ABSTRACT
Forty male undergraduate volunteers were assigned to one of four groups. During the treatment period, the control group was asked to “just sit there.” The deactivation demand, neutral demand, and activation demand groups were shown a videotape demonstrating the Zen meditation exercise “counting breaths” and modeling and suggesting relaxation outcome, no specific outcome, and arousal outcome for each group, respectively. A baseline period preceded and a recovery period followed treatment. Respiration rate and electromyogram decreased and heart rate increased, then gradually declined for the meditation groups during the treatment period. Differences among groups in self-reported mood were not statistically reliable. Results show that Zen meditation produces small physiological changes in naive, unpracticed subjects.
