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Transcendental Meditation acts as a buffer from student pressure A study published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology suggests that relief is available for the overwhelming pressures experienced by college students, the pressures that result in 13% of collegians reporting high anxiety levels; 19% reporting clinical depression; 37% reporting use of illicit drugs; and 44% reporting binge drinking. The research paper, ‘Effects of Transcendental Meditation practice on brain functioning and stress reactivity in college students,’ is a collaborative effort of the Department of Psychology of American University in Washington, DC and the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. Fifty college students in the Washington, DC area were randomly assigned to a Transcendental Meditation group or a control group after pre-test measures of electrodermal habituation to a stressful stimulus, sleepiness, and the three components of the ‘Brain Integration Scale’ (broadband frontal coherence, power ratios, and preparatory brain responses). While the control group confirmed the negative effects of collegiate life, the practitioners of Transcendental Meditation seemed to be buffered from any adverse effects of their college experience. Post-test was performed ten weeks after pre-test, at the high pressure time a week before the students began their final exams. The results are striking. Dr Fred Travis, the study’s author and the director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management, said that the ‘Brain Integration Scale’ scores decreased in the controls and sympathetic reactivity and sleepiness increased while the reverse was true in the Transcendental Meditation group. The significance of the lower ‘Brain Integration Scale’ scores amongst the controls, Dr Travis explains, is that it indicates more fragmented brain functioning ‘which can lead to more scattered and disorganized thinking and planning.’ The ‘increase in sympathetic reactivity and sleepiness [in the controls] . . . can correspond to greater anxiety, worry, and irritability,’ he said. On the other hand, ‘greater breadth of planning, thinking, and perception of the environment’ were indicated by the significant increase in the ‘Brain Integration Scale’ scores of the Transcendental Meditation group according to Dr Travis. He further explained that more wakefulness and a higher level of emotional balance correspond to the decreases in sleepiness and sympathetic reactivity among the practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. (See section, About the study, below for more information on the significance of the results of the Transcendental Meditation practitioners.) One student in the meditating group was particularly busy—working part-time as an intern, having a full course load, and helping to organize a large rally at her college. She expressed the benefit of Transcendental Meditation saying, ‘. . . I could feel my whole body releasing the stress of the day [when meditating]. When done, I felt rested and ready for more activity. TM helped me get through it all in a more healthy and balanced way.’ And Dr Travis offered the conclusion that the study’s statistically significant results indicate that Transcendental Meditation could be of great value in any intense or challenging work or school environment. About the study 1. Higher Brain Integration Scale scores reflect three aspects of brain functioning: • Frontal coherence, a measure of coordinated functioning of executive brain areas; 2. Faster habituation to a loud tone as measured by skin conductance response: The sympathetic nervous system responds to loud new tones. However, when you hear the noise again, you do not have to respond to it again. The person who is more balanced habituates—stops responding—very quickly. The person who is more anxious and worried will continue to respond to the tone. This is what was seen in the non-meditating students. 3. Less sleepiness: The posttest was at the end of the semester—one week before Finals Week—the time of greatest pressure and stress for a student. Those students who practised TM and regularly experienced the state of restful alertness during the practice were more awake. They reported less chance of dozing in eight common situations, on a standardized sleepiness scale. 4. Implications of higher scores on the Brain Integration Scale Higher scores mean greater frontal coherence, more alpha activity, and better match of brain activation and task demands. Higher scores indicate more optimal brain functioning to support more successful action. High scores on the Brain Integration Scale are correlated with: • higher emotional stability, Preliminary research indicates that professional athletes (Norwegian), who won gold in World games and Olympic games, had higher Brain Integration scores. Top-level managers also have higher Brain Integration scores. Thus increasing one's Brain Integration Scale scores can provide a new basis for success, a new foundation to deal with the challenges we face in an ever-accelerating world. © Copyright 2009 Global Good News®
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