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DISCUSSION
The most important finding of this study on the effects of Brahmakumaris Raja
yoga meditation was a small (but consistent) increase in the heart rate during
meditation, compared to the preceding period, as well as compared to the non-rneditation
period. In contrast, changes in respiratory rate, finger plethysmogram
amplitude and SR were fewer and often in opposite directions for the subjects
practising the same meditation. However, they were consistent during repeat
sessions of a subject. These individual differences did not seem to be
correlated with differences in age, duration of meditation experience, or
commitment to meditation. Individual differences in autonomic response
specificity have been known for a long time. Detailed descriptions have shown
that autonomic responses are a function of both the evoking stimulus
(stimulus-response specificity) and of the responding individual (individual
response specifity (Engel, 1960). It is interesting to speculate that the
contradictory reports on Transcendental Meditation (TM), Zen, and Tantric
yoga, described in the Introduction as either "activating" or "relaxing", may
in fact be due to differences in the individual response patterns.
Table II : Changes in heart rate, paimar GSR,
finger plethysmogram amplitude and respiratory rate based on individual level
analysis I, increase; D, decrease; M, Meditation period; Pre-M, period
preceding meditation; NM, nonmeditation period; pre-NM, period preceding
non-mediation period.
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Holmes (1984) commented that no
studies showed consistent differences between resting and meditating subjects
in heart rate, electrodermal activity, respiratory rate and other similar
variables. However, he stated that in 4 out of 16 experiments, meditating
subjects showed greater increases in heart rate than did resting subjects, and
none showed decreases. In this study also, the most consistent change was an
increase in heart rate during the practice of Brahmakumaris Raja yoga
meditation which was suggestive of cardiosympathetic activation, and a
possible sign of psychophysiological arousal. This finding can be correlated
with the fact that BK meditation requires intense involvement and
concentration. The changes in the other variables (though often consistent for
an individual) did not reveal any group pattern.
These results suggest that use
of some autonomic and respiratory variables (e.g., heart rate) may reveal
group effects of meditation, whereas other variables can alter in an
individualistic way. Hence, a single model of meditation producing either
overall relaxation or overall activation is probably inadequate. |
