Sahaja Yoga helps increase grey matter!

A recent study on long term Sahaja Yoga meditators/practitioners was recently done

Objectives:

To investigate regional differences in grey matter volume associated with the practice of

Sahaja Yoga Meditation.

Design:

Twenty three experienced practitioners of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and twenty three non- meditators matched on age, gender and education level, were scanned using structural

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and their grey matter volume were compared using Voxel- Based Morphometry.

Results:

Grey matter volume was larger in meditators relative to non-meditators across the whole

brain. In addition, grey matter volume was larger in several predominantly right hemispheric

regions: in insula, ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex, inferior temporal and parietal cortices

as well as in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and left insula. No areas with larger grey mat- ter volume were found in non-meditators relative to meditators.

Conclusions:

The study shows that long-term practice of Sahaja Yoga Meditation is associated with larger

grey matter volume overall, and with regional enlargement in several right hemispheric corti- cal and subcortical brain regions that are associated with sustained attention, self-control,

compassion and interoceptive perception. The increased grey matter volume in these atten- tion and self-control mediating regions suggests use-dependent enlargement with regular

practice of this meditation.