Survey on Om meditation: Its effects on the human body and Om meditation as a tool for stress management

Abstract

Meditation and yoga both have positive effects on physical, as well as mental health. Om mantra chanting, a simple and easy to practice, also comes under the aspect of meditation. The “Om” mantra is also considered as the very name of the absolute. Om meditation not only affects the various parts of the brain, such as pre-frontal cortex, vagus nerve, amygdala and others but also affects the heart rate and respiratory rate. Considering the healing effects of Om meditation, through this paper, we are trying to explore all the relevant work done in the field of Om meditation. The survey includes a large number of papers covering the research previously conducted by many researchers, their results and different techniques adopted to study the effect of Om meditation on human beings. Studies on Om meditation are categorized under four different heads: Neuroimaging studies, EEG studies, evoked potentials studies and other methods studies. Even though the existing research evidenced capability of Om meditation in curing anxiety and depression, more rigorous studies with better design, with larger sample size and with different control groups are required. Especially the need to explore untouched research areas of Loud Om meditation using EEG is suggested in the paper. Furthermore, future research directions are also suggested.

What Do Meditators Do When They Meditate? Proposing a Novel Basis for Future Meditation Research

“…To date, only a few studies have investigated the effects of meditation techniques that are less well known but still very important and prevalent in their specific traditions. These techniques include visualization (Amihai & Kozhevnikov, 2014;Lou et al, 1999), nondual awareness (Josipovic, 2010), supine/ relaxation meditation (Gul & Jahangir, 2019;Kjaer et al, 2002), chanting (Harne et al, 2019;Wolf & Abell, 2003), analytical meditation (van Vugt et al, 2020), contemplation (Bach & Guse, 2015), energy meditation (Venkatesh et al, 1997), dynamic meditation (Bansal et al, 2016), or whirling meditation (Cakmak et al, 2017).…”

Phenomena of Psychological Sufferings Among Nepalese Stroke Survivors and Analysis of Applicability of Samkhya Philosophy for Enhancing Their Psychological Wellbeing

“…Om chanting is a powerful means of purifying, strengthening, and awakening the elements of human being (Saraswati & Stevenson, 2017). It stabilizes the brain, keeps the mind steady, refreshes all the seven energy centers (i.e., root, sacral, throat, heart, third eye, crown, and the higher octave of the root) (Gurjar & Ladhake, 2016), and reduces stress and anxiety (Gurjar & Ladhake, 2016; Harne et al., 2019).…”

Immediate effects of OM chanting on heart rate variability measures compared between experienced and inexperienced yoga practitioners

“…[ 5 ] Chanting of OM reduces anxiety and depression, facilitating better states of relaxation conducive to improved mental and physical health. [ 6 ]…”

“…Although OM has been used in spirituality for centuries, scientific research with quantifiable physical measures started to expand in the 1990s when laboratories explored the effects of OM meditation on human beings by investigating various parameters such as electroencephalograph, neuroimaging, evoked potentials, and other methods. [ 6 7 8 ] These studies have suggested that chanting OM could produce numerous physiological changes such as increased awareness, sensitivity to sensory transmission, improved concentration, reduced stress levels, heart rate, blood pressure, and skin resistance. [ 3 9 10 11 ]…”