Meditation Can Be More Effective Than Morphine
An article was published this week in the British newspaper the telegraph stating that the result of a recent study shows that meditation can be used effectively for pain management. The test was in fact not medically valid as the subject group consisted of only 15 people. The Study was undertaken by the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina. They measured brain activity in the subjects whilst they had heat devices on their legs causing pain.
The test was performed on people who had never done any meditation before and proved that it was in fact effective in reducing and in some cases eliminating the pain.
Each of the test subjects attended 4 short 20 minute training sessions in a meditation technique known as ‘Focused Attention’. This is not unlike Buddhist meditation and involves a mindful focus on the breath whilst letting go of thoughts and distracting emotions.
The results of the study were published in the April edition of the Journal of Neuroscience.
This is a very positive step and another nudge forward in the integration and acceptance of holistic and alternative techniques such as meditation and Reiki into what is broadly known as ‘Western medicine’.