Study Shows That Group Meditation Can Help With Stress

Are you somebody that meditates on a regular basis? People around the world claim that it is one of the better things you can do for your health, and it seems as if they now have a study that is backing it up.

This study, which was published in the World Journal of Science, was not something that happened overnight. It took 17 years for the information to be gathered and compiled, and it is considered to be one of the “longest and most comprehensive” studies on meditation.

The research for the benefit of group meditation, known as the Maharishi Effect, was to see if it actually provided the benefits it claims. The research for the effect was pioneered by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who also founded the Maharishi International University and Transcendental Meditation in Fairfield, Iowa. This was the location of the study.

According to WorldHealth, the lead author of the study, Dr. David Orme-Johnson, said: “What is unique about this study is that the results are so visually striking and on such a large scale.”

The Maharishi International researchers were able to measure the benefits of group meditation on a large scale. In order to do so, they needed a baseline of the stress levels for the average person before mass meditation began. This was between 2000 and 2006.

Tens of thousands of different tragedies that were stress-related were looked into at the time. This included tens of thousands of murders, rapes, and child accidental deaths. They also included other stressful situations during that time.

A group of 1725 participants was then followed between the years of 2007 and 2011. These were individuals who meditated on a daily basis and they noticed something amazing within those five years.

The number of stress-related incidents that occurred decreased for the United States as a whole when only one percent of the population was meditating together.

You can see it in the chart in the study, and when the meditation numbers went up, the numbers of stressful situations, as well as the US stress index, dropped accordingly.

There was also a study after the 5-year study was finished. This occurred from 2012 to 2016. Suddenly, the number of stress-related incidents was on the rise again and this coincided with the lowering of group participation in meditation. It took a year or two, but the effects were off and tragedies began to spike.

According to StudyFinds, Dr. Kenneth Cavanaugh, a co-author of the study, said: “This study used state-of-the-art methods of time series regression analysis for eliminating potential alternative explanations due to intrinsic pre-existing trends and fluctuations in the data.”

Cavanaugh went on to speak about how they looked at the possible alternative explanations, such as economic changes, population demographics, policies, and political leadership. It doesn’t seem as if anything else fits the chart.

Many people use meditation in an effort to lower stress and anxiety. They may also use it for reducing depression and chronic pain or helping with a variety of other health issues.

Although there may be apps of other methods that help people to meditate, it seems as if meditating on a larger scale may have more benefits than most people realize.

In the end, the researchers are advising global leaders to establish these meditation groups on a large scale on every continent in the world. They also received a $75 million grant from the Howard and Alice Settle Foundation, which has an interest in meditation as well.