Changes in Subjective Time and Self during Meditation

Abstract

This study examined the effects of meditative states in experienced meditators on present-moment awareness, subjective time, and self-awareness while assessing meditation-induced changes in heart-rate variability and breathing rate. A sample of 22 experienced meditators who practiced meditation techniques stressing awareness of the present moment (average 20 years of practice) filled out subjective scales pertaining to sense of time and the bodily self and accomplished a metronome task as an operationalization of present-moment awareness before and after a 20 min meditation session (experimental condition) and a 20 min reading session (control condition) according to a within-subject design. A mixed pattern of increased sympathetic and parasympathetic activity was found during meditation regarding heart-rate measures. Breathing intervals were prolonged during meditation. Participants perceived their body boundaries as less salient during meditation than while reading the story; they also felt time passed more quickly and they paid less attention to time during meditation. No significant differences between conditions became apparent for the metronome task. This is probably the first quantitative study to show how the experience of time during a meditation session is altered together with the sense of the bodily self.

Change in Time Perception Following the Place of Pre-Existence Technique

“…Nonetheless, the Subjective Time, Self, Space inventory questionnaires, account for participants’ state subsequently the meditation technique. As suggested by one of our Reviewers, an interpretation to the collected data is that the meditation had increased a state of mindfulness in the afterwards, in contrast to the feeling of timelessness and selflessness typical to many reports of altered states of consciousness [ 8 , 53 , 54 ]. During meditation, individuals may have experienced a diminished sense of self and time, but after meditation, when they returned to more typical states of consciousness and completed the questionnaires, they exhibited a heightened mindfulness state characterized by heightened conscious perceptions (being more present, less future oriented, feeling more intensely one’s own body, the surrounding space and the passage of time).…”

Induction of altered states of consciousness during Floatation-REST is associated with the dissolution of body boundaries and the distortion of subjective time

“…A majority of the participants had contemplative experiences on a daily (10%), weekly (38%), and monthly (22%) basis. This could have had a positive impact on the experience of ASC, as contemplative practices facilitate easier access to ASC 9,47 . One nal limitation is we only employed a single 1-hour REST session for each condition, however following the initial 30 minutes acclimatization session, and it is unknown whether additional sessions of longer length would lead to higher levels of ASC.…”

The monoid-now: a category theoretic approach to the structure of phenomenological time-consciousness

“…Relationship between monoid and coslice category. Taguchi and Saigo 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1237984 Frontiers in Psychology 08 frontiersin.org Kramer et al, 2013;Wittmann and Schmidt, 2014;Wittmann et al, 2015;Linares Gutiérrez et al, 2022). Here, as an example of the experience gained through meditation, we will take up the Buddhist recognition of time as an expression of the experience obtained through Buddhist meditation practice (zazen), and discuss how it can be interpreted in terms of our framework.…”