research meditation

Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress

Mindfulness meditation can improve both mental and physical health.

Mindfulness
Mental Health

People have been meditating for thousands of years, often as part of a spiritual practice. But in more recent years, mindfulness has become a popular way to help people manage their stress and improve their overall well-being — and a wealth of research shows it’s effective. Psychologists have found that mindfulness meditation changes our brain and biology in positive ways, improving mental and physical health.

What is mindfulness meditation?

Meditation can be defined in many ways. But a simple way to think of it is training your attention to achieve a mental state of calm concentration and positive emotions.

Mindfulness is one of the most popular meditation techniques. It has two main parts: attention and acceptance.

The attention piece is about tuning into your experiences to focus on what's happening in the present moment. It typically involves directing your awareness to your breath, your thoughts, the physical sensations in your body and the feelings you are experiencing. The acceptance piece involves observing those feelings and sensations without judgment. Instead of responding or reacting to those thoughts or feelings, you aim to note them and let them go.

Mindfulness classes and mindfulness-based therapies provide the tools to put those concepts into practice. Such programs might include breathing exercises, yoga and guided lessons to help you become aware of your body sensations, thoughts and feelings.

Much of the research on mindfulness has focused on two types of interventions:

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a therapeutic intervention that involves weekly group classes and daily mindfulness exercises to practice at home, over an 8-week period. MBSR teaches people how to increase mindfulness through yoga and meditation.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a therapeutic intervention that combines elements of MBSR and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat people with depression.

Researchers reviewed more than 200 studies of mindfulness among healthy people and found mindfulness-based therapy was especially effective for reducing stress, anxiety and depression . Mindfulness can also help treat people with specific problems including depression, pain, smoking and addiction . Some of the most promising research has looked at people with depression. Several studies have found, for example, that MBCT can significantly reduce relapse in people who have had previous episodes of major depression . What's more, mindfulness-based interventions can improve physical health , too. For example, mindfulness may reduce pain, fatigue and stress in people with chronic pain . Other studies have found preliminary evidence that mindfulness might boost the immune system and help people recover more quickly from cold or flu.

How mindfulness works

How could simply tuning into your thoughts and feelings lead to so many positive outcomes throughout the body? Researchers believe the benefits of mindfulness are related to its ability to dial down the body's response to stress.

Chronic stress can impair the body's immune system and make many other health problems worse. By lowering the stress response, mindfulness may have downstream effects throughout the body.

Psychological scientists have found that mindfulness influences two different stress pathways in the brain , changing brain structures and activity in regions associated with attention and emotion regulation . Scientists are also beginning to understand which elements of mindfulness are responsible for its beneficial effects. In a review of meditation studies, psychology researchers found strong evidence that people who received MBCT were less likely to react with negative thoughts or unhelpful emotional reactions in times of stress . They also found moderate evidence that people who participated in MBCT or MBSR were better able to focus on the present and less likely to worry and to think about a negative thought or experience over and over.

[ Related: 6 mental health tips psychologists use]

How to get started

Ready to give it a try? Learning mindfulness is easier than ever. Mindfulness classes and interventions are widely available in settings including yoga centers, athletic clubs, hospitals and clinics, though the classes can vary in their approach. Find a therapist trained in MBSR or MBCT — interventions that have the most evidence of benefits.

A number of mindfulness-based interventions are now available online or through smartphone apps as well, although more long-term research is needed to explore how they affect the body and the brain. Still, early studies have found that online mindfulness-based interventions can have a positive effect on mental health .

It can take a little while for mindfulness meditation to feel natural and to become a part of your regular routine. But with practice, you may discover a powerful tool for relieving stress and improving well-being.

Thanks to psychologists J. David Creswell, PhD, and Bassam Khoury, PhD, who assisted with this article.

The Meeting of Meditative Disciplines and Western Psychology: A Mutually Enriching Dialogue Walsh, et. al., American Psychologist 2006

Mindfulness-Based Therapy: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Khoury, B., et. al. Clinical Psychology Review, 2013

Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Goldberg, S.B., et. al. Clinical Psychology Review, 2018

Mindfulness Interventions Creswell, J.D., Annual Review of Psychology, 2017

Mindfulness Training and Physical Health: Mechanisms and Outcomes Creswell, J.D., et. al., Psychosomatic Medicine, 2019

Mindfulness and Cognitive–Behavioral Interventions for Chronic Pain: Differential Effects on Daily Pain Reactivity and Stress Reactivity Davis, M.C., et. al., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2015

Mindfulness Meditation and The Immune System: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Black, D.S., et. al. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2016

Meditation or Exercise for Preventing Acute Respiratory Infection: A Randomized Controlled Trial Barrett, B., et. al., Annals of Family Medicine, 2012

The Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation Tan, Y.-Y., et. al., Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2015

How Do Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Mediation Studies Gu, J., et. al. Clinical Psychology Review, 2015

Effectiveness of Online Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Improving Mental Health: A Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials Spijkerman, M.P.J., et. al., Clinical Psychology Review, 2016

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Meditation and Mindfulness: What You Need To Know

.header_greentext{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_bluetext{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_redtext{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_purpletext{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_yellowtext{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_blacktext{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_whitetext{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;}.Green_Header{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Blue_Header{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Red_Header{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Purple_Header{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Yellow_Header{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Black_Header{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.White_Header{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;} What are meditation and mindfulness?

Meditation has a history that goes back thousands of years, and many meditative techniques began in Eastern traditions. The term “meditation” refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body integration and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being. Some types of meditation involve maintaining mental focus on a particular sensation, such as breathing, a sound, a visual image, or a mantra, which is a repeated word or phrase. Other forms of meditation include the practice of mindfulness, which involves maintaining attention or awareness on the present moment without making judgments.

Programs that teach meditation or mindfulness may combine the practices with other activities. For example, mindfulness-based stress reduction is a program that teaches mindful meditation, but it also includes discussion sessions and other strategies to help people apply what they have learned to stressful experiences. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy integrates mindfulness practices with aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy.

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Meditation and mindfulness practices usually are considered to have few risks. However, few studies have examined these practices for potentially harmful effects, so it isn’t possible to make definite statements about safety.

.header_greentext{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_bluetext{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_redtext{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_purpletext{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_yellowtext{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_blacktext{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_whitetext{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;}.Green_Header{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Blue_Header{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Red_Header{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Purple_Header{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Yellow_Header{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Black_Header{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.White_Header{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;} More

A 2020 review examined 83 studies (a total of 6,703 participants) and found that 55 of those studies reported negative experiences related to meditation practices. The researchers concluded that about 8 percent of participants had a negative effect from practicing meditation, which is similar to the percentage reported for psychological therapies. The most commonly reported negative effects were anxiety and depression. In an analysis limited to 3 studies (521 participants) of mindfulness-based stress reduction programs, investigators found that the mindfulness practices were not more harmful than receiving no treatment.

.header_greentext{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_bluetext{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_redtext{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_purpletext{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_yellowtext{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_blacktext{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_whitetext{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;}.Green_Header{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Blue_Header{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Red_Header{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Purple_Header{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Yellow_Header{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Black_Header{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.White_Header{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;} How popular are meditation and mindfulness?

According to the National Health Interview Survey, an annual nationally representative survey, the percentage of U.S. adults who practiced meditation more than doubled between 2002 and 2022, from 7.5 to 17.3 percent. Of seven complementary health approaches for which data were collected in the 2022 survey, meditation was the most popular, beating out yoga (used by 15.8 percent of adults), chiropractic care (11.0 percent), massage therapy (10.9 percent), guided imagery/progressive muscle relaxation (6.4 percent), acupuncture (2.2 percent), and naturopathy (1.3 percent).

For children aged 4 to 17 years, data are available for 2017; in that year, 5.4 percent of U.S. children used meditation.

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In a 2012 U.S. survey, 1.9 percent of 34,525 adults reported that they had practiced mindfulness meditation in the past 12 months. Among those responders who practiced mindfulness meditation exclusively, 73 percent reported that they meditated for their general wellness and to prevent diseases, and most of them (approximately 92 percent) reported that they meditated to relax or reduce stress. In more than half of the responses, a desire for better sleep was a reason for practicing mindfulness meditation.

.header_greentext{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_bluetext{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_redtext{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_purpletext{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_yellowtext{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_blacktext{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_whitetext{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.header_darkred{color:#803d2f!important;}.Green_Header{color:green!important;font-size:24px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Blue_Header{color:blue!important;font-size:18px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Red_Header{color:red!important;font-size:28px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Purple_Header{color:purple!important;font-size:31px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Yellow_Header{color:yellow!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.Black_Header{color:black!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;}.White_Header{color:white!important;font-size:22px!important;font-weight:500!important;} What are the health benefits of meditation and mindfulness?

Meditation and mindfulness practices may have a variety of health benefits and may help people improve the quality of their lives. Recent studies have investigated if meditation or mindfulness helps people manage anxiety, stress, depression, pain, or symptoms related to withdrawal from nicotine, alcohol, or opioids.

Other studies have looked at the effects of meditation or mindfulness on weight control or sleep quality.

However, much of the research on these topics has been preliminary or not scientifically rigorous. Because the studies examined many different types of meditation and mindfulness practices, and the effects of those practices are hard to measure, results from the studies have been difficult to analyze and may have been interpreted too optimistically.

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A 2018 NCCIH-supported analysis of 142 groups of participants with diagnosed psychiatric disorders such as anxiety or depression examined mindfulness meditation approaches compared with no treatment and with established evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy and antidepressant medications. The analysis included more than 12,000 participants, and the researchers found that for treating anxiety and depression, mindfulness-based approaches were better than no treatment at all, and they worked as well as the evidence-based therapies.
A 2021 analysis of 23 studies (1,815 participants) examined mindfulness-based practices used as treatment for adults with diagnosed anxiety disorders. The studies included in the analysis compared the mindfulness-based interventions (alone or in combination with usual treatments) with other treatments such cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoeducation, and relaxation. The analysis showed mixed results for the short-term effectiveness of the different mindfulness-based approaches. Overall, they were more effective than the usual treatments at reducing the severity of anxiety and depression symptoms, but only some types of mindfulness approaches were as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy. However, these results should be interpreted with caution because the risk of bias for all of the studies was unclear. Also, the few studies that followed up with participants for periods longer than 2 months found no long-term effects of the mindfulness-based practices.
A 2019 analysis of 23 studies that included a total of 1,373 college and university students looked at the effects of yoga, mindfulness, and meditation practices on symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. Although the results showed that all the practices had some effect, most of the studies included in the review were of poor quality and had a high risk of bias.

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Few high-quality studies have examined the effects of meditation and mindfulness on blood pressure. According to a 2017 statement from the American Heart Association, the practice of meditation may have a possible benefit, but its specific effects on blood pressure have not been determined.

A 2020 review of 14 studies (including more than 1,100 participants) examined the effects of mindfulness practices on the blood pressure of people who had health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, or cancer. The analysis showed that for people with these health conditions, practicing mindfulness-based stress reduction was associated with a significant reduction in blood pressure.

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Studies examining the effects of mindfulness or meditation on acute and chronic pain have produced mixed results.

A 2020 report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality concluded that mindfulness-based stress reduction was associated with short-term (less than 6 months) improvement in low-back pain but not fibromyalgia pain.
A 2020 NCCIH-supported analysis of five studies of adults using opioids for acute or chronic pain (with a total of 514 participants) found that meditation practices were strongly associated with pain reduction.
Acute pain, such as pain from surgery, traumatic injuries, or childbirth, occurs suddenly and lasts only a short time. A 2020 analysis of 19 studies examined the effects of mindfulness-based therapies for acute pain and found no evidence of reduced pain severity. However, the same analysis found some evidence that the therapies could improve a person’s tolerance for pain.
A 2017 analysis of 30 studies (2,561 participants) found that mindfulness meditation was more effective at decreasing chronic pain than several other forms of treatment. However, the studies examined were of low quality.
A 2019 comparison of treatments for chronic pain did an overall analysis of 11 studies (697 participants) that evaluated cognitive behavioral therapy, which is the usual psychological intervention for chronic pain; 4 studies (280 participants) that evaluated mindfulness-based stress reduction; and 1 study (341 participants) of both therapies. The comparison found that both approaches were more effective at reducing pain intensity than no treatment, but there was no evidence of any important difference between the two approaches.
A 2019 review found that mindfulness-based approaches did not reduce the frequency, length, or pain intensity of headaches. However, the authors of this review noted that their results are likely imprecise because only five studies (a total of 185 participants) were included in the analysis, and any conclusions made from the analysis should be considered preliminary.

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Mindfulness meditation practices may help reduce insomnia and improve sleep quality.

A 2019 analysis of 18 studies (1,654 total participants) found that mindfulness meditation practices improved sleep quality more than education-based treatments. However, the effects of mindfulness meditation approaches on sleep quality were no different than those of evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy and exercise.

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Several clinical trials have investigated if mindfulness-based approaches such as mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) might help people recover from substance use disorders. These approaches have been used to help people increase their awareness of the thoughts and feelings that trigger cravings and learn ways to reduce their automatic reactions to those cravings.

A 2018 review of 37 studies (3,531 total participants) evaluated the effectiveness of several mindfulness-based approaches to substance use disorder treatment and found that they significantly decreased participants’ craving levels. The mindfulness-based practices were slightly better than other therapies at promoting abstinence from substance use.
A 2017 analysis specifically focused on MBRP examined 9 studies (901 total participants) of this approach. The analysis concluded that MBRP was not more effective at preventing substance use relapses than other treatments such as health education and cognitive behavioral therapy. However, MBRP did slightly reduce cravings and symptoms of withdrawal associated with alcohol use disorders.

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Studies have suggested that meditation and mindfulness may help reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A 2018 review supported by NCCIH examined the effects of meditation (in 2 studies, 179 total participants) and other mindfulness-based practices (in 6 studies, 332 total participants) on symptoms of PTSD. Study participants included veterans, nurses, and people who experienced interpersonal violence. Six of the eight studies reported that participants had a reduction of PTSD symptoms after receiving some form of mindfulness-based treatment.
A 2018 clinical trial funded by the U.S. Department of Defense compared the effectiveness of meditation, health education, and prolonged exposure therapy, a widely accepted treatment for PTSD recommended by the American Psychological Association. Prolonged exposure therapy helps people reduce their PTSD symptoms by teaching them to gradually remember traumatic memories, feelings, and situations. The study included 203 veterans with PTSD as a result of their active military service. The results of the study showed that meditation was as effective as prolonged exposure therapy at reducing PTSD symptoms and depression, and it was more effective than PTSD health education. The veterans who used meditation also showed improvement in mood and overall quality of life.

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Mindfulness-based approaches may improve the mental health of people with cancer.

A 2019 analysis of 29 studies (3,274 total participants) of mindfulness-based practices showed that use of mindfulness practices among people with cancer significantly reduced psychological distress, fatigue, sleep disturbance, pain, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. However, most of the participants were women with breast cancer, so the effects may not be similar for other populations or other types of cancer.

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Studies have suggested possible benefits of meditation and mindfulness programs for losing weight and managing eating behaviors.

A 2017 review of 15 studies (560 total participants) looked at the effects of mindfulness-based practices on the mental and physical health of adults with obesity or who were overweight. The review found that these practices were very effective methods for managing eating behaviors but less effective at helping people lose weight. Mindfulness-based approaches also helped participants manage symptoms of anxiety and depression.
A 2018 analysis of 19 studies (1,160 total participants) found that mindfulness programs helped people lose weight and manage eating-related behaviors such as binge, emotional, and restrained eating. The results of the analysis showed that treatment programs, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, that combine formal meditation and mindfulness practices with informal mindfulness exercises were especially effective methods for losing weight and managing eating.

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Several studies have been done on using meditation and mindfulness practices to improve symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the studies have not been of high quality and the results have been mixed, so evidence that meditation or mindfulness approaches will help people manage symptoms of ADHD is not conclusive.

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Some research suggests that meditation and mindfulness practices may affect the functioning or structure of the brain. Studies have used various methods of measuring brain activity to look for measurable differences in the brains of people engaged in mindfulness-based practices. Other studies have theorized that training in meditation and mindfulness practices can change brain activity. However, the results of these studies are difficult to interpret, and the practical implications are not clear.

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NCCIH supports a variety of meditation and mindfulness studies, including:

An evaluation of how the brain responds to the use of mindfulness meditation as part of a combined treatment for migraine pain.
A study of the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy and medication (buprenorphine) as a treatment for opioid use disorder.
A study of a mindfulness training program designed to help law enforcement officers improve their mental health by managing stress and increasing resilience.

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Don’t use meditation or mindfulness to replace conventional care or as a reason to postpone seeing a health care provider about a medical problem.
Ask about the training and experience of the instructor of the meditation or mindfulness practice you are considering.
Take charge of your health—talk with your health care providers about any complementary health approaches you use. Together, you can make shared, well-informed decisions

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Nccih clearinghouse.

The NCCIH Clearinghouse provides information on NCCIH and complementary and integrative health approaches, including publications and searches of Federal databases of scientific and medical literature. The Clearinghouse does not provide medical advice, treatment recommendations, or referrals to practitioners.

Toll-free in the U.S.: 1-888-644-6226

Telecommunications relay service (TRS): 7-1-1

Website: https://www.nccih.nih.gov

Email: [email protected] (link sends email)

Know the Science

NCCIH and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide tools to help you understand the basics and terminology of scientific research so you can make well-informed decisions about your health. Know the Science features a variety of materials, including interactive modules, quizzes, and videos, as well as links to informative content from Federal resources designed to help consumers make sense of health information.

Explaining How Research Works (NIH)

Know the Science: How To Make Sense of a Scientific Journal Article

Understanding Clinical Studies (NIH)

A service of the National Library of Medicine, PubMed® contains publication information and (in most cases) brief summaries of articles from scientific and medical journals. For guidance from NCCIH on using PubMed, see How To Find Information About Complementary Health Approaches on PubMed .

Website: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

NIH Clinical Research Trials and You

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has created a website, NIH Clinical Research Trials and You, to help people learn about clinical trials, why they matter, and how to participate. The site includes questions and answers about clinical trials, guidance on how to find clinical trials through ClinicalTrials.gov and other resources, and stories about the personal experiences of clinical trial participants. Clinical trials are necessary to find better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases.

Website: https://www.nih.gov/health-information/nih-clinical-research-trials-you

Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures & Results (RePORTER)

RePORTER is a database of information on federally funded scientific and medical research projects being conducted at research institutions.

Website: https://reporter.nih.gov

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Anheyer D, Leach MJ, Klose P, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for treating chronic headache: a systematic review and meta-analysis . Cephalalgia . 2019;39(4):544-555.
Black LI, Barnes PM, Clarke TC, Stussman BA, Nahin RL. Use of yoga, meditation, and chiropractors among U.S. children aged 4–17 years . NCHS Data Brief, no 324. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2018.
Breedvelt JJF, Amanvermez Y, Harrer M, et al. The effects of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness on depression, anxiety, and stress in tertiary education students: a meta-analysis . Frontiers in Psychiatry . 2019;10:193.
Burke A, Lam CN, Stussman B, et al. Prevalence and patterns of use of mantra, mindfulness and spiritual meditation among adults in the United States . BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2017;17(1):316.
Carrière K, Khoury B, Günak MM, et al. Mindfulness‐based interventions for weight loss: a systematic review and meta‐analysis . Obesity Reviews . 2018;19(2):164-177.
Cavicchioli M, Movalli M, Maffei C. The clinical efficacy of mindfulness-based treatments for alcohol and drugs use disorders: a meta-analytic review of randomized and nonrandomized controlled trials . European Addiction Research . 2018;24(3):137-162.
Cillessen L, Johannsen M, Speckens AEM, et al. Mindfulness‐based interventions for psychological and physical health outcomes in cancer patients and survivors: a systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials . Psychooncology . 2019;28(12):2257-2269.
Creswell JD. Mindfulness interventions . Annual Review of Psychology. 2017;68:491-516.
Davidson RJ, Kaszniak AW. Conceptual and methodological issues in research on mindfulness and meditation . American Psychologist. 2015;70(7):581-592.
Farias M, Maraldi E, Wallenkampf KC, et al. Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: a systematic review . Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 2020;142(5):374-393.
Garland EL, Brintz CE, Hanley AW, et al. Mind-body therapies for opioid-treated pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis . JAMA Internal Medicine . 2020;180(1):91-105.
Goldberg SB, Tucker RP, Greene PA, et al. Mindfulness-based interventions for psychiatric disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis . Clinical Psychology Review . 2018;59:52-60.
Grant S, Colaiaco B, Motala A, et al. Mindfulness-based relapse prevention for substance use disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis . Journal of Addiction Medicine . 2017;11(5):386-396.
Haller H, Breilmann P, Schröter M et al. A systematic review and meta‑analysis of acceptance and mindfulness‑based interventions for DSM‑5 anxiety disorders . Scientific Reports . 2021;11(1):20385.
Hilton L, Hempel S, Ewing BA, et al. Mindfulness meditation for chronic pain: systematic review and meta-analysis . Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2017;51(2):199-213.
Hirshberg MJ, Goldberg SB, Rosenkranz M, et al. Prevalence of harm in mindfulness-based stress reduction . Psychological Medicine. August 18, 2020. [Epub ahead of print].
Intarakamhang U, Macaskill A, Prasittichok P. Mindfulness interventions reduce blood pressure in patients with non-communicable diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis . Heliyon. 2020;6(4):e03834.
Khoo E-L, Small R, Cheng W, et al. Comparative evaluation of group-based mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment and management of chronic pain: a systematic review and network meta-analysis . Evidence-Based Mental Health. 2019;22(1):26-35.
Levine GN, Lange RA, Bairey-Merz CN, et al. Meditation and cardiovascular risk reduction: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association . Journal of the American Heart Association. 2017;6(10):e002218.
Nidich S, Mills PJ, Rainforth M, et al. Non-trauma-focused meditation versus exposure therapy in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder: a randomised controlled trial . Lancet Psychiatry . 2018;5(12):975-986.
Niles BL, Mori DL, Polizzi C, et al. A systematic review of randomized trials of mind-body interventions for PTSD . Journal of Clinical Psychology . 2018;74(9):1485-1508.
Rogers JM, Ferrari M, Mosely K, et al. Mindfulness-based interventions for adults who are overweight or obese: a meta-analysis of physical and psychological health outcomes . Obesity Reviews . 2017;18(1):51-67.
Rosenkranz MA, Dunne JD, Davidson RJ. The next generation of mindfulness-based intervention research: what have we learned and where are we headed? Current Opinion in Psychology. 2019;28:179-183.
Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, et al. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials . Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences . 2019;1445(1):5-16.
Schell LK, Monsef I, Wöckel A, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2019;3(3):CD011518. Accessed at cochranelibrary.com on June 3, 2022.
Semple RJ, Droutman V, Reid BA. Mindfulness goes to school: things learned (so far) from research and real-world experiences . Psychology in the Schools. 2017;54(1):29-52.
Shires A, Sharpe L, Davies JN, et al. The efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions in acute pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis . Pain . 2020;161(8):1698-1707.
Van Dam NT, van Vugt MK, Vago DR, et al. Mind the hype: a critical evaluation and prescriptive agenda for research on mindfulness and meditation . Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2018;13(1):36-61.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Elizabeth Ginexi, Ph.D., Erin Burke Quinlan, Ph.D., and David Shurtleff, Ph.D., NCCIH, for their review of this 2022 publication.

This publication is not copyrighted and is in the public domain. Duplication is encouraged.

NCCIH has provided this material for your information. It is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your health care provider(s). We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with your health care provider. The mention of any product, service, or therapy is not an endorsement by NCCIH.

Mindfulness & Meditation

The Olympics
Book Recommendations

Although the practices of mindfulness and meditation are thousands of years old, research on their health benefits is relatively new, but promising.

Being in the moment.

Learning to focus your attention on the present moment can have a wide variety of benefits.

Mindfulness is the simple process of noticing new things about the familiar. When we notice actively, we become sensitive to perspective and change.” Ellen Langer, professor of psychology Learn more about Professor Langer Learn more from Professor Langer

Mindfulness and meditation may help:

Reduce stress.

Those who learn the techniques of mindfulness and meditation often say they feel less stress and have clearer thoughts . Researchers have explored how mindfulness meditation and relaxation affect our brains , and learned that mindfulness in the classroom can reduce students’ stress and lengthen attention spans.

Ease depression

Researchers are studying how mindfulness may help those with depression . They have observed that mindfulness seems to change the brain in some patients , and are exploring what meditation can do for our minds, moods, and health.

Improve well-being

Mindfulness can help people become more self-aware and improve general wellbeing. Research has shown that mindfulness helps us to unwind , and can help educators practice self-care . Experts say that we can “train” our brains to improve both mental and physical health.

Mindfulness can help us recognize that some fear reactions are disproportional to the threat, and thus reduces the fear response …” Sara Lazar, MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program Learn more about the study

Mindful moment

Get comfortable and try this mindfulness exercise.

Sit on a straight-backed chair or comfortably on the floor.

Focus on your breath and pay attention to things such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth, or your belly rising and falling as you inhale and exhale.

Once you’ve narrowed your concentration in this way, begin to widen your focus. Become aware of sounds, sensations, and ideas.

Embrace and consider each thought or sensation without judging it good or bad. If your mind starts to race, return your focus to your breathing. Then expand your awareness again.

Quiet Harvard spaces

There are several quiet, restful places on and near campus that are conducive to contemplation and reflection.

Explore the spaces

Calm your mind

Harvard’s Center for Wellness and Health Promotion offers a number of pre-recorded mediations for anyone to explore.

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The Next Wave of Meditation Research and Training

We believe that scientific research has only scratched the surface in exploring the potential of meditation. Most initial studies focused on using mindfulness for stress reduction and various clinical applications. The Meditation Research Program, led by Dr. Matthew D. Sacchet at Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General) and Harvard Medical School, aims to further the field by pioneering new research and training on advanced meditation .

Join us on this transformative journey into the evolving science and practice of advanced meditation.

Advanced Meditation: What Is It and Why It Matters

Advanced meditation is deeper engagement with meditative practices that with time and mastery, produce refined states of mind and awareness. These include bliss states, insights into the mind, altruistic/compassionate mindsets and ultimately, enduring transformation. Such transformation may result in profoundly altering one’s relations to psychological suffering, desire and motivations and sense of self.

Advanced meditation enables fundamental potential for human flourishing . It promises to contribute to innovation and impact in many fields and domains including mental health, personal thriving and life meaning, wisdom development and consciousness exploration. Advanced meditation also impacts research in relation to psychedelics and more generally, altered states, artificial intelligence, sustained excellence and peak performance, among others.

The Opportunity and Our Solution

We currently have a nascent understanding of advanced meditation, with current meditation research focused on clinical applications of mindfulness. There has been limited scientific research on advanced meditation, it is still in the early stages of introduction to modern culture and life.

The Meditation Research Program’s vision is to lead with the best research and education on advanced meditation. This goal is achieved through our comprehensive multidisciplinary advanced meditation research and our development and implementation of advanced meditation training programs and resources.

Multidisciplinary Advanced Meditation Research Driving Innovation from Theory to Practice

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Matthew D. Sacchet, Ph.D. in Scientific American, June 2024

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Our team is comprised of individuals at different career stages from undergraduates to senior professors. We are supported by a pantheon of visionaries and leaders at Harvard Medical School, Mass General and beyond that are committed to our Program’s impact and success.

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“The Meditation Research Program at MGH is a visionary organization that has the potential of becoming the premier research and education center in the world for the study of advanced meditation practice.”

Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. World renowned leader in meditation research and education Director of the Center for Healthy Minds, William James Professor, University of Wisconsin Madison

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Research Article

Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science

Contributed equally to this work with: Cassandra Vieten, Helané Wahbeh, B. Rael Cahn, Arnaud Delorme

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Research Department, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California, United States of America

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Research Department, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California, United States of America, Department of Neurology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Department of Psychiatry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Resources, Validation, Writing – review & editing

¶ ‡ These authors also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliation Center for Optimal Living, New York, New York, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Institute for Health and Aging, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America

Affiliation Center for Theory and Research, Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Counseling Psychology, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Psychology, New York University and Nonduality Institute, New York, New York, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California, United States of America

Roles Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Roles Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Randall Children’s Hospital, Portland, Oregon, United States of America

Affiliation Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America

Affiliation Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, United States of America

Roles Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, California, United States of America

[ ... ],

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Research Department, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California, United States of America, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America

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Cassandra Vieten,
Helané Wahbeh,
B. Rael Cahn,
Katherine MacLean,
Mica Estrada,
Paul Mills,
Michael Murphy,
Shauna Shapiro,
Dean Radin,

Published: November 7, 2018
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740
Reader Comments

The science of meditation has grown tremendously in the last two decades. Most studies have focused on evaluating the clinical effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions, neural and other physiological correlates of meditation, and individual cognitive and emotional aspects of meditation. Far less research has been conducted on more challenging domains to measure, such as group and relational, transpersonal and mystical, and difficult aspects of meditation; anomalous or extraordinary phenomena related to meditation; and post-conventional stages of development associated with meditation. However, these components of meditation may be crucial to people’s psychological and spiritual development, could represent important mediators and/or mechanisms by which meditation confers benefits, and could themselves be important outcomes of meditation practices. In addition, since large numbers of novices are being introduced to meditation, it is helpful to investigate experiences they may encounter that are not well understood. Over the last four years, a task force of meditation researchers and teachers met regularly to develop recommendations for expanding the current meditation research field to include these important yet often neglected topics. These meetings led to a cross-sectional online survey to investigate the prevalence of a wide range of experiences in 1120 meditators. Results show that the majority of respondents report having had many of these anomalous and extraordinary experiences. While some of the topics are potentially controversial, they can be subjected to rigorous scientific investigation. These arenas represent largely uncharted scientific terrain and provide excellent opportunities for both new and experienced researchers. We provide suggestions for future directions, with accompanying online materials to encourage such research.

Citation: Vieten C, Wahbeh H, Cahn BR, MacLean K, Estrada M, Mills P, et al. (2018) Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science. PLoS ONE 13(11): e0205740. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740

Editor: Cosimo Urgesi, Universita degli Studi di Udine, ITALY

Received: January 9, 2018; Accepted: October 1, 2018; Published: November 7, 2018

Copyright: © 2018 Vieten et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Anonymized raw data and codebook files are publicly available at the Open Science Framework platform ( https://osf.io/wubza/ ).

Funding: We appreciate the support of the Mental Insight Foundation ( https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943256579 ) and the Social Relations of Knowledge Institute ( http://www.nonprofitfacts.com/CA/Social-Relations-Of-Knowledge-Institute.html ) for their financial support of this project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The field of meditation research has grown exponentially in the past two decades. A total of about 500 peer-reviewed scientific articles on the science of meditation existed in 1990. Today, there are over 4,000 (US National Library of Medicine, pubmed.com). About 25 papers were published per year in the 1990’s, whereas over 400 were published in 2016. This rapid expansion of the field is commendable and has led to a large increase in the knowledge of cognitive, psychological, and neurophysiological changes associated with meditative practices, as well as making important contributions to the current psychotherapeutic armamentarium.

Careful efforts by clinicians, theorists, and researchers to understand meditation have led to a slow but steady shift towards translating meditative practices into clinically relevant interventions, and examining their effects on biological outcomes [ 1 – 7 ]. For example, secularized mindfulness interventions such as MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) and MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) have shown therapeutic benefit for managing pain [ 8 – 10 ] improving mental and emotional health [ 11 , 12 ], and addressing health behaviors such as overeating [ 13 ] and substance dependence [ 14 – 17 ]. Large systematic reviews show that contemplative practices infused into 8-week interventions can reduce stress and increase well-being in comparison to active psychotherapeutic control interventions [ 11 , 18 , 19 ]. Mindfulness has also been linked to increased creativity [ 20 ], offsetting age-related cognitive decline [ 21 ], and improved behavior and attention in youth educational settings [ 22 , 23 ].

This burgeoning body of research has shed significant light on the effects of meditation practices on basic mechanisms of attention, perception, emotion and cognition [ 24 – 26 ]. A robust new field of contemplative neuroscience has emerged from studies of changes in brain function and structure associated with long-term meditation practice [ 3 , 24 ] and short-term mindfulness interventions [ 27 – 30 ]. A growing body of literature has been exploring the biological and physiological mechanisms of meditation, including modulation of inflammation, cell-mediated immunity, self-related processing, inhibitory control and protective factors in biological markers of aging [ 31 – 33 ].

While these efforts in meditation science are deeply insightful, there are many outcomes, as well as phenomenological states of conscious and non-conscious processing, that have rarely been examined in the scientific literature to date.

Numerous non-ordinary experiences during or as a result of meditation are described in the texts and teachings of contemplative traditions [ 34 – 41 ]. Some examples of these include: “awakening” or “enlightenment” experiences marked by profound alterations of self-identity, self-narrative and clarity of perception; transcendence of the physical body or out of body experiences; experiences of oneness and interconnectedness; spiritual transmission from teacher to student; dyadic, group, and relational experiences; experiences of non-physical energies (e.g. chi, qi, shakti); mind to mind communication, precognition, veridical perceptions at a distance or extra-sensory perception; past-life recall and reincarnation experiences; synchronicities; experiences of God, deities, and other non-physical entities; and difficult stages of meditation, and periods of disorientation and depersonalization.

With some notable exceptions, most empirical research on meditation does not address these kinds of experiences as components, outcomes, or mechanisms of meditation, in part because these non-ordinary states can be difficult to capture and investigate in laboratory settings. However, anecdotal, survey, and interview data indicate that these aspects of meditation may be more prevalent than is commonly recognized, could represent important mediators or mechanisms by which meditation leads to beneficial cognitive, behavioral, and physiological outcomes [ 42 – 44 ], and could themselves be salient outcomes of meditation practice.

It is generally accepted that meditative practices engender a “witnessing awareness” [ 35 ] or meta-awareness of internal and external stimuli that is distinct from ordinary consciousness. Researchers have investigated this and similar constructs as important mediators of the benefits of mindfulness training, including decentering (the ability to observe one’s thoughts and feelings as temporary, objective events in the mind, as opposed to reflections of the self that are necessarily true) [ 45 , 46 ], metacognitive awareness (in which negative thoughts/feelings are experienced as mental events, rather than as the self) [ 47 ], and re-perceiving (being able to disidentify from the contents of consciousness such as thoughts and view moment-by-moment experience with greater clarity and objectivity) [ 48 ]. But there are subjectively reported states of awareness that occur during or as a result of meditation that go beyond metacognition.

A small body of research has been conducted into mystical, transcendent, nonlocal or nondual aspects of meditation practice. Tart [ 49 ] pioneered scholarly examination of altered states of consciousness produced by meditation practices and their effect on psychological well-being. Goleman [ 50 ] surveyed several types of meditation philosophy and practice, which at the time had received scarce attention in psychology or empirical research, noting that most of them focused on changing consciousness and fostering an awakened state or a hypothesized “fifth state of consciousness” [ 51 ] characterized by an experience of “pure awareness” in waking life. Transpersonal psychology has explored mystical experiences in depth, relying primarily on theory and qualitative rather than experimental research [ 52 – 54 ]. William James [ 40 ], Carl Jung [ 55 , 56 ], and Abraham Maslow [ 57 ] explored these areas as well, although the spiritual or transcendent aspects of their contributions do not often surface in the modern psychotherapeutic or scientific milieu.

More recently, both theoretical descriptions [ 58 ] and empirical investigations [ 59 , 60 ] of subjective experiences of non-duality (a sense of oneness, or a perceived dissolution of the distinction between the observer and the contents of observation) have emerged. These states are thought to occur when the silent background awareness encountered in meditation becomes sufficiently stabilized and integrated with the daily waking experience, so that the habitual reified dualities between subject and object, self and other, in-group and out-group dissipate. These states are hypothesized to lead to a more spacious, compassionate and authentic way of being [ 61 ], and appear to have a distinct neurophysiology [ 60 , 62 ].

A large body of research exists on Transcendental Meditation (TM), a popular mantra-based contemplative practice that is being utilized in secular settings such as schools, hospitals, and business settings. TM is explicitly designed to access and maintain transcendent states (as opposed to other forms of secularized meditation that are designed to reduce stress through meta-cognition, for example) [ 63 ]. TM proponents posit that a reduction in mental and physical activity through mantra repetition engenders an experience of “transcendental consciousness,” described as “self-awareness isolated from the processes and objects of experience…characterized by the absence of the very framework (time, space, and body sense) and content (qualities of inner and outer perception) that define waking experiences” (p. 77) [ 64 ]. The practice is theorized to normalize various systems in the body, particularly those that engage the sympathetic nervous system and associated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in adapting to environmental stressors [ 65 ]. Empirical evidence indicates that the transcendent state is neurologically distinct from usual waking, dreaming, or sleep states [ 66 , 67 ], and it is hypothesized to be responsible for the demonstrated benefits of TM.

There have also been empirical studies of what have been termed “nonlocal” aspects of human consciousness associated with meditation practice. During or as a result of meditation, people report experiences of perceiving information that does not appear limited to the typical five senses or seems to extend across space and time, such as precognition, clairvoyance, and mind-matter interactions (described as “siddhis” in the Hindu yogic traditions) [ 68 ]. While controversial, these studies suggest that a history of meditation practice increases the likelihood that laboratory measures of these extended forms of perception will be observed [ 69 – 71 ], indicating that there may be veridical elements of the subjective reports by meditators of timelessness, boundarilessness, and inexplicable perceptual phenomena.

It is possible that these experiences of self-transcendence (defined as the extent to which individuals conceive themselves as integral parts of the universe as a whole [ 72 ]), are active ingredients in contemplative practices. Philosophers have proposed that meditation might engender a transformation from a body/ego-based self-identity to a world/universe-centered experience of self not tied to the local body or limited to the self-narrative of the individual practitioner [ 73 ]. Some empirical evidence is beginning to emerge supporting this idea. For example, Bormann et al. [ 59 ] specifically investigated the spiritual component of a mantram-repetition meditation intervention in veterans, showing that existential spiritual well-being mediated improvement in PTSD symptoms. Another study showed that transcendental meditation decreased anxiety, improved mood, and doubled acute pain tolerance in comparison with secular forms of meditation [ 74 ].

Vago and Silbersweig [ 75 ] propose a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of meditation called S-ART—referring to self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence. Their definition of self-transcendence, “a positive relationship between self and other that transcends self-focused needs and increases prosocial characteristics” (p. 1) is a more psychological definition, but comes close to the forms of transcendence we are proposing might bear further investigation. While there has been an understandable and careful emphasis on secularizing meditation practices for clinical use, it is possible that the mystical, transpersonal, or transcendent aspects of contemplative practices are not only epiphenomena, but could be important outcomes of meditation practice, or mechanisms of action that are in part responsible for positive outcomes such as reduced stress and improved mood.

Between 2013 and 2016, a task force of meditation researchers and teachers met in a series of four three-day working meetings to identify the state of the current literature on this topic and discuss how to broaden the types of constructs being investigated in meditation research. The group ultimately identified several candidate domains that future research can fruitfully pursue. Before moving forward to recommend these domains, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to investigate prevalence and perceived significance of these under-studied experiences among meditation practitioners. The results of this survey were used to guide recommendations for domains of experience most frequently encountered by real-world practitioners.

Materials and methods

Participants.

Participants were recruited through social media and email distribution, academic list-servs, and online directories of meditation teachers and practitioners. Recruitment was not random, but a wide net was cast to achieve as broad and diverse a sample as possible. In recruitment materials no mention was made of extraordinary, transcendent, or unusual aspects of meditation, to reduce the likelihood of interest in the topic biasing respondents. Instead, participants were told that the survey was designed to assess the prevalence of “personal experiences” during or related to meditation. The only inclusion criterion was having a current or past meditation practice. If participants responded “no” to the survey question “Have you ever practiced meditation?” or if they were below 18 years of age, they were excluded.

Online survey

Development of the online survey occurred during the third of four 2–3 day working group meetings. We conducted a comprehensive literature review prior to the meetings, to explore whether the domains of meditation research we suspected were understudied had received any substantive research attention. At the first two meetings, we engaged in a collaborative process of mapping the field to determine what domains of meditation research were experiencing growth in funding, interest, and publications as compared to aspects of meditation experiences and outcomes that had received less interest. We engaged in a process of consensus building regarding which categories remained to be pursued with academic rigor. Several categories of under-studied but potentially important domains of meditation experience were identified, and our next step was to determine whether experiences and outcomes associated with those domains were actually experienced by people practicing meditation. Terms were defined, existing measures identified, and items created for constructs without adequate measures to assess the prevalence of such experiences during, after, or related to meditation.

Mystical and transcendent experiences were measured with an adapted version of the Revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30). The MEQ30 is a thirty-item questionnaire originally used to measure mystical aspects of psilocybin and other psychedelic compounds’ effects in laboratory studies [ 76 , 77 ]. The scale has excellent internal consistency for the total score (alpha = .93), and good internal consistency for the four subscales: (1) Mystical, alpha = .93; (2) Positive Mood, alpha = .83; (3) Transcendence of Time and Space, alpha = .81; and (4) Ineffability, alpha = .80. The revised measure asked, “Have you had any of these experiences while meditating?” with respect to 30 experiences such as “Loss of your usual sense of time,” “Sense of awe or awesomeness,” “Experience of amazement and ecstasy,” or “Sense that the experience cannot be described adequately in words.” Response options were 1 = This has never happened to me; 2 = This has happened once; 3 = This has happened 2–5 times; 4 = This has happened many times; or 5 = This almost always happens to me. The maximum mean score for each subscale is 5, and the minimum is 1. Mean scale scores with standard deviations and percentage of total possible were calculated as recommended, and. percentages of respondents endorsing each item are also presented.

Extraordinary experiences.

To assess the prevalence of and response to other extraordinary experiences, the survey asked about other domains of interest that emerged during the working meetings. Social/Relational items included items such as feeling a strong connection to a meditation teacher, experiencing a sense of collective energy in group meditation, and whether the meditation practice happened in a group, during a retreat, or in a sacred place. Anomalous Physical and Perceptual items included sensations in the body not apparently caused by the physical environment (e.g. heat, cold, tingling), altered sense of vision, hearing, body sensations, smell or taste and breathing, an altered sense of time or space, an altered sense of awareness or identity, increased synchronicities (unlikely coincidences perceived as meaningful), and perception of nonphysical entities (such as a God presence, higher powers, divine beings or angels, demons or negative figures, guides, or other visitors). Experiences related to subjective experiences of extended perception included external physical phenomena (objects moving without apparent physical force), and clairvoyance/telepathy (perceiving information that could not have been known to you by any known physical means, but later turned out to be true)). Difficult States included items such as disturbing feelings of fear, and dread or terror during or after meditation.

Participants were also asked if they communicated any of those experiences to a meditation teacher, and if so 1) whether the teacher was interested or willing to discuss the experiences, 2) how important the teacher thought the experience was, and 3) whether the teacher gave any advice or insight into the experience, and the setting in which the experience happened. To assess perceived importance and valence of the extended perception experiences, because these experiences have been more frequently considered distractions or non-meaningful side-effects of meditation, participants were also asked if those experiences were meaningful to them, how pleasant/unpleasant they found those experiences.

Data were also collected on demographics, current and past religious/spiritual beliefs and practices, meditation experience, and self-reported history of psychological disorders. The survey was administered with the SurveyMonkey platform ( http://www.surveymonkey.com ) and took approximately 45 minutes to complete. Surveys were administered between November 10, 2014 and February 3, 2015. All research activities were approved by the Institute of Noetic Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB) and were conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki . Written informed consent was obtained from all research participants. The survey instrument and codebook can be found in the S1 and S2 Files supporting information.

Statistical analysis

Data were retrieved from SurveyMonkey and each entry checked for appropriate values. Since we were primarily interested in prevalence, descriptive statistics were calculated, including means, standard deviations, frequencies, and percentages depending on data type. Data were analyzed in Microsoft Excel 10.0 (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) and STATA/IC 12.1 (Stata Corp, College Station, TX).

Demographics

1,856 participants began the survey. 1,793 responded “yes” to having ever practiced meditation and were over 18 years old (those who responded “no” were not asked to continue). Of those, 1,130 participants completed the entire survey. Only data from completers are reported here. Participants were 59% female, and 41% male with an average age of 47 ± 16 (range 18–91). Most participants had some college education (8% high school or equivalent; 20% college/technical school; 33% bachelor’s degree; 24% master’s degree; 15% doctoral degree/professional degree). Meditators from 66 countries around the world participated in the survey. The most represented countries included the United States (57%), Canada (8%), United Kingdom (8%), Australia (4%), India (2%), Portugal (2%), Germany (2%), and New Zealand, Norway, and Mexico (1%), with the remainder (14%) from countries with less than 1% of participants. Twenty-five percent of participants said “Yes” to having ever been formally diagnosed with a psychological disorder, with depression and anxiety being the most prevalent disorders endorsed (Depression- 19%, Anxiety- 14%, Obsessive compulsive- 6%, Eating- 2%, Psychosis- 1%, Impulse control- 1%, Personality- 1%).

Religion/Spirituality

Participants were asked to indicate their childhood spiritual or religious affiliation. Christianity was the most endorsed affiliation for all participants (73%) with the next highest being None (11%) (see Table 1 ). Most had a single religious influence growing up, with 7% of participants endorsing multiple religions in childhood. Participants were asked how much this childhood religion or spirituality influenced their upbringing or how much it was part of their family life growing up, with a Likert scale ranging from 0—Not at All to 5- Deeply. The responses were generally evenly distributed. (Not at all- 14%; 1–18%; 2–14%; 3–21%; 5–16%; Deeply- 17%). “ Spiritual but not religious ” was the most endorsed current spiritual or religious affiliation for all participants ( Table 1 ). Religious and spiritual practice was quite important in participants’ current lives, in comparison to in childhood. In response to the question, “How important is your religious or spiritual practice to you now?” 69% of participants rated their practice Very Important, with 17% responding Somewhat Important, 6% A Little Bit Important, and 9% Not Important.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740.t001

Meditation practice

The average number of years participants engaged in regular (at least once per week) meditation practice was 14.7 ± 13.5 (range 0–75). In the last six months, 71% of participants engaged in “daily” or “more than weekly” meditation practice (Not at all—2%, Less than monthly—4%, Less than weekly, more than monthly—12%, Weekly- 11%, Less than daily, more than weekly—30%, Daily—41%). The most common type of meditation practice was breath-focused followed by open awareness/mindfulness/vipassana (participants could select more than one: Transcendental Meditation—28%, breath-focused—67%, body scan—34%, contemplative prayer—20%, mantra repetition—31%, open awareness/mindfulness—50%, visualization—38%). The most common physical posture was sitting (Sitting- 74%, Laying down- 20%, Walking- 2%, Other- 4%). Most people practiced meditation at least daily or weekly, and more than half of the participants (56%) had completed a multiple-day meditation retreat.

Mystical experiences

The Revised Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) subscale scores are detailed in Table 2 . The mean frequencies for all 4 subdomains (Mystical (MYS), Positive Mood (PM), Transcendence of Time and Space (TTS), and Ineffability (IN)) were in the 3.26–3.71 range, indicating frequencies between “2–5 times” (3) and “many times” (4). The Positive Mood domain was most frequently experienced, followed by Ineffability, Transcendence, and Mystical experiences.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740.t002

Frequencies for each item in the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire are shown in Fig 1 . Over 40% of respondents reported experiencing all items except one (experience of ecstasy) “many times” or “almost always.”

MEQ Subscales: PM = Positive Mood, TTS = Transcendence of Time and Space, INF = Ineffability, MYS = Mystical (Facets of Mystical: MYS-NQ = Noetic Quality, MYS-SA = Sacredness, MYS-IU = Internal Unity, MYS-EU = External Unity). Some items have been truncated due to space. MEQ full items and MEQ subscale scores are available in the supplemental materials.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740.g001

Extraordinary experiences

Extraordinary experiences were measured by items newly developed for this study by the working group, arranged into categories including 1) extraordinary physical experiences, 2) spatial-temporal, 3) cognitive-psychological, 4) relational, and 5) extended phenomena. Categories were not combined into subscales, but were used for assessing prevalence of each individual item, and therefore no factor analysis or internal consistency analysis was performed.

The frequencies of these experiences are displayed in Table 3 . Altered breathing and sensations in the body that were not apparently caused by the physical environment (such as heat, cold, pressure, tingling or other body sensations) were the most common physical experiences, with 88% and 85% of participants respectively reporting experiencing these at least once, and of those 75% and 73% of people reporting that they had experienced this many times or almost always. Altered sense of time and increased synchronicities were the most common spatio-temporal experiences, with 86% and 82% respectively reporting these and of those, 62% and 65% experiencing them many times or almost always. Altered awareness and aha! moments were the most common cognitive/psychological experiences, with 91% and 89% respectively reporting these experiences, and of those 67% and 62% many times or almost always. Sensing the collective energy of the group was the most common relational experience, reported at least once by 76% of respondents, and many times or always by 47%. Clairvoyance and/or telepathy was the most common extended perception experience, with 56% reporting experiencing this at least once and 30% many times or always The least common, but still quite prevalent, experiences overall were external physical phenomena (objects moving or changing without apparent physical cause) (31%), and disturbing emotions (32%).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740.t003

Salience and valence of experiences

To control the length of the survey, and because these experiences have been often pointed to as distractions or non-meaningful side effects, we asked follow-up questions regarding valence and salience of only the two extended perception items (data not shown in table). Participants who had clairvoyant or telepathic experiences (56%) rated the experience as “quite meaningful or important” (mean = 4.01, SD = 1.11; Response Scale: 1 = Not at all, 2 = A little bit, 3 = Somewhat, 4 = Quite a bit, 5 = Very much) and “somewhat pleasant” (mean = 4.10, SD = 1.10; Response scale: 1 = Very Unpleasant, 2 = Somewhat Unpleasant, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Somewhat Pleasant, 5 = Very Pleasant). Participants who had experienced external physical phenomena (31%) rated the experience as “quite meaningful or important” (mean = 4.01, SD = 1.11) and “somewhat pleasant” (mean = 4.07, SD = 1.07).

Sharing experiences with teachers

Participants were asked “Of the meditation experiences you reported on this survey, which did you mention to a mediation and/or spiritual teacher?” Participants could endorse sharing more than one experience. Six-hundred and one, or just over half of participants reported sharing the following experiences with teachers Mystical/Transcendent n = 414; Unusual Body n = 331; Spatial/Temporal n = 352; Cognitive/psychological n = 426; Relational n = 358; Extended Perception n = 272. The other 519 participants did not report any experiences to a teacher. Teachers were mostly willing to discuss the experiences with the student (11% Not at all, 8% A little bit, 20% Somewhat, 22% Quite a bit, 40% Very much). Many teachers gave the impression that such experiences were important to address and reflect upon (15% Not at all, 10% A little bit, 22% Somewhat, 20% Quite a bit, 33% Very much). Also, many teachers provided insight and/or advice to help integrate and understand the practitioners’ experience(s) (14% Not at all, 12% A little bit, 22% Somewhat, 24% Quite a bit, 28% Very much).

Context of extraordinary experiences

For each extraordinary experience, participants were asked in what setting the experience occurred. Most extraordinary experiences happened when the meditators were alone ( Table 4 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740.t004

Relationship of experiences to length of meditation practice

To explore whether length of meditation experience was related to the frequency with which respondents endorsed items, we conducted Pearson correlations between the self-reported number of months of lifetime meditation practice and reported frequency of mystical and extraordinary experiences. There were small but significant correlations ( p <.01— p < .05, two-tailed, max r = .30, max R 2 = .09) for all but 7 of the 50 items, excluding “feeling of peace and tranquility,” “feelings of joy,” “an altered sense of your body,” “altered breathing,: “disturbing feelings of fear, dread or terror,” and the importance or valence (pleasantness) of the extended perception items. None of the items were significantly negatively correlated with length of meditation practice. The highest correlations ( p < .01) between self-reported length of meditation practice and mystical or extraordinary experience items was “clairvoyance or telepathy” ( r = .30), “feeling that you experienced eternity or infinity” ( r = .30), and “connection with a teacher or guru who was not physically present, or did not interact with you in any physical way at the time” ( r = .29).

The results of this survey indicate that mystical and extraordinary experiences are prevalent enough among meditators, and salient enough to those who have them, to warrant further scientific inquiry.

Limitations of this study were that the sample was not randomly selected, and this could limit generalizability to a general sample of meditators. To address this concern, in addition to the masking of the topic of the survey in recruitment materials and recruiting from generalized lists of meditators rather than those known to have a special interest in these domains, we explored whether our sample was different from the general population of modern meditators in their demographics, history of psychiatric disorders, and religious/spiritual background and beliefs. Participants were generally middle-aged, gender-balanced (with slightly more females), and well-educated. Though we are aware of no global population-based surveys of meditation practitioners, these demographics are similar to general survey populations who report meditating [ 78 ] and who utilize complementary and alternative medicine in the U.S. [ 79 ]. Seventy-five percent of our respondents were from the United States, the UK, and Canada, although participants came from 66 countries around the world. Our participants also represented a broad range of amount of meditation experience and types of practice, which may increase the global generalizability of our findings.

Participants reported slightly higher lifetime prevalence of depression than the general population in the United States (16.6% [ 80 ] vs. 19% in this sample) and higher rates of lifetime anxiety disorders (11.8% [ 81 ] vs. 14% for anxiety in this sample). There have been few formal studies of anxiety and depression prevalence in a general population of meditators. One large cross-sectional study examined depression and anxiety levels in meditators from Germany and Spain. They found similar levels of depression (19.9%) and anxiety (13.6%) to ours in the German sample, but levels lower than ours in the Spanish sample (depression (6.5%) and anxiety (7.1%)) [ 82 ].

There were differences between our respondents and the general population in terms of religious affiliation. Respondents endorsed “spiritual but not religious” (36%) as their current affiliation than any other organized religion, whereas global rates are 16%. Only 15% endorsed Christianity, whereas global surveys list Christianity at 32% [ 83 ]. In general, we speculate that our sample was similar enough to a general sample of meditators to make our results likely generalizable, though limited by the lack of population-based random sampling.

Another limitation of our sample is that only 63% of eligible participants who started the survey completed it. This could have led to selection bias. There may also be inherent bias in those who complete a lengthy questionnaire without compensation. A randomly selected population-based survey of meditators would be valuable for future research, as well as replication of this survey. Other limitations include the self-report and retrospective nature of the survey. Future studies could include a prospective study of meditators using daily experience sampling or ecological momentary assessment to capture experiences in real-time.

Since the results of this survey show that experiences associated with the domains identified in our working group are prevalent and frequent, and there is little to no empirical research on them in the literature, the following section provides more robust recommendations and future directions for scientifically pursuing these lines of inquiry.

Readers interested in pursuing any of these domains should refer to the Future of Meditation Research (FOMR) ( http://noetic.org/fomr ) website for links to papers which provide methods, measures, and protocols for studying these experiences.

I. Mystical and transcendent experiences in meditation

Experiences that transcend ordinary perception are a common component of religious and spiritual traditions across human history. They can occur spontaneously [ 84 ] or can be elicited by a variety of rituals, such as meditation, prayer, fasting, and dance, as well as ingestion of naturally occurring substances (e.g. plants with psychoactive properties) [ 77 , 85 – 87 ]. These experiences are not as rare as they might seem. In the general public, 30–50% of people report having had what they would consider a mystical experience [ 88 , 89 ]. Both historical and modern descriptions of mystical experiences reveal common themes, including feelings of unity and interconnectedness with all people and things, a sense of sacredness, feelings of peace and joy, a sense of transcending normal time and space, ineffability, or an intuitive belief that the experience is a source of objective truth about the nature of reality [ 89 , 90 ].

Our respondents reported a high frequency of mystical experiences during or related to their meditation practice, the vast majority reporting having them “2–5 times” or “many times” for almost all items. Increased scientific investigations of these experiences may be important to understanding the full range of human potential and well-being.

As reviewed earlier, a common component of many contemplative practices is the recognition of the difference between awareness and the contents of awareness (thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc.). In fact, an “altered sense of awareness, such as awareness going beyond the physical senses, an increased intensity of awareness, or awareness of awareness,” was the most endorsed overall experience (91%) among our participants. Some traditional contemplative theories propose that these experiences spring from awareness recognizing itself [ 91 ], or the presence of a background non-conceptual awareness which cognizes without subject-object dichotomy (i.e. “nondual”), and are thought to under certain circumstances be brought into the foreground of experience through the practice of meditation [ 92 ]. In this mode, perceptions, emotions, cognitions, and the global states of arousal appear to this awareness as contents, whereas awareness is experienced as a contextual space (like weather patterns appear in the sky). While neuroscience research in this area is still in its very early stages, studies conducted so far indicate that such unitary states are accompanied by increased large scale synchronization and connectivity in the brain [ 93 – 95 ].

Past experiments carried out with split brain patients indicate that the distinction between thoughts and awareness might have a biological basis [ 96 ]. Recently, studies have focused on moments when meditators realize that they have lost track of their meditation and are mind wandering, followed by re-orienting of attention on the meditation task [ 97 , 98 ]. Meta-cognitive or meta-conscious processes are arguably related but different from the awareness responsible for mystical experiences.

In addition, sacred texts in contemplative traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism claim that meditative practices can result in states of mind that have not been adequately explored or differentiated phenomenologically in the scientific literature. For example, the yoga tradition describes multiple kinds of samadhi (states of intense concentration, absorption, calm and equanimity), differentiating between for example, nirvikalpa samadhi of pure awareness, and sahaj samadhi in which awareness and daily experience both co-arise but are perceived as inseparable, nondual, or coessential [ 99 ]. Investigation of these states may offer us new insights about cognition and perception that can only be reached through expanding contemplative science.

Mystical or transcendent aspects of meditation can be challenging to measure, and difficult to predict or produce in a laboratory. With rare exceptions, current research on mystical and transcendent experiences to date rely almost completely on retrospective self-reports using face-valid measures, and are therefore highly open to recall bias and demand characteristics. Future research should focus on better conceptualization and measurement of mystical or transcendent experiences, including objective, implicit, and first, second, and third-person measures. In addition, methods of reliable induction of mystical experiences, and further investigations of those able to produce such experiences at will, may allow for more controlled investigations.

Given the frequency and salience of mystical and transcendent experiences related to meditation practice, we recommend this as a fruitful area for future research. In particular, we suggest conducting studies that 1) investigate the subjective nature and salience of mystical and transcendent experiences, 2) develop improved methods and measures for investigating them, 3) explore the effects of these experiences on health, psychological and prosocial outcomes, 3) examine psychophysiological moderators and mechanisms of such experiences (when, why and how do they happen?), and 4) determine acute and long-term physiological correlates of such experiences. For example, prospective studies of novice meditators could include a measure of mystical or transcendent experiences, examine the predictive value of the occurrence or type of such experiences on outcomes of interest, explore them as potential mechanisms of other psychological or physical changes, or correlate the occurrence and intensity of such experiences with mood data from experience sampling or biomarkers.

II. Social and relational aspects of meditation

To date, most experimental studies of meditation have focused on cognitive, emotional, and physical correlates of meditation practice within individual subjects. However, meditation has traditionally been taught in a relational manner, from a teacher to a student or in a group of students. There are numerous meditation approaches that encourage meditators to come together to practice, and individuals often find that that meditating in the presence of others can deepen concentration, focus and the overall meditation experience.

Practitioners from a wide variety of spiritual traditions have reported strong psychophysiological responses when they are in the presence of a spiritual teacher who has achieved some level of mastery, particularly when the teacher directs attention or intention toward the practitioner. These reports are common across spiritual traditions, being described most frequently in those that are based in Hinduism and Buddhism. In these traditions, the phenomenon is thought to reflect a “transmission” of a state of consciousness or a form of energy from teacher to student. Recipients also report subjective experiences of receiving such transmissions at a distance, or by listening to a recording or simply looking at a picture of the spiritual teacher. Sensing a collective energy “many times” or “almost always” during meditation practice was endorsed by nearly half of our survey respondents, and three-quarters reported this happening at least once. Connection with a teacher who was not physically present was endorsed “many times” or “almost always” by 28% of respondents, and 45% experienced this at least twice.

Research on social norms and social influence suggests that the mere presence of other people changes the nature of an individual’s experience such that his or her motivations and behavioral choices occur in response to the normative behaviors [ 100 ]. Simple examples of this can be found in the social conformity and social facilitation literature [ 101 – 103 ]. The social aspects of meditation practice have just begun to be studied, such as comparing meditation programs taught in groups versus individually [ 104 ], and long-term meditation retreats [ 60 , 105 ]. Interestingly, our sample of meditators reported that mystical/transcendent and extraordinary experiences happened more frequently when meditating alone (35–46% depending on the category of experience) vs. meditating in a group (16–29%) or on retreat (10–16%).

Some questions for future research on the social and relational aspects of meditation include: 1) to what extent does meditating alone vs. meditating in a group of people influence outcomes from biomarkers to mood to behavior? 2) does meditating in a group affect one’s practice positively, negatively, or does it depend on the outcome? 3) do group effects require proximity, or is it enough to know others are meditating at the same time (or asynchronously) in different locations? 4) do group meditation effects depend on personality (such an introversion/extroversion) or other baseline or contextual elements? 5) what is the role of the teacher-student relationship in meditation? 6) are there reliable means of measuring group “energy” or spiritual transmission from teacher to student? 7) what is the impact of meditating with all women or all men, vs. co-ed meditation? and 8) what is the impact of meditating with a significant other? These are intriguing research questions that have only barely been explored. There are also opportunities to study dyadic or group outcomes of meditation practice, such as effects on intimate relationships, work groups, classrooms, or organizations. Multiple simultaneous measures of biomarkers such as heart rate variability or EEG in groups could also be used investigate whether dyadic or group synchrony is detectable, and whether it enhances benefits of meditation.

Furthermore, many goals of meditation practice are specifically oriented toward developing pro-social emotions and behaviors. These include emotions such as love and joy, attitudes such as ethics and altruism, relational skills such as empathy and compassion, virtues such as patience and humility, as well as insights and wisdom about the self and the world [ 106 , 107 ]. Contemplative science is growing rapidly in studying these prosocial emotions and behaviors related both to meditation practices [ 108 – 112 ] as well as clinical outcomes of compassion and lovingkindness practices [ 113 ], but the mechanisms by and extent to which meditation cultivates them are just beginning to be investigated. There remains an enormous opportunity for more work in this promising area.

III. Physical and perceptual phenomena

Body-based meditation practices are some of the most commonly disseminated techniques in the West. Awareness of the body, particularly awareness of breathing, is a foundational practice across many contemplative traditions. It is not surprising that an “altered sense of breathing” was the body sensation most endorsed by respondents in our survey (88% ever, and 33% almost always).

A large and growing amount of studies have been conducted on physiological correlates of meditation. A variety of research and clinical studies have focused on physical and perceptual outcomes following meditation training, such as changes in autonomic measures [ 114 , 115 ], tactile and pain perception [ 116 – 118 ], visual and auditory perception [ 119 – 122 ] and even increasing body temperature at will in freezing conditions [ 123 , 124 ]. In some meditation traditions, practitioners intentionally attempt to control basic physiology, such as respiration rate [ 125 ] and heart rate [ 126 ].

Physical and perceptual sensations not apparently caused by the physical environment were experienced by the vast majority of our survey respondents, including: heat, cold, pressure, or tingling; seeing lights, visions, or images; lightness or heaviness, floating, out of body experiences, body parts disappearing, or feeling like the body changed in shape or size; hearing buzzing sounds, humming, or voices or music that were not in the physical environment. These are experiences that have rarely been examined in a scientific context, but were endorsed by 60–90% of our respondents. Smelling or tasting things that were not physically there was the least endorsed item, though still reported by 35% of those surveyed.

Some meditation practices focus attention on “energy” flowing through the body. Contemplative traditions each have their own understanding of what this subjectively experienced “energy” is, such as kundalini, chi, or subtle energy, and others describe in detail energy pathways (such as meridians) or nodes (such as chakras) in the body. Many moving meditations such as yoga, qi gong, tai chi, and martial arts are designed for moving or balancing energy in the body, and were at times used to prepare the body for, or used in conjunction with, sitting meditation. These physical phenomena associated with meditation have just barely been addressed by the scientific community, and future studies on these topics could not only help us learn more about the correlates and outcomes of meditation, but also more about the connection between mind and body, and potentially more about what has come to be known as the “biofield” and its role in our well-being [ 127 ].

Other outcomes of meditation practice have to do with a visceral sense of greater embodiment, or feeling comfortable, awake, and aware in one’s body. Repeatedly directing attention toward what are typically implicit or automatic body sensations may increase the sense of embodied presence—in other words, experiencing oneself to be fully one’s body in the present moment. Interoceptive awareness (awareness of signals from inside the body) is also an area of increasing interest [ 128 ]. While a number of early studies showed that meditators are no better at accurately assessing heart rate than non-meditators [ 129 , 130 ], other researchers have found increased breath awareness [ 131 ], increased heartbeat detection accompanied by increased emotional awareness [ 132 ], and increased coherence between subjective assessment of emotion and heart period in trained vipassana meditators [ 133 ]. The increasing evidence that humans can become aware of what were previously purely non-conscious processes has profound implications, and provides a large and potentially valuable sphere of scientific inquiry.

Once again, these phenomena certainly provide challenges in terms of measurement and methodology, but so do other areas of inquiry that require ingenuity to operationalize. Future directions for rigorous research on anomalous physical and perceptual phenomena during or as a result of meditation could include 1) qualitative measures to better understand the nature of these experiences; 2) development of quantitative measures to assess subjective experiences of embodiment/physicality, heat, cold, tingling and prickling of the skin, “energy” surges, etc.; 3) objectively measuring physiological correlates of subjective physical, perceptual, or energy experiences; 4) investigations of whether meditative activities can result in functional physical improvements (e.g. strength, balance) or extraordinary capacities for physical performance; or 5) exploring how embodied presence due to meditation practices influence human interactions with virtual or augmented reality (see [ 134 ]).

These and other areas of body sensations and perceptual phenomena that occur naturally in meditation provide a rich open field for new research. These lines of inquiry not only provide an opportunity to learn more about the effects of meditation, but also to learn more about mind-body interactions in the context of the special training that meditation practices provide. Just as we learn more about the potential of the human body through Olympic level sports, we might learn more about how the mind and body work together by investigating those with extensive mental training through meditation.

IV. Spatial/Temporal phenomena

Contemplative practitioners anecdotally report experiencing time and space differently during or as a result of meditation practice. Indeed, an altered sense of time such as regular time seeming shorter or longer than usual, or experiencing awareness in the past or in the future was reported by 86% of our survey participants, with over 60% reporting this “many times” or “almost always.” Over half of our respondents experienced an altered sense of space such as feeling something crackling in the air, sensing something across a distance, or a sense of space being distorted from its usual mode, with over 30% reporting one of these “many times” or “almost always.” Increased synchronicities (meaningful coincidences, or events or information appearing at the same time or place for no apparent reason) were endorsed by 82% of the participants. Indeed, increased synchronicities was the sixth most common experience among all those surveyed (82% having experienced it at least once), even higher than the rate of experiences we might expect from meditation practice, such as altered body sensations.

Recommendations for future research in this domain include: 1) using qualitative research to assess more fully the subjective descriptive nature of meditators’ altered perceptions of time, space, or synchronicities in their lives; 2) using experience sampling, daily assessments, or questionnaires to evaluate the frequency and salience of such experiences; 3) exploring objective physiological correlates of the subjective experience of timelessness [ 69 ] or connections with others at a distance (see [ 135 ]), or the sense of spaciousness or timelessness (see [ 136 ]); 4) assessing the effects of these experiences on identity, decision-making, mood regulation, or other clinical outcomes; and 5) developing methods for reliable induction of these experiences under controlled conditions.

V. Extended perception

Extended perception refers to perceptions people may have naturally, or develop over the lifespan, that go beyond traditionally understood notions of how information can be perceived. Advanced meditators have demonstrated at least twelve perceptual capacities that scientists once dismissed as impossible [ 107 ]. These capacities include, for example, lucid dreaming, lucid nondream sleep, and heightened perceptual speed and sensitivity. What further capacities await recognition?

Over half of the meditators in our sample reported experiencing clairvoyance or telepathy (perceiving information that could not have been known to them by any known physical means, but later turned out to be true) at least once. Not only that, but the majority also found the experience “somewhat pleasant” and “quite meaningful or important.”

Discussions of the relationship between meditation practice and advanced capacities of meditators can be traced in written form back to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, published roughly two thousand years ago [ 36 ]. Claims such as precognition, clairvoyance, telepathy, and mind-matter interactions are still controversial, although a growing body of literature suggests that some such claims could be supported by data [ 137 – 139 ]. External physical phenomena, or objects moving by a non-physical force, physical objects appearing when they had not been there before, objects falling over, a light going out, psychokinesis (the supposed ability to move objects by mental attention or intention alone), or other physical manifestations that seemed to have no physical cause are also discussed in historical literature. Approximately one-third of the meditators in our sample endorsed having experienced something like this at least once.

People also reported sensing a connection with non-physical entities (defined as nonphysical entities in your awareness, vision, or hearing, such as a God presence, higher powers, divine beings or angels, demons or negative figures, guides, or other visitors) even more often than experiencing a connection with real-life meditation teachers, with 32% reporting this “many times” or “almost always”, and another 52% at least twice.

If new to this literature, scientists encountering these ideas for the first time might argue that if these experiences were prevalent, they would have heard more about them. However, the vast majority of clinicians and researchers do not ask about these experiences in their assessments of meditative practices, and given their controversial nature, modern meditators may be reluctant to share such experiences under non-anonymous conditions. However, many but not all respondents in our survey reported their extraordinary experiences to their meditation teachers. When they did share the experience, they perceived teachers as “somewhat” to “very much” willing to discuss the experience with them, and 75% of teachers gave the impression that they were important to reflect upon, 40% “very much” so.

It is important to note here again that there did not appear to be a substantially higher rate of psychological disorders in this sample than in the general population. While these experiences could be completely illusory, they also could point to aspects of human potential and reality that challenge prevailing paradigms. Western scientists may hesitate to entertain the possibility that one possible explanation for these perceptions of non-local aspects of consciousness are that they are ontologically real. In many meditative traditions, whether they are considered real or not, these experiences are discounted as potentially derailing. Patanjali and others have cautioned that focusing on such experiencing can be seductive, cause egocentricity, or become distractions [ 140 ].

At the same time, there are views within some contemplative traditions that such experiences can be utilized with wisdom and compassion by experienced masters, and some highly respected practitioners of contemplative traditions have encouraged more research on such domains. For example, Buddhist monk and collaborator on several neuroscience studies of meditation, Matthieu Ricard was asked at the Mind and Life Institute’s International Symposium on Contemplative Studies in 2012 what he thought would be important for scientists to study next. He responded that reincarnation/past lives and telepathy might be important frontiers to investigate [ 141 ], sharing his own personal experience of telepathy with a meditation teacher. Indeed, two of the strongest positive correlations between self-reported length of lifetime meditation practice were with “connection with a teacher or guru who was not physically present” ( r = .29, r 2 = .08, p < .01) and “clairvoyance or telepathy” ( r = .30, r 2 = .09 p < .01).

While respecting the concerns of both perspectives, it is possible that the time has arrived to cautiously move beyond earlier assumptions and for investigations to include some of these capacities. Methods currently exist that allow empirical evaluation in the areas described in this paper. Some empirical research already shows that those with a history of meditation practice demonstrate greater “psi” capacities [ 68 , 69 , 71 , 142 – 144 ]. Future directions that intrepid researchers may consider include 1) correlating different types, frequency, and length of meditation practice with a variety of rigorous tests for extraordinary capabilities [ 145 ]; 2) testing for extended human capacities such as precognition, clairvoyance, telepathy, or mind-matter interactions under controlled conditions during or just following meditation; 3) utilizing implicit measures (i.e. those that do not require conscious choice but examine physiological or reaction-time measures) to investigate extended human capacities during or related to meditation practice; or 4) including extended human capacities variables or questionnaire items in more traditional studies of meditation, to assess them as predictors, outcomes, or mediators, and 5) studies of people engaging in long-term or high intensity meditation practices who have been reported to exhibit exceptional capacities, virtues, states of consciousness, and postconventional stages of development.

VI. Other recommendations

Difficult experiences in meditation..

Meditation is usually considered a low risk intervention and adverse events are relatively rare. While reports of fear and terrors were the least commonly reported type of experience among respondents in our survey, this does not mean that such reports should be ignored. A full 32% of participants in our sample reported feeling disturbing feelings of fear, dread, or terror during or as a result of their meditation practice. A small but growing body of research on adverse effects from meditation practice exists, and there is opportunity to investigate this domain further.

For example, meditation practices have at times been associated with antisocial behavior, restlessness, reduction in emotional stability [ 146 ]. Even long term meditators have reported adverse effects [ 147 ]. There have been some reports of psychosis and mania triggered by meditation in the scientific literature [ 148 – 150 ] [ 151 ] and in lay publications [ 152 ]. Further examples include depersonalization [ 153 ], and case reports of brain activity correlated with seizures [ 154 , 155 ]. Generally these findings are consistent with the notion that meditative practices can have powerful effects on mind and body. Changes in self-image and worldview can be signs of psychospiritual progress, but can also be accompanied by significant anxiety. Like other active interventions, significant negative psychological side-effects may occur in a minority of individuals, especially those with a pre-disposition towards mania or psychosis.

Among researchers who are enthusiastic about the benefits of meditation being discovered in contemplative science, there may be hesitance to examine adverse events, negative side effects of meditation, for fear that this will engender fear, restrict research, or lessen enthusiasm for the practice. Most studies do not include any items asking about difficult states or struggles with meditation practice. However, it is possible that difficult and distressing experiences may be involved in one of the major challenges to clinical research on meditation: adherence.

As mentioned earlier, Lindahl and Britton [ 156 ] have addressed these questions by collecting data on challenging, difficult, or impairing experiences associated with meditation, the resulting taxonomy of which should aid in encouraging further research. Building and extending this research using a variety of methodologies will only strengthen the field of meditation research. In addition, distressing or difficult states can be viewed as natural aspects of the trajectory of spiritual or contemplative growth, and when properly supported can catalyze positive outcomes [ 157 , 158 ]. As one American Buddhist teacher, Shinzen Young [ 159 ] puts it:

It is certainly the case that almost everyone who gets anywhere with meditation will pass through periods of negative emotion, confusion, disorientation, and heightened sensitivity… for some duration of time, things may get worse before they get better…. This phenomenon, within the Buddhist tradition, is sometimes referred to as “falling into the Pit of the Void.” It entails an authentic and irreversible insight into Emptiness and No Self. … In a sense, it’s Enlightenment’s Evil Twin…In some cases it takes months or even years to fully metabolize, but in my experience the results are almost always highly positive.

Conducting more research on these difficult states and stages should help clinicians help their clients navigate and potentially leverage these experiences.

Though not included explicitly in our survey, we recommend that investigation of the role of the environmental context in which meditation practice occurs represents another essentially wide-open field for future researchers. The physical environment, and use of objects, icons, rituals and sacred places have traditionally been thought to enhance meditation practice. There are a potpourri of perceptual cues such as incense, candles, images, music, bells, and the wearing of special clothing, use of sacred foods, or fasting or avoiding certain foods that are routine parts of contemplative traditions and have yet to be investigated scientifically. In some cases, these contextual elements are thought to help “carry” a person into deeper meditative practice, and enhance its benefits.

Environmental cues such as color [ 160 ], odor [ 161 ], and images [ 162 ] have been demonstrated to affect emotion, cognitive processing, and behavior. This may account for the role that environmental cues play in meditation. However, some spiritual lore suggests that buildings, rooms, places, or objects in which many people have engaged in spiritual practices or long periods of meditation feel qualitatively/subjectively different than objects or places that have not been associated with such practices. For example, some talk about the “stillness” or “vibration” of a temple or old church—but objective measures of that subjectively perceived phenomenon are lacking. Only a small amount of research has been conducted on what has been termed “conditioned space [ 163 ],” in other words, space that has been purported to be imprinted by intentions alone, and this may warrant further exploration.

In addition, the cultural context, intentions, purpose, and values held by the meditator’s tradition or community (and within the practitioner) likely impact meditative experiences and outcomes. For example, a person who operates from a collectivist cultural orientation [ 164 ] might have different experiences of meditative benefit than those who come from more individualistic cultures. Many long term meditation practitioners hold rich worldviews, belief systems and ethical guidelines that inform their motivations for meditative practice and quite possibly the phenomenology of their experiences in meditation. However, the impact of worldview and ethical systems components has not been specifically measured in the bulk of the clinical and neurophysiologic research to date. The novices assayed in meditation research to date hold a broad range of worldviews, often poorly informed by the spiritual and/or religious foundations of the meditative practices in which they are engaging. For better or worse, in clinical settings these meditative practices have by and large been divorced from teachings about ethical guidelines or philosophical understanding about the nature of self and relation of self to world and/or the sacred. There are benefits and drawbacks to this. Secularizing these practices allows for much larger dissemination of them, as well as practices unburdened by dogmas that may or may not be supported by evidence. However, some of the “built-in” ethical protections in traditional settings and teachings have also been stripped away (such as, for example, a meditation student being assigned to clean the temple to learn humility and service while also experiencing transcendent states), and practices run the risk of becoming superficial when decontextualized.

The field of meditation studies is likely to benefit from assessing even in a rudimentary way some of these contextual elements of meditation practice, and how they might impact outcomes. For example, researchers could randomly assign participants to different contextual environments for practice and then collect subjective and objective measurements. One test might include having persons meditate in a room with an object randomly selected as one that is regarded to deepen practice versus a control object. Alternatively, repeated measures designs could also be used in which the same person meditates in various environments, and differences in neurophysiological correlates are measured.

Psychological development.

One of the most dramatic findings of developmental psychology and neurobiology is that, contrary to previous beliefs, development can continue throughout much of adulthood [ 165 , 166 ]. There are now more than 100 models of advanced or postconventional [ 167 ] stages of adult psychological development [ 168 , 169 ]. Preliminary maps have been offered over the centuries by contemplatives, but a growing body of empirical research suggests that for moral, cognitive, and many other capacities such as wisdom and self-transcendence, development can continue well into the elder years [ 170 – 177 ]. However, there have been very few studies of the effects of meditation on psychological development, even though accelerating such development may be one of the most important contributions the practice of meditation can make, and one of our contemporary world’s greatest needs.

Ethical issues.

As the scope of meditation research is broadened, and extraordinary experiences are the increasingly the focus of studies, it will be important to identify and address ethical issues that may arise. Indeed, a barrier to including these experiences and topics in the field of meditation research may have been a concern that too much emphasis on these experiences could encourage people to become distracted from the primary goals of meditation, foster experiences in meditation that could be iatrogenic for patients and clients, or bring to light experiences that clinicians were unequipped to address. However, simply ignoring such experiences does not make them go away, does not preserve the ethical foundations of meditation practice, nor is it an effective clinical approach [ 178 ]. Instead, we must create a set of clinical and ethical guidelines for helping clients, students and patients navigate and integrate these experiences to enhance, rather than detract from, their well-being. Educating clinicians and researchers about the potential for these experiences to occur, including questions to screen for distress, depersonalization, or changes in functioning related to meditation practice in assessments, and identifying a clinician with expertise in treating such issues for referrals or consultation are all possible components of an ethical approach.

Conclusions

The goal of this paper and the accompanying online materials is to share the findings and conclusions reached by the Future of Meditation Research working group. These include the findings of a survey investigating the prevalence of extraordinary meditative experiences and recommendations for expanding future research on meditation. The survey demonstrated that a number of experiences—mystical/transcendent, social/relational, physical/perceptual, and spatial/temporal experiences, and extended human capacities are prevalent and salient to those who experience them, and that meditation teachers are generally willing to discuss them with students.

One theoretical trajectory of psychological and spiritual development through meditation practice could be described in broad strokes as 1) participant comes in with distress or a desire for greater understanding or contentment, 2) through beginning mindfulness practices, the participant learns to stabilize attention, 3) the participant learns to de-center and observe the contents of their awareness or experience rather than being completely fused with their experiences, 4) the participant learns to volitionally make choices about how they wish to approach experiences (e.g. with acceptance, friendly investigation, with contemplation, with simple non-reactive awareness, with compassion), 5) through both subtle and profound insights, realizations, and experiences the participant begins to see themselves and reality as less fixed, is better able to understand context, shifts their sense of identity, and feels a sense of connectedness (less duality) between themselves and others, and 6) through these experiences becomes more compassionate for themselves and others, less reactive, less stressed, and observes improved relationships, less depression and anxiety, and more happiness. The premise of this paper is that in addition to experiences recognized in the contemplative literature as signs of spiritual progress, such as decentering from individual ego-based concerns, the kinds of extra-ordinary experiences we have entertained in this paper may also be important parts of this process.

We propose that these experiences are important to study. They hold the potential not only to shed light on effects of meditation in those who practice it, but may also illuminate new understandings about human potential and the nature of reality. Some of these experiences may be purely subjective or even illusory, but if this is the case, they remain worth investigating to learn more about their functional utility and transformative (or disruptive) potential. In addition, as meditation practice continues to increase in health care settings, it will be important for clinicians to be aware of potentially important, distressing or overwhelming experiences patients may have.

Researchers wishing to explore some of these domains may encounter reluctance, resistance or even ridicule from the scientific and academic community. Many aspects of meditation have been excluded from scientific dialogue to allow contemplative science to mature and be accepted as a field with scientific rigor. A focus on the cognitive and physiological outcomes of meditation, once itself a highly unconventional topic of study, assured that the field of contemplative science would be respected as “hard science,” rather than soft or pseudoscience. The field has understandably de-emphasized what may be essential aspects of meditation by focusing on component parts that are easier to operationalize and more palatable to scientists.

But as shown by our survey results, there are deeper and more mysterious aspects of meditation practice that are worth exploring. Our premise is that these important aspects of meditation are within the bounds of scientific investigation, can and should be studied with scientific rigor, and that their exclusion from scientific dialogue unnecessarily limits our knowledge. Our experience thus far, presenting this research to students and at professional meetings is that 1) researchers are fascinated by these topics, 2) that emerging findings often map on to their personal experiences and observations of students and research participants as well as the spiritual traditions from which many of these practices emerged, and 3) they are gratified to hear that there are intelligent, rigorous, and empirically sound methods to study them. Students and researchers who are interested in investigating these domains of meditation may find it useful to visit the Future of Meditation Research website to find a wealth of references and recommendations, an online course expanding on the topics reviewed in this paper, and a community of researchers who are pursuing these domains of inquiry.

The aim of this paper was to bring attention to some of the more controversial and less studied domains of meditation. We suggest that these aspects of meditation may be crucial to people’s psychological and spiritual development, and rather than being side-effects, could represent important outcomes of meditation practice, or serve as mediators and/or mechanisms by which meditation confers benefits. These arenas represent largely uncharted scientific terrain and provide excellent opportunities for new and experienced researchers. We hope this paper provided a foundation from which future research can expand. We believe it offers preliminary support to Maslow’s [ 179 ] provocative claim that “what we call ‘normal’ in psychology is really a psychopathology of the average, so undramatic and so widely spread that we don’t even notice it ordinarily” (p. 16). The intention of this paper is to invite all of us to step into a new paradigm from which to explore one of the greatest of human quests—the understanding, healing, and enhancement of the human mind.

Supporting information

S1 file. meditation experiences survey..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740.s001

S2 File. Meditation experiences survey codebook.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205740.s002

Acknowledgments

Our grateful acknowledegements to colleagues who contributed feedback at various stages of this project include Willoughby Britton, Mark Coleman, Elissa Epel, Alfred Kaszniak, Edward Kelly, Jared Lindahl, Alan Pierce, Clifford Saron, Marilyn Schlitz, Jonathan Schooler, Frances Vaughan, and Fadel Zeidan. Thanks also to Learnist.com for collaborative tools.

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Meditation: a simple, fast way to reduce stress.

Meditation can wipe away the day's stress, bringing with it inner peace. See how you can easily learn to practice meditation whenever you need it most.

If stress has you anxious, tense and worried, you might try meditation. Spending even a few minutes in meditation can help restore your calm and inner peace.

Anyone can practice meditation. It's simple and doesn't cost much. And you don't need any special equipment.

You can practice meditation wherever you are. You can meditate when you're out for a walk, riding the bus, waiting at the doctor's office or even in the middle of a business meeting.

Understanding meditation

Meditation has been around for thousands of years. Early meditation was meant to help deepen understanding of the sacred and mystical forces of life. These days, meditation is most often used to relax and lower stress.

Meditation is a type of mind-body complementary medicine. Meditation can help you relax deeply and calm your mind.

During meditation, you focus on one thing. You get rid of the stream of thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. This process can lead to better physical and emotional well-being.

Benefits of meditation

Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit your emotional well-being and your overall health. You also can use it to relax and cope with stress by focusing on something that calms you. Meditation can help you learn to stay centered and keep inner peace.

These benefits don't end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help take you more calmly through your day. And meditation may help you manage symptoms of some medical conditions.

Meditation and emotional and physical well-being

When you meditate, you may clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress.

The emotional and physical benefits of meditation can include:

Giving you a new way to look at things that cause stress.
Building skills to manage your stress.
Making you more self-aware.
Focusing on the present.
Reducing negative feelings.
Helping you be more creative.
Helping you be more patient.
Lowering resting heart rate.
Lowering resting blood pressure.
Helping you sleep better.

Meditation and illness

Meditation also might help if you have a medical condition. This is most often true if you have a condition that stress makes worse.

A lot of research shows that meditation is good for health. But some experts believe there's not enough research to prove that meditation helps.

With that in mind, some research suggests that meditation may help people manage symptoms of conditions such as:

Chronic pain.
Depression.
Heart disease.
High blood pressure.
Irritable bowel syndrome.
Sleep problems.
Tension headaches.

Be sure to talk to your healthcare professional about the pros and cons of using meditation if you have any of these or other health conditions. Sometimes, meditation might worsen symptoms linked to some mental health conditions.

Meditation doesn't replace medical treatment. But it may help to add it to other treatments.

Types of meditation

Meditation is an umbrella term for the many ways to get to a relaxed state. There are many types of meditation and ways to relax that use parts of meditation. All share the same goal of gaining inner peace.

Ways to meditate can include:

Guided meditation. This is sometimes called guided imagery or visualization. With this method of meditation, you form mental images of places or things that help you relax.

You try to use as many senses as you can. These include things you can smell, see, hear and feel. You may be led through this process by a guide or teacher.

Mantra meditation. In this type of meditation, you repeat a calming word, thought or phrase to keep out unwanted thoughts.

Mindfulness meditation. This type of meditation is based on being mindful. This means being more aware of the present.

In mindfulness meditation, you focus on one thing, such as the flow of your breath. You can notice your thoughts and feelings. But let them pass without judging them.

Qigong. This practice most often combines meditation, relaxation, movement and breathing exercises to restore and maintain balance. Qigong (CHEE-gung) is part of Chinese medicine.
Tai chi. This is a form of gentle Chinese martial arts training. In tai chi (TIE-CHEE), you do a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful way. And you do deep breathing with the movements.
Yoga. You do a series of postures with controlled breathing. This helps give you a more flexible body and a calm mind. To do the poses, you need to balance and focus. That helps you to focus less on your busy day and more on the moment.

Parts of meditation

Each type of meditation may include certain features to help you meditate. These may vary depending on whose guidance you follow or who's teaching a class. Some of the most common features in meditation include:

Focused attention. Focusing your attention is one of the most important elements of meditation.

Focusing your attention is what helps free your mind from the many things that cause stress and worry. You can focus your attention on things such as a certain object, an image, a mantra or even your breathing.

Relaxed breathing. This technique involves deep, even-paced breathing using the muscle between your chest and your belly, called the diaphragm muscle, to expand your lungs. The purpose is to slow your breathing, take in more oxygen, and reduce the use of shoulder, neck and upper chest muscles while breathing so that you breathe better.

A quiet setting. If you're a beginner, meditation may be easier if you're in a quiet spot. Aim to have fewer things that can distract you, including no television, computers or cellphones.

As you get more skilled at meditation, you may be able to do it anywhere. This includes high-stress places, such as a traffic jam, a stressful work meeting or a long line at the grocery store. This is when you can get the most out of meditation.

A comfortable position. You can practice meditation whether you're sitting, lying down, walking, or in other positions or activities. Just try to be comfortable so that you can get the most out of your meditation. Aim to keep good posture during meditation.
Open attitude. Let thoughts pass through your mind without judging them.

Everyday ways to practice meditation

Don't let the thought of meditating the "right" way add to your stress. If you choose to, you can attend special meditation centers or group classes led by trained instructors. But you also can practice meditation easily on your own. There are apps to use too.

And you can make meditation as formal or informal as you like. Some people build meditation into their daily routine. For example, they may start and end each day with an hour of meditation. But all you really need is a few minutes a day for meditation.

Here are some ways you can practice meditation on your own, whenever you choose:

Breathe deeply. This is good for beginners because breathing is a natural function.

Focus all your attention on your breathing. Feel your breath and listen to it as you inhale and exhale through your nostrils. Breathe deeply and slowly. When your mind wanders, gently return your focus to your breathing.

Scan your body. When using this technique, focus attention on each part of your body. Become aware of how your body feels. That might be pain, tension, warmth or relaxation.

Mix body scanning with breathing exercises and think about breathing heat or relaxation into and out of the parts of your body.

Repeat a mantra. You can create your own mantra. It can be religious or not. Examples of religious mantras include the Jesus Prayer in the Christian tradition, the holy name of God in Judaism, or the om mantra of Hinduism, Buddhism and other Eastern religions.

Walk and meditate. Meditating while walking is a good and healthy way to relax. You can use this technique anywhere you're walking, such as in a forest, on a city sidewalk or at the mall.

When you use this method, slow your walking pace so that you can focus on each movement of your legs or feet. Don't focus on where you're going. Focus on your legs and feet. Repeat action words in your mind such as "lifting," "moving" and "placing" as you lift each foot, move your leg forward and place your foot on the ground. Focus on the sights, sounds and smells around you.

Pray. Prayer is the best known and most widely used type of meditation. Spoken and written prayers are found in most faith traditions.

You can pray using your own words or read prayers written by others. Check the self-help section of your local bookstore for examples. Talk with your rabbi, priest, pastor or other spiritual leader about possible resources.

Read and reflect. Many people report that they benefit from reading poems or sacred texts and taking a few moments to think about their meaning.

You also can listen to sacred music, spoken words, or any music that relaxes or inspires you. You may want to write your thoughts in a journal or discuss them with a friend or spiritual leader.

Focus your love and kindness. In this type of meditation, you think of others with feelings of love, compassion and kindness. This can help increase how connected you feel to others.

Building your meditation skills

Don't judge how you meditate. That can increase your stress. Meditation takes practice.

It's common for your mind to wander during meditation, no matter how long you've been practicing meditation. If you're meditating to calm your mind and your mind wanders, slowly return to what you're focusing on.

Try out ways to meditate to find out what types of meditation work best for you and what you enjoy doing. Adapt meditation to your needs as you go. Remember, there's no right way or wrong way to meditate. What matters is that meditation helps you reduce your stress and feel better overall.

Related information

Relaxation techniques: Try these steps to lower stress - Related information Relaxation techniques: Try these steps to lower stress
Stress relievers: Tips to tame stress - Related information Stress relievers: Tips to tame stress
Video: Need to relax? Take a break for meditation - Related information Video: Need to relax? Take a break for meditation

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The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation

Affiliations.

1 1] Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USA. [2] Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA. [3].
2 1] Department of Neuroradiology, Technical University of Munich, 81675 Munich, Germany. [2] Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA. [3].
3 Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA.
PMID: 25783612
DOI: 10.1038/nrn3916

Research over the past two decades broadly supports the claim that mindfulness meditation - practiced widely for the reduction of stress and promotion of health - exerts beneficial effects on physical and mental health, and cognitive performance. Recent neuroimaging studies have begun to uncover the brain areas and networks that mediate these positive effects. However, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear, and it is apparent that more methodologically rigorous studies are required if we are to gain a full understanding of the neuronal and molecular bases of the changes in the brain that accompany mindfulness meditation.

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Neural mechanisms of mindfulness meditation: bridging clinical and neuroscience investigations. van der Velden AM, Roepstorff A. van der Velden AM, et al. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2015 Jul;16(7):439. doi: 10.1038/nrn3916-c1. Epub 2015 Jun 17. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2015. PMID: 26081785 No abstract available.
What is being studied as mindfulness meditation? Wheeler MS, Arnkoff DB, Glass CR. Wheeler MS, et al. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2016 Jan;17(1):59. doi: 10.1038/nrn.2015.6. Epub 2015 Dec 3. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2016. PMID: 26631926 No abstract available.
Traits and states in mindfulness meditation. Tang YY, Hölzel BK, Posner MI. Tang YY, et al. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2016 Jan;17(1):59. doi: 10.1038/nrn.2015.7. Epub 2015 Dec 3. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2016. PMID: 26631928 No abstract available.
Journal Watch Review of The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Colibazzi T. Colibazzi T. J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2015 Dec;63(6):1247-8. doi: 10.1177/0003065115620407. J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2015. PMID: 26671868 No abstract available.

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October 11, 2017

Where's the Proof That Mindfulness Meditation Works?

The ubiquitous technique for relieving stress and pain has remarkably little scientific evidence backing it, a group of scientists contend

By Bret Stetka

Christian Gertenbach Unsplash

The concept of mindfulness involves focusing on your present situation and state of mind. This can mean awareness of your surroundings, emotions and breathing—or, more simply, enjoying each bite of a really good sandwich. Research in recent decades has linked mindfulness practices to a staggering collection of possible health benefits.

Tuning into the world around you may provide a sense of well-being, an array of studies claim. Multiple reports link mindfulness with improved cognitive functioning. One study even suggests it may preserve the tips of our chromosomes, which whither away as we age.

Yet many psychologists, neuroscientists and meditation experts are afraid that hype is outpacing the science. In an article released in Perspectives on Psychological Science , 15 prominent psychologists and cognitive scientists caution that despite its popularity and supposed benefits, scientific data on mindfulness are woefully lacking. Many of the studies on mindfulness and meditation, the authors wrote, are poorly designed—compromised by inconsistent definitions of what mindfulness actually is, and often void of a control group to rule out the placebo effect.

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The new paper cites a 2015 review published in American Psychologist reporting that only around 9 percent of research into mindfulness-based interventions has been tested in clinical trials that included a control group. The authors also point to multiple large placebo-controlled meta-analyses concluding that mindfulness practices have often produced unimpressive results. A 2014 review of 47 meditation trials, collectively including over 3,500 participants, found essentially no evidence for benefits related to enhancing attention, curtailing substance abuse, aiding sleep or controlling weight.

Lead author of the report Nicholas Van Dam, a clinical psychologist and research fellow in psychological sciences at the University of Melbourne, contends potential benefits of mindfulness are being overshadowed by hyperbole and oversold for financial gain. Mindfulness meditation and training is now a $1.1-billion industry in the U.S. alone. “Our report does not mean that mindfulness meditation is not helpful for some things,” Van Dam says. “But the scientific rigor just isn’t there yet to be making these big claims.” He and his co-authors are also concerned that as of 2015, less than 25 percent of meditation trials included monitoring for potential negative effects of the intervention, a number he would like to see grow as the field moves forward.

Van Dam acknowledges that some good evidence does support mindfulness. The 2014 analysis found meditation and mindfulness may provide modest benefits in anxiety, depression and pain. He also cites a 2013 review published in Clinical Psychology Review for mindfulness-based therapy that found similar results. “The intention and scope of this review is welcome—it is looking to introduce rigor and balance into this emerging new field,” says Willem Kuyken, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford in England, who was not involved in research for the new report. “There are many areas where mindfulness-based programs seem to be acceptable and promising, but larger-scale randomized, rigorous trials are needed.”

Two trials published in Science Advances also support mindfulness practices. The first found mindfulness-like attention training reduces self-perceived stress, but not levels of the hormone cortisol, a commonly used biological gauge of stress levels. The other trial links mindfulness-like attention training to increases in thickness of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region associated with complex behavior, decision-making and shaping personality. The authors called for further research into what these findings could mean clinically.

Van Dam characterizes the research methods used in both of these studies as sound. Yet he points out both also represent the field’s larger problem—a lack of standardization. Varying mindfulness-like approaches have been investigated over the years, making comparisons of different studies difficult.

Mindfulness is rooted in Buddhist thought and theory. In the West it was popularized in the 1970s by University of Massachusetts professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, a cognitive scientist who founded the university’s Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine. Kabat-Zinn developed what he called “mindfulness-based stress reduction,” an alternative therapy for a variety of often difficult-to-treat conditions. By the early 2000s, the concept of mindfulness had ballooned in popularity. It soon came to have many differing meanings and varying approaches to treatment. “We specifically commented in our article on the fact that many continue to develop novel interventions without fully evaluating those that are already being implemented,” Van Dam says. “I think these studies, while well-designed, may fit within the category of being just different enough from what we already have to prevent us from really knowing whether we could use these results as evidence for [the effectiveness of] other mindfulness-based practices.”

As Van Dam and his co-authors wrote, “[there is] neither one universally accepted technical definition of ‘mindfulness’ nor any broad agreement about detailed aspects of the underlying concept to which it refers.”

“Overall, I suspect that a large number of the health promises will not be fulfilled, mostly because therapies, phone apps and other interventions are being rushed to market without sufficiently rigorous testing and appropriate implementation,” he says. “But given what we’ve seen to date, I suspect evidence may accumulate supporting mindfulness practices for anxiety, depression and stress-related conditions.”

Behavioral and social sciences professor and director of Brown University’s Mindfulness Center Eric Loucks, who was not involved in researching the new paper, agrees there are multiple definitions of mindfulness. But it is the trickiness in bringing a rich spiritual concept into a standardized framework for testing and advising patients that he feels might be tough to tackle.

“One element in defining mindfulness, if considering its roots in Buddhism, is…the Buddha's recommendation that descriptions of concepts like ‘mindfulness’ are like a finger pointing at the moon,” he explains. “It is important not to confuse the finger for the moon. There will always be variations in people's understanding of mindfulness. It is a personal experience.”

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When science meets mindfulness

Researchers study how it seems to change the brain in depressed patients

Alvin Powell

Harvard Staff Writer

First of two parts

In 2015, 16.1 million Americans reported experiencing major depression during the previous year, often struggling to function while grappling with crippling darkness and despair.

There’s an arsenal of treatments at hand, including talk therapy and antidepressant medications, but what’s depressing in itself is that they don’t work for every patient.

“Many people don’t respond to the frontline interventions,” said Benjamin Shapero, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Depression Clinical and Research Program . “Individual cognitive behavioral therapy is helpful for many people; antidepressant medications help many people. But it’s also the case that many people don’t benefit from them as well. There’s a great need for alternative approaches.”

Shapero is working with Gaëlle Desbordes , an instructor in radiology at HMS and a neuroscientist at MGH’s Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging , to explore one alternative approach: mindfulness-based meditation.

In recent decades, public interest in mindfulness meditation has soared. Paralleling, and perhaps feeding, the growing popular acceptance has been rising scientific attention. The number of randomized controlled trials — the gold standard for clinical study — involving mindfulness has jumped from one in the period from 1995‒1997 to 11 from 2004‒2006, to a whopping 216 from 2013‒2015, according to a recent article summarizing scientific findings on the subject.

Studies have shown benefits against an array of conditions both physical and mental, including irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. But some of those findings have been called into question because studies had small sample sizes or problematic experimental designs. Still, there are a handful of key areas — including depression, chronic pain, and anxiety — in which well-designed, well-run studies have shown benefits for patients engaging in a mindfulness meditation program, with effects similar to other existing treatments.

“There are a few applications where the evidence is believable. But the effects are by no means earth-shattering,” Desbordes said. “We’re talking about moderate effect size, on par with other treatments, not better. And then there’s a bunch of other things under study with preliminary evidence that is encouraging but by no means conclusive. I think that’s where it’s at. I’m not sure that is exactly how the public understands it at this point.”

Desbordes’ interest in the topic stems from personal experience. She began meditating as a graduate student in computational neuroscience at Boston University, seeking respite from the stress and frustration of academic life. Her experience convinced her that something real was happening to her and prompted her to study the subject more closely, in hopes of shedding enough light to underpin therapy that might help others.

“My own interest comes from having practiced those [meditation techniques] and found them beneficial, personally. Then, being a scientist, asking ‘How does this work? What is this doing to me?’ and wanting to understand the mechanisms to see if it can help others,” Desbordes said. “If we want that to become a therapy or something offered in the community, we need to demonstrate [its benefits] scientifically.”

Desbordes’ research uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which not only takes pictures of the brain, as a regular MRI does, but also records brain activity occurring during the scan. In 2012, she demonstrated that changes in brain activity in subjects who have learned to meditate hold steady even when they’re not meditating. Desbordes took before-and-after scans of subjects who learned to meditate over the course of two months. She scanned them not while they were meditating, but while they were performing everyday tasks. The scans still detected changes in the subjects’ brain activation patterns from the beginning to the end of the study, the first time such a change — in a part of the brain called the amygdala — had been detected.

Functional MRI (left) showing activation in the amygdala when participants were watching images with emotional content before learning meditation. After eight weeks of training in mindful attention meditation (right) note the amygdala is less activated after the meditation training.

Courtesy of Gaelle Desbordes

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In her current work, she is exploring meditation’s effects on the brains of clinically depressed patients, a group for whom studies have shown meditation to be effective. Working with patients selected and screened by Shapero, Desbordes is performing functional magnetic resonance imaging scans before and after an eight-week course in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or MBCT.

During the scans, participants complete two tests, one that encourages them to become more aware of their bodies by focusing on their heartbeats (an exercise related to mindfulness meditation), and the other asking them to reflect on phrases common in the self-chatter of depressed patients, such as “I am such a loser,” or “I can’t go on.” After a series of such comments, the participants are asked to stop ruminating on the phrases and the thoughts they trigger. Researchers will measure how quickly subjects can disengage from negative thoughts, typically a difficult task for the depressed.

The process will be repeated for a control group that undergoes muscle relaxation training and depression education instead of MBCT. While it’s possible that patients in the control part of the study also will have reduced depressive symptoms, Desbordes said it should occur via different mechanisms in the brain, a difference that may be revealed by the scans. The work, which received funding from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health , has been underway since 2014 and is expected to last into 2019.

Desbordes said she wants to test one prevalent hypothesis about how MBCT works in depressed patients: that the training boosts body awareness in the moment, called interoception, which, by focusing their attention on the here and now, arms participants to break the cycle of self-rumination.

“We know those brain systems involved with interoception, and we know those involved with rumination and depression. I want to test, after taking MBCT, whether we see changes in these networks, particularly in tasks specifically engaging them,” Desbordes said.

Desbordes is part of a community of researchers at Harvard and its affiliated institutions that in recent decades has been teasing out whether and how meditation works.

In the 1970s, when transcendental meditation surged in popularity, Herbert Benson, a professor at Harvard Medical School and what was then Beth Israel Hospital, explored what he called “The Relaxation Response,” identifying it as the common, functional attribute of transcendental meditation, yoga, and other forms of meditation, including deep religious prayer. Benson described this response — which recent investigators say is not as common as he originally thought — as the opposite of the body’s adrenalin-charged “fight or flight” response, which was also identified at Harvard, by physiologist Walter Cannon Bradford in 1915.

Other MGH researchers also are studying the effects of meditation on the body, including Sara Lazar , who in 2012 used fMRI to show that the brains of subjects thickened after an eight-week meditation course. Work is ongoing at MGH’s Benson-Henry Institute ; at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine ; at the Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance, where Zev Schuman-Olivier directs the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion ; and among a group of nearly a dozen investigators at Harvard and other Northeastern institutions, including Desbordes and Lazar, who are collaborating through the Mindfulness Research Collaborative .

Among the challenges researchers face is defining mindfulness itself. The word has come to describe a meditation-based practice whose aim is to increase one’s sense of being in the present, but it has also been used to describe a nonmeditative state in which subjects set aside their mental distractions to pay greater attention to the here and now, as in the work of Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer .

Another challenge involves sorting through the many variations of meditative practice.

Recent scientific exploration has largely focused on the secular practice of mindful meditation, but meditation is also a component of several ancient religious traditions, with variations. Even within the community practicing secular mindful meditation, there are variations that may be scientifically meaningful, such as how often one meditates and how long the sessions are. Desbordes herself has an interest in a variation called compassion meditation, whose aim is to increase caring for those around us.

Amid this variation, an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course developed in the 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center has become something of a clinical and scientific standard. The course involves weekly two- or 2½-hour group training sessions, 45 minutes of daily work on one’s own, and a daylong retreat. The mindfulness-based cognitive therapy used in Desbordes’ current work is a variation on that program and incorporates elements of cognitive behavioral therapy, which involves talk therapy effective in treating depression.

Ultimately, Desbordes said she’s interested in teasing out just what in mindful meditation can work against depression. If researchers can identify what elements are effective, the therapy may be refined to be more successful. Shapero is also interested in using the study to refine treatment. Since some patients benefit from mindfulness meditation and some do not, he’d like to better understand how to differentiate between the two.

“Once we know which ingredients are successful, we can do more of that and less, maybe, of the parts that are less effective,” Desbordes said.

Research funding includes the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

For more information about the Mindfulness & Meditation program at Harvard University, visit its website.

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Published: 27 October 2023

Mindfulness-based randomized controlled trials led to brain structural changes: an anatomical likelihood meta-analysis

Savannah Siew ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1927-3845 1 &
Junhong Yu ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2563-9658 1

Scientific Reports volume 13 , Article number: 18469 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Neuroscience

Mindfulness has become increasingly popular and the practice presents in many different forms. Research has been growing extensively with benefits shown across various outcomes. However, there is a lack of consensus over the efficacy of randomized controlled mindfulness interventions, both traditional and mind–body formats. This study aimed to investigate the structural brain changes in mindfulness-based interventions through a meta-analysis. Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO were searched up to April 2023. 11 studies (n = 581) assessing whole-brain voxel-based grey matter or cortical thickness changes after a mindfulness RCT were included. Anatomical likelihood estimation was used to carry out voxel-based meta-analysis with leave-one-out sensitivity analysis and behavioural analysis as follow-ups. One significant cluster ( p < 0.001, Z = 4.76, cluster size = 632 mm 3 ) emerged in the right insula and precentral gyrus region (MNI = 48, 10, 4) for structural volume increases in intervention group compared to controls. Behavioural analysis revealed that the cluster was associated with mental processes of attention and somesthesis (pain). Mindfulness interventions have the ability to affect neural plasticity in areas associated with better pain modulation and increased sustained attention. This further cements the long-term benefits and neuropsychological basis of mindfulness-based interventions.

Meta-analytic evidence that mindfulness training alters resting state default mode network connectivity

The neurobiological effects of mind–body exercise: a systematic review and meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

Mindfulness-based therapy improves brain functional network reconfiguration efficiency

Introduction.

Mindfulness has become increasingly popular in today’s wellness culture with it gaining popularity in the West with roots in Buddhism and Hinduism. Kabat-Zinn 1 coined the modern definition of mindfulness which means “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (p. 4). There have been several conceptualizations of mindfulness and one widely-cited operational definition is a two-component model involving the self-regulation of attention to the present moment and orientation of acceptance towards that moment 2 . This definition strongly parallels one conceptualized within the Relational Frame Theory, in terms of four psychological processes of acceptance, defusion, present-moment awareness, and the observer self 3 . It seems that mindfulness can be characterized broadly by attention to the present moment and non-judgemental acceptance and this definition will be relied upon in this study.

The practice of mindfulness can look very different 4 , ranging from meditative religious practices of Vipassana and Zen to structured programs like mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and therapeutic modalities such as dialectical behaviour therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Vipassana—A meditative practice from Buddhism, involves a constant body scan from head to toe while maintaining a stance of non-reactive observation 5 . This is sometimes referred to as open monitoring meditation which also includes Zen meditation, which focuses on regulating attention. MBSR is a structured programme developed by Kabat-Zinn 6 where participants undergo an eight-week intensive mindfulness practice. Mind–body practices, such as yoga and the Chinese ancient art of Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) and Baduanjin, incorporate mindfulness into movement. Yoga focuses on the regulation of the breath and being aware of one’s thoughts while engaging in physical movement and stretches and the practice has now been widely accepted as secular and is popular around the world. TCC and Baduanjin are less well-known globally but these are widely practised in China as well as countries that inherited Confucius cultural heritage such as Singapore. TCC involves meditative and cognitive components in addition to physical movements and is often practised with a group. Baduanjin uses the breath to guide slow coordinated physical movements to cultivate one’s internal energy, called “Qi”. This shares similarities with Ashtanga yoga, where poses are executed in synchrony with each breath, and Hatha yoga which involves both yoga postures and breathing techniques and is traditionally used to preserve the vital “force” within one’s body. Thus, these mind–body practices can be viewed to involve similar components with each other as well as the traditional mindfulness practices without the physical component. Often, present-moment awareness is the key concept during these practices.

Research in the field has been growing extensively over the years due to its wide-ranging effects. It is efficacious in reducing primary symptoms of various medical conditions 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 and their associated psychological factors 7 , 8 , 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 . Apart from clinical populations, mindfulness extends benefits to the general population 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 . Other outcome variables such as biomarkers of immune functioning 23 and stress regulation 18 , cognitive functions 24 , and neuroimaging measures 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 have also been associated with mindfulness practice.

Researchers have turned to neuroimaging to explore the neurobiological basis of the mechanisms involved in the process. Mindfulness affects both functional connectivity and structural anatomy in the brain 25 , 30 . Eight brain regions, for example, the sensory cortices and insular, hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), are often correlated with mindfulness meditation across studies, with a moderate effect size 26 . These include grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume differences between long-term meditators and meditation-naïve controls, and pre- and post-mindfulness interventions among meditation-naïve participants. Moreover, these regions are congruent with the purpose of mindfulness practice. The insular cortex, linked to the effects of mindfulness such as body awareness and emotional self-awareness, has shown structural and functional differences 26 . GM volume in the hippocampus is significantly larger in long-term meditators compared to those without experience 31 and this is seen among yoga practitioners as well 32 . The hippocampus has a key role in the memory organization of new memories, converting them from short-term to long-term memory stores. It is proposed that the structural differences observed here could explain one’s ability to deal with the spontaneous thoughts that occur during the practice and the memory organization ability that is required 26 . Cortical thickness in pain-related brain regions, the secondary somatosensory cortex and dorsal ACC 33 , and attention-related brain regions such as the left superior frontal gyrus and bilateral superior parietal lobule 34 were significantly larger in long term Zen meditators. The structural changes occur in areas associated with the benefits of mindfulness practice and range from increased GM volume 25 , 29 to increased connectivity in the WM microstructure 28 .

There is much more literature available on functional neuroimaging. During meditation, the brain areas of neural networks associated with present-moment awareness were highly activated during meditation tasks in both novice and experienced participants 25 , 35 . Activations in the brain regions such as the ACC and insula were often observed during mindfulness practice 27 . Moreover, functional connectivity within and between specific brain networks, such as the default mode network and the sensorimotor network was altered by mindfulness practice during resting-state or meditation-state functional scans 36 . Further establishing that the associated brain activations were indeed due to the mindfulness practice, dissociable patterns of activation were reliably observed in the different types of meditations, in line with the characteristics embodied by each type 27 .

As evidenced by research, the benefits of mindfulness have been relatively well-established across a variety of outcomes. However, with regard to neuroimaging outcomes, many studies focus on the GM differences between long-term practitioners compared to controls 25 , 26 , 35 . Within these meta-analyses, the lack of consolidation of studies that include an experimental method makes it difficult to isolate the impact of mindfulness since there is a chance that certain individual traits could predispose someone to be more likely to engage in mindfulness practice. In addition, mind–body interventions such as yoga and qigong practice are often excluded from the meta-analyses of the subject matter 26 , 29 , which often leaves out the popular MBSR programme because one of the sessions involves yoga practice. This means that we are overlooking a good opportunity to investigate the physical-mental interactions and benefits of these practices, of which mindfulness is a huge aspect. On the other hand, other reviews only focused on mind–body practices 37 which does not allow us to sufficiently understand the full picture regarding all mindfulness-based interventions. Thus, there is a lack of consensus over the efficacy of rigorous mindfulness interventions, both traditional and mind–body formats, in the form of randomized controlled trials (RCT). This study aims to understand the current state of structural neuroimaging findings regarding mindfulness-based interventions. It is hypothesized that brain regions associated with the mechanisms and benefits of mindfulness will show significant changes after mindfulness practice in the intervention compared to the control groups across the studies included in this meta-analysis.

Methodology

Study selection, search strategy.

A systematic literature search was carried out in four databases, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and APA PsycINFO from the earliest studies up till April 2023. This is to ensure that both the psychological and neuroscience aspects of the research topic are covered as well as any inter-disciplinary research. The keywords used for the search in both the title and abstract were: “voxel-based” or “morphometr*” or “voxelwise” or “VBM” or "brain structur*" or "structur* change*" or "structural MRI" or "structural scan*” or “gray matter” or “grey matter”, together with “Meditat*” or “Mindful*” or “mind–body” or “mind body” or “yoga”, and lastly with “RCT” or “intervention” or “trial”.

All records that surfaced were imported into Covidence 38 which helped to flag studies that were duplicated. All the duplicated articles were checked manually before being removed from the review. Following this, the author did an abstract screen to remove articles that were clearly irrelevant to the research question. If the study was relevant or the relevance was uncertain, and it appears to have met the following eligibility criteria, the full-text article was retrieved. Additionally, the studies included in systematic reviews and meta-analysis that were relevant to our topic was checked to ensure that we did not miss out any studies. Then, a full-text screen was conducted to ensure that all eligibility criteria were met. In addition, all the references of the papers selected in the first round of full-text review were included in the meta-analysis.

Eligibility criteria

Included studies must be RCTs with either a random or quasi-random allocation, with a treatment and a control group. Control groups could be active or passive, with some studies including both types of control groups within the study design. Only RCTs were included to conduct a more rigorous meta-analysis of mindfulness-related structural changes and control for individual differences that could surface when comparing expert practitioners to those without mindfulness experience in cross-sectional studies. The outcome measure must be a voxel-based or vertex-based comparison of whole-brain GM. Thus, only studies of the GM volume and cortical thickness conducted with structural MRI were included. Regions-of-interest analysis could introduce biases in terms of different methods of choosing and including the brain regions to focus on. Study populations were not restricted to healthy subjects and clinical populations were included as well, regardless of gender and race. In addition, all interventions that meet the definition of mindfulness as a form of present-moment awareness were included since the aim of the study is to surface brain structures related to mindfulness practice. Thus, both the traditional forms of interventions that examined solely the effect of mindfulness and holistic mind–body forms of mindfulness were included.

Studies with less than 10 subjects were excluded due to the low validity of the study. In addition, studies will be excluded when the required information cannot be extracted or obtained from the corresponding authors. Studies that re-analysed previously published data, protocol papers, and abstract-only papers were not included. Studies with null findings were excluded as they do not provide spatial coordinates that were necessary for the analysis method used in this study. To provide more stringent findings, studies that do not employ correction for multiple comparisons or cluster-level family-wise error correction in determining statistically significant clusters were excluded.

Meta-analysis

The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) 39 and the following neuroimaging meta-analysis guidelines 40 , 41 were followed in this study.

Data extraction

Study characteristics including the author, year of publication and country of study, subject characteristics of age, gender, education, and health or clinical status, and intervention details such as the type of mindfulness practice, length of intervention, type of randomization and control group, and sample size were extracted from the study articles. Statistical data of the analysis design, the cluster-based statistical thresholds used to determine which voxels were statistically significant, and the software, which can be Statistical Parametric Mapping, FMRIB Software Library or other packages, and stereotactic space, which can be Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), raw Talairach, or MNI converted to Talairach using Brett transform, were also noted. Lastly, the significant brain regions with their peak coordinates, and the direction of change, which can increase or decrease for the intervention group in comparison to the control group were extracted.

Statistical analysis

Voxel-based meta-analysis were carried out with Anatomical Likelihood Estimation (ALE). ALE is derived from activation likelihood estimation principles and detects convergence among the significant coordinates reported across studies that are above chance-levels. ALE was carried out using BrainMap’s GingerALE v3.0.2. Studies that reported coordinates in Talairach space were transformed to MNI space using the Lancaster transform icbm2tal provided in GingerALE. First, ALE uses a Gaussian function to model the coordinates of the studies that were included by accommodating the spatial uncertainty of significant coordinates that could be caused by differences in the neuroanatomy or by using different normalization techniques and brain templates, and by taking into account the sample size of each study. Second, each study has a whole-brain map constructed, where each voxel is assigned a number that corresponds to the probability that a difference in volume between the treatment and control groups occurs within the voxel. These maps from all the studies were then combined and yielded the ALE image where the likelihood of a particular voxel having difference in volumes found minimally for one study was represented in ALE values. Then, the statistical significance of these ALE values were analyzed with a cluster-level family-wise error (FWE) correction threshold of p < 0.05 with 1000 permutations. The cluster-level FWE correction is known to be the most appropriate method for inferring the statistical significance of ALE analyses 42 .

Following which, the Behavioural Analysis Plugin 3.1 for Mango 4.1 was used to access the behavioural profiles and mental processes that are associated with the identified significant ALE clusters. Based on the functional metadata from the BrainMap Database, the significant ALE clusters were compared against this map to generate the behavioural domains that could fall under Interoception, Cognition, Action, Emotion, and Perception, and is further divided into 60 sub-domains. The significant ALE clusters was transformed to the Talairach space using the transform tool MNI-to-Tal provided in Mango. The region of interest of the significant ALE cluster was selected and the proportion of behavioural domains found within this cluster was compared to the proportions of the behavioural domains across the whole functional database. A behavioural domain profile of the significant cluster was thus generated where Z -scores above 3.0 were considered significant. Sensitivity analysis will be conducted using a leave-one-out method to test the replicability of the results.

Study search and characteristics

In the first round of search, a total of 254 articles were retrieved from the selected databases (PsycINFO = 44, Scopus = 88, Web of Science = 64, PubMed = 58). Duplicates were surfaced by Covidence and manually checked before deleting, which resulted in 109 studies to be screened. Following the eligibility criteria, 48 studies were found to be irrelevant during the title and abstract screening stage. Thus, 61 full-text articles were closely assessed for eligibility, leading to 10 included studies which met all the inclusion criteria. After which, all the references of the 10 included studies were entered into the selection process but only one article met all the inclusion criteria. Thus, the final number of included studies was 11. The full selection process and reasons for exclusion can be found in the PRISMA flow chart in Fig. 1 while the characteristics of the 11 included studies can be found in Table 1 . Studies that were excluded for null findings were by Wolf, et al. 43 , Kral, et al. 44 , Seminowicz, et al. 45 and Mooneyham, et al. 46 while Pickut, et al. 47 was excluded for using an uncorrected threshold.

PRISMA flow chart of selection process. Selection process of included studies for this meta-analysis according to PRISMA guidelines.

In summary, this meta-analysis had 581 participants (N = 11 studies) from various regions such as Asia (n = 5), Europe (n = 3) and North America (n = 3). All studies reported significant intervention > control contrasts while three studies reported significant control > intervention contrasts. Roughly half of the studies (n = 5) had physical components together with the mindfulness aspect such as Yoga, TCC and Baduanjin. Majority of the studies used a passive control group (n = 6), compared to an active control group (n = 3), while two studies had both an active and passive control groups. The active control groups ranged from memory enhancement training and aerobic exercise to health education programmes. Lastly, about half the studies (n = 6) were on healthy participants while the rest were on patient populations such as those with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or chronic neuropathic pain.

Risk of bias of included studies

The revised tool to assess the risk of bias in randomized trials were used in this assessment 59 . Availability of outcome data for nearly all participants randomized were considered when drop-out rates after the intervention were less than 10%. All included studies were assessed to be of low risk, as seen in Fig. 2 .

Risk of bias assessment. Results of the risk of bias assessment for all included studies.

Significant ALE clusters

One significant cluster, as seen in Fig. 3 , emerged from the intervention > control ALE contrast and covered the right insula and precentral gyrus in the Brodmann area 13 (BA13) and 44 (BA44) respectively. The cluster size was 632 mm 3 with one peak voxel MNI coordinates at 48, 10, 4. The ALE value for this cluster was 0.017 ( p < 0.001, Z = 4.76) with two contributing experiments by Santarnecchi, et al. 56 and Krause-Sorio, et al. 53 . There were no significant clusters from the intervention < control ALE contrast. Moreover, since both GM and cortical thickness measures were included, we re-conducted the ALE meta-analysis without the cortical thickness measures to see if that affected the results and no clusters remained significant.

Results of the ALE meta-analysis. The highlighted cluster represent significant convergence of structural increase in mindfulness intervention participants compared to controls. The cluster is depicted on an MNI standard brain template and the colour indicates the ALE values. L = left; R = right, A = anterior, P = posterior.

Sensitivity and behavioural analysis

Using the leave-one-out method, the stability of the findings were tested. The region of interest that emerged above remains significant in all except two of the repetitions, when the studies that contributed to the clusters were excluded. These occurred when we left out the two studies that contributed to the significant cluster above.

Behavioural analysis of the significant ALE cluster above indicated that the cognitive subdomain of attention ( Z = 3.77) and the perception subdomains of somesthesis, in particular pain ( Z = 3.01) were the mental processes associated in the region.

Across the intervention groups, there was a significant structural increase in the right insula and precentral gyrus region. Using behavioural analysis, this cluster was found to be associated with the cognitive process of attention and the perception process of pain-sensing. This region of interest remained significant in all but two of the repetitions, occurring when the studies contributing to the significant clusters were removed 53 , 56 . This signifies that the ALE cluster was due to a small set of studies. However, this brain region was consistently activated even though the type of mindfulness practice was varied, with one using yoga as the intervention while the other used MBSR. Interestingly, one sample was healthy while the other used participants who were at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

The insula is often implicated in both sensorimotor and emotional processing, especially during interoceptive experiences 60 . The insula is also involved in top-down control of pain expression and transmission 61 which could explain findings of improved pain symptoms amongst those suffering from chronic pain following mindfulness interventions 62 , 63 . The posterior insula, where Brodmann area 13 is located, is crucial in processes like emotion regulation and attentional control 64 . The neural plasticity in this brain region with engagements in mindfulness practice could be the mediating factor for the well-being outcomes often observed. The right insula in particular has shown more involvement in self-related processing than the left due to specific neural features 65 . With mindfulness practice largely focused on an awareness of the self, it could explain this observation of a unilateral structural change in the insula.

The precentral gyrus, similar to the insula is often activated during interoceptive attention 66 . The right precentral gyrus especially is activated during awareness of the self 67 and the right side of prefrontal activation is often observed during sustained attention tasks 68 . Overall, it seems that the mechanisms underlying mindfulness-based interventions stem from improvements in attention, especially attention inward to the self, and pain processing. Given the research surrounding the overlap of brain regions activated during both emotional and physical pain 69 , an increase in the structural volume of the right insula and precentral gyrus could contribute to the benefits of mindfulness practice as a therapeutic tool.

In the most recent meta-analysis on GM changes relating to mindfulness meditation, only structural change in the right anterior ventral insula was found to be consistent across studies 29 . The study excluded any mindfulness interventions with physical components, such as yoga and the popular MBSR programmes and the brain region found to be significant was similar but more in the anterior region, compared to the findings of this study which saw more structural changes in the posterior insula. The selection of included studies was also mentioned as a weakness since most were cross-sectional. The studies compared structural volume differences in the brains of meditators and non-meditators at a single timepoint or looked at the association of meditation experience with structural brain volume in meditators only. Thus, the stringent inclusion criteria set in this meta-analysis helped to address issues relating to experimental biases in previous meta-analyses. The insula was also consistently activated across fMRI studies during meditation tasks among participants with no experience in mindfulness 35 . It seems that the benefits of the intervention could be enduring given the structural change observed in this same region.

Another comprehensive and widely cited meta-analysis on morphometric changes associated with mindfulness practice mainly looked at significant differences between long-term practitioners and participants with no prior experience 26 . Only five studies used a mindfulness intervention on participants with no prior experience. Thus, there were more significant structural differences in brain regions observed in the anterior- and mid-cingulate cortex, middle frontal gyrus, anterior precuneus, fusiform gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, inferior temporal gyrus, somatomotor cortices, and anterior insula. These additional brain regions could be attributed to either longer-term effects of consistent mindfulness practice, or biases arising from the cross-sectional design of the study. In contrast, the findings from our meta-analysis shows that even short-term mindfulness practice can effect structural changes in the brain. The two studies that contributed to the significant cluster found had mindfulness intervention durations between 8 to 12 weeks with 1 session per week. 8 weeks of mindfulness intervention was also the most common intervention duration used and could be the minimum period for mindfulness interventions to reflect effectiveness in terms of structural brain changes. This provides more convincing support for the benefits of mindfulness practice and allows us to allude the improvements in awareness and pain processing to the practice itself. Moreover, it seems that the benefits do not require years of mindfulness practice before appearing but we should take caution in interpreting the longevity of these changes since post-intervention follow-ups are usually not carried out in the studies.

The number of studies included in this meta-analysis did not meet the recommended good practice amount of 17 by 40 . However, we believe that it is crucial to explore what the current landscape of high-quality RCTs provides in terms of the evidence of the benefits of mindfulness intervention as interest in the area grows. This also surfaces multiple future research directions. With an increased sample size of included studies, future subgroup analysis could compare the effects of an active versus passive control group, or the effects of including a physical component to the mindfulness intervention, potentially isolating the unique mechanisms of the various components of mindfulness practices. Additionally, differential effects on a healthy versus patient population could also be explored. It is interesting that the patient populations in this meta-analysis have impairments in areas such as pain-processing and cognitive deficits which overlaps with the mental processes associated with the significant brain regions found. There is a possibility that the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions only pertains to clinical populations where deficits are seen in attention and pain-processing. However, future studies are needed to confirm that.

Unfortunately, it was also not possible to verify the effect of potential confounding variables such as age, gender, and length of intervention using meta-regressions with the ALE method, and the exclusion of studies without significant results also causes a selection bias. An important study that was excluded because of non-significant results was a large-scale and rigorously controlled study by Kral et al. 44 . It is possible that they did not detect significant GM changes due to their stringent exclusion criteria which included anyone with expertise in nutrition, music or physical activity. Additionally, participants had to undergo various other assessments as part of a larger multi-project study with each visit taking 2–4 h which could introduce other variabilities. These are all potential areas that future studies should take into account.

In conclusion, this meta-analysis has found evidence for structural brain changes following mindfulness interventions. These interventions, both traditional and mind–body formats, have the ability to affect neural plasticity in the brain regions associated with pain modulation and sustained attention. During the mindfulness intervention, the repeated practice of engaging one’s attention and awareness to the self repeatedly activates these regions of the brain. Over time, neural plasticity could lead to an increase in the volume of these regions. This further cements the long-term benefits and neuropsychological basis of mindfulness-based interventions.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Siew, S., Yu, J. Mindfulness-based randomized controlled trials led to brain structural changes: an anatomical likelihood meta-analysis. Sci Rep 13 , 18469 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-45765-1

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10 Science-Backed Benefits Of Meditation

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10 Science-Backed Benefits Of Meditation

When feeling overwhelmed by anxiety or stress, it can be hard to ground yourself or focus on a task. Although stress and anxiety are normal—and biologically necessary responses in certain situations—experiencing them on a regular basis can pose a risk to your health.

Meditation, though, can help. Read on to learn more about what meditation is and what health benefits it can provide.

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What Is Meditation?

Meditation is a mind-body practice in which your attention is focused on being mindful of the present, your breath and your mind to promote awareness, cultivate wellbeing and reduce stress and anxiety. It comes in many forms and can be practiced almost anywhere, so long as you can be aware of your body and surroundings. Types of meditation vary throughout each person’s practice and can include breathing-based meditation, mindfulness practices, nature-based visualization, mantra and spiritual meditation. Meditation can be practiced alone, in a group or with a coach or therapist.

“There is no right or wrong way to do meditation. Any activity can be meditative if we’re fully present,” says Sarah Meyer Tapia, a meditation coach, associate director of Health & Human Performance and head of Wellness Education at Stanford University. “Meditation is to be present and know what we are doing, while we are doing it.”

Meditation tends to be something we feel we have to make time for, she adds, and instead, recommends taking as little or as much time as your mental energy allows to pivot away from distractions.

If a meditation practice feels out of reach, Meyer Tapia suggests asking yourself when and where you feel peace, comfort, joy, clarity, creativity or focus. For some, this might be while taking a shower, going for a walk or playing with their pet.

“When we think of all the outcomes of meditation that we’re looking for, look for where that exists already in your life, because almost all of us have some window somewhere,” she says. What aspect of your health are you planning on prioritizing in 2024? My physical health 50% My mental health 40% My oral health 9%

Health Benefits of Meditation, According to Science

Mediation can improve your quality of life thanks to its many psychological and physical benefits. Here are 10 science-backed benefits of mediation:

Stress Reduction

Mindfulness-based interventions, such as meditation, have been shown to improve mental health, specifically in the area of stress, according to a study in the Clinical Psychology Review [1] Spijkerman, M.P.J. Pots, W.T.M. Bohlmeijer, E.T. Effectiveness of online mindfulness-based interventions in improving mental health: A review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials . Clinical Psychology Review. Volume 45. 2016; 102-114. . When faced with a difficult or stressful moment, our bodies create cortisol, the steroid hormone responsible for regulating stress and our natural fight-or-flight response, among many other functions. Chronic stress can cause sustained and elevated levels of cortisol, which can lead to other negative effects on your health, including cardiovascular and immune systems and gut health. Meditation, which focuses on calming the mind and regulating emotion, can help to reduce chronic stress in the body and lower the risk of its side effects.

Anxiety Management

Mediation can help counter the effects of anxiety —often noted as overwhelming feelings of fear, worry and tension—by slowing down racing thoughts and regulating breathing, which calms the nervous system. Physical symptoms of anxiety can include sweating, dizziness or a rapid heart rate, caused by overthinking past or future outcomes. People with anxiety who regularly practiced meditation over the course of three years saw positive, long-term impacts on their mental health, according to a study in General Hospital Psychiatry [2] Miller, JJ. Fletcher, K. Kabat-Zinn, J. Three-year follow-up and clinical implications of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders . General Hospital Psychiatry. 1995;17(3):192-200. .

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Depression Management

Meditation can also help reduce the symptoms of depression through mindfulness and emotional regulation. One study observing individuals on a three-month-long yoga and meditation retreat found that participants showed significant improvements in depression after the retreat, as well as enhanced stress resilience and wellbeing [3] Cahn, BR. Goodman, MS. Peterson, CT. Maturi, R, et al. Yoga, Meditation and Mind-Body Health: Increased BDNF, Cortisol Awakening Response, and Altered Inflammatory Marker Expression after a 3-Month Yoga and Meditation Retreat . Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2017;11. .

Lowers Blood Pressure

Hypertension —also known as high blood pressure —is estimated to affect one billion people worldwide and about half the people in the U.S [4] Goldstein, C. Josephson, R. Xie, S. et al. Current Perspectives on the Use of Meditation to Reduce Blood Pressure . International journal of hypertension. 2012. . Meditation has been noted to potentially provide promising results in decreasing high blood pressure, especially when paired with healthy lifestyle habits like a balanced diet and exercise. However, while evidence has been found to support the use of meditation for lowering blood pressure , additional research is needed to see the specific impacts across varying types of meditation.

Strengthens Immune System Health

Meditation has also been found to be an effective behavioral treatment for various conditions associated with a weakened immune system . Consistent meditation has been shown to reduce the body’s stress response, resulting in less inflammation and decreased risk of conditions such as chronic pain, fatigue and heart disease.

Improves Memory

While meditation is best known to help ease stress and anxiety, it can also improve your brain structure . When you practice meditation, your brain is able to produce more gray matter, researchers found in one study. Gray matter is crucial for healthy brain cognition, as it protects the hippocampus, the part of our brain connected to memory. It’s also crucial for basic human functions, including our ability to control movement and emotions. The same study found that meditating for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks can increase how much gray matter your body produces [5] B. Hölzel, J. Carmody, M. Vangel, et al. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density . Psychiatry Res. 2011. 191(1): 36–43. .

Regulates Mood

When practiced over time, meditation has the ability to change how you emotionally react to situations. Elements of meditation, which generally include mindfulness and controlled breathing, can lead to less impulsive reactions. This means instead of reacting from a heightened emotional state such as anger or panic, people who practice regular meditation may gain the ability to more successfully regulate their mood.

Increases Self-Awareness

Meditation increases self-awareness by creating a habit of focusing on the present, allowing you to notice your thoughts as they come up, says Meyer-Tapia. Research shows that practicing meditation can help develop self-awareness, as well as improve impulse control and a person’s relationship with themselves and others.

Helps With Addiction Management

Meditation’s ability to increase a sense of calm, presence and reduced stress can help people with substance use disorders manage triggers or even avoid relapse. Meditation has also been shown to encourage a maintenance in abstinence for those suffering from substance use disorder, and curb inclinations or cravings for a substance as a way to deal with other mental health outcomes like anxiety or stress.

Improves Sleep

Research suggests meditation can improve a person’s ability to sleep and quality of sleep. “When most of us are struggling to sleep, it’s because our minds are ruminating over the day, or worrying about tomorrow,” says Meyer Tapia. While further research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of meditation as a long-term sleep aid, its effects have been shown to help with insomnia, as well as day-time sleep related issues, such as fatigue.

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Cahn, BR. Goodman, MS. Peterson, CT. et al. Yoga, Meditation and Mind-Body Health: Increased BDNF, Cortisol Awakening Response, and Altered Inflammatory Marker Expression after a 3-Month Yoga and Meditation Retreat. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2017;11.
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Parmentier, FBR. García-Toro, M. García-Campayo, J. et al. Mindfulness and Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety in the General Population: The Mediating Roles of Worry, Rumination, Reappraisal and Suppression. Frontiers in Psychology. 2019;10.
Hughes, JW. Fresco, DM. Myerscough, R. et al. Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Prehypertension. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2013;75(8):721-728.
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Basso, JC. McHale, A. Ende, V. et al. Brief, daily meditation enhances attention, memory, mood, and emotional regulation in non-experienced meditators.. Behav Brain Res. 2019;356:208-220..
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Filipe, MG. Magalhães, S. Veloso, AS. et al. Exploring the effects of meditation techniques used by mindfulness-based programs on the cognitive, social-emotional, and academic skills of children: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology. 2021;12.
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v.15(6); 2023 Jun
PMC10355843

Meditation and Its Mental and Physical Health Benefits in 2023

Aneeque jamil.

1 Internal Medicine, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, Fairfield, USA

Sai Dheeraj Gutlapalli

2 Internal Medicine Clinical Research, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, Fairfield, USA

3 Psychiatry, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, Fairfield, USA

Mrinal J. P. Oble

Shamsun nahar sonia.

4 Internal medicine, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, Fairfield, USA

Sherie George

5 General Medicine, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, Fairfield, USA

Srushti R Shahi

6 Medicine, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, Fairfield, USA

7 Medicine, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, California, USA

Abdelrahman Abaza

8 Pathology, California Institute of Behavioral Neurosciences & Psychology, Fairfield, USA

Lubna Mohammed

This article discusses the power of meditation and how beneficial it is for the body. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown many positive brain changes and improved several brain functions. Meditation has several benefits improving the immune system and inflammatory processes by decreasing cytokine; appropriate telomere shortening also has helped healthy aging. Regarding physical health, meditation has been beneficial in various multi-factorial diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and fibromyalgia. It has also helped bring down blood cholesterol levels and increase high-density lipoproteins (HDL) levels. Improvement was also seen in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Mental health is another aspect influenced by meditation, as positive emotion brought about by meditation helps address various mental problems like social anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. Overall, it seems to have some impact in all health areas. However, the magnitude of its effect is not known. More diverse and detailed studies should yield more beneficial clinical outcomes.

Introduction and background

Everything in our daily life starts from one essential thing known as our thoughts. The most important question that needs answering is how much our thoughts impact our everyday life. What changes can we bring about if we can change it? "Mindfulness," also known as meditation and reflection, is the relationship between internal and environmental consciousness [ 1 ]. When studied about meditation in the light of neuroscience, our brain indeed has a system through which we can get rid of maladaptive thoughts and restructure our brain [ 1 ]. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have pointed out that meditation leads to widespread changes in the brain along with the activation of emotional and cognitive centers of the brain [ 2 ]. Meditation has shown promising results with age-related brain aging in younger and middle-aged individuals and improved various brain functions, including cognition and other executive functions [ 3 ].

It is observed that constant reinforcement of happy thoughts is good for the well-being of both mental and physical health [ 4 ]. Moreover, positive reviews positively impact our immune health by reducing interleukin six (IL-6) levels [ 4 ]. Such changes at a biological level mean our thoughts have some effect on our physical system. It might be possible that other body systems have a similar impact on our body, and mindfulness can help us yield those hidden gems in our biological system. As seen in the effect on our immune system, our genes are also affected. Effective meditation has had changes in telomerase shortening, which means the aging process can be delayed, as the longevity of our cells tends to increase with appropriate telomerase regulation [ 5 ]. The best thing about our brain is that it is a highly complex and neuroplastic structure; however, its scope and diversity are yet to be determined, and how much energy and possibility is there remains a mystery [ 6 ]. Is it possible for the way we think to become our reality, and if it is confirmed by memorizing and rehearsing our health, will we be able to change it?

This literature review will shed some light on how mindfulness and our thinking pattern are vital components of our health. With the help of studies, we will decipher if meditation or mindfulness is responsible for significantly changing mental and physical states. This review will also discuss if any changes are occurring at the genetic level or if any changes are observed in our immune system or our inflammatory markers.

This section will focus in-depth on the various aspects of meditation, and through studies, we will see if there is any proven benefit to the mental and physical health of people who meditate. Furthermore, we will see if there are any fruitful benefits at the genetic or immunological level due to meditation. Figure Figure1 1 below shows the areas of health to be discussed that are influenced by meditation.

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Object name is cureus-0015-00000040650-i01.jpg

The image is the author's creation.

Meditation and its effect on the immunologic and genetic system

Several studies should be conducted to conclude meditation's impact on our immune health. We looked at a randomized control trial (RCT) done on 1062 participants, and various areas of our immune system were evaluated. It showed that there was a decrease in nuclear factor kappa b (Nf-kb) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. An increase in the level of the cluster of differentiation four plus t (CD4+T) cells was seen as an effect of meditation [ 7 ]. No effect was there in interleukin one, interleukin six, interleukin eight, interleukin ten, interferon-gamma, influenza, immunoglobulin A (IgA), and immunoglobulin G (IgG), respectively [ 7 ]. The study showed some impact on the immune system, but no effect is seen on the interleukins and immunoglobulins. To further assess our immune system, we looked at another RCT. The trial included 26 studies, and different mind-body techniques (MBT) were used, which included yoga, meditation, taichi, and qigong.

In the second study, the results were very similar to those seen in the previous study; no difference was seen in IL-6 levels reduction in the level of Nf-kb. Mixed results were seen when it comes to CRP levels, half of the studies showed no change, whereas half of the studies showed a decreased level of CRP [ 8 ]. These mixed results seen in the second study for CRP were probably because of the low power of the study due to a few limitations. For example, the sample size used for the analysis was minimal, the follow-up period was very small, and the inflammatory states of the patients might have contributed to the bias. However, still, the results were close to the previous study. To further strengthen our results, another analysis with 34 studies published in 39 articles with 2219 participants was performed. It included the same mind-body training as seen in the previous survey (meditation, yoga, Tai chi, and qigong). The results are looked at between seven to 16 weeks, and they showed that CRP levels reduced minor non-statistically significant changes seen in IL-6. Antiviral immune responses in natural killer cells, tumor necrosis factor-α, and CD4 count were negligible. However, the immune response to the viral vaccine was observed through mindfulness [ 9 ]. As seen in the studies, we can conclude that there is a decrease in inflammatory mediators. No significant change is seen in interleukin. However, the intensity and the clinical impact of mindfulness on our immune system are not known; further studies might help in figuring out its clinical implications. Table Table1 1 below compares the two studies.

IL6, interleukin six; CRP, C-reactive protein; Nf-kb, nuclear factor kappa B; CD4, clusters of differentiation four

Immune modulators	Study 1	Study 2
IL6	No change	No change
CRP	Reduced	Mixed results
Immunoglobulin	No change	Not mentioned
Nf-kb	Reduced	Reduced
Interferon gamma	No change	Not mentioned
CD4 cell count	Increased	Not mentioned

The immune system is not the only system affected by meditation; some studies suggest that meditation affects the length of telomeres [ 7 ]. Telomeres are proteins that protect our chromosomes from cell death; increased psycho-social stress increases cell death due to telomere shortening. Still, meditation has been known to increase healthy cell aging due to better regulation of the telomere length [ 10 ]. So far, out of 19 studies, two cross-sectional studies showed an increase in telomere length, and nine out of 11 studies showed a telomerase-related increase in telomere length. When the survey of the telomerase-related increase in telomere length is seen for increased duration and intensity, only two out of the nine studies showed a telomerase-related increase in telomere length, and the remaining studies showed no significant change [ 11 ].To further verify our conclusion, in another study, 70 trained meditators were selected from meditation training centers from different parts of the island, and only 30 subjects were included in the study after screening; likewise, 30 age- and gender-matched non-meditators were used as the comparison group, and the results showed that the group with meditators showed better quality of life; moreover, the telomerase level was increased in the group of people who meditated compared to non-meditators [ 11 ]. These studies show that meditation increases the telomere length and telomerase level, increasing cellular life by preventing telomere shortening. The telomere effect is not the only effect of meditation on our genes, as meditation affects cells in our system at an epigenetic level [ 11 ]. When observed, it was seen that meditation reduces methylation of tumor necrosis factor genes related to psycho-social stress in females; moreover, a decrease in methylation of cells involved in immune metabolism was also seen, which would help in enhancing the immune system [ 11 ]. The widespread immunological and genetic effects of meditation show how deeply routed the products are, as our immunity and genetics are considered to be a vital part of our overall health, and affecting both systems can be very fruitful in modern medicine.

Meditation and its clinical benefits on physical health

This section will focus on the effects of meditation on different diseases and whether including such practices in your treatment will be of any clinical benefit. One of the widespread multi-factorial diseases is hypertension. Hypertension is usually considered to be caused by poor lifestyle factors and increased sensitivity of the autonomic system, and one of the most important factors is stress. Meditation is a great way to reduce the harmful effects of hypertension [ 12 ]. A systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs were conducted to assess the impact of meditation on systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Six studies were included, which showed a statistically significant effect on diastolic blood pressure reduction compared to the control; on the other hand, the systolic blood pressure results were statistically significant at a very marginal level.

Moreover, those people who were on anti-hypertensive medication showed a better influence on systolic blood pressure with meditation compared to those without a prescription [ 13 ]. Another study was done in Korea. This time both hypertensive and diabetic patients were selected as subjects and the effect of education classes (controls) versus brain-education-based meditation (BEM) was studied. In this study, we looked at 48 patients with either diabetes or hypertension. They were divided into two groups, with either BEM or education classes, and the study was conducted for eight weeks in the Ulsan Junggu Public Health Center. Then we looked at levels of glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), expression of inflammatory genes, and reports on physical and mental health were determined. There was a significant decrease in LDL level (13.82; p<0.05) expression of inflammatory genes (0.3-, 0.5-, and 0.2-fold change for Nf-kb 2, v-rel reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog A (RELA), and interleukin one B (IL1-B), respectively, P<0.05); however, no difference was seen in the remaining biochemical markers including HDL [ 13 ]. The results are shown in table table2 2 below. As discussed, meditation can be a valuable adjunct to other pharmacological interventions, as it has shown some benefits in diabetic and hypertensive patients. Meditation has also shown benefits in diseases like fibromyalgia [ 14 ]. The physical effects of meditation should be further studied under different conditions to see the diversity of its impact to see which diseases it affects the most.

LDL, low-density lipoprotein; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; Nf-kb, nuclear factor Kappa B; RELA, v-rel avian reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog A; BEM, brain educated meditation

Biochemichal marker	Effect	Statistical analysis
LDL	Decrease	13.82 P<0.5
HDL	No change	Not mentioned
Nf-kb	Decrease	0.3- P<0.5
RELA	Decrease	0.5- P<0.5
IL1-B	Decrease	0.2 fold P<0.5
Glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase	No change	Not mentioned
Glutamic-pyruvic transaminase	No change	Not mentioned
Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase	No change	Not mentioned

Further studies were conducted to check the effect of systolic and diastolic blood pressures on meditation in 2007, which were considered to be a high-quality study in which the sample size was between 37 and 106, as discussed below. The subjects were tested after three months for the meditative intervention; it was seen that there was a 4.3 mm reduction in systolic blood pressure and a 3.11 mm decrease in diastolic blood pressure with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of -6.02 to -0.57 and -4.22 to -3.06, respectively. The result indicated that meditation was four times more effective in reducing blood pressure compared to health education [ 15 ]. It has also been seen that meditation has also shown benefits in chronic inflammatory conditions, including asthma and rheumatoid arthritis [ 16 , 17 ]. A systematic literature search was done to see the effect of mindfulness, yoga, and meditation on rheumatoid arthritis, and data from different databases were taken. Out of 1527 studies, only 23 studies were carried. It was interesting to see the effect it has on people who are depressed and the impact on symptoms and disease markers. The results showed that people who meditated had better outcomes, especially those who were depressed. It was also seen that patients felt better subjectively, but there was no difference seen in disease markers like CRP or active disease [ 17 ]. The studies discussed so far show that meditation has proven beneficial to some extent to the physical health of the patients.

Meditation and its clinical benefits on mental health

This section will discuss the benefits that can be attained from meditation on our mental health. Meditation is derived from the Buddhist culture, where they believed that "Sukh" or happiness is something that can be achieved by immersing into the nature of reality and by focusing on the present [ 4 ]. It has also been shown that meditation increases happiness by explicitly increasing the positive emotional response within the human body [ 4 ]. The question remains whether this positive emotional reinforcement affects our mental health clinically. We studied the effect of meditation on mental health. A pilot study was done to check the efficacy of a smartphone-based app to check mood symptoms in cancer patients following meditation. There were several different scales used to assess mood symptoms, and the reading was taken at baseline and an interval of two weeks. There were 35 participants in the study, of which 18 were controls, and 17 were doing meditation. The results revealed a proportional increase in the meditation duration and the improvement of mood symptoms.

Moreover, one of the scales reported improvement in sleep, focus, and mood in the meditation group compared to the intervention group. It showed improved mood symptoms following meditation [ 18 ]. The effect of meditation on mental health is not only restricted to minor signs of anxiety but has also been shown to decrease the impact of suicidal thoughts and behavior. A systematic review was done in December 2020 to check whether meditation affects suicidal thoughts and behavior. A total of 14 studies were included from various databases, and all of them showed a reduction in suicidal behavior and ideas, especially those who had major depressive disorder [ 19 ].

In today's world, a very under-spoken problem present in our society, which is also considered a global concern nowadays, is "loneliness" [ 20 ]. A study was conducted to test whether meditation helps develop social relationship processes. In this study, meditation skills like monitoring of present moment and acceptance might help in improving social relations. The intervention was smartphone-based and included training in monitoring plus approval, monitoring only, and active control in the present moment and acceptance. There were 153 randomly assigned subjects to 14 different smartphone devices, and the intervention was conducted for three days before and after the intervention. Ambulatory measurements of loneliness and daily social contact were obtained. The results showed a 22% percent decrease in loneliness in monitoring plus acceptance compared to monitor only and control training; moreover, it increased two or more interactions each day and one more personal interaction compared to the active-only and monitoring-only groups [ 20 ].

As seen by the results, both meditation skills help improve social contact with people and decrease loneliness, which might help improve overall mental health. This study also makes us question if social contact increases with meditation; it might also have a positive effect on problems like social anxiety disorder. It is believed that social anxiety disorder results from negative self-belief, emotional disturbances, and attention biases about yourself [ 21 ]. Does meditation affect social anxiety disorder? A study was conducted in which 16 participants were included, and functional MRI scans were obtained while reacting to negative self-belief and also performing a mindful breath-focused emotional regulation. Fourteen participants finished the study, and the results showed that conscious attention led to reduced amygdala activity; decreased anxiety, depression symptoms, and self-esteem; and decreased negative symptoms [ 21 ]. It is seen that mental aberrations are something that can be balanced through meditative practices.

Given the above, we can say that meditation has been helpful in various mental disorders; when discussing mental disorders, 7-8% of the people in the united states have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and they have residual symptoms following the trauma that needs to be treated. It has been seen that meditation and yoga practices have been effective in alleviating those symptoms [ 22 ]. If you look at meditation practices on a broader spectrum, it appears as if meditative practices have an overall positive impact on our health. It affects different aspects, including immunology, genetics, and physical and mental health, as discussed. Its effect on the body should be addressed and investigated in greater detail to see if its impact on a disease is good enough to incorporate it as an adjunct to the standard treatment. The problem in such practices could be in their application of how someone meditates and how much effect it has on the disease; moreover, the experiments might also require an increased sample size to come to a suitable conclusion. The illness that can be tested is also limited; on the whole, more studies with more diverse diseases should be done to conclude their efficacy and their certainty for it to be established clinically. Figure 2 below shows the aspects of mental health influenced by meditation.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is cureus-0015-00000040650-i02.jpg

PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder

Limitations

The studies discussed under the topic could have been more precise and accurate if they had filters specific to age, gender, and ethnicity. The studies could have had an increased sample size for increased credibility. The meditators used in the study were not professionals, who could have also been the difference in making the article more precise.

Conclusions

The health benefits of meditation discussed in this article have positively affected the immune system and genetics. Mindfulness has shown an improved anti-inflammatory response and healthy aging by appropriate telomerase regulation. There are also fruitful benefits seen in physical and mental health, which are positive. Further studies with a larger sample size are needed to determine the magnitude of its effect. As shown by the studies, the diseases in which meditative practices are currently used and are helpful should be continued and recommended. For reflective practice to have clinical benefit, the diversity of the studied diseases should be increased to provide more information about its effect. Moreover, there should be trained professionals who should teach people how to meditate to make its product more pronounced and accurate. More research should be conducted on the topic in the future to have more clinical benefits.

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

IMAGES

Incredible Benefits of Meditation
Research Shows How Meditation Benefits Your Mind and Body
30 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Meditation
The Art and Science of Meditation
Science of Meditation / Benefits of Yoga: Research Findings
20 Scientific Benefits Of Meditation: An Infographic

COMMENTS

Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress
Much of the research on mindfulness has focused on two types of interventions: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a therapeutic intervention that involves weekly group classes and daily mindfulness exercises to practice at home, over an 8-week period. MBSR teaches people how to increase mindfulness through yoga and meditation.
Meditation and Mindfulness: What You Need To Know
NCCIH-Funded Research. NCCIH supports a variety of meditation and mindfulness studies, including: An evaluation of how the brain responds to the use of mindfulness meditation as part of a combined treatment for migraine pain. A study of the effectiveness of mindfulness therapy and medication (buprenorphine) as a treatment for opioid use disorder.
Mindfulness & Meditation
Mindful moment. Get comfortable and try this mindfulness exercise. 1. Sit. Sit on a straight-backed chair or comfortably on the floor. 2. Focus. Focus on your breath and pay attention to things such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth, or your belly rising and falling as you inhale and exhale. 3.
The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation
Although meditation research is in its infancy, a number of studies have investigated changes in brain activation (at rest and during specific tasks) that are associated with the practice of, or ...
Meditation research, past, present, and future: perspectives from the
Past history, current models, and future directions: a topical review. From the first physiological studies of meditation in the 1950s and 1960s 4 - 7 and the first clinical studies by Benson et al. in the 1970s, 8 - 10 meditation research has come a long way. The enormous strides in the field over the last three decades have been mainly driven by two synergistic lines of advancement.
Meditation: Process and effects
Introduction. The practice of meditation has become popular in many Western nations, especially the USA. An ever-increasing body of research shows various health benefits associated with meditation and these findings have sparked interest in the field of medicine.[1,2,3] The practice of meditation originated in the ancient Vedic times of India and is described in the Vedic texts.[4,5,6,7 ...
Meditation Research Program
The Meditation Research Program's vision is to lead with the best research and education on advanced meditation. This goal is achieved through our comprehensive multidisciplinary advanced meditation research and our development and implementation of advanced meditation training programs and resources. SCIENCE.
Mindfulness meditation increases default mode, salience, and central
Recent research has begun to identify the neural mechanisms underlying the beneficial impact of mindfulness meditation training (MMT) on health and cognition. However, little is known about the ...
Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for ...
The science of meditation has grown tremendously in the last two decades. Most studies have focused on evaluating the clinical effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions, neural and other physiological correlates of meditation, and individual cognitive and emotional aspects of meditation. Far less research has been conducted on more challenging domains to measure, such as group and ...
Editor's choice: the effects of meditation and mindfulness
Rooted in ancient Eastern traditions, the possible benefits of meditation, mindfulness, and other contemplative practices on mental and physical well-being, are gaining the increased attention of ...
Neuroscience Reveals the Secrets of Meditation's Benefits
As suggested by the growing compendium of research, meditation may be effective in treating depression and chronic pain and in cultivating a sense of overall well-being. Credit: David C. Killpack ...
Advanced Meditation Alters Consciousness and Our Basic Sense of Self
Advanced meditation lends itself to modern, empirical scientific study for several reasons, one of which is the robust research foundation provided by decades of studies from the prior waves.
The benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices during times of
Meditation and mindfulness are practices that can support healthcare professionals, patients, carers and the general public during times of crisis such as the current global pandemic caused by COVID-19. While there are many forms of meditation and mindfulness, of particular interest to healthcare professionals are those with an evidence base ...
Meditation: Take a stress-reduction break wherever you are
A lot of research shows that meditation is good for health. But some experts believe there's not enough research to prove that meditation helps. With that in mind, some research suggests that meditation may help people manage symptoms of conditions such as: Anxiety. Asthma. Cancer. Chronic pain. Depression. Heart disease. High blood pressure.
The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation
Abstract. Research over the past two decades broadly supports the claim that mindfulness meditation - practiced widely for the reduction of stress and promotion of health - exerts beneficial effects on physical and mental health, and cognitive performance. Recent neuroimaging studies have begun to uncover the brain areas and networks that ...
PDF Meditation
Meditation and the Brain . Some research suggests that meditation may physically change the brain and body and could potentially help to improve many health problems and promote healthy behaviors. —In a 2012 study, researchers compared brain images from 50 adults who meditate and 50 adults who don't meditate.
Where's the Proof That Mindfulness Meditation Works?
Research in recent decades has linked mindfulness practices to a staggering collection of possible health benefits. ... A 2014 review of 47 meditation trials, collectively including over 3,500 ...
Harvard researchers study how mindfulness may change the brain in
In her current work, she is exploring meditation's effects on the brains of clinically depressed patients, a group for whom studies have shown meditation to be effective. Working with patients selected and screened by Shapero, Desbordes is performing functional magnetic resonance imaging scans before and after an eight-week course in ...
Mindfulness-based randomized controlled trials led to brain ...
Mindfulness has become increasingly popular and the practice presents in many different forms. Research has been growing extensively with benefits shown across various outcomes. However, there is ...
10 Things We Know About the Science of Meditation
Early research suggested that mindfulness meditation had a dramatic impact on our mental health. But as the number of studies has grown, so has scientific skepticism about these initial claims. For example, a 2014 meta-analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine examined 47 randomized controlled trials of mindfulness meditation programs, which ...
Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A
Future research in meditation would benefit by addressing methodological and conceptual issues that remain. All forms of meditation, including both mindfulness and mantra, imply that more time spent meditating will yield larger effects. Most forms, but not all, also present meditation as a skill that requires expert instruction and time ...
10 Science-Backed Benefits Of Meditation
Research shows that practicing meditation can help develop self-awareness, as well as improve impulse control and a person's relationship with themselves and others. Helps With Addiction Management
(PDF) Mental Health and Well being
Meditation is a versatile tool that can be integrated into various practices, enhancing the overall well-being and life-coping skills of individuals and professionals alike.
Lower your blood pressure with meditation, 'acts of kindness ...
Woman, hands or lotus pose meditation on sunset beach, ocean or sea in mental health, mind training or chakra balance. Zoom, peace or zen yogi in calm mudra, relax yoga wellness or sunrise ...
Meditation and Its Mental and Physical Health Benefits in 2023
Regarding physical health, meditation has been beneficial in various multi-factorial diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and fibromyalgia. It has also helped bring down blood cholesterol levels and increase high-density lipoproteins (HDL) levels. Improvement was also seen in systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Creativity and mindfulness—three meditation techniques that can lead to
Are you a print subscriber? Activate your account. By Tim Nudd - 10 min 17 sec ago By Ad Age Studio 30 - 24 min 58 sec ago 1 hour 10 min ago By Adrianne Pasquarelli - 3 hours 10 min ago By Jon ...

Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress

What is mindfulness meditation?

How mindfulness works

How to get started

Recommended Reading

Six Things Psychologists are Talking About

Speaking of Psychology

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Meditation and Mindfulness: What You Need To Know

Know the Science

NIH Clinical Research Trials and You

Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures & Results (RePORTER)

Acknowledgments

Mindfulness & Meditation

Although the practices of mindfulness and meditation are thousands of years old, research on their health benefits is relatively new, but promising.

Mindfulness and meditation may help:

Ease depression

Improve well-being

Mindful moment

Quiet Harvard spaces

Calm your mind

Awareness of breath meditation

New and old spaces to pray and meditate at Harvard

Why leaders need meditation now more than ever

Rethinking mental health for veterans

Mindful eating

Calming the working mind — Harvard Gazette

Meditation may relieve IBS and IBD — Harvard Gazette

Related In Focus topics

The Next Wave of Meditation Research and Training

Advanced Meditation: What Is It and Why It Matters

The Opportunity and Our Solution

Multidisciplinary Advanced Meditation Research Driving Innovation from Theory to Practice

The Development and Implementation of Advanced Meditation Education and Training

Our Team, Mass General, and Harvard

Select Publications

Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science

Introduction

Materials and methods

Online survey

Extraordinary experiences.

Statistical analysis

Demographics

Religion/Spirituality

Meditation practice

Mystical experiences

Extraordinary experiences

Salience and valence of experiences

Sharing experiences with teachers

Context of extraordinary experiences

Relationship of experiences to length of meditation practice

I. Mystical and transcendent experiences in meditation

II. Social and relational aspects of meditation

III. Physical and perceptual phenomena

IV. Spatial/Temporal phenomena

V. Extended perception

VI. Other recommendations

Psychological development.

Ethical issues.

Conclusions

Supporting information

S2 File. Meditation experiences survey codebook.

Acknowledgments

Appointments at Mayo Clinic

Understanding meditation

Benefits of meditation

Meditation and emotional and physical well-being

Meditation and illness

Types of meditation

Parts of meditation

Everyday ways to practice meditation

Building your meditation skills

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