Chapter 26.    Meditation and Growth

THE QUESTIONNAIRE asked whether the users regularly practiced any sort of meditation or non-drug discipline for spiritual or personal growth. Sixteen percent indicated regular practice of some form of Oriental or Occidental meditation. Seven percent indicated they were or had been regularly involved in some form of conventional psychotherapy (2 percent) or growth discipline (5 percent), such as psychoanalysis, Gestalt therapy, sensitivity training, encounter groups, etc. Users indicating irregular practice were not included in either the Meditation group or the Therapy and Growth group.
Overall, the three-way chi-square analyses comparing the Meditators and the Therapy and Growth group against all other users were quite significant. Twenty-eight analyses were significant at the .05 level (19 expected by chance), 14 at the.01 level (4 expected by chance) and 2 at the.001 level (none expected by chance).
In most analyses, either the Meditators or the Therapy and Growth group were clearly higher or lower than Ordinary Users. Occasionally both these groups were higher or lower than the Ordinary Users, and in such cases both groups have been indicated in the summary tables as significantly different from Ordinary Users.[1]
Most often the Meditators were clearly higher or lower on various effects than the Therapy and Growth group or the Ordinary users. Tables 26-1 and 26-2 summarize significant differences for the Meditators. The Meditators more frequently experience a variety of effects, which we would expect in such a group of fairly disciplined[2] people.
Table 26-3 summarizes significant differences for the Therapy and Growth group. This is a rather mixed group in terms of disciplines followed, making the results difficult to interpret.

Footnotes

1. One consequence of this is that there are more significant effects listed in the tables. because of duplication, than are reported below. (back)
2. Given the generally young age of the sample, the Meditation group should not be considered representative of what sorts of results might be gotten with highly trained meditators. (back)