The benefits of meditation: experimental findings

Abstract

This work looks at meditation and its possible benefits. Differences between an experimental group that practiced meditation for a period of 14 weeks and a control group that did not meditate are analyzed along a number of lines. The mean age of the subjects in the experiment was 24. Most were college juniors. The vast majority of subjects were single, watched television an average of 2.41 hr a day, and had a 2.83 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale). Differences between meditators and non-meditators were found for a number of variables including: feeling upset over the criticism of others, taking tranquilizers or “street” drugs to change mood, and aching muscles and joints. The work supports the idea that meditation is beneficial along a number of lines. Among these subjects, meditators benefited most as regards experiencing fewer symptoms of aching muscles or joints and well as less use of drugs and tranquilizers.