Is Spirituality a Critical Ingredient of Meditation? Comparing the Effects of Spiritual Meditation, Secular Meditation, and Relaxation on Spiritual, Psychological, Cardiac, and Pain Outcomes

Abstract

This study compared secular and spiritual forms of meditation to assess the benefits of a spiritual intervention. Participants were taught a meditation or relaxation technique to practice for 20 min a day for two weeks. After two weeks, participants returned to the lab, practiced their technique for 20 min, and placed their hand in a cold-water bath of 2 degrees C for as long as they could endure it. The length of time that individuals kept their hand in the water bath was measured. Pain, anxiety, mood, and the spiritual health were assessed following the two-week intervention. Significant interactions occurred (time x group); the Spiritual Meditation group had greater decreases in anxiety and more positive mood, spiritual health, and spiritual experiences than the other two groups. They also tolerated pain almost twice as long as the other two groups.

The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale: Overview and Results

“…Spiritual experiences increased over time, more so in the spiritual than secular meditation group, although both groups showed some increase in DSE's [15].…”

“…A California sample of a substance abuse population showed a two factor structure [21]. The division was different than Ellison and Fan, and they called their item subgroups theistic (1,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,15) and self-transcendence (2,6,11,13,14), after eliminating items 12 (thankful for blessings) and 16 (close to God). It is expected that for some, the more explicitly theistic items will be responded to differently, but this does not necessarily make it a separate factor in the scale as applied more generically.…”

“…For example, it was used in a daily diary study of pain quite effectively [14], and in a study of effects of meditation on pain tolerance [15]. It has been used to measure change over time with various interventions in healthcare, substance abuse treatment, education, and religious settings further described in the Results section [16][17][18].…”

“…Rippentrop [43], in 157 pain patients showed that DSE's predicted mental health status but not pain outcomes, and suggested that pain encourages engagement with DSE's. Wachholtz and Pargament used the DSES in a study of pain outcomes, where spiritual meditation groups, with higher post-intervention DSE scores, had increased pain tolerance [15].…”

Introduction to placebo effects in medicine: mechanisms and clinical implications

“…It is of interest that research looking into spirituality health connection has provided insights that are similar to those obtained in placebo research. For example, there is clear evidence that spirituality is able to alter pain perception [62,63]. Kohls et al [41] suggested that meaningfulness and sense of purpose may be a concept relevant for health-related processes including the placebo effect.…”