Researching Sahaja Yoga
In order to try and understand what it is about meditation that makes it special we have turned to some sophisticated brain imaging technology. A pilot study of advanced Sahaja Yoga meditators using a QEEG (quantitative electro encephelo gram) has yielded some very interesting results. This method is able to produce two-dimensional maps of the electrical changes in the brain as the meditator enters into the state of meditation. Our study was conducted on a small group of meditators who were each asked to meditate while wearing a QEEG headcap designed to pick up the tiny electrical signals produced by the brain. They were instructed to sit quietly for some time, then to commence meditation and signal when they had definitely entered into the meditative state called “thoughtless awareness”.
The findings were fascinating: all three of the meditators displayed widespread changes in brainwave activity that became more intense as they meditated. Widespread, intense “alpha wave” activity occurred initially. Alpha wave activity is associated with relaxation and is thought to be a beneficial state. In fact alpha activity has been observed in a number of different forms of meditation. The remarkable thing, however, is that as the meditators signalled that they had entered into the state of mental silence, or “thoughtless awareness”, another form of brain wave activity emerged which involved “theta waves” focused specifically in the front and top of the brain in the midline. Precisely at the time that the theta activity became prominent, the meditators reported that they experienced a state of complete mental silence and “oneness” with the present moment, a state which characterises the Sahaja Yoga meditative experience.