Physiological anxiety responses in transcendental meditators and nonmeditators


Author: Lintel AG 3rd


Conference/Journal: Percept Mot Skills
Date published: 1980
Other:
 Volume ID: 50   ,  Issue ID: 1   ,  Pages: 295-300   ,  Word Count: 105  
    In Exp. I, the spontaneous GSR of seven Transcendental Meditators and seven nonmeditators was measured in a sequence of five conditions: stress (shock avoidance)--rest--meditation (meditators) or rest/eyes closed (nonmeditators)--stress (shock avoidance)--rest. In Exp. II, the spontaneous GSR of a similar group of subjects was measured in a sequence of three conditions: rest--meditation or rest/eyes closed--rest. Analysis of variance did not yield significant differences between meditators and nonmeditators although analysis did verify that the shock-avoidance task effectively produced anxiety. It was concluded that Transcendental Meditation is not an effective means of reducing autonomic responses to stress under the present testing conditions.