“Spiritual” versus “secular” meditation
A recent discussion on the mechanisms by which the Medicine Buddha mantra might actually promote health reminded me of an article I read a few years ago in New Scientist, comparing the effects of “spiritual meditation” and “secular meditation.” Here’s an extract:
College students who volunteered for the study were randomly assigned to one of three groups regardless of their spiritual beliefs. The 25 students in the spiritual meditation group were told to concentrate on a phrase such as “God is love” or “God is peace” during their meditation periods. Those in the secular meditation group used a phrase such as “I am happy” or “I am joyful” while the third group were simply told to relax.
Subjects were asked to practise their technique for 20 minutes each day for two weeks, at the beginning and end of which the researchers used psychological profiling to assess their mood. They also tested pain tolerance as measured by the amount of time the volunteers could keep their hands in water at 2 °C. Those practising spiritual meditation showed greater reductions in anxiety than the other two groups and were able to keep their hands in the cold water for nearly double the time – on average 92 seconds versus 49 for the relaxation group.
I can well imagine the validity of this result. We’re inherently social animals, and a large component of the social relations we have take place in the mind. To take a negative example, who hasn’t had a full-fledged argument with “another person” raging in their head? Although of course the “other person” is purely imagined, the argument produces anger and all its attendant physiological responses, right down to adrenalin surges and increased heartrate. Or who hasn’t had a sexual fantasy about another person?
In visualization meditation we imagine the presence of a loving figure who sends blessings to us. We establish a “relationship” with this figure, and communicate through verses of worship, and through mantras. The experience of being loved is experientially real — as real as the hurt or anger that arises when we imagine a spouse has been unfaithful.
After reading this article I found myself turning more to visualization, although not in the rather formal way I’d been taught. Instead I’d simply imagine that the Buddha was sitting with me as I meditated, and I’d from time to time repeat the phrase “Feel the love of the Buddha.” The experience was very affirming.
Going back to the article, it’s a shame they didn’t compare “spiritual meditation” with mindfulness or lovingkindness meditation, rather than with rather lame affirmations and vague instructions to relax. Unfortunately the experiment, as formulated, doesn’t tell us anything about the relative merits of the more common real-life meditation techniques. It’s suggestive, though, that “relational meditation” (to coin a phrase) may be, for many people, a very effective technique.
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Published: Jul 02 2010
It would have been interesting to see those meditating groups compared to a non-meditating, non-instructed control group as well. That may have brought up even more marked results.
Agreed!