Complex partial epileptic-like experiences in university students and practitioners of Dharmakaya in Thailand: comparison with Canadian university students

We tested the hypothesis that individuals who frequently practice meditation within another culture whose assumptions explicitly endorse this practice should exhibit more frequent and varied experience associated with complex partial epilepsy (without the seizures) as inferred by the Personal Philosophy Inventory and Roberts' Questionnaire for the Epileptic Spectrum Disorder. 80 practitioners of Dharma Meditation and 24 university students in Thailand were compared with 76 students from first-year courses in psychology in a Canadian university. Although there were large significant differences for some items and clusters of items expected as a result of cultural differences, there were no statistically significant differences between the two populations for the proportions of complex partial epileptic-like experiences or their frequency of occurrence. There were no strong or consistent correlations between the history of meditation within the sample who practiced Dharma meditation and these experiences. These results suggest complex partial epileptic-like experiences may be a normal feature of the human species.