The characteristic features of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), such as hyperkinesis, poor attention and impulsiveness, are seem to be more or less the opposite of those qualities that meditators wish to cultivate. Meditation, in many ways seemed like an ideally designed antidote.
Treatment program
The intervention was conducted over a 6 week period and consisted of twice-weekly 90 minute clinics, held in large meetings rooms at Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney. For the first 3 weeks, the clinic consisted of guided meditation sessions, with parents attending one group and the children another. The sessions were conducted by meditation instructors experienced in Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) techniques. The meditation process involved practising techniques which helped participants to achieve a state of “thoughtless awareness”. Instructors directed participants to become aware of this state within themselves by becoming silent and focusing their attention inwardly. Parents were also asked to conduct shorter meditation sessions at home twice a day.
Psycho-stimulant medication
The SYM treatment program did not ask or advise parents to reduce their child’s pharmacological treatment for ADHD, but it was clear from comments made by a number of parents at recruitment that they were looking for alternatives to medication. At the middle and endpoints of the program, parents were asked: “Have you been able to reduce your child’s level of medication and still maintain an acceptable level of behaviour?” If medication had been reduced, parents were asked to report the proportion.
ADHD is characterized by a symptom triad of inattention, hyperactivity and poor impulse control. Meditation is precisely directed at developing the opposite features, that is, stable attention, calm and measured behaviour and the ability to contain one’s impulses.
The use of complementary and alternative medicines and other non-pharmacological strategies as a treatment for children diagnosed with ADHD is widespread, but little is known on the effectiveness of many such therapies. This study investigated Sahaja Yoga Meditation (SYM) as a family treatment method for children with ADHD. Parents and children participated in a six-week program of twice-weekly clinic sessions and regular meditation at home. Pre- and post-treatment assessments included parent ratings of children’s ADHD symptoms (a mean reduction of 35%), self-esteem and child–parent relationship quality.
Results showed improvements in children’s ADHD behaviour in both respects. Children described benefits at home such as better sleep patterns and diminished feelings of anxiety and also at school, reporting that they felt more able to concentrate and experienced less conflict with peers and teachers. Parents reported feeling happier, less stressed and more able to manage their child’s behaviour. Indications from this preliminary investigation are that SYM may offer families an effective management tool for family-oriented treatment of childhood ADHD.
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In his study of 1,599 members of the baby-boomer generation conducted in the US in the early 1990s, the American researcher Roof (1993) demonstrated that there had been major defections from organized religion in the 1960s and 1970s, coupled with an increase in New Age type movements which emphasized the superiority of direct spiritual experience over institutional religion. Roof found that one well-educated segment (“highly active seekers”) of this group, was specifically focused on developing a highly individualized spirituality that rejected religious orthodoxy and instead favoured mystical experience and New Age ideas. They characterized themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious”*.
It is this generation that appears to have driven the rising legitimacy of meditation in the West. The perspective of these highly active seekers is now reflected in wider social attitudes and perceptions of religion.
*Roof W. A generation of seekers: the spiritual journeys of the baby boom generation. San Francisco: Harper, 2003.
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While Mindfulness may be defined as a state in which one passively observes the ebb and flow of thoughts while not getting involved with them, the ancient Eastern meditator seeks to unite their awareness with the “space between the thoughts” in order to achieve mental silence, such as in the practice of Sahaja Yoga meditation. Thus, while mental silence is a specific experience that can be preceded if not facilitated by present-moment observation and other Mindfulness methods, it is distinguished from Mindfulness by its sine qua non, the elimination of thought activity, elimination of the effort of thought in addition to the disengagement of attentional processes from thinking. All of this course occurring without the meditator losing any sense of self control.
Dr Ramesh Manocha
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Psychologically speaking, the objectives of yoga mirror those of conventional methods designed to enhance self-control and self-regulation. For example, yoga-psychology proposes that negative-affect states, even transient ones, are pathological states of mind. Such states include gloominess, doubt, procrastination, sloth, attachment, hallucination, inability to concentrate and instability. Ideas like this delineate an understanding of health that, like the contemporary trend toward holism and wellbeing, extends beyond detection of diagnosable disease to include the day-to-day experience of the average person. This subtle perception of mental wellness has been mirrored in Western culture by schools of thought such as “mental hygiene” “emotional intelligence” and “positive psychology”.
Dr Ramesh Manocha
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William Shakespeare describes an understanding of the unity between mind, mood, the organs of the body and general health in Twelfth Night:
when the rich golden shaft
Hath kill’d the flock of all affections else
That live in her; when liver, brain and heart,
These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill’d
Her sweet perfections with one Self king!
Dr Ramesh Manocha
Posted in complementary and alternative medicine, medicine, meditation, research, thesis excerpt | Tagged dr ramesh manocha, health, meditation, mental silence, ramesh manocha, research, sahaja yoga meditation |
Eastern mystics have often asserted that the presence or absence of altered states of consciousness (such as mental silence) comprise the crucial difference between religious ritual and religious experience. Western scholars such as William James (1902) mirror the Eastern ideas:
In just the degree that we come into a conscious realisation of our oneness with the Infinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we actualise in ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life, do we make ourselves channels through which the Infinite Intelligence and Power can work. In just the degree in which you realise your oneness with the Infinite Spirit, you will exchange dis-ease for ease, in harmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding health and strength…
James particularly pointed to the Indian tradition of yoga and meditation as a source of such systematic knowledge about the interconnectedness of health, personal development, consciousness and spirituality.
Dr Ramesh Manocha
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Simple lifestyle changes directed at modifying the physiological environment can be effective in treating menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes. For example, there is evidence that regular exercise, elimination of smoking and the avoidance of stress can reduce the impact of hot flushes.
A study by Casper (1985) reports cessation of hot flushes immediately upon exposure to a cool environment. This supports the idea that hot flushes may be due to irregular hypothalamic regulation of core body temperature and consequently strategies such as taking cold drinks, reducing the intake of spicy foods and providing room air circulation, may also be helpful in ameliorating vasomotor symptoms, especially hot flushes.
Dr Ramesh Manocha
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Relaxation-based meditation is a generic meditation technique based on Western ideas of meditation as contemplation and relaxation. It involves a combination of modifying and focusing thinking activity and visualisation. Participants are instructed to sit comfortably, to breathe regularly and commence their meditation by reflecting on the day’s events. They are then shown how to focus this mental activity by reflection and visualisation. Troublesome experiences during the day are recorded in a notebook for self-assessment of progress.
Dr Ramesh Manocha
In this excerpt from his thesis, Dr Ramesh Manocha introduces a study with which he examines the use of Sahaja Yoga meditation as a treatment for asthma.
The studies reported in previous chapters, have suggested that there is a health effect associated with the practice of Sahaja Yoga meditation (SYM) which has been imputed as to the experience of mental silence. Much of the apparent effect however, could equally be explained as arising from the result of non-specific factors common to any behavioural intervention and not necessarily due to mental silence or even meditation. So as part of the methodological progression of this dissertation, a more rigorous experimental design was conceived in order to control for these non-specific effects: A parallel group, double blind RCT was designed into order to compare SYM with a recognised stress management intervention in the management of asthma. The study was designed in such a way that while enabling both groups to learn a credible strategy and techniques to reduce stress, one group would receive skills in achieving and maintaining the mental silence experience whereas the other would not. All non-specific aspects of the two interventions were matched as closely as possible.
Dr Ramesh Manocha
Posted in asthma, medicine, meditation, research, thesis excerpt | Tagged asthma, dr ramesh manocha, meditation, mental silence, ramesh manocha, research, sahaja yoga, sahaja yoga meditation |