence of this intentional manipulation of attention seems to be an increased awareness of mental processes that are usually unconscious. Therefore, both approaches tend to facilitate insight into mental operations. “Traditionally meditation has been seen as a path leading towards enlightenment. This path is beset with obstacles such as habitual patterns of autonomic behaviour, governed by impulses, desires, and illusion that the self and the rest of the world are separate.” (West, 1991, p.40). Meditation is seen as a means of overcoming these obstacles by teaching the individual to see the world as it is, free from preconception. Deikman (1966) argued that during meditation, cognition is inhibited in favour of perception, and the active intellectual style is replaced by the ‘receptive perceptual mode’. Shafii (1973) sees meditation as a way of freeing the individual from ‘repetitive and automatic behaviour’. Therefore, the ‘enlightened’ meditator seems to process information through perception in its ‘pure’ form, free of habits. His attention is deliberately focused during the concentrative forms of meditation and includes elements of both sensory fixation and sensory limitation. Mantra can be considered as sensory fixation. The repetition of mantra might help to displace and interrupt normal thought processes with a consequent reduction in clear and logical mental processing.
Meditation as a psychotherapeutic practice is designed to improve the quality of life. It is presented within a system of ritual, belief or interpretation which meditators are expected to study during their practice. They are encouraged to stay in touch with a teacher, who can help with guidance and answer questions. These conceptual frameworks differ in their nature and application. Fore example, TM follows a pattern of thinking that encourages meditators to control their experiences in a way of releasing the stress and achieving ‘finer and finer levels of thought’. TM is a technique of short –term that affects daily life and well-being. The large domain of psychotherapy research involves many studies on the role of meditation and its possible implications in psychotherapy. The challenge of psychotherapy research is to capture the elusive and yet far-reaching benefits of psychotherapy, usually felt to be beyond the reach of science, in the critical scientific enquiry. Involvement in such a research is strongly encouraged and needed.
The research in meditation arises many issues that need to be challenged and leaves large areas to be explored in further research. Psychological research has found that meditation produces decreases in arousal no greater than those observed during simple rest. EEG patterns during meditation seem to be unusual, but using it as a method to discover more about human consciousness is not particularly adequate. The research on personality suggests that meditation practice is associated with a decrease in neuroticism, anxiety and depression, but the actual cause have not been identified. One of the main issues of concern is the problem of interpretation. There is also a possibility for the large differences that are observed to be a consequence of inadequate experimental methods.( Fenwick, 1974). Another issue is that many of the reported decreases in metabolism during meditation might have been contaminated by a contrast effect. This research has generated an interest of finding stimuli that can affect the basal state of meditation.
In conclusion, explaining meditation can be challenging. The different systems of meditation are not clear or empirically evaluated. There are some significant differences between meditation and state of prayer or self-hypnosis. The information processing and the process of attention arise interesting issues for research if cognitive psychology. An evaluation of the existing research and methodology improvements are profoundly important for the future study in this area.
REFERENCES
Anand et al (1961) cited in West, M. (1991).The Psychology of Meditation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Deikmen (1966) cited in West, M. (1991).The Psychology of Meditation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fenwick (1974) cited in Roberts, R. and Groom, D.(2001) The Science of unusual experience, London: Arnold.
Maupin (1968) cited in Roberts, R. and Groom, D.(2001) The Science of unusual experience, London: Arnold.
Monk-Turner, E. (2003).The benefits of meditation: experimental findings. The social science journal,40. 465-470.
Naranjo and Orustein (1971) cited in West, M. (1991).The Psychology of Meditation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Newberg, A. B. and Iverson, J. (2003).The neural basis of the complex mental task of meditation: neurotransmitter and neurochemical consideration. Medical Hypotheses ,61. 282-291.
Norbu (1996) cited in Roberts, R. and Groom, D.(2001) The Science of unusual experience, London: Arnold.
Roberts, R. and Groom, D.(2001) The Science of unusual experience, London: Arnold.
Shafii (1973) cited in West, M. (1991).The Psychology of Meditation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Surya, L. (1997) cited in Roberts, R. and Groom, D.(2001) The Science of unusual experience, London: Arnold.
Wallace, K. (1970) cited in West, M. (1991).The Psychology of Meditation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
West, M. (1991).The Psychology of Meditation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Westburn (1978) cited in West, M. (1991).The Psychology of Meditation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
